“Playing the Psychic.” Or, “A Must-See Webinar on SEO is in Your Future.”

Indulge me for a moment while I turn the lights off, pretend it’s ten o-clock at night and I’m just opening for business.

The neon sign in the window that screams “Psychic” is lit and my “Tarot Card Reading $5” sandwich board is planted out front for passers-by to see.

You walk in and ask me to tell your fortune.

I can tell in an instant that you’re an eCommerce store owner because your fingernails are chewed down, you’re on your third pack of Lucky Strikes for the day, and you’re wearing a t-shirt that says, “I Hate Google.”

The fact that you told me, “I’ve been working for 18 hours today and I’m exhausted” was another clue that you took the path of becoming an online store owner instead of becoming a fireman like you dreamed of as a youngster.

I ask for your palm and I see that the stress of your job has shortened the wrinkle that us charlatans refer to as the lifeline. Tracing the lines further, I discover that there may be a financial component that has short-circuited your aura.

I suddenly had enough of fingering your sweaty palms so I switch over to my deck of cards as you exhale a cloud of smoke into my dimly lit parlor.

The first card to appear startled both of us.

It was blank.

So was the next.

And the next.

After flipping five cards did one finally have a face.

I proceed to tell you that what we’re witnessing here tonight is nothing strange. It happens each time an eCommerce store owner comes in looking for a piece of magic that could breathe some life into their store.

Much like a visitor has to click through page after page of search engine results to find your store, we flipped through card after card trying to find your future to see what it holds. After all that flipping we finally gave up, much like the potential customer after hitting page five of search results.

You tell me that you’re spending tons of money every month on pay-per-click advertising and it’s providing a return on investment, but you’re stressed out because your organic (free) listings have either disappeared or have been banished to page 72.

I sit back, bum a Lucky, ask for a light and extend a simple invitation to join me next Wednesday for an hour-long Solid Cactus webinar with one of the brightest minds in the search engine optimization community, Duane Forrester from Bing.

Duane is the senior product manager Bing’s Webmaster Program and will be joining me on February 26, 2014 at 2pm ET to present “SEO 101” – something I’m billing as a “must-see” webinar for anyone with a website.

I watched Duane’s presentation when he did it for 3dCart customers a few months ago and unlike other webinars I’ve attended, I sat glued to the computer taking notes and writing down things I need to do on my own eCommerce stores and websites to improve SEO. You can view this at Local Brand Advisor to know more on the same.

While we all spend money on pay-per-click advertising to bring in immediate sales, we must constantly work on our on-site and off-site search engine optimization efforts to improve our organic rankings that have more long-term impact.

Search engine optimization is not something that’s one and done, it’s a continual process that offers long term gains rather than short-term solutions, so good SEO takes time and plenty of patience. But trust me, it’s worth it in the end.

The tips, techniques and best practices that Duane will share during his presentation will apply not only to Bing, but to all search engines.

Before I turn off the sign and pack away the Tarot cards for the night, I slip a piece of paper with the registration link in your hand as you slide me a ten spot and a stick of Juicy Fruit.

As I walk you to the door, I lean over and whisper “see you on Wednesday” and we part company like two strangers in the night.