Search Engine Optimization Memphis

Memphis SEO

2011-08-09T17:15:00.012-05:00

Taking On A SEO Initiative For Your Memphis Online Marketing

The amount of search engine queries as a whole that contain some kind of local intent is mind-boggling with upwards of forty percent. Business owners concerned about their local Memphis SEO should consider the importance of positioning their websites for local search success. On the other hand, Memphis business owners first priority is running their business and considering a local Memphis SEO initiative will test the limits of time and resources beyond manageability. In this situation, it makes sense to hand over the job to someone that specializes in local and organic search marketing.

Savvy business owners have already caught on to the importance of local, organic and social search engine marketing. Evidence of this is provided by the number of local businesses that not only have a website but a Facebook business page as well. However, most business owners would rather not navigate the murky waters of Memphis SEO and its methodology. For those business owners that would rather not delve into mechanics of SEO, we have provided an outline below.

Research

As a business owner with a website, you took the first step into the SEO world by researching your target audience and designing a website or having one designed with that target audience in mind. You as a business owner know your customers and clients and you have the solution to their needs. A website is your storefront to capture your audience, to showcase solutions and to convert website visitors into clients and customers. The initial research you did before building your website is only the first element of your research.

Keyword Research

Keywords are the cornerstone of all search, local, organic, nationally, globally and PPC. They are what bring together the targeted audience with the website. Keyword research is an on-going process which is not unlike mining for precious metals. Through keyword research with the help of keyword research tools, a SEO professional can find the obvious target audience keywords. In-depth keyword research will, as is often the case, turn up not so obvious long-tailed keywords that can turn into real gems that neither the business owner nor the SEO professional considered initially.

Know Thy Competition

The strengths and weaknesses of your competition can provide an SEO professional with a wealth of information. Your goal as a website owner when implementing best practices for Memphis SEO local search is to ultimately outrank your competition for every keyword related to your market. In other words, you want to dominate the local search market for your area of business. Professional SEO’s know how to look at your competition and use their strengths and apply them to your website. They also know how to use their weaknesses to your advantage. Many of their weaknesses can be found simply by looking at the source code of a competitor’s website. Most importantly, their linking profile can be studied easily enough to determine what is needed to outrank them in the local search results. The study of your competition is an essential part of a Memphis SEO initiative.

The Memphis SEO Strategy: Three Important Elements

On-Page optimization is the first of three very important elements of implementing a sound SEO strategy. In reality, a Memphis business owner must please two masters with their website. Of course the first master would be visitors to the website which should reverberate with targeted content and the necessary aesthetics. A talented website designer should be considered in your overall strategy. Well written sales copy along with illustrations and pictures if the targeted business area requires them are all necessary. Keywords within Meta tags, articles, title tags and all sales copy are required to please not only website visitors, but more importantly, search engines.

Off-Page Optimization

Much to the chagrin of our website designer brethren, although necessary, on-page optimization in the overall design of your Memphis online marketing strategy is much smaller in comparison with off-page optimization. Most website design companies do excellent work and are passionate about their vocation and rightly so, they are wonderfully talented artist. However, most web design companies offer SEO as a secondary product to their clients and don’t do enough to properly optimize their client’s websites off-page.

There are portfolios of website design companies here in Memphis which showcase beautiful websites designed for their clients and they are beautifully crafted pieces of art, I must say. However a simple click of the mouse on some of these websites reveal the source code and there are no targeted keywords within the Meta tags, one of the rudimentary elements of on-page optimization and local intent search. We’re not beating up on our local web design friends, our research locally has only revealed this to be true.

Local business listings are necessary and up-to-date information is critical. Local business directories may be a potential customer’s first interaction with your brand. Although your website is the preferred method for the initial interaction with a potential customer, this is not always the case. Correct and up-to-date information on third party websites should be monitored and errors or omissions quickly corrected. Make efforts to ensure your website is properly categorized within third party sites and photos always increase the chances of searcher/customer interaction.

