By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Manoj Jasra
SES Chicago is a little over a month away and will feature a very well respected online marketing veteran, Rand Fishkin. Rand is the CEO of SEO Moz and is a regular speaker in the international conference circuit. Earlier this week I caught up with Rand to get his insight on his sessions at Search Engine Strategies Chicago, read our chat below:
[Manoj]: Tell our audience a little bit about the sessions you'll be participating in at SES Chicago and why attendees should drop by.
[Rand Fishkin]: I'll be involved in two sessions - PPC or SEO? The Ultimate Search Marketing Battle and Black Hat, White Hat: Does it Really Matter Anymore?
I think both of these touch on relatively sensitive issues in the field of search marketing and the exchanges will contain a lot of substance and style between the panelists. The value of the debate should come in the form of the data presented and the arguments employed. I suspect that many practitioners face these same challenges in their day-to-day roles with clients and internal management, and can find a handful of good takeaways to help support their perspectives.
[Manoj]: Is SEO vs. PPC a cut and dry decision? - it's really about your business and what your analytics tells you, correct?
[Rand Fishkin]: Yeah - definitely. PPC is so easy to get started with and simple to track that if you're earning a positive ROI, there's no reason not to make the investment. The only drawback is when PPC optimization takes up a great deal of time and attention that could be focused elsewhere. I've seen organizations that have multiple people devoted to PPC management on a full time basis, and if they could just take a couple weeks of their time and put them towards SEO, they'd likely generate massive amounts more traffic with an even higher positive return. SEO is an investment, but it's almost always worthwhile.
[Manoj]: Are black hat tactics still employed by individuals/organizations. If so, can you give us some examples?
[Rand Fishkin]: Certainly it is, but no I can't share examples :-) There's a small but vocal minority in the SEO field who feels it is far more immoral to reveal those employing black hat tactics than to perform spam, so let's talk in generalities instead. There are plenty of firms, large and small, who engage in link buying, cloaking, keyword stuffing, link injection, etc. In my opinion, the vast majority of these are doing nothing illegal, immoral, unethical or wrong, they're simply operating outside the boundaries of what the search engines recommend. Although we don't use these tactics at SEOmoz and don't recommend them to our clients, I see no problem with those who choose a different path, so long as they're honest with themselves about the risks and open with their clients/mangagers. Personally, I just feel that there's (almost) always a better white hat solution to any problem you're trying to solve with black hat SEO (exceptions might be in highly aggressive fields like gaming, porn & pharmaceuticals).
[Manoj]: If you were to pinpont a couple SEO tactics which are more important to consider now vs. a few years ago - what would they be?
[Rand Fishkin]: There's quite a number of tactics that have gained in prominence and value over the last few years, some of which hardly existed in the early days of Google SEO. A few that fit that category include creation and optimization of XML sitemaps, canonicalization of duplicate URLs, social media marketing via social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), viral content creation and promotion via social media, social media profile adoption/linkbuilding and optimization for popular search verticals like Google Local/Maps and Google News. A few of these have been around as long as 5-6 years, but many are new (or gaining prominence) even in the last 2-3.
[Manoj]: In a scenario where you are given 25K to spend for a client who has a brand new business/website, how would you spend it (in regards to Online Marketing)?
[Rand Fishkin]: I'd probably recommend they engage with a talented in-house marketer for 4-6 months (depending on their rate). Getting someone internal working full time on projects, having responsibility to the bottom line and being able to see the company metrics with a incented stake is, in my opinion, the best way to go. As for their tasks, I'd go in this order:
Content quality and value on the website (this could include things like a blog or UGC, but may just means top notch editorial content)
Web analytics - ensure that a good system for recording progress and traffic is installed on every page of the site
Conversion rate optimization and setup of a testing platform (assuming it's a transactional-focused site)
SEO - confirm that all content is crawlable, that important keywords are targeted properly and that all best practices are followed (XML Sitemaps, good internal linking, page structure, etc.)
Viral Marketing - look at opportunities to help draw large quantities of traffic for branding/awareness of the site as well as attract links
Email Marketing - engage with the audience through at least an email newsletter and possibly more personalized/direct kinds of email marketing
After those, I might look into link building, paid search, display ads and other channels in tests, but those would be the first steps I'd recommend.
