When people are ready to buy something or need a service, like a
plumber, they will generally use a search engine like Google, Yahoo or
Bing to find a company in their local area. Unless your company shows
up in the first page of the results for your industry and city (such as
“Lakeland plumbing” or “air conditioning repair Lakeland”), they don’t
find your website – they find your competition. To land in the top
results, you need to optimize your site for the search engines.
Two types of SEO
The two types of optimization techniques are onsite and off-site. By
on-site optimizing, we mean that your web page has the proper elements
that the engines are seeking to rank you high on the results list. This
involves marketing research to choose certain keywords (like your
industry and city). Then, you make sure that they are included in your
page title, description, tags and page content. Off-site SEO involves
getting links to your website from other web pages. The better the rank
of the referring page, the more weight it carries with the major search
engine. Google, the largest and most-used search engine, relies heavily
on referal page rank.
The Problems with Optimizing Your Website
The first major challenge is knowing what to do with each type of SEO.
On-site optimization requires research, such as using Google Keyword
Tools to find the search terms your clients use and selecting the ones
to prioritize to give you the fastest results. Once you have the
keywords, you must know how to use them in your meta tags, page
description and content. Even search engine experts differ on the proper
formula to use for this aspect. Offsite optimizing requires getting
links on other websites. Where do you want your links? This requires
more careful research because you want “good links” and avoid “bad
links”. And then there’s the question of why the other site would want
to post your link. You can see that the SEO portion of internet
marketing is complicated and this is just pointing out the tip of the
iceberg!
The second major problem, in addition to having the expertise, is the
incredible amount of time it takes to get your page ranked. The effort,
once you have done solid marketing research, to perform the individual
tasks is more than most local business owners can afford to spend
themselves. It’s really a big job that takes many hours of tedious
effort. Small business owners don’t have their own internet marketing
department to handle this. It costs alot of money to have a staff to
handle your marketing.
The Rise of the Search Marketing Company
Because of the expertise and time involved and because the rewards of
effective internet marketing are HUGE, most businesses need a
specialized professional to do their search engine marketing for them.
SEO firms are popping up everywhere. Some companies guarantee to get
you on the first page of Google. Beware of them. They don’t CONTROL the
search engines. Some sell software programs that promise to automate
the process. The right programs can help and experts use them to save
time, but it just isn’t that easy. It still requires knowledge, skill,
ability and time.
What’s the answer?
The best choice for your business depends on your particular situation.
First, get some good advice from an experienced professional in your
local market. Choose someone who is willing to take a look at your
company in-depth and can focus on you. At Radiance Road Marketing, we
provide personalized attention because each situation is different. Not
all companies will profit from online marketing. That’s one reason why
we only work with a few, select local businesses. You want a local
expert that focuses on local companies and asks lots of questions about
your business and customers. Make sure that they have a marketing
background and some solid marketing experience, not a newbie or
career-changer. Most of all, you need someone you can trust. Remember,
if it sounds too good to be true – if it’s not reasonable – forget it.
Good SEO delivers Profits
Search engine optimizing helps drive qualified traffic to your website.
Once they find your website, you need to move them through the sales
process. To get the sale, you not only have to get their attention and
get them to listen to your marketing message, you have to get them to
take action. SEO is one very important part of the online marketing
model. If you can get your best prospects to visit your website, you
still have to get them to buy your products or services.
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