Search Engine Optimization

In this tougher economy many companies are cutting their marketing costs, yet they are not taking advantage of the free resources that they have online.

By: Cade Lee

I have seen a great deal of articles about how to cut your marketing costs in this economy; how to “eliminate waste, make fewer mistakes, nurture what you have got, increase conversions, etc.” I have read these articles and sincerely considered the true message of each article and I continue to think about all the clients that we have visited with over the last several months. With the market the way that it is and the state of the economy, it is definitely easy to lose site of the bigger picture and start making cuts without much thought. On the reverse side of this, something that struck me as funny with all this talk of cutting costs is that many businesses have not considered changing the way that they do business or rather the way that they approach their market. What I am saying here is that if it is new, a new way of marketing online for example, they are not even considering this as an alternative to their current marketing strategy. In our case it is because they don’t have the money to invest in a new marketing campaign, but that begs the question as to why these same customers are not taking the time to focus on search engine optimization or internet marketing.

In our meetings with prospective customers, we continue to hear that “search engine marketing is not in the budget right now”. It did not hit me until I started to read these articles that our clients in Denver that are working on their search engine optimization campaigns are not sharing in the woes of the economy like those prospective clients that cannot be seen online. It’s hard to grow or even survive in an economy like this if you don’t have new customers calling and e-mailing you about your services.

I also understand that search engine optimization takes one of two different things, money or time and many of the prospective clients we talk with seem absolutely unwilling to part with the first of the two, I just don’t see how they cannot invest the time at least. Here are five things you can do to help your business right now at absolutely no cost to you. I am assuming that you have a computer and internet connection, so with that being said, here goes:

1. Obtain a local listing with the major search engines: Submitting your businesses information to any one of the major search engines will allow your business to be more easily seen and this service is offered completely free! It’s not always easy to figure out how to list with the various search engines, so the best thing to do is to simply perform a search like, “how to list your business with Google”, etc. By simply listing your business with Google or Yahoo, this does not mean that you will automatically pop up on the first page when a prospective customer is searching for your service or product, but it does get you one step closer to optimizing your site.

2. Post an ad with Craigslist: If Craigslist is not charging you for an ad, why aren’t you posting a flyer or advertisement with Craigslist? The most common objection I hear to this is,”I don’t have time to post on Craigslist” to this I reply that they should hire an internet marketing firm to take on this responsibility for them. Like I said earlier, it takes time or money. If you do not have one or the other you had best examine your schedule and make the time or you will not ever see any change in your business.

3. Start a blog: This is not at all complicated. Google offers a free blogging service and there are so many more that we do not have time to go into. Blogging about your company and services will often time make it to the 1st page of a search well before your site will. Make certain you incorporate a habit of blogging at least every other day.

4. List your business and yourself with Linked In:  We have a fantastic competitor here in Denver that shows up for all the various keywords applicable to our business. This gentleman has a blog, a website and a linked in page that all show up on the first page of Google when you search for Denver SEO, SEO Denver, Search Engine Marketing Denver, Search Engine Optimization Denver and Internet Marketing Denver.

5. Create a facebook page for your business: Once again all of this takes time but does not cost you a thing to do. I know that facebook is not a revelation to you or your business, but if you make certain to mention your site in your page and continuously link to and from all these sources to each other you will start to build links to your site and more importantly your presence online.

None of these things are new or revolutionary; however I am amazed at the amount of our prospective customers that do not have these things already completed. Once you have established these accounts it is important that you continuously work on them. If you were to spend as much as 1 hour per week updating the content of your facebook page or your blog for that matter, you will start to see these sources rise to the top of the search engines which of course gives you more exposure.

The most important thing you can do is link. Link to your site, link to your facebook page, link to your local listing for that matter always be linking. Always focus on linking all of your web presences together which creates a larger presence online.

Please let me know if you have any questions as always, we are here to help!

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