If you haven’t yet heard what the latest Google changes are, let me give you a brief synopsis…

Google announced and began implementing several new factors in their list of ranking factors…

1) Real Time Search
2) Personalized Search Results
3) Page Speed
4) Easier search on mobile units

So, what do these mean?

1) Real Time Search
Basically, when you do a search on Google you will be given results from within Social Media programs such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc. along with the other search engine results.  Here’s an article from WebProNews that explains the entire process in detail but know this, there is no doubt that from now on, your exposure in social media programs will impact your website.  This “change” by Google ensures the future of social media.  What you say and do, and what is said about you in social media circles can and will become a line in the search result pages.  So, if you haven’t yet begun the process of joining and participating in social media, the time has come to jump in.

2) Personalized Search Results

It used to be that if you had a Google account and you were signed in to your Google account and you used Google to search for something, your search results would be skewed to your history.  In other words, if your Google history showed that you shopped often at Sears online, then when you made a search for an item, you would be shown results from Sears because to Google, you like Sears so they’re trying to give you what you like.  Google calls this “Personalized Search”.

You could, of course, log out of your Google account and your search results would be different because Google had no history to tap into.  But those days are now gone.  Personalized search is now ALL THE TIME and FOR EVERYONE using Google.  So, no matter if you have a Google account or not, if you’re signed in or not, you will have a Google history and they will tap into that history everytime you do a search on Google.

This is a great feature for Internet users, it makes the entire search process faster, easier and more relevant.  But for website owners and marketers, it changes the game completely.  It means that we can’t rely on website rankings anymore for traffic.  Because, truthfully, rankings aren’t going to matter much.  After all, 10 people in the same city doing the same exact search can potentially get 10 different search results depending on their zip code and their search history.  So, what good is it to be #1 on Sally’s computer and #8 on Mike’s computer?

The game now changes from rankings to traffic.  The goal now, for every website owner and Internet marketer is to increase the amount of traffic.  Rankings still play a part of course, but we can’t rely on those rankings as much as we used to.

Here’s an article with some more information about Google Personalized Search.

3) Page Speed

Web Designers, this is for you!  If you’ve been resisting the use of CSS and other code enhancements to create websites, you’re in for a large learning curve.  Google is now using the load time of a website page as part of it’s ranking algorithm.  So, if your website page takes 5 seconds to load onto a browser and your competitor takes 2 seconds to load, well, your competitor will get some extra ranking points for that.

Of course, this is just one of over 100 ranking factors that Google uses to rank websites but it is a new factor.  It’s important enough for Google to add to their Webmaster tools which in turn, tells us that they are looking at it right now!  So, get your websites loading faster!

4) Easier search on mobile units

I said it at the beginning of 2009, that this would be the year that Mobile Internet would hit big in the US and it has proven to be true.  2010 will only be bigger and it will just continue to grow.  The impact has been acknowledged by Google as they are now providing some easier ways to search on mobile units.

They already have search by voice, search by location and now they’ve introduced search by images.  Basically, you take a photo of the item that you’re interested in and Google will “attempt to locate it and give you information…” about it.  They’re calling ig Google Goggles.  How this will pan out, I have no idea but it’s an extremely interesting concept!

All in all, Google has launched 38 different new ways to search in the last 70 days.  There’s no doubt that the “big brother” theme comes to mind but for now, as an Internet marketer, I have to change my game plan.  We all do.  Anyone associated with SEO and Internet marketing has to re-structure how they manage their website marketing campaigns if they want to work with Google and gain the benefits of that search engine.  After all, it’s being used by 74% of the planet!

If you haven’t yet heard from your SEO firm about these changes, shoot them an email.  Don’t call, they’re probably working 22 hours a day just trying to keep up!

SEO Services, like most other services, are a myriad of activities all put together to create a package.

SEO (Search engine optimization) services come in all shapes and sizes.  Let’s face it, no 2 SEO firms are the same, although there are certain similarities, no 2 will ever be exactly the same.  Just like no 2 divorce attorney firms are the same or no 2 accounting firms are the same, etc.

And just like any consumer, those who purchase SEO services do so with their pocketbooks in mind.  The package they purchase is only as big as their pocketbook will allow.  So, some companies can take much greater advantages of SEO than others.  So, how do you know what factors to choose?  Which ones to put aside?  Let’s go over some of them and I’ll see if I can help you.

I’ll rate each step – 1 being absolutely needed , 2 being you can get away without it (maybe)!

1) Cleanup of the coding – Rating 1

There are some amazing web designers out there, I mean the graphics and the layouts that they come up with are just WOW!  But, as an SEO webmaster, I have to admit, I’m absolutely in the Matrix.  I took that red pill a long time ago and the way that I see websites is very different from how web designers see websites.

