The controversy has been raging for years. Many business owners are sold on the idea of doing all of their Search Engine Optimization in house. Many others choose to outsource this work.
Which viewpoint is correct?
I completely disagree with those that promote that all businessmen do their own optimizing. I think the proponents of this idea are absolutley and totally wrong!
In a recent conversation I was told that the person was “testing” SEO to see if it worked.
They were very serious about their project and quite set on it. I queried the them about what they meant by “testing” but received no reply.
SEO, Search Engine Optimization, does work for some people and not for others and here is why:
Search Engine Optimization WORKS. If it is done correctly.
According to Google, “create great content and they will come”.
As Michael explains, creating great content will produce more traffic, but not a rate that you may like. He has track record of using Digg and Stumbleupon to send hundreds of thousands of visitors, but Google only sent a couple thousand.
This is why we recommend some form of an Internet Marketing Plan. Going it alone is hard and long – and getting a good Marketing company to point you in the right direction is huge.
When an OC small business breaks the list of top 500 e-commerce websites, it causes one to pause as to what generated their success. Such was the case with local small business, Air & Water, Inc. in Santa Ana, CA. Taken from their website, this says so much:
When times get tough, adjust. When markets take down turn, do niche marketing. This is what one Orange County small biz owner is doing to succeed and move forward in 2010.
As you can see in this article that appeared in The Orange County Register, Jow Chiodo or of JB Plastics in Santa Ana, CA is moving forward with what most small businesses do not do effectively and rapidly: Adjust.
This blog article is written for the small business owner or entrepreneur who has some idea of internet marketing and social media, but still needs some small business marketing help. While this is not a complete list of all that must be done to do online marketing, it is a list of the most basic elements that will allow you to move on to the next actions that you will need to initiate to be successful.
If you follow the latest online buzz, you might have read here and there rumors about Google Me, whi
ch is supposed to be Google’s answer to Facebook. Facebook being the only giant able to compete with the leading search engine — a couple months ago, for the first time Facebook passed Google in terms of visitors — it isn’t surprising that Google might want to take a bite out of the social market. Of course, nothing is sure yet, but every day somebody seems to come out from the bushes to confirm this is true.
Small Biz marketing success is dependant upon being found and building trust. And in today’s economic climate, building your brand must entail a strong internet presence. As you may have discovered, simply having a web site is not enough. Yet, 90% of the small businesses in existence that have a web site are not engaging in the most effective method to building more traffic to it: Blogging.
The basic idea of the Long Tail is that you can capitalize on more specific, less competitive and less searched keywords in order to be successful. The general idea is that you can generate say 10,000 visitors to your site, using 7,000 different Long Tail keywords as opposed to 10,000 visitors from a single term. The Long Tail is not a specific number or a specific range. It doesn’t have anything to do with the length of the keyword or how many words are in a keyword phrase. It is variable and changes depending on what you are trying to accomplish. The gist of it is, you can get close to as much, or sometimes more traffic from the Long Tail as you can get from the more general terms. And here’s the best part: Most often, the Long Tail keywords will give you better targeted and more interested visitors. And that means they buy more!
Sooner or later someone will complain. And now, it just may go viral beyond your typical public relations crisis management strategy that you were taught ten years ago. And no one knows that more in 2010 than BP. Without a doubt, social media, bloggers and online reviews with companies such as Yelp, can be a major influence on how people perceive you and whether or not they choose to purchase or associate with your brand. You must have a public relations reputation management plan in place in today’s online world. More importantly, you need to have a proactive online PR plan in action, way before any possible complaint or cataclysm hits your shores. This starts with vigilant monitoring of what is being said about your brand.