The most popular question we get asked is "How Much Do You Ask For your Services?", a close second is the question "How do my customers find me in Google?". To begin to answer that question properly let‘s look at a some typical Google web search results. In the following screenshot a prospective customer has just search for sarasota hotels:
Here is a brief explanation of each of the three sections of the results page:
- Sponsored Search Results - you pay Google (or Yahoo or MSN etc.) for placement within the top search results. Sponsored search results are primarily on the right-hand side of the page but can also be one to three results at the top of the page too for very popular keyword combinations (see section later on this page).
- Google Map Results - if the keyword combination used is relevant to a location e.g. sarasota hotels as above several most popular and most relevant results will be displayed from Google Maps with a mini map showing location for each listing. Businesses can register for free with Google Maps (essentially a local directory with advanced mapping built in) and are listed once registration is confirmed.
- Regular Search Results - regular search results are the most hotly sought after as they are the ones that potential customers tend to look at first and because they don‘t cost you anything if a customer clicks on your link to visit your website. Using complex and ever-changing formulas, Google determines how high your website will rank relevant to the keyword or keyword combination. Businesses pay big bucks to continually dominate hotly contended keyword combinations at a national level. Beware of unethical SEO companies that guarantee a certain ranking.
It All Starts With Keywords
If your business is called Jones Lawn Maintenance, for example, you can expect, once established on the Google radar, to dominate that keyword combination almost by default. It is however normally the industry or service or product related keywords that deliver you the largest part of your return on investment, so that is where we concentrate our efforts.
As a business or organization there will be certain keywords or combination of keywords that you will want to target. Then there may also be certain geographic areas that are going to want to target to give you the best return on investment. As an initial exercise early on in the project we get our clients to come up with an initial draft list of 20 of the most important keywords that they believe are going to give them the best results. We then take this list together with their chosen target geographic area and do an analysis of the each keyword to see how they measure up in the real world.
In other words, how much traffic will a keyword combination actually generate when you look at the actual number of searches performed each month (from Google databases). We then re-work the initial list of keywords to come up with a list of best fit keyword combinations to try and maximize the client‘s return on investment. We then review the amended list with the client to make sure that they concur. The next step is to optimize the website that we design and build for these chosen keyword combinations.
Standard Search Engine Optimization Service
Our standard level of site optimization comes included with the cost of every custom website that we build and includes the following:
- Submission to all major search engines e.g. Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Ask etc.
- Registration of business or organization with Google Maps (if not already done).
- Basic circular architecture for best chance of good ranking for key pages.
- Basic optimization of page content relevant to most important keyword combinations.
- Optimization of image tag ALT or TITLE attributes relevant to most important keyword combinations.
- Optimization of page titles and heading tags.
- Optimization of page keyword and description META tags (not a big factor in boosting your ranking but plays a part in describing your website to potential customers to encourage the click).
- Logistical tags to guide search engine robots around your website telling it what to index and what not to index.
- Client guide to "Guerilla Marketing" to boost ranking e.g. posting on relevant user groups, reciprication of links with websites within the same industry or area as the client etc.
- Advice and guidance when needed.
A lot of our clients have good success with our basic website optimization and it meets with their objectives for their new website. We also strongly recommend Pay Per Click advertising to new clients so that they can draw traffic to their new website from the get go, all for a budget which they decide. Other clients wish to dominate highly competitive markets at a national level and our Advanced Search Engine Optimization service is needed.
Advanced Search Engine Optimization Service
Our advanced search engine optimization service costs an additional $1995 and of course includes everthing that comes in the standard optimization service. As the name suggests you are paying for your website to be optimized at an advanced level by specialists.
Some of the advanced features that really make a big difference in your real world ranking are:
- Advanced circular architecture and design by a professional.
- URL (website page address) re-writing - a special service that represents unfriendly web addresses in a format that is search engine friendly and page ranking friendly. You have no doubt seen that Amazon.com dominates Google product searches by actual product name and/or product code/sku because they actually use URL re-writing to present the web address in a readable and optimized format to include the all important full product name and codes/skus. To see this in action on one of our website have a look at the Coast Infiniti website (use the site index to examine specific pre-owned vehicles to see this SEO technique in action).
- Advanced optimization of page content relevant to most important keyword combinations. This includes special, professionally written content for each web page to increase page ranking and use of most important keyword combinations in first 10% of page.
- Content duplication removal to prevent reductions in page rank.
- Setup of related websites including blogs, information websites that strongly cross link to your own website to increase page ranking.
- Domain name optimization relevant to keyword combinations.
- Actual testing and improvement of page rank for all key website pages.
Pay Per Click Marketing
Pay Per Click or Sponsored Search marketing has been a hot topic for the last several years. With Google, this is where you sign up for a Google AdWords® account, setup a campaign, add the keywords combinations that you want to sponsor or pay for. With Google AdWords you choose how much to bid for each keyword combination, in other words how much you want to pay when someone clicks on your sponsored search listing to visit your website. You can set a short description for each keyword and set a budget allowance if desired. the actual order that you appear within the sponsored search listings depends on the average number of clicks that you get and on the amount you are bidding for each click so it important to choose your target keyword combinations wisely.
Google has had several well-documented problems with click fraud in hotly contended markets, in other words people fraudulantly racking up click counts for competitive reasons or to increase shared revenue from Google AdSense® (placing of syndicated Google Ads or sponsored results on partner websites for a share of revenue generated) but now have a wide range of anti-fraud measures including the prevention of multiple clicks on the same advertiser from the same source within a certain timeframe.
A certain segment of the market also avoid clicking on these types of search results but despite these misgivings, we highly recommend that new clients at least try this advertising service to boost initial traffic numbers while they are waiting to get established within the regular search engine results. If you keyword combination is well chosen and "ROI-effective" many clients welcome the opportunity to pay a low as 10 or 20 cents for a qualified lead to their website.
Standout Solutions offers several service options for assisting with or managing pay per click campaigns:
- Assisted Setup - we charge $199 to setup each campaign (including the cost of getting you registered if it‘s the first time). You can then manage the campaign yourself every week or month as necessary through your Google AdWords login. We work with the client to setup the campaign for maximum return on investment.
- Managed Service - we charge $99 to setup each campaign and $99 per campaign per month to manage and maintain it for best results. We work with the client to setup the campaign for maximum return on investment and give them monthly reports to show progress.
More Information on Search Engine Optimization
For more information on Search Engine Optimization please visit the following:
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