However, there are thousands of search engine optimization companies to choose from, and many of them may not be qualified. If you don’t have a good understanding of the field, it’s easy to be taken advantage of. Therefore, you should make sure to research the companies you’re considering and ask them the right questions before hiring them.

When to Outsource Search Engine Optimization

If your website isn’t appearing high in the search rankings or there it isn’t generating a satisfactory level of traffic, you should seriously consider hiring a search engine optimization company. A great time to start this process is during a site-redesign or a new website launch, but a good search engine optimization company can still improve an existing site.

Questions to Ask a Search Engine Optimization Company

The sooner you start the optimization process, the better. A search engine campaign can take months to show results. However, you should still make time to obtain some background information before choosing a company to manage your search engine optimization campaign. Some important questions that you may want to consider are listed below:

• Can you show me some examples of previous work and your success stories?
• What results do you expect from your campaign and in what timeframe?
• How long have you been doing search engine optimization work?
• What type of reporting will you be providing on our progress? How often will this reporting be provided?
• What techniques will you use to optimize our site?
• Do you offer any additional marketing services to compliment the search engine optimization campaign?
• What do you do to make sure you maintain the latest standards and search engine optimization techniques?
• What specific experience do you have in my industry?

Warning! Search Engine Companies to Avoid

You can save yourself a ton of time and frustration by making sure to avoid companies using questionable methods of optimization. Listed below are some immediate indicators of a company that you should avoid:

• Guarantees of #1 Ranking – No search engine optimization company can legitimately make this promise. Search Engines are changing on a daily basis, so any guarantees should be immediately questioned.
• Lack of Portfolio – If a company doesn’t have previous success stories, they do not likely have the experience to run your campaign
• Secretive Practices – A company not willing to divulge their general techniques and practices is most likely doing this for a reason. Commonly, unethical techniques are used that that may work in the short term, but are unreliable over time.
• References to Unknown Search Engines – Companies trying to sell high rankings on search engines that you’ve never heard of won’t produce good results. Optimization should be reflected on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and all of the other major search engines.

Overall, you should be very selective in choosing who to work with for your website’s search engine optimization and follow up on your progress and results regularly. The next article in this series will explain some easy ways to analyze your search engine optimization results and track your website’s performance.

Search Engines rate links on their relevancy, importance, and prominence. Each of these factors get you “points” based on the quality of the link. Still, it’s often difficult to grasp the fact that these external factors hold more weight than the on-site factors that you can control. The reasoning behind this logic can be better understood after learning the history of this approach.

An Extremely Brief History of Link Value in Search Engines

When first engines first originated, the algorithms, or ranking patterns, that they used to order the search results were based primarily on the site’s content and META tags. Unfortunately, this approach was highly prone to error. People discovered that they could manipulate the results by changing the content of their website. By simply adding a keyword hundreds of times on your site, you could potentially reach the top of the rankings even if your site was not relevant.

Consequently, a clever startup began a search engine with completely new search algorithms. They determined that the number and quality of links to a site gave a better measure of the site’s value, and thereby could provide a better way of ranking the sites. They figured that if a lot of similar sites were linking to a specific site, that specific site was most likely a good resource. This approach proved highly effective and it soon became the basis for the entire industry. If you haven’t already guessed, this clever startup was Google.

Page Rank and Link Value

Google measures link value on a 1 to 10 scale that they refer to as “Page Rank”. The higher a site’s Page Rank, the more value a link from the site will provide. In addition, the relevancy of a link’s text to the site it is linking to is a crucial measure of its value. High Page Rank sites with relevant content will provide you the most value for Search Engine Optimization.

Warning! Be Careful Who You’re Obtaining Links From!

While it is true that inbound links add value in most cases, there are exceptions. If your site gains an unreasonable number of links overnight, Google and the other search engines will most likely penalize you.  This is because they presume you are trying to gain an unfair advantage over other sites. You can also be penalized if a large number of links to your site are from irrelevant web pages.

