The first reason, that I explain to my clients, of why it takes longer than we would like, is because if it is worth making money with on the Internet, then someone is probably making money on it.  The more competition, then longer it takes to compete.  Of course, this is in most cases.  Then the client asks me if there are good terms that they could be ranking on now to receive visitation.  Well it is a practice of ours to have two tiers of key phrases. One of the high competition/high ROI phrases, and one of the less competitive but less return phrases.  Obviously there is a third level, one of the terms that you rank quickly on, but never see a visitor on.   So the first reason it takes a while is because there are others wanting the same thing as you, and supply and demand comes into play.

To get the second point across, I need you to view SEO as a race.  More of a cross-country race than a 100 meter dash.  There are others who have started the race quite a bit earlier than you.  These people are not impossible to catch and beat, but you will have to perform better and more powerfully than they are.  This in turn means spending more money with your SEO Consultant. If you are not willing to put in what it takes to beat that competitor, then some times it is better not to start at all.  You have to be ready for the long haul, and know that once you are passing your competitors, that it will be well worth it.  So the second reason is because you are coming later into the game than your competitors.

Unfortunately, there is no “blue pill” for Ranking in SEO.  So before you begin your research of companies and prices, realize that there will usually be a gap between the time you start paying, and the time you begin getting a profitable return on your investment.  Realize this, and it will help you last the race and get the ROI that you are hoping for!

First, start looking into what the spread of anchor text links are for your website.  There are a few tools out there that you can use, my favorite being Open Site Explorer. Look and see where your anchor text is the heaviest.  If it seems it is the heaviest weighted toward your key phrases, you may well have experienced the Google Over Optimization Penalty. Break it down into 3 categories: Branding, Random and Key Phrase. Most professionals get a little deeper than that, but if you were ranking on your own, I’m fairly confident you can get away with just these.  Try to get the spread to be around 40% Branding, 40% Random and 20% aimed at your key phrase(s).

Now this is just my personal opinion, but the recent changes have made me realize that my job is to Professionally Optimize a client’s website, without looking too much like it is being done professionally.  I think this is one of the reasons Bruce Clay predicted that Google will begin losing market share to Bing and others during 2012; I have to concur.

But again, do not panic, and do not lose hope. It may take time to fix your percentages, but it is not impossible.  Remember, your competitors may have experienced the same results.  They may not be willing to put in the time to win, but if you are, you will conquer.  Go for it, and Happy Seo’ing!

First, Content is Still King! What does that mean? It means that Google loves fresh, solid content. If it has been 6 months since you added a new blog post to your website or a new page, then your website is becoming stagnant. There are a lot of searches that have Wikipedia as number one.  Why is that?  Well, not only do they have millions of links to their domain, but fresh content is being published constantly.  But do not let this deter you if Wikipedia is number one for your key phrase… you can beat them with the right Strategy!

Secondly, Google’s recent changes have, in a nutshell, changed the way it views some forms of linking.  It frowns more then before on cheap, ‘un-thought out’ linking strategies, and bulk link submissions.  Basically, if you have a valid or ‘White Hat’ strategy in place on how you are building your link structure, then you have nothing to worry about. If you would like to learn a good way to build links, read Getting links to your website without the huge hassle – Link Bait.

So basically, the changes are Google’s normal attempt to make sure the top results on a search term are relevant, recent, strong content that gives the person searching the best chance to find exactly what they were looking for.

If you would like more information, or a free competitive analysis of your website, please click here.

First, the number of links that lead to a particular page.  Most people think that all of the links need to go to their home page, but that is not the case.  Depending on which page you are trying to sell more, that is the page you need to link more to.  Your home page will be able to transfer the authority of some of its links to your other pages, but maybe not enough to make that particular page strong enough to compete in the search engines.  So take time in figuring out which page you are trying to market right now!

Secondly, the anchor text of the link.  If your Business is called “Smith and Son’s” and your website is smithandsonswebsite.com and you make every link say CLICK HERE FOR SMITH AND SONS, then in effect, you are building for a search of SMITH AND SONS.  But when you look into Smith and Son’s business, they are actually dog groomers.  So to bring in the proper traffic, they would need to be catering to ‘dog grooming’ based phrases.  So make sure your links are giving proper information to the search engines of what you are trying to market your self as! But here is where it gets catchy with Google’s “Over Optimization” penalty recently rolled out. You need to try to have a good mix of link anchor text. Try to have around 40% be Branded Terms such as “Smith and Son’s”, 40% be general such as “Click Here” “Our Website” etc, then 20% targeting your specific keywords.

