Internet Marketing Is A Mixed Bag Of Tricks
When you embark on a new Internet marketing campaign, don’t think that means you are limited to just one or two strategies. Internet marketing has become a very diverse science (or art, depending on your frame of reference). That means you have more than one tactic at your disposal every day of the week.
Some of the most successful Internet marketing tactics available to new and veteran marketers alike include:
- Search engine optimization
- Pay per click marketing
- Article marketing
- Blog marketing
- Social media marketing
- Viral marketing
- Video marketing
When marketing your business online, don’t limit yourself to just one or two methods of marketing. Start with one or two then add a new Internet marketing strategy every three months. As you add new strategies, continue monitoring each on a weekly basis and adjust your efforts as necessary. What doesn’t work, drop it. Keep doing what does work. Internet marketing is an ever-changing art and science.
How Google Understands Your Search Queries
Search engine optimization is the process of writing content and designing web pages so that they have an improved chance at ranking for search queries when a person starts to look for something at a search engine. Google has become the search engine of choice for a lot of people, primarily because it has lead the way in the science of search. Its algorithm is the key to how Google understands search queries.
To truly understand how to SEO a web page, you have to have some clear idea of how a search engine ranks them and that means understanding how Google attempts to understand search queries and the intent of searchers. A Wired magazine article delves into that issue and goes into considerable detail about the history of Google’s algorithm.
Search engine optimization is not a shot in the dark. While there are no tried-and-true methods that work in all cases, if you want your web pages to rank better for the search terms you are targeting, you should at least learn how search engines work, especially Google.
Is SEO Getting Harder?
Search engine optimization seems to be getting harder and harder. Is it, or is it just my imagination?
In the early days of the Web, all you really had to do to rank a website is choose a good domain name and add the right keywords to your meta tags. You could have hundreds of keywords in your list of meta tags, even some that weren’t on your web page, and you’d rank for the key terms you wanted to rank for. Not today.
The search engines have become so much more sophisticated. And so have search engine optimizers. And there is more competition going after every keyword. It’s not easier. It’s harder.
So how can a new webmaster seeking to get his website recognized earn the rank that he desires? The first thing to do is to study a little bit about SEO. Learn what you can. If you have a business to run then you likely won’t learn everything, but you can learn enough to be able to discuss valid tactics with a real professional. Learn enough that you won’t be taken advantage of. The life of your website depends on it.
2010 Search Engine Optimization Goals
Happy New Year! Welcome to 2010. Have you established any search engine optimization goals for this year?
It might seem like an academic exercise to establish goals for SEO, but it’s really not. If you want your search engine optimization efforts to be successful then you’ve got to have a plan and you’ve got to work your plan. That requires setting some goals.
The first step to successful goal setting is to analyze where you are now. What got you here? Have you been tracking your progress?
Some of the important SEO metrics to keep an eye on include:
- Search engine saturation
- Number of inbound links
- Keyword rankings
- Page rankings per keyword
- PageRank
- Traffic count (visitors, unique visitors, etc.)
- Bounce rate
These are not the only metrics that are important, of course, but it’s a good start. Figure out where you stand right now then chart a course for where you want to be by year’s end. Goalsetting is not a difficult task, but it is an essential one – even for search engine optimization.
Competitive Intelligence In An Online World
Last week we talked about competitive intelligence in a corporate world. It’s an important part of any business whether online or offline. Competitive intelligence is also important when it comes to marketing. In an online world that competitive intelligence extends to search engine placement as well as online marketing.
How does competitive intelligence relate to search engine placement? SEO or search engine optimization is the process of gaining the best possible place on the search results pages for any search involving your keywords.
The key part of competitive intelligence is the gathering of facts that relate to your competitors. Some of the information gathered includes:
- Keywords and keyphrases
- Inbound links
- Associated websites
- Partnerships
- Social marketing tactics
The gathering of facts is, however, only one part of competitive intelligence. The most important part is knowing how to filter that data, what to do with the filtered data and finally how to compare it against your own site(s).
Just because a competitor uses a set of keywords doesn’t mean you should as well. In fact, your competitive advantage may be the fact you do use a different set of keywords.
In that situation, your concern should be how to protect your advantage since competitive intelligence is a two way street – yes, they could well be researching you. Whilst worrying how to get ahead of the rest, don’t forget to stay in front of those behind you.
Can SMO Substitute SEO?
Can social media optimization (SMO) be a fitting substitute for search engine optimization (SEO)? To answer this question it helps to have a working understanding of both SEO and SMO. Let’s examine:
- SEO – The purpose for SEO is to attract visitors to your website based on search engine queries such that you answer their questions simply by delivering quality content that meets their needs.
- SMO – Social media optimization is the social counterpart to SEO. It doesn’t replace it, but compliments it. SMO allows you to attract new visitors by appealing to your audience’s social needs while grabbing their attention with valid SEO techniques.
It’s important to note that the best SMO relies on sound SEO. Your social media efforts will be enhanced if you start with SEO as the basis of your website building block and use it as your foundation. Let SMO rest on the foundation, not vice versa.
What Makes Good Search Engine Optimization?
Search engine optimization is a process that seems to be getting more and more sophisticated as time goes on. Used to be, a webmaster could toss in a few keywords on the web page, add some meta tags, and all was well. Today, there are more than a couple of hundred ranking factors to consider. And what gets one website high rankings may be completely different for another website. Generally speaking, it’s better to focus on principles than specific techniques.
However, there are some best practices that are, across the board, very effective. Savvy search engine optimizers know that putting your keyword in your title is very effective. They also know that inbound links can make a mediocre site a great one. And your URL is important in many ways as well.
But there are certain factors that today may not be important while being extremely important next year or five years from now. A good search engine optimization specialist should be able to look down the road and predict, with some fair amount of accuracy, where search is headed – and begin to optimize web pages for the future of search as well as for today. You don’t need a crystal ball, just a good handle on the playing field. Can your SEO boast of that?
Will Social Media Optimization And Search Engine Optimization Meld Into One?
John Battelle is a brilliant man. He recently wrote a two-part blog post where he challenged search engines on two fronts:
I see two paths toward that goal: one is creating applications on top of “ten blue links” which help me organize and aggregate the knowledge I process while pursuing a search query, and the second is making my searches social, so I can share the process of learning and learn from those who have shared – not unlike Vannevar Bush’s “Memex” concept.
I’m not quite sure what he has in mind on that first point. It could be anything from the ability to make notes, which Google currently allows, to saving an individual search result to be included in subsequent search queries so that ongoing topical searches can be conducted – as opposed to strict keyword searches as they are done now. I can actually see some value in that type of aggregation.
