Guide to get best SEO results
Posts tagged Know
Email Marketing Terms to Know
Mar 18th
When researching email marketing software, it’s important to know what to look for in the products you are looking up. Here are a few things to remember when looking for email marketing software for your business.
When evaluating email marketing software, it is important to know some buzz words, key words, and things to consider so that you are properly informed. As a small business owner, you will greatly benefit from email marketing, as it helps you stay in contact with your current or potential clients. It is an important service that can greatly increase sales. Therefore, it is important to be informed before making a choice on the email marketing solution you are choosing.
The following is a glossary of email marketing buzz words that you might come across, and what they mean to you and your business.
Email Authentication: These are various bits of information that identify the sender to the Internet Service Providers (ISPs). It’s a kind of accountability for the messages that you are sending out.
The latest technologies in this field include Doman Keys, DKIM and SPF records. Any great email marketing software provider will take care of these technologies on your business’ behalf, so you don’t have to worry about it. If you speak to an email marketing account executive, make sure to ask if they’re taking care of email authentication for you, and inquire about which technologies they’re using.
Domain Keys (DK); Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM): Are signatures that are added to your emails to verify the sender (or domain) and the content within the message. This helps get your messages into your subscribers’ inbox, as it is information that spam bots/filters can identify. The best email marketing organizations have this in place, so that your emails have the best possible chances of landing in your subscribers inboxes.
Spam: Is the common term for unsolicited bulk-email. When an email is sent to an address that did not opt-in (or give direct permission) to receive the email, or is sent multiple times to the same address, it is considered Spam. The most respected email marketing companies will not take on customers who are planning to send Spam messages. In fact, the top companies will catch Spam messages before they go out, and prevent the sender from sending them.
Tracking – Once you send out a message, you can track opens, clicks, forwards, and bounces: The best email marketing companies will have a comprehensive tracking beacon allowing you to see which of your subscribers have opened clicked and forwarded your emails. You will also be able to take this information and use it for future campaigns.
It will provide you with a better understanding of your subscribers, and therefore allow you to develop a proper strategy to market to them accordingly. “Opens” relates to which of your subscribers have actually seen the content of your email, by clicking on it in their inbox.
”Clicks” are a list of subscribers that have pressed on one of the links in the email that you have set up. Look for an email marketing software that will give you information as to who, exactly who clicked on each link, and when they did it. “Forwards” lists the subscribers that have passed your message onto other interested parties.
”Bounces” are the emails that didn’t arrive to the intended reader, because either the subscriber’s mailbox was full, the address no longer exists, their server has timed out (meaning the end computer was not responding to the original computer’s message) or because the security features on the subscribers account are set extremely high.
Make sure that you know what you are looking for in an email marketing software, so that you campaign s will be as successful as can be. Look for the email marketing software companies that give you the best possible chances to get your email into the inbox of you subscribers.
Rudy Barell is a Senior Account Executive with Elite Email, the complete email marketing package used by small, medium and large businesses around the world. You can deploy comprehensive email marketing software for your business with a no risk free trial. Start harnessing the power of email marketing today!
What to Know Before Hiring an SEO
Mar 13th
Thinking about hiring an SEO?
As more and more small businesses look for opportunities to grow, the term SEO (Search Engine Optimization) always seems to come up. Someone has a story about some business who made millions off tweaking a meta tag, and people get very excited. But before you go running out and hiring someone, there are a few things you need to know.
Don’t fall for the get rich quick story.
For one thing, let me be the first to tell you that a lot of stories about SEO are either exaggerated, or simply untrue. Yes, you can make a lot of money from SEO, there is no doubt about that. But in talks with people at parties, or other social gatherings I hear more and more “SEO stories” that sell a too good to be true situation and you should be aware of it. If they are unaware of my SEO background, they even tell me this stuff. They talk about some kid who tweaked a few tags and made millions of dollars off his blog, or a company who boosted their profits 300% in a month from a little SEO. I’m not sure where these stories originate, but you must keep in mind that SEO is new, but the same old rules apply. There is no get rich quick method, and you won’t get something for nothing. SEO will certainly be a positive addition to your business, but it requires hard work and sacrifice just like anything else. Which brings me to my next point.
Manage your own expectations
SEO is good, it’s obviously what I base my SEO website on. It’s what I do for a living, and I don’t want to try and downplay it’s importance. However, it is by no means a silver bullet that will make any business successful. It’s not the “secret trick” to make you rich. It’s something you do to grow your business and it works, but don’t expect millions to pour in every night.
SEO takes time
SEO is a long, continuous process that requires work and maintenance. Gone are the days where you could hire someone to tweak some code, and sit back to collect the riches. It takes a long time to get going, and requires maintenance. It could be months, or longer before you see any improvement in traffic and sales. Many times I’ve seen people talk in forums about hiring an SEO, seeing no immediate results and feeling “ripped off”. While it’s certainly true in some cases, in other cases the person or company actually did positive things for your site, and it took a while to kick in. It can take days, months or even years for the effects to be seen, so be patient. Content has to be spidered, links have to be built and indexed, and the major search engines do this at their own pace. While there are anomalies here and there, for the most part top rankings come with time.
There may not be a crowd of people waiting to find you.
This has been the hardest point for me to sell to a customer, and something I’ve personally been involved in before. Let’s say your business sells webkinz. If I work hard, and get you ranked up high, you’ll get thousands of new customers a day, because webkinz are hot. There are 7 million people a day searching for webkinz of some type. This is a hot term, and will get a lot of traffic (and will also have a lot of competition). But what if your business sells heating elements for clothes dryers? If I manage to get you a top spot, should you expect 7 million people a day? Of course not, in fact around 1,900 people a day search for this, and at best you can expect 10-20% of those people if you have a number one spot for it. Then, you have to convert those 190-300 visitors into sales. It may not yield the results you were expecting. That’s why you need to analyze your business, and your market. Are a lot of people searching for your product?
SEO is not always the answer.
I may get rotten tomatoes thrown at me, but there are times where you shouldn’t hire an SEO. If you are a small business that runs on a shoestring, and you have a small market, and an extremely limited niche market, it may not make sense to pay thousands for some top SEO company to get you a ranking. You may be better off grabbing a copy of SEO for dummies (which is actually a decent book for beginners) and seeing what you can learn on your own. Another option is, finding an SEO that’s “creative” enough to find other search terms and streams for your business. The final word on this is, don’t expect too much but make the best of what you can get. I have worked with several companies who were fully aware that only 300 people a day were searching for their product, but wanted to dominate the listings anyway for branding purposes. As a business owner this is your choice to make.
Ask up front
If you’re hiring an SEO, ask up front what they are planning to do, and what it’s going to cost. Make them go into detail. If they are concerned with trade secrets you may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But ask them specifically “what are you going to be doing to get these ranks”. And do a little research. If they say they are going to buy 1000 links from various sites, look up some things on google, or SEO forums to see what ramifications this method has. Ask the SEO for this information, and if they aren’t totally up front and honest with you, don’t hire them. I tell my customers exactly what I’m going to do, and why I do it, if they are concerned. Transparency is key, if they are trying to hide it from you it might be something sinister. Note: Don’t ever let a company tell you they can guarantee rankings. Nobody but Google can guarantee you a spot. Keep that in mind when talking to your sales person.
Ask about their rankings.
Ask them what rankings their company has. Check on them, and see how well they do for SEO. Because after all, what kind of SEO company wouldn’t employ their own tactics for themselves? Presently my website sits at the number one spot for “Portland SEO” on the big three, and has for quite a while. But am I the busiest SEO in Portland, Oregon? Not by a long shot. There are companies who are doing 10 times the amount of business I am, and they are nowhere to be found in the search engines. They employ traveling salesmen and cold calling to sell their product to hundreds of customers. Think about that for a second. If they are so great at SEO, how come they aren’t able to squash the rankings of a “little guy” like me? Why do they spend so much money on print ads and telemarketing? I’ll leave that up to you to decide. Would you hire a painting business who had a building that looks like it was painted by a group of preschoolers? If the answer is no, then don’t hire an SEO person or company who isn’t able to get their own site in the rankings (without paying for google ads).
Understand the Process
I can definitely sympathize with the business owner who doesn’t have time to learn SEO. You’re a business owner, a lawyer, insurance agent or painter. You’re not a marketer or computer programmer, and that’s why you hire an SEO. If you had the time, you’d do it yourself but that would take away from your own role. I have heard this from customers before, and I understand completely. However, knowledge is power. The more you understand what’s going on, the more you can control and contribute to your own site’s success. Browse through some SEO forums or websites in your spare time, or pick up a book on it. You can still hire an SEO but at least you’ll have a better understanding of what they’re doing, and maybe even be able to pitch in some valuable ideas. Who knows your own business better than you?
Be prepared to contribute
In a perfect world, you would be able to hire and SEO, throw them a small amount of pay and sit back and watch the numbers go up. But it’s not that easy. Be prepared to contribute and help out. Make sure your SEO knows everything you know about your customers, your business, and your market. The standard marketing rules apply here. Know your product, why it’s great and how it helps people. Know what makes you stand out from the competion, and know who you’re selling to. Then turn that information into power for the person doing SEO for you. Bounce ideas off them, answer their questions and help them out. You’ll get a lot more bang for your buck.
Treat SEO like any other service based investment.
To conclude, treat this like any other business investment. Take care to make sure that you are being treated well, and getting the most for your money. Get as much information as you can, and use common sense rules when searching for an SEO. If you can do this, and you get the right company or person you will go far and grow your business. Good luck to you all.
Jeremy Morgan is an Internet Marketer and runs an SEO Blog in his spare time. Want some SEO tips? Sign up for the SEO insider today!
Do You Know How Much to Pay Your SEO Services Company?
Mar 13th
The question comes often. Many people have been burned by SEO services, but many were also rewarded by SEO Services. Like any business or purchase you should only spend your money if you feel comfortable. Your comfort zone should draw from various dependencies, for example, how well you know this business, how long have you had business with that person or entity, what is your first impression, how you personally feel about this person or entity Ability to provide this service, and how well you have done your homework. The truth about SEO services is that it is usually not hard work, but that does not mean this is really easy. It takes more time, dedication, effort, strategy, technology, methods, competence and experience to perform quality SEO services. Anyone can use SEO services because it is within your reach to learn, but not everyone can apply sensible strategy to make SEO work. That is the reason why SEO engineers are needed to sustain the almost impossible, but the question is, as you know, make the right choice and not overpaying for SEO services?
I can honestly say that for the most part SEO service providers are on the rise and to want nothing more to do as a professional quality and SEO services. The shady SEO each of the service may not be possible, but I have some of the recommended advice to help someone get a fair price for quality and SEO services.
– Set yourself a “realistic” marketing budget and goal
– Shop around
– Don’t buy until you feel comfortable
– Remember “cheap does not always mean better”
– Ask for references / referrals / portfolio
– Verify references / referrals / portfolio
– Ask for statistical growth and progress reports
Setup own a Realistic Marketing plan and target
This means not just a child himself and believe you can pay $ 200 and night ensures that you thousands. Instead, it has a budget depending on your marketing needs, competitive industry, the anticipated result and the length of time. If you search for your site to rank among the top 10 search engine results page for a certain keyword or keywords, then the cost in the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, for quality, professional and reliable SEO services, almost always in relation to the Competitiveness of the keyword. If you want to rank in the top 10 for the keyword “Google”, in most cases impossible, but I am sure there are some SEO companies, the challenge, but the cost in the thousands if not millions to try this insane marketing goal.
