SEO Is Only Part Of The Solution
January 6, 2010
Recently, I had a discussion with our first SEO client. He had moved from his previous job in Tucson to a larger firm in Phoenix. His employer has four websites and he asked me to give him a bid for our search engines optimization services.
This was a very exciting opportunity but, I proceeded with caution. When I worked for this company it had a really bad website. I did a detailed website review and made a multitude of suggestion to improve the site before applying any SEO. The company was a moving and storage concern with a local customer base here in Tucson.
I was ecstatic. Going in I knew that we had a wonderful opportunity here to apply Geo-targeted SEO solutions. I believed that we would have tremendous impact for local moving company searches in Tucson. It was if all the stars had aligned in my favor. It wasn’t a competitive market and the competition did not have very well optimized websites. It looked like a slam dunk and it was. The problem is the company never made the needed changes to have a user friendly website.
When the SEO process began you could find this website 3 times on Google’s first page of results for moving services in Tucson. Two weeks after I had implemented Geo-targeting for their business in Tucson their was a dramatic change. Now, the site was ranking 16 times on the first page of Google. By the time 30 days had rolled around you could find the site 33 different times on the Google first pages. It was as if we were in SEO nirvana. This was my first paying client.
The problem was that their website still was still a dreadful site. The home page included maybe 100 words that were not created very well. Things didn’t work all over the site. The site was not converting visitors into customers. What I learned from this experience was this. I would never again SEO a broken website. This company got lots of traffic from my SEO efforts but very little of that increased traffic converted into business. Broken websites don’t usually convert visitors no matter how many people visit.
It’s hard to overcome a bad website and the negative messages that it screams is deafening. It is very difficult to overcome an initial bad experience. You must always be cognizant that your visitor has their hand on there mouse and a quick and painless exit is a mere one click away. Your visitors are needing, wanting, and desiring to have their expectations meet or exceeded. Sadly most websites fail miserably.
From that time forward we made an ethical decision not to work on websites if all they wanted was increased traffic. We really wanted our efforts to not only increase traffic but we wanted that traffic to convert from visitors to customers. We want our clients to prosper from our efforts. We are not in SEO just to make a buck.
This is why we strongly believe in a holistic SEO approach where search engine optimization is not the solution, but part of the solution. If you have a defective website increased traffic is not going to make much difference.
Quit often the website owners do not have any idea that their website is even defective. I recently commented to a website owner that he should not worry about SEO because he needed to fix his website first. He was flabbergasted. He was clueless that their might be any thing wrong with his site and it had buckets of problems. This is especially true for the DIY designed websites. They often look like a elementary school group project.
Our standard recommendation is that your website needs to be as good as if not better than your major competitors. I am discussing functionality and ease of use here. If you make it difficult for the visitor to find what they came for they are gone and gone quickly. Searchers scan websites to find what they desire and they have short attention spans. Again you job is to meet or exceed the visitors expectations.
Another area that is overlooked is the content. Most websites owners wrote their own copy and most of them are not professional marketing professionals. So you have someone writing your content that merely provides information and not selling. I have seen beautiful sites where everything worked and worked well except the content. Website content needs to be written using a sales funnel that directs the visitor or make a buying decision.
That is why we practice a holistic approach to SEO. We do so with the understanding that if your website isn’t likely to convert visitors into customers then why increase traffic. The problem is that many websites have never had much traffic so they have no way of judging whether the site converts visitors or not. Once the fixing and or re-designing has been completed we then provide the SEO portion. But there’s more to do if you want to gain and maintain high search rankings.
The fact remains that most website developers just don’t understand marketing and selling on a website. For many a “buy now” button is all that is required. Ask yourself this does my website sell? Do I ask for the sale? Does your website act as a sales funnel that directs your visitor into a buying decision? If you answered no to any of these questions then you might be ready for a holistic SEO approach.
Once the defective site has been fixed and optimized it then must enter another phase of the process. Where you will then need to market your website and develop backlinks. As we like to say, SEO is never a one and done proposition.
My first client was somewhat shocked that I was not very interested in his project. I explained that I had changed how I do business due to my previous experience with him. I was willing to provide a holistic SEO approach, but not merely SEO alone. It was later revealed that he had acquired bids from several other companies. These companies would gladly produce increased traffic without regards to whether that traffic would ever convert into customers. At that point we parted ways. This was a huge contract but we were not about to compromise our position.