But John Battelle goes further to suggest that search engines should be more social in nature. That would put a completely different spin on the nature of search. To actually include humans – other humans not associated with the search engine – in one’s search process combined with the other elements of search as we know them today and what they could be ten years from now, that would revolutionize search in ways that have not been done as of yet. The problem is, we’re a long way from there right now. Will we ever get there?
Can search engine optimization – the practice of influencing search results using keyword placement, link building, and other tactics – and social media optimization – the practice of writing content that appeals to the denizens of social networks and designed to get them to share it with their friends – ever meld into one product? Should they? What do you think?
Search Engine Optimization Is On The Brink Of A Major Change
Search engine optimization is about to change. Forever.
Google has recently announced a preview of its upcoming change in search algorithm. This is supposed to be one of the biggest and most radical changes ever. They’re calling it Google Caffeine.
Everyone from Aaron Wall to BusinessWeek have taken it for a test drive and written about it. Some of the things that people are saying about Google Caffeine are:
- Lightening Fast (Mashable)
- Newsier by a nose (CNET)
- No real difference (BusinessWeek)
- Too much emphasis on real-time results (Marketing Pilgrim)
- Increased weighting on domain authority (SEOBook)
- Indexing more of the web (Vizion Interactive)
- Smarter at finding fake websites (ComputerWorld)
There are a ton of people talking bout the new Google Caffeine. In fact, search for “Google Caffeine” without the quotes and you’ll find over 5.37 million results at Google and 10.8 million at Bing.
It’s interesting to read what some of the most prominent people in search engine optimization are saying about it, but mostly what I’ve found are a list of disagreements. About the only thing everyone agrees on is that Google Caffeine is faster than the current Google and includes more results in search queries. But I do believe that search engine optimization is on the brink of a major change. Don’t you?
The Principles Of Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is the one thing that every person doing business online needs to know how to do, or hire someone who knows how, but few businesses take seriously enough to make the investment. Everyone seems to be excited about prospects in social media – and we agree, there are some exciting opportunities to be found in social media marketing – but when it comes to optimizing their websites for search engine traffic, so many small business owners are lost.
They don’t have to be.
SEO really isn’t hard. There are some basic principles to optimizing web pages, but simply knowing the principles isn’t enough. There are some ins and outs that an experienced guide can help you with.
One of the most important principles, for instance, in optimizing websites is link relevance. Most people focus on link quantity. But link quality is even more important than quantity and involves building links back to your website focused on the right keywords for your site. It’s just one part of SEO, but it’s an important part.
If you really want to learn how to win in the search engine game, it helps to learn the most important principles of the game, or hire someone who studies those principles every day.
What Is Search Engine Marketing?
Search engine marketing is an interesting topic. There is some confusion as to what, exactly, it means. Some people use the term synonymously with search engine optimization. Other people use it as if it is synonymous with pay per click advertising. It actually encompasses both SEO and PPC as well as any other marketing that targets search engines, such as display advertising, paid placement, and contextual advertising.
The true definition of search engine marketing is any attempt to influence search engine rankings. That’s almost anything you do.
It’s important to understand there is no “magic pill” to search engine marketing. There is no “one way” to ensure that all web pages rank high for your targeted search terms. Every web page is different and every situation is different. What works for one website may not work for another. That said, there are some general principles that you can work with to ensure that your search engine marketing efforts yield the results you are looking for.
When you are ready for search engine marketing, be careful who you listen to. Not every firm that claims to be experts in SEM can prove they know the business.
What Is Reputation Management?
Reputation Management has been a buzzword for a couple of years now. But what does it mean?
If you listen to some Internet marketing gurus you’ll hear that reputation management consists of signing up for as many social media profiles as you can. Or you might hear something that sounds a bit like search engine optimization and it could leave you with the impression that search engine optimization and reputation management are one and the same. They are not.
While reputation management involves the use of SEO and social media, it would be a mistake to thing that this is all there is to it. Online reputation management is a way for business owners to maintain a positive perception of their business using Internet marketing tools. Those tools go beyond SEO and social media. They also include:
- Your company newsletter or e-zine
- Your blog
- Forums
- Display advertising
- Other forms of marketing online
At the heart of reputation management is customer service. If you provide great customer service and treat your employees well then no one would have any reason to say nasty things about you. However, realistically, no matter how well you treat people, there will come a time when things just don’t go right and someone will attempt to mar your reputation. You should think about how you will manage that process before it happens. Reputation management is an ongoing strategy, not something you throw together when you need it.
The New BING On The Block
While Microsoft’s BING search engine isn’t exactly news, I thought I’d share my initial thoughts concerning it’s appearance on the scene.
Bing has brought a traffic increase to Microsoft. Exciting news for them, but don’t get excited yet! Whether you are in the business of Internet marketing or simply looking into your options for hiring an internet marketing firm, consider the following:
- Making the Switch- before everyone rushes over to BING for their marketing needs, be it Pay Per Click or not, there are a lot of facets to each engine. While Yahoo! has been at bay in the number 2 spot under Google for a long time, there are many campaigns that don’t work on Google and do work on Yahoo! Just because a site is bigger does not make it better, and while jumping on any given bandwagon may seem like a good plan, there is no rush. Should BING continue in its success, it will only further establish the engine, and thus, it will still be there later on. Still, if you’re one of the people that can’t wait to dive into a new channel and truly believes that a new engine is the way to go, there are other things to consider first.
- Duplicate Content- On a Google search, as a primary example, you will find multiple links to the same site. Between all links to the same domain, there will be home page links, interior links, and potentially file links, like .pdf files and the like. BING, however, is a different story. As of recently, the BING algorithm is designed to remove duplicate content, for the purpose of only showing the most relevant page on a given site matching the search query. This may or may not be a good thing for your site. Many sites might have many similar products or services listed on the home page or on interior pages, in which case a direct link to one product might not be optimal. For eCommerce sites, this could improve ROI since, assuming the product or service page is most relevant to the search terms, such a user would be inspired to buy the product or sign up right then and there. For some businesses, however, browsing is all part of the purchase process, so taking users directly to a product page may very well give them the impression that this is the only option they have. However, even under this circumstances, site optimization will play a role in the success of your online marketing efforts.
- Site Optimization – Another thing to consider is the layout and organization of your site. Suppose users land on interior pages but do not find what they are looking for – are they easily able to access the home page, other similar products or services, and category pages from all corners of the site? It’s often difficult to find a perfect balance between enough options and too many options – and a website can become quite cluttered with too many links and poor layout / design, so a smart plan of action is to have a professional website, designed by an experience firm that not only understands design concepts and techniques, but it familiar also with Internet marketing strategies that must be implemented on-site. Whether you BING or not, be sure you or your hired marketing firm understands how the search engine being utilized works, and optimizes the site for such engines to return the best results.
