• communicate with customers
• increase brand exposure
• boost website traffic
• increase SEO effectiveness

For more information about how Thrive Marketing can help you leverage Social Media, call us at 1-866-521-0827 or Request a Proposal.

We Do Headlines!

An Arizona internet marketing firm can make a lot of difference to the effectiveness of your web message to your Arizona audience.  With creativity, combined with knowledgeable purpose, an Arizona internet marketing firm such as ThriveMarketing can show you ways to convey your message more effectively and lead your potential customers to a sale.  Of first and foremost importance to your message, the use of effective headlines is one area that can change the effectiveness of your website investment.

Headlines must reflect and make interesting the story

The old story of “Dog Bites Man” is that a headline like that will not attract attention; however, the headline, “Man Bites Dog” will.  The reason?  It is unusual and interesting.  It doesn’t matter what services or goods you are providing and promoting, effective headlines are one of the most important parts of your written message.  Without an effective headline, the chance a potential customer will proceed into your message is greatly diminished.

Internet headlines have more structure

Headlines on the internet take multiple forms.  Think of your headline not only as the first prominent line of copy on your landing page, but also the meta description tag, the meta title tag, and the subheads that introduce the body copy in your web page.  Even the subject line of your email is a headline opportunity, You only have about 50 characters to make your first impression.  (The headline on this article, by the way, was 49 characters.)  Why only 50?  That is roughly the maximum number of characters in a subject line and it is also the attention limit of a webpage headline.  That can make subject lines and headlines a challenging to write.  You need to make the best impression you can, including the most interesting invitation to your copy as you can, and do it in about a half a line of copy.

On websites, you get 3 headline opportunities

Three places you can take advantage of the power of strong headlines.  First, the webpage the header (H1) is the most important.  Not only is it the first thing the reader’s eye falls on, it is specifically searched for by the search engines in classifying the site as the one most favored to show first in the search results.  Not only is this your big chance to invite the reader into your site for further influence and persuasion, but it is a huge Search Engine Optimization opportunity that many forget. To be effective, the header should be short and to the point, probably not more than about six to eight words.  If your objective is to introduce your reader to the fact that you write headlines, for example, then perhaps your most direct headline would be: “We Do Headlines!”

The Forgotten Headline Opportunity

Second is the often forgotten metatitle.  What ever is written in the HTML metatitle is what will appear in the browser tab or border.  Your message in the metatitle can only be about eight words and should lead with your search keyword(s).  What message do you want in this prominent message space?  Not only is this a billboard to the reader, it, too, is searched for by the search engines when deciding what to list first.  The metatitle increases the search word density of your website. It is surprising how many web builders and web page writers forget this important spot as a promotional message or headline.  The metatitle should be written with the relevant keyword(s) and the closer to the beginning of the title as this gives the keyword the greatest density on the webpage.  The metatile should not be the same for all pages of your site and the keyword should not be repeated more than twice.

Your First Contact with your Customer

Third, the HTML meta description is a great opportunity for first selling efforts.  Again, this spot is often forgotten because it never appears on the web page; it appears as the description presented by the search engine.  Even more importantly, it is also examined by the search engines in determining best sites to list first in the search results.  You have a maximum of just 155 characters, including spaces, to compose the message your potential customers will see in the search listing under your company’s link. Google, and other search engines, will cut off anything over the maximum number of characters (155).  Try to limit your meta description to not more than 25 to 30 words in no more than two sentences.

Email Subject lines are headline opportunities, too!

The point of promotional email is clickthrough.  If you do not get clickthrough, you do not win a conversion (sale).  The maximum limit of a subject line is 50 characters.  You have only that long to move your reader to open the email.  Then, it is up to the content of the email to prompt a clickthrough.  This is a multistep process and your first step has to be a strong one.   

5 Tips to More Effective Headlines

If you would like some intellectual practice on sharpening your skills in identifying what makes effective headlines, pay more attention to what you read in newspaper headlines, on billboards and even on matchbook covers.  People in advertising will tell you that some of the most challenging copywriting is that done on matchbook covers, billboards and in newspaper headlines.  It will not take you very long to begin to recognize what makes an effective headline and what does not.