By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Paul Jahn
A few days ago in the Twittersphere, it's been mentioned that Google
Analytics is now starting to add the number of "goals" to 20 (four groups of five), up from four only.
For some, this may not be a big deal. For others, it's just fantastic
and the possibilities are almost endless.
For many companies, a couple goals fit just fine. If you're generating leads, you may have goals set up for both a long and short form for people to fill out, giving you information about their needs. That's it.
What if you want to get more
granular? Maybe you have a new service or product and want to set goals on how many users get to these pages. You can test these goals for the number of pages you want people to visit or even how long you want users on your site.
Or, if
you're an e-commerce site 20 goals still may not be enough. That's probably a different discussion.
Let's take a look. Here's how part of your goals page may look now.
As noted above, the 20 goals are for four groups of five. This still allows you to get creative. Here's a small addition. It's not just about a URL destination.
Time on Site and Pages/Visit are just a couple tools you may want to play around with for measuring different site engagement goals.
If you want to measure engagement by "time on site", you can easily do so down to the second.
Same goes for the number of pages per visit.
As always, Google provides an easy-to-understand YouTube video.
By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Stoney deGeyter
People often associate branding with money. Lots and lots of money. Generally, if you try to run a branding campaign you might see from companies like Target, you most certainly will have to fork over a big chunk of change. But small business owners don't have that kind of money to brand themselves in similar fashion. Fortunately, there are other ways to brand your small business online.
From my examples in my post Why Branding Matters to Small Businesses, you might conclude that a full-scale SEO or PPC campaign is the only way to brand yourself online. SEO can play a role in branding, but you can engage it strategically so you're spending less time and less money while still building brand recognition.
What are you branding?
First you need to know what it is you are branding. Is it your company name? Your products? Your services? Your personal name or online handle? What is it that you want people to remember?
If you're a blogger your name is definitely important. So is your blog name. If you're a business then your business name will be important, as might be your products if they are exclusively yours. The point is, before you start spending money to brand yourself you first need to determine what you have that needs to be branded. Now you have your starting place.
How to use SEO for branding
SEO is a great way to brand your business, products, services or blog. Since you're not going after high-volume keywords, the cost of using SEO for branding is relatively minimal. The idea is to make sure you come to the top of the results when someone searches for whatever it is you're trying to brand. The goal here is to make sure your brand is prominent in the results so you begin to build that brand-name recognition.
The easiest way to do this kind of branding is to simply edit your title tags to include your brand name. If it's your company name, then put your company name first and foremost in your title tag. If you're branding own name, put that there. Most SEOs will tell you not to put your business name in the front of your title tag. If you're targeting non-branded keyword searches I fully agree. However if your focus is on building brand name recognition, then you'll have to sacrifice some keyword real estate for your brand.
The goal here is to make sure people see your company name, or whatever it is you're branding, whenever your site comes up in the search result. This will also help ensure that when someone does a search for your branded name they'll find you up top. It will still be important to optimize your site for non-branded keywords, however. The more keywords you rank on the first page for they more opportunities you have to build brand name recognition.
Look for opportunities to optimize for your pages for some of the long-tail keyword phrases. Being ranked on those often generates more highly targeted visitors so branding to that audience is even better.
How to use PPC for branding
Another thing you can do to brand yourself is to buy cheap ads through Google, Yahoo and Bing. You can do this for your name, products or even specific keyword searches. When going this route you're not competing for top spot, or even for a lot of clicks. Instead, you're looking to appear on a search result page where you'll be seen for as little money as possible. Don't compete. Find keywords that have low click cost or more expensive keywords where you can rank further down the page. Again, the point here is just simply to get eyeballs to fall on your ad--and your brand name--not necessarily to get the searcher to click on your ad (though that's never a bad thing.)
PPC ads are a great way to get visibility for incorrect or alternative spellings of your brand. Bidding on most variations of your brand name will cost you next to nothing on a per-click bases. You can also run your ads on dozens, or even hundreds, of low search volume keywords. These will get very little traffic, and therefore cost very little, but it gives you yet another opportunity to get your name in front of searchers eyeballs. Lots of little exposures often dwarf the benefit of a few big exposures.
