WHITE HAT SEO BLOG

A search engine optimization firm can help your business grow.  By getting your website seen by people specifically looking for your products or services, a search engine optimization firm can help you grow your business.

Many website owners are interested in SEO services but they are often confused about which search engine optimization firm to choose.  The problem with this is that in not choosing a company they are losing out on potential business.  So just how can you choose the right search engine optimization firm?

For the most part website owners have one major concern – what if I spend money and they do not get me better rankings?  This is a legitimate and important concern to address.  Though the most reputable SEO firms do not offer guarantees, some do offer assurances.

The difference between a guarantee and an assurance is simple.  A guarantee is their warranting that by a specific date you will have the specified search engine placement.  As that date approaches they will become increasingly more concerned and may use some techniques frowned upon by the search engines.  Though you may think this is not big deal, it will be a very big deal when your website is banned from Google, Yahoo and the other major search engines.

An assurance does not warrant ranking by a specific date but will assure the placement by telling you that you will not pay any additional money (typically a search engine optimization firm takes their fee upfront then shifts to a lower monthly maintenance fee because the work is heavily front-loaded).  So you are assured that the money you paid will result in the placement without you paying extra money for the search terms.

Companies offering an assurance may have slightly higher pricing per term, however, when you factor in the assurance it will typically prove to be much less expensive.  After all, your goal is not to just send payments to a search engine optimization firm – your goal is to grow your business.  Rather than being pennywise and pound foolish you may want to spend a little more money on the initial fee and get an assurance of ranking.

Make sure you choose the right search engine optimization firm for your needs.  Ask them about guarantees and assurances, it may just help you choose the perfect search engine optimization firm.

A search engine optimization company can prove to be the key that opens the door to success for your business. Choosing the right SEO company can transform your business. They are considered by many to be the gatekeeper that has the power to open the gates for your business and possibly close the gates for your competition.

In a nutshell, the goal of a search engine optimization company is to make sure your website appears on the search engine rankings when a potential client or customer is searching for your services or product. If they are searching for it on Bing, Google or Yahoo, that means they are a warm or hot lead.

When a potential customer or client is searching they will be presented with their options for who to buy the product from or who to sign up for the service with. If they do not see your website in the results that means they will never know that you could have provided those products or services.

A search engine optimization company focuses on improving your website’s score in the search engine algorithms so your site will appear on the first 2 or 3 pages of the search results. The ideal position is on the first page since most consumers do not go beyond page 3 and some do not even go beyond page 1.

You can consider a search engine optimization company’s role in real estate terms. When it comes to real estate it is – location, location, location. With online business it is also location, location, location – the location, of course, being the first page of the search engines, perhaps even the top position.

It is a good idea to ask a search engine optimization company if they offer any guarantees or assurances about your website’s placement. Be careful that they company only uses ethical (white hat) techniques to get you there or you may get banned.

Some search engine optimization companies have started offering assurances rather than guarantees. An assurance is basically their offering to continue working on your website at no cost until it is ranking in the search engines. Rather than guarantee the work by a specific date which may tempt them to do something unethical (black hat) they assure the quality of their work by continuing to work at no additional cost until you rank.

In a nutshell, the goal of a search engine optimization company is to make sure your website appears on the search engine rankings when a potential client or customer is searching for your services or product.  If they are searching for it on Bing, Google or Yahoo, that means they are a warm or hot lead.

When a potential customer or client is searching they will be presented with their options for who to buy the product from or who to sign up for the service with.  If they do not see your website in the results that means they will never know that you could have provided those products or services.

A search engine optimization company focuses on improving your website's score in the search engine algorithms so your site will appear on the first 2 or 3 pages of the search results.  The ideal position is on the first page since most consumers do not go beyond page 3 and some do not even go beyond page 1.

You can consider a search engine optimization company's role in real estate terms.  When it comes to real estate it is – location, location, location.   With online business it is also location, location, location – the location, of course, being the first page of the search engines, perhaps even the top position.

