by Tom Elliott
If you are looking for information about effective, traditional methods of promoting your business, please refer to the Marketing section of my book, Website 411: Business Survival in an Internet Economy. I touch on a variety of ways to earn a return on your Website investment in that section, including a brief discussion of paid-for advertising, subscribed links, and so forth. This article goes into a little more detail on those, and covers some whiz-bang techniques to affordably get your site "found."
Similar to my text messaging article on SEO, I will remain very broad in covering this topic because there are many options available to you , and some of them will be better suited for your particular goals than others. The best advice I can give is to talk over your specific goals with a qualified Website solution provider who practices SEM and is familiar with integrating it into Website design.
The ways to market your business (your Website) via the search engines makes up a lengthy list. The pay-for-placement methods are somewhat fewer, and can be broken down into some general categories as follows:
You can pay for the number one spot (in the margins) of the search engines by individual keywords. Although this kind of placement may seem appealing, it is only as reliable as your advertising dollars allow. You can be outbid by someone who is willing to pay more for that position.
You can pay-per-click for given keywords, and depending on your budget and the popularity of the word(s) you select, your positioning will vary. Again, this is effective in getting traffic, but there is a difference between someone who clicks their way to your site and someone who makes a purchase once they're there. (You aren't paying-per-click for customers who buy something. You are paying just to get the visit.)
You can pay to advertise on other peoples' Websites by having the search engine companies liaison between you and the other site owners. This is a comparatively more recent way to advertise, paying to put out an advertisement while other Website owners receive some search engine indexing and kickback benefits for allowing your ad to be on their sites. In theory (and usually in practice), this is a win-win option.
Of these three general methods, keyword ad campaigns can usually be limited to a pre-specified number of dollars per month (or until your account is replenished). So you aren't really writing a "blank check" to advertise with keywords in these ways, but you do need to manage your budget and your account carefully.
I have had several clients who came to me because of keyword ad accounts that were handled poorly by their previous service provider. In the worst cases, some of them were victims of out-and-out fraud. One case in particular stands out in my mind.
I had an accountant approach me with complaints that he had been spending $400 to $600 per month for the past 6 months for 200 guaranteed clicks to his Website per month. "Wow... that's a pretty good guarantee," you might be thinking. And he received a report from his provider each month that substantiated that he was in fact getting that kind of traffic (more than 200 hits per month) from his keyword ad campaign. His complaint, however, was that he had no new clients that came from his Website. Something seemed fishy to me.
I did a bit of research on his Website's performance, and what I found was disturbing. His account was set to automatically replenish (rebill his credit card) on the fifteenth of each month, back up to his specified maximum monthly budget of $500. That means that if his account balance was $250 on the fourteenth of the month, another $250 would be charged to him to restore his account balance to $500. Each click cost him money, and over the next 30 days his balance would incrementally be debited until it came time to replenish it on the fifteenth of the following month. If he ever hit zero, his ad would fall off the map, but he was guaranteed to never go beyond his budget. Sounds like a foolproof way to advertise, right? Guaranteed hits with no cost overruns! But he was getting scammed!
When I did an analysis of his Website traffic, I saw a steady trend of visitors that came from a variety of sources, some of them from his paid-for advertising campaign. I counted about 20 to 30 hits related to his pay-per-click deal. Suspiciously, however, he had about 150 to 180 hits on the fourteenth of each month, the day before his account replenished. It never took him down to zero, so he didn't think anything strange was going on. But it seemed apparent that whoever was managing his account was taking advantage of his trusting nature, and he was paying extra for artificial hits. His reports showed over 200 hits, just as he was promised, but he was unwittingly padding the pockets of his account manager!
Don't let that happen to you! Most solution providers and SEM companies that have been around for awhile are reputable or they wouldn't stay in business. But you must take an active interest in the management of your advertising budget. Ensure that your SEM provider gives you more than just a total-hits-per-month report and an invoice for recharging your account. You should require them to provide you with the Website analytics that show all of your traffic, the trends, the hits-per-page, hits-per-day, sources of hits (so you can ensure they're from different addresses), keywords used to find you, and so forth. Even if you never look at the details of those reports, the fact that they are provided to you will be a deterrent to keep your SEM provider honest. They probably are honest anyway, but in the end you have to CYA (cover your assets).
I didn't relay that story to scare you or to deter you from using paid-for advertising. Really, paid ads are extremely effective in the right situations. I simply want you to realize that, like everything else with doing business, there is more than meets the eye. Forewarned is forearmed. Get into the game of marketing your Website, but do it with a wise eye and wary wallet. The best approach is likely to be one that combines the three types of advertisements bulleted above, so you can measure which one works best for your particular campaign. You might also want to try a Text Message Marketing Portal (like the one used to deliver this article to you) to supplement your variable advertising budget with a flat rate option! Text Message Marketing (TMM) is a relatively new marketing trend that appeals to millions of consumers for a number of reasons, which I cover in my Texting article.
Visit www.website411book.com for more information!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
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Friday, April 24, 2009
Ensure Your Business Survives the Recession
by Tom Elliott
Dollars are scarce in today's economy. Phone book advertisements, radio spots, billboards, and other forms of advertisements have not become any cheaper in recent times, and in fact, costs are on the rise. In uncertain financial times, it can be very uncomfortable to sign a contract binding your business into a predefined term that commits you to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars over the next several months to a year. With no guaranteed results and no way to effectively measure return on investment (ROI), most business owners would prefer not to be bound to such contracts, especially since such contracts usually include stiff exit penalties for early termination. But what are the alternatives?
We live in an Internet world today, and most people are familiar with finding what they want through search services like Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. As consumers, we're all familiar with the concept of typing a few words in the search bar and clicking the search button to explore our options. As business owners, however, the process on how to achieve a prominent placement in the search engine listings is often a murky, undefined, seemingly "random" process. Additionally, it can be very confusing when telemarketers and solicitors call on your business with various conflicting packages, promising to deliver "guaranteed" results but at a steep price tag. Many times, the lip service is gone once you sign the contract.