I'm fully convinced that there isn't a company in the world, regardless of size, that shouldn't be working on branding itself in some way or another. Branding for your web site or company name is usually the easiest thing to do as most web sites inherently come to the top of the results for those types of searches. But taking it a bit further, expanding your reach can be significantly rewarding, even allowing you to be a little brand in a big commercial pond.
By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Stoney deGeyter
Branding is a tricky subject for most small businesses. Historically brand building has been a costly effort that only big businesses could afford. But online marketing has changed that allowing even small business to build a recognizable brand. In fact, when it comes to SEO and website marketing, I see the necessity of helping our client's brand themselves in the search sphere.
In the past, we often felt that some clients just didn't need to be branded in the search results. Maybe because they were smaller clients or didn't have a nationally recognized name. But then how do companies become nationally recognized names? You got it. Branding.
Branding isn't just for big companies any more. With the internet and search, it has become easier and cheaper to for companies to brand their names in front of their target audience. Good branding efforts will always cost you some time, energy and even money, but it's not out of reach of the small businesses.
The benefits of branding your web site
A solid branding strategy is important for any small business and should be a part of your online marketing efforts. If you're like most small businesses you are more concerned about selling products or services than in establishing a name for yourself. Why go through the effort? Simply put, branding helps sales.
Let's say you can get one person to recognize your company name and can immediatly associate it with quality. Whether that be quality content, quality customer service, quality products, or whatever. But right now only one person on the planet knows your company by name and they are convinced you are the it place. Not a huge deal, right? Well, yes, it is.
This one person will choose to buy from you rather than your competitor. Your ability to brand your name, and make it synonymous with your quality, has just earned you a sale. But only one sale? For now, yes, but here's what happens next.
That one person who knows your brand tells a few other people about you. The trust you earned with the one person is beginning to multiply. Let's say that one or two of them try you out based on the brand recognition that was passed on to them, they get same quality in customer service and care, and now you have branded yourself in the minds of a couple more people. And, of course, you just got more sales. This keeps going and going, multiplying with each new brand conversion.
The reason your name gets passed on, is because you have a name that has established trust. When someone finds you with a search they are on their own. They have no brand recognition of you, no history, and no recommendations. When you're able to brand yourself to your customers you can then be passed on to others by word of mouth. That's a trusted recommendation.
With branding, you're not just selling a product, you're selling yourself, and it's you--not your product--that gets passed on to each person down the chain.
The most effective branding is not in the number of people you reach, but in the number of times you're able to reach any single person with your brand name.
Let's say you want to buy an Easy Button. (Yes, I have one!) Do you know who makes them? Do you remember those commercials? If you do, its because of branding. If you don't then you have to search for it.
A quick Google search for "easy button" shows a variety of results; Staples, amazon, youtube, metacafe, and others. By now you might remember who made the easy button commercials. If you do, that's because of their branding campaigns.
As my easy button would say: that was easy.
Branding your business online
Now let's put this into the perspective of search since online branding works a bit differently than offline. Run a search for DVD. In this search I see results for Wikipedia, DVDs, DVD Empire, Deep Discount DVD, DVD File, Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster, and a few others. Note that I'm not just looking at natural results, but paid results also.
I realize that DVD is too broad of a search so I fine tune it to DVD Movie. Huh! Some of these results look familiar. Again I see DVD Empire, Netflix, Deep Discount DVD, Amazon, and DVDs.
I don't particularly like paying full price DVDs so I try searching again with cheap DVDs. Here again I see DVD Empire and Deep Discount DVD,.
Do you see what happened there? In three searches two companies stood out. I now have brand name recognition for each of them for the term DVD.
Every search produced different results, but some sites receive more exposure, and therefore more branding power because they came up in more than one search. Now, without even searching, I have a mental idea of where I can go to buy DVDs: DVD Empire and Deep Discount. The next time I want a DVD, I might just go directly to one of those sites without even searching.
This type of search result branding can work for your business too. It's not about getting into the #1 spot but getting your business on the first page for as many relevant keywords as possible. You don't have to go after highly competitive keyword phrases to get a good amount branding power behind your business.
