MINIMIZATION (NOT OPTIMIZATION)
Allow me to minimize the importance of search engine optimization, or SEO. The real work to be done is search engine marketing, or SEM. You’ll want to find a savvy partner for this journey. It takes a ton of patience, intuition and insight to read into the abundance of Google traffic statistics and arrive at prioritized, strategic focus areas. How you market against this knowledge decides whether you will rise or fall.
Before we look at a list of activities that constitutes “the real work” of improving Google rankings, please consider the following:
1) Everyone wants more online visitors, which makes the marketplace very competitive. This is not silver bullet marketing!
2) The best in SEO simply gets you “on the grid” – which means people will find you somewhere along the results returned by Google but not in the top 5 positions where over 75% of traffic gravitates.
3) SEO can only succeed where real research in engaged – meaning that it takes a smart marketer to navigate Google data and separate the real opportunities from millions of searches. Once these decisions have been both artfully and scientifically made, then leveraging that knowledge for results at your website is very easy.
4) Search engine optimization is misleading. It should be “search engine minimization” since it’s the least you can do for your website to get into the game (too many think it’s ALL they need to do).
5) The real difference is made with search engine marketing where you commit a budget to an ongoing campaign of measures that raise your optimized website in the rankings. A pro can help you to prioritize which measures bring the greatest return in the near-term.
So, what are the various service areas included in search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) services? There are two major components – increasing visibility and improving conversion. The latter is the process by which prospects are turned first to leads and then to customers. While SEO falls entirely in the first category, SEM straddles both categories. One thing should be clear. It’s not enough to turn consumers on to your product. You need to motivate them to buy!
INCREASING VISIBILITY
Online Niche Discovery
Keyword Research
Google Local Listings
Google Organic Rankings
Google Sponsored Ads (pay-per-click, PPC, Adwords)
Blogging
Local Forums
Customer Reviews
Article Marketing
Press Releases
Link building
Business Directories
Industry Memberships
IMPROVING CONVERSION
Branding Consultation
Website Design
Website Copy writing
eCommerce
Contact Form Management
Email List Building
eNewsletter (quarterly)
RSS Feed Management
Multimedia Development
WordPress Blog Software
Content Management System (CMS)
Audio/Video Content Development
Google Analytics
Progress Reports
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