• First, meet your primary objective; in other words, put your meat upon the table, first!  What is the objective of your website or email?  Can you write it into 50 characters?  Is your objective to get people to buy something the simply must have?  Analyze your website and see what triggers the greatest number of conversions.  That is the item on which you want to focus.

• Second, identify what your key focus is and convey that first; using the header and subheads, construct a path for your readers to follow—from persuasion to sale.  If you do not think that attention spans have not shrunk, try engaging a teenager in a lengthy, thoughtful conversation!  The way our culture has evolved, your audience demands you to “get to the point” and do it quickly.  If you can figure out a faster, shorter way of saying what you want to say, that is your new edit.

• Third, wherever you can, personalize; speak as if you are talking directly to your reader.  What do you want to say to him or her in a couple of seconds?

• Fourth, construct sentences in active voice; nothing gets more tedious and uninteresting to read through than passive voice.  The difference in passive and active voices is the difference between: “It has been decided . . .” and “We decided . . .”  or “It is necessary to buy our product” and “Buy our product.” The subject of the sentence should be what is doing the action.

• Fifth, lead your reader to your service or sale, but do not mislead; it is fine to say things that are attention getting, but if it is unbelievable or untrue, you have lost your reader.

A skilled and creative Arizona intenet marketing firm such as ThriveMarketing can prepare your message so it is more enticing to your audience.  We also know how to influence your website’s rankings so your audience is more likely to see your message first.  Headlines are not the only thing we do; we have many other ways we can help you make your website shine and your business Thrive!

AZ Marketing Companies Have 3 Areas of Concern

AZ marketing companies should know three major areas that need scrutiny:  first, the overall usability of your site is of paramount importance; second, the landing page is probably the single most important page to motivate visitors to become your customers; and third, search engine optimization puts you in front of the customer.

#1: Website Usability

It is essential to redesign based on usability because website design success requires an understanding of customer behavior and makes customers take action—the action you want them to take.

• Research suggests that fully, one-third of all online transactions may be aborted due to usability problems.

• According to website usability expert, Dr. Jakob Nielsen, website redesign based on a usability analysis, on average increases traffic (hits) by 150% and increases online sales by 100%.

• Consequently, an investment in usability typically provides a return on investment between a 10-fold and 100-fold return in sales.

#2: Landing Pages

The landing page is your one-time, first-impression opportunity.  The landing page acts as the doorway to your website business and it can either be inviting or inhibiting.  Thrive Marketing, one of many AZ marketing companies, has done a lot of study on what makes landing pages successful.  In a recent article about landing page optimization, we published what we have seen (“Boost Your Website Conversions: Landing Pages”).

The landing page must convince the visitor to stay in the first two or three seconds before he or she quickly moves on.  A landing page should be designed not only for first impression, but specifically for lead generation, branding and education and, ultimately, to generate sales for your company.  The landing page must focus on the benefits to the reader, not the features of the presenter.  This often-forgotten element is necessary to accommodate the point of view of the customer who is seeking to fulfill a need.  That is a pretty tall order to communicate in just those few seconds, but that is what must be done.

#3: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO is the art and science of taking your company directly into the view of your potential customer.  SEO allows you to leverage the search engines, such as Google, for the benefit of your marketing efforts by raising your company name higher in the search results list—optimally to the number one position.  This practice is called search engine optimization.  Without the SEO efforts, all the great work done on your website may be invisible to the very person you need to present it to.  A rather complicated process briefly described, SEO efforts concentrate on the search terms your potential customer is likely to use and optimizes your site for those terms.  Strong SEO skills require good creativity coupled with high attention to detail.  It is an area of web marketing that Thrive Marketing has developed into a specialty.

In The Company of Creative Expertise

Thrive Marketing is staffed with people who are award-winning in their fields and have decades of experience in all facets of web management, web design, copy development, and SEO enhancements.  Learn more about Thrive Marketing We strive to make our clients’ businesses thrive.  We would love a chance to sit with you, show you the results of our web design and marketing efforts, and give you specifics on just how we can do that for you.

To request a proposal or even to talk over what you would like to do with your website and marketing efforts, fill out the information on the request a proposal page and we will contact you as quickly as we can.

Website Review and/or Interview Us for Your Project

ThriveMarketing would like an opportunity to do an analysis of your website design and show you what can be done to make it a more effective selling tool.  You can request a proposal online.  We would love to show you how we can make your online efforts at marketing thrive!

