Introduction

You've got a website or you've decided that it's time to build one. Now you have to think about how you are going to get your prospective customers to it. There are a number of different strategies: traditional media featuring your URL, referral partners or referring websites (other websites that link to you), and getting ranked highly on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.).

Traditional media works well, but it requires significant monitoring, tracking, and it can be costly if not done correctly. Building a network of referral partners is time-consuming and sometimes it does not result in the traffic that you expected. Getting ranked highly on each of the major search engines takes time and has a cost, but, in most cases, it offers the best bang for your marketing buck.

Getting Search Engine Rankings - Our Process

Step 1

If you haven't built your website yet, the first step in our process is to engage our Digital Media team. Their job is to make sure that the structure of your website is arranged in a way that makes the site easy for the search engines to find and read. For example, websites with rich images, movies, flash, etc. look brilliant, but they can be difficult for the search engine's spiders to read and interpret. Another example is using CSS instead of tables to configure the layout of your site. If you are still in the planning phases of building your new website, drop us a line and we'll give you a free consultation.

If you already have a website, our process begins with making sure that there is nothing in the structure of your site that precludes you from getting ranked with the search engines. What might stop you from getting ranked? One example is having a website that is filled with images of words and text but not including the "alt=" attribute with each image. Search engines are getting more advanced every day, but most still cannot "read" images. Suppose you own a bicycle store selling Colnago Bicycles. You aren't likely to get a high ranking with the search engines if the word "Colnago" is all over your site as an image with no alt attribute telling the search engines or the visually impaired what that image is. Be considerate of the blind and your website will get seen! Learn more.

Step 2

The next step we take is to research keywords that we think would be relevant to your business. We launch a Paid Search marketing campaign containing the keywords and use real visitor data to determine which keywords deliver the best return on investment. We also use this data to make recommendations to you for optimizing your website --- changing your website's structure or content in a way that results in more visitors "converting" into leads and sales. Many business owners have an irrational fear of Paid Search. Organic listings on the major search engines might not cost you money each time someone clicks them, but they definitely aren't free either.

The difference between Paid Search and Organic Search is in how the cost is distributed. With Paid Search, you pay in small increments distributed over time. The cost of Organic Search is bundled into the time you spend creating, designing, building, and optimizing your website. If you consider how much your time is worth and what you paid your web designers, the cost of your free listings probably far exceed your proposed budget for Paid Search. Paid Search is one of the few marketing mediums that drives immediate results, is 100% track-able (when you use our system), and helps improve any current or future organic optimization projects.

Step 3

How we proceed after Step 2 depends on how your website ranks Organically for your top performing keywords as identified by your Paid Search campaign. If your website ranks well, we typically skip Step 3 unless you have additional goals. If your website does not have high Organic Search rankings for your top performing keywords, we begin a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) project. Our goal is to get your website to be seen, by the search engines, as an authority for the subject of each keyword. Ultimately, this is the single biggest determinant of your long term success with ranking high organically. You need to be a recognized voice in your industry, community, etc. You need insightful, unique, relevant, and frequently updated content for each keyword / keyword category. Doing all of this will cause other people to "point" to you and cite you as a valuable source of information for the subject/keyword in question, and having a lot of people "point" to you is another heavily weighted factor for getting ranked high Organically.

Getting high Organic Search rankings is a long-term strategy and depending on how competitive / crowded your field is, it can be a time-consuming process. Business owners hire us because we have a team of specialists that can accomplish your desired results for a fraction of the cost of trying to do it yourself or with your in-house resources.

Get a $50 credit for Google AdWords when you hire us for Search Marketing.

SEARCH FAQ's

Pay Per Click (PPC) VS. Search Engine Optimzation (SEO)

Coming soon!

• Cost-Effective Performance
  Our proprietary Search Engine Marketing technology platform allows us to create, manage, and optimize your campaign(s) to perform better than can be achieved in-house and at a nominal monthly cost.
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• Track ALL Conversions
  If you are currently managing your Pay Per Click campaigns using online conversions alone, you are missing most of the picture. Our system captures online and offline conversions. We can better manage and optimize your account because we can see every single call, click, e-mail, and sale generated by it.
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• Comprehensive Reporting
  We record every call generated by your account and provide you with a web-based interface. You can review calls and follow up with missed leads. Did you know that nearly 70% of callers who receive voice mail do not leave a message!? If your sales reps convert just a fraction of these missed leads, you'll have paid for our service many times over.
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