I see the coding and I see the layout structure.  I see the gobbleygook that the search engines see and if that gobbleygook takes up so much space and time from the engines, it’s just a minus when it comes to SEO.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the beautiful designs, I really do.  But what is the point of a business website if it doesn’t bring in business?  I’ve seen some of the most beautiful websites bringing in 20-30 new visitors per month – that’s pitiful.  Why pay so much for such a gorgeous website if no one is going to see it?

Cleaning up the website coding is a very important part of the SEO process.  It basically lays out the foundation for how the website is seen and coded by the engines.

2) Keyword Research – Rating 2

I know what you’re thinking – why should I pay for someone to tell me what keyword phrases to use when I KNOW what my clients are typing in?  Well, I agree with you – to a point.  You MAY know (or think) what your clients are typing in to find your services/products but you don’t know ALL that they’re typing in.

Many business owners make the BIG mistake of keeping their websites small – specific – so specific that only a small group of their audience will find them.  For example, I was speaking with the owner of a small Greek restaurant from Ohio yesterday and we were talking about the catering section on his website.  He wants to increase the business for the catering but wanted to market the phrase “Greek Food” on those pages.  Although this is what he obviously will be catering, Gree Food, my point to him was it’s fine to market that phrase, but you also want to get a little more general.  You want to go after “Ohio Catering” and/or “Columbus Ohio Caterer” (phrases like that) because if a company is looking for a caterer and they weren’t thinking of “Greek Food” and they came across your website – after reviewing your site they may say to themselves, “Hey, I never thought of having a Greek caterer for the corporate event, let’s try that – it’s different.”  See my point?

How did I even know this was occuring?  Do I have a magic ball on my desk?  Yes, the magic ball is called “Keyword Research” – by looking at Twitter feeds, Keyword Research tools, Google Adwords tools and competition websites, I could see that phrases like “Columbus Ohio Caterer” were more popular than “Greek Food Caterer”.

Another point on Keyword Research.  Many attorney websites (as well as other professions) make the mistake of just talking about themselves on their sites.  WEBSITES ARE NOT BROCHURES.  I don’t mean to yell but really, I’ve been saying this for 10 years now, I’m tired!  Your audience is not just looking for “attorney in pompano beach” – they’re also looking for answers to questions.  They want to know INFORMATION – and guess what, if the viewer doesn’t find the information on your website, they’ll find it on someone else’s.

But what kind of information should you put on your website?  The keyword research can tell you.  Let’s say you’re a patent attorney, here are some “questions” that viewers are typing in…

“What is the duration of a patent?”
“Why are patent fees so expensive?”
“Why is patent protection important?”

Answer these questions on your website (or blog, or whatever) and you’ll get that traffic.  Answer more questions and you’ll get more traffic.  A side benefit is that if User X types in 3 questions into Google and your website keeps coming up with the answers to these questions, who do you think he’s going to call when he’s ready to buy?  Who would you call?  I’m just saying!

3) Page Optimization – Rating 1

Once the keywords are chosen, the next step is to actually place these words on the website pages and in the right spots (for both the search engines and the readers).

Without this step there really is no SEO – so, this factor is just as important as the code cleaning.

4) Monthly Marketing – Rating 2

Although I do admit that not every website requires monthly marketing (all depends on the products / services) if you want to get the most from all the money you spent on your SEO efforts, then you really do want the marketing.  Not for submissions to search engines and link exchanges, but for the traffic analysis, the competition analysis, the continuous keyword research and the research on new website widgets and gizmos for both engines and users.

Ongoing marketing efforts ensure that the website will always stay fresh and new.  Believe me when I tell you that I am on the Internet at least 8 hours a day (I mean ON the Internet – not just at the computer) so I visit ALOT of websites and many of them over and over again and it’s very rare that a week goes by that a website doesn’t change.  Something changes on the site, whether it’s the sale banner, an addition of a link to an article, something.  I emphasize to my clients all the time how important it is to make changes on the site and really, if websites with thousands of visitors per day take this advice, why don’t small business owners take this advice?  I’ll never know.

Yeah, I know, basically it boils down to that you need the basic SEO services entirely but hey, show me an advertising campaign that can reach so many people for so little money?  I dare ya!

I’m reading this article “Small Business SEO: Costs, Expectations & Realities” by Matt McGee.  In it he talks about the wide range of costs many small businesses complain about.  I’ve had many phone calls with small business owners frustrated that one company will charge $75.00/month and others charge $1000.00/month!  And because of the techno-babble they get from the salespeople, the small business owner just doesn’t understand what it is that he/she is buying.

That’s so frustrating to me!  To all the SEO firms out there who love to throw around words that THEY KNOW are not common to non-seo folks, STOP IT!  That doesn’t sell the service, it turns people off.

