Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The Right Approach For Your Company?
This is a question that must be asked and answered only after you have obtained all the facts. We will try to explain what SEO is and what it isn’t. We will dispel the myths and provide you with truth.
What is SEO
Very simply, SEO is the process of achieving good ranking with the search engines using keywords that explain and reflect your business, products and / or services.
- Prospects type keywords in the search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc…)
- Search engines search databases of scanned sites to match relevant sites
- The most relevant and highest ranked sites appear at the top of the listings
How are sites ranked by the search engines?
We consider this a two step process. The first step we call Essential SEO, which covers the basics that any website should have in place:
- Good Site Navigation – must flow logically and intuitively
- Key Submissions – site indexed with all the top search engines
- Title Tags – should be descriptive of products and services and relevant to your content – your company name is probably the least important item to go here, if at all
- Description Tags – should be relevant to your content
- Keyword Tags – should be relevant to your content
- Contact Information – should be on every page
- Sitemaps – helps the search engines find all your pages and content
The second step, Advanced SEO, is comprised of continually adding good content, landing pages, and link building (incoming links).
 Content is King
Before Google came on the scene, the prevailing search engines relied on keyword tags to rank sites. Abuse was rampant and many businesses were loading their keyword tags with non-relevant keywords just to get good ranking. Google changed all that and focused not on keyword tags, but actual content. What quickly happened is people realized that if they typed a keyword in the Google search engine, they would get more relevant results. As a result, Google rapidly became the predominate search engine, and still holds that title today. For the most part the other search engines follow Google’s tactics, with a focus on relevant content.
Link Building is another form of Advanced SEO. When other sites link to your site, it tells the search engine that your site and business are valuable and others want to be associated with you. The bad news about link building is that Google just recently (in April 2009) changed their ranking algorithms and now give less value to incoming links. We believe that this change occurred due to the explosion of social media which brought about rapid link building. Many businesses that focused primarily on link building have been hurt by these changes. Thus, it is important to have a good mix of SEO efforts and not place all your eggs in one basket.
 Should Local Businesses Spend Money On SEO?
Probably not! We have noticed that increasingly the keyword search trends have been going away from geo targeting. For example, if you are a local Air Conditioning company in Los Angeles, it would seem to make sense that you would want to optimize for the keyword “Air Conditioning Los Angeles”. The problem is, not that many people search for that keyword. In June 2009, only 368 people searched the keyword “Air Conditioning Los Angeles”. However, in the same time period 51,206 people searched for the keyword “Air Conditioning” in the Los Angeles area.
The problem here is clear. The geo targeted keywords are not valuable because not enough people search for them. The non geo targeted keyword “Air Conditioning” is a national keyword. To optimize for that keyword, our Air Conditioning Company would have to compete against every air conditioning website in the Untied States. That would be very expensive, especially since our sample company is only doing business in Los Angeles.
Any local business should be very careful before they optimize for local keywords and understand what value their keywords have in terms of the number of searches per month.
Local businesses are better suited for Google Local Business Results (Maps) or Paid Search Advertising. Contact us today and let us evaluate the best and most cost effect approach to bring more customers to your business.
 National and Global Level SEO
If you are a company that does business at a national or global level, SEO is probably the right fit for you. At the national and global level, paid search advertising can be cost prohibited. A well planned and executed SEO campaign can more than pay for itself. Of course great care and deep analysis should be conducted to determine the correct keywords and their value. Also, it is important to understand what your competitors are doing from an SEO standpoint. For example, if your competitor has hundreds of pages of content, it will take you some time to catch up by adding a lot of new content. But if this same competitor has not done any link building, or is not utilizing any social media avenues, that is their weakness. Understanding their strengths and weaknesses help us to build an effective strategy that will help you gain control in the SEO battle.
We have an example of a company that we optimized at a global level with very successful results. See the June 2009 analytics from our client, American Machine and Hydraulics. We optimized them for multiple keywords and in the month of June 2009, they were found by businesses searching for their services in 35 countries.  June 2009 Site Analytics for American Machine & Hydraulics (89 KB)
Contact us today to for an expert evaluation of your SEO efforts and potential. Click here to request more information or to schedule an appointment.
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