| |
|
|
| Webmaster Resources: Search Engine Optimization Information | |
|
|
|
When to Hire a Professional SEO Firm?
In efforts to increase sales and profitability, more and more companies are turning to online marketing initiatives - specifically, search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization or (SEO) is the art and science of blending technical and marketing skills together into a finely tuned website that is both search engine-friendly, ranks well for specific keywords and phrases, and is tailored to your audience from a buyer and seller perspective. According to a recent U.S. study, only 20% of all businesses outsource search engine optimization programs to professional SEO firms. The remaining 80% either do not conduct search engine optimization at all or they believe they have the resources and skills to do it in-house. Of this 80%, it is probable that 90% of these companies can't be found on the web - they don't exist. In order to generate any amount of significant web visibility, your website must typically rank within the top-30 results. So, the question comes down to what is in your company's best interests? Conduct your SEO program in-house or out-source it. To answer this question, let's first take a look at the knowledge, skills and resources necessary to implement and maintain a successful search engine optimization program. SEO knowledge and skills required 1) Basic understanding of how search engines and directories work. This may seem overly obvious, but you would be amazed how many people do not understand how they actually work. This knowledge provides the foundation for your SEO program. 2) Website design Although SEO is not completely a technical marketing process, it does require a fair amount of technical knowledge of what constitutes search engine-friendly web design. Certain web design elements can either help your search engine rankings or hurt them. You simply have to know which is which. 3) SEO experience This is the most important and most difficult knowledge to obtain. If you have never implemented a SEO program, then you are in for a big surprise. Search engine optimization programs require a lot of research and are extremely time consuming. Most importantly, they require actual SEO experience. This means knowing what SEO strategies and tactics work and which ones don't. In-house vs. out-sourced SEO programs If your company is considering conducting your search engine optimization program in-house, here are some questions to consider.
IT Department Typically your IT department handles multiple daily tasks from trouble-shooting your company's LAN or WAN to fixing the sales department's laptops? Out of a busy IT person's day, what priority and focus do you think he or she will commit to for your SEO program? And even if your IT department has some skills in web design or development, these skills make up only a small percentage of the knowledge required for a successful search engine optimization program. Marketing Department Typically, your marketing department juggles many marketing projects at once and faces strict completion deadlines. From handling new print collateral campaigns to getting ready for new product or service launches, marketing personnel's time is spread very thin. In addition, how knowledgeable is your marketing department in the technical aspects of web design and search engine optimization? Do they have the time to become well-versed? Do they have sufficient internal resources? Often the answer to both questions is no, they do not. Other individual(s) within your company Ok, so the responsibility falls onto someone outside of your Marketing or IT department. Who will that be and why are they responsible for your SEO program? Providing these individuals with a new "project of the month," will typically result in another check mark off of their monthly to-do list and frustration by top management of why their website is not producing any sales results. Summary From a business standpoint, it makes sense to try to leverage internal resources to maximize your company's productivity and profitability - whenever possible. However, there must be a line drawn in the sand between knowing what your organization's capabilities are and what they are not. As you can see, there is more to search engine optimization than meets the eye. In order to implement and maintain a SEO program, you must acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and resources. This can be done by hiring a professional search engine optimization firm. Professional SEO firms have dedicated resources and experience to support your company's web marketing initiatives. By leveraging their experience and know-how, your company can quickly and more efficiently implement a successful search engine optimization program. About The Author Corey Wenger is owner of Key Position Web Marketing and is a professional Search Engine Optimizer and Consultant who has over three years of experience in helping companies increase sales and profitability through strategic web marketing programs. For more information, please visit www.key-position.com or email him at corey@key-position.com.