In my next post, I'll provide information on how small businesses can brand themselves for little or no money.
By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Jennifer Laycock
Now that you've got a Facebook Page for your business or organization, you're probably itching to do something with it. After all, there are more than 300 million people using Facebook on a regular basis. Surely at least a few of them want to interact with you!
Tons of companies come in to Facebook, set up their page, throw a few photos and status updates on it and leave. Doing this is akin to building a web site without bothering to optimize it for search engines and create a content strategy. Facebook is essentially another home on the web for your business, one that's easily accessible because it allows your customers and evangelists to choose to receive updates from you on a regular basis. Think of it as an RSS reader or an email newsletter on crack.
It's easy enough to figure out how to post a status update to your page, but you're going to have to go further than that. In this article, I'm going to take a look at the default Facebook Page applications and give you some insight on how to both use them and leverage them. (If it's third party apps you're wondering about...never fear. I have felt your pain, as has anyone else who has tried to set them up. I'll cover them in depth later in the series.)
For now, let's take a look at the first three native applications that come with your Facebook Page. Today we'll be exploring Discussion Boards, Events and Links. In the next article in the series we'll dive into Notes, Photos and Video.
Let's Go Explore Facebook Page Applications
The first thing you'll need to do in order to work with applications is to get back into the admin panel for your Facebook Page. To do this, you'll need to log in to Facebook and go to the Facebook Page you want to edit. Once you're there, look underneath the large avatar on the left and find the link that reads "Edit Page."
Clicking on this link will take you back into the Facebook Page admin panel. Once there, you'll want to scroll down to the section that says "Applications."
Using the Facebook Page Discussions Tab
We're going to work through each of the native apps, so let's go ahead and start at the top. Find the box that reads "Discussion Boards." If you have the type of Facebook Page that's heavily information based or you're seeking to build a really interactive community, you'll likely want to make use of the Discussion Boards.
If you've ever used a discussion forum, it's pretty much the same feature. Discussion boards allows for threaded conversations on your Facebook Page. While it's true you can also have threaded conversations on your Facebook Page Wall, it just makes it a little neater and cleaner to contain more targeted discussions within the Discussion boards. There's not much you need to do admin wise to get these running. Just head over there to the right side of the page and click the little blue edit icon.
First you'll want to hit "Application Settings."
Go ahead and leave "Box" set to "available" and set "Tab" to "added." (Unless of course you don't want discussions in which case you can remove the discussion tab and skip this entire section.)
Then click over to "Additional Permissions" and make sure the box is checked for "Publish Recent Activity." This will allow snippets of your discussion conversations to publish to your Wall as a way to draw additional fans to the conversation.
Now that you've got the basics set up, you'll need to click back over to your Facebook Page so you can start a conversation. Look for the tab that reads "Discussions" and click on it.
Once you're there, look to the right side of the screen and find the "Start a New Topic" Button.
Click that and you're ready to enter your topic name and the content of your post.
Once you've got it written up, go ahead and click the "Post new topic" link. Facebook will take you to the published post.
From there, go ahead and click on the "Discussion Board" tab and you can go back and see what the list of discussions will look like on your Facebook Page.
Now how you use the Discussions tab is up to you and your personal strategy. If you're promoting a web site that focuses on content, you may want to use it to drive discussions from your posts or to ask questions of your readers. If you're a company that sells a product or service, you may want to encourage your fans to use it as a feedback channel.
Little Debbie Snacks does a great job of utilizing their Discussion tab.
Most of the conversation is fans talking about their favorite products, but the Little Debbie team also pops in to answer questions.
Your discussion tab is one of the best ways to really interact with your fans in depth. Find ways to spark conversation, get in and participate in the conversation and keep an eye out for new content ideas for the rest of your Facebook Page based on what people are talking about.
Using the Facebook Page Event Tab
One of the great things about Facebook Pages is the way companies and groups can use them to build a community. Of course part of building a community is bringing people together to share experiences. Whether it's a public apperance, a contest, an educational event, a sale or pretty much anything else... events are your way to rally your fans together around a happening.
They also serve as a great way to remind your fans you exist because they give you a reason to contact them via Facebook and invite them to come back to your page to interact with you.
So let's head back to the main Facebook Page and once again select "Edit Page" from the list of links underneath your Facebook Page profile picture.
Scroll back down to the applications section and look for the box labeled "Events." Move your mouse over to the right, find the blue edit button and click it.
As with the Discussions tab, we'll want to jump straight to "Application Settings." This time around, you'll need to decide how you want to approach sharing event updates with your fans. It's easy enough to select the Tab setting and give fans the option of exploring a full page worth of events that way, but if you plan to integrate a lot of tab options for content and you know you'll be going light on the events, you may want to disable tabs and enable the "box" option.
If you enable the box, your events will show up in the left side bar under your avatar, along side your content. Like this:
Now that you've got your Events set to show up the way you want them to, let's try adding one.
If you've added an Events tab to your Facebook Page, you can click on it, then look for the "Create an Event" button on the top right side of the screen.
You'll be taken to the first of three pages you'll need to fill out to create your event.
It's important to note that as of right now, Facebook Page Events do not have the same features as Facebook Profile Events. When you're setting up an event on your personal profile, you can set an event to be Open, Closed or Secret. This gives you quite a bit of leeway in using the application for events that may or may not be open to the public. The event option for your Facebook Page lacks this. (Hopefully just for now...)
Fill in the information for your event and click "Create Event."
The next page will give you the option of uploading an event photo, writing a description of the event and selecting the options for how the event will show. You can choose to enable an event wall and then to allow guests of the event to post their own photos, videos and link. You can decide if you want to show the guest list or not and you can allow your guests to spread the word and invite other guests.
When you hit "Save and Continue," you'll get a pop up window showing you what the event will look like when you publish it to your wall.
Hit "Publish."
The event will immediately publish to your Wall. Facebook will then give you the option of going through your list of contacts and inviting specific people to the event. You can also import email addresses and add a personal message to your invite before sending it off.
Click "Send Invitations" or go ahead and skip this part and just leave the event posted on your wall.
Once you've done this, Facebook will automatically take you to the event page you've created.
You'll quickly see where you can upload photos, add video, post related links and make posts to the event wall. Over on the right side of the page you can also RSVP as to whether you are attending, print a guest list, invite more people to the event or even promote the event with an ad.
Once you've got that set up, go ahead and click back over to your Facebook Page and take a look at how the event shows up on your wall stream.
If you've got an active membership for your Facebook Page, you may not need to do much more than publish the event. If you're just getting things set up, you're going to have to do a bit of publicity for it. This is where you'll need to actively issue invites, add that email list, and come up with some creative send to friend incentives to help your existing fans spread the word to potential fans.
Using the Facebook Pages Link Application
Your Facebook Page should be a resource for your fans. It should be a place for them to learn about your company and your offerings, but it should also be a place to get supplemental information, to spark conversation and to share things you find. The Facebook Links application makes this possible.
Once again we want to head back to the settings page. (Go back to your Facebook Page and find the "edit page" link under your page's profile picture.)
As with the last two applications, we'll need to start by clicking the blue edit button on the right side of the Links box.
You'll need to once again decide if you want this application to run via boxes or tabs. I've personally yet to really see a reason why I'd run my links in a tab, so I always leave this option off.
Links are more of an immediate delivery to your audience, showing up in your stream and getting clicked and commented on. That said, I do like to turn the box option on. This allows the last several links you've shared to be archived in the box tab on the left side of your page.
The great thing about adding links to your Facebook Page is the system does a great job of formatting them in a way that makes them stand out. You're not publishing a standard text link here. When you enter a hyperlink, Facebook will automatically pull the title of the page, a description and will let you pick an image. You'll also be able to add your own commentary on the link. If you've ever shared a link via your blog, think of this as a micro version of that.
Posting a link is crazy simple.
Simply go to your Facebook Page and find the big entry box at the top of the page.
Paste your link into this box.
Facebook will automatically go spider the link and will generate a box below the entry point that pulls the title of the page, a description (sometimes the Meta, sometimes a snippet from the page) and any images that may be relevant.