Using the Internet to advertise your business is a viable way to cut costs, focus marketing efforts, and deliver incredible results, but there are a few key points that you must know in order to protect your interests. Here are a few deceptive practices and myths to be careful about if you consider marketing your business online:
Deceptive Practice #1: Guaranteed Placement
There is no such thing as "guaranteed" placement on any of the major search engines. I wish there were, but if you think about it, such guarantees don't make sense. It's always possible that someone else might be willing to pay more for higher placement in the sponsored links area of search engine results. In the organic (or natural rankings) area of the search results, there is only one "number one" spot, so if someone offers you a "guarantee" that they can get your website to the number one spot, you'd have to question how they can possibly do that for your business when other unscrupulous sales people are making the same guarantees elsewhere. And what if they approach another business in the same industry as yours? Are they guaranteeing your competitor the #2 spot? I doubt it. What about the sales person four states away that is pitching their prospective client that they "guarantee" the number one spot? How can that be? In short, it can't. Individual telephone or marketing companies may own their own, propriety search services in which they may guarantee placement within their own listings, but you must consider how narrow or wide-reaching their services encompass, and whether the price is worth the exposure for the number of people who search through them versus the major search engines. Regardless of how many angles someone tries to play it, there is no way to ethically guarantee a particular placement on the major search engines. If someone makes such a claim, show them the door.
Deceptive Practice #2: "We work closely with the search engines"
It sounds great, and it would be quite the cozy situation if it were true, but again, no one has the "inside scoop" on how to tip the scales in your favor by "being in bed with" the search engines. Every professional, competent Internet marketing provider keeps up-to-date on current changes, but to say "working closely with" is, at best, misleading. If someone gives you a sales pitch that they have an inside track with Google, Yahoo!, MSN or any other search service, they're blowing smoke and trying to "sell" you on a relationship that simply can't exist. Why can't it exist? Because search engines would go out of business if they compromised the integrity of their ever-changing algorithms. (Their "algorithm" is the formula they use to rank and score websites based on weighted criteria, and it is "super-double-top-secret"). True, experienced search engine companies stay very familiar with updated materials and guidelines that search engine companies make public, but nobody has the executive privilege of calling up a particular search engine and saying "Hey, I've got a client that needs to be ranked number one for a particular keyword. Can you 'hook me up?'" Anyone who says that "they're in bed with the search engines" is making promises in the dark.
Deceptive Practice#3: Flat Rate Offers for Search Engine Submissions
Buyer beware. You may receive solicitations in the mail that appear to be bills but the fine print reads, "This is a solicitation. This is not a bill. You are under no obligation to pay this amount." Elsewhere in the correspondence, in much more conspicuous print, you will see the words, "Remit the following amount by (some date)." It's a legal scam. How can it be legal, yet still be a scam? Quite easily, actually. They will deliver EXACTLY what they advertise, which is often some number of keyword phrases submitted to some number of search engines on some periodic basis over the next year or so. If they do what they promise they'll do, it's legal. However, submitting a website to search engines without properly preparing it (called "optimizing") for submission and marketing to the search engines produces virtually zero results for you. Therefore, taking your money for something that will knowingly do nothing for you makes it a "scam," at least in my opinion.
Deceptive Practice #4: Using a Name to Define Itself
This is a common ploy that capitalizes on the unsuspecting and th unknowing. It's pretty typical (although not guaranteed) that a company will appear in the number one spot on search engines when using the name of the company as the search term. It makes sense that a company's name will be the best fit for search results when searching using the company's name. (Sounds redundant, right?) Do not let anyone fool you by telling you that they worked hard for the money to achieve great results by showing you that your company comes up prominently when you search for yourself. Such results often happen almost "automatically," with no effort at all. Plus, how many people really search for you by company name? The goal in search engine optimization and marketing is to get your company "found" by searching for your products, services, manufacturers, etc.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) is like the Wild West. Technology has expanded much faster than laws have been able to keep pace, and therefore there are plenty of opportunities for fraud and deception. The burden of maintaining integrity in the system has fallen largely on the individual search service companies like Google, Yahoo! and MSN, which explains why those companies need to continually update and refine their algorithms to keep the riff-raff out. In true "Western Movie" style, the terms to describe "good guy" practices is dubbed "white hat SEO/SEM" while the "bad guy" practices are labeled "black hat SEO/SEM." It sounds over dramatic, but the "good guys" engage in industry best-practices and adhere to ethical approaches, whereas the "bad guys" try to subvert the search engine algorithms and are usually the ones who engage in deceptive practices while preying on the ignorance of unsuspecting business owners.
Someday, there will undoubtedly be legal controls in place to support SEO/SEM malpractice lawsuits, much like how consumers are protected from medical or legal malpractice. I look forward to that day, because it will "clean up" the industry. As it stands now, the search engine optimization and marketing industry is the only one I can think of in which:
there is no way to ethically guarantee results
SEO/SEM practitioners can collect money with the disclaimer of "no guarantees", and
after collecting money for no-guarantee work, SEO/SEM companies can legitimately deliver "no results".
Of course, reputable SEO/SEM companies that engage in fair practices will likely take measures to make a happy customer, but the overall big picture allows for a lot of dubious practices in the market place. The few "bad apples" that leave a trail of destruction spoil it for the bunch who are honest, white hat SEO/SEM service providers.
How can you protect yourself? How can you be reasonably assured of not being ripped off? First and foremost, get references. Secondly, check those references. And finally, apply common sense to the situation, resisting the urge to take the bait of anything that seems "too good to be true." Any company that offers to provide you with SEO/SEM services should be able to provide you with qualified references. Even so, be sure to contact their actual clients to ensure a couple of things:
Let's assume you have a typical seven or eight-page website in a moderately competitive market. You can interview three separate companies regarding the same SEO/SEM project, and you may receive three dramatically different prices for the same job. One bid, for example, may come in at $200 to optimize your site, while the others come in at $1200 and $3000 respectively. Is the $200 bid the best value? Is the $3000 bid overpriced? Not necessarily. All three salespeople can look you in the eye, shake your hand, and tell you that they will optimize your site for their respective prices. The confusing part is that they are each being honest with you.
