Optimize Your SEO!

1. Not all SEOs and SAOs are created equally! It makes sense, since some companies have been in business for years and years while others have set up shop, well yesterday. It doesn't by any stretch mean that the newbies are too green. The solopreneur might have been a former SVP of Google for all you know. It is just smart to ask what each company you speak with specializes in. Some are pros at keyword searches while others know link building and on page SEO factors like technical issues.

2. Know your business - inside, outside, and backwards! Although a SEO and SEA's will help you greatly, you also need to feed them information that will help them deliver the clients you are looking for. We chatted with Sean for quite a while about my business, the industry, terms that are associated with the industry and what my goal was for working with an optimization company. I also told him a lot about the web server we use and our management system. Since I knew the kind of new client I wanted to attract and the terminology people use when searching companies like mine out, it was an easy conversation, but it was up to Sean to tell us what we needed to do and what was best fo us. I am not in any position to think that I could do his job. It is just more efficient to be prepared. I also learned a lot since, and that Sean is using over 1200 key words for us on any given day.

3. Page rank, page rank, page rank! An SEO and SEA should be constantly monitoring your keywords, website and competitors to see if one or five key words are hitting more than others and if those words are found on your website. With our on line advertising campaign, it was imperative that we streamlined our message as much as possible. We were instructed to really pare down the message to the essentials. It was a great exercise for us and a learning experience. What we thought was to the point, had to be crafted several times. It helped to do research on what other firms in various industries did. Once you do this, the SEO and SEA are the ones that will be responsible for getting you up to the top. In regards to Search Engine Marketing (SEM) the best place to show up in a search is 3, 4 or 5 from the top. I am told that the reason is due to the lower costs than being in the first or second positions and higher conversions to the website from people searching.

4. Take Advantage of your competitors in a down economy! When times get a tough, the first thing that businesses will do is to cut advertising and marketing budgets. Knowing this, your biz can pick up clients that might have gone somewhere else. By optimizing your website you are going to get in front of potentially millions of eyeballs that you didn't think about last week. With travel expenses being cut, budgets for industry mags and newsletters being decimated, a number of people I know are turning to the web in search of free information. So, instead of taking that booth at the local trade show, use your money and get in front of your demo that you ordinarily wouldn't have. I dare say that your website traffic will grow significantly which will allow you an effective way to promote your org's brand id. The rest is up to you.

5. Expectations. You should ask for a report each month letting you know what key words are standing out, which on-line advert is resonating with consumers (we have four different versions of the same ad), how many times you have come up in searches, what was the conversion rate, how many links you currently have and how much each click through is basically costing you. If you don't see a bump from one month to the next, you need to go back and re-evaluate the effectiveness of your program and tweak it. I would say to give it three or four months so you can truly get an idea if the optimizing is working for you.

6. Ask the questions! Everyone that knows me understands that I am not afraid to ask questions. If I don't understand something, well, why should I keep my mouth shut when I can learn something new. With any new technology (although optimization has been around for a while, it is new to me) especially ones that you are paying experts to assist you on, run down the questions you have and ask them to explain it to you. If you don't understand ask it again. No one should be mad at your inquisitiveness. If they do seem aggravated, move on to another firm that appreciates your hard earned dollars.

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