Making your Investment

It’s important to keep in mind that SEO services are another business expense, and no business should make investments that are poor or detrimental to the business.  Hiring an expensive SEO company that is not local and knows nothing about your business is probably going to be a bad investment.  Granted, they may be able to target decent backlinks to your website, but without the fundamental knowledge of your business the links may prove to have little value.  Furthermore, an agency that bombards your email with marketing ads that “guarantee first page of Google” are probably a scam and will likely damage your businesses reputation and website rankings.  You should not feel pressured into hiring someone to perform SEO services for your website, and as a general rule you should try to stick with someone that is local, at least in the same state.

Check the Legitimacy of the SEO Company

One of the most important things to know about any online business, especially SEO companies is that legitimate companies won’t try to hide their true identity.  The best way to perform a preliminary background check for any online business is by reviewing that company’s website information on WHOIS.
WHOIS offers any and all of the websites owner information, and if their information looks suspicious in any way you should probably avoid them.  Unfortunately, the internet has more than its fair share of fast-talking con-artists who are ready to separate naive people from their hard-earned money, and SEO companies are probably one of the larger proprietors of this fact.

If you perform a simple Google search for SEO you will see that there is no shortage of websites that promise to get your site to that number one position in the rankings. The biggest “red flag” of the scam “search engine marketing companies” is that they use recycled and outdated information to get your attention.  There are too many inexperienced entrepreneurs out there trying to make a buck by offering SEO services without having any essential knowledge about the art of search engine optimization.

Can SEO Be Guaranteed?

The truth is that no one can guarantee the number one position in search engines.  Although a company or service may try to get your website in the first spot, it’s rare for anyone to even guarantee a top 10 position nowadays. In a majority of the cases you have just as much a chance of getting your own website into a top 10 position as any company. Any person or company that guarantees you a number one position is just out to take your money, so be very wary of them. The only exception to this rule would be a company that makes a guarantee without being paid up front or otherwise provides a money back guarantee.  However, in the latter case, getting your money refunded could prove to be extremely problematic if you chose a service from overseas, so sticking to local or intrastate businesses will probably be safest when it comes to taking a risk with any company that offers a money back guarantee.

If you do outsource search engine marketing, make sure you find a real, specialized search engine marketing firm to do the work for you. You need to be certain that you’re using a trustworthy firm with a reputable track record.  Check them out thoroughly to see who they’ve worked with before, and do not be afraid to ask for references.  Not just one reference, but several references.  The chances are that you are going to have to invest a substantial amount of money for a good SEO company, so verifying their credibility and proven services is essential through references.

SEO Tools and Automated Software

Not only do you have to be careful of the unscrupulous companies doing SEO, but you also you need to be careful of some of the companies trying to sell you SEO tools. Apart from being a waste of your money, some tools can actually damage your website rankings, especially search engine submission software. Many search engines and directories won’t accept a site that is submitted through one of these programs.

If you can put in the time and effort to complete it, do-it-yourself search engine marketing is the best way.  It can be time consuming in the beginning, and if you don’t have the five to ten hours a week that it takes to perform thorough work, then you should consider hiring someone to do it for you.

Search engine optimization isn’t rocket science, but it can feel complicated at times. There’s no need to worry about the jargon when you’re just starting out, though, and part of the point of SEO is to make everything simpler and cleaner, the way search engines like it.

Remember that search engines always try to give users whatever they can find that is relevant to the search query. You have to realize that most search engines don’t work by moving the good stuff towards the top: instead, they try to push the bad stuff towards the bottom in the hopes that the better quality sites will ‘float up’ in the rankings. Content is King and it can get you good search engine rankings easily if it’s written properly and sprinkled with the appropriate keywords. This not only brings visitors to your site but also feeds search engine spiders and crawlers. I can’t stress enough that good content is the primary key to good search engine optimization.

A fast way to develop good content is to generate a series of articles regarding your niche or topic. These items are very powerful in the world of SEO because they provide visitors with something to read while allowing you to conquer some key words that you normally might not be able to rank well for. If you are managing a website for pets, an article about dog food is more likely to generate a high position in the search results for “dog food” than your home page. Therefore, if you write articles pertaining to your subject but slightly more in depth than you can put on your home page, you will likely benefit substantially.

Trying to rank first in the search engine index means that you must first find out where your site is currently ranking. This means checking your ranking in each search engine and creating a strategy to rank better in each one.

One of the best ways to determine how to rank your site higher is to analyze the other sites that currently rank high.   What you will likely find is websites that have simple designs with graphics that use minimal bandwidth and easy to navigate. Simple, clean designs are what both search engine crawlers and search engine users give preference to, as it lets them get the content they want. This is what you should be aiming for.

