What Is SEO and Website Optimization

Increased Leads = Increased Sales = Increased Revenue!

888-638-8836 | Email

What Is SEO and Website Optimization, and What Do They Have To Do With A Local Brick & Mortar Business?

If You Like Making Money, A LOT ... Read This Page Carefully!

With a lot of business completely in the dark on this topic, we felt it was important to explain what it is to you.

In Summary ...

Over the past few years there's been a real push for local businesses to get their business properly positioned on the internet.

As a local business you may not think the Internet is that important to your business or the success of your business. You may think that the Internet is for online businesses, not offline businesses like yours.

As of about 2003, the Internet has been playing a huge role in the success of the local business. In 2003 when the smart phone really hit the market hard and the Search Engines have been making numerous changes for the primary benefit of the local offline business.

Today Google offers a phone service where I can call this number (1.800.466.4411) and with hands free "voice commands" find a business in a city.

It works like this. A consumer is in his car, hits speed dial to dial that Google number, and then simply speaks the category and the city to the Google service. Google then starts to list the businesses that meet the spoken category in the spoken city. The consumer says, #2 and then the Google service transfers the call to that business. How cool is that? And this is just the beginning of what you're going to see.

Let me be blunt ... If you don't have a compelling website and then optimize that website for the search engines, in the very near future you are going to wish you had taken this more seriously after you realize -- and accept -- what's really going on with the Internet and the Yellow Pages!

You can't web tradition. Things are changing and they are changing fast.

You'll find that we offer many services through this website. Whether you want to do it yourself or want us to do it for you, we've got you covered. If you're not sure where to start or how to go about getting a properly postured online presence, call us and let us guide your way.

We are after long term relationships with our clients and want to be on your marketing team. With an extensive background in both offline marketing and online marketing, we'll help you make the move to the 21st century where it's your business that consumers are turning to when they need what you sell.

Let me start out with a summary of why you need to be on the first page of Google...

So the 54% of the people ... which is increasing each year ... who go to the internet instead of the yellow pages to search for your type business finds YOU! That means you'll get an exponential increase of leads and new clients!

You see, right now we're in a transitional period in this country going from hard copies to electronic copies. As a country and society ...

we're stopping our newspaper subscriptions because we can get the news online;

we're stopping our magazine subscriptions because we can get that information online; and

we're throwing away our phonebooks and yellow pages because we can get that information online.

And not only that, we can get it faster online!

Continue reading for even more information about this very important topic that you, as a business owner, needs to clearly be aware of ...

A Video That Simplistically Explains SEO

To help you better understand what "Search Engine Optimization" is, here's a great video ...

This text will be replaced

Did that help explain things a little better?

Understanding How People Search For You

It's been mentioned before in this website but now would be a good time to mention it again. There are two types of searches people do...

1) Business Specific Search: If they are looking for your business specifically they'll search by your specific business name, partial name, owners name or other contact fields, or

2) Category Search: If they are searching for a business like yours, just like they use to turn to the yellow pages which is category driven, they'll do a category search online, i.e., "Dentist Spokane".

You want to make sure people can find your website both ways.

Let's take a look at the second way, a category search. This is just like how we use to turn to the yellow pages to find a business which is sorted and organized by categories. Because this is how people are accustomed to finding a business in the yellow pages, this is also how people search for business online. They pull open Google (80% of searches), type in the category and city (i.e., Dentist Spokane) and are presented with businesses that have been properly optimized for that category search.

If you're looking for new clients, having your website optimized for category searches is the key. It all starts with knowing your keywords and then building those keywords into the on-page optimization of your website.

Then, to create a first page ranking which is like having an ad for your category in the yellow pages there's a whole new, very intense strategy that's required. Even though it's a lot of work, the end conclusion is when people search online for your business, it's YOU they find.

But it all starts with knowing your keywords and correctly doing the on-page optimization of the pages in your website with the home page being the most important page. And you need to understand that there are right ways and wrong ways to do these task!

The First Page of Google Is Like Having An Advertisement In The Yellow Pages For Your Category.

Being #1 On The First Page of Google Is Equivalent To Having The First Advertisement For Your Category In The Yellow Pages.

Businesses are telling us that in the past few years they've started getting more leads, more inquiries and more sales from their website than from their ad in the yellow pages!

That makes a lot of sense when you consider that as of 2008 for the first time more people turned to the electronic phonebook, otherwise called the internet, than turned to the yellow pages! And that number is increasing every year!

Why the internet over the yellow pages?

It's more convenient. And people can get more information than what's placed in yellow page ads. And they can get driving directions from where they're at right to the businesses front door. And, and, and ...

Do you get the idea?

The internet has made it so much easier for your consumers to do business with businesses. The question is, have you properly optimized your website so people can find you? Are you making it easy for consumers to do business with you?

Look at the first page of Google as "main street". Everyone wants to be on main street, don't they? Just like in the brick and mortar world, it's location, location, location.

It's the same thing in the online world. But in this case, main street is the first page of Google because that's where all of the traffic is.

Think about it. You do a search and you either find what you're looking for on the first page or you'll re-do your search criteria and try again. That's normal, and why less then 22% will ever go past the first page!

Here's a short clip of Mr. Chesnut discussing the internet in association to local businesses.

This text will be replaced

Understanding the SERP (Search Engine Results Page)

There are 3 areas to the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Let's take a look at those 3 areas (see the image following) ...

1) Natural Results, otherwise called the "organic" listing (Green circle around) -

We started with this section because this is where the majority of people go when they're looking for a business or doing research on the internet. As a default, 10 websites will show up on the first page of the SERP.

An important statistic to know is that 78% of the people will not go to page 2. Instead they'll either find what they're looking for on the first page or they'll do a new search. This is why you want to be on the first page!

To get here your website must be thoroughly optimized. We are very proficient in this area.

2) Local Business Results (Blue circle around) -

This a special area where, when optimized properly, your business will be listed on the map and will allow the individual to collect additional information about your business. This area also lists the phone numbers of the businesses so if a consumer is just looking for a phone number this is likely where they'd go first.

As a local business, you want to be listed here! There are techniques to list your business properly which we can handle for you with our Local Business Results services.

3) Sponsored Results (Red circle around) -

These two areas are the Pay Per Click (PPC) areas. To have these spots you're literally paying for them. This is the one and only time you actually can pay to be on the first page. However, you need to make sure you understand the strategies around PPC to maximize your results along with tracking your PPC's very closely so it's not putting you in the poor house ... this can get pretty expensive, especially if you don't know what you're doing!

Not every local business should be using PPC strategies. In fact, 75% of the people who do PPC actually loose money! We'll work with you to determine whether this makes sense to include or not.

Of the 3 areas of the SERP, this area get the least amount of clicks. Why?

People associate "sponsored" with "advertising" and people go to the website to get information, not to be sold.