Get Quote
For page printing of Grant Communications LLC Web Design logo

Website Designer and search engine optimization experts: Call us at (603) 715-5445 for a free initial consultation: SEO - Design

Advanced SEO / SEM  


 
 

What We Do

View the main topics pages for web design, brand identity, web hosting and training.View how we have brought business development and sales solutions to the table for clients since 1992. How can we help your company achieve the integrated communications results
you need ?
 
 
 
 

Tell a colleague about this website...

 

 

 

 

Search Engine Placement and Internet Marketing

This is not rocket science.
Just old-fashioned work.

Google search engine optimization guide
Google Search Engine    Optimization Guide




OK, maybe a little rocket science...

Like our web development pricing process, we offer two main levels of organic search engine optimization. Each of the levels are further broken out into four or more phrases of complexity and sophistication, depending on the relative competition level of your key phrase.

Internet placement ad campaignsFor less than one million competing domains for a specific key phrase, which covers most niche manufacturing companies, our SEO/Core™ organic internet marketing SEO campaign may fit just fine, even at the lowest baseline level.

For more than one million competing domains, either Affordable microsites may need to be developed, or you may want to consider our Amplified™ organic SEO program. This changes the targeting of key phrases from a very narrow and close shotgun, to a completely metrics-based and tightly targeted sniper rifle shot.

Global Overview- Organic SEO Programs

The foundation for all organic SEO program performance is the measurement and execution based on desired SERP key phrase results. The relative level of sophistication and required knowledge are just subsets of the following global considerations. If this type of metrics-based approach makes sense to you, please ask us for a complimentary review and discussion of your web real estate values. Chances are, we can help in growing your revenues.

Search rankings Benchmark

 

  • Analyze key phrase positions on the Top 50 search engines
    and aggregators.

Where are you now? Before anything is done, let's see where you are. This gives us a better idea of whether to reinforce primary key phrases, or begin spear heading Keyword Effectiveness Indexing (KEI) for secondary key phrases in competitive markets.

 

BaselineBegin First SEO Steps

 

  • On Page (on website) Optimization

Based on the initial ranks, we begin by ensuring your main site is optimized as it should be. Metas are included, although they are not necessarily measured... Images. Layout. Baseline code.

Success in search engine marketing depends on selecting the right keywords. At this point, you compile a list of the phrases that are most important to your business and best describe it. We use this to generate the list of targeted keywords. Most of our competitors will not take the time to do this keyword analysis; by doing it we give you a higher return on your investment.

Example- SkiMarket Traffic & Strategy Report, 1/07

We can also edit the copy on selected pages to also reflect the key phrases, monitoring for keyword density to remain within guidelines.

  • Off Page (external from your website) Optimization

We can either recommend or execute Strategic directory submissions, followed through until the link is placed. Assist with setting up Pay-Per-Click campaigns on Google, Yahoo, and others.

We can also research and analyze your competitors to help you identify the best online marketing opportunities in your industry. The key is to help your target market see your website before the competition.

Our goal is to put your website in the top 20 results on the major search engines by using the correct key phrases.

Measure Web Analytics and Analysis

 

  • View visitors and how they navigate your site.
  • Entry pages, exit pages, time spent per page
  • Key phrases and engines

Now let's see where your site is. Are we climbing at an acceptable rate? Should we continue, or let the progress continue without artificial stimulation? Usually it takes 2-3 months for your website to show up in the search engines. If you've paid for inclusion with the search engines and directories that offer this, you'll start to see results within a week or two.

Example- SkiMarket Traffic & Strategy Report, 1/07  

We can also recommend various online analysis tools that could include detailed traffic reports that cover page views and visits by day of the week, time of day, details on most visited pages,

Next steps Recommend Next Steps

 

  • "Tweak" the navigation system and link structures.
  • Review useability (sites we didn't design) for improvements.
  • Content enhancement plan.
  • Inbound links review.

Based on the ranking reports, we can now determine the next appropriate steps based on corporate budgets.

Example- SkiMarket Case Study, Key Stats, 9/07
              PDF Case Study PDF, 99KB


 

Search Engine Optimization SEO and Search Engine Marketing SEM are not quick fixes and do not happen overnight. The people and organizations guaranteeing Top 10 placement for $30 are not to be believed. You must either be committed to hard work or spending some money or a combination of both.

No Quick Fixes with Search Engine Optimization

Wouldn't it be great if we could simply edit Meta tags and get high rankings?

Many years ago I read Stephen R. Covey's "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." One thing Covey discusses is the glitter of the "Personality Ethic." He mentions how some people try to find some "quick and easy way to achieve quality of life ... without going through the natural process of work and growth that makes it possible." Then he goes on to say, "The Personality Ethic is illusory and deceptive. And trying to get high quality results with its techniques and quick fixes is just about as effective as trying to get to some place in Chicago using a map of Detroit."

What Covey says is nearly identical to what I've been saying for years regarding search engine optimization: There are simply no quick fixes.

I wish I had a dime for every potential client who came to me and said, "We just need you to fix our Meta tags so our site will rank highly with search engines." These people don't realize that if it were simply a matter of fixing Meta tags, they could probably do it themselves!

Why Not [Just] Meta Tags?

Search engines don't have a whole lot to work with when trying to figure out which sites to show in their list of results for any given keyword search. Considering this, it's actually quite amazing how relevant most search results tend to be, given the sheer number of pages on the Internet these days.

For an internal search engine that just searches through pages or products on your site, the information provided in the Meta keyword tag can really help to narrow down the most relevant pages that one of your site users might be searching for.