• Call Toll-Free: 1 (866) 521-0827
• Call Locally:    1 (480) 704-4563

An online advertising agency is an important and integral portion of your website efforts.  Without a knowledgeable online advertising agency, there are many wrong turns and pitfalls you may not even be aware of, and following 9 simple rules can make a lot of difference in getting the right people on your website.

An online advertising agency can make sure your efforts pay off

Your website is important to your business but if it is not optimized for search engines, or worse still, is improperly optimized, then your efforts for having a strong, selling website have been compromised. By carefully selecting an online advertising agency, you can make your website assist you in your sales efforts, twenty-four hours a day, and seven days a week. Your online advertising agency will guide you through the process, but in the meantime, here are 9 of many guidelines you can consider as primary rules you want to watch out for.

9 Rules for Ensuring Website Efforts Pay Off

Rule #1:  Engage SEO experts in a timely fashion

Whatever your place is in the process of building your website, do not wait too long to employ Search Engine Optimization expertise.  Whether you are starting a new website or re-dressing an older one, SEO is a primary consideration and should be engaged right at the outset.  If you do not, you are losing valuable opportunities for your potential customers to find you easily so they can purchase your goods or services.

Rule # 2:  Don’t presume all online advertising agency skills are the same

Good online marketing can make your company more profitable than you may imagine.  Choosing an online advertising agency service provider is serious and, like everything else, they come in varying levels of quality and knowledge.  You should take it upon yourself to do a lot of research and ask questions of the companies you are considering.

Rule #3:  Be an active participant in the process

Intend to stay engaged in the search engine optimizing process.  The simple reason is you want to continue the efforts at placing proper keywords on the internet so the goods and services on which you depend for your success remain at the forefront.

Rule #4:  Targeting wrong keywords

Proper keywords, as well as proper keyword usage is at the forefront of any Search Engine Optimization effort.  For example, if you are an attorney in Washington, D.C., do not expect much from your efforts if they are led with the keyword “lawyer.”  Be specific about what it is you want to portray.  Check the keyword in the proper software (such as keyworddiscovery.com or wordtracker.com) to assure you will have visibility coupled with realistic expectations of making a difference to the search results.

Likewise, using keywords that are effective, but off-target for your business, buys you no new customers.  Always select keywords that will optimize your website for specific, relevant, and sales-oriented searches.

Rule #5:  Too few and too many keyword repetitions

Too few keywords and you get skipped in the search engines.  Too many and the search engine sees your site as spam, and you still get skipped.  There is a standard for use somewhere between three or four and seven or eight and it varies from time-to-time.

Rule #6:  Know how to use meta tags

It might surprise you to learn that many who are experienced at putting together websites do not even use the meta tags, of which there are three that are vital.

The meta title is a place where your keyword needs to reside.  It appears on your finished website in the top browser border or tab and is searched for by all search engines.

Don’t try to make the title do too much; it is a temptation to jam all your keywords there.  That is not effective.  Also, do not have the same title, such as your company’s name, on all pages.  It serves no purpose for search engine optimization.

Second, the meta description, also embedded in the HTML code, will appear in the search engine under your listing header.  If you do not supply one, part of your website copy will appear there at random — or not.  You need to compose this copy carefully, with keywords — from your keyword research in mind — as it is the first impression the searcher gets for your company.  It also needs to contain prominently the keyword you are using — preferably as the first word(s).

Third, your keyword(s) themselves should be listed in the HTML as meta keywords.  This, too, is easy to overlook.

Rule #7:  Don’t put key elements in graphics, Flash, or JavaScript

Using keywords, company names, and other vital information in graphics, Flash, or JavaScript makes them invisible to the spider-crawling of the search engine.  They may look really spiffy, but they will not do you any good.  At the very least, have an alternate HTML version on the site so the search engines can see it and index it.

Rule #8:  Don’t have multiple domain names feeding your homepage

When the search engine finds them, it will consider your content “duplicate” and, in all likelihood, it will eliminate it from the search results.  That would be a disaster and may be a result that is quite the opposite from what you intended by having multiple domain names.

