Think Big Blog

In the last post we talked about the importance of marketing for all businesses – traditional and otherwise. The online business community may be growing by leaps and bounds but there are many industries that have had a difficult time adjusting. For instance, bricks and mortar businesses have understood the importance of professional marketing guidance for some time. But web site owners are too often still trying to grasp how crucial marketing is to their online success. To make matters worse, the market is saturated by less than reputable companies that profess to be online marketing experts…and are anything but.

This may be enough to put many people completely off the process of looking for a web site optimization firm but it doesn’t mitigate the fact that such professional guidance is critical for success. But with a few ideas of what to look for you can begin the process of seeking the expert advice that will see your online presence growing by leaps and bounds:

• Experience, experience, experience. Experience may be an obvious thing to look for but people often fail to look beyond the few nice words a web site optimization firm throws their way to advertise their services. Not only should the firm in question have some time under their belt they should be well versed in a variety of services including pay per click and search engine optimization.

• Ability to do for themselves what they claim they can do for others. It wouldn’t make sense to choose a web site optimization firm to do for you what they can’t do for themselves. Look for a web site optimization firm that has managed to find success for itself through its own system.

• Word of mouth. The Internet is at your disposal when looking for expert advice. Use it to your advantage and look for a company that has good press and positive testimonials.

• Customized solutions. Marketing a web site is just like marketing a traditional company; not every path is the appropriate one for reaching a goal. Look for a web site optimization firm that looks to increase web site traffic through proven and customized solutions.

Setting out to market any business requires a certain amount of understanding about the process; as well as the willingness to put trust in the professionals who can help you achieve the goals that you may not be able to reach on your own. Traditionally speaking, businesses have been putting their faith in marketing professionals for decades. But in the online arena, there are many web site owners that are, not surprisingly, hesitant to put their faith in those that profess to be experts in online marketing.

The reason that this is not surprising? Because the Internet – while all-encompassing for most of us – is still very new in the overall scheme of things. It has taken some businesses - and some industries at large - a fair amount of time to recognize that not only is the Internet not going anywhere it is going to play an increasingly tremendous role in commerce in the future. Of course, this has also sparked the growth of many less than reputable online marketing firms that profess to be able to raise online rankings; firms that leave web sites high and dry in the end with nothing to show but money lost.

Has this tarnished the reputation of online marketing as a whole? Absolutely. But this does not in any way mean that all online marketing firms are unable or unwilling to deliver.

Where does this leave web site owners? Squarely in the position of having to vet those online marketing companies that they are considering hiring to help them elevate page rankings and grow their company brand. There are very particular things that web site owners should look at when looking to pair with a web site optimization firm. In the next post we’ll talk about some of the things to look for when considering a web site optimization firm.

There are those marketing efforts that businesses do to garner speedy results in order to get them noticed. But it is the more comprehensive marketing plans that allow for more long term and sustainable results; those marketing plans that require commitment and consistency. For web sites, this kind of long term sustainable marketing plan includes search engine optimization.

Pay per click is a very effective marketing effort that consistently draws attention to a site - positioning a web site in a choice position on the search engine results pages. But search engine optimization can provide a longer term solution to sustainable marketing efforts by organically and highly positioning a site on the search engine rankings.

Of course achieving such a position and maintaining it means committing to a marketing plan that is in line with your company’s branding strategy and is best positioned to propel a site ahead of the competition.

When looking to the future for your web site it can have the most impact to work with a web site optimization firm to lead the way towards success. A web site optimization firm is charged with marketing a web site and they are consistently and completely focused on this effort. This is a huge bonus for companies that don’t have the resources for an in-house online marketing team. A web site optimization firm acts as an arm of a company – an off-site marketing team whose role it is to strategize a customized and affordable plan for marketing a web site to the top.

Shortsightedness will not deliver longstanding success online. Look to the future of your site by putting solid and consistent marketing plans into place and professionals in charge of the journey. A web site optimization firm can help deliver more web site traffic now and well into the future.

It is official – summer is here; and with it comes the inevitable slowing of most of the business world. That, of course, is something that historically happens no matter what the economy but in an economy such as what we are experiencing right now, this slowing has even more impact than ever. Why not make the most use of this time?

