Please step around that pile there on the ground. What's that? That's the advice a guy, a self-proclaimed "guru," gave my friend about her site and SEO and PPC. He relieved her of a lot of cash and left this mess she needs my help to remove.
SEO tricks and treats abound on the internet and everyone claims to have cracked the code. But as my friend and so many others are finding, the top ranking doesn't automatically translate to revenue. Emphasizing a keyword makes sense only when that keyword will attract traffic that makes a purchase.
Of course, there have always been wolves out there on the fringes of legitimate business groups. These days the predators know if they shout the absurdist claims loud enough they will attract the ear of a frustrated entrepreneur who lacks the internet sophistication to see through a scheme to the underlying scam. If you are the type to spot a scheme or a Wolf, listen to an equally barking idiot before you jump the deep end and sign the check.
My friend's experience with SEO and SEO companies was the catalyst for me becoming more watchful of the sheer number of SEO scams in the industry. I did not jump the minute I saw a scheme that I could not believe. It left a bad taste in my mouth and although I have no small degree of respect for the intelligence of people who work in the SEO field, I was also attracted to the scheme.
My friend's story is not a unique one. I have heard it from a dozen or so clients who encountered companies like mine. They were promised "unlimited traffic" and sent their traffic to a " nonexistent website." They were assured that by advertising their traffic and optimizing their website for the search engines they would increase their traffic. Out of dozens of calls I received about these companies, I was most impressed with the first legitimate attempt I received to honest an unresponsive business. The firm was from a non-profit organization and they did not want to charge for their services. They were kind enough to understand that new clients might not be familiar with the services they provided and that they needed an introduction before they could see whether the firm was legitimate. This small gem of a business was the equalizer for me looking for easy ways to obtain large increases in my clientele.
My clients and I have become kind of a testing ground for new SEO strategies. When we import keywords and keyword phrases into Google Analytics to assess which ones might work and which ones don't, often it is hard to list down all the viable SEO strategies available. After all, shouldn't we optimize our websites for search engines, which in turn makes it easier for targeted traffic from search engines?
One of the search engine optimization strategies that rank high in my list is that which provides results in the form of online videos. In one recent case, a client showed me their website that ranked in the top 5 for several keywords and keyword phrases that seemed to be tailor-made for their industry. Numerous pages of material were related to this industry, and their website incorporated each one of them. I suggested that we watch the number of minutes a visitor watched on their home page and progress throughout the site. This simple measurement proved to me that the firm was providing a lot of value with its product.
My favorite recent example is that of an estate agent who had two different types of SERPs. One was for local searches, and the other was for hyperlocal searches. Local searches had very few results and only a few were for companies in the area. Hyperlocal searches on the other hand had numerous, but mostly hyperlocal searches for companies throughout the country. This left the agent puzzled.
They had several clients that could end up in the top 10, but why were their hyperlocal search results so much better than the smaller local searches? This problem was eliminated when they changed their "Florists in Austin" into a hyperlocal search phrase. Now their site improved its visibility on Google by +5 and the SERPs improved by almost 10 pages. Without this small improvement, they may have been working on several different keywords that did not provide a good match for their business.
To take advantage of local searches and hyperlocal search marketing, you need to employ the methods listed above. SIMPLE: You want people in Austin, Texas to find your website for relationship dating. Your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy should be, "dating".
You can get a lot more sophisticated with website optimization, but just start with the tips above and you will be well on your way to hyperlocal search engine optimization success.
Ignore The Gurus Please step around that pile there on the ground. What's that? That's the advice a guy, a self-proclaimed "guru," gave my friend about her site and SEO and PPC. He relieved her of a lot of cash and left this mess she needs my help to remove. SEO tricks and treats abound […]