If there are multiple images available, you'll be able to use the forward and back arrows that show next to the image to scroll through and pick the one you like best. (You can also click the "no thumbnail" image if you'd rather not have one, but keep in mind images naturally draw the eye toward them, making link that include images stand out on the page.)
Once you're satisfied with the information for the link, it's time to move back up to the entry box and add your own commentary.
You can highlight and delete the link you entered at this point if you'd like. It will still show as a fully functional link when it's posted. I tend to do this before adding some comments about the link.
Links can be an effective tool for attracting fans and building up loyalty. Share resources with your readers. Give them interesting and relevant information and become the source they trust for the topic you cover.
Coming Up Next
In the next article in the series, I'll keep working through the native Facebook Page applications. We'll take a look at the Notes feature, the Photo Album feature and Video integration. We'll skip over the native Facebook RSS/Blog options because quite frankly, I think they're lame. (Don't worry, I'll share with you my favorite third party app for integrating your blog feed down the road.)
My boss Rob Key at Converseon likes to say that "All media is social." To me, that captures what redefining social media is about--in a few years, we won't need to talk about "social" media anymore because we'll have made the adjustment to what media has become, a jumping off point for interaction, for conversation, and for community.
"Are we there yet?" Much like a vacation with the kids, the ride sometimes seems interminable as we wait for social media to "take off." In fact, my belief is that the real change we are experiencing right now is not in social media itself, but rather in how businesses are beginning to use it. Where a year ago businesses were "looking at" social media as a possible focus area, now they are at least testing the water, if not jumping in with both feet.
The down economy, while painful for many of us in so many ways, has actually accelerated the use of social media, because we can't afford to keep shelling out for the old ways of doing things. While large companies are shutting down TV budgets, small companies are experimenting with online video, blogs, and Twitter, because they are realizing that the full-page Yellow Pages ad doesn't work the way it used to.
So, to me, redefining social media is more about the willingness of so many businesses, large and small, to give it a try. When times are tough, everything is re-examined and what seemed risky is suddenly less scary than the prospect of revenue shortfalls. The fear of trying new things, or of being wrong, or of making a mistake withers in the face of the fear of losing your business.
So, if you haven't yet stuck a toe in the social media waters, promise yourself to do it now. Not every business needs online videos, or blogs, or Twitter, but very few wouldn't benefit from at least one of them. Examine what you are good at, identify the online neighborhoods where your customers hang out, and make adecision to at least start visiting those neighborhoods, if only to listen. Then, after you get a bit more comfortable, decide how you'd like to join the conversation and engage.
Your business won't fall over dead if you continue to sit on the social media sidelines, but it probably won't grow as quickly, either. Social media usually costs little more than an investment of your time, so what is the harm of trying it out? If it doesn't seem to be helping, you can always stop. Perhaps the big risk isn't trying social media, but rather not trying it.
By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Eric Brown
Forget all the 'It's About the Conversation" Social Media hype
and babble. If you are using Social Media for your Small Business, or
any business, or you are contemplating entering the Social Media space for your
business, It is About Selling More Stuff, period. There is NO other reason to do it.
The quote by Sergio Zyman sums it up nicely, just replace the word Marketing with Social Media.
"The sole purpose of marketing is to sell more to more
people, more often and at higher prices. There is no other reason to do
it."
If you are contemplating utilizing Social Media for your business for
any other reason Than To Sell More Stuff, consider it is a Hobby, not a
viable Business Decision
It seems that many of the "purists" in the Social Media Space may well be slowly coming around to the reality that unless they are selling something, hunger sets in. We all need to buy shoes, so sooner or later a business must profit. Absent selling something there is no profit, absent profit, there is no business, only a hobby.
For us at Urbane Apartments, Social Media Marketing has worked very well. Our year over year numbers are impressive considering the economy and the fact that we operate in SE Michigan, plagued with the highest unemployment in the nation.
Year Over Year Numbers; Sept 2008 verses Sept 2009 Our Web Site Traffic to our three web sites, UrbaneApts.com, UrbaneLobby.com and UrbaneBlog.com increased 108%! Great news right, web traffic soars from the effective use of Social Media by 108%, but who really cares? Did We Rent More Apartments, because if we didn't, the practice of Social Media Marketing is just a hobby.
Our phyisical traffic did increase, in that we did 54% more tours and showings, but the real metirc which is Renting Apartments increased by 69%!
By Larger Community, we mean, just how many "Members of the Community" do we need on say facebook, our blog, our Ning site, our myspace page, our flickr site, our You Tube site, etc. to keep our apartments full.
By The Directional Flow of Marketing Has Changed we mean, with Social Media, prospects are part of your Larger Community because they choose to be and they can leave at any time, as oppossed to the reverse, which is you shouting marketing messages at them.
You see, we didn't do any paid advertising at Urbane Apartments in 2009, We only used Social Media Marketing , and yes We Engaged in the Conversation, We Connected with our Residents, We Enhanced the Residents Experience, all of the popular buzz words for Social Media, but we started with the Goal of Renting More Apartments.
By Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
by Miriam Ellis
Friend and colleague, Matt McGee, recently published a very fine piece on getting started in SEO. For business owners new to the discipline of search engine optimization, Matt offers very good advice with the voice of experience. And, while this was the main focus of his piece, it is Matt's comment about hiring SEOs that is generating some of the liveliest feedback on his blog. Matt advises:
Don't hire anyone who contacts you first. SEO is very much in demand these days. The best and most trusted companies don't need to spam you with offers of free web site analyses. Delete those emails right away.
Responses have ranged from readers explaining that they feel it's important to research and contact businesses that might be a good match for their services, to asking why SEO is any different from any other industry that might contact potential clients, to suggesting that only a prestigious SEO like Matt would be doing well enough to comfortably give this kind of advice. As it happens, I support what Matt has said, and I'd like to explain why.
Why Business Owners Shouldn't Hire Web Services Providers Who Contact Them
I'm broadening my statement to include any type of web service: SEO, website design, SEM, Local SEM, PPC...you name it. If you own a business and are seeking to establish a presence or increase your visibility on the web, I would never advise you to hire a provider who contacts you first, whether via phone or email. Why not?
- Well, it's not because someone new to SEO, SEM, website design, etc. doesn't have any talent or skill. Most assuredly not.
- And it's not because cold calling or cold emailing automatically equates with spam or crooked business practices.
- And it's not even because unsolicited marketing is something that annoys so many of us.
Rather, these are my 3 reasons why hiring a web services provider who contacts you is probably not your best bet for success.
1. It's my contention, and this is borne out by the experience of so many folks I know in this business, that the majority of established web services providers' work comes through referrals from satisfied clients or colleagues or directly via searches on the web for the desired services. One of the commentors on Matt's blog suggested that cold calling is fine because the SEO may be 'hungry' (eager for work and ready to do a good job). My feeling is that hunger is only possible in the absence of established experience.
Established SEOs, Web Designers, Usability Experts, SEMs have to turn down work all the time because there is more demand than they can fulfill. I would say that a hungry SEO is one who has simply yet to establish a satisfied clientele that will refer their own friends, family and associates to him, or who has yet to establish good search engine rankings of his own that bring visitors to his website where the first contact can be made by the client. Only time is going to amass the experience a web services provider needs to be the best bet for a client. When you hire someone to strengthen your presence on the web, your business' success is in their hands and I would advise that you will be better off with a firm with a track record of real past success.
2. It's important to consider additional scenarios besides the lone and hungry SEO who is cold calling business owners. Telephone marketing can also be the province of very large web services companies who have the staff to run their fingers through the YP calling every business in sight in hopes of picking up contracts. When I think about the welfare of the client, I'm not happy with this scenario either.
In my experience, business owners (especially small business owners) will be best served by forming a long term relationship with a web designer, webmaster, SEO, etc., who will know them by name and come to know their business like the back of their hand. Can you really hope to succeed on the web when you start out as an 'account', being treated like a number by a company too large to ever know you by name? I wouldn't bet on it.
I've seen one too many small business owners get burned by $9.99 website builder companies and generic PPC management offers. This scenario stands in sharp contrast to the lucky business owner who manages to hire somebody like Matt McGee to start working for the success of her business. Genuine rapport and a personal investment will develop between provider and owner and I am convinced that the business owner is going to be far better off working with someone whose chief concern is client well being rather than whether his boss will fire him tomorrow for not picking up enough new accounts.