Some sites are considered good enough to be ranked highly in search engines, even though their designs make them difficult to look at. This goes to show that the looks of a site have nothing to do with where a search engines places it in the rankings – all the search engines care about is text.  If the content of a site is relevant to what people are searching for then the search engines are going to push the site up higher in the rankings.

The Benefits of Web Marketing

The great thing about the internet is that it breaks distance barriers, enabling businesses to reach out more effectively to their target market. Through the internet, it is now possible for local merchants to introduce and sell their products in the international market. Potential customers anywhere in the world now have the opportunity to buy from online shops located in other countries.

Another advantage of internet marketing is its cost-effectiveness. Traditional marketing strategies are often more expensive compared to marketing over the web. In fact, many online merchants use a number of internet marketing tools for free. Examples of these free tools are press release websites, article directories, blogs, social sites, groups or forums, online classified ads, etc. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that money isn’t needed.

Competition among online merchants is also stiff. To be competitive, most online sellers invest a considerable amount of funding to support their online marketing campaigns. When done correctly, marketing through the internet often produces great results for businesses. No wonder why web marketing is such a big hit among entrepreneurs worldwide.

Some Things to Consider

Before launching an online marketing campaign you need to clearly define your target market. The following are some good questions to ask yourself:

• Who are your potential customers?
• Where are they located?
• Do they utilize the internet?
• If yes, how much time do they spend online?
• What is their primary use of the internet?
• Do they shop online?
• Do they own credit cards?

To reach your target audience more effectively you need to know the specific details about them. Keep in mind that although many people use the internet, not everyone does. Establishing your presence on the web is an advantage, but investing a large budget on internet marketing may not be for you.

Thus, conducting a market research or hiring a market research group is recommended. If a large percentage of your target market does not spend as much time on the web or doesn’t use the internet at all, a different strategy may be necessary. Focus on reaching out to your target audience.

For instance, direct mail marketing or marketing with postcards may be a more practical choice of advertising. You can also use postcards to let people know about your presence online. By advertising your website address in your postcards, people can find you more easily.

Yes, focusing on internet marketing isn’t for everyone. Even if you decide that internet marketing is for you, don’t forget to pay attention to your offline marketing as well. When offline and online marketing strategies are combined, you can surely enhance your business performance.

Article Marketing

These days if you want to find anything over the internet you can simply type in a few keywords, hit enter, and you’ll have a list of information resources right before your eyes. Most of these resources are actually written articles that are submitted to search engine directories and article submission sites. If you click on the first article that captures your attention, you might find the exact information you need; otherwise you may have to click on another article before you find exactly what you’re looking for.  Most internet users go through the same process when using the web for research.

Naturally, if you have submitted your own articles to search engines and article directories, people who are interested about those topics will be able to find your targeted content more easily. If they liked what they read from your articles, they’re more likely to be encouraged to check out your website to find more information on that particular subject matter.

One of the most critical things to keep in mind is that it is very important to include an author resource after each of your articles. Your authorship should contain your name, the company you represent and the direct URL to your website. Thus, when they click on those links, they would automatically be taken to your website where you can potentially convert sales.

Aside from helping you receive huge website traffic, writing articles helps raise your conversion rating. This is because written articles are more effective in marketing your business due to the fact that people who are interested in your products and services actually take the time to read them. Advertising banners easily annoy people, but an article is something they will likely pay attention to.

For instance, if someone is looking for information about lawn care, then it only follows that this person is more likely to buy products for lawn care.

On the other hand, a person who is looking for topics about home based internet businesses is no doubt interested in finding a designer to build them a website. Written articles will clearly help you reach out to your target market; therefore, how you present your articles plays a very large role in how prospective new clients will respond. If you provide them with valuable tips, then you can be sure that your articles would be appreciated and in turn, your readers are more likely to visit your website to check you out.

Remember that every person who reads your article is a potential customer.

There are some instances which individuals think they have tricked Google. They believe that something that they have done has rocketed their site to the top of Google’s search results listings and they truly believe that they have managed to “stick it to them.” However, 99% of the time when his happens they either performed an SEO procedure that Google allows or even endorses or they just happened to fill Google’s criteria better than other sites in their category without even realizing it.  That’s the funny thing – they probably will net be able to duplicate their actions.  Nevertheless, once in a while someone will actually come up with a way to fool Google or simply thread a loophole that hasn’t been plugged yet. They will enjoy a high spot on Google’s listings for what may turn out to be maybe several weeks or months.   Eventually a Google moderator will make a “visual” visit to the site and they will recognize that some how the ranking has been cheated.  In most cases these sites are removed from the index for no less than six months; and sometimes permanently!