Unfortunately, the differences between an internal search engine and a public one such as Google are many. For instance, with an internal engine, there are only a relatively small number of pages or products to search through to find a relevant page. Plus, the content and Meta tags on the site are trustworthy, since your goal and that of your internal search engine is to help people find exactly what they're looking for on your site.

On the other hand, with major search engines, their database contains basically every page on the web that they know about. So, Meta tags need to be written that the search engines will trust when comparing to your page content.

This makes changing or adding Meta tags on your site neither a quick fix nor a slow fix. It won't fix anything by itself and, if this is your sole criteria you are optimizing around, it won't have any effect on your search engine traffic.

What About Content?

Sure, you can add all kinds of content to your site and hope that will be a quick fix, but writing lots of good content cannot be done quickly. It will generally take years of writing a little bit every day or every week, to eventually end up with a genuine archive of truly useful information. It's highly doubtful that if you're somehow generating 100 pages a week, you're actually creating good content. You're either stealing from elsewhere, auto-generating it from some sort of icky software program, or you're some kind of robot with too much time on your hands!

How About Links?

It is true that links are very important to helping your site gain visibility and search engine traffic. But quick-fix link schemes are not going to result in long-term high rankings for your site. Everyone knows to avoid "link farms," but nobody seems to quite know what they are. No worry, because it doesn't matter whether something is a link farm or a link scheme or a link popularity bonanza software extravaganza. If you set out to get links for the sole purpose of increasing your search engine rankings, you're already thinking backwards.

Forget about link popularity and instead think about your target audience and how you can let them know your site exists. It's really just marketing, plain and simple. You have a website and a business that presumably is [better] [more unique] [cheaper] [friendlier] than the others out there and it needs to be marketed. You may even have to <gasp> spend a little money to publicize your site. Good, old-fashioned newspaper, magazine, and even TV ads that mention your website can really get your site noticed. The more visible your site is, the more it will be talked about in the right circles, and the more links it will obtain just because. Even PPC ads can help, because they put your site in front of people looking for what you offer. The point is that people have got to find your site one way or another while you're waiting for your SEO campaign to kick in. It's your job to figure out how to get it in front of them as often as you can.

Regardless of how you market your site, don't count on becoming an overnight sensation.

This brings us back to Covey's Personality Ethic. Sure, someone can edit your Meta tags quickly and submit to 50 billion search engines and trade links with 90 million useless sites. However, if you haven't invested the time up front to create a website with great content that speaks to the reader in plain language that real people use (in other words, without technology buzzwords), you will not see good long-term results.

How To Achieve Long-term Results

You may achieve high rankings very quickly for words that nobody is searching for, but as Covey so aptly put it, these will be illusory and deceptive results at best. If no one uses those words in the engine's search box, all the #1 rankings in the world won't keep your business afloat.

It's imperative to think of the search engine optimization process as a long-term investment for your site, so here are 5 tips to help you invest in your future success:

1. Thoroughly research your keyword phrases using the paid versions of Wordtracker or KeywordDiscovery. Keyword research is completely and utterly the key to everything that is search marketing.

2. Make sure your site is not made up of graphics alone, as these cannot be read by the search engine spiders that come a-crawling. (This is especially true of graphics that look like text -- these are often used when a particular font is desired.)

3. Be sure to use natural, easy-to-understand language that conveys the message of your website and includes keyword phrases you'd like your site to rank highly for.

4. Make sure your Title tags and link anchor text all jibe with the visible content on the page.

5. Be sure to include metas, properly formatted code, correct code syntax, heirarchial content styles (such as H1, H2, ALT, bold, italisized). Remember that search engines can weight over 90 DTDs, or Document Type Definitions, in evaluating overall topic and theme relevancy.

6. Be patient! You knew I'd end with that one, but with Google's aging delay in place for new sites, patience is more important than ever. It's most likely going to be a good 9 months before you start seeing much (if any) traffic from Google's natural results. Don't be discouraged, but instead use that time to constantly make your site better than the other guy's.

Remember, you are working toward the future. Good placement achieved by doing things the right way will have staying power over time with very little additional effort. Like everything in life, if you spend the time and money to do it right to begin with, the long-term results will always be impressive.


 

Explanation of Internet Marketing Algorithms

The basis for search engine results is found in the page ranking algorithms the different search engines use. The following article is an authoritative overview of how on-page attributes combined with off-page hyperlinking structures drive the results you see every day, using as the basis "expert" documents and "authority" URLs.

Here is a good guideline from Google on what to ask prospective SEO companies, as well as tactics to consider and avoid.

Archives

Click here for reprints and timely articles on search engines, optimization, marketing, and advertising ideas.

In 2004, QuinStreet, Inc. of Menlo Park, CA (a leading online direct marketing company and one of our clients), ranked us in the top 25 in the world for SEO results! This is particularly meaningful to us, as over 2,000 leading organic and PPC firms participate in Quinstreets’ International affiliate programs.

Web Design

 

Category: PPC Search Marketing

The preceeding information at the top of the page is a reprint of an article by Jill Whalen of HighRankings.com, another recognized leader in SEO/SEM.

Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High Rankings® Advisor search engine marketing newsletter. Jill's handbook, "The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how and where to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search engines.

Jill specializes in search engine optimization, SEO consultations, site analysis reports, SEM seminars and is the co-founder of the new search marketing and website design company, Search Creative, LLC.

 

 

 
 

Follow Us

Want to learn more about us? Follow GrantCom LLC, our clients and our companies on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Blogspot and Linkedin.

Look at our social media connections! Grant Communications LLC on Facebook SEO Experts on FeedBurner GrantCom on Twitter GrantCom on Google+ Internet Marketing on Blogspot SEO Experts on LinkedIn
 

What They Say

 
 
 

Contact us for your web design and SEO needs
Contact us for your web design and SEO needs