It is a good idea to ask a search engine optimization company if they offer any guarantees or assurances about your website's placement.  Be careful that they company only uses ethical (white hat) techniques to get you there or you may get banned.

Some search engine optimization companies have started offering assurances rather than guarantees. An assurance is basically their offering to continue working on your website at no cost until it is ranking in the search engines.  Rather than guarantee the work by a specific date which may tempt them to do something unethical (black hat) they assure the quality of their work by continuing to work at no additional cost until you rank.

As you are used to choosing the right meat for that BBQ, or the correct bread making machine, so should you chose the right social media site for your company.
The simplest way to choose a site is to do so with one that works for you. Pretty simple really.

You can be in various social sites and then narrow it down to the ones you feel most compelled to use.

Do you need a very friendly, young, hip hop site? Or do you need a serious business-like site? That depends on whether you are selling high priced sneakers to a young crowd or a warehouse full of these sneakers via B2B.

Alternatively, if you do not find a social media site that fits your needs, then go to Ning.com and create your very own.

The pros and cons to using a smaller site like Ning.com is that they do not have the visits, media exposure and is not as well known as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Therefore, just as you need the right meat for that great BBQ, you will need to find the right show size for those sneakers; otherwise it will be one sore foot at the end of the BBQ.

Your business will go nowhere fast if you have little or no followers. Even followers who join your group may come and go as quickly as night and day.

If you have nothing to say, then don’t. Your customers (followers) are interested in what you have to offer, i.e. how did that idea come about, the ease or difficulty in bringing the product to market, the funny side of the problems you faced, etc.

Reply to some of your followers, not all of them. Followers will be interested in what you did or say about something, but they will not follow 150 of your replies to each and every question asked. Keep the tweeting interesting and above all, informative and fresh.

Your bio is one of the most important FIRST THINGS to do after you sign on to Twitter.  “I develop anti-fart machines for Chihuahuas” tell people quickly who you are and what you are about. Maybe they have a grandmother who needs one and they will follow you!

Finally, be yourself. Don’t mimic others in the same business as you. Be an individual, full of ideas, will and wit, and tell people you enjoy what you do and wish to help others by your 140 character post.

As with any web presence or a face to face meeting, there are caveats to look out for, particularly with etiquette.  Here are the 3 dos and don’ts that could make or break you’re tweeting.

The 3 do’s are:
Share! Found a funny pic? A new recipe? An article about you? Tell someone! New product? Put that ever important link. Tell others about links other than your own. It makes you look fair and not judgemental.

Re-tweet. This means to reply to someone’s tweeting.  Converse! Someone commented on the item you sold. Acknowledge it with a positive or helpful re-tweet.

Shake hands. Remember that from the old days?  Get to know the people who are following your tweeting. Ask them who they are and how you can help. Maybe ask them why they are following your daily or hourly posts.

The 3 don’ts are:
Disregard your avatar. Put up a picture, any picture. No picture could speak volumes on how you run your business. Does this business care?

Not following. One of the endearing and very useful tools with Twitter is that people can “follow” your tweeting. Some people believe that you must follow everyone who follows you. Not at all. That is impossible. But follow the people or businesses that interest you.

Over expose yourself. Remember that song by Celine Dion, the theme to the Titanic? I won’t bore you with my rendition of it. Did you ever get sick of it? Too much about you will make your customers’ un-follow you and go with your competitor.

Cell phone ads are the last of the marketing campaigns yet to be conquered. Mainly due to users not wanting them and companies safeguarding the phone numbers as well as their true customer count.

Some of these limitations can be undone by opt-in advertising. Where the users can decide to accept them. Recent surveys show that about %20 of the cell phone users will accept this.

Even more users did not use premium services due to the cost involved. This opens up cell phone ads to acceptance.
High priced services like MMS and always on internet are clearly ripe for advertising. For example, at the bottom of an MMS would be a smaller picture of a brand and where to buy them. Sale of the week!