The person who quotes you $200 to optimize your site may do so by doing some cursory research to select a few keywords, and then use those same keywords on each page of your website while also adjusting basic information in your web page titles. Can that person legitimately say that your site has been optimized? From the "something is better than nothing" department, yes. In such a scenario, your site has been optimized-- to a degree.
In comparison, the $3000 bid would likely be much more thorough of a job. There may be several hours of detailed keyword research conducted, including an in-depth analysis of each of your top competitors' websites to define the best quality words and phrases to use. Then each page of your site might be individually optimized using specific sets of keywords to maximize the effectiveness of each keyword, including changes to the textual content on each page to include strategic placement of keyword phrases throughout. Additionally, pictures on the site might be annotated with descriptive labels (called alt-tags) on each page, and additional characteristics involving fonts, links, descriptions, etc. may be adjusted to refine the page characteristics so that search engines "smile upon" the website when your site is indexed. Certainly, you can be confident that your website was optimized in this case.
The individual that quoted you $1200 would likely involve something in the middle, perhaps with less market research and a more universal selection of keywords on each page, but still including alt-tags and other content adjustments to improve the website's merit with the search engines.
In all three instances, your site would be optimized. The difference would be the level of detail involved with the job. I wish it were just that simple, but the story continues...
It's true that you can do too little to achieve any worthwhile results. For example, if your budget is only $50 to optimize a website in a highly competitive market, spending the $50 on optimization would probably do nothing for you, and it would be better to take the money and treat yourself to a nice dinner. It's also true that you can wastefully spend too much money without seeing any improvement. For example, if you do achieve page 1, number 1 results in the organic rankings on Google consistently with a $200 budget for a particular set of keywords, increasing your budget to pay for more marketing efforts using those same keywords won't yield any better results. (i.e., you can't get better than #1.) In between the "too little" and "too much" areas, there is a very large "gray area" of spending that will produce varying results in varying time frames.
Optimization is a part of marketing. It is the preparatory work to ensure that your site is ready to be promoted, much like how producing a television commercial is the preparatory work in getting the commercial ready to be aired on TV to the public. The other part of the equation is the actual marketing of the site itself. Marketing the site, which involves submitting it to search engines and then promoting the site on an ongoing basis, is akin to broadcasting the television commercial. If you only air the commercial once, you might see some short term results from it, but in the long term the money spent to produce the commercial would be wasted because people would forget about it. Likewise, if you only market your website for one month, your site will not gain visibility in the long-term. Search engine marketing is an ongoing process. You need to establish a budget for it, just as you would for a phone book ad, magazine ad, radio spot, etc.
The good news: Actively promoting your website to the public is much less costly than traditional methods of advertisement, as long as it is done correctly. The end result of effective SEM is that you receive focused, pre-qualified buyers for your goods and/or services, and you can measure your ROI by reviewing which keywords are working, how long your visitors stayed on your site, knowing which pages they visited, and seeing when and where they left your website.
The bad news: There are obviously a lot of "small parts" to the SEO/SEM puzzle which pose a "choking hazard" to the non-technical business owner. Consequently, the process of actually getting the job done can be confusing, frustrating, and (for the unsuspecting) expensive. This is where a little bit of information and education can save you a whole lot of grief and time.
What most people do not realize is that the quality of your website's optimization (the SEO part of marketing) often directly affects the costs of the ongoing marketing costs for the site. For example, when Google indexes your website (which means that it "takes inventory" of your site's contents), it assigns a quality score to the merit of your keywords based on the content and construction of your site. If you participate in a marketing campaign using a pay-per-click service like Google Adwords, the higher your quality score, generally, the lower the cost per click for a given keyword selection. This means that you can end up paying less per keyword than your competition, but actually achieve higher placement in the sponsored links area of the search results.
In the example scenario above, the $200 bid for your job would probably not yield the same quality score impact as the $3000 job. However, if your budget doesn't support the more expense, detailed work, then it may be more comfortable for you to pay a slightly higher price per keyword (in a pay-per-click campaign), but spend less money on the optimization efforts for your site.
In many ways, you can compare SEO work with putting a heating system in your home. To equip your home with a heating system, you can pay more up front for a geothermal system, and realize a monthly cost savings over a long period of time. Or, you can put in a heat pump for less money up front, but your electric bill will be somewhat higher on a monthly basis. Either system will heat your home, but the break even point will be very different depending on the choice you make. Detailed versus general SEO works much the same way, and the variables that you must consider are 1) when do you want to start seeing results, and 2) how much do you want to spend monthly or quarterly on an ongoing basis?
The key to remember is that your website should first be optimized (to whatever degree you can comfortably afford) prior to marketing it. There are some search engines (and search related services) that will place your site (or a business listing that represents your company) in their search results for a "raw dollar amount" without your site being optimized, but such services can typically only do so within their own service networks. If your customers generally do their searches via major search engines instead of phone company or private industry search sites, then the dollars you spend for top placement within a marketing service's proprietary system may not be worth the cost.
What NOT to say: When discussing your project with a search engine optimization and/or marketing consultant, avoid asking the question, "What placement will I get on the search engines if I hire you?" It reveals that you aren't familiar with how search engines work, and it tips your hand that they might have "low hanging fruit" to make a sale. Of course, if you are savvy to how search engines work (and the limitations that SEO/SEM companies are subject to in achieving results), then asking this question may be a qualifier/disqualifier for the sales person who solicits you, depending on their response.
What to ask: It's reasonable (and shows insight) to ask an SEO/SEM consultant how involved their SEO efforts will be for the price. You may not have a good feel for what a reasonable budget is, so you can ask them to provide a "Good / Better / Best" proposal that outlines what they would include for different levels of optimization, so you can make a "best fit" budget decision for your business. With regards to marketing efforts, ask about the number of blog posts and/or article publications that can be expected for the money (for organic marketing), or what keyword selections (and their corresponding popularity demand) would be used for pay-per-click advertising.
