"What Your Search Engine Optimization Expert Isn't Telling You"
SEO companies are popping up all over the internet. Each promises to get you explosive increases in business with their SEO results.
We highly suggest you invest a little time to thoroughly investigate these claims before you spend your marketing money.
The Truth About SEO Campaigns and Results
There are two truths that you may not have heard from your SEO expert professionals.
- It may take a very long period of time to get results that you want out of your SEO campaign.
- The other is that unless you have a way of monitoring and tracking your results, your campaign might be worthless.
Oddly enough, each truth is relevant to the other and by solving one problem or the other you’ll probably need their services to get results of any kind. The fact is that without their knowledge it would be difficult for you to do it on your own. On the same token, no real SEO company can get you promised results in a few weeks. Sure, you can get on the first page of the search engine for a keyphrase or two, but it takes time to produce the amount of keyphrases you will need for a SEO campaign to ultimately become successful.
Like most advertisement, there is some reality in a statement that says you can get results quickly, which might mean 6 months, not one or two. You can run a decent SEO campaign with patience and diligent attention paid to your planned schedule. You should be committed to following the campaign your SEO specialist has planned for an indefinite time period because consistency over a period of time is important. Viewers must be able to count on you like clockwork. It says a lot about your credibility as a company or organization.
Getting Spammed by SEO Experts?
One our favorites is all the unsolicited email you may get from SEO Experts claiming "We offer quality Search Engine Optimization / SEO Services and Internet Marketing Solutions"… Hold on a minute, let's think about this a little further. Do you really want to trust your SEO campaign to any company that spammed you in the first place. We hope you see the irony in that one!
"A Great SEO Campaign is a Marathon, Not a Sprint"
Similar to the old snail mail campaigns popular years ago, their premise worked on the fact that the customer had to see your name and brand through mailings at least 5 times for them to have name recognition. Internet presence is the same. The fact that you will not see results for some time could be true. You can’t expect to start a business, put up a web site, and start getting business right away.
As far as the other fact is concerned, traffic results should be monitored. There’s no doubt about that. The keywords and phrases that work can be continued, while those that get no attention can be changed or discontinued. This is how your campaign can realize the best return on your investment. Your marketing dollars should be spent on the very best aspects of your campaign, as there is no point in putting info out there that gets lost in the massive internet black hole. Focused campaigns work best and you must track your results to know where the focus will be most effective. This is where good SEO companies really shine.
The Backlink Myth
Yes, there is not doubt that you need backlinks to your website to achieve higher results on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). But where those backlinks are coming from are more important than how many you have.
Don't get caught up in creating thousands of backlinks with auto-submitting programs that will spam blogs, news pages and forums. You would be better off with 10 backlinks from relevant pages than 1000 from unrelated pages.
Anyone that manages a blog will tell you, the majority of their comments received are spam and from unrelated sources that want a backlink from your blog.
Include Social Media in Your SEO Campaign
Without any question, the Search Engines are placing more emphasis than ever on the amount of "retweets" & "likes",. Yes, the Search Engines are keeping track.
Without a good Social Media campaign, you are falling behind. See the image below to see how Google is now tracking your articles.
Finding the Right Niche to Post Comments
Again, posting comments on relevant pages, re-tweeting and liking is now a very important part of becoming noticed online. You want to be in the game, but you also want to be in the right game. In other words, don't be playing soccer on a hockey rink.
Their is a simple way to locate the right niche and post comments. See our video on "The Social Media Search Engine" for more information.
A Consistent, Relevant SEO Campaign using Social Media
Just having a Blog with all the latest fashionable SEO plugins will not be enough, unlike what your SEO Expert may be trying to sell you. You must have a consistent, relevant plan for your attack. One of the best ways, of course, is with a Blog, but without correctly implementing the proper strategies, you will only have a Blog that is lost in Cyber-Space.
Tips On Blogging for SEO Results
- Include the like, retweet and now the Google +1 Buttons.
- Include links to your other Social Media profiles.
- Write articles that are original, content based and use proper html techniques on a consistent basis.
- Use titles that are competitive for searches.
- Using images and properly tag and title those images
- Do not link to unrelated topics.
- Add Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools.
- Keep you Blog Updated with the latest Updates.
- Use a good Blog theme that will grow with you and is flexible. (We recommend Divi Themes).
Though this is really just the tip of the SEO and Social Media iceberg, starting off on the right foot will help you in the long run achieve lasting and relevant results from the major Search Engines.
About the Author:
The SEO-Alien is a project started in 2009 regarding all things online marketing. The site started out more of a diary of predictions, suggestions and references to things I frequently used for online marketing... before social media marketing was even an option.
I hope you find the information and tools presented here useful and something worth sharing with others.
If there is anything else about online marketing or any online advertising strategy you think would be helpful, please let me know.