Try to keep link building a steady process that you develop over time. Avoid services that magically offer “100,000 links overnight” or anything else that sounds suspicious. Instead, invest some time building relevant link partners and you’ll be amply rewarded.

In conclusion, these inbound links are crucial to your success, but they can’t be rushed. An efficient link building campaign is often beyond the scope of small to mid-sized companies. The process can be very time-intensive and a great understanding of search engine behavior is necessary to be effective. Therefore, many companies turn to consultants and companies to manage their search engine optimization campaigns for them. The next article in this series will discuss what to look for and what to avoid if outsourcing search engine optimization.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Does It Cost?

This event is being sponsored by Diva Lounge. There is no charge to attend. Appetizers will be provided and there will be a cash bar.

Where Can I Park?

There are several public lots near Diva Lounge and it is conveniently located a block from the Davis Square Red Line T Stop.

Is This A “Sales” Event?

No. This event is not designed to be a place to pitch your products and services. This event is designed to be a place to meet and get to know new people. You might end up making a sale or meeting a new client, but please don’t show up expecting to pitch everyone in the room.

We strongly encourage you to setup one on one meetings with the people you meet at the event.

How Are The Events Run?

Our events are simple. You arrive and receive a name tag. Then you mingle and meet new people. If you don’t know anyone in the room, we have several facilitators at every event who know other people and can help you meet the people you are interested in meeting. Facilitators wear a red nametag.

How Do I Get Added To The Invitation List?

If you have registered for one of our events online, you will automatically receive emails about future events. If you would like to be notified about upcoming events, but can not attend this event, please use the “Contact The Organizer” link on the right side of the eventbrite registration page to send us an email asking to be added to the invitation list. We promise not to share your contact information or send you emails that are not directly related to one of our events.

You can keep track of our upcoming classes on the Agency3 Events page.

We refuse to participate in the recession.

We recently spoke to the owner of a company that is concerned about spending more money on marketing given the fact that he is having more trouble finding clients and making new sales. This is counterintuitive. He is already struggling to grow his business and has been spending time reaching out to old clients, attending networking events, etc. This has not been working for him, but he would prefer to continue this strategy instead of investing in a solid marketing plan to help him move forward.

Step 1: Don’t continue a failing strategy!

• If networking events and groups are not producing new business for you - find a new networking group!
• If your are spending money on advertising programs that are not working - stop running the ads!
• If you are spending your days making cold calls, but your message is falling on deaf ears - stop dialing the phone!
• If your direct mail campaigns are not producing a response - stop licking the stamps!
• If you are not doing anything - get off your arse!
  

Step 2: Test new strategies to find something that works for you!

• Seth Godin recently suggested that Realtors start local free newspapers to reach out to people in the areas they serve.
• Find a new group to join, like the “Refuse to participate in a recession” Meetup group.
• Spend a little time thinking about your business to find the ineffeciencies that are costing you money. Is inventory piling up? Are you using too many “luxury” services instead of doing grunt work yourself? Are you extending too much credit to your customers? Review all contracts for services received, and make sure you still need them…your customers will be doing the same thing, so get ready. Find other great ideas here.
• Look at your list of products and services and see if there is a way to re-package them at different price points or in a way that delivers a different value to your clients.
• Reach out to your past customers in a targeted way - look for opportunities to help them and they will look for opportunities to help you!
• Join a BNI group - many people think BNI is a cult or that they can’t get up early enough to go to a 7am meeting. We promise you can’t sleep through a recession!
• Talk to your employees to see if they have ideas for ways to expand your business. Provide some incentive for them to help.
• Spruce up your office! Spend a little time cleaning up your office and clearing out the junk that has accumulated over the years. Show your customers that you are still optimistic and looking to the future.
• Hire a coach. You may not want to spend any money right now, but a good business coach may be able to help you find new opportunities, decrease costs, increase productivity and they can give you a good kick in the @$$ when you need it. Need a coach? Talk to Bill or Joe.
• Start your day and hour earlier or leave an hour later.
• Invest in new marketing materials, new advertising, a new website, search engine optimization or a email marketing campaign.