I'm a firm believer that a company's SEO/SEM strategy needs to be customized to their specific market (local, regional, national, etc) and industry within that market. To illustrate the point, the roofing repair market in Seattle, WA, is much different than the roofing repair market in New Orleans, LA. In both cases, companies in roofing repair would likely focus on local search results within 50 to 70 miles of the business location. Priorities, word choice, and economic factors in each market will have a different impact on the best choices for keywords to use in each. Yes, of course, there will be some overlap. But in the big picture, the competition within each market is limited to the local area, so there would be a much more narrow approach to addressing the competition in order to achieve the best search engine results.
Comparatively, a health and nutrition company that wants to be competitive nationally for vitamin sales would involve a much different strategy in achieving desired results. The amount of time and effort, and consequently the costs involved with doing the job right will be completely different.
Therefore, if you are presented with a one-size-fits-none "package" deal to promote your business at some flat price, you might think twice about the quality of results you can expect for the money, given that many companies are "very good" at living up to the no-guaranteed-results nature of search engine marketing. Spend your money wisely. Ask questions. Get references. Check them. There is no "free lunch", and unfortunately in the search engine arena, you may not get what you think you pay for.
Qualifying Your SEO/SEM Provider
The biggest challenge you will face in achieving positive results via Internet marketing will be finding a capable, competent, ethical, experienced search engine company. In your interview process, if the sales person seems more interested in pitching you on their product rather than learning about your needs, beware. If you feel pressured into "closing the deal" by time-sensitive "now or never" discounts, or if you don't get straight answers to your questions, walk away. Sometimes the right answer to a question is "it depends," but such an answer should be followed by a reasonable, understandable explanation. Your prospective search engine optimization and marketing provider should be more interested in providing you with an education than in taking your money.
What to Expect if it's Done Right
Again, based on the ethical issue that no one can guarantee placement, your best indicator will be checking out references from different potential providers to get a reasonable assurance that a particular company has delivered for customers in the past. A proven track record is a good indicator that you have found a reputable, reliable company. Why is this so important? Because you will have to trust them to look out for your company's best interests in an ever-changing, no-guarantee environment, so you want to have some peace of mind that you aren't overpaying for their service, and they will not be using your business as a guinea pig to experiment. By talking with their references, you can also assess whether a client's prominent search engine placement is short-lived or consistent. Short-term and intermittent placement on search engine results may be (but not necessarily) an indicator of black hat SEO techniques, rather than white hat best-practices that yield more consistent results. Realize that there is little to no correlation between what one customer paid for their SEO/SEM work versus what another customer might have paid. The amount of money it costs to do the job is typically tied to the amount of time involved, and it will vary widely based on industry, market, and each client's goals.
All things considered, when you find a SEO/SEM provider you are comfortable with, trust, and can afford, you can expect your costs to be a fraction of what you pay for traditional advertisement, while yielding better results. This allows you to cut your advertising costs while increasing revenues. As more revenues flow in, meaning better cash flow, you can pare back your traditional advertising (meaning, reduce but not discontinue), and redirect the additional funds to additional internet methods for compounding effects.
Budget permitting, you can even use the Internet to measure ROI on your traditional marketing methods. For example, by securing multiple domain names (which are inexpensive), you can target your marketing efforts by individual source (such as billboards, magazines ads, etc.) and measure the traffic from each source. There are many ways to creatively and cost-effectively use search engine and Internet methods to measure, monitor, adjust and control the marketing success of your business.
Visit www.website411book.com for more information!
Dollars are scarce in today's economy. Phone book advertisements, radio spots, billboards, and other forms of advertisements have not become any cheaper in recent times, and in fact, costs are on the rise. In uncertain financial times, it can be very uncomfortable to sign a contract binding your business into a predefined term that commits you to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars over the next several months to a year. With no guaranteed results and no way to effectively measure return on investment (ROI), most business owners would prefer not to be bound to such contracts, especially since such contracts usually include stiff exit penalties for early termination. But what are the alternatives?
We live in an Internet world today, and most people are familiar with finding what they want through search services like Yahoo!, Google, and MSN. As consumers, we're all familiar with the concept of typing a few words in the search bar and clicking the search button to explore our options. As business owners, however, the process on how to achieve a prominent placement in the search engine listings is often a murky, undefined, seemingly "random" process. Additionally, it can be very confusing when telemarketers and solicitors call on your business with various conflicting packages, promising to deliver "guaranteed" results but at a steep price tag. Many times, the lip service is gone once you sign the contract.
Using the Internet to advertise your business is a viable way to cut costs, focus marketing efforts, and deliver incredible results, but there are a few key points that you must know in order to protect your interests. Here are a few deceptive practices and myths to be careful about if you consider marketing your business online:
Deceptive Practice #1: Guaranteed Placement
There is no such thing as "guaranteed" placement on any of the major search engines. I wish there were, but if you think about it, such guarantees don't make sense. It's always possible that someone else might be willing to pay more for higher placement in the sponsored links area of search engine results. In the organic (or natural rankings) area of the search results, there is only one "number one" spot, so if someone offers you a "guarantee" that they can get your website to the number one spot, you'd have to question how they can possibly do that for your business when other unscrupulous sales people are making the same guarantees elsewhere. And what if they approach another business in the same industry as yours? Are they guaranteeing your competitor the #2 spot? I doubt it. What about the sales person four states away that is pitching their prospective client that they "guarantee" the number one spot? How can that be? In short, it can't. Individual telephone or marketing companies may own their own, propriety search services in which they may guarantee placement within their own listings, but you must consider how narrow or wide-reaching their services encompass, and whether the price is worth the exposure for the number of people who search through them versus the major search engines. Regardless of how many angles someone tries to play it, there is no way to ethically guarantee a particular placement on the major search engines. If someone makes such a claim, show them the door.