Anyway, back to SEO costs and this article.

Matt makes some points in his article that I would like to address…

1) “The price you’ll pay for SEO depends on the consultant’s business model.”

This is very true.  There are several business models out there and depending on what model the SEO firm uses, well, that will impact the price you pay.  So, when you’re looking for an SEO firm, find out what will they do for you?

a) Will they just be consulting you and giving you a written “how to” so that either you or your web designer will have to do the work?

b) Will they be going in and making the changes to your website as well as the SEO work.  Some companies will do a complete re-design of a website in order to optimize it.

c) Do they base their fees on a percentage of the revenue that you bring in?  This type of model is great for websites who sell physical products but it’s risky for the SEO firm.  After all, the SEO firm can get the people to your website, but the sale is up to the business owner.

2) “The price you’ll pay for SEO services sometimes depends on geography.”

I thought this was interesting.  He basically goes on to say that an SEO firm in a smaller town can charge less than an SEO firm in a larger city.  I would love to see a study about this, if it’s true.  It makes sense that it would be, but it would be great to find out if it is.

3) “I generally wouldn’t trust an SEO company that only charges $300/month.”

This one, I don’t agree with.  Our SEO Services here at Eckweb are $135.00/month and we’re very proud to be able to offer this for our small business clients.   Matt reports that the $300.00 fee is more an hourly fee for an SEO consultant, not a monthly fee!  He goes on to report that if an SEO firm is charging less than $300.00/month then they aren’t “doing much for you.”

Hmmm – I beg to differ.

Here’s what we offer at Eckweb Designs, Inc. –

a) Initially, we provide you with a proposal which outlines the steps we need to take to optimize your website.  The proposal gives you multiple options.

• You can choose whether we do the work on your site or your designer does
• You can choose whether our copywriter writes the content for your site or you do
• You can choose to simply purchase our written consultation
• You can choose to manage social media programs or let us help you with it
• You can choose the level of participation you want to have in your Internet marketing campaigns

Average time: 30 minutes

b) Once the proposal is approved we move ahead and if you chose for a full SEO package then we begin with a comprehensive keyword research on your website – this means we research what keyword phrases your target audience is typing in to search queries.  We don’t just use Keyword tools for this, we also research your Internet competition.  We then give you the list of keyword phrases that we have found and ask you to remove the phrases that are not appropriate.

Average time: 2-3 hours

c) We restructure and recode your website so that it is as streamlined as possible for the search engines.  This sometimes requires a complete re-design of the website (although we do try to keep as many graphics as possible from the original site).  If an SEO firm tells you that the website that was created 5 years ago doesn’t have to be changed in order to be marketed on the Internet, hang up the phone immediately.

Average time: 1-2 hours per website page

d) We then go through the process of the actual on page optimization which means placing the keyword phrases in strategic areas throughout the website pages, creating internal links, altering meta tags, and optimizing graphics.

Average time: 45 minutes per website page

e) In between these stages are emails and phone calls determining the plan that the site will take.  But in reality, the majority of this plan is already written in the proposal acceptance.  Many of our clients will call us with questions about the proposal and it is during this time that the plan begins to formulate.  Matt includes planning as part of his time in his $300.00/hour estimate and I can see how that would be true if he was dealing with a 500 + page website but the truth is that the great majority of small business owners have a 20 page (or less) website and there simply isn’t much planning required for those small websites.

f) Once all the initial work is done we then begin the monthly marketing – which we only charge $135.00/month for.  This monthly work entails…

• Manual submission to 5-10 directories which were chosen based on who your competitors are linked to
• Manual research for link exchanges which are also chosen based on your competitors
• Review of your website analytics mostly to review what pages are not working as well as they should
• Tweaking of a low ranking page which can include either changing a keyword phrase or adding an additional page for this theme (there is an extra charge of $60.00 for adding a new page)
• Creation of multiple reports including traffic analysis report, new keyword phrases report, tips and ideas report, and others.

Average time: 2-3 hours per website

Are our costs low?  Yes – they are lower than the average SEO firm but we’re not the average SEO firm.  We cater to small and home based businesses.  Our goal is to serve small and home based businesses.  We work very hard to streamline as much as possible the work that we do and we work VERY hard to keep our own costs low so that we can keep our prices low.  There’s no magic, there’s no special program we use, it’s just plain hard work.

4) “Focus on ROI, not costs.”

This, I agree with and I always tell my clients to focus on the ROI.  My focus is on conversions, not necessarily being on page 1 of Google for every keyword phrase we’re marketing.  The latter, we can do.  But if the keyword phrase isn’t bringing in clients who convert, what’s the point?  The average ROI for Eckweb clients is 200% and I think for small businesses, that’s very good.

5) “No SEO can guarantee results.”

