When was the last time you used a phone book to search for company information? If you are like many in America, it has been several years.
If you are still using the Yellow Pages to promote your business, you need to redirect your efforts to marketing online. Did you know that 97% of consumers use the Internet when researching local products and services? And 98% of consumers choose a business that is on the first page of their search engine.
Positioning your product in front of the right consumer matters, and that task now includes positioning your website to be found by your target audience. And, an accurately positioned website has a direct correlation to your ROI.
What to look for when choosing an Internet marketing company...
Affordable
Companies are unique, and each have a different solution dependent on the competitive environment and marketing needs. Look for a business that will design an Internet Marketing package around your business and your specific needs - if they say no, look somewhere else!
Emphasis on Local Search
As a small business, you most likely have a specific geographic area you are concerned about reaching. You need to target your efforts in that specific location through social media, organic listings, Google places listings and more.
Organic
Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the phrase used to describe processes to obtain a natural placement on organic search engine results pages. It is the most effective marketing tool, but it takes time and a very good SEO company to get to the top of Google's organic search rankings.
If you need an immediate presence in a targeted market, Google AdWords is a great companion to organic search (Paid placement is a powerful option that allows your website to show up on selected search engines for specific search terms almost immediately).
How Google Works (The Story)
Google is a huge evolving machine that continually changes its algorithms to keep spammers out, and everyone else guessing. What will work for you today may (or may not) work for you tomorrow.
In all seriousness, Google has three processes to deliver you search results:
- Crawling: Can Google find you? Crawling is the process by which Googlebot’s discovers new and updated pages to be added to the Google index.
- Indexing: Can Google index you? Googlebot’s processes every page it crawls in order to compile a massive index of all the words it sees and their location on each page.
- Serving: Does your site have good, useful and relevant content? When a user enters a query, Google’s machines search the index for matching pages and return the results believed to be the most relevant to the user.
Ethical SEO Practices
A company that does it right, the right way, at the right time. Ethical SEO practices ensure your site complies with major search engines’ established rules, which allows for effective, long-term page rank and prevents penalties, such as being blacklisted from being handed down by using SEO techniques deemed unethical.
Track Your Results
Your SEO company should be willing to "lay out the cards" every month and show you exactly what you're getting for your money.
Does your SEO company do all of this for you? If not, it's time to try a new company and get better results for you business.
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