It’s no secret that times are tough.   So tough, in fact, that many businesses are cutting their marketing budgets at an alarming rate.  Experts agree that we won’t see a significant turn around until late 2008 or even early 2009. 

So, what can you do now?  Invest in the future.   

Here are 5 reason to invest in SEO now:

1. SEO results take time-Most SEO professionals would agree that a well designed and implemented SEO campaign will take 60 to 90 day to see quality results. 

2. People are still researching, dreaming, and planning their next purchase-Consumers may not be currently buying, but they are always dreaming.  You want them dreaming about your products.

3. SEO is cost effective - There are no materials to buy, and no printing or postage.  A full page newspaper ad, run only once, will cost more than a months worth of SEO work.

4. Less competition - Like I said before, companies are cutting ad budgets and SEO still seems to be considered a luxury. This means not as many companies have realized the gains that can be made with SEO and this puts you in a great position.

5. A captive audience - Most people that end up at your website are looking for what you are selling.  But you need to make sure they can find you and an investment in SEO will insure that.

When business get tough, a lot of us become short sighted, only think about “right now”, we panic, and make strange decisions.  Now is not the time to do that. I know budgets are tight but now is the time to invest in the future.  When the market comes back around you want to be the leader, not the follower.

Well, Ad Age’s 100 Leading National Advertisers report was just published and once again, the numbers are interesting.  Total U.S. measured media spending was $149 billion in 2007.  That’s a huge number but is only a small increase of 0.2% over 2006.  While the overall number didn’t really change, where the money was spent did.  The big winner was the Internet where spending was up 33.3%.  The biggest losers were both radio and newspaper.  Both down nearly double digit percentages.  At this point, based on common sense, none of these numbers are surprising.

Here’s what is surprising.

In 2007, U.S. ad spending on the Internet was $11.31 billion.  Impressive!  Ad spending on all TV, including Network, Spot, Syndicated, and Cable was $64.43 billion.  Staggering! Print media, including Newspaper and Magazine spending comes in a close second at $58.55 billion.  And rounding out tradtional media was Radio, where nearly $11 billion was spent as well.  That’s $133.98 billion spent on tradtional media. Or almost 90% of the $149 billion spent in 2007.

Am I missing something here?  Am I the only one who has a Tivo, an iPod, or Satellite Radio?  Most days, we can position ourselves to avoid most traditional marketing efforts.  The problem is, its like a drug and the reps know it.  Run a full page newspaper ad and your ad rep will bring you 25 copies of the paper to pass out to all your friends, like cigars when your daughter was born.  They want your ad dollars and will do what it takes to get it.

Where do we go from here?

Traditional media will never go away, it will always have a place in the market.  But mark my words, in the coming years there will be  billions of search marketing dollars up for grabs.  You better be ready.  It’s going to be fun.

I had a conversation with the marketing director of a large dealer group in my area the other day.  Eventually, the discussion  turned to their internet presence.  He immediatly informed me that their ranking were, in his words, “amazing” and that they “owned Google”.  Obviously, I was skeptical.  When I returned to my office, I quickly put together a list of 10 keywords.  Guess what?  Of the 10 keywords, they ranked #1 on Google for one of them and they should have, it was for “city+make”.  They did not crack the top ten for any of the other keywords. 

Amazing?  Not so much! 

Take 15 minutes today and do a little of your own research.  Do some searches that look like this, “your city+make”.  Also search, “your city+make+your most popular models”. If you rank well for those, search the surrounding cities as well.  Don’t forget to search “service” and “parts” keywords too.  My guess is, you will be shocked.  You will see other dealers, other automotive sites, and even some non-automotive sites.  In most cases, you’ll have trouble finding yourself anywhere on the first two pages of Google.

I can tell you from experience, one or two dealerships will dominate the SERPs for a state or even an entire region while everyone else is playing catch-up.  Those dealers are getting leads that are rightfully yours.

Which dealer do you want to be?

 

 Here is an excerpt from a recent email exchange with a client.

My reply
Yes, it seems recently that using keywords in their exact order can actually work against you (in some cases).  It really is best to just think of how your end user is going to be best served - and keep track of rankings you are most interested in and make slight adjustments from there.  Plurals are typically more popular.
 
As for categories, that’s a tough one.  Your product pages are doing great, but not your category pages.  Changing them like you suggest is worth a try (more descriptive names), so is adding text to these pages, and perhaps a text link (hyperlink).  What I like to do is try a little of both, track the rankings, see what Google likes best for your website and adjust from there.  I do not believe its always the same case in all matters.  There are a lot of factors (triggers) at play to know exactly what is going to work for one site any more.  Not everyone gets this though…and that is to our advantage.  
 
Tweak a little here and a little there.  Keep track of what you are doing and what works and does not work, learn and adjust.  Get a new website or two to link to you every month, and you will be well on your way to rankings that might just surprise you!

Time and again we hear people proclaim “SEO is easy, anyone can do SEO” and “We’ve used a couple different SEO’s and still haven’t been able to achieve what we think our website is capable of”.  

There is quite an imbalance in these statements.  Can SEO really be easy and difficult?  In some cases yes.

There are elements of SEO that are easy, and that anyone can do should they have the time and patience to learn the ropes.  Part of the trick is to find the right rope, and then put that rope into practice.  But what happens next is you realize your website is capable of so much more.  That’s when you realize you need a good strategy.

Why is strategy so difficult?  Because strategy takes experience.  Experience does not come easy.  The more experience you have the better your strategies will be and the better your sales will be, short term and long term.

Anyone can do SEO, but not anyone can do it as effectively as experienced SEO’s.

Maybe I take this whole SEO thing too seriously, too personally even.  As an SEO consultant, I get paid well to drive quality traffic to my clients websites and I do a good job of it.  I spend hours reading, studying, and searching, always trying to get better.  Advanced SEO and Web 2.0, got it.  Social Media and blogging, I can do that too.  I can walk the walk and talk the talk but at the end of the day I’m still frustrated.  Why?  Because I keep getting lost in all the little details.  I have lost sight of the big picture.  What’s the big picture, you ask?  Helping my clients become more successful on the web than ever before.  Good rankings don’t matter if you aren’t making sales.  Do I need to know all the little details?  You bet.  But if I can’t help my clients become successful, none of this matters. 

So, today I am reminding myself of my 3 most basic responsibilities.

1. To generate website traffic.

2. Make sure the traffic turns into leads.

3. Help turn those leads into sales.

Yes, I know there’s a lot more to it and I also know that many articles could be written about any one of these topics.  I just don’t want to get hung up on all the details anymore.

In a nutshell, it’s not about good ranking reports, the latest techniques, or my ego.  It’s about helping businesses achieve success they never knew possible.

 

 

 

Search Engine Optimization has changed the way businesses do business. The Internet has allowed most businesses to be in front of their customers 24 hours a day, and in turn, that has made search engine optimization a key element to any marketing campaign. SEO can drastically enhance any company’s Internet presence by putting them at the forefront of search engine rankings and the people using them. Here are three advantages that SEO has over more traditional forms of marketing.

1. SEO is highly cost effective - There are no materials to buy, and no printing or postage.  A full page newspaper ad, run only once, will cost more than a months worth of SEO work.

2. There’s less competition - While most businesses are trying to get the best newspaper placement or their radio spots placed during peak drive times, search engines are much newer to the market place. This means not as many companies have realized the gains that can be made and this puts you in a great position.

3.  You have a captive audience - Most people that end up at your website are looking for what you are selling.  The goal of traditional marketing is get your product/message in front of as many people as possible.  The reality is that only a small percentage of those people are really “in the market” for what you are selling.  But when someone sits down with their laptop to search for the product that you sell, there is no doubt they are “in the market” and in most cases, are on the verge of making a purchase. 

While Search Engine Optimization will never replace traditional marketing, it is a key component that will drive traffic to your website, increase your visibility, and bring you more business.

 

There are several pitfalls you are sure to run into when trying to do SEO on your own. Here are a few of the biggest ones that come to mind.

1. Improper keyword analysis and strategy
2. Underestimating the value of onsite content
3. Underestimating the value of authority links
4. Not tracking your progress
5. Thinking you can do it in the same amount of time an SEO can. An expert SEO could have you ranking for quite a few of your keyword phrases, in the time it takes you to learn SEO and figure out what works on your own site.

Bonus

6. It is extremely difficult to pick up on slight shifts in algorithms when looking at a single site.

7. At a minimum you should consider a $1,000 investment to at least help get the wheels moving in the proper direction.

I strongly suggest you consider hiring an expert. You’ll see profits a whole lot sooner with an expert than you would on your own. If $1,000 is going to break the bank, then yes you have no choice but to do it yourself. Otherwise, we strongly encourage you to at least get yourself on the right track with a minimal investment.

Has your SEO Business suffered losses from the economy? Perhaps you need to think about targeting Recession Proof businesses. Here is a top ten list that is sure to help!

#1 - Health Care

#2 - Energy

#3 - Education

#4 - Environmental Sector

#5 - Security

#6 - Political

Up Markets in a Down Economy

#7 - Foreclosures

#8 - Used Merchandise

#9 - Alternative Fuels

Bonus

#10 - Reputation Management

Question:
After a reconsideration request, do you typically notify webmasters that the penalty has been lifted?

Answer: John Mueller
If you recognize that your ranking / indexing has improved, chances are that it has been accepted. if not, I would recommend posting in the Webmaster Help Groups.

In other words if there is a ranking you *think* should be better and isn’t - perhaps it is being (slightly and/or significantly?) manually demoted and you better do a re-inclusion request after fixing the problem. Not just *expect* it to be fixed by Google automatically.

At least something to think about.