It can be difficult to focus on marketing efforts throughout the year. You do what you can to make sure that your business is promoted effectively but it cannot compete with the time it takes to actually run the business. Not surprisingly most people turn to professionals to take over the marketing reins so that they can focus on the business at hand. Web site marketing should be no exception.

Take the summer months to explore the potential that a web site optimization firm brings to the table. By making sure that professionals head up your marketing efforts you can rest assured that everything is being done to make sure that your site is promoted to the appropriate audience. This period of time can allow you to focus on such things as search engine optimization, pay per click, and other marketing vehicles that will better position your web site for success throughout the year.

Most importantly now is the time that you want to look for the web site optimization firm that will work best for your needs and help you grow your business through your web site. Look for a web site optimization firm that has a strong reputation in the marketplace and a distinctive plan for marketing your site. Within this general idea for a plan, however, should be flexibility for customization depending upon the state of the site and their ultimate goals for the short and long term.

When it comes to building web site traffic it tends to go in stages. Those who just launch their site are most interested in getting web traffic at all! They want to know that their efforts to design and launch did not go to waste and that people are actually able to find them. As the weeks pass, however, these same web site owners will undoubtedly look for more web traffic; it’s great that people found them but let’s make sure they are coming back and bringing some friends along with them. At some point, however, web site owners will make the very important connection between their rankings on the search engines and the quantity and quality of visitors that they are getting. Are these visitors converting to customers or are they jumping on and off the site?

This is when web site owners will invariably turn to a web site optimization firm to help them make heads and tails of a marketing strategy that will allow them to reach a higher pinnacle of success. The understanding at this point is that it is important to reach a site’s target audience but the way to do that with any level of consistent success is through the search engines.

It is most important that the search engines are able to find a web site and deem it relevant enough to be ranked within its return results for queries made by engine users. This is what will ultimately get a web site the traffic it needs and what will ultimately deliver them with the quality visitors that will help them grow their business and their web site to the next level.

A web site optimization firm will help a site achieve this in a number of ways – through calculated and results-driven marketing.

Many web site owners and operators that come to a web site optimization firm for help in generating more web site traffic are nervous to say the least. Many do not understand the importance of having professional marketing on their side; the impact that it can have on their business. It’s much easier for people to understand the need for a traditional bricks and mortar business to have an advertising agency or marketing firm. But they fail to make the connection between an online business and its equal need for an online marketing firm.

What’s also scary to some web sites is the penchant for a web site optimization firm to deconstruct their web site. The site owner may feel that they have put the time and the money into creating a well-designed site and they only want to market it, but a lot of what a web site optimization firm does is making sure the site itself is optimized to be found by the search engines, thus generating more web site traffic.

To start, a web site optimization firm will look to determine the appropriate keywords that should be used for a web site. These keywords will correspond to the phrases that potential customers may use to locate your services; not just potential visitors, potential customers. The keywords that are chosen are chosen for this reason, as well as their competitiveness in the online market which impacts a site’s ability to climb the rankings for that phrase.

The keywords will be infused into online content and this is where the onsite work begins. Web site owners need to be comfortable with the optimization firm that they pick as such a firm will help them upload newly optimized content, among other things. Those other things may include looking deeper at the site’s nuts and bolts and potentially making changes to make sure it is optimized to receive more web traffic and future customers.

In the last post we began to talk about the state of modern society and our propensity for having it all in the grandest scale possible. Many of us are definitely of the mindset that the more we have of something the better we are; but this is often not the case, as we previously discussed. In the example we set in the last post, businesses would be doing themselves a disservice to only be concerned with quantity as it relates to visitors. A traditional business that happily rejoices in the throngs of visitors that come in to their store on a daily basis are partially missing the point. They have every right to be happy with the attention and should continue to encourage visitors but ultimately it is the quality of the visitors that will impact the bottom line. And in this case, quality visitors refer to those who are in the market to buy the particular product and service that the business offers.

Again, this is especially true of web sites. The responsibility of a web site owner is two-fold. They certainly don’t want to be cast into the great World Wide Web without a plan on how people can find them. So they turn to a web site optimization firm to start the process of online marketing – which will often include search engine optimization, pay per click, public relations, and other marketing efforts – to increase web traffic and make sure the site is indexed by the search engines and can be found by Internet users.