Deceptive Practice #2: "We work closely with the search engines"
It sounds great, and it would be quite the cozy situation if it were true, but again, no one has the "inside scoop" on how to tip the scales in your favor by "being in bed with" the search engines. Every professional, competent Internet marketing provider keeps up-to-date on current changes, but to say "working closely with" is, at best, misleading. If someone gives you a sales pitch that they have an inside track with Google, Yahoo!, MSN or any other search service, they're blowing smoke and trying to "sell" you on a relationship that simply can't exist. Why can't it exist? Because search engines would go out of business if they compromised the integrity of their ever-changing algorithms. (Their "algorithm" is the formula they use to rank and score websites based on weighted criteria, and it is "super-double-top-secret"). True, experienced search engine companies stay very familiar with updated materials and guidelines that search engine companies make public, but nobody has the executive privilege of calling up a particular search engine and saying "Hey, I've got a client that needs to be ranked number one for a particular keyword. Can you 'hook me up?'" Anyone who says that "they're in bed with the search engines" is making promises in the dark.
Deceptive Practice#3: Flat Rate Offers for Search Engine Submissions
Buyer beware. You may receive solicitations in the mail that appear to be bills but the fine print reads, "This is a solicitation. This is not a bill. You are under no obligation to pay this amount." Elsewhere in the correspondence, in much more conspicuous print, you will see the words, "Remit the following amount by (some date)." It's a legal scam. How can it be legal, yet still be a scam? Quite easily, actually. They will deliver EXACTLY what they advertise, which is often some number of keyword phrases submitted to some number of search engines on some periodic basis over the next year or so. If they do what they promise they'll do, it's legal. However, submitting a website to search engines without properly preparing it (called "optimizing") for submission and marketing to the search engines produces virtually zero results for you. Therefore, taking your money for something that will knowingly do nothing for you makes it a "scam," at least in my opinion.
Deceptive Practice #4: Using a Name to Define Itself
This is a common ploy that capitalizes on the unsuspecting and th unknowing. It's pretty typical (although not guaranteed) that a company will appear in the number one spot on search engines when using the name of the company as the search term. It makes sense that a company's name will be the best fit for search results when searching using the company's name. (Sounds redundant, right?) Do not let anyone fool you by telling you that they worked hard for the money to achieve great results by showing you that your company comes up prominently when you search for yourself. Such results often happen almost "automatically," with no effort at all. Plus, how many people really search for you by company name? The goal in search engine optimization and marketing is to get your company "found" by searching for your products, services, manufacturers, etc.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Marketing (SEM) is like the Wild West. Technology has expanded much faster than laws have been able to keep pace, and therefore there are plenty of opportunities for fraud and deception. The burden of maintaining integrity in the system has fallen largely on the individual search service companies like Google, Yahoo! and MSN, which explains why those companies need to continually update and refine their algorithms to keep the riff-raff out. In true "Western Movie" style, the terms to describe "good guy" practices is dubbed "white hat SEO/SEM" while the "bad guy" practices are labeled "black hat SEO/SEM." It sounds over dramatic, but the "good guys" engage in industry best-practices and adhere to ethical approaches, whereas the "bad guys" try to subvert the search engine algorithms and are usually the ones who engage in deceptive practices while preying on the ignorance of unsuspecting business owners.
Someday, there will undoubtedly be legal controls in place to support SEO/SEM malpractice lawsuits, much like how consumers are protected from medical or legal malpractice. I look forward to that day, because it will "clean up" the industry. As it stands now, the search engine optimization and marketing industry is the only one I can think of in which:
there is no way to ethically guarantee results
SEO/SEM practitioners can collect money with the disclaimer of "no guarantees", and
after collecting money for no-guarantee work, SEO/SEM companies can legitimately deliver "no results".
Of course, reputable SEO/SEM companies that engage in fair practices will likely take measures to make a happy customer, but the overall big picture allows for a lot of dubious practices in the market place. The few "bad apples" that leave a trail of destruction spoil it for the bunch who are honest, white hat SEO/SEM service providers.
How can you protect yourself? How can you be reasonably assured of not being ripped off? First and foremost, get references. Secondly, check those references. And finally, apply common sense to the situation, resisting the urge to take the bait of anything that seems "too good to be true." Any company that offers to provide you with SEO/SEM services should be able to provide you with qualified references. Even so, be sure to contact their actual clients to ensure a couple of things:
- is the company easy to work with?
- are the clients happy with their results?
- are the results producing traffic?
- would the clients recommend the company?
Let's assume you have a typical seven or eight-page website in a moderately competitive market. You can interview three separate companies regarding the same SEO/SEM project, and you may receive three dramatically different prices for the same job. One bid, for example, may come in at $200 to optimize your site, while the others come in at $1200 and $3000 respectively. Is the $200 bid the best value? Is the $3000 bid overpriced? Not necessarily. All three salespeople can look you in the eye, shake your hand, and tell you that they will optimize your site for their respective prices. The confusing part is that they are each being honest with you.
The person who quotes you $200 to optimize your site may do so by doing some cursory research to select a few keywords, and then use those same keywords on each page of your website while also adjusting basic information in your web page titles. Can that person legitimately say that your site has been optimized? From the "something is better than nothing" department, yes. In such a scenario, your site has been optimized-- to a degree.
In comparison, the $3000 bid would likely be much more thorough of a job. There may be several hours of detailed keyword research conducted, including an in-depth analysis of each of your top competitors' websites to define the best quality words and phrases to use. Then each page of your site might be individually optimized using specific sets of keywords to maximize the effectiveness of each keyword, including changes to the textual content on each page to include strategic placement of keyword phrases throughout. Additionally, pictures on the site might be annotated with descriptive labels (called alt-tags) on each page, and additional characteristics involving fonts, links, descriptions, etc. may be adjusted to refine the page characteristics so that search engines "smile upon" the website when your site is indexed. Certainly, you can be confident that your website was optimized in this case.
The individual that quoted you $1200 would likely involve something in the middle, perhaps with less market research and a more universal selection of keywords on each page, but still including alt-tags and other content adjustments to improve the website's merit with the search engines.
In all three instances, your site would be optimized. The difference would be the level of detail involved with the job. I wish it were just that simple, but the story continues...