There are many factors involved with off-page optimization with the most important being your inbound linking structure. Your rankings in the local search results are largely determined by inbound links. Relevance for local intent search is signaled through anchor text within the link as well as the content surrounding the link. Another important determining factor is the link’s value, a derivative of the page rank of the webpage the link is coming from. Link building is where the “rubber meets the road” with a SEO initiative. In other words, of all the things that comprise a local Memphis SEO initiative, link building is the largest factor which will determine your website’s positioning within the local search engines. Link building requires considerable time and resources and can be challenging for someone that does not have the skill to navigate the SEO landscape.

Fine Tune Your Online Marketing With Analytics

No marketing campaign would be successful without monitoring and analyzing the data produced. Memphis online marketing is custom made for analysis and the use of Google Analytics is a powerful tool when used to track and compile data. Analytics can help webmasters fine-tune their online marketing efforts and determine what is and isn’t successful within their local Memphis SEO initiative. Google Analytics reveals how visitors are interacting with a website, providing a wealth of information including new keywords used to find a website that may not have been considered during the initial keyword research phase. You can find Google Analytics here.

Memphis SEO Services for Memphis Business Owners

Memphis area business owners should optimize their websites to capitalize on the high volume of local search going on within Memphis and the surrounding areas everyday. Every local Memphis SEO initiative must be customized to meet the needs of the individual website and its target audience within the competitive landscape. Search engine optimization ebbs and flows with the currents and tides of changing search engine algorithms and ranking factors. This clearly reveals the need for both strategic and technical requirements to position a website well for Memphis area local search. If you are a local business owner researching the idea of a Memphis SEO initiative, please consider the services of Search Engine Optimization Memphis.

The Benefits of A Website Ranked Highly In Local Search

2011-07-19T13:11:00.003-05:00

Increasingly, more and more consumers are turning to the Internet to find the services they need. Top ranked business websites for local search get far more new customers than those businesses with websites ranked below them in the Google and Yahoo search engines. Are potential new customers seeing your website when they search for the services or products they want and need? How can your business benefit from having high local search engine rankings?

1) More traffic to your website means more customers

2) Your website is available to potential new customers 24 hours a day unlike a Valpak or Newspaper ad run.

3)The Yellow Pages are very expensive and are seldom used by consumers in comparison to the Internet. Plus, your business shares ad space with your competition giving them an equal chance to get the customer.

4) A well designed website with high local search rankings allows you to showcase your business giving you the opportunity to show them how your business can meet their needs.

5) A website can be changed quickly whereas a printed ad run cannot. With the Yellow Pages your ad cannot be edited and will remain the same for an entire year.

6) Direct mail is only available at certain times of the week and is easily discarded if there is no need for your services at the time. Potential customers may need your services at any given moment. Your website is always there and available to them no matter the day or time.

7) If your website is not ranked highly in local search, potential customers cannot find you. Most searchers use search keywords related to what they need, not business names. Having your website ranked for your industry search related keywords allows people to find you quickly based on their need.

These are just a few of the benefits associated with having a top ranked website for local search. SEO Memphis can help your business attain top rankings for local search and increase the amount traffic to your website. Below is a short video that reveals how a top ranked website for local search can greatly impact your business and bottom line.

Six Minutes To Six Figures With SEO

2011-07-12T13:23:00.007-05:00

Memphis business owners could benefit from watching the short video below. It is called Six Minutes to Six Figures and reveals how a heating and air conditioning contractor took his business from zero profits to banking $23,000 in 45 days. He did this by using the power of the Internet with a combination of search engine optimization and a Pay for Click campaign. By having a website available 24 hours a day your customers can find you far quicker than they could with the Yellow Pages or ValPak coupons. See the video below.

This video proves traditional forms of acquiring new customers are obsolete. The Internet has become the primary source of showcasing your business and finding new customers through local Internet search. Having a properly optimized website that ranks highly for your industry keywords and Google Places can increase your exposure tremendously. Thus, providing you with potential new customers you could have never reached with traditional forms of advertising such as the Yellow Pages.

Memphis Local Internet Search vs. Memphis Yellow Pages

2011-07-10T14:50:00.006-05:00

Ask yourself when the last time was you picked up the Yellow Pages and you may find the answer surprising. The truth is most of us can’t remember the last time and when we did they were most likely used as a booster seat for a five year old. In the age of the Internet and smart phones, when we need a product, service or a location we access the Internet. And this is where local area business owners are sadly lacking in consumer exposure. However, there are business owners here in Memphis and the surrounding area that have forsaken the Yellow Pages and embraced the power of the Internet through local search. Guess what? Their sales have no doubt increased. Although it’s not enough just to have a website, it must rank well in local search for whatever industry or business you are in. More on this later.

Why The Yellow Era Has Come To An End

People naturally take the path of least resistance. Technology has provided a wealth of information right at our fingertips through our computers and the many hand held devices we own. People do what is easy and the Yellow Pages aren’t easy, computers and smart phones are. Almost everyone on the planet is aware of Google and how it works. Google is the number one search engine in the world, outranking Yahoo, Bing and all other search engines combined. Search technology and it's algorithms have become so sophisticated they know in what location someone is placing a search query and will provide them with the most up to date and relevant results requested, right at their fingertips. Is your website there for them to learn more about your business and what you offer to satisfy their need? This website is ranked number one for search engine optimization Memphis for this very reason. We want everyone in this area to know we can help them rank their website in the top slots on Google by virtue of the fact we are ranked higher than other SEO firms in Memphis.

Fees and Standing Out Above the Crowd

Many Memphis business owners are listed in the Yellow Pages and are paying hefty fees to the tune of one-thousand dollars a month if not more for very little return. Not only are these fees excessive, you are committed to the same ad for one whole year without the ability to change the ad in anyway. The flexibility of your marketing in local search however, is instantaneous. Offering a special time sensitive deal, upload the sales copy to your website and it is live and in front of your visitors/customers. Have a new banner to test conversion rates, build and upload it and your test is live.

Your website provides you with a a captive audience and the opportunity to stand out and sell them on your business without the "noise" found in the Yellow Pages. Ads placed in the Yellow Pages are right next to your competitor and or competitors, creating "noise" that can distract potential customers, reducing the chances of them ever becoming one of your customers. With a website ranked highly in local search, both in organic listings and Google Places, you stand out above the crowd and will receive far more clicks/visitors than your competition ranked below you. With the Yellow Pages, your competition has the same chance as you of getting the customer. Your website combined with high local search rankings can eliminate the competition and get you the customer.

Investment or Money Pit

If you are a local business owner with an ad placed in the Yellow Pages it is time to evaluate the investment and determine if it is in fact an investment with an acceptable ROI or a money pit. Can you really gauge the results over the past year of your Yellow Pages campaign? How many new customers did you actually receive from the Yellow Pages ad? If you don’t know then allow us to make a suggestion. On your ad renewal date, cut the Yellow Page ad budget in half, reduce the size of your ad and take the remaining budgeted amount and use it to drive traffic to your website through local search. The results will amaze you. Another added bonus of having a website and utilizing the power of Local Internet search is your traffic can be monitored and analyzed unlike the Yellow Pages.

Search Engine Optimization Memphis has the technical skill to get you noticed on the Internet and more importantly, we can do it locally where your customer base lives and works. If you already have a website but are not ranking well we can help boost your rankings and increase your traffic. If you need a website, we can build your business a website and also get it ranking for the search keywords within your industry. Remember, in the Yellow Pages you are just another ad among many. With your own website ranking in the top slots of the search engines, you will not only stand out above your competitors but will also dominate the local search traffic within your industry.

I Want Cheap Search Engine Optimization For $300 Or Less

2008-09-09T12:47:00.004-05:00

Search Engine Marketing Memphis

Earlier this week as I was checking the back links on a website for research purposes, I followed one of the links leading to the website which led me to an article written by someone that had an obvious bad experience with a search engine optimization firm. The article writer asked if people would pay $300 for Google to look at individual websites and tell webmasters what they needed for optimization in order to increase their rankings in the SERP’s. I’m sure people would fork over $300 to Google easily enough for this information, but Google’s business model is not about doing SEO for individual webmasters and bloggers.