Rule #9:  Expect results

There are many, many such rules to be followed in order to make your website a success.  We view these as being among the most important.  By following a few rules to guide your success, you and your online advertising agency can work wonders at gaining first-class visibility for your website.  Whether you are selling goods or services, a properly optimized website puts dollars in your pockets.  ThriveMarketing would love the chance to perform an evaluation of your website.

Visit our online advertising agency to request a proposal and let us see what we can do to enhance your website.

• Call Toll-Free: 1 (866) 521-0827
• Call Locally:   1 (480) 704-4563

An internet advertising consultant needs to provide enhancements

For a successful internet advertising consultant, the style of the copy has to be as important as the words it contains. Internet advertising consultants, contrary to popular belief, are just as much about making technical enhancements to a website, but must result in a click-through that results in sales.  Services need to include web design and layout and usability in addition to copy content that is a cut above the competition.  Good copy is a basic requirement.  If the quality of the copy is not good, then it does not matter what it says; it is not enticing to read.  In addition to good organization–in order to draw the customer/reader into the website–optimized website copy must be creative, informative, and technically helpful.

SEO Writing Tip # 1: Creativity is paramount

If you write in the style of Charles Dickens and get paid by the word as he did, then just about anything you write is going to be a winner.  Otherwise, an internet advertising consultant wanting to provide excellent copywriting services needs to be a lot more creative with his organization and content.  There is no question that content is the key but a copywriter who remains ahead of the pack has to devote more energy into the organization of the message.  The writer has to be in command of the language.

Internet advertising consultant services is about placing high quality search keywords; the writer still must organize the content that draws in the potential customer.

It is a given that some of the organization is going to be dictated by the placement and frequency of search keywords.  The ideal is to be able to read the copy and read through the placed search keywords seamlessly.  Much of the optimized copy on the internet stumbles on the keywords because they look and read out of place with the rest of the content.

Be a little bit creative in forming and placing the terms.  Anything that causes the reader to stumble gives him or her an excuse to quit reading your message.  In addition to boring material, too much of the copy in the internet (and everywhere else) includes poor sentence structure, lack of sentence variety, and poor grammar.  Good writing must remain faithful to the basic organizational rules.

Writing is not really about writing; writing is about getting your thoughts well-organized. It is also about given yourself permission to be a little creative, inserting humor, adopting a memorable metaphor or other symbol and chunking the knowledge in a way that the brain finds easy to digest.

Don’t write like a brainiac, unless you want only brainiacs to read it

One of the mistakes many aspiring writers makes, especially when writing about technical subjects, is striving to sound too technical.  The reader can’t help thinking, “Can’t you just tell me about the product in plain English?”  Yes, please!  That’s all most readers want.  “Help me to understand why I need this product and why I should pick it up from you.” The reader finds your true creativity and quality in simplicity and clarity.

SEO Writing Tip #2: Be informative

When you search highly competitive keywords, the websites that appear first in the results list will almost always be ones that are known to carry good, solid, usable information.  Searchers want to learn something about what they are searching. That is the whole reason search engines were developed.  If you are not providing that in your message, then you are missing a great opportunity to persuade your prospective customer.  Choose the right words.  Use the words the searcher would use. There is no need to use complicated words if a simple one will work.  Nowhere is that more true than in copy intending to make sales.

Tip #3: Being technically helpful is like wrapping it up with a ribbon

If your website is also technically savvy about the products, you just became a resource for searchers.  Being a resource means you will become a choice and hopefully, a bookmarked website. That is going to make sales conversions a lot easier.  Furthermore, if you win the coveted bookmark competition you will also eliminate the competition that shows up in the search with your company.

Put yourself in the buyer’s position.  If you are already an avid golfer and an expert at golf and golf equipment, would you be likely to be searching it on the web anymore?  One of our clients who owns a fishing products website is rapidly growing in sales because he values being a technical resource to new shoppers.  In this way, he continues to sell more products in a wider spectrum through tips on combining products that produce results in catching fish.  That extra measure of value is what really makes his search engine optimized copy, and his website, excel.

Provide a solid backstop for search terms

In great internet advertising consultant services, the keyword terms are the tails– and the backstop copy in which they reside are the dogs.  Make sure that you know which one does the wagging.  It is not enough just to have the search terms.  Great website copy needs to be creative (in order to be eye-catching), informative (in order to bring the customer into the clickable leads), and technically helpful (to win the coveted, bookmark prize). In order to balance all these demands, find a consultant that really knows what he or she is doing with site optimization.

