A Quick Brief: Marketing 101 in 2010

In times of yore, if you needed a plumber, you whipped out your phone book (that conveniently weighs as much as a brick), thumbed through the index until you found the plumbing contractor section. Phone books were broke into a vertical index and into advertising spots, with the companies being alphabetically. The companies who had names starting with the letter A were listed before other competitors, hence the influx of businesses beginning with “AAA”. To really stand out on the page, many business owners would invest in a large, graphical ad. Before the internet got “big”, a typical 1-page ad in the phone book for Bellevue before could cost you in excess of $1,000 per month.

Phone companies would print and distribute their phone books 1-2 times per year, and consumers would by and large use them as a resource. Come 2000, the internet had begun to take hold, and the digital advertising revolution had become mainstream. As the access to technology increases, more and more people are turning to the net to find the answers to what they are looking for. People Google from their phone everyday, something internet proponents could only dream about 20 years ago. If your site can’t be found when searching on the major search engines for popular terms (no, not just your company name), then you probably have not experienced the power of internet marketing.

What is SEO and why do I need it?

The pseudo-art, psuedo-science of Search Engine Optimization in it’s most simple definition is “getting your website traffic through search engines“. Studies have shown that the top 5 organic results of any search engine will receive the majority of the traffic. Thus, getting to the top of the search engine will exponentially increase the likeliness that people will visit your website. Online data drives off-line sales, as more and more people are using the web to both find and research companies.

And who are you, JMWebdev?

I am one of many of these SEO companies out there, albeit you won’t find me wasting time making cold calls or with wasteful print mailers. I am an environmentally conscious, socially responsible SEO that provides websites that extra kick to get more traffic and be ranked highly in the major search engines. Most of my work comes from referrals from local businesses, graphic designers, political consultants, and other SEO companies. My passion is my work, and I offer my services at some of the most competitive prices on the internet.

Like a true nerd, I have been involved in web design since the late nineties and am aside myself from how far the ‘net has come. I have been using a computer longer than most people that are double, or even triple my age, starting when I was four. Being fascinated with design and engineering at a young age, my website design and search engine optimization has been the results of arts, sciences, computer programming languages, and personal experiences.

Over the years, I have designed hundreds of websites for businesses, non-profits, politicians, artists/musicians, and entrepreneurs. I live for the human experience of it all, to help bring someone’s idea to life and make it successful. Anyone can design a website, I build dreams.

Bellevue Search Engine Optimization vs Outsourcing

I hear this argument frequently, or more so that SEO is expensive. In my professional experience, I couldn’t agree more. There are a ton of large SEO companies out there that will try to take you to the cleaners if you let them. In this wonderful free-market economy, especially on the internet, price is going to be a huge determining factor for a lot of business owners. There are a lot of people who will make big claims that they simply can not backup. These people tarnish the industry for all of us legit hard-working folk.

With that being said, and to drop two more cliches, “you get what you pay for” and “garbage in, garbage out”. Good SEO is by no means cheap. Great SEO is an investment, especially upfront if you need a SEO website designed or need to fix critical SEO errors. By laying down the proper framework, your site will have longevity that could very well surpass any other ROI for your business. A website is much more than a one-time advertisement like print media is, as websites will remain on the internet nearly indefinitely.

Choosing to outsource your Bellevue Search Engine Optimization needs may be penny wise, but pound foolish. With a local Bellevue SEO company, you get:

• A local person who provides faster response, and won’t treat you like a number
• Responsible and personable
• Native English speaking with a command of the English language
• Supports your local economy
• As a Bellevue SEO, I am more than willing to take the time to explain strategy and results
• Ultimately higher quality results

Get in Touch

In 2010, it is undeniable, search engine optimization is a cornerstone to having a successful website. If you are looking for a solid online marketing plan and implementation, please do not hesitate to get in touch! Call us today at: 206.931.2565 and ask for the organic Bellevue Search Engine Optimization guy!

As of June 2010, Google still owns the lion’s share of total searches, with some statistics showing that up to 90% of the total daily searches are being performed on Google. I feel these stats are slightly skewed, as the February 2010 Nielsen Report suggest that Google owns approximately 65% of the daily search volume. Yahoo! at 14.1% is still ahead of Microsoft’s Search Engine, Bing, which floats around at 12.5% of total users. Regardless of the inconsistencies, Google is still far ahead in terms of daily global searches and thus most Seattle SEO companies specifically target ranking on Google.

Why would you ever not consider ranking on Google?

While ranking on Google has been and will continue to be a core of many of our SEO campaigns, there is often a faster path to swooping up the low hanging fruit. Especially In Seattle, Search Engine Optimization is much more than ranking your website well on Google. With the recent increase in Bing’s advertising campaigns here in Seattle, coupled with the large base of Seattle’s Microsoft employees and the recent Bing/Yahoo! merger, Bing is an often overlooked source of high quality leads. With less competition and rapid indexing on both Bing and Yahoo, with a sound strategy results can be obtained in much less time than the saturated competition of the big G.