Step 3: Rinse and Repeat.

Test your new strategy long enough to gauge the results. If you are not seeing any improvement you may have to start this process over again. It may take a little time to find the right strategy for your business, but remember that you will find a strategy that works for you! Plenty of businesses are doing great in the midst of a recession…your business should be one of them.

PS. If none of these ideas apply to your business, click here and explore a little.

Interesting, but technical stuff.

On-site search engine optimization techniques can be divided into 3 different categories:

• Tagging and Labeling
• Content Density and Placement
• Site Structure and Internal Linking

Each category listed above is essential to on-site optimization.  Further explanations of these techniques are listed below.

Tagging and Labeling

There are a variety of tags and labels you can assign in the HTML coding of a website that indicate significance to a search engine.  The title and heading tags are the most important tags to include.  You should put your chosen keywords in the title and heading tags (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6) to tell a search engine that those keywords are important.  After helping a search engine understand what your website is about, you will be rewarded with higher rankings.

Content Density and Placement

Another important portion of on-site search engine optimization relates to the number of words on each web page and the number of times a keyword is repeated.  The ratio of keyword repetitions to the number of keywords on the page is referred to as the keyword density.  In general, you should try to maintain at least 200 words of content per web page and a keyword density between 4 and 7%.

The placement of keywords within the content of your pages is also very important.  You must scatter your keywords throughout the content instead of concentrating them in one area.  Otherwise, search engines may think that you are trying to gain an unfair advantage, and your site may be penalized.  Also, the first and last 50 words of the site should also contain your keyword, because search engines interpret the first and last content on a website to be more important than the rest.

Site Structure and Internal Linking

The last aspect of on-site search engine optimization regards your site’s organizational structure.  Each web page on your website should link back to the homepage and other main areas of the site that you want to promote.  This indicates to the search engines that those specific web pages should be weighted more heavily than the rest of the site.  In addition, your keywords should be used in the web page file names.  For instance, if your site was about cars, you may want to name your pages something similar to “cars.html”, “about-cars.html” and “new-cars.html”.

Also, a site map listing every page on the website should be created.  Site maps are developed primarily for search engines to help them navigate through your site, index the pages you want to be found, and hide any pages you do not want to be found.  Site maps also allow you to assign priority to certain web pages and set how frequently each web page is updated.

After properly addressing all of these factors, your site will gain a significant advantage over your competitors.  However, on-site optimization is only half the battle.  The other component for a well-optimized website is off-site optimization.  The next article in this series will explain an overview of off-site search engine optimization and how it ties everything together.

In order for your website to remain “optimized”, regular maintenance must be performed. This is an active process that requires daily diligence within a dynamic environment.  Not only are competitors constantly adjusting their content to stay at the top of the rankings, but the standards by which sites are ranked are changing without notice and description.

Search engines use a complex sorting algorithm to rank websites in order of relevance.  This algorithm uses both on-site and off-site factors to weigh these rankings.  On-site factors relate to the content on each page of your website and how it is organized and tagged with headings and descriptions.  Links from other websites to your website make up the off-site search engine optimization factors.  For instance, if your friend’s website about cars was linked to your car website, it would help your website’s ranking.  On-site and off-site search engine optimization will be discussed in further detail in our follow-up articles.

Benefits of Search Engine Optimization

Now that we have a basic understanding of what Search Engine Optimization is, let’s look at some of its benefits.  The 3 primary reasons for using search engine optimization are:

• Website Traffic
• Search Marketing
• Credibility

Specifically, you are looking to increase visitor traffic, obtain better results in search marketing campaigns (like Google Adwords), and increase visibility to improve your website’s credibility.  Each of these benefits are explained below:

Website Traffic

A well set-up search engine campaign will lead to higher rankings in the search engines over time.  The higher your website’s rankings, the more visibility you achieve.  A website ranked in the top 3 search results is seen nearly every time, and it is often clicked on.  Therefore, professional search engine optimization can create dramatic increases in the number of visitor traffic to your website.