3. I saved this for last, because I see this as applicable much of the time, but surely not all of the time. There are a heck of a lot of rotten spammers and scammers out there who very much do contact business owners with the intention of rooking them. That's just the truth and I've seen it happen. The bad guys can't rely on a hard-won reputation for providing quality services. Rather, they rely on the naivety of business owners who don't know the difference between valuable services and ripoff deals.
I will never forget a personal experience with a small business owner - a client who came to us many years ago for website design for his handmade wood toy company. We built him a small, functional, simple little site, solidly grounded in good onpage SEO practices, properly optimized for the keywords that were important to him. For one reason or another, the client lost touch with us, only to show up 6 months later pleading for help.
He had given his credit card number to an 'SEO company' who had contacted him, guaranteeing him top 10 Google rankings. Instead, they had stuffed his meta tags, turned his copy into utter nonsense and desecrated his code and run up unapproved charges on his card...and continued to charge his credit card after he had told them they were very much fired. We went in and did damage control on the site, but I still wish the owner had thought to contact us first before handing over the keys to these crooks. Really frustrating.
When a stranger calls or emails you offering you something, please remember that you have no idea who this person is, where they are or what they are up to. I'd love to live in a world where I could trust everyone's word at face value, but that's just not the way things are. The health of your business' web presence is far too important to automatically trust to a person who falls from the sky into your life. If you needed to take the most important person in your life to an exceptional restaurant for an incredibly special occasion, chances are, you'd ask your friends for recommendations on the very best eating place in town. Surely, your success on the web deserves equal thought and care.
The bottom line here is that you should ask your circle of friends and colleagues for referrals when it's time to hire an SEO, a website designer or marketer. You should visit multiple websites, look at testimonials for credibility, read blogs, visit top industry forums and social media sites to see who is spoken well of and plan to have a real heart-to-heart talk with the person or team you're considering hiring to see if you can really work with them. If you own the business, the effort needs to be on your part to make that first connection, based upon your research and good sense.
It's No Shame To Be New
So where does this leave those new to the various web-based work fields? How are you supposed to build up this circle of colleagues who will gladly refer to you, this valued pool of clients who so love what you did for them that they will recommend you to their best friend, this mass of web citations that refer to you as an expert and a good guy?
My advice here is simple. You already know a lot of people. Palore recently estimated that only 1/2 of the small businesses in America currently have websites. This means that some of your friends who run businesses almost assuredly have no website, have never engaged in SEO, Local Search Marketing, PPC or any other web-based efforts. These people can be your first clients, pro bono or at a very modest fee that is commensurate with your present lack of experience. Don't quit your day job until your aunt refers you to her hairdresser...someone you don't know but who is about to become your client via referral. When you reach this stage, when you've started to build up that gorgeous page of totally legitimate testimonials from business owners in whose lives you've made a real difference, you are headed for success.
And, while you're working for little or no money, make the smart move of identifying where the very best conversations are happening in your industry. Start participating. Ask questions. Offer help when you can. Don't try to wear bigger boots than you actually own. There is absolutely no shame in being new and there is a ton of room in all the web-based specialties for hard-working, decent, honest, committed people who want to acquire skills and put them to use for others.
I found Matt McGee's article to be an excellent starting point for thought and discussion, not just about getting started on the web as a business owner, but getting started as the owner of a web services business. Like any other industry in the world, achieving success and maintaining it is going to take time and a lot of hard work. There will be cases and places in which advertising, marketing and maybe even contacting interesting businesses now and again may be indicated, but solidity will best be built on establishing a name for yourself in the business world that makes clients come to you. Think of how proud you will feel achieving this. It's a worthy goal!
SES Chicago is a little over a month away and will feature a very well respected online marketing veteran, Rand Fishkin. Rand is the CEO of SEO Moz and is a regular speaker in the international conference circuit. Earlier this week I caught up with Rand to get his insight on his sessions at Search Engine Strategies Chicago, read our chat below:
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