The memorability and usefulness of the copy is indeed what is important. The keywords have already brought the customer to your page.  Now you must do something with them.

For more information on how ThriveMarketing can help you with your Search Marketing:

• Request a proposal
• Call Toll-Free: 1 (866) 521-0827
• Call Locally:   1 (480) 704-4563

Search engine marketing consultants are not all alike

Search Engine Optimization is not a myth

A search engine marketing consultant can show you how SEO can work for your website.

In our last article, the second of this series of three “Internet marketing firms can guide proper search term analysis that will increase your business – dramatically” we discussed the importance of how the words on your website and the format in which they are presented can make a great difference to the website’s popularity in the search engines.  In the first article of the series, “An Internet advertising agency can vastly improve your visibility on the internet,” we discussed what search engines do and how they are programmed to decide who appears first in the search results list.  In this article, we will focus on understanding the overall concepts of search engine optimization, how to find an agency who can actually make a difference, and the importance of maintaining your website after the initial optimization.

Believing in SEO

There are people around who will be quick to tell you that as far as SEO goes, there is nothing one can do; it’s hopeless; it doesn’t work; it is a sham and rip-off.  Primarily, those people are the ones who have had no experience (or a bad experience) with search engine optimization. All this negativity about it only indicates one thing: many do not have experience with how the competition’s website was able to move ahead of them through search engine optimization.  Not only does SEO work, it may be the most efficient and cost-effective marketing dollar spend a company can make toward its internet selling strategies.

SEO works and surprisingly well.  Still, expectations must be set properly with orientation and education about what happens to the website listings and when they are likely to occur.

With SEO, there’s no such thing as instant success

SEO modifications take time.  As discussed in the “Internet marketing firms can guide proper search term analysis that will increase your business – dramatically,” websites information searches are searched within the search engine’s database – not on the internet.  The way the search engine database is indexed is complicated.  The efforts you make to optimize your site can be neutralized or negated by other conditions on your website.  It is possible to carry out a search engine optimization process on your site only to see it be ineffective.  That certainly doesn’t mean SEO doesn’t work; but it can mean the person doing it really didn’t understand all the things he or she needs to correct on the website to avoid negative search impacts.

Finding the right SEO marketing firm

Our personal prejudice at Thrive Marketing, built through our own experiences, is that among the primary skills a search engine marketing consultant must include is an expertise in marketing and customer service. Search engine optimization is a complicated process involving not too well understood methods of searching, but the end result must be to improve the marketing and customer service presence on your website.  Website success is about finding you and leaving with a happy buyer.

Some copy development skills are vital

The second most important characteristic of a search engine marketing consultant is to have a great enough skill in writing that the SEO copy reads as seamlessly as any other piece of informative copy, but contains all the necessary keywords and keyword placement.  Ideally, a reader should not be able to determine the keywords in use just by reading the article.  The article should be informational (as this is also a search criterion).

SEO Copy structure is important

As mentioned in the last article, page content should usually be between about 500 and 800 words but the keyword should not appear any more than about six to ten times, divided between body copy, headers, links, HTML descriptions, and meta-title.  If done properly, the search term being optimized should not be obvious to the reader.

Maintaining optimal optimization

Believe it or not, websites get stale.  Even a top scoring website, if left without changes and updates for a while, will start to fall in the preferred search results.  The reason is that the search engines recognize stale sites and downgrade them.  Second, search engine parameters change from time to time.  To keep a site optimized, it needs to be checked for optimization every few months and the content modified on a regular basis.  Third, websites containing informational content will rate higher than those without it.

Remember, good marketing sense is important, too

Websites should be freshened from time to time–not just for search engine optimization–but because it makes good marketing sense.  When requesting estimates on website work, and researching the cost of SEO processing, be sure to include maintenance in the scope of work.  As said before, SEO and SEO maintenance are some of the most efficient spends in internet marketing.

Having an understanding of SEO and how it works, finding a search engine marketing consultant, and maintaining your website with fresh copy that matches current search criteria are all important parts of internet marketing.  A good search engine marketing consultant with marketing and customer service experience can work wonders with your website in the search engine results.  SEO really works; it is no myth.  However, you still have to be realistic about what you put into your site and the time and effort it takes to keep it fresh.