Google has a product that it delivers and is brilliantly successful at delivering this product. The product is rather simple: The most up to date and relevant information for any given search term that Google’s user place in the search query box, nothing else. Google is a search engine. Google dominates the search market because they are very good at what they do. What makes the product so unique is that it is totally free. When is the last time you paid to use Google to search for whatever you were looking for?

Google doesn’t make it’s money from the people that use it’s product, it makes it’s money from the people that pay to advertise on Google. Adwords and Adsense are huge moneymakers for Google. Anyone that has ever ran a bad Pay Per Click campaign understands the massive amount of money that Google makes everyday, 24 hours a day.

That being said, I guess Google could offer a service to evaluate websites and tell webmasters and bloggers what they need in order to rank highly in the SERP’s, and they may eventually do this, but I doubt it. Google already has all this information published, freely available to anyone that will take the time to search it out. The problem is, they don’t provide the information in a spoon fed format. Google isn’t going to tell you what your competition is doing to rank higher than you. They aren’t going to tell you what keywords your competition is using to beat you on a daily basis. They will however, place your website at the very top and in the number one position for your chosen keyword if you provide the most up to date and relevant content. But you must first inform Google that you have the best website with the most relevant content and this is done by implementing proper SEO. This is the heart of search engine optimization and where frustration begins for many webmasters.

The writer of the article, it seems, had less than favorable experiences with SEO firms and in desperation, lashed out with the article. If all it took were a one time fee of $300 to reach the top spot on Google, everyone with a website would be in the number one position for their keyword which is impossible. Not everyone has great content or a well designed website. Granted, there are thousands of well designed websites with outstanding content that are 30 pages deep in Google, but these webmasters have not taken the time to educate themselves on proper SEO procedures or won’t pony up the money to pay someone to do proper optimization.

SEO is a mystery to many people that don’t understand how it works and what is required to reach the top spots on Google. However, they do realize the fortunes that are made by the websites sitting in the top few slots for competitive terms and understand if they could just get their website there, they would be standing in high cotton. What they don’t realize is that it takes work, sometimes months and months of work depending on the competitiveness of the niche, to reach these top positions. This is where the problem begins for people that do not understand SEO and for the SEO firms that they choose to hire.

There are less then desirable characters touting themselves as SEO specialist everywhere on the Internet, promising number one positions on Google within weeks and in some cases days. I suspect these types were the people the article writer contracted to do SEO work for his website. Unfortunately, just as in any business, there are bad apples that cast a cloud of doubt on the SEO business.

On the other side, there are the webmasters that want top level positions but only want to pay $300 as the article writer proposed. SEO takes a great deal of effort and work so webmasters are left with only two options: either pony up and pay someone to do search engine optimization for them professionally, or learn to do SEO. Most upstart businesses with a website don’t have the funds to pay an SEO firm for a moderately competitive keyword market, much less a highly competitive niche. They have no choice but to learn search engine optimization techniques and procedures if they want to pull their websites up from the depths of the Google sandbox. Most however, will give up in frustration and hope for the best which means the stray surfer will occasionally find their site among the billions of web pages in the Google index. It amazes me the people that want top slots but think they are entitled to these slots for $300

Why do they want those slots? Because a fortune can possibly be made(depending on the niche) and they know this. When is the last time you made a fortune by not doing any labor and paying less then $300? Probably never, unless you bought a lottery ticket. The article writer has just cause to be upset if he was taken by scam artist, but his reasoning and logic are out of sync when it comes to pricing for SEO services and the work that is involved for proper search engine optimization.

One other unique problem that webmasters and SEO firms must contend with is the ever present question: “If I pay you, how long before I will be in the number one position and will my website stay there forever?”

If you are given a date on when your site will reach the top position of Google for your keyword term, it’s time to pick up your toys and go home. No SEO firm can tell you how long it will take your site to reach the number one position. I can tell you however, that if you hire a SEO specialist that knows his business, you will start seeing new traffic very soon. Not massive amounts of traffic and it may not even be traffic that converts well at first, but you will see new traffic to your website. This new traffic is a natural by-product of implementing SEO techniques as the SEO firm starts the process.

I didn’t write this article to chastise the article writer since I do understand his frustration and contempt towards, in my opinion, criminal behavior by fraudