This is a local Realtor with little budget and she was made to believe that should could get good leads or quality Internet marketing services for $80 to $100 a month. The first time she was taken advantage of she paid $79 a month and the second time it happen she paid $99 month; both times she got no return on investment and a bad taste in her mouth for SEO experts.

I’m glad she came to me because professional SEO’s provide arguably the best return on investment for your marketing dollars. I wanted her to leave my office without thinking that all SEO’s are thief’s.

This is what the falsely proclaimed SEO’s were doing to her to take advantage of her and by no surprise both companies were doing the same thing.  They promised her she would rank #1 in Google for a term like “Rockaway homes for sale in NJ” that drove no traffic and had no competition in ranking so it made it very easy to rank number one for.

Most people don’t understand SEO, so they claimed they were providing SEO services and she didn’t know the difference. What they were actually providing was Pay Per Click services.

Here’s how they stole her money. They simply bid on a term that was around .05 cents per click that no one ever clicked on because it was not being searched for. So what happened was every time she would search that term in Google she would come up #1 and be confused on why she wasn’t getting traffic and most importantly leads.  Sadly, in the end the companies delivered what they promised; #1 ranking and she got nothing but emptier pockets.

Here are some fundamental tips to watch for when looking for an SEO provider:

1. Make sure the provider’s focus is on driving visitors and conversions to your website. Remember that ranking well for a term only matters if that term drives traffic and conversions.

2. SEO services are not cheap. SEO takes time and a good SEO professional charges anywhere from $100 -$1000 hourly.

3. Ask for references and ask the references to talk about the results.

4. Lastly, listen to your gut. It knows the truth.

Web analytics measure, collect, and analyze internet data to produce web traffic reports, which help optimize website usage.  Originally web traffic reports were primarily based on the number of requests serviced by the web server or hits, obtained from the web server log files. Page views and sessions were introduced next to more accurately measure the web traffic. Though these parameters are still mentioned in web analytics reports, these lack the precision needed in the present scenario.

With web proxies and dynamic IP addresses, search engine spiders/robots, it was increasingly difficult to measure the number of human visitors to a website. To overcome these constraints, a second data collection method is being used known as page tagging. Some of the advantages of page tagging over log file analysis method are web traffic count starts on opening a page, additional information can be collected about events including those which do not generate a server request, assigns cookies to uniquely identify visitors. Nowadays many vendors are available who provide web analytic service in a cost-effective way, employing both methods.

One web traffic analytic service that has become increasingly popular because of its many plus-points is Google Analytics at analytics.google.com.

This hosted service is free though signup is necessary (can be done through a Gmail account). The web traffic tracking method used is cookies via JavaScript. To understand why Google Analytics is so highly favored as a web traffic analysis tool, let us review the requirements of people who use the reports generated from it. E-business managers, marketers, webmasters and web site owners need information about conversion rates, website interface quality and several other factors on which decisions can be based for further technological investment. Thus accuracy and precision are the two overriding factors for a successful web traffic analysis. Knowing the web traffic trends of your website will help you to take proper decisions.

Google Analytics with its highly customizable user interface, key data visibility, performance context comparability, segmentation options, better page level reporting, etc., can provide you with all the critical information of your website traffic that you may need to base your corporate decisions on enhancing the SEO value.

The search engine optimization and marketing industry is seeing a rapid rise in the number of SEO companies.  Business owners now have multiple options in the growing number of SEO companies, but they also have to face a dilemma when choosing a professional SEO company from those available.

The professional SEO companies are reliable, and can give their clients the required support that will help their websites to stay ahead of competitors, and also find the maximum search engine visibility.

It is recommended that you contact several top companies that show up in your search, and ask them some pertinent questions; ask them what they can do to help you; or, what sets their company apart from the others.  These questions will help you understand who you are dealing with, and whether they are going to be a good choice and suit you or not.

You have to do some comparison research as well, to determine which is the best consulting company. There are a lot of companies and all have their unique talents.  Some talents may be better suited to the needs of your industry. After some initial research and investigation, you are likely to find the right company which is well rounded and will understand your needs.

The best professional SEO companies will take care of your site’s website optimization requirement, and help you spread your brand awareness quickly.

The main benefit of hiring a professional SEO company is they will be reliable and you will not need to guide them through out the Search Engine Optimization process. They usually have a team of talented SEO professionals with all the possible SEO knowledge.

They will know how to implement a powerful search engine marketing strategy which will help your website succeed in the online world.

They will not just give you “guaranteed top 10 ranking results” for your website on the major search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo etc for specific keyword searches, the will be more geared in providing you estimated visitor and conversion expectations.

They will keep track of your website’s performance and they will monitor it on a continual basis through their weekly or monthly SEO reports.

With a professional SEO company, it will be easier for you to gain increased targeted traffic and prospective customers for your business website.  This will enable your site to reach out to a wider audience base and provide a high return on investment.