It's true that you can do too little to achieve any worthwhile results. For example, if your budget is only $50 to optimize a website in a highly competitive market, spending the $50 on optimization would probably do nothing for you, and it would be better to take the money and treat yourself to a nice dinner. It's also true that you can wastefully spend too much money without seeing any improvement. For example, if you do achieve page 1, number 1 results in the organic rankings on Google consistently with a $200 budget for a particular set of keywords, increasing your budget to pay for more marketing efforts using those same keywords won't yield any better results. (i.e., you can't get better than #1.) In between the "too little" and "too much" areas, there is a very large "gray area" of spending that will produce varying results in varying time frames.
Optimization is a part of marketing. It is the preparatory work to ensure that your site is ready to be promoted, much like how producing a television commercial is the preparatory work in getting the commercial ready to be aired on TV to the public. The other part of the equation is the actual marketing of the site itself. Marketing the site, which involves submitting it to search engines and then promoting the site on an ongoing basis, is akin to broadcasting the television commercial. If you only air the commercial once, you might see some short term results from it, but in the long term the money spent to produce the commercial would be wasted because people would forget about it. Likewise, if you only market your website for one month, your site will not gain visibility in the long-term. Search engine marketing is an ongoing process. You need to establish a budget for it, just as you would for a phone book ad, magazine ad, radio spot, etc.
The good news: Actively promoting your website to the public is much less costly than traditional methods of advertisement, as long as it is done correctly. The end result of effective SEM is that you receive focused, pre-qualified buyers for your goods and/or services, and you can measure your ROI by reviewing which keywords are working, how long your visitors stayed on your site, knowing which pages they visited, and seeing when and where they left your website.
The bad news: There are obviously a lot of "small parts" to the SEO/SEM puzzle which pose a "choking hazard" to the non-technical business owner. Consequently, the process of actually getting the job done can be confusing, frustrating, and (for the unsuspecting) expensive. This is where a little bit of information and education can save you a whole lot of grief and time.
What most people do not realize is that the quality of your website's optimization (the SEO part of marketing) often directly affects the costs of the ongoing marketing costs for the site. For example, when Google indexes your website (which means that it "takes inventory" of your site's contents), it assigns a quality score to the merit of your keywords based on the content and construction of your site. If you participate in a marketing campaign using a pay-per-click service like Google Adwords, the higher your quality score, generally, the lower the cost per click for a given keyword selection. This means that you can end up paying less per keyword than your competition, but actually achieve higher placement in the sponsored links area of the search results.
In the example scenario above, the $200 bid for your job would probably not yield the same quality score impact as the $3000 job. However, if your budget doesn't support the more expense, detailed work, then it may be more comfortable for you to pay a slightly higher price per keyword (in a pay-per-click campaign), but spend less money on the optimization efforts for your site.
In many ways, you can compare SEO work with putting a heating system in your home. To equip your home with a heating system, you can pay more up front for a geothermal system, and realize a monthly cost savings over a long period of time. Or, you can put in a heat pump for less money up front, but your electric bill will be somewhat higher on a monthly basis. Either system will heat your home, but the break even point will be very different depending on the choice you make. Detailed versus general SEO works much the same way, and the variables that you must consider are 1) when do you want to start seeing results, and 2) how much do you want to spend monthly or quarterly on an ongoing basis?
The key to remember is that your website should first be optimized (to whatever degree you can comfortably afford) prior to marketing it. There are some search engines (and search related services) that will place your site (or a business listing that represents your company) in their search results for a "raw dollar amount" without your site being optimized, but such services can typically only do so within their own service networks. If your customers generally do their searches via major search engines instead of phone company or private industry search sites, then the dollars you spend for top placement within a marketing service's proprietary system may not be worth the cost.
What NOT to say: When discussing your project with a search engine optimization and/or marketing consultant, avoid asking the question, "What placement will I get on the search engines if I hire you?" It reveals that you aren't familiar with how search engines work, and it tips your hand that they might have "low hanging fruit" to make a sale. Of course, if you are savvy to how search engines work (and the limitations that SEO/SEM companies are subject to in achieving results), then asking this question may be a qualifier/disqualifier for the sales person who solicits you, depending on their response.
What to ask: It's reasonable (and shows insight) to ask an SEO/SEM consultant how involved their SEO efforts will be for the price. You may not have a good feel for what a reasonable budget is, so you can ask them to provide a "Good / Better / Best" proposal that outlines what they would include for different levels of optimization, so you can make a "best fit" budget decision for your business. With regards to marketing efforts, ask about the number of blog posts and/or article publications that can be expected for the money (for organic marketing), or what keyword selections (and their corresponding popularity demand) would be used for pay-per-click advertising.
I'm a firm believer that a company's SEO/SEM strategy needs to be customized to their specific market (local, regional, national, etc) and industry within that market. To illustrate the point, the roofing repair market in Seattle, WA, is much different than the roofing repair market in New Orleans, LA. In both cases, companies in roofing repair would likely focus on local search results within 50 to 70 miles of the business location. Priorities, word choice, and economic factors in each market will have a different impact on the best choices for keywords to use in each. Yes, of course, there will be some overlap. But in the big picture, the competition within each market is limited to the local area, so there would be a much more narrow approach to addressing the competition in order to achieve the best search engine results.
Comparatively, a health and nutrition company that wants to be competitive nationally for vitamin sales would involve a much different strategy in achieving desired results. The amount of time and effort, and consequently the costs involved with doing the job right will be completely different.
Therefore, if you are presented with a one-size-fits-none "package" deal to promote your business at some flat price, you might think twice about the quality of results you can expect for the money, given that many companies are "very good" at living up to the no-guaranteed-results nature of search engine marketing. Spend your money wisely. Ask questions. Get references. Check them. There is no "free lunch", and unfortunately in the search engine arena, you may not get what you think you pay for.
Qualifying Your SEO/SEM Provider
The biggest challenge you will face in achieving positive results via Internet marketing will be finding a capable, competent, ethical, experienced search engine company. In your interview process, if the sales person seems more interested in pitching you on their product rather than learning about your needs, beware. If you feel pressured into "closing the deal" by time-sensitive "now or never" discounts, or if you don't get straight answers to your questions, walk away. Sometimes the right answer to a question is "it depends," but such an answer should be followed by a reasonable, understandable explanation. Your prospective search engine optimization and marketing provider should be more interested in providing you with an education than in taking your money.