The fact is that these people don’t understand the power that Google has. Anyone with a real interest in having an effective presence on the web must consider that getting banned from the search engines effectively negates any small gain you may get from duping the search engine giant. They don’t have to let you back in, and they don’t have to give you any right to respond – and unfortunately you’re entirely at their mercy.

Aside from the fact that Google will remove you from its index, there is another incentive against trying to fool Google. If you fool Google, you are fooling your clients, and yourself. There is no reason to try to lure visitors onto your page with the expectation of getting something. This is a terrible way to conduct business and more often than not it will cost you a valued customer.

If you want your website to be found in categories that don’t apply to it, try purchasing ads on pages that are listed towards the top of the Google listings in these categories. You can actually increase your sites reputation in Google’s eyes rather than hurting it by adding another link to your site. This is an excellent form of marketing because it allows you to reach out beyond your market simply by dishing out a few dollars a month.

Recently it has been discovered that Google is sending out ‘cloak bots’, disobeying robots.txt files in order to find out whether sites are ‘cloaking’ – serving a different page to search engines than what visitors see. These ‘cloak bots’ are controversial but seem to have some positive effects in Google’s eyes.

Unethical methods make it difficult for people who are trying to do SEO the proper way, which is one of the reasons why it needs to be monitored so carefully.

If people stopped trying to find ways to manipulate the system, it would be much easier to keep up with what’s going on and the web would be a place with a level playing field.

1. You should repeat your keywords 100 times on each page
2. SEO doesn’t require patience
3. You can’t optimize perfectly for every site
4. There are 10,000 search engines out there
5. Page Rank is useless
6. Search engines don’t have time to ban you for bad SEO
7. You should submit your site to every search engine going
8. You don’t need content to get ranked high
9. Meta tags are very important
10. All you need is more links
11. New sites can’t get listed in search engines
12. You should have multiple domain names
13. The list goes on…

If you find a company that tells you any of these things, you should literally run away as fast as you can and don’t pay attention to them.  The only techniques you should be using are ones that are proven to increase your website’s ranking.

Unfortunately there are a lot of unethical and very unprofessional practices in the SEO industry, and it is essential that you make sure you have enough facts on your side to compare the services that are being offered. To have an effective SEO campaign, you can’t fall victim to the kind of promises that are always diminished in the small print. Don’t throw away your money: invest it properly in good marketing, advertising, and website content.

When inexperienced and unprofessional optimizers scam uneducated business owners and customers, it gives everyone who works in the field a bad name. If anyone tells you that it’s alright to stuff keywords in website content, or that page rank is useless – well, they’re simply wrong and trying to sell you a falsity.

If you’re trying to attain visitors to your website, then you need to target the right audience and rank well in the search engines for that audience.  That is where SEO comes in. Implementing the right SEO is important because of the amount of competition that spans the internet. When you’re competing in a worldwide market, you need to stand above competitors.

Although backlinks still appear to be one of the primary factors in ranking sites in the search results, it appears that the source of backlinks and authorship play a larger role in the weight of backlinks and how Google applies this data to any given site ranking.  The biggest change that I have notices is time.

I remember the days of optimizing a website to rank for a keyword or phrase, and I could implement a couple of changes with results showing up in days.  Some times it would take longer to see the results, but back then 3-4 days was typical.  It was rather nice, actually, because you new whether something was working to your benefit or detriment, and you could quickly make changes if necessary.  SEO’s and Internet marketers don’t enjoy that privilege any longer as results can now take up to several weeks or even a month.  It appears as though site filtering has been implemented, as well as the quality of the content that a given website author publishes.

As many of us know, local search results have been plentiful as Google has made attempts to provide users with results that serve them based upon geographical location.  The introduction of Google +1 has been paving the way to yet another highly relevant factor, and Yesterday Google pretty much let the cat out of the bag as to their sole intent of how search is going to be from this point forward. With their release of “Search, plus Your World,” Google is clearly indicating their intent of local based search, not only geographically speaking, but in the sense of our personal circle of friends and online sources that we frequent daily.

Can Google Eliminate the Backlink Ranking Factor from Search Results?

I do believe Google may have found their way around the SEO cheats in cyberspace without taking backlinks out of the equation, but I certainly wouldn’t lay hold to the idea that high page rank backlinks will always be the medium of search results ranking.  As a matter of fact I’m going to predict that 2012 is going to be the year that search results ranking based upon high page rank backlinks will have little or no value as personal and local results slowly consume the results we see.  I may be wrong, but the days of purchasing high page rank backlinks to boost a website up in the search results are coming to a close, and soon we will all be competing on a level playing field when it comes to ranking websites.