If you have any questions on these things or would like to receive an SEO Proposal, please click here for our SEO Proposal contact page!

Wikipedia deems Link Bait as “any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website” on their Link Bait page. So basically, create some content on your website that others are going to want to link to you.  Post it on social sites like Twitter that allow the strength to be passed through the link to your website.  Post it on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google + to get the word out about it and ask in the page for others to link to you.  The people that get the most Facebook Likes are those that say “Please like us on Facebook”.  So ask your visitors to link to your page, whether on their social media pages or their personal websites.

Now that brings up the next question… What kind of information can be considered good link bait?  Well that depends on your visitors.  What is your website portraying?  What would your visitors want to read and tell their friends about?  Obviously popular news, sports or fashion items are great things.  But if you are selling bicycles on your website, talking about what Paris Hilton is doing is not really going to bring the right people in.  Instead you would talk about the most recent large bicycle race. Or future plans for an innovative chain that requires less maintenance.  Keep it to things that your visitors will say WOW to and want to tell their friends about.

You can even track the number of links to that particular page on your own for FREE!  Just go to http://www.majesticseo.com and input your URL to see the number of links to your page and watch it grow!

David Dischler is an SEO Consultant that specializes in small business SEO strategy

As a business owner, you know your business, and how to sell it. The problem is… you know your business. You are an insider to the business, and therefore use insider terms about your products or services. The fact is, most consumers do not know the terms that you are using. Thus the spawn of terms like ‘dumaflatchy’ and ‘thing-a-ma-bob’. There will be a select portion of your clientele that know the correct terms, but the majority may not. What the business owner needs is some in-depth research into historical searches to see what people are searching for. Let me give you an example of a client I am working with currently.

Given Main Phrase: Stage Hypnotist ( 137 searches per day )
Main Phrase chosen off of historical data: Stage Hypnosis ( 178  searches per day ).

As you can see, the client knows his business and wants to be found for Stage Hypnotist, which is how he wants to sell himself. History, on the other hand, shows that a large portion of people are looking for Stage Hypnosis instead. It is still the same service, but draws in a larger portion of visitors than the first. This is why it is important to at least have a professional perform your key phrase research before you begin your trek.

If you would like to receive a quote on receiving an SEO Strategy that would allow you to begin your SEO campaign, please click here for our SEO Proposal form.

When most people start a business, they think they need to get a phone book ad, some radio time, and begin saving for a TV commercial to broadcast their new business! Although that works for some, it is a one way ticket to empty pockets for most. As a business owner, you need to do some serious research into these avenues. A lot of times we feel “COOL” as a business owner hearing our name on the radio or even seeing ourselves on TV, but does that really bring money into the business. And if so, is it enough to cover the cost of the advertisement?

Well, nowadays, with most people walking around with some sort of device that allows them to search for what they want right from where they stand, internet marketing has become the front runner in most advertising campaigns. But, there is a common misconception with Internet Marketing.. that it is so costly, that “I can’t afford it!” Let us look at a couple of numbers!

Option 1 – Business card ad with 3 colors in a popular phone book – around $350+ per month

• You get to display in 1 category (a couple if you find a special)
• You are very limited in what you can say because of space
• You are only targeting the customers looking for that one thing and missing any other closely related categories
• Unless you spend a ton more, you are in the ‘first come first serve’ predicament with no opportunity to advance for the life of the contract.

The above situation can prove profitable, but I do not want any handcuffs on my marketing!

Option 2 – A short 15 second commercial run 7 times within a 2 hour period by a popular radio station during work hours where listeners were listening to the broadcast via their computers as well as drivers: around $275

• The cost isn’t bad, but i disappears within 2 hours! You have one good shot at repetition and hope for the best.
• Time limit bottlenecks your opportunity to really say what you are offering
• If you mistakenly pick the wrong hours, you have to play trial and error to find the right time
• You have to have a phone number or short enough website name that people remember.

This falls into the “feeling cool” category unless you have a few grand a month to spend and really get the name recognition going.

Option 3 - Internet Marketing through search engines with a reputable company: you could find a good professional as low as $399/month!

• No limit to the amount of phrases you could reach
• No handcuffs limiting your demographics
• Can be specifically geographically targeted
• Has actual historical data to prove that the efforts can pay off
• Can be strongly emphasized by you and your friends!

Now, I may be a bit biased, but Option 3 is in the same ballpark in price, offers more flexibility in how you target your audience, and a good company can make it nearly tangible with the right reporting!

I hope this helps you as you are trying to answer the question of how to spend your marketing dollars!