What to Expect if it's Done Right
Again, based on the ethical issue that no one can guarantee placement, your best indicator will be checking out references from different potential providers to get a reasonable assurance that a particular company has delivered for customers in the past. A proven track record is a good indicator that you have found a reputable, reliable company. Why is this so important? Because you will have to trust them to look out for your company's best interests in an ever-changing, no-guarantee environment, so you want to have some peace of mind that you aren't overpaying for their service, and they will not be using your business as a guinea pig to experiment. By talking with their references, you can also assess whether a client's prominent search engine placement is short-lived or consistent. Short-term and intermittent placement on search engine results may be (but not necessarily) an indicator of black hat SEO techniques, rather than white hat best-practices that yield more consistent results. Realize that there is little to no correlation between what one customer paid for their SEO/SEM work versus what another customer might have paid. The amount of money it costs to do the job is typically tied to the amount of time involved, and it will vary widely based on industry, market, and each client's goals.
All things considered, when you find a SEO/SEM provider you are comfortable with, trust, and can afford, you can expect your costs to be a fraction of what you pay for traditional advertisement, while yielding better results. This allows you to cut your advertising costs while increasing revenues. As more revenues flow in, meaning better cash flow, you can pare back your traditional advertising (meaning, reduce but not discontinue), and redirect the additional funds to additional internet methods for compounding effects.
Budget permitting, you can even use the Internet to measure ROI on your traditional marketing methods. For example, by securing multiple domain names (which are inexpensive), you can target your marketing efforts by individual source (such as billboards, magazines ads, etc.) and measure the traffic from each source. There are many ways to creatively and cost-effectively use search engine and Internet methods to measure, monitor, adjust and control the marketing success of your business.
Visit www.website411book.com for more information!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Website Design for L'Ultime Day Spa by WebDrafter.com
WebDrafter.com announces the website design for L'Ultime Day Spa.
L'Ultime Day Spa was founded with one goal in mind; to offer the public the best possible services to maintain their health and well being. L'Ultime's services include massage, reflexology, spray tanning, and more.
To view all of L'Ultime Day Spa's services go to www.lultime.net.
Contact WebDrafter.com today at 866-421-3723 for a free quote to design your custom website.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Choosing The Right Domain Name For Your Online Identity
by Tom Elliott
What's in a name? Yes, it's a clichéd question, but it is of paramount importance when it comes to your Website. As you've read in my book, the seemingly trivial task of "pick a name" takes on a whole new meaning when you must consider the way that the Internet handles domain names.
You will find yourself having to answer a series of other questions in order to make the right decision. Will your domain name "work" (will it be understandable) when you remove the spaces between the words? In addition to the .com and the .net variations, should you also protect your identity by getting the .info, .biz, .org, etc? Should you register it for one year, or for several? Is your name easily misspelled, and if so, should you also register the common misspellings so customers "accidentally" find you on purpose (or intentionally find you by accident, depending on how you look at it)?
Okay. Now that you have all of those answered, you go to register your well-conceived name. But alas, it isn't available. Now you're back to the drawing board. For Pete's sake, how hard can it be to pick a name? (And you thought it was a two-minute process!) REGISTERING the name is a two minute process, once you find one that is available. Getting to that point involves (potentially) a lot more work.
Here are a few points to ponder when you set out to pick a name. This guidance is in addition to the advice I give in the book, so if you've already read Website 411: Business Survival in an Internet Economy, this builds upon what we've already discussed.
Now for a piece of advice on email accounts using your domain name. This kind of overlaps with my text message response page on marketing, but it's worth mentioning here. When you have your domain name, what's your next step? What do you do with it besides connect it to your Website? (Your Web developer can help you do that). It's pretty straightforward.
Email addresses, you may have noticed, all end in .com, .net, .org, etc. They are tied to domain names. You may be using email that your internet service provider supplies you with, using their domain name (like verizon.net, comcast.net, earthlink.net, cox.net, etc.), or you may have an email address from a third party provider that you check by logging into their Web-based service (like aol.com, msn.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com, etc.). Either way is fine.
Once you have your own domain name, why not start using it for your emails? It's part of your identity and marketing. You'll have more credibility and better exposure when people go to YourName@YourBusiness.com rather than SomeNickname@AnotherProvider.com. Give it some thought. I've even seen some Website designer (usually small freelancers) that either don't have their own site, or if they do, their email address is to a generic email service provider... It makes me scratch my head. Along the same lines as the old expression "Never trust a skinny cook," how experienced and savvy is a Web developer without a Website, or one that doesn't have an email address from their own domain? Pet peeve of mine... Things that make you go "hmmmm. "
Just the same, you should work under your own flag versus flying someone else's. If you are "married" to your third party or Internet service provider's email account (meaning that you don't want to miss anything going into those accounts), most of them allow you to forward incoming message to another account (Your domain's). Yeah, I get stuck on the details.
The best advice I can give you is to find a reputable service provider that offers complete solutions (including domain name management), get a consultation to define your identity online, and let them register it on your behalf (ensuring that YOU own the rights to it.). Check the National Directory of Website Solution Providers on this site for a company near you, or give me a call at WebDrafter.com (866-421-3723) and I'll help you out. You can manage your domain name(s) yourself, but if you'd rather not tangle with the process, your Website solution provider can handle the technical details, annual verifications, and periodic renewals.
What's in a name? Yes, it's a clichéd question, but it is of paramount importance when it comes to your Website. As you've read in my book, the seemingly trivial task of "pick a name" takes on a whole new meaning when you must consider the way that the Internet handles domain names.
You will find yourself having to answer a series of other questions in order to make the right decision. Will your domain name "work" (will it be understandable) when you remove the spaces between the words? In addition to the .com and the .net variations, should you also protect your identity by getting the .info, .biz, .org, etc? Should you register it for one year, or for several? Is your name easily misspelled, and if so, should you also register the common misspellings so customers "accidentally" find you on purpose (or intentionally find you by accident, depending on how you look at it)?