For more information on how ThriveMarketing can help you with your Search Marketing:

• Request a proposal
• Call Toll-Free: 1 (866) 521-0827
• Call Locally:   1 (480) 704-4563

The investment in services also varies greatly in price depending on the agency from $300-$20,000+ per month. There are agencies that just do SEO copy, but not site architecture redesign or link building, but ALL of that can be important to SEO. Make sure you know what the agency’s capabilities are, and ask for references or case studies.

It is worth it. One client of ours went from paying steep PPC prices before we SEO’d their site and increased their SEO traffic by 20x, almost entirely eliminating the need for PPC. Their investment of SEO per year is $12,000/year, but they’ve gotten more than $130,000 per year in value (if you multiply what they were paying per click by the amount of SEO visits). That is a good value for them.

It’s like PR in the fact that you could pay $1,000’s for an ad, or you could get written up as a feature editorial worth several thousand dollars for the same ad space. PR can be MUCH more cost efficient than paying for an ad…

However, unlike PR, SEO is totally measurable and quantifiable (PR people are going to hate me – but it’s true, they can only count impressions, not visits to a website from a newspaper article).

With SEO, you can tell exactly how much your keywords have gone up or down in rankings. You can also tell exactly which keyword phrases (as well as if they’re paid or unpaid keywords, and what engines they came from) have contributed to your bottom line in the form of leads or sales. This way, you can justify to your boss and the other resistors in your organization that SEO efforts ARE paying off in terms of sales, email sign-ups, membership sign-ups, etc. And, show a RETURN on Investment (ROI).

If your ROI is positive, then it’s worth it, right? If it’s not, then figure out what keywords are ineffective, if you need to fix the conversion rate on your site, change, tweak and get it right.

It’s an ongoing process even if your ROI is positive… you should always continue to want to widen your reach and improve upon past results.

Internet marketing firms can guide proper search term analysis that will increase your business–dramatically

Flickr: Danard Vincente

Keyword search term analysis is an exacting art

As discussed in our last article, SEO is an exacting process and vital part of your website.  It is conceivable that you could use your chosen search term for your company, test it in a search engine such as Google, MSN, or Yahoo! and not have your company’s website even show up.  There are many factors that contribute to that and we will be discussing several of them.

The importance of the keyword selection

Search engines have websites where you can test and research keyword terms.  For Google, you need to buy a subscription to a service like KeywordDiscovery or WordTracker.  The cost is about $70.00 per month.  The process is relatively simple, but you have to know what you are looking for.  Simply testing a search term and picking the related term that comes up first is NOT going to produce the desired results. As a rule, the shorter the keyword term, the more competitive it is because of its national and broad nature.  Some search terms are so broad and bring forth so many results that it is by extreme skill and lots of time that a company could end up ranking high.

Selecting the right terms for your businesses

The search term you select should be one that has a balance of high frequency of common use with relatively lower competition for the term.  Generally speaking, you will find a dozen or so commonly used terms that will fit your business and, therefore, your visibility on the web.

Search engines do not see everything

Search engines search for specific items in your website.  Incidentally, there are items in your website that a search engine will ignore, too.  For example, if you use Google to search for “search engines” you will find Google’s search engine listed about ninth (as of today).  Likewise, at Ask.com, Google is toward the bottom of the second page and Ask.com doesn’t show up on the first two pages at all.  Because of that, search engines seem completely unpredictable. In actuality, they are not.

They see what you do not want it to see, too

If your selected keyword search term is used too many times on your website, relative to the total copy on your website, the search engine will see at as spam and ignore it.  Even if you have the right keyword phrase, just peppering your site with it is not enough.  The word needs to appear within a narrow number of frequencies – roughly 10 to 15 times.  It needs to be nested in an informational page of about 500 to 700 words in length.  Search engines favor informational sites, so this has a two-fold purpose.  The keyword needs to appear in hyperlinks, headers, titles, descriptions, and other key places within the HTML code.

Remember, instant results do not happen.

It takes a search engine about six weeks to begin indexing the information on a website into the engine’s database and it can take you six to 12 months of consistent SEO to index well.  Search engines don’t search the internet directly; they search the indexing in its database.

