After about a year of neglect, I have migrated Internetmarketingadvice.net to Wordpress where I can more easily update content and add resources. A lot has happened in the online marketing world in the past year, so I have a ton of work to do. Please come back frequently to read new articles and advice, or send me an email if you have an internet marketing, SEO or paid-search related question.
Add comment April 30th, 2006
SEO companies come in all shapes and sizes, as do SEO needs. I have worked for very large clients (mainly via my agency affiliations) and micro-businesses that can’t afford to spend much money (if any) on outsourcing SEO. I’ve recently had the unique privilege of being on the client-side of the SEO selection process, since I am currently consulting with a small business owner and helping him with the tough job of finding an SEO agency he can trust. Here are my thoughts on that process.
When looking for an SEO company or consultant, here are a few things to keep in mind.
Here are some questions and issues you should make sure you discuss before you hire your SEO company. These should either be addressed directly in the proposal or at some point during your initial discussions.
What are YOUR expectations for SEO?
Do you expect it to increase your sales? Just your traffic? Both? Do you expect to be #1 for “my keyword†in Google within three months? Be sure to make this clear so that your SEO will be able to address these expectations from the get go. If your expectations are too high, it is your SEO’s job to educate you about what is possible (in their opinion) to achieve.
What is included in the SEO contract?
I know this seems obvious, but I’ve recently been reading some SEO contracts (remember, I am acting as an independent consultant for a client who is in the process of selecting an SEO) and I’m amazed at what’s not included. Don’t accept “link building†as a description for what’s included, for example. Get the details. Will they create a link placement strategy? Will they place the links themselves? Will they provide you with a list of sites that you are then responsible for getting links from? If the latter, will they help you create a link solicitation email? If the former, how many links will they promise to get you? How fast will they get the links? Do they follow best practices with link building? Make sure you get the facts before signing anything.
Is ongoing tracking included? For how long?
Most SEOs include some kind of tracking and follow-up as part of the overall SEO package. SEO is not a quick fix and it’s pretty much understood in the industry that it can take anywhere from three months to a full year to see significant results. With this in mind, tracking SHOULD be included. It should also be negotiable.
If you want a lot of attention paid to your SEO on a monthly basis, or if you have huge website that needs constant SEO applied to its many pages, then higher fees for maintenance, optimization, tracking and reporting are customary. Most small sites only need a couple of hours of SEO maintenance each week (e.g., position checking, ongoing optimization tweaks and reporting), so costs should reflect this. Again, I never agree with the one-size-fits all approach. Be wary of, the “this is our pricing and that’s that†mentality.
Other questions to consider:
Well, I intended this post to be about 500 words and now it’s nearly double that, so I will end it here. Happy SEO hunting.
Add comment April 30th, 2006
Explaining search engine optimization (SEO) is difficult in terms of tangibility, but putting it in terms of “what’s in it for you,” tends to help clarify. SEO results are calculated in two ways - internally, via your traffic, leads and sales and externally, via the presence of your Web site in the search engines. SEO is an important part of any site’s Internet marketing strategy, but both the concept of Internet marketing and the process of search engine optimization are rather vague unless you’re in the business.Â
1) Registering it with search engines
2) Getting other sites to link to yours
3) Submitting it to Directories
4) Advertising via mixed online media such as banners and email (if you have the budget)
5) Creating a buzz via online press releases, forum posts, perhaps a blog…
6) Promoting it via various offline tactics (e.g., your business card)
All of the above is your external Web presence. The combination of internal and external components combine to create your company’s entire Web presence. Any link, image, posting or listing that exists to push people to your site, your name or your business is part of your company’s Web universe. My job is to expand your universe so that it reaches the people who will benefit from your product or service and are most likely to become clients (e.g., your target).
Clear as mud?
Search engine optimization is a critical part of the whole messy mix of Web marketing tactics because search engines are THE key way people find information on the Web. A simple way to think of SEO is from the searcher’s perspective. When you go online and search for something in your favorite search engine such as Google, you get a list of sites in return. That list comes up based on a series of rules that Google uses to keep those results relevant to your search term. For example, go to Google, do a search for “life coach training” and note that www.icoachacademy.com comes up as the #5 Web site for that term (as of 12/6/04).
THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN BY ACCIDENT, PEOPLE.
ICA is at the top of the results in Google because of a painstaking PROCESS that took me years to create and I continue to slave over on a daily basis. Here are the main ingredients:
1. Keyword Research to find the most appropriate terms for the target market. Factors involved in keyword research include how popular the term is (based on sheer # of searches), how appropriate it is to the target, how much competition there is for that term and how appropriate it is for your business.
2. Content Optimization is performed on specific pages of the site (not every page, just a handful will do although some changes are applied globally throughout the site). This involves writing keyword rich headlines, body text and link text.