- Content- Thus far, it is rumored that BING weighs on-site content over all. This means that a site featuring picture galleries without ample description, sites lacking company’s information, and sites without rich context may be penalized for it. This doesn’t denote a negative effect on rank – just the absence of a positive one. Be sure there is rich on-site content to accompany all the beautiful pictures of your products, staff, facilities, etc. A site should read well in your language, because this is what search engines look for.
- Complaints - Despite its swift jump to #2, BING has still received many complaints about how the engine ranks sites. For example, with giving equal weight to interior and home pages on a site, it may find a lower-ranking interior page to be more relevant, and therefore return that page lower in search results, where as a search engine like Google, which displays both interior and home pages, factors in the home page rank as well when considering the position of results. Another problem that many might find with BING, although not quite an official outcry from users, is the weight it gives to interior links compared to the weight it gives to external links. In recent years, it’s always been understood that while on-site SEO is important, it should not factor into rank as much as relevance. On BING, however, it seems that proper linking structure within a site will do more for your rank and relevance than it will on Google, which is known for giving much more weight to exterior links for both rank and relevance. This might be a problem, or it might be good for those with well-optimized websites.
- Pay Per Clickon BING – As I mentioned above, BING’s algorithm is quite unique compared to Google and Yahoo, so for anyone planning to experiment with a PPC campaign on BING, approach with caution. I would not recommend ending a PPC campaign on Google or Yahoo just to replace it with one on BING. I’ve always said that exploring the options is a good way to feel things out and find what works for each business, so I would encourage delegating some budget, or even better, increasing a budget to see what BING can actually do for your company – just don’t put all of your eggs into this basket because it’s fresh and new.
All in all, I’m impressed with BING, but I can’t say I’m surprised at all. Microsoft has been around for a long time and they obviously know their way around IT. I’d say that a gradual transition is best, but even better when managed by an experienced Internet marketing firm.
SEO Client Relationships And How They Contribute To The Success Of A Campaign
Too often, it seems that SEO’s and those interested in hiring them alike get caught up with the numbers and the costs. It is true, Search Engine Optimization is a business, but this doesn’t mean that it must be approached with the utmost hesitation to engage in personal relationships. A lot of times, the interaction between a firm and a client will be the difference between success and failure, so it would only make sense that we should all consider these relationships to be as valuable as all the analytics in the world.
The first step to a healthy manager-client relationship is trust. It makes me a bit angry every time I see an SEO website with empty promises and bad practices they are sold with bells and whistles. It doesn’t help that much of the on-site copy for firms are not always an indication. Every firm should be proud of their services and know what they are capable of, so while an experienced firm will present their methods in a way that makes sense to the potential client and put forth a legitimate sales-pitch, the firm that potential clients should avoid are capable of writing the same sort of copy. This is why it is crucial to talk with a firm, ask questions, and be honest. There are people you’ll meet that are up front regardless of how feelings are affected, and as much as the initial reaction to such people may force us to dislike them, once we can see that they are upfront for the benefit of the other person, we have to admire them. This is how a firm should be with their clients. It’s important to know how to optimize a site, and it’s important to have the tools and knowledge to collect the necessary data in order to do so, but even more important is setting up a relationship with the client in which they are free to ask questions, express concerns, and are confident that the firm is doing everything it can to maximize their ROI.
Once a client can trust their SEO firm, the lines of communication must be strong and clear. Along with that trust comes the ability to continually interact under the same circumstances. It does no good to the firm or the client to sell an idea and then take the campaign in a direction that makes the client nervous or uncomfortable. Sure, a lot of this concern could be based on performance but even when a campaign is doing well, if the communication is not there, the client will have cause for concern. Every client should find a firm with which they can get in touch with easily and feel comfortable discussing their relationship, as well as the progress of the campaign itself. Healthy communication is just as important as a well optimized site.
Another aspect of any relationship is each member’s desire to see the other succeed. A firm should always rejoice in the success of their clients and personally deal with failures. While none of us would like to admit that some campaigns just don’t work out, there will be times when failure will occur, and even though the campaign is coming to an end, the relationship shouldn’t. Many times, the reason an SEO effort doesn’t succeed is due to poor timing. Many campaigns have a window of opportunity that might be missed at no fault of the client or the firm. SEO is part science and part experiment. The secrets of the Internet Universe are unobtainable to everyone, and no firm is an exception to that rule.
So firms, your clients’ websites are your own, and their succeess is yours! Clients, your firm wants you to succeed, and we know that you want us to succeed because that means that you are succeeding! The relationship between a firm and a client is a very important one, and it should never be overlooked.
For those interested in a relationship with an Internet marketing firm like Reciprocal Consulting, please, don’t be shy.
How To Spot An SEO Amateur
Just from observation, it’s easy to tell the difference between an experienced, professional business versus one that consists of amateurs. Generally, the place of business will be an indicator, or those that work there are a dead giveaway that they either do or don’t know what they are doing.
Unfortunately, in the world of Internet business, specifically Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, (since that seems to be a trend for those just starting out), it’s not always so easy to know who you can trust. A professional looking website is relatively easy to make for anyone with a background in web design and coding, and ad copy can be paraphrased, but there are some on-site indications of an amateur that can be dug up if one were to look for the right things.
- Site Copy- A lot of beginner SEO’s can piece together a good looking website and a few decent lines of content for that site, but one sign of an amateur will be the lack of that content. A general description of services and how they work for their clients is a good sign that they lack the experience and knowledge to perform the job right. A site with a lot of gibberish can also be an indication of an amateur, but this is not always easily discernible from a site with a wealth of quality information about their services. If the latter of these situations is encountered, the best idea is to contact the firm by phone and get a feel for their potential by talking with them about their services. A solid group of professionals will be happy to answer any questions concerning the work that they do.
- Prices- Everyone is familiar with the saying “if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t true”, but not all the time do they go with their gut instinct. It happens with products that sell for less than others - the ones that break after a minimal number of uses. It is in these situations that we wish we had spent a little extra for the higher quality product that would likely last for a much longer time. The same concept applies to services as well, and especially SEO services which are not only considered valuable for the money that is spent, but also the time. A solid SEO campaign takes months, years even, to achieve desired results, so spending money on an amateur campaign that reaps little to no results is not only a waste of that money, but the time put into that campaign – time that your business could have been found by many potential clients or customers. A lot of amateur SEO firms will provide their services for a very low price to sucker in businesses that want to spend less for more on advertising, but the results of an SEO campaign, coupled with the experience of a professional Internet marketing firm, are in direct proportion to the amount of time and money put into it.