Often times, business owners get overly concerned with ranking well on a particular SE, while neglecting the multitude of other factors that they could be refining while waiting for Google to acknowledge your site is the most relevant, authoritative site on the net (hopefully). Website design, specifically ease of use, aesthetics, and call to action, all need to facilitate your site being something someone wants to bookmark or share. Google tracks how long visitors view your website, where they came from, and where they go to; all determining factors of how Google will rank your website. By having a form-and-function website that has relevant content that is periodically updated, you are significantly increasing your odds of conversion, and if done right, even your on-site SEO!

Why would I consider a Seattle SEO company vs. a SEO company who specializes in my industry?

I’ll be the first to agree that there are many portal based websites boast cheap prices and extreme ease of use. They promise you the world, an attractive website that is easy to manage, tons of free articles and content, videos, and interactive flash. They take care of your web hosting, your email, and they even set you up on your brand new domain name. While they might seem like an affordable solution, often times these are pitfalls for the unwary business owner. Let me explain why.

First and foremost, they have no guarantee of their marketing results. Many of the larger service providers in the law and chiropractic SEO fields do not offer any off-site SEO, which is the most vital part of any organic SEO campaign. They simply submit your domain name to the search engines, and might create a sitemap for you. “Well that’s okay,” you tell yourself, “They included a bunch of free articles for my site!”. Yes, they might have provided relevant, maybe even highly optimized content for your site; however, they provided that same content to all of their other customers! The result is either a massive duplicate content penalty, or the internet marketing agency will simply tell the search engine robots to ignore the content.

Second, if and when things start to go sour, and you become tired of paying several hundred dollars a month for an unoptimized website that isn’t unique or functional, you will have a rude surprise to find out that they own your domain name, and you are actually leasing it from them! Be very wary about the limitations and control that your service provider may have over you, and be sure that you are clear on who owns what, digitally.

Third, they are likely dissociated with their product, pumping out websites factory style. It’s absolutely garbage in, and garbage out, and as a proponent of honest and ethical work, I say no thank you! I’ve encountered more than a few sales reps from several large “Seattle SEO companies” who know little to nothing about the internal workings of Search Engine Optimization. As a local Seattle SEO consultant, I am always available for emergencies and consultations, and will treat you as much more than as ‘just another client’.

Ok, that’s all great, now what?

Be bold, be brave, and get in touch. Let me show you how my Seattle Search Engine Optimization experience can revolutionize your business. I will provide you with a comprehensive initial consultation free of charge, and we can turn your ideas into realities. Give me a call today at 206.931.2565!

In reality those other search engines are so far behind Google its not even funny.  Nevertheless, Google is always improving on their search engine algorithm to make sure the stays ahead of the pack, I am sure.

Local SEO is changing.  Its still all about links, but tactics are going to have to be adapted.  Content and relevance are king.  Google loves fresh content, they like good content, and they love relevant content. Perfect all three and you have a good leg up on your SEO campaign.

Not to say that this is something totally new, but the new ‘Caffeine’ algorithm is putting an extra premium on those things.

Something else to note…

Google likes, if it is available, several times on a page for a particular search term.  It seems that they want several articles, a You Tube video, Wikipedia, 1-2 blogs, 1-2 static sites or blogs that actually sell something, and a press release from a major source usually found at the bottom.

Their logic actually makes perfect sense and from a user prospective is right on the money.

You enter a term “XYZ” into Google.

You are going to first want information about XYZ.  This is where Wikipedia comes into place.

The next course you will take is finding practical application and experiences.  This is where blogs and review sites are extremely helping.  Many blogs consist of people just talking about products they have used, what they thought about them, and rambling on about how they will or will not ever use it again.

If you are local than the rules are somewhat different.  It is hard to set up a static HTML site that sells products and get a) Google to index it and b) Google to rank it for anything valuable.  And before static HTML sites do not update often the “Big G” does not come back to the site often unless you get some nice authoritative back links pointing there.

Anyone is a fool for not making a site using WordPress these days.  WordPress is the best content management system ever created in my opinion and it indexes like crazy.

Back to Google “Caffeine,”

Here are the good points:

• Sites are indexed much quicker.

• Links seem to be counted faster.

• Fresh content can rise to the top of the SERPS quickly especially from trusted sites.  Some articles I have written on Ezine and Hubpages that were long, detailed, and thought out went right past some older sites that are PR3s and Pr4s.

Here is what I do not like from a search engine optimizer prospective:

• Rankings are more unstable as sites can rise fast but drop just as fast.
• Harder to find extremely relevant links all the time and you are dealing with other large companies who buy links no matter what they say
• Sites can drop in rankings for apparently no reason
• Domain Age has more weight than ever

We have been doing a lot of optimizing for local businesses in the Portland, Vancouver, and Tacoma area. We have had great results for local searches.  About 80-90% of our accounts are on page one or very close.  A large key is coding.

If your website is:

• built on a robust content management system such as WordPress, Drupal, or Dotnetnuke,
• have the valid xHTML coding that is spider friendly,
• significant and relevant inbound links,
• and you have at last 350 words of unique content on each page with the proper keyword density,

…you will put yourself in a good position to succeed on Google.  If you need help setting up your web presence and getting to the first page of the search engines, you can reach me at: