It's all about web traffic!
There are many different approaches to getting more traffic to your website. Now, we don't claim to have all the answers, but we want to share what we have learned with you by including a few "best practices" we found during our own research on the subject of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). The various topics are listed here on the right. We will add more as we go along. Because the whole concept of ranking higher in the search engines has become sort of a moving target, the content here will change from time to time, as we learn more and share what we think will work these days. These are important topics for anyone who uses Live Web Systems because you have the opportunity (and responsibility) to improve your web rankings as you add new pages and content to your site.
How can you leverage technology to increase profits?
A successful web site is not just about the total number of people who visit your site. To be profitable, you must attract people who are most likely to spend money with you. This is where the integration with search engines can play a role. There are two ways to achieve this goal: search engine optimization (organic listings) and click management (sponsored listings or pay-per-click).
What actually goes on?
There are two elements of search engine optimization (SEO) and they must work in tandem
- Site Design and physical structure (how it is built)
- Site content (the text)
Without getting too technical, here is a summary of how the search engines work. The most visible search engines have a 'robot' which crawls the internet examining and indexing web pages. If you enter a phrase into a search engine, it will compare that phrase with its index and find you the pages that most closely match. For your company's web site to appear higher in the results it needs to be designed and written with the 'robots' in mind. These are the basic concepts, but we use many other techniques that will further enhance organic search engine results.
Our standard website optimization service aims to increase the number of unique visitors by regularly adding, deleting, or modifying the various site elements, for instance; title, description, keywords, meta tags, etc., then re-submitting your site (or landing page) to the top search engines. While the cost of the service may vary with the complexity of a given website, we have determined a minimum cost for this quarterly service. It is important to know that search engines constitute a “moving target”. We are constantly reviewing the knowledge base to determine current best practices. In other words, we stay up on it so you get the best value for your investment. Please contact us for a free rate quotation.
We do suggest that this be done quarterly. The reason for that particular timeline is that search engines vary in the time it takes for them to “recognize” your changes and update accordingly. Moving too fast seems to confuse them. Moving too slowly may result in less traffic if the content becomes “stale”. Despite what others may claim, there are no guarantees when it comes to natural search engine ranking. We do not own the search engines, and they do not share their trade secrets concerning their software architecture.
While our SEO (search engine optimization) service can and should be integrated with your ongoing local advertising efforts, i.e. direct mail campaigns when possible, it does not rely on those to be beneficial. It is important to perform this minimum SEO refreshment regardless of any other marketing. We use software to analyze relevant key search phrases within your industry and then update your site accordingly. We use historical statistics to determine what is actually being searched for, rather than relying on what we might imagine. We measure the success of this quarterly campaign by benchmarking visitation stats and providing comparison numbers prior to the next quarterly SEO cycle.
Again, we wish to emphasize that the above service description would be a bare minimum approach to SEO. There are of course, multiple service levels concerning search engine marketing, and we have the expertise to consult with you on the most effective way to allocate your internet advertising budget. We can also set up an extensive plan and manage things like pay for performance for you. In depth analysis of your web statistics is also available as an added option.
Click Management (Sponsored Listing)
Click management allows you to place an advertisement within search engine results. The higher your link in the list of results, the more likely the user will click on your link to access your site. The way to get to the top is by bidding - basically an ongoing auction for position. As part of a click management campaign,you can utilize many different terms, or just one. If you have more than one term, they each have there own bidding terms or auction of the term. The bidding management, being an ongoing auction, requires the terms to be managed so you are at the levels which make sense. Click management is extremely powerful and the results can be virtually instant.
Summary
Every business is different and unique and the marketing campaign should be also. Contact us and receive a free 30 minute consultation today.