But this, again, is partially missing the point. Web sites that will ultimately find success will do so because of the quality of their visitors. The web site optimization firm that truly understands this differentiation will ensure that they not only increase web traffic but increase the right kind of web site traffic by using the appropriate keywords that will draw an audience that is also likely to become customers.

We are a culture that is vastly concerned with quantity on a grand scale. We want it all; we want it now; and then we want more. And lots of it. Our accustomed way of thinking is that more means better. Unfortunately, however, this line of reasoning can get us into trouble because it skews the reality of our situation, especially when it comes to business.

Consider the business that is only concerned with the number of visitors that they get in their store. Is heavy traffic a good thing? Sure it is. This kind of attention creates a buzz and a buzz is never a bad thing in business; it helps to build a brand in a grassroots manner.

But how effective is a buzz if no one coming into the store is buying anything? All the traffic in the world doesn’t do a business any good if it’s not the right kind of traffic; and therein is the important differentiation between quantity and quality.

Quality visitors are really what a business wants in the end; those who are likely to become actual customers in their purchase of products or services. This is especially true when it comes to web sites that count on web traffic to populate their site. Through search engine optimization methods and other marketing efforts, web sites do their best to increase web traffic. When web traffic is increased the business- the web site – is positively impacted as a buzz is created and the brand is grown. But, as with a traditional business, what good is all that traffic if those coming to the site are not the visitors who will ultimately buy from you?

A web site optimization firm helps web sites to identify their target audience so that they can begin to understand the difference between quantity and quality and grow their business accordingly. More to come…

The world moves so fast; remaining stagnant is not an option, especially if it is in terms of business. Companies of any kind need to be able to stay several steps ahead in recognizing the next big thing; that which will draw a wider customer base so that they can continue to stay in the game of business.

For web sites this is even more important because the online market moves at such a rapid clip. Web sites that want to stay viable, continue to draw an audience, and continue to increase web site traffic must continually reinvent themselves to stay current and in the line of vision of those who are likely to become customers.

Helping web sites appropriately stay on track is the web site optimization firm. The web site optimization firm is the marketing arm of the online world – helping web sites to identify their audience and implement search engine optimization tactics and other web marketing methods to stay elevated in the search engine rankings and find the audience that is interested in what the site has to offer.

Marketing a web site – like marketing a traditional business – is not just about getting the word out there. Branding is important. But branding that is directed at the wrong audience is simply not effective. Conversion is the most important thing; to make sure that the message is strong and that it is delivered to the right target market.

The web site optimization firm helps to not only market the overall business but also determine what it is that the audience is searching for so that they can direct the message appropriately. The result is more than just to increase web site traffic – it is to increase web traffic with the people who will stay on the site and are most likely to be converted to customers.

Is comparing SEO and PPC like comparing apples and oranges? Not necessarily. But it is like comparing advertising and PR. In the online world pay per click (PPC) is similar to advertising – buying a particular position to help brand your company through a targeted message. It is fast, it is effective when done well, and consistency – in terms of position – is largely in your control. Search engine optimization (SEO) is similar to public relations in that it may take longer but through consistently applying “elbow grease” through your marketing efforts you can achieve results.

Is one better than the other? No. They are simply different. There are some web site owners that prefer the faster results of PPC and are comfortable advertising their site in the sponsored link section of the search engines – getting their name out there and drawing their customers through their consistent presence. Other web site owners prefer climbing the search engine rankings organically through search engine optimization because they feel as if it gives them more online credibility and potential visitors are more likely to respond to organic listings than they are sponsored listings.

But ultimately most companies will find that it is the thoughtful combination of both SEO and PPC that allows them to achieve the greatest results. It’s true that diversifying efforts in this manner can work wonders in terms of branding a company and getting them the conversion rates they seek online – even in a crowded and competitive online environment.

Look for a web site optimization firm that is knowledgeable and experienced in both SEO and PPC and can help you customize an optimization plan that works for your particular needs and budget. With consistent focus your efforts will pay off by working to raise your rankings and increase web traffic with potential new customers.