Search Marketing

Search Marketing is one type of internet marketing that involves advertising on Search Engines.  Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is the most popular form of Search Marketing.  Your Pay-Per-Click advertisements are displayed on search results pages when a user is searches for a keyword that you are bidding on.  Each time an advertisement is clicked, you pay the search engine that displays the ads.

At this point, you may be wondering how this relates to search engine optimization.  When search engines display search results, they want to display the most relevant ads as possible.  They attempt to do this by assigning a quality and relevancy score to each of the advertisements.  These scores directly relate to the web page that your advertisement is linking to.  Advertisements that link to a search engine optimized website will receive a much higher quality and relevancy score than an un-optimized site.  High quality advertisements are displayed more often at a lesser cost than advertisements with a low quality score.  Therefore, websites that have search engine optimization will perform better in search marketing.

Credibility

The final major reason for you to perform search engine optimization is credibility.  As stated previously, a professional search engine optimization campaign will significantly increase your website’s visibility. People searching for terms related to your website will start to see your site on a regular basis.  Your increased exposure will quickly make the website more recognizable and credible.

Also, the bragging rights associated with top search engine rankings can be valuable tools for sales and marketing.  When you mention that your company ranks #1 in Google for your search term (or terms), you instantly establishes your company’s credibility.  However, keep in mind that many search terms are very competitive and maintaining your top ranking will require a continuous effort.  It would not reflect well on your company if you boast of a top ranking when in reality, your ranking has fallen.

At this point, you now know what search engine optimization is and how it can benefit your website.  Our follow up articles will explain more details regarding on-site optimization, off-site optimization, tracking and analysis, and finding a company to help you manage your search engine optimization campaigns successfully.

Blogs are basically mini-websites authors use to post information about a specific topic. Some blogs share experiences of an author’s career path, while others provide up to date news concerning the topic their blog presents.

What Makes Blogs Such a Great Tool to a Business Owner?

Blogs can provide so many opportunities for business to reap rewards that no business website should be without one. Here are some of the benefits a blog can provide any business owner:

A blog can drive more targeted traffic to their main site.

Blogs are favorites of search engines. They provide up to date content on a regular basis, so search engines will find them easier. Blogs can also be linked with other like-minded blogs to allow for more click-through visitors. Social bookmarking sites, social media sites and even message board forums love them as well. People will refer their friends to them when they see something they like.

Blogs make it easier to gain return visitors.

If a visitor likes your blog, they’ll keep coming back to see what else you have to say on a specific topic. Business blogs can be linked to the main company site as well. The more times people stop by, the more chances an owner has of getting those visitors to your business site.

Blogs allow one to easily gain expert status amongst a target audience.

The more you blog about your site’s topic, the more you come across as an expert in that field. A visitor can be awed by the information you’re offering them and could look up to you as an expert on a particular subject. Now, the next time they need to buy a certain product or need help with something in that area, they will think of you first.

Blogs are user friendly and inexpensive to boot.

There are blog programs that you can sign up for free or for a very nominal fee. Most blogs are easy to set up as they generally walk you through the process step-by-step. There aren’t too many marketing tools that are as easy to use and inexpensive to obtain. This alone makes a blog painless to your business budget.

Business blogs are easier when it comes to upkeep.

Blogs are fun to use, which makes them much easier to maintain. Posting regular tidbits of your chosen topic keeps a blog updated without a lot of hassle. Updating websites is essential, but can be time consuming and confusing as well.

The biggest benefit business blogs provide is…

Building Rapport with Your Target Audience

This is, by far, the best benefit you can obtain from a blog. Blogs have comment sections where readers can leave messages for you to let you know they liked what you said in a post or to add their own thoughts on the topic at hand.

You’re building a relationship with your target audience that can help gain trust from them as well as find out what they’re looking for in a product. This is your way to get an inside look at what your customer’s wants and needs are without spending lots of money on marketing surveys and advertisements that don’t work.

Blogs can give your business everything mentioned above and more. Adding a blog to your arsenal of marketing tools is a must do for any online business owner.