- Communication - While not an on-site factor, the communication between an Internet marketing firmand its clients is the cornerstone of the success of any SEO campaign. How a firm communicates its intentions to the client is crucial to the client’s understanding of how their money is being spent. If you, as a client, are not convinced that a given firm is taking the right steps to increase your chances of success, you should always feel free to ask questions, and have the firm address your concerns. A firm that avoids confrontation involving what they do for their clients is likely not providing valuable services, but rather implementing a few simple tasks that will do little or nothing for your business.
Search Engine Marketing As A Team, Not Separate Players
Search Engine Marketing may not be a science, but it can be viewed as the sum of it’s contributors, and their effect on your online marketing success. Too often, people view all of the separate Internet Marketing efforts in their own light, and fail to bring all factors into one whole focus. When it comes to maximizing your ROI, it may be tricky to determine whether a paid search campaign would benefit over a one geared towards natural search, or whether it would be better to analyze the competition than it would be to focus on expanding your own network. Whatever the case may be, the answer will likely be to test all the water.
It’s no secret that a Pay Per Click campaign can have an effect on of of natural search, and such an effect might benefit or hurt the other, but more than likely, your business will see better oportunities when its Internet Marketing efforts branch out.
The Social Media offers a network of users, and therefore potential customers or clients, that have already presented information about themselves and their interests that traditional advertisors would pay big money for. Targeting users on the Internet is easier than ever – which only means that more people are doing it – and it is therefore that much more important to expand efforts into all online marketing areas.
However, this does necessarily mean it will do you much good to pick 3 of these areas and run with them. Marketing your business online is as much about prior knowledge as it is about gathered information, which means that slow and steady will often win the race.
Let’s compare two businesses like the tortoise and the hare.
The first business wraps its efforts around a search and content driven PPC campaign, a natural search effort, the Social Media spectrum, and safeguards itself with reputation management, all the while gathering information about it’s top competitors. After a few months, they will see which effort is paying off the most, and focus primarily on that. However, they can utilize the others to support their main campaign, and during this time, they can see how various strategies affect eachother, and optimize accordingly. Additionally, their presence in the Social Media has established a brand for them, so when users see their ads, or their name in natural search results, they are more likely to visit their site.
The second business decides to pour its budget into a PPC campaign, and gathers information about their competitors. Seeing how their competition bids has given them the advantage to take that number one spot on sponsored search results, but they lack the online presence. Their click-through rate on ads is decent, but once on the site, users will generally decide to check out the other results before making a decision. Their bounce rate is high and visitor loyalty is rather low, since more than often, users will find the first business and recognize their name.
This model is just one scenario, but it illustrates the need to exapand efforts. The tortoise and the hare is a well-known story for a good reason – there is truth to the concept of taking one’s time, thinking things through, and making informed decisions.
Search Engine Optimization Basics
In the Internet marketing world, we manage a lot of clients, but every client is different and each account requires specific techniques in order to maximize their ROI. In many cases, this means running a number of campaigns using methods in Pay Per Click, Search Engine and Social Media Optimization, Competitive Intelligence, and so on. Still, for some clients (and their budget), just an SEO campaign can greatly increase their presence on the Internet, and is perhaps one of the strongest ways to market a website.
It is reported that Google changed their algorithm once a day on average during the past year. There are a lot of reasons for each of those changes, but all of those changes were made (and will continue to be made) for one reason – to match search queries with the most relevant content. While the history of SEO has had its dark moments, and its share of misconceptions and rumors, the current state of SEO is always changing and therefore, the methods we use to improve a websites visibility in search results must adapt. Search Engine Optimization is both a science and an art, and although it has become a bigger challenge over the years, the goal for everyone is to provide users with the best content for their searches.
The general idea behind SEO is not to “trick” search engines into believing your site is better than others, and it’s not necessary about getting that number one spot at the top of search results. And SEO’s aim should never be general rank, but appropriate on-site optimization and a network of relevant links. There is a difference between link building and SEO, and I must clarify that although proper link building can be an invaluable part of SEO, simply linking to a website from wherever can not only be useless, but get your site penalized. SEO has not only evolved, it has developed a sense of right and wrong, and you do not want to get on its bad side.
It is always better to play it safe with your on-site structure, which is what search engines will look at when they follow those links to your site. Keyword stuffing, metatags, and link farms are a thing of the past, and can only do your website harm. SEO is not about presenting your site as something it is not, it’s about giving the search engines what they want, to which your site will be rewarded with targeted traffic.
Remember, focusing on pagerank is a pitfall for many. A lot of people assume that a page with a rank of 7 will be given priority over a page with a rank of 5, but this is not always the case. The algorithms that search engines use to determine ranking are based on a nearly infinite number of factors, including onsite content, external linking, keyword ranking, etc. Each factor has its own factors, and those factors have factors as well. At the end of the day, no one Internet Marketing firm can guarantee specific results because no one knows exactly how search engines will read them each day.
One thing we all know for sure is that these search engines are all aiming for the same goal – to provide relevant returns for the keywords that users are searching on, so the one method that we know will always be consistant is to keep things clean, manage a good site, and to never stop improving.
How Black Hat SEO Can Get Your Site Penalized And How To Avoid Firms That Implement These Practices
Many companies find out too late that the firm they hired to preform Search Engine Optimization for their site has been using unethical practices. Usually, they discover this when their website is penalized, or worse, banned from a certain search engine. From the mouth of Google itself, here are the top warning signs that an SEO firm you are about to hire is no good:
- Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue.
- No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
- Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do.
- You should never have to link to an SEO.
- Be sure to understand where the money goes.
- Choose wisely.
While Google gives general guidelines in an explaination of each warning sign, knowledgable and ethical SEO’s will have their own gems to offer on the topic. From the experience of working for an experienced, reputable form like Reciprocal Consulting, I offer our own gems.
- Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the blue. If you’re not expecting an e-mail from a business, or you’ve never done business with them before, chances are good that you don’t need to read it. Think about it like this: if an Internet Marketing Firm needs to send out e-mails to get business, they’re probably not good at their job. You’ll find many reputable SEO’s by searching on various engines, since chances are these firms have performed SEO for their own site.
- No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google. Even Google doesn’t show up #1 for all keywords relevant to their site. If Google is subject to their own methods, certainly everyone else is. The problem is that everyone would like to be #1 and when a firm guarantees a specific position in results, you’d like to believe the. A lot of firms also offer a money-back guarantee, but don’t let this sucker you in, as they have ways of fulfilling these promises in ways that don’t help you show up for your relevant keywords. These tactics will also drive a lot of non-targeted traffic to your site, which is worse than no traffic.