I always find the amount of focus on these site-side elements interesting. I am an SEO Specialist and I understand that it needs to be done. However, I wonder if outside of key elements – analytics reporting, conducting keyword research for the sake of optimized anchor text, optimizing server-side configuration, and choosing solid meta descriptions and titles for conversion purposes – does anything other than generating content and link-building really matter?

I remember back in the day if you put terms three times in the title, three times in the description, and three times in the copy you were a ranking superstar. Now, you can have the most site-side optimized website possible, but without targeted link building, and social media it’s a sunken ship. I look at site side optimization as being the navigator of a ship, and link building is the engine that drives it.

1. Modern Design

When I say make the design modern, I don’t mean to make it very flashy with the Battlestar Galactica in the background. I am talking about making the site within the bounds of the clients brand but using today trends. A good example of this is Prudential’s new website. They have shifted from their older look that shows a 2002-2005 presentation to a 2008-2009 modern look.

Prudential’s Old Design

Visit Old Site

New Site Design

Visit New Site

2. Compromising usability costs potential revenue

One of the leading reasons people leave a site and don’t become a converted revenue source is because they can not find their way around or have such a problem using the site that they leave from frustration. Usability comes before everything else. Check out my blog post around these core fundamentals to discover more: “Awesome Usability is Like Driving a Car ”

3. Calls to action = Calls for your business services/products

A website that has left out “calls to action” on their pages is leaving behind a lot of conversion opportunities. A call to action is a way to capture your audience so that they either call or submit some sort of contact information on your site. I always recommend making the site in a way that engages the user in many areas on the page to submit their information. It can be a sign up for a free white paper, a monthly newsletter, or to use a free service. What every way you can pull in a qualified lead is important in the success of a website. But make sure it doesn’t come before usability. At the end of the day you want to have qualified leads going to your mailbox or phone line.

4. Great targeted content makes people stay and recommend it to others

When a user comes to your site from a search engine, social media recommendation or a banner ad off a website, they are expecting to see something very targeted to the message they clicked from. The internet is massive with content everywhere. Your content should be compelling or the user will drop off and go somewhere else among the billions of websites on the internet to find the information they want. When I come to a page that isn’t talking about the topic I was expecting to see, or isn’t compelling me to look further, I bounce off the site 80% of the time in the first 2 seconds. Good content makes people want to pass it along to their friends. The social media market is becoming more used then email and spreads much faster. Opportunities are endless in this medium.

5. A website that is not optimized for search engines is invisible

Unfortunately, many web developers and designers are not trained on the importance of making a site in a way that is search engine optimized. It’s important to learn more about this topic even if its just the basics of SEO to help your site in the indexing of search engines. Providing great content, doing keyword research for each page, optimizing page titles, and adding good anchor text are important additions to any website. Check out more on what google says about SEO here.

I hope this information provides you a good base to think about when designing a website. If you would like more information or this is just work that you would rather have a professional do, please call us directly or provide some quick information below and we will get back to you in less then 24 hours.

At my old job working for Zeta Interactive Agency, a great guy made a solid point I will probably never forget. He stated that “designing a website is like building a car.” He then went on to basically explain the same point I am going to outline from my experience.

When designing a website, I think of the web users as if they were buying a car. I ask myself what parts of the car should be instinctive when they are driving it? The steering wheel, stick shift, brake, gas peddle. On a website, these parts are the navigation and site structure. The best designs are consistent and easy to navigate through. Where ever the customer goes throughout the site the navigation is the same everywhere with out confusion. They don’t get lost trying to find their way around.

Making the car design stand out from the rest is like adding leather seats, a sunroof, seat warmers, nice sound system. On the website, incorporating subtle programming features, quality images, clean typography, and some subtle flash can make all the difference against your competitors.

I have a German car. When I was shopping around comparing my car to others, some of the great selling points were the quality of my car and how well it drove. I felt like I was in a car that was build to last. The same goes for great web design. When a potential customer comes to your site, you want them to feel like this is the company I want to do business with.

This is a very common question and if I was an SEO specialist looking to make a fast buck and not build long lasting relationships, this avenue could quickly be taking advantage of. Watch out small business owners for SEO’s trying to win your business doing this! Making your small business name #1 in Google and other search engines is very easy to do unless your business name just happens to have a competitive term in it like, “Labtop Computer Store”. Most sites in the small business world have little to no competition in the search engines for their business name. As a result of little to no competition in search engines, making some simple adjustments to title tags, and scoring a backlink or two will do the trick. Actually, most of the small business sites just need to adjust their title tag to make there business name show up #1.

Quick tip: Although Google Local Listings is not organic in the context I am talking about here. I suggesting your company sign up for a Google Account and list your business name in Google Local Listings for additional search value.

What I want to stress is that there is much more in SEO then ranking #1 for your business name. The best return on your investment with search engine optimization is in finding a specialist that can see the whole picture and will focus on driving traffic to your site from your target audience with converting them to a sale in mind.


Getting your business name listed out on the web is important for brand awareness, but the question to ask is; other then the value of brand awareness, how much traffic and sales did getting my business name #1, drive to my website?