Perhaps double your online time if you click my link.

4 years ago a survey stated that %40 of users use non voice related items, such as MMS, email via their phone and text messaging.

And remember, you won’t get these phone numbers from your local friendly phone company!

The opportunities are endless. But to get the users to opt-in, you need a decent website that will drive the users to input their number.

Let’s face it; we all need customer service or some kind of help. We have that need of an immediate fix and preference is given to live help, as opposed to waiting days for an email answer. I mean, if you are willing to wait days for an answer, you might as well send it via the Pony Express!

There are various products on the market today that can meet your need. Here are some of the market leaders.  For example:

Live Person – The uniqueness of this service is that you can do it in-house or have an entire network of people waiting to help your customers. The range of expertise is simply awesome. From coaching to personal development, astrology and psychology.

Live Help – Features departments and operators. You also get free lifetime software upgrades. A plus during these tough financial times. And it is PHP based.

Omnistar – This product offers also a PHP based live person, ticket support and knowledgebase. It also comes with a staff calendar. Now that is useful.

CraftySyntax – This product allows multiple languages to operate at one time, along with multiple departments and multiple operators. It is a free PHP based product.

As you can see, there are a plethora of products that suit your particular need.

As with any business, you must offer your followers something worth reading about. A hook of sorts. Keep in mind that with your hard earned followers, you need to keep them following you. Twitter is growing at breathtaking speed and your business should use it.

What do you offer? Ever ask that question? Twitter it.  Something that you offer which is singular to your business and only your business, will attract interest.

From customer relations, crisis management, press releases and even an event or product activation. Your business will only grow and prosper by the information you care to share with your followers (fans).

With the frame of mind that what you create, others will follow and then you engage those followers, you have a win-win strategy.

Another twitter idea is to create a quick response to a crisis, thereby avoiding the so called brand ambassadors (for damage control). By tracking the people who talk about you and your brand, it gives you an idea of what areas are needed for improvement and perhaps even ideas for a new product. Engage in dialogue!

In the end, you use Twitter to listen and learn from those who follow you. As they talk about your brand, whether it is positive or negative, it will give you a rare insight into your brand’s following – a bit of a “fly on the wall experience.”

Not many of us can do what the rich and famous do: Market ourselves with unlimited resources and have the help of thousands of friends and contacts and media.

Well, now you do. Twitter is used by those very same people. Look up a current talk show host, singer or movie star. They would inevitably be on Twitter; updating for ever more. From what color hair they had back in 1972 to why they kicked their guest off their show last night.

And Twitter’s fame is something you really cannot buy. It is like riding inside a Rolls Royce; priceless and people take notice everywhere you go.

What Twitter offers is blogs. You can write up to 140 characters in length and update as often as you like or need to. Daily specials? Sale next Sunday? Closed for vacation until June 5th? Put it there.

You do not need to create your own webpage, pay monthly or annual fees. No need to pay a web geek to put that soup of the day up, every day, 7 days a week.

Twitter is free. You control it, not it controls you. Why not add Twitter to your business card or email signature?

In the old days, you sold your product by building relationships. Don’t you miss it? I do. The main thing there is that those customers come back to you for your products. Facebook does exactly that: build relationships. The tools at your disposal are priceless and they do not hinder your ideas.

With that relationship you have repeat business, word of mouth advertising and that oh so important trust between you and your customer. Networking is an integral part of Facebook.

Going back to the old way of building relationships – when the lady of the house bought that important vacuum cleaner or steam iron, she told her neighbour and that neighbour told someone else, perhaps a relative. And so on. With Facebook and its powerful networking tools such as sponsorships, friendships, fans and blogs, your competition’s loss is your gain.

With their being heavy competition and a current global market crisis, this one-two punch to your bottom line would create a negative impact to your overall sales. Facebook actually helps you to achieve sales because of your location. Your web location and the other Facebook tool, group creation, you will be one step ahead of your competition and laughing all the way to the e-bank!