So if you are actively looking to hire an SEO provider make sure they give serious consideration to the total health of your website. Providing assistance in developing your content into a sales presentation before you venture into acquiring increased website traffic through the implementation of SEO.
SEO isn’t the answer by itself; it is only part of the solution.
Are you ready for a Holistic SEO approach?
Here’s some valuable resources:
Would you like to find 192 Do Follow Social Bookmarking sites with a Page Rank of 3 or Higher? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin?) Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO – Internet Marketing Services Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Holistic SEO Local SEO Services Phoenix Niche SEO – Internet Marketing Services
Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Yuma – Flagstaff Arizona SEO -Internet Marketing Services
Affordable Quality BackLinks Building Services Local Internet - Website Marketing Services
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
Google Trusts Anchor Text More Than Text On Your Websites Pages
December 22, 2009
This is a feature that we are implementing with each post. It is here because we provide small business SEO solutions all across Arizona, including the Chandler, Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Glendale areas. We want to acknowledge and thank our friends and potential clients for their support. If you have landed here looking for our Internet marketing, SEO, or affordable website design/re-design services in Arizona then please follow this go to our Local SEO page.
Google Trusts Anchor Text More Than Text On Your Websites Pages
There is a seldom known fact that your targeted keywords don’t actually need to appear on the page for you to rank for that keyword. Let me explain this one for you. The search engines and Google specifically trust anchor text in a link. So much so that they will rank a page for a keyword that doesn’t actually appear on that page. This isn’t some joke or something that I made up but it is a well known fact for those that have been in a link building business for some time.
This goes against everything that you will likely have ever heard before. Here is how I discovered this quirk in the algorithm. I compete for the keyword phrase “Niche SEO.” We had been ranking # 1 for this keyword phrase for months when we where overtaken by a directory site. I was curios what was going on so I visited the site. The acronym SEO appeared several times on this page but the word niche did not.
This really got my attention so I did some research by visiting the forum, SEO Chat. I started a thread to inquire how this site could rank for a word that never appears on their website. I would soon discovered that this forum is full of some intelligent but rude people. I got my answer but I was worked over pretty good in the process. Warning: do not use this forum if you are new to the industry and you don’t have thick skin. The answer was in the anchor text that was being used in the links pointing to that page included the word niche.
As it turned out the person who owned that directory also owned several forums. Many of the links in his signatures said niche directory or niche SEO directory. So Google was giving more weight to the anchor text then the actual text on the page. I was blown away by this revelation. This like any trick used to fool the search engines eventually fails. The search engines figure out what you are doing and downgrade your web page. After about three months this site disappeared from the first page of the search results and eventually into oblivion in the ranking results.
Still that was not enough evidence to satisfy me. I did and experiment on this site to verify what was learned. I had created a page that included our Do Follow list. That page was very active and got multiple comments everyday. I also wanted to crack the first page of Google for the search, Phoenix SEO. So I renamed the page title to include the phrase Phoenix SEO. Then I added the phrase into that page several times.
This little procedure worked like a charm. It was almost like it was something conjured up by Harry Potter. Within just a few days that page made its way onto the first page of the Google results for Phoenix SEO and it stayed there for 3 months. Then almost to the day the page slowly began to descend the search rankings. I had now verified this quirk on my own site. I then changed the page title to reflect what was actually on the page, the Do Follow list.
Now, I am not suggesting that it is a good practice to fool around with Google. I just thought that you might be interested in hearing about this quirk that I discovered.
Have any of you ever come across this before?
We at Tucson SEO Solutions are officially requesting that you join the conversation here. That is, if you found that this post was at all interesting, useful, or perhaps you are just looking for a useful link. Then, I would like to entice you to comment by providing you with useful backlinks as part of what I call “Scratch My Back Marketing.”
The Scratch My Back Marketing requires you to scratch this blog by leaving a useful comment of at least 20 words or more. Your comment should be relevant to the post. My scratch is that you will receive a Do Follow anchor text link (Keyword Luv.) And if you have a blog with an RSS feed enabled you will receive an extra permalink back to your blog via Comment Luv.
It’s all about win/win marketing. I am willing to exchange page rank for the bump that a fresh comment provides.
Are you ready to exchange comments for links?