Okay. Now that you have all of those answered, you go to register your well-conceived name. But alas, it isn't available. Now you're back to the drawing board. For Pete's sake, how hard can it be to pick a name? (And you thought it was a two-minute process!) REGISTERING the name is a two minute process, once you find one that is available. Getting to that point involves (potentially) a lot more work.
Here are a few points to ponder when you set out to pick a name. This guidance is in addition to the advice I give in the book, so if you've already read Website 411: Business Survival in an Internet Economy, this builds upon what we've already discussed.
- Search engines have started looking at the length of time that domain names are registered. Since so many scams, "link farms" and other gimmicks only use domains with one-year registrations, you have a better chance of being found if you register your name for 3 or more years, ensuring that you renew it before it is within a year of expiring.
- It's an unfair practice (and unethical in my opinion), but your Web-savvy competition may register the variations of YOUR domain name and point them to THEIR site... Because of that, it's a good practice (and cheap insurance) to register the variations yourself at the time you register your main domain name. Protect your identity!
- Domain registrars (the companies that sell domain name registrations) don't like to leave money on the table. Therefore, if someone has shown interest in a domain name by checking its availability, registrar companies collect the information of domains that have been checked-but-not-purchased, and they sell the lists to bidders. Then, if any of the checked domains seem "catchy" or worthwhile, the domain gets purchased and auctioned by the person/company who bought the list. In other words, if you find a domain you like, BUY IT... If you wait, you'll probably lose it and have to potentially pay hundreds of dollars to get it back!
- Beware of bogus renewal notices. It's a common practice (much like long-distance companies did in the 1980's and 1990's) to solicit customers and try to get them to swap providers. Unless you have registered a private domain and kept your contact information confidential, it is easy for companies to find out who owns a particular domain name. You will get unsolicited mailings from these companies urging you to renew your name before it expires. (In fine print, it will notify you that the mailing is an advertisement, not a bill... but it will sure look like a bill). If you unwittingly send the non-bill back with your payment, the fine print also states that you are agreeing to transfer ownership and registration to THEM... at which point they own your identity, and can charge you whatever they want to let you use it!
Now for a piece of advice on email accounts using your domain name. This kind of overlaps with my text message response page on marketing, but it's worth mentioning here. When you have your domain name, what's your next step? What do you do with it besides connect it to your Website? (Your Web developer can help you do that). It's pretty straightforward.
Email addresses, you may have noticed, all end in .com, .net, .org, etc. They are tied to domain names. You may be using email that your internet service provider supplies you with, using their domain name (like verizon.net, comcast.net, earthlink.net, cox.net, etc.), or you may have an email address from a third party provider that you check by logging into their Web-based service (like aol.com, msn.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, gmail.com, etc.). Either way is fine.
Once you have your own domain name, why not start using it for your emails? It's part of your identity and marketing. You'll have more credibility and better exposure when people go to YourName@YourBusiness.com rather than SomeNickname@AnotherProvider.com. Give it some thought. I've even seen some Website designer (usually small freelancers) that either don't have their own site, or if they do, their email address is to a generic email service provider... It makes me scratch my head. Along the same lines as the old expression "Never trust a skinny cook," how experienced and savvy is a Web developer without a Website, or one that doesn't have an email address from their own domain? Pet peeve of mine... Things that make you go "hmmmm. "
Just the same, you should work under your own flag versus flying someone else's. If you are "married" to your third party or Internet service provider's email account (meaning that you don't want to miss anything going into those accounts), most of them allow you to forward incoming message to another account (Your domain's). Yeah, I get stuck on the details.
The best advice I can give you is to find a reputable service provider that offers complete solutions (including domain name management), get a consultation to define your identity online, and let them register it on your behalf (ensuring that YOU own the rights to it.). Check the National Directory of Website Solution Providers on this site for a company near you, or give me a call at WebDrafter.com (866-421-3723) and I'll help you out. You can manage your domain name(s) yourself, but if you'd rather not tangle with the process, your Website solution provider can handle the technical details, annual verifications, and periodic renewals.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Maturing Americans are Shopping & Researching Online
According to eMarketer, more maturing Americans are hopping online than ever before! The Pew Interview and American Life Project recently released their findings about this growing market. Check out some numbers from their survey:
Are you ready to expand your market? Call WebDrafter.com today at 866.421.3723.
- 73% from ages 64-72 get online to research products
- 91% in that same age group use the Web to read e-mail
- 56% in that age range use the Web to make a purchase
- 79% use the Web for e-mail
- 60% get online to research products
- 47% use the Web to make a purchase
Are you ready to expand your market? Call WebDrafter.com today at 866.421.3723.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Blue Diamond Website Redesign and Logo Design by WebDrafter.com
WebDrafter.com announces the redesign of Blue Diamond Limousines website.
Blue Diamond Limousines in FL, specializes in new, clean and safe vehicles and was voted #1 in Customer Satisfaction.
Visit www.bluediamondlimousines.com for more information.
Contact WebDrafter.com today at 866-421-3723 for a free quote to design your custom website.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Search Engine Marketing Trends: Back to Basics
When money is tight, consumers are constantly looking for deals, according to eMarketer.com. And, today, that means they are going online to search for better prices, selection and services. If they find them -- forget brand loyalty -- they will switch to new products or vendors in a clickbeat.
Marketers have four basic search options: paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion - all three types of advertising - and search engine optimization (SEO).
While paid search gets most of the attention and money, marketers are increasingly turning to SEO to acquire new customers.
All four options will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising.
WebDrafter.com offers SEO, search engine optimization and SEM, search engine marketing thru both paid and organic efforts. Call today for a free evaluation at 866.421.3723!
Marketers have four basic search options: paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion - all three types of advertising - and search engine optimization (SEO).
While paid search gets most of the attention and money, marketers are increasingly turning to SEO to acquire new customers.
All four options will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising.
WebDrafter.com offers SEO, search engine optimization and SEM, search engine marketing thru both paid and organic efforts. Call today for a free evaluation at 866.421.3723!
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