There are two ways to accomplish SEO and keyword selection

Option 1:  Begin to read everything you can on SEO operations.  Learn the software needed to research keywords, test website copy, and then practice the skill frequently.

Option 2:  Hire someone who does it for a living, internet marketing firms such as ThriveMarketing, and schedule a time to review your situation.  An SEO expert can tell you what you need to do to begin the process, and what you will need to do to maintain the position.  Remember, such engines are like living things – they evolve and change on a frequent basis.

Option 2 is the most cost-efficient unless you intend to go into business doing it for others. ThriveMarketing does it for others and we would be happy for a chance to help you help yourself.  The analysis and ranking report are free.

For more information on how ThriveMarketing can help you with your Search Marketing:

• Request a proposal
• Request a ranking report
• Call us: (866) 521-0827

An Internet advertising agency must concentrate on making marketing simpler for the marketer.  From the user’s point of view, the internet appears to be a very simple and straightforward computer tool.  However, a marketer has a different point of view.  Internet advertising agencies not only must deal with the promotional details – the graphic arts, the message, the media placement – but they must also be skilled at search engine optimization or the promotional efforts will not even be seen.

The secret to being seen on the internet lies in the science and art of SEO and involves in-depth knowledge at site-searching and indexing criteria, keyword selection, and website optimization maintenance.  How each of these components affect the success of a website in a search engine’s results list makes the difference in a website that performs superbly and one that does not perform well.  In the next two newsletters we will take a closer look at how to select keywords for optimization and why there is a need for continued SEO maintenance.  For now, let’s take a closer look at how an internet advertising agency can enhance a website through the SEO process.

Is the Internet really as simple as it seems?

Although to the user, searching topics on the internet seems quite simple, the search is a complicated process.  For the advertiser, it is an intricate and complicated process.  Understanding just how the search is conducted, and what a website most contain to be noticed and ranked highly is a job for experts who keep up with the constant changes made to the search and presentation criteria.  Keeping a budget open to maintain the create and maintain the optimization is money well spent.  Most users presume that such optimization is an automatic process, costing nothing, and is unchangeable.  None of that is true.

What exactly is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of adjusting the content of web sites to make it more appealing to the search engine criteria.  All search engines are programmed with rules governing what it looks for in a website.  As a user enters a search term, the search engine applies rules in making judgments about what web pages to show first.  The optimized web page, not the search engine alone, is what most affects what the user will see first.

What does a search engine really look for?

The search engine looks first and foremost for the occurrence of the search term used in the search line of the Google or other search engine.  As part of the search engine’s site indexing, it sees how many times and in how many words (length of article) the keyword appears.  The keyword needs to appear in titles, links, descriptions, and a few other HTML fields within the website.  The number of times the keyword appears is also critical and changes from time to time.  Too few and that website will not be seen; too many and the website will be seen as spam.  The copy in which the term resides has to be of sufficient size to provide a good backstop for the search to find its target.  The content must be of sufficient length without being too long or too repetitive.  If it is too repetitive, the search engine views it as spam and ignores it.  If it is a duplicate of another article, it will be ignored.  If it is too long, it dilutes the appearances of the keyword.

Search Engine Optimization cannot be guessed

Selecting a search term requires knowledgeable analysis to see what terms are truly the most effective.  The selection of keywords for optimization will be the subject of the next article, but the best search terms are not necessarily the most frequently used.  It is NOT possible to guess what the best search terms would be.

There are three absolute requirements to accurate search engine optimization:

• Extensive knowledge of search engine practices
• Ability to analyze keyword occurrences and impact
• Sound marketing knowledge and experience

Experience and judgment must be applied to select the right keywords that will be effective, specifically for your site.

Internet search is a numbers game but it is not as simple as just adding up the numbers.  Internet search engine optimization is well worth the effort and expense.  A wise advertiser will budget for it just as they do for their advertising or website building.

If You’re Not on the First Page…

If you’re not on the first page of the search engines, you don’t exist. 62% of search clicks are generated from the first page of search engine results. What does this mean for you? Your company needs to appear in the top 10 search results to maximize exposure and clicks.

We can help. For more information on how ThriveMarketing can help you with your Search Marketing:

• Request a proposal
• Request a complimentary search ranking report
• Call us at 1 (866) 521-0827