Archive for August 27, 2009

27 Aug 2009
internet marketing • seo

Guaranteed Website Rankings


Oh, if I had a nickle every time someone asked me to “guarantee website rankings” for them!  I’d have a nice little retirement account!

If you don’t know already, when an Internet marketing firm tells you they can “guarantee” rankings, they’re just trying to sell you some snake oil.  Just like those salesmen standing on the back of their horse drawn wagons, these guys are just trying to con you into trusting them.   Here’s a tip, the louder an SEO firm has to yell, the further you should run from them.

SEO or Internet marketing firms don’t have arrangements with search engines or other companies.  There’s no such entity.  There are no secret codings or under the table payments or anything like that.  Search engines don’t care about the websites trying to get higher rankings.  They care about the user who is searching on their engine.  They need to please the users – not the website owners.

Any type of Internet marketing campaign has to do the following…

1) Find out what the target audience is looking for.  (aka Keyword Research)

2) Put what the audience is looking for on the website (aka Page Optimization)

3) Showcase the trust-worthiness of the website (aka Backlinks with anchor text linking)

4) Keep the website updated and continuously repeat the steps above.

This is the absolute minimum that any Internet marketing campaign should consist of.  That’s pretty much the only thing an SEO firm can guarantee you (or should guarantee you) – that they will give you these services.


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26 Aug 2009
internet marketing • seo

Have You Gone Social Yet?


Mashable.com “…highlighted a study that showed two-thirds of marketers now use social media in some capacity.”  That’s quite a number!  I would love to know the types and sizes of the businesses that are participating in social media marketing.  My guess would be mid to large size companies.

eMarketer.com reports that in one year’s time they expect that 82% of brand marketers will be using social media marketing.  THAT is a large number!  I think we can safely say that social media is here to stay!

So, if you haven’t gone social yet with your Internet marketing campaign, I have no idea what you’re waiting for.  There’s plenty of information on the Internet and there are many SEO firms (including ours) that provides social media marketing services.  So, take the plunge, go social!


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20 Aug 2009
internet marketing • seo • small business • social media

SEO + PPC + SM = SUCCESS


Since our SEO Services are targeted towards small and home based businesses, we are often dealing with clients who have limited budgets.  Most SEO firms deal with mid to large size clients so spending $5000.00 / month or more on their Internet marketing is fairly common.  But mention that amount to a small or home based business and the phone hangs up (after 4 minutes of dead silence due to the shock!).

Anyway, because of the budget restraints I’m often asked which Internet marketing strategy works the best?  Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?  Pay Per Click (PPC)?  or Social Media (SM).

Truth be told, combining all three is the best strategy.  It makes sense.  If we were a standard advertising firm where we marketed your business via print ads, billboards, etc. we would say the same thing.  If you pay me to put up 4 billboards you’ll get X amount of traffic.  If you pay me to put up 4 billboards + a commercial on cable tv – you’ll get more traffic.

It’s no different on the Internet.  The more you’re “out there” the more traffic you’ll get.  The more traffic you get, the more the search engines like you.  The more the search engines like you, the higher your ranking will be.  – Of course, I don’t have to tell you that website traffic is just ONE factor that search engines look at so don’t imagine that just because you get a ton of traffic to your website that is all you need to get high in the rankings, the search engines are much smarter than that!

So, what I recommend to my small and home based business clients is to combine as much of the services as they can.  If they can only afford only one then I recommend whichever option works best for them.

1) If they don’t want to do any work on their own on the website then I recommend SEO.
2) If they want immediate traffic to the website then I recommend PPC.
3) If they are willing to do some work and get involved in the marketing of their business I recommend SM.

Personally, I think Social Media (SM) is the way to go for many small and home based businesses.  It’s an excellent way for them to start and if a client comes to me with an existing social media campaign, then it just makes the SEO that much easier and quicker.

So, if you’re stuck and you’re not sure which Internet marketing strategy works best for you, contact your SEO firm, they’ll advise you.  If you don’t have a contract with an SEO webmaster, then contact us at Eckweb Designs, Inc.  We’ll be happy to help!


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18 Aug 2009
social media

Twitter Personality Types vs. Facebook Personality Types


This is just a short article cause I had a PC meltdown yesterday (I love the Internet – I just hate computers!) anyway, I was thinking about the people I meet and how some LOVE Twitter and others LOVE Facebook.  It got me thinking about the two types of personalities these two groups must be.  So, here are my thoughts on that…

Twitter Personality Types

a) Are short on time – busy folks with too much to do in too little time.
b) Still want to interact with other humans but not too much.
c) Enjoy sharing information and data.
d) Enjoy getting information and data from others.
e) Are direct and to the point (some might say blunt).

Facebook Personality Types

a) Are relaxed types with time on their hands – even if it’s just perceived time.
b) Enjoy sharing everything about themselves with anyone who will listen (or read).
c) Love sharing information and data and all the details that come with it.
d) Feel a strong need to be with other humans at all times.
e) Love to talk just for the sake of talking.

Well, what do you think?  Are these correct?  Do you fit into one of these types?


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11 Aug 2009
seo

Google Loves This Website Re Design


Something to Bark About — Waterdog Specialties
Website Redesign
New design of old website combined with search engine friendly coding puts this new site front and center . . .
The new redesigned site is experiencing high traffic and rankings from potential customers and search engines alike. Not only do people visiting the website love the new modern design, search engines such as Google LOVE the new website!

http://www.mooredesignsolutions.com/enews/2009/08-001/index.html


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01 Aug 2009
internet marketing • seo • small business

Comparing SEO Rates With ROI


Comparing SEO (Search Engine Optimization) rates with ROI (Return On Investment) is something that many business website owners fail to do.  With the average price of $20,000-$30,000 yearly investment, search engine optimization rates can be somewhat of a sticker shock, especially for small and home based businesses.

There are seo companies, like Eckweb Designs, Inc. that cater to small and home based businesses, yearly rates average $7000.00 – much more doable for smaller companies.

At any rate, how do you decide which rates you can afford?  Well, like any advertising campaign, you need a budget.  You need to know what monies can be spent and you need to have an “idea” of what can be gained.  So, let’s see if we can break it down.

The first thing you have to know is the profit margin that you make from each client or sale.  I know, you may think this is so basic, but I speak with MANY small business owners and I’m telling you, the majority have no idea what their profit margin is!

There are many formulas that you can find on the Internet that can help you do this.  But I want to focus on the costs you would spend with SEO vs. the Return on Investment you would get.

So, let’s say you have figured out that each client brings in a profit of $50.00 (as an example).  So, the next question is how many clients would you need to offset the SEO rates from your SEO firm?  Or the cost of an inhouse SEO webmaster?

Of course, this depends on what you spend on SEO and as you probably already know, the rates for SEO services are all over the place.  But, the average is $20,000 per year, so we’ll go with that.  This then means that your SEO campaign would have to bring in a minimum of 400 clients in order to offset the $20,000 fee.  That would be an average of 33 new clients each month.  Is that feasible?  Can your business handle 400 more clients?  Are there 400 more clients in your area?  Looking for your service and / or product? Only you can answer these questions.

At Eckweb, our average is $7000.00 / year – so an SEO campaign with us would have to bring in a minimum of 140 new clients to offset the seo cost.  That would be an average of 11 new clients each month.  Again, is that feasible?  Can your business handle 140 more clients?  Are there 140 more clients in your area?  Looking for your service and/or product?

So, when you’re looking at SEO rates consider your ROI – what do you need to do to make up the costs for this marketing campaign?  How feasible is it that you will recover these costs?  The answers to these questions can help you greatly to avoid costly mistakes.

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