Absolutely true.  How can a company guarantee results when their work is based on another company’s actions?  Think about it.  I can do the most amazing optimization job on your website, I can then submit the website and Google, Yahoo, and others will pick it up.  But my optimization process is dependant on these search engines.  If the search engines change their algorithims (their rules on how they rank websites) then the optimization I did may not work.  So, how can I possibly guarantee that your site will rank for a certain number when I don’t have control over the company that’s doing the ranking?  So, again, if an SEO firm tells you that they guarantee results, hang up immediately.

So, yes, I know, SEO is and can be very costly.  If the SEO firm is also participating in PPC on your behalf, then yes it’ll cost more.  If the SEO firm is writing articles and press releases and submitting them for you, then it’ll cost more.  But small businesses cannot afford these “extras” and if they could, we can also accomodate them but the reality is, many businesses are still learning about the Internet and it’s impact.  I know, they’re late but they’re coming around.

So, SEO costs don’t have to be out of reach.  As a small business owner, you can participate in Internet marketing and do well.

Many companies today are looking for ways to save money and since I’m in the SEO businesses, I see and hear business owners talking about trying to do the SEO for their websites themselves.  I’ve even heard a few tell me that “a friend” is going to help them.

Well, all I can say is, the business must not be worth very much if they give SEO such a low rating.  But, then I got to thinking, maybe they don’t know it’s worth.  I mean, all my existing clients that have said this to me are either brand new or they haven’t participated in the SEO marketing.  You know what I mean, there are business owners out there who purchase SEO but don’t participate in SEO.  And truth be told, any internet marketing campaign will fail if the business does not take part in the campaign.

Anyway, I’m getting off the subject.  I wanted to talk about the act of SEO.  I wanted to go through what is REALLY involved in conducting SEO, on a regular basis.  I think that if anyone thinking they can do SEO themselves or that just “a friend” can help them, then they just need to look over this list.  If, after looking it over, they still think they have the time, tools and inclination to do the work, then that’s great.  But, better to make a decision with all the facts!

So, what’s really involved in the act of SEO?

1) You need to know html or php or asp, whatever code your website is written in.  Why?  Because you’ll be creating new pages, changing content, altering layouts.  If you don’t know what you’re doing with the coding, then you’ll likely mess it up and spend 3 days trying to figure out why you can’t center that paragraph that you want to center!

2) You also need to know website coding because search engines, nowadays, are very aware of poorly coded websites.  Poor coding will make your website look sloppy and amateur. You’ll lose rankings and customers.

3) The minimum amount of time you need to spend on your website weekly is…

a) 15 minutes to review your website statistics.  You need to check for downtime, broken links, unusual traffic, keywords and bounce rates.

b) If you find any problems on the website after reviewing your stats then you need to give yourself time to fix it.  This can take anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes.

c) 60 minutes to review competitors’ backlinks and submit your site to some of those backlinks.

d) 30 minutes to answer email concerning link exchanges and to add the exchanges to your website.

e) 60 minutes to review keyword competition on the Internet – you want to review what your competition is doing as far as the amount and type of traffic they’re getting and then try to implement some of their techniques on your site (if applicable).

f) 15 minutes to run a ranking report (sometimes it takes longer, it depends on how many keyword phrases and the speed of your Internet connection) and review the placement of the keyword phrases.  Basically, you want to see where your website sites on the search engines for the keyword phrases that you’re marketing.

g) 45 minutes for keyword research to identify trends and niches in your industry that your website is currently not marketing.  This is one of the very best ways to attract new customers and to grow your website.  It’s time consuming, but absolutely worth the time.

h) 60 minutes to write at least 1 article on your blog and to post on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Keeping up with social media is extremely important in today’s Internet marketing strategy.

i) 30-60 minutes to read the latest news related to SEO and Internet marketing.  There literally isn’t one day that goes by that some new information, software, tool, etc. isn’t introduced that can impact how your campaign is run and/or how your website is affected.  It’s important to keep up with the search engine news AND updates on web design and SEO tools.

j) 30-45 minutes to submit your website to at least 4 or 5 directories.  That entails not only finding the directories but also filling out the forms and then responding to the emails to confirm the submission process.

Well, that’s pretty much it.  About 6-7 hours per week, per domain.  Seems like alot?  If you haven’t yet begun the process of “doing it yourself” – all I can say is, just wait!  Along with doing the work, you also have to set up a system for yourself.  In other words, how will you keep track of what directories you submitted your site to?  What link exchanges you requested?  Notes on what your competition is doing?  Etc.

If you do take on SEO, it can be challenging but rewarding.  But if you think it’s just an hour here and there and you’ll get the same results as you do from a professional SEO webmaster, well, you may be in for a bit of a surprise.