- Be careful if a company is secretive or won’t clearly explain what they intend to do. No Internet Marketing firm, whether SEO or other, knows secrets that the rest of us don’t. If they are reluctant to share information with their client, they probably have something to hide, like unethical practices. A Reputable SEO will provide ranking reports, analytics information, and just about anything you ask for that is related to your performance in search engines. You should always feel comfortable asking questions of your SEO.
- You should never have to link to an SEO. This is a cheap trick black hat SEO’s may try to implement to get you a lot of useless links. Although sometimes these linking strategies will have an effect – a negative one.
- Be sure to understand where the money goes. Any reputable SEO will be able to account for every penny you spend, and be able to show you what that money is being used for. Any firm that avoids providing their clients with a detailed breakdown of expenses is probably not spending all of the money, or spending less than they claim they are spending, on lower quality link building techniques.
- Choose wisely. Shop around, compare prices, and get a feel for how it will be to work with various firms. You should feel comfortable with anyone who is performing SEO services for your business.
New Opportunities For Small Businesses In SEO?
It used to be that Internet marketing in general, but more specifically Search Engine Optimization, was more difficult for small businesses, mainly due to the competition. Based on the particular niche, one might have to spend more money on quality linking for their SEO campaign, simply because it was more competitive, and smaller business were less able to afford the volume and quality of links needed to build a competing SEO campaign.
However, in recent years, search engines have been weighing locality more into the equation. Basically, what this means, is for small businesses, which would more than likely only be serving a small area around their physical location, searches in their area would be more likely to return a result leading potential leads to their site. While it may not be as difficult to acheive an effective SEO campaign there is, however, a need for careful optimization. Here are a few tips for small and medium sized businesses for utilizing this search engine feature.
- Localize On-Site Content – For a search engine to display your site in returns, it must first index/crawl it, and therefore, information on your site will play a large factor in helping search engines determine if and when to display your site in results for your strong(er) keywords. It would only make sense then that advertising your location on-site would be one of the best ways to tell a search engine which areas to be more likely to display results for your site. Most businesses have a contact page with an address and phone number, but it is important to also include this information on the home page, and any other page possible. Don’t overdo it, as abusing tags and mindless repetition of information has never proven to encourage search engines to give any extra weight; not since the days of meta-tag SEO.
- Claim What Is Your’s In Social Media – Beyond just your own website, it is important to claim your name wherever else you can. This includes listings, review sites, and sites like Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc. Depending on your business, you may be able to sign up for more social media sites, but the idea behind this arduous task is to: a) Give potential visitors more ways to reach your site, and b) Prevent your competition from claiming these for you, which has been known to happen. While the time spent optimizing social media profiles may not be the most effective SEO strategy, your reputation will thank you.
- Focus On The Local Mentions – Now that you have your bases covered in the Social Media world, check out the listing sites close to you. Your specific town may very well have a site which lists businesses, and if it’s on a listing site like CitySearch.com, make sure you’re on there as well. The basic idea is to plant flags wherever you can, but more importantly, where potential local visitors are more likely to see it. Networking is key to accomplishing this, so utilize those social media sites you signed up for and find local blogs that deal in your niche. Make some friends, get some links – not everything can be bought!
There is always more you can do to help your own business – don’t forget that those big businesses don’t have the time to marlet their site as well as you in your own town. Let them focus on the nationwide efforts while you dominate your own local search, and let an Internet marketing firm like Reciprocal Consulting help!
Can Links Really Be Permanant?
It’s no big secret that link building is a large part of any Search Engine Optimization campaign, but when it comes to link building strategies, there seems to be some confusion over the meaning of the word “permanant” in relation to link building.
There basically are two kinds of links: permanant and no follow. Anyone will tell you that permanant links are better for link building than no follow links, because no follow links contain an extra string of code that tells search engines not to “follow” them, or in other words, don’t track this link. Obviously, this wont help a search engine find your site through that particular link. However, another use of the word permanant in relation to link building is describing whether or not a link obtained will have lasting value.
A permanant link might suggest that link will be there permanantly, or that it allows search engines to track it. All permanant links can be tracked, and links from higher quality sites will have more weight, but no matter where you get your links, all will lose value over time. There is a good reason for this.
SEO is an ongoing process, and search engines make sure that it is. Sure, everyone would love to be able to simply build a link campaign and leave it be, allowing it to continually add weight to your pages search rankings, but that would be pointless, as everyone would have the same ability to build it and leave it, and therefore all link campaigns would be equal and no one would be able to take advantage of this convenience.
The trick to successful link building has to be the knowledge coupled with the ongoing process. SEO’s are busy at work, not only continually building links, but analyzing the data to find new strategies for building links. In this way of link building, irrelavant sites which lack current inbound links will lose weight, and this makes more sense compared to a real world scenario. For example, a restaurant with a lot of good reviews during its first year, but no good reviews during its second year. If those first year reviews had as much weight as the second year reviews, anyone looking for a good place to eat during that third year would be under the impression that it was a great place to eat, despite the fact that for a solid year following those reviews, their food and service went down in quality.
Likewise, links used in a link building campaign must continually be obtained, and the quality of those links should be good as well. So the question of whether or not links can be permanant should be answered with a no, because SEO must be an ongoing process in order to ensure that more relavant and current content is being returned in search results.
When Pay Per Click Steals Your Natural Search Results
For many of our clients, it is very benificial to run campaigns for both paid and natural search rankings, but sometimes, this can cause issues. While an experienced Internet marketing firm such as Reciprocal Consulting can resolve these issues, or prevent them from occuring in the first place with careful planning, many people may not even realize that they are wasting money when Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization conflict in the same results.
The main problem occurs in a scenario where your site ranks well for both the natural search and your sponsored search. If a user clicks your PPC ad instead of the heading for your site in the natural search list, then you pay for the click, where if they followed the link via natural search, it costs you nothing. Depending on which PPC ad is displayed and which page of your site shows for the natural search, however, it may not be a concern.
Since a Pay per Click campaign gives you much more (immediate) control over your keywords and the information that users will see when they perform searches, it is easier to reel in conversions via PPC ads than by visits to your site via natural searches. The advantage of PPC is that you choose what the user will see when they search for certain keywords. When it comes to natural search, there is really no way of knowing what the user will see when your site shows up in the results, or which page they will be led to.
However, there are many methods within the SEO strategy that increase the relavance of the information that is presented to users in natural search. Proper on-site optimization is key to control over that information much like Pay Per Click. Utilizing title, header and meta tags are known to not neccessarily improve your rankings in SEO, but for the purpose of acheiving a higher click-through rate or better conversions for natural leads coming to your site, it is absolutely crucial to use these tags properly.