3. Tag Optimization is performed on the “invisible” components of the site such as the Title tag, certain Meta tags and ALT tags.
4. Directory submission and search engine submission are performed once optimization is complete. This is a dying art since most of the top directories and search engines charge either a fee for inclusion or a fee per click that’s why step #5 is critical to the process.
5. Link placement is a must when trying to get listed in Google. This includes two critical steps - directory submission (to directories that are not in the top 10, but nevertheless have a high Google PR)and reciprocal linking. Reciprocal linking is its own animal and deserves a separate article all its own, but it is critical to include as part of the SEO process.
That’s it! Simple and concrete, right? Now get going - you have some work to do.
Add comment April 30th, 2006
I just submitted a new article to SEOChat.com which will be published on Monday, June 13, 2005 about how big brands can benefit from search marketing (I will provide a direct link to the article as soon as it is live on SEOchat.com. The article provides some examples of how companies like IBM and Lowe’s can leverage search engine marketing to help perpetuate brand awareness and contribute to their bottom line. In doing some research, I found some very interesting (funny/shocking/astounding) instances of big brands that were not appearing in the search results for brand-defining keywords. Zales.com, for example, is not in the top 100 listings in Google if you search for “diamonds.”
The article lists a few doozies. I just couldn’t list them all in the article and now I can’t seem to stop checking different companies and brands. In fact, I had so much fun with it that I want to continue the list here. I’ll probably update this post regularly. Keep in mind that this list is in addition to the companies I listed in the article. These companies should all be blushing!
THESE COMPANY OR PRODUCT SITES DO NOT SHOW UP IN THE TOP 100 LISTINGS IN GOOGLE FOR THE GENERIC TERM IN QUOTES.
Searches 1-10 were conducted on Google on 6/9/05. Results are subject to change (hopefully for the better). Send me an email if you have an update.
1. Providian.com for “credit card”
2. Holiday-inn.com for “hotel”
3. Perdue.com for “chicken”
(KFC.com is 4 and Tyson.com is 6)
4. Oscar-Meyer.com for “bologna”
5. Dixie.com for “cups” or “paper cups”
6. Kleenex.com for “tissues”
7. WSJ.com for “news”
8. Santa.com for “christmas”
9.Zales.com “diamonds”
10. Fortunoff.com for “jewelry”
Add comment April 30th, 2006
The practice of writing press releases and distributing them on the Internet is a very promising component of SEO that I have not really explored. In doing some research on this tactic, I came across this great thread on SEOChat.com in which SEOChat forum members were invited to ask questions of Greg Jarboe, the CEO of PR-SEO.com, an agency that specializes in creating optimized press releases for online distribution. Greg provides some very clear insight about the benefits of online PR distribution including some tips on optimizing press releases for top news sites such as Google News.
Press Release distribution is very closely tied to the strategy of keeping your website in fresh content and I really believe it should not be ignored when considering a comprehensive SEO Strategy. In addition to distributing your press release to thousands of online venues, you can also post it on your website so that you benefit from constantly adding content and position yourself as a true leader in your chosen industry.
Here’s a link to the thread:
Q+A with Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR.com
Here are some PR distribution venues that Greg Listed in the above-mentioned thread:
PR Web
PR Newswire
Business Wire
Market Wire
Arrivenet
Primezone
U.S. Newswire
Add comment April 30th, 2006
I am interested in web-promoting a book soon to be released. We are working with limited budget and would like to pinch every penny wisely. Any suggestions?
Well, without knowing anything about the book or how you plan to promote it offline, I’d say the first thing you should do is put up a Web site about the book if you don’t already have one. Do you have an existing Web site (not specific to this new book) that gets any amount of traffic? What is the book about? A web site that specifically promotes the book could be optimized for search engines (low-cost if you do it yourself, but time consuming) and/or the focal point for a paid search campaign.
Self-promotion via the use of press releases, online forum posts, interviews and articles that can be posted online and email marketing to a house list (do you have a house-list?) or a rented list would seem a good way to go to promote a book. I also think you’d benefit from tying any offline marketing efforts into online efforts. For example, putting the Web site address on the jacket cover of the book, letting people know that the book is available online at book signings, perhaps giving away a sample chapter online and/or a discount to people who purchase the book from Amazon or directly from your site.
Add comment April 30th, 2006
http://searchenginewatch.com/resources/article.php/2156511 - The site that started it all. Their SEO articles are buried amongst the clutter and not all of it is free, but there’s some good basic stuff here.
www.highrankings.com (check out the advisor articles section for great articles and tips – Jill’s forum also attracts the top minds in the industry)
http://www.seoradio.com/ - Brad Fallon has a live weekly Internet radio show where he interviews top minds in the industry. He also has a live chat during the show and this is a good place to ask some questions. I recommend listening in to the show if you can just to get a feel for what people are talking about.
Add comment April 30th, 2006
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