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Common mistakes made in building websites for a massage business

OK I am a website geek! I have been creating websites since 1999 when I started my site www.thebodyworker.com and have since created www.massage-career-guides.com to help provide as much information as I can about everything related to massage.

Some of the common mistakes people make when creating a website are:

Choosing a domain name that does not reflect what you do and where you do it. This is one of the first steps in optimizing a website for search engines. Your goal is to get your site found for the keywords that you think people will be using to find your services. It is usually some form of 'massage, your city'. You don't have to name your massage business the same name. You can get additional domains that are your business name and redirect them to your site so you can just say yourbusinessname.com.
Just creating a standard calling card type of website used to work fine if you just wanted to be able to refer to a website in your other printed marketing efforts like business cards and flyers. Today having a website is about building trust with potential clients to get them to make the call. You have to start thinking about what solution you provide - which is usually relief for pain, stress, injuries or whatever you specialize in. Writing as much as you can about how massage works, how muscles work and what you know about massage shows potential clients that you know your stuff. I have so many people calling me saying I read your website and was amazed. I know you don't want to be a writer but writing is just really writing down simply at a 6th graders reading level - all of the things that you tell clients anyway when you are talking to them on the phone or on your table or after their massage. I am also collecting as many articles as I can on various diseases and conditions so that you can read up on them before writing on your website. They are in the pathology section on my website www.thebodyworker.com
Have a place where people can sign up for your email newsletter on every page. Send out a newsletter weekly and talk about things like why getting regular weekly massage is a necessity. Talk about how massage can help people to work better and feel better and have more positive relationships. The standard benefits of massage like increasing circulation don't mean squat to anyone. They don't care if their circulation is increased. They want to know what will help them with their condition or issue. When you write about the benefits of massage write down each statement and then keep asking what for until you get down to the real benefit of massage- it is to the point where it will almost bring tears to your eyes - that is the real benefit.

That is just a few for starters.

If you have any questions about building websites let me know. You can also post your site and I would be happy to give you feedback to make it work better for you.

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Comment by Trevor Chisman on October 26, 2009 at 4:19am: Thanks Julie.

I will have a look at the meta tags and amend them as per your suggestions, let's see what happens.

I'll check my backlinks on the other sites and adjust to include key words.

Thanks for the suggestions I'll let you know what happens.

Comment by Julie Onofrio on October 24, 2009 at 4:37pm: oh darn the code didn't show up... and I can't fix it for some reason - do you get what I mean?

Comment by Julie Onofrio on October 24, 2009 at 4:36pm: Hi

My first suggestion would be to just change the meta tags in the main page to begin with.

Here is what you have:

Your title is OK for now.

Your description should be

Massage Glasgow - Deep tissue and sports massage in Glasgow Scotland by your name if you want to put it there.

keywords should be:

massage glasgow, deep tissue massage glasgow, sports massage glasgow, scotland massage and maybe a few of the ones that you have. I don't put more than 4 keywords or phrases really in the metatags.

If that doesn't work let me know.

The other thing is that in your other sites (I haven't looked at them) create links that go to your site that say your keyword - Glasgow massage . Using the keyword and creating backlinks helps get found for that keyword.

Julie

Comment by Trevor Chisman on October 24, 2009 at 4:04pm: Hi Julie

I realy love your tips and ideas, I have used many in the past and continue to do so to build my web site, which is an ongoing project of adding content and information.
I'd love for you to give any suggestions on my web site. It places no 1 in Google for search terms "sports massage Glasgow", "deep tissue massage Glasgow" but only places third for "massage Glasgow" which is the most popular search term, I'd like to reach position 1. What I do know is the 2 sites above me pay in the region of £200 per month to an SEO to keep them at the top, I'm not paying anyone, just putting in the hours myself.

Any suggestions would really be appreciated.

My site is http://www.massage-glasgow.co.uk

I also have 2 feeder sites at http://www.sota35.com and http://www.professional-massage.co.uk
another domain name www.sports-massage-glasgow.co.uk I have registered but not set up or used yet.