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No Such Thing as a Jack of all Trades

Tuesday, August 10th, 2010

jack of all online marketing

I’m sure many of you have received dozens of email solicitations for ‘improving the design of your website’ or ‘#1 placement in Google’ for your most desired keywords. If any of you have followed up on that, you may have found that the same business who is offering to redesign your website may also be offering to optimize your website for the search engines. Not that I’m condoning even giving spam email a second thought, but businesses who send spam offering such services are in fact not all that different from businesses in the same industry not sending spam.

The thing is, most businesses (including my own) that offer SEO services also advertise other services, such as web design, Pay Per Click marketing or Social Media Marketing. Some even offer domain management and hosting services. In our industry, the more you can specialize in, the more you can offer your clients and the better off you’ll be. Keep in mind, however, that the key word here is “specialize”. Almost anybody can say they offer SEO, web design and PPC services, but do they do little more than stuff meta tags and submit sites to directories? This is where you need to do your research.

Before investing into any type of service for your website, find out exactly what’s being offered. Ask for a complete list of services and ensure they are able to follow up with you or provide you a checklist/report schedule at least on a monthly basis. More importantly, make sure you’re not wasting your money with somebody who does this on the side who is not likely to be up to date with what works and what doesn’t. There is no such thing as a jack of all trades when it comes to online marketing. It’s like hiring a single person who says they’re a professional at fixing the engine of your car, landscaping your garden and practicing real estate law. Take your time, do your research, and you will be rewarded.

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Take Advantage Of What’s Free

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

free seo image

When people need a website designed, what percentage of those people do you think approve the first and only estimate they seek out? I’d say pretty close to zero. Same goes for buying a new car or a new home – don’t assume the first thing you see is the best you can get, because 99% of the time, it isn’t. The same goes for SEO and web marketing work.

One peril of investing in SEO is a customer’s ignorance of what comprises a well-rounded SEO package. We often see SEO or web marketing as an ‘add-on’ option to a web design or offline marketing packages, and because these packages are advertised with the magical words “listed number 1 in Google”, people jump. But what they don’t realize is that just like many other things in life in that they are full of empty promises.

So, how do you weed out quality SEO from empty cash-grabs? You do your research. First, do some poking around to see who seems to be offering SEO that is catered to you and not presented as a cookie-cutter template. Here’s a big warning – if you see the words “SEO for X amount of keywords for X amount of money” you best steer clear. This is a templated SEO package that is a cash grab – they promise you the world and they give you nothing. Ask yourself this – how would these “companies” even know how many keywords you’d like to optimize your site for before even speaking with you or knowing your website?

The best thing to do would be to speak with some SEO representatives to see what kind of package they can put together for you. This should be completely customized for your needs and not the needs of the masses. Make sure they understand your business and your market so you’re both on the same wavelength, and when this is done, feel free to ask for an estimate, and don’t assume you’ll get one on the spot. Most high-quality SEO companies will have to take some time to do keyword research into your desired search phrases so they know exactly how much time it’ll take per month to execute an SEO campaign to ensure you’re getting traffic for those search phrases. Again, most high-quality SEO companies will give you a free estimate.

The last thing I want to mention is that a personal touch and a custom SEO package, even if it seems to be more expensive than a templated package advertised on a website, will do you exponentially more good than a cookie-cutter package. You have my guarantee that a cookie-cutter package will do you little if no good, and you’ll be throwing your money away. For an extra hundred dollars or so, a custom SEO package will likely net you thousands more in return. So don’t be fooled.

If you’d like a free customized SEO estimate, please contact us.

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Understanding Your Search Market

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

local search market image

When doing an SEO and keyword research proposal for a client, I often ask them what keywords they plan to be on the first page for. Almost always, I find that the client does not fully understand the value of search in relation to their target market. I have discovered that more often than not, the client will propose keywords applicable to a global market, despite their market being local (for the most part).

Take one client of mine, for example. When starting their SEO campaign, they mentioned they wanted improved search rankings for terms like “gates”, “driveway gates” and “aluminum gates”. After doing a bit of background, I found out that they do not market globally, but only locally to the Vancouver, BC geographical area. This tells me first of all, that if I were to help them gain first page placement for the terms they asked for, it would require a lot more time on my part and a lot more of an investment on their part for little or not return, as someone from San Francisco, for example, would have little need to ask for an aluminum driveway gate from Vancouver that is not sold anywhere but to the Vancouver market. Therefore, I gave my recommendations for expanding their desired keywords to a more long-tail, local approach. For example, the term “aluminum gates” they initially wanted to place for was recommended to be changed to something like “aluminum gates vancouver”. This way, the competition is significantly lower (meaning faster SEO results) and the marketing is fully targeted, on top of a much less costly investment on the part of the client.

The flip side to all of this consequently means less traffic, as “aluminum gates vancouver” as a keywords is going to bring in much less traffic than a keyword like “aluminum gates”. However, there are ways to compensate for this loss in traffic…pay per click advertising. When a PPC service like Google AdWords is supplemented, a client can capitalize on additional search traffic not necessarily searched with a geographical specifier, like “Vancouver”. To do this, we simply tell the PPC interface to only generate ads from within the clients’ target market, including only the keywords we choose. For example, if a searcher types in “aluminum gates” into Google, but is located within the Vancouver area, we can ensure our ads appear in front of their search results. Together, integrating the proper SEO terms into a website as well as capitalizing on PPC traffic will help ensure a successful online campaign.

Need help with your search market or putting a PPC campaign into place?

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