New Feature Article on Lakeland Internet Marketing

Search Engine Marketing Helps Generate Traffic

By Jack Duncan, Internet Marketing Consultant, Radiance Road Marketing, Lakeland, FL

If you website is not getting the results you want, there are reasons. Internet marketing is no great mystery. The biggest reason your website is not generating leads is because your prospective customers aren’t seeing your site listing when they use search engines.

Are the Major Search Engines Indexing Your Web Site?

This is easy to check. Simply go to Google, Yahoo or Bing! and search. Start your search with your company name and see if your site pops up. Try putting your company name in quotes (for example, “Radiance Road Marketing”). This would eliminate all the chaff, such as listings where the terms ‘radiance’, ‘road’ and ‘marketing’ might turn up out of context. You can also add your location by… continue reading

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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.