Shop Around SEO Services Company
Find the most attractive SEO services and compare this with other competitive SEO services. Have not “cheap” or “cheap”, but to regulate “efficient” and “strategy”. Anyone can do SEO work, but not everyone can the results with SEO services. This is because SEO is about technique and strategy. It is not just a throwing thousand of links around the web sitting back and waiting for the explosion. It’s actually much more complicated than that, as it is about the strategy, technology and competitive advantage. You have to find SEO services, which live by this principle and can offer the strategic roadmap for success.
Buy not until you feel comfortable
You should always feel good with your money in hiring a SEO service providers paws. If you have special needs, how you want to sign a contract, you want a specific timetable pay, or you have any questions, make sure you get answers and are comfortable with the projected outcome then move forward. Personally, I propose to get a contract, outline the planned results and all other points, followed by the exploration of the consequences or options if the predicted result is not met.
Remember “cheap does not always mean better”
This is an indication buyer caution. If someone offers $ 20 SEO services or even $ 200 SEO services, I would say, “Buyer bewares”. There may be a handful of highly qualified, SEO providers offer SEO services at a discount or at extremely low rates, but most of the time these providers either do not know their service in value or to know exactly what they do, but may have fortunately had a series. They will have to pay top dollar, aggressive, but still affordable for quality, strategic and experienced SEO services. SEO engineers are what I like to call. This is SEO’s, SEO understand the concept, pioneer, SEO methods, and not always follow the trend, but know the trends. Most of the SEO engineers are not too cheap, but worth every dollar spent. If you take account of other marketing and promotional platforms, such as television advertising, print advertising, large trade fair / exhibition booth advertising, etc. Internet marketing and search engine optimization cost peanuts compared to other methods of advertising and have a wider audience. SEO services can easily cost $ 5000 between $ 25000, it may even much more than this, depending on your needs, but this is far cheaper and cheaper than other advertising platforms. So, next time you think that SEO service costs too much, think about the other methods of advertising and their tax rates, together with return on investment (ROI).
Ask for references / links / Portfolio
Each SEO service provider should be able to get to their skilled labour. SEO service providers should be able to help you with loving websites, they have SEO work. This can even the SEO service provider personal web site, they should be able to get to its ranking in the search engine and some results driven SEO work within the site or via the Web.
Check references / links / Portfolio
Check the information is not always easy or accomplishable. You should try to reach and check what you can. When a shady business went on SEO SCAM, then I am sure that is where they were to start, with descriptions. I propose to examine what you can, but do not get overwhelmed with references because it may be shady SEO business giving self. I have some really good tips review, but that’s another article all.
Ask for statistical growth and progress reports
The SEO service campaign should include regular performance reports, you can use your website progress. Tracking progress of your site is important in many ways. First, it says, if the SEO engineer doing their work. Secondly, it then tells you whether the SEO methods, strategy and technology works or not. Thirdly, it tells you how well the search engines are piston compressors your SEO efforts. And finally, it tells you how much progress is being made and at what price. All of this advanced reporting information and trend-tracking can give you an overview of your site potential and gives you the opportunity to design or redesign your destination pages to your return on investment (ROI).
Okay, to wrap it, just make sure you stay of the Internet shabby neighborhoods, and for each online transaction, your homework. Also, remember, “cheap is not equal better. Think about it, would you rather pay in the thousands on a company for SEO SEO quality of work, the results and increase your overall site performance, or would you prefer cheap to pay $ 300 in many different SEO’s not really give you the Results you deserve. If a SEO engineer can increase your website sales and exposure of 80% of your site without ever reaching the top 10 search results still got a good business. This is the effect of qualified and experienced SEO services. The differences between your site and the sites in the Top 10, these sites have SEO engineers working for it, understand SEO.
Dr. Anuj Gupta is an Search Engine Marketing expert with leading Seo Services Company specializing in Business Process Outsourcing, Seo Company.
Recent Comments