It’s all over twitter – more and more businesses are looking to SEO, social media and other forms of online “advertising” to get the word out about their services and products. And I’ve done my share of proposals for these businesses as well. Some hired me, some didn’t. But it’s always fun to reflect back and see who contacted me throughout the past year. Below is a small but interesting list of companies I did SEO proposals for in 2009.
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Just Who’s Thinking About SEO?
Thursday, December 10th, 2009Upcoming Business Series Announcement
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009More and more businesses are getting online every day. Most of these businesses are doing so only because ‘everyone else is’. This sense of urgency is good, but needs a foundation. There’s nothing worse than a business that has a website simply because their competition does. Online strategy should be learned, discussed and acted upon in order to succeed.
As many of you know, I’m the moving force behind Market Saint Louis, a twice-a-year business conference that focuses on teaching local St Louis businesses the ways of online optimization, advertising and more. Speakers from around the country fly in to share their expertise on various subjects, from SEO to Pay per Click and Analytics. 2010 is going to be even bigger, with the conferences featuring two separate tracks – one for beginners and one for businesses that are already in the game to some level.
The event isn’t cheap (although the pre-agenda tickets aren’t very expensive) and some small businesses may have a hard time shelling out several hundred dollars in this economy just to learn how to spend more time and money on the Internet. But it’s crucial for every business to be online now.
To help quell the fears of those business owners, I’ve partnered up with the Jefferson County Library to teach a series of free classes (yes, I said free) on Online Marketing, Social Media and more. This series of classes will run January through March, and will be very limited both in amount as well as seating.
If you’re wondering just how your competition gets their website to the top of Google searches for items you sell, you’ll learn. If you know your business needs to be on Twitter or Facebook, but you don’t know how to use these tools, you’ll learn. And if you want to grow your online sales, you’ll learn.
Scheduled Dates
Twitter Basics and Tips
Jan 14 – 9:30AM to Noon or March 4 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Learn how to set up a Twitter account and how to ‘tweet’. You’ll learn about some great tools that will help you get more followers, find great information about your interests, and how to utilize some ‘behind the scenes’ tricks to get the most out of your new account.
Marketing Your Business Website
Feb 4 – 9:30 AM to Noon or Mar 25 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Do you wonder why your website isn’t listed on Yahoo! or other search engines? Are you clueless about search marketing techniques that can draw customers to your site? We will cover topics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online advertising tips and avenues, along with ways to increase your website traffic along with other offline marketing ideas.
Social Media for Business – Leverage Community to Build Your Brand
Feb 11 – 6:00PM to 8:30PM
Learn how to leverage blogging, video and social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to grow your business.
Sign Up Now
All classes have very limited seating and will be at the Arnold branch of the Jefferson County Library. To sign up, call 636-296-5171.
These will be the only classes offered this Spring. For more information on the upcoming Market Saint Louis conference (and to get the cheap ticket price) visit MarketSTL.com
SEO Isn’t an Expense, It’s an Investment
Friday, February 20th, 2009Many business owners see SEO and related services as an expense instead of an investment. This line of short term thinking has long plagued many a SEO business.
So what can the average SEO do about it? Well, we can educate them (assuming they are willing to listen). We can show them case studies. We can simply say ‘trust me’ (which rarely works).
Today, while thinking about this exact thing, I had a great thought.
Let’s say you are a business owner, and you have a building where you sell things. Everyone knows that the first three rules of business are ‘Location, Location, Location’, right?
So let’s say that I came to you and told you that every day I’d come by and move your building an inch closer to a major intersection in your town. I’d spruce up your building, make it attractive and at the same time I’d pick it up and move it closer and closer.
Now, being closer to an intersection means more people will see your signs, right? And once you get to the intersection (an inch at a time might take you a while), you’ll have more traffic, more people will be aware of your business, and your revenues will go up.
So after (whatever amount of time), I say let’s take this to a new level. Let’s move your building toward the local highway. It may cost more, but you’ll see more and more traffic. Your brand awareness will go up. People will see your building from many streets.
Soon you’ve moved past the highway toward the Interstate. Thousands (or more) of people are seeing your building, your sign, your brand every day. Revenues are going up, and you are enjoying success you never thought possible.
Now, let’s take this one step further. What if, the highway that I moved you towards just happened to contain only people that were interested in your products? Nearly every car that drove by was a targeted customer. Your target market, delivered to your door.
To be fair, let’s define an expense. dictionary.com says a cause or occasion of spending. Perfect.
If I were Joe Average Business Owner, you’re probably right, SEO is an expense in the short term scheme of things. There’s going to be a definite amount of time when I’m out spending my return. There will be months of payments gone to the wayside before I will ever see any return on that money, and it may seem like it’s not working.
And SEOs see this a lot. It takes time for the search engines to crawl your site, and it takes even longer for your website (which is competing with thousands, if not millions of others) to creep up the SERPS. That’s why we ask for 6 or 12 month minimum contracts. Our ’salary’ is performance based. You climb the ranks or we lose our job. Simple as that.
Back to expenses – sure, an SEO campaign is a serious cost for your business. In the short term, it will look like you’re losing money out the wazoo, but long term you’ll see that the money you invested is returning at a rate that has turned it into a nice business asset.
Investment: a devoting, using, or giving of time, talent, emotional energy, etc., as for a purpose or to achieve something
