Archive for the ‘seo firm’ tag
Why You Should Hire an SEO Firm
Written by: Nick Hantge
Looking into hiring an SEO Firm. Can they really help with your internet marketing?
Hiring an SEO firm is something many business owners are contemplating these days. Since the widespread popularity of search engine optimization (SEO) and its benefits, there have been many marketing firms offering to run SEO campaigns for other businesses. There have also been some do-it-yourself business owners who feel they can optimize their own website as well. From an overall marketing standpoint, the case can be made that investing in online advertisement will potentially reach more prospective customers through SEO than other forms of advertising such as print ads. Whether you are contemplating optimization on your website or thinking about running your own SEO campaign, here are a few reasons why you should hire an SEO firm to help land you in front of more potential customers looking for your product or services.
1. They have the Expertise
Even though the stereotypical web developer/SEO professional is thought to play video games all day and work at night in his mother’s basement, they should still be respected as a professional. After all, do you know how to change a cascading style sheet or create a dynamic sitemap? A main reason you hire an SEO Firm is for the same reason you hire an attorney to write up your legal documents or represent you in court; they are the expert! I personally do not change the brakes on my car or put a crown on my own tooth. Granted, I could learn how to do it on my own but I know it will save me in the long run to hire someone who specializes in these services. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a few companies out there claiming they know SEO and how to get you on the first page of Google so they can get a piece of the pie but choosing a good SEO firm comes later…
2. An SEO Firm will save you time
When you hire an SEO firm to handle your online marketing and SEO, it will save you loads and loads of time! I cannot stress enough how much time goes into a worthwhile SEO campaign. SEO firms have years of experience under their belt (hopefully) and a full knowledgeable team to work on optimizing and marketing your website for you.
Like anything, there is a learning curve to search engine optimization. I would be ignorant to say it has the steepest learning curve of any profession but I honestly believe it is in the top 25%. The time an SEO professional has but into gaining all of the knowledge they have gained is shocking! The lucky thing for someone who hires an SEO firm is they have already previously put in the time learning which ensures the website will rise in the search engines much quicker than someone who tries to optimize themselves. There is also a pretty good chance the SEO Firm will be able to utilize the connections they have with other professionals to help speed the campaign along.
Not only will the SEO firm you hire know the latest tricks to optimization, they also know what doesn’t work. As an SEO professional, we have learned through trial and error what effort to consume our time with.
3. It’s all in the numbers
Can you imagine paying employees that you cannot track the work or hours they put into their job? You would not be able to justify if paying them has been profitable for you or your company. The same holds true for hiring an SEO Firm. All of the good SEO firms have a tracking system on the website they are optimizing. In this tracking system you will be able to see daily visitors, what keywords they are typing in to find your website, what search engine or source they came to your website from, how long the individual was on your site, where the location of your visitors are coming from and the list goes on and on. SEO firms also have access to very useful web based tools such as a keyword tool that will tell you the monthly volume of searchers typing in certain keywords or keyword phrases. This is extremely beneficial to recognize and understand what keywords should be targeted in your SEO campaign.
If a business owner runs their own seo campaign are they going to create monthly reports to keep track of progress? Is a business owner going to focus on key point indicators such as bounce rate and new visitors in their SEO campaign to ensure prime results?
4. You Get to Focus on your own Business
Probably the greatest part about hiring an SEO firm to help with your online marketing is you get to concentrate on your own business; what you are good at! I have previously stated how much time goes into an SEO campaign and the truth is for the first six months you need to be constantly working on building links, writing articles and creating PR for your website every day. You have to admit, if you had to just concentrate on running your business and manage your staff efficiently while the leads came in you would be sitting pretty happy. There is no reason for a business to be concerned with trying to manage their online marketing and the day to day activities as well; that is hard enough.
Rely on a professional with years of experience and the time and team to fully optimize your website. Although the thought of not spending money on something you think you could do yourself is nice, hiring an SEO firm will pay for itself and then some in just 4-6 months!
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If you would like more information on how an SEO Firm can help your business grow with Internet Marketing, check out SEO Information or send me an email: nick@thisisiniquitous.com. I would love to answer any questions you have! (303) 999-7963 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicolas_Hantge |
Is Internet Traffic All That Important?
By: Cade Lee
Is internet traffic the most important consideration for online success?
Of course it is, internet traffic is critical to the success of any site. It is extremely important, but it seems to me that some companies and individuals do not really focus their time on other extremely important factors like conversion. It was a couple of weeks ago and I was at a local meetup here in Denver for SEO, I was talking with one of the other search engine optimization professionals about some projects that we were looking at, when the topic of conversion surfaced. Ultimately I explained how a low bounce rate was so important to us and that it was one of the KPI (key performance indicators) that we really measured our success by. At first I thought he was going to have a heart attack, he began to “school” me in the ways of search engine optimization and explain to me that bounce rate should not be something that we (search engine optimization professionals) should be gauged or tracked by.
Of course we had to respectfully disagree on this. Good search engine optimization does bring traffic to a site, which goes without saying. If your SEO, SEO department, internet marketing firm or search engine marketing professional does not bring more traffic to the site, than the entire campaign is worthless. It’s not necessarily just a matter of getting your site on the 1st page of Google (which is nice, and important), it is a matter of bringing a constant growth to the overall traffic through site referrals, banner ad placement, social networking, PPC or CPC and organic results. Right next to increasing traffic as far as importance is concerned is conversion. All the traffic in the world without a sale or conversion into a real lead is just as worthless as having a website that isn’t getting any traffic at all.
So, who works on this conversion and how do they funnel the traffic through your site? The answer to this I believe is your SEO firm and your web developer together. Of course if you don’t have both, than certainly either one of these would understand or should understand traffic conversion and implementing a “call to action” within the site. A call to action is any action which visitors can take to complete the selling process. Obviously in a perfect site, a call to action would be so perfectly designed that the end users have no alternative choice but to move forward with the call to action. We have found that most sites are stuck in the traditional methods or “calls to action” with flash banners that say, “Click here” or a “buy now” button. Consumers or end users want information so that they can make educated buying decision. By now that end user has more than likely made a purchase or request for information online that they regretted. This has left most a little “gun shy” to say the least. So, why not give them that information that they are craving. I am not suggesting that you go out and load your sales pages with content, but on the other hand, instead of having another “click here” or “buy now” button, it might behoove the seller to have a link to product reviews or testimonials.
Another call to action that works is stating the benefit or value received next to the action you want the end user to make. So for example, “purchase now and save 46% over the next 12 months”, long I know but this states a clearly defined benefit as opposed to simply “buy now”. Your call to action should also state the benefit of acting now; you want to create a reason for urgency in your buying message.
If you are not obtaining the conversion rate that you are looking for with your internet traffic, re-consider the message that you are giving to your users. Is it enticing to you? After you have reviewed the site, make sure to look outside for criticism from others about what would make them act on your offer. Invest some time into conversion instead of just focusing on increasing your internet traffic.