Add to these social bookmarking sites: 
MORE RESOURCES:
SEO - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Rank High On MSN Search The new MSN Search is quickly gaining popularity among internet search engine users. Google still being the #1 search engine with Yahoo in #2, and MSN in a strong #3. Link Popularity Pitfalls As we all know Google uses their PageRank technology to measure link popularity by counting the number of inbound links to your web pages, and it is one of the many factors influencing your ranking. Most website owners do not utilize properly what PageRank they already have. Get A Top Position In Google In Three Days! So how do you get a top listing in Google and how do you get into Google quickly.Lets begin with the latter. Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website - Step Seven - Website Submissions Welcome to part seven in this ten-part search engine positioning series. Last week we discussed the importance of human testing. Branding Versus SEO Branding versus search engine optimization is a marketing dilemma that larger companies will need to come to grips with on the Internet. Often companies will need to decide whether to promote their own brand name as their main keyword phrase or optimize for a more generic keyword phrase. Search Engine Optimization Tips For 2005 - Part Two Welcome to the second part of our series of articles on search engine optimization. In the previous article we discussed keywords, domain names, content and keyword density issues. Search Engines Are Doomed to Fail A very provocative title, isn't it? Based on the latest news it is not far from the truth. Over the years the search engines were the target number one on the hunt for visitors and traffic to millions of web sites. Link Popularity: Why Its The Best Investment You Can Do For Your Business More and more search engines rank your web pages based on the number of links that point to your web site (link popularity). Google uses link popularity as its most important factor in ranking sites. A Simple White Hat Technique To Get Indexed By Google Everybody knows that getting indexed in Google is getting more and more difficult each day and every body is looking for that edge over the competition.Most "white hat" SEO's frown upon methods like cloaking, blog and ping and other such "black hat" techniques and never had any special technique that they could use to help get their pages indexed better. Site-Digest 7 Simple Steps To Place Your Site Map On Steroids The Site Map is a too often overlooked piece of the Search engine Optimization Puzzle. Here is a Simple Step 7 step approach to create a Super Charged Site Digest on Steroids that will get your web pages indexed faster and more often. A Classified Way To Drive Business To Your Web Site There are more than 105 million of them in the United States. Worldwide, there could be at least 250 million of them. Easy And Simple Steps To Get Listed In Search Engines Search engines are one of THE best resource for free advertising. Better your web site's search engine position better be the traffic generation. Why You Need a SEO Maintenance Plan A search engine optimization maintenance service plan will ensure that your site will continue to increase in its rankings, attract more visitors and make more sales. It's not enough to simply design your web site, have it optimized for the search engines and expect it to continually rank well. Google Traffic Report Card-Does Your Website Pass? Part 1 This is part 1 of a 7 part series that examines the 7 factors of incoming links that Google considers when choosing a spot for your website in it's SERP's.Why incoming links? First because these are what Google places the highest value on. Search Engine Marketing: Choosing Keyword Phrases Selecting the right keyword phrases is the key to a successful search engine marketing campaign.Industry statistics indicate that as many as 85% of all initial Website visits begin with a search engine query, and according to researchers NPD Group, more online purchases originate from search engine listings than from any other source. How To Syndicate Your Content Note: In order to preserve the proper format for the HTML code snippet in this article, copy and paste the article into Notepad, then copy and paste it from Notepad into your HTML web page.-----------------------------Do you have regularly updating content that you would like to make available to other websites? Perhaps a computer tip of the day, a daily recipe, or even a daily cartoon?Do you want to give your website more exposure, boost sales, enhance your search engine rankings, or grow your newsletter subscriber list?A fast and easy way to accomplish all of these goals is by using content syndication. Search Engine Optimization - A Beginners Guide Getting your site listed in the top search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is no small job. There is lots of work that needs to be done to guarantee the highest placement possible, and even more work is needed to keep your ranking for any period of time. Search Engine Marketing Simplified All the great efforts made for making your own site, goes in vain when your site doesn't bring you business. The reasons can be anything right from less traffic, to less page-per-views, or lesser PageRank. Link Popularity Explained and How To Build Links Link popularity is the single most influential factor for determining how well a web site will perform in search engine rankings. A web site's link popularity is computed from the number and more importantly, the quality of links pointing to a web site. How To Start An Internet Business - Meta Tags and Keyword Density Okay, you have a domain name, layout and content. Now we get to a step that will go a long way to determining how the site will rank.
|
| Home | Site Map |
|
| © 2008 | |