This is the part where I move link juice around the site and hope that someone might actually want to learn more about our local small business solutions and venture further.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Tucson Website Designs Tucson Search Engine Optimization Phoenix SEO
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions
Ethical Link Building Training Affordable Website Designing Tucson
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
How Has The Recession Affected Your Part 2
December 11, 2009
How has the recession affected you? With that in mind I will get things started. I realized about this time (December 2008) that our biggest contract was expiring and that it would not likely be renewing. I had gotten caught up in the economic crises and the election. I was rarely blogging and was paralyzed by the lack of business inquiries. I knew the gravy train was ending and I had to do something to stir-up interest. This contract covered 70 % of our business. We were very grateful to have it, but now we were running on empty.
That’s when I decided to too do a link building promotion that I would call the 109 Link Building Explosion. For 109 days I would do short review a combination of 5 blogs, forums, or social media sites that provided Do Follow Links. This program caused traffic to soar more than 300%. This increase wasn’t paying the bills. However, visiting all of these sites did provide some much needed business.
A comment that I placed on a blog was read by someone who liked it and followed the link to my site. That lead and inquiry. That inquiry ends up leading to the biggest project (by pages) that I have ever completed. I had discovered that it really does pay to leave quality comments.
This became an epiphany for me. This inspired the link building program that I call Scratch My Back Marketing. It involves leaving quality comments or content on sites that allow you to acquire Do Follow links. You give them something of value and they return the favor. It also involves treating link building a if it where a branding, marketing, or advertising adventure.
This however, may be the biggest advantage of taking on this financial challenge that required me to drum up business in the bleakest economy that I have ever known. It keep me so busy doing the research and writing that I didn’t seem to have time to worry. I averaged about 4 hours of work on each post.
The research also allowed me to fine tune my link building efforts into a well oiled machine. I was really getting into exploring these sites most I which I was visiting for the very first time. I was discovering thousands of social media sites that were Do Follow and new to me.
I know that leaving quality comments or content would require more time to implement. So I began a process of refining my link building processes. I would compensate for the extra time that quality requires by working smarter. It was a series of small improvement that would end up having a huge impact. These new resources meant establishing dozens of new social media profiles daily.
After the link building program ended I found that I now had a lot of free time since the reviews didn’t require my attention. It was then that my full attention was placed on becoming one the most skilled manual link builders around. I am not a known “guru” in my industry and I don’t speak at conventions. So I don’t get the flux of links that are associated with these speaking gigs. No, I have to earn links everyday.
The point here is that when backed into a business corner I was able to come up with a plan for promoting this business. In the process of executing this plan I became an expert, a guru of sorts on link building. I am not a master linkbaiter. In this department I’m batting 50/50. I tried 4 linkbait projects for this blog and only two have been successful.
I am not the worlds most organized guy but I have learned to overcome this weakness when it comes link building. I currently have seven different link building efforts open at this time. I will work one until I meet my goal for that day or till I get bored and then there are the client’s projects. I never lack for things to do.
I simply could not accomplish this without being organized and using the right tools for the job. My password manager RoboForm makes this all possible for me. It stores all of my logins and contact information. So the site registration process usually requires only that I properly execute the capthca’s. properly That is the part that really slows me down. I get these things wrong everyday.
I will usually will begin a project by opening 3 to 5 websites at once. Yes, I am talking link building on steroids. Social Media sites are generally graphic intensive and very busy. This causes the user to wait, and wait, and wait. I just end up moving rapidly from one task to another so I don’t have to wait. While one site is working on my logins I move to another site. I do this all day everyday. I call it maximizing my efforts or ROI. Because I can move seamlessly from one site to the next I generate large time savings. These minutes saved allow me to practice Scratch My Back Marketing. It also helps to have hundreds of blogs posts that can easily be rewritten and used.
My business crises forced me to hone my skills and to get organized. When the 109 Link Building Explosion ended the site was ranking on the first page of Google 31 times for our target keyword phrases. That number now exceeds 80. This transformation has occurred in less than 4 months. I guess that explains why Tucson SEO ranks # 1 for backlinks building services. People were not calling for SEO services but they are still interested in link building. That why I started the Do Follow Websites so I could generate some income. It hasn’t been the biggest success but every sale helps 9 bucks at a time.
Many of these keyword phrases are not very competitive and that’s ok with me. I have always preferred to be a big fish in a small pond. If this success can be sustained I believe we will be well positioned when the economy bounces back. I never intended to become a link building expert, but I was and am highly motivated. It just kinda happened. I believe part of my success is simply that the economic stresses have gotten to many of my competitors. When you are in a survival mode it is easy to forget what got you where you were.
I hope that if we can retain our # 1 ranking for Local SEO Services, Local Internet Marketing Services, and Backlinks Building Services then I believe we will be in a solid position to obtain new business. I like our prospects a whole lot better this year than at the end of 08.
In my world I have reason to hope because lately with the serious illness of my Geri… Hope is all we had…And I (we) are hoping for a better 2010. Everyday is a new adventure as Geri learns to live with an to adapt to a chronic illness. I have to do much more on the home front and I’m very much OK with that. I came way to close to losing her to give up now.
Sometimes hope and faith is all we have.
What about you? What’s your inspiring tale or two. I really would like to hear from my readers, those few great visitors who actually read this blog.
That’s my story… For now!
Would you like to download the Scratch My Back Marketing anti spam plugin? Then go here.
Would you like to learn more about the Scratch My Back Marketing (not the plugin)? Then go here.
Would you like 66 Do Follow Backlinks from high PR sites? Then go here.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Sierra Vista – Green Valley SEO -Search Engine Optimization Niche SEO Solutions
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions Affordable Tucson Website Designs
Ethical BackLinks Building Services Local Internet Website Marketing Services Phoenix Niche SEO
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.
When Purchasing Geo-targeting SEO Solutions Get Verifable Results
February 9, 2009
Whenever you are looking to choose an SEO provider there is one big, huge, and enormous thing that we believe that you should take into consideration. Since SEO providers basic service is designed to land your website onto the first page of results, you should verify that their website is ranked well. By ranking well, I am referring to the first page of the Google search results.
So we challenge you to ask all of your potential vendors if they rank on the first page of Google for searches that include SEO in the keyword phrase. How can you expect a company to land your website on the first page of Google if they can’t get themselves there?
With this in mind we checked out some of the keyword phrases that we target and this is what we found today on Google.
Tucson SEO Solutions ranks # 1 for the following searches:
Niche SEO
Geo-targeting SEO Solutions
Small Business SEO Solutions
Local Business SEO Solutions
Local SEO Solutions
Tucson SEO Solutions ranks in the top 5 for these searches.
SEO Solutions
Business SEO Solutions
Geo-targeted SEO
We also rank on the first page of Google for the following searches:
Local SEO
Do Follow Forum List
Do Follow List – We are especially proud of this one since it produces 142 million results.
We also hold the # 1 position in Google in all nine local markets where we have website presence. That includes Tucson, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, and Glendale, Arizona. We also rank #1 in Mountain View and Sunnyvale, California along with Silicon Valley.
Now, if you check these keyword phrases, you will likely find that your results will vary somewhat and that is due to many factors. The results fluctuate throughout the day.
We have provided you verifiable results that we do what we say and say what we do.
We understand Local Geo-targeted SEO and are ready to provide your business with the affordable small business SEO solutions that you require.
Are you ready to work with an SEO company that understands Local SEO?
We at Tucson SEO Solutions are officially requesting that you join the conversation here. That is, if you found that this post was at all interesting, useful, or perhaps you are just looking for a useful link. Then, I would like to entice you to comment by providing you with useful backlinks as part of what I call “Scratch My Back Marketing.”
The Scratch My Back Marketing requires you to scratch this blog by leaving a useful comment of at least 20 words or more. Your comment should be relevant to the post. My scratch is that you will receive a Do Follow anchor text link (Keyword Luv.) And if you have a blog with an RSS feed enabled you will receive an extra permalink back to your blog via Comment Luv.
It’s all about win/win marketing. I am willing to exchange page rank for the bump that a fresh comment provides.
Are you ready to exchange comments for links?
This is the part where I move link juice around the site and hope that someone might actually want to learn more about our local small business solutions and venture further.
Too learn more about our services please check out these links:
Local SEO Services Tucson Website Designs Tucson Search Engine Optimization Phoenix SEO
Holistic SEO Solutions Geo-Targeted SEO Solutions Niche SEO Solutions Arizona SEO Solutions
Ethical Link Building Training Affordable Website Designing Tucson
If your business is located in the US, Tempe, Phoenix, Glendale, and Scottsdale, Arizona or beyond and you would like to learn more about how your website can benefit from a blog, SEO, Niche SEO, Internet marketing, or our affordable website design/re-design services please call Tucson SEO at 520-777-6479 or 1-866-512-1230 Now!
Tucson SEO… Solutions that create probabilities out of possibilities.