Important note: Before employing any of these techniques, please review your Consultant Agreement to be sure you remain within the marketing guidelines set forth by your company.

From a strictly ease-of-use standpoint, it’s nice that most direct sales companies provide their distributors with templates for personalized web pages.  Unfortunately, this practice provides reps with limited search engine traffic because most of these companies host their reps’ sites as subdomains (www.company.com/repname).  Search engines see these types of pages as a single website, which does little to bring traffic to YOUR sales page.

Find out if  your company allows consultants to host their own sales/product page.  If so, ABSOLUTELY go for it!  There are tons of free and low-cost ways to publish a website that will allow you to employ SEO techniques that will get YOU found on the web.  Make sure to educate yourself on your company’s policies regarding the use of their name on your website and avoid using any of their trademarks when choosing your domain name.

If it turns out that you’re locked in to your company-sponsored consultant site, traditional SEO methods may not be possible for you.  However, there are some things you can try to help bring search engine traffic to your site.

If your company provides you with at least one page that can be fully customized, or perhaps a “news” page where you can publish your own articles, take advantage of this tool.  Some ways you can do this include:

Make use of any big names your company may have fostered relationships with.  Celebrity spokespeople get searched; show people which of your products these endorsers use and include any of their quotes about those products that might be available.  Similarly, include information about any causes your company supports or events it’s involved in.  This information can help generate plenty of organic searches.

Be aware of available press releases.  I realize people don’t sit around getting all excited over press releases.  However, press releases posted to your customizable page = new content = SEO!!

Publish a blog.  If you don’t have the option to customize a page or insert articles, starting a blog is the next best thing (of course you can always do BOTH if your company allows it!).  Utilize the above three ideas and make sure you add links to your personal distributor page.  Remember, with blogging, you want to write valuable content, not just sales copy.  Write the occasional post about your product (be specific – rather than simply “candles”, write about “your company name’s candles”).  Along the same line, write the occasional post about unique features or ingredients in your products(s) that people might be searching for.  Additionally, blogging creates a personal connection with your readers, making them more likely to become customers (we buy from people we know, like & trust).

Keep in mind that search engines don’t really like duplicate content, so whether posting to your customizable page(s) or blog, don’t simply copy and paste directly from your company’s website.  Paraphrase the content in your own words, tinged with your own personality.

For more on making blogging work for your direct sales business, check out Angie Nelson.

Acquire inbound links.   When you upload to sites like YouTube or Flickr, you can add descriptions to the content you upload.  Search engines recognize these sites as separate from yours and therefore “score” you based on inbound links from these sites.  Therefore, make sure to include your personal web page URL and keyword-rich text in your descriptions.   You can also look into getting listed in directories that relate to your product(s).  For instance, for as little as $19.95/year, you can have an inbound link and be listed in a directory at FindSalesRep.com.

Don’t forget about social marketing! Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest are all low-cost ways to market your direct sales page. Keep in mind you need to consistently offer shareable information.   Things people will most want to share include recipes, polls, coupons/discounts recipes and photos.  Getting your followers to interact with your content is the only way to ensure that your updates get seen.

For help designing a website, setting up your blog, acquiring inbound links, or social networking, check me out.