Search Engine Marketing

Getting Consumer Attention Through SEO

Perhaps you’ve dabbled in search engine optimization for some time now and consider yourself a bit of a “lay” expert on the subject. Having as much savvy bodes excellently well for the online face of your business, as it does for its entire operation if it is an internet-based enterprise. But given the heated contest that rages on every day on the internet for eyeballs and wallets, having a way to take charge of your online image, in a really effective way, is imperative.

For most, even the SEO-savvy, taking charge requires the efforts of a hired SEO company. That’s because technical SEO experts have the latitude and resources that only focused dedication and in-house labor can confer. With the big guys taking advantage of the benefits SEO companies are capable of doling out, in addition to dipping regularly into their large advertising coffers, small and mid-sized companies usually cannot afford to skimp on optimizing their online home. Tasks to increased traffic and search engine positioning cannot be ignored.

Even if your business does not have a hefty reserve for blanket advertising, it more than likely has the wherewithal to get your name, products, and services noticed on Google and Bing. SEO can give businesses affordable, and widespread, consumer attention.

Search Engine Marketing

How to Choose a SEO Company

A professional search engine optimization (SEO) company has the tools and services to help your website achieve higher rankings on major search engines. In theory, this means more people will find your website and as a result purchase your products or services. This is why savvy site owners and developers invest in professional SEO services.

When it comes to building an effective SEO campaign, however, the recipe and the order of the ingredients depends on who’s making the meal. Still, there are several common factors that can help websites gain traffic from search engines and the perfect combination of these factors can increase the odds of success. But with so many SEO companies in the industry, how does a website owner or web developer choose the best SEO company for the job?

One route to choosing a SEO company to redevelop your site is to enlist the help of a third-party research firm. These independent firms evaluate and rank the best companies in the internet marketing industry, making it simple for website owners and developers to compare companies, services and results. Most importantly, site owners can utilize third-party research firms to not only help them find the right SEO company, but also learn more about the process of SEO.

Search Engine Marketing

TechXpress now Google’s certified partner

It’s official—TechXpress is now an official business partner of search engine giant Google, right after the company’s web marketing guru Jamie Macedo was given Google’s AdWord’s Certification. The new certification was presented to the industry much earlier in the year, and stands for a more intense and technical program which seeks only the highest standards to aspiring web marketing professionals. It also covers the use of brand new technology which has only been recently introduced by Google a few months back.

Macedo had to follow strict instructions and grueling training exercises, before finally taking two major tests back in November. To qualify for certification, a candidate must be able to show clear understanding of AdWords tools and functions and their applications in display and search ads, as well as metrics analysis and reporting. Google’s Vice President for Global Agency Development Penny Price says that the AdWords Certification will provide business and customers the latest, most concise and focused strategical training, as well as certification on using cutting edge AdWords tools. Qualifiers will also learn best practices for applying the benefits of using AdWords accounts into their respective business.

Macedo says that with his company now being a Google Certified Partner, TechXpress now has under its armada of business weapons highly specialized tools and resources to enact even more effective web marketing programs to please customers. Certification presents a clear advantage to business that wish to widen their customer base by being more effective at attracting new visitors to their sites.

Search Engine Marketing

SEO Toaster offering SEO CMS

Search Engine Optimization can be quite an expensive venture to get into. However, it is an expense you will have to bear if you want to show up in a decent location on search results. An alternative to employing a team of SEO specialists is to use an SEO CMS. If this option sounds interesting to you, check out seotoaster.com.

The website is very concise and to the point. The design lends itself to easy, seamless browsing and quickly grabs a user’s attention. There is also an excellent video presentation about the product on the website that is worth checking out. The product itself is an Open Source CMS which makes it doubly appealing to any company or individual. But unlike most other open source CMS’s, this one comes packed with features.

There are 40 free website themes that you can use to create your website. If you have an existing website, you will find that it is easy to import content from those pages into your new one. There is also plenty of FOS php code at your disposal to make your life easier. If you run a business and plan on selling goods online, you will find that the free shopping cart that is included in seotoaster’s product is as good as any other shopping cart on the market. Besides all this it also automates some tedious tasks like media & link tagging, optimized on-site linking, link sculpting using JavaScript etc. As you can see from this brief overview of the product, it is well worth checking out as it might be just the right solution for your SEO needs.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Learn How to Make Your Website Search Engine-Friendly at SES San Francisco

Is your website as search engine-friendly as it should be? If you don’t know the answer to this, chances are that it isn’t. A website architecture which makes it easy for major search engines like Google to find your content will increase the chances of higher placement and better results.

If you want to learn more about building websites that are as search engine-friendly as possible, you need to attend the “How to Architect a Search-Engine Friendly Website” training sessions at SES San Francisco on August 20. Taught by Omni Marketing Interactive founder and SEO director Shari Thurow, this session will teach you all of the tips and tricks to ensure that your website is as accessible to search engines as possible.

The half-day session covers such topics as information, site, navigation design and webpage architecture and how they relate to SEO. Learn something new if you are a veteran webmaster or someone with no HTML experience! Visit http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanfrancisco/training.php for more information on this powerful training session at SES San Francisco.

Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing

Three Basic Strategies for Link Building (Part 1 of 2)

Getting your website to the top of a Google search result is the holy grail of all SEO efforts. One of the factors that contribute towards this is Page Rank. A good page rank will see you catapult over your peers and end up high on the results page. So how do you achieve a good page rank?
Well, one significant factor of PageRank is your link building strategy. Using the correct one effectively will bring about near instant results. There are three basic methods which you can employ, but only one of them is truly effective, but more on that later. The three methods are Reciprocal, Three Way and One Way link building.

Reciprocal link building has its roots in a time before PR and SEO became known. It is based on the old adage “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”. Basically it is the process where you link to another site and they link back to yours. In the old days, this was done mainly to get traffic flowing into a website. Even today it is an excellent tool to generate traffic. But that is all it is effective at doing. In the early days of PR, reciprocal link building worked quite well. But Google got wise to what was going on and changed the algorithms so that this did not affect PR anymore. There is no harm in using it, but just be aware that it will do nothing for you apart from generating traffic.

(to be continued…)

Search Engine Marketing, SEO

Top SEO Firms & Agencies

Website Magazine has published a list of Top 50 SEO Firms & Agencies. Website Magazine has analyzed various factors in ranking these companies, including website’s popularity (presumably via backlinks) and the site’s traffic.

At #1 is Submit Express, who has been around since 1998.  They have thousands of backlinks and rank pretty well for SEO related terms.  At #2 is Marketleap, who is not really an SEO firm, but a data provider. At #3 is Submit Edge, another search marketing firm with thousands of backlinks who has been around for a long time.  Many making it into top 10 are companies that have been in the industry for a long time, so it is natural for them to have more links and popularity.

Please keep in mind that this list is purely based on online popularity and does not necessarily mean these are the best SEO firms, but rather the most popular firms.  You should do your own due diligence when hiring an SEO firm, by checking references and their online reviews.

Below is a link to the full article:
Website Magazine Top 50 SEO Firms