Another way to avoid competition between natural and paid search results is to lower bids on keywords that rank well in natural searches. This way, should a user search for this keyword, they will be first presented with the natural result, then if they happen to skip over it and move on to a second page of results, they still have the opportunity to find your site through the PPC ad, and in such a case, it is well worth it to drive that targeted traffic to your site.
There are many more methods for co-optimization of both PPC and SEO campaigns, so it is important to find an Internet marketing firm that knows how to use the tools and will not keep you in the dark when it comes to how they run your campaign.
Onsite SEO and How it Compares to Pay Per Click Ads
A lot of time and effort goes into Search Engine Optimization, so it would be a real shame if after all that hard work, a user skips over your ranking result – even in the number one position, this is possible. While many would consider it unlikely for someone to skip over any results in the top ten, since the general idea is that these first results are the most relavant to their search, consider what the user is reading in that result.
When writing a Pay Per Click ad, you have full control over what the user sees for various searches. You choose the title, description, display URL and destination URL. This makes it easy to target specific users based on their search. However, when it comes to SEO, no one writes an ad to show up for searches – that information is automatically generated based on how the search engines view the page, and a well optimized site for search results can be just as important as a site well-optimized for ranking results.
Remaining consistant with the idea of comparing natural search results with Pay Per Click ads, consider the title of a PPC ad to be the title of your site, or that which lies between the title tags. This is the first thing the user generally see, since it is at the top of your result, plus it is highlighted and underlined as the link to your site. For this reason, it is important to on-site optimization for the name of each page to be relavant to your keywords, as well as the page they label.
The description of a Pay Per Click ad is comparable to text that shows up under the clickable link to your site in natural results. You might notice that some sites have a description that runs into “…” at the end of the second line. This would be like a Pay Per Click ad with it’s two description lines, but the second is incomplete. While less taxing than would be on the effectiveness of the PPC ad, for the natural search, these two lines are still important to your click through rate on natural searches. This short summary of your site is entirely up to you, however, as what is displayed here is what you choose to place between the meta description tags in your html, so choose wisely! The same principles of PPC can be applied here, as it may prove effective to include a call to action, or something that entices users to click on your site result first, regardless of its ranking position.
I’ve done plenty of searches where I don’t find what I’m looking for in that first result because I read these descriptions, and if I see one that sounds more accurate to that which I am searching, that will be the first one I click. Internet marketing is the sum of a lot of knowledge, a pinch of gut instincts and a lot of common sense, time and effort. It would be a shame to have all these things but suffer a much lower return on your investment because of a few facts overlooked.
To discuss the success of your online business with an experienced firm that knows the in’s and out’s of the Internet marketing world, please feel free to contact Reciprocal Consulting. You probably have questions, and we definitely have answers.
SEO Services That Guarantee Results
I was speaking with a small business owner a few months back about a Search Engine Optimization firm he wanted to hire. His budget was small, his expectations were high, and he wanted my opinion on the matter. The first question he asked me was “Is it worth it?”, to which I had to ask, “What guarantees did they make?”
Think of an SEO firm as a retail store that sells handmade items. This shop will likely state that their inventory is subject to change, and that they cannot guarantee a particular item to be in stock. This is due to the nature of their product, and the fact that the supplier of a particular product may decide to stop making them. The problem here is that some potential customers might view this as unreliability on the seller’s part, and decide to take their business to a larger chain store which can make a guarantee like that, since their items are mass produced, and there will always be a model by which to make more. So would it be ethical for the smaller shop to make the same guarantee as the chain store in order to prevent customers from shopping elsewhere? No. Such a claim would be misleading, as the small store has no control over the claim they would be making.
However, there are no large chain stores in the Internet marketing world, and search engine results conditions apply to all firms, big or small. Because of this, every SEO service that a firm offers is subject to some change, and no firm can make a guarantee on your rankings, results, etc. This is just the way it is.
So going back to the initial question: “Is it worth it?” Well, that all depends on the firm with which you are dealing. Here are some things to look for in a prospective firm:
- First and foremost, any firm that guarantees specific results or ranking is most likely uninformed, unethical, or about to take your money and run. This is a clear sign that a firm doesn’t know what they are doing, or their guarantee on said promised results are misleading, and they will not help your business at all.
- A guarantee for rankings might be fulfilled, however, the keywords for which your site will rank will likely be irrelevant to your business and of little or no worth. A SEO firm cannot guarantee rankings on specific keywords, especially those applicable to a given niche, which is what SEO is all about in the first place.
- A guarantee for results on specific search engines can be achieved, but don’t expect to show up in 94% of the results in the U.S., as this percentage makes up all search results on Google, Yahoo and MSN. That other 6% makes up the many smaller search engines, which are rarely used, and even showing up for the number one result on any of these engines will amount to nothing in terms of conversions.
- Ask a lot of questions about their plans concerning your SEO campaign. Any firm that makes guarantees but wont let the client in on what they plan to do is likely going to drive non-targeted traffic to the site.
However, there are guarantees that can be made. While firms may not be able to promise a number one spot on Google or a ranking position on a certain number of search engines, there are guarantees that you should expect from an Internet marketing firm.
- The client will always be informed of what strategies are being implemented within an SEO campaign, including what links we are getting for them, and from which sites these links are coming.
- The client knows how much of their budget is being spent on link building and how much is being spent elsewhere.
- The client is given monthly reports containing all links aquired, including all details about those links.
- Generally speaking, a firm can guarantee an increase in ranking. Effective SEO strategies are proven methods, and therefore, certain results should be expected. While a firm cannot guarantee a specific ranking, they should be able to guarantee an increase in ranking.
- A firm must perform an analysis of the client’s website in order to determine the best strategy for the SEO campaign – this generally entails on-site optimization, which may involve additions, or subtractions, from on-site content.
If you’d like to speak with an Internet marketing firm that specializes in SEO and is open to all questions concerning your campaign, don’t hesitate to contact Reciprocal Consulting.
Search Engine Optimization is Not a Science
When people ask me what I do for a living, the inevitable followup questions will generally lead to long explainations that leave the inquery unsatisfied. Basically, my first response is “Internet Marking”, which leads they that inquire to further do so with a question along the lines of:
“What does that entail?”, to which I respond, “Pay Per Click, Social Media Optimization and SEO.” To this they ask, “What is SEO?” and I tell them “Search Engine Optimization.”
Even to someone who is computer and Internet savvy, when I try to explain the specifics, they will usually just nod and smile, but everything goes right over their head. This isn’t because they aren’t intelligent or able to grasp the concept of quality link building, but more due to the fact that SEO can’t really be taught to someone in a college course or a weekend seminar, let alone within the twenty minutes on average that these conversations will tend to last.
Like many Search Engine Optimizers, I was given direction during the course of my training, and the rest was self-learned. Sure, the advice of learned others will always benifit those that learn, and instruction can provide foundation, but SEO is always changing, because the “rules by which we must play” are always changing. SEO is not so much a science, but more a type of branding.
Just as a brand is an idea communicated to the target market which associates a name, slogan or idea with your company (and hopefully results in leads, conversions and sales), SEO is the branding of search engines. We use creatively implemented tools to leave an impression on bots that crawl the web, and encourage them to tell the rest of the world about our client’s product or service when they search for related terms.
So yes, while the results of Search Engine Optimization are the sum of links pointing to a site, as well as the quality, quantity and variance of those links, the idea is not so simple in practice. To do this job right, an SEO must be an architect of the Web, constructing a functional, yet appealing structure that serves a purpose and leaves an impression on our target audience, via search engines.
To learn more about branding your company name using highly effective SEO practices, please consult an Internet Marketing Firm like Reciprocal Consulting.
Blogs Can Be Your Savior Or Your Demise
I’ve discussed before how a relatively well-ranking blog can destroy your reputation by showing up in searches for your company’s name, but consider the alternative – a network of bloggers that increases your targeted traffic by 300% in one day. I wasn’t so sure this was possible, but I experienced this first-hand.
While comparing an eCommerce or strictly informational site to a personal one may not be the most suitable example, the principles are the same. As far as Social media Optimization and SEO are concerned, quality, varied, and extensive links can build your rank for certain keywords, and your page rank overall. As usual, I have to offer my disclaimer for the use of the term “page rank” as I am not referring to the little green bar that appears in your Google toolbar, or the number assigned by various spy sites. This is the number which you will never really know the value of unless you have a very good friend who works in the right office at Google. Don’t worry about it – Search Engine Marketing is based upon the focus on generating keyword links, not a popularity contest.
However, when it comes to onsite content, and well targetted keywords in the right niche, one post or update can win over an entire blogging community, as was the case for me just a few days ago. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – it is a good idea to setup a blog for your company (or have an Internet marketing firm like Reciprocal Consulting do it for you). This is why…
I decided to embark on a project a little bit different from my usual pixel-based bead art. Don’t laugh, it’s perfectly normal for a 27-year-old man to make real-life pixel art using kid’s craft beads. Moving on, this new project of mine was a musical album, or rather a preview of an album in progress. For 6 or so months now, I’ve been posting to my own personal, self-hosted, Wordpress blog. During that time, I’ve done quite a bit of SMO for the domain, and I’ve managed to rank in the top ten for most of my keywords, number one for many of them. Still, I’ve never seen more than a few dozen views in a given day. In fact, just last week, I topped out at 79 visits. I suppose I thought this was decent for a personal blog.
Leave it to a guy who blogs for Wired.com, and in one day I managed to get over 1,800 visits to my site that day. Basically, I posted the links to my free album preview on December 2nd, the day that I got my 79 views, and the next day, this guy saw it, posted about it at Midnight on the 4th, and referred to me 75% of my views that day. But that’s not the end.
For the next few days, I received anywhere between 182 and 437 visits, which climbed to over 3,600 on the fourth day. Apparently, the word was spreading.
The day after that, my servers were overloaded and I didn’t know why. My bandwidth was well under the limit. 20,714 views, in one day…that’s how. I couldn’t even post to my blog, there were so many people visiting – who puts their personal blog on a dedicated server? I didn’t, and I sure didn’t think I had to, either.
The point of all this is that many companies overlook the value of the Social Media as a tool to their advantage. Most of the time, an investment in Internet Marketing can be a calculated effort, which results in relatively expected results – not that there is nothing wrong with this. However, I believe that many businesses could benefit from investing in Social Media. An average campaign for Pay Per Click Optimization for one of our clients will drive a few thousand hits a day to their site, but receiving two weeks worth of targetted traffic in one day (without paying two weeks worth of clicks) can do wonders for your ROI. I wouldn’t by any means recommend giving up the PPC campaign, but using as many channels as possible is the best way to make the most out of marketing on the Internet.
Natural Links are the Key to Any SEO Campaign
I may be stating the obvious when I say that buying links can get expensive. I may also be doing so by informing you that there will come a day when this practice will no longer be effective for Search Engine Optimization. Well, that day may come a lot sooner than you expect. In fact, that day could very well be today.
As many already know, Google has pioneered the way for optimal search engine return. This wasn’t the result of investments or big spending, necessarily, but rather the result of a complicated algorithm which calculated importance, relevance, and the overall natural appearance of links to a given site. It should then come as no surprise that if a link looks bought, then it won’t do you any good.
Back in the hay day of SEO, metatags were sufficient to improve the ranking and serch query position of a website. Then the search engines caught on and that no longer worked. What came to follow was the random placement of links all over the Internet, from directory listings to link farms. This is no longer as effective as it once was, and Google has even penalized high profile websites for this strategy. What is needed, then, is natural links. An example of a natural link is a blog that is informative on a subject matter, linking to a business which deals in that subject matter. This could be the result of the blogger knowing the business personally, or because they simply have used their product or service, and were satisfied with the results. Either way, this link was not paid for, nor is it located on a site simply filled with other links on the subject; and furthermore, the link is surrounded by text pertaining to the subject, which adds relevance to the link.
However, for most businesses, there are not enough people out there who are willing to write about, and link to, their site for this completely natural link building to be effective. There is a very thin line between white and black hat SEO practices, but there are many ways to get natural links, without crossing this line.
Among these methods, many can be inexpensive or even free, but the process is very time consuming. There is a reason for this, as a search result should not simply show sites for businesses that spend a lot on an SEO campaign. If all one had to do was to buy as many links as possible, then that would be the case. However, what is required is a tactical, intentional, placement of links from quality sources. Although this can cost money, the more important part of any SEO campaign is the knowledge of how to do so, and the amount of time put into it.
Understandably, many businesses do not have the time aspect on their side, which is why there are Internet Marketing Firms to assist with those needs. Instead of spending an entire iMarketing budget on expensive links that do little to nothing for your site, consider the option of consulting and working with a firm that specializes in the area. Likely, your ROI will be much higher.
Trademarking SEO and How Things Have Changed Since Then
If I was to tell you that Jefferson Starship had a lot to do with the origins of SEO, you probably wouldn’t believe me. Well, according to Bob Heyman and Rick Bruner, authors of the book Net Results: Marketing That Works, this is their proof that in 1995, they coined the term “Search Engine Optimization” or SEO, as we say for short.
The main issue for me isn’t when or why they coined the term, the issue is Jason Gambert’s claim to have done so in a 2007 email. First of all, anyone claiming to have coined the term “SEO” anytime after 2000 is obviously out of the loop, since it’s been thrown around for over the past decade, at least. Out of the loop and out of his mind, if you ask me. Gambert has taken this claim to the US Patent and Trademark Office, where he undoubtedly was met with irritation, disappointment and resentment by many who believe otherwise.
Apparently, Gambert has filed this same (or similar) claim multiple times, tweaking the wording each time, often to non-sensical lengths. Something along the lines of “…and hereto, where as within a lack of void, without the necessary means to a necessary means to, aside from…” I imagine. Anyone who has seen a patent claim or document knows what I’m talking about. Essentially, he filed this claim so many times, the USPTO decided to let it through, pending no objections with proof otherwise.
Okay, so let’s just get a whole bunch of people together to slam their hands down on a desk, shout “OBJECTION!” and throw down some emails, web sites, books, newspapers, etc, from 2006 and earlier, the term SEO contained within. Unfortunately, it costs a good deal to object, or to get involved in this mess. While this will not stop many people who are outraged, the principle behind it is rather disheartening. If Gambert is simply attempting to get additional traffic to his website, then his strategy is genius…evil genius. If you disagree with his claims, the best thing you can do is NOT to link to his website in a story, article, blog post etc. If you are curious about this man, his website is www[dot]jasongambert[dot]com.
While the main issue isn’t the why, the fact that Jefferson Starship is involved, makes it mentionable. Long story short - 1995, a marketing firm, a band, a bunch of fan sites, unsatisfactory search results, a lot of keyword stuffing, problem solved…Jefferson Starship.
Obviously, keyword stuffing is no longer effective, and furthermore, considered extremely black hat in today’s iMarketing world. There are many ways to optimize your site for search engines, but the best practice is to find an Internet Marketing Firm with genuine practices, which involves relevant linking, quality links, and a knowledgeable staff – an Internet Marketing Firm Like Reciprocal Consulting is a good place to start. You’ll probably have a lot of questions, so don’t hesitate to ask.
Building Links For Natural Search Using Guest Posting
- Do you have your own blog already?
- Is the topic of the blog relevant to your business?
- Do you trust the administrator of the site not to altar your posts in a way that could damage your reputation or efforts?
- Do you have enough free time to consistantly write blog posts?
- Do you have enough content to consistantly post?
- Are you a decent enough writer to not have your posts frowned upon when compared to the usual on-site content?
- Are you sacrificing good content on your own blog for the posts on your guest blogs?
- Is the information in the posts between your blog and your guest blogs varied enough?
How Important is Internal Linking for SEO?
There is no doubt that quality external links increase the importance of a site on the Internet, just as a home which requires water needs plumbing to flow from an outside source. The question as to whether or not internal linking on site is important is like asking whether a resident would prefer to draw their water from a well or have a working plumbing system that brings water to multiple faucets within their home. It’s pretty simple – internal linking is important, at the very least for usability, flow, and convenience of on site navigation.
But how important is internal linking for optimizing a website for natural search? Given the current analogy stated above, consider a plumbing system in a public place, such as a hotel, as its functionality for visitors can make it a more or less desirable place to visit, but more important, to stay. In a private home, only those who reside within will be affected by the current system, inconvenient for them if they cannot access hot or cold water from every bathroom, and convenient if they can. Having said that, if your site is strictly for your own personal use, then no, it does not matter if it works if you don’t care. However, if you plan to have visitors, which will be the case for 99.99999% of sites on the Internet, then it matters a good deal.
The whole idea behind optimization is making something better, but furthermore, making it the best it can possibly be. The optimal conditions of any system require no adjustments for full functionality, or very few adjustments, realistically. Given the nature of a well optimized site, it is no wonder that search engines are programmed to favor such convenient, well designed websites over those that lack the usability that visitors would prefer.
Internal linking structure, as a network of pipes, must therefore be overly convenient, as in, water being able to flow from each room to the next if there is a clog between the source and the destination faucet. However, there is a difference between overly-convenient and excessive linking, which can confuse things. The real life plumbing example of over-linking would be T-Pipes between faucets that link to rooms which already have ample flow from every other room. Too many links from one page to the next can confuse the user, and search engines.
In short, correct on site structure is considered by many to be among the top three important SEO friendly practices, and therefore should be given considerable thought. If you are unsure about how to acheive an optimal internal linking structure, consult an Internet Marketing Firm like Reciprocal Consulting.
Pay Per Click Versus Search Engine Optimization
Most of our clients have asked us to setup both PPC and SEO for their businesses because it is preferable to utilize more resources in order to get their website maximum visibility on the internet, but one thing that we certainly understand here at Reciprocal Consulting, is budget. While setting up both PPC and SEO campaigns may be optimal for most businesses, there are cases which may warrant one or the other to a greater extent, as various aspects of each type may hold more relevance to the site for which the optimization is being performed.
It is imperative to be well-informed of the differences between PPC and SEO, and which can be more beneficial to your particular business needs. This depends on a number of factors, but generally your niche is key, followed by what type of business it is, how grand a scale you intend to market to, and who your target audience is. These factors all determine which keywords will convert best, and are the backbone to any campaign, PPC or SEO.
With Pay Per Click, we utilize Google Adwords, as well as similar PPC services on Yahoo and MSN. A maximum budget can be set for such a campaign, and within that budget, we strategically bid on your keywords, targeting geographically and categorically, displaying custom ads based on the search terms entered. These ads appear on the right-hand side of the browser, under the sponsored ads of the Google search page. How it works is you only pay when a user clicks on your ad. The price you pay for the click depends on your bid, quality score, particular position of the keyword(s) in the results, as well as other factors. Ads may also be shown on the Google Content Network, featuring your ads on sites within the network, which contain content relevant to your site. These ads may also be filtered depending on which lead to more conversions and better costs per conversion.
With Search Engine Optimization, we use your niche to build links to your site, build actual page rank, and get your site to show up higher on natural search results for your best performing keywords. We also have writers on staff who utilize various article and press release sites to spread the word about your site, new products and services, as well as other pieces of newsworthy information pertaining to your business. It should be noted that there are many factors that determine page rank, and the Google toolbar does not necessarily accurately represent your actual page rank. The focus of any SEO campaign is relevant link building on a wide scale.
The differences between PPC and SEO are vast, even though the purpose of both are the same. Online visibility can be achieved in many ways by utilizing a lot of different resources, but it is important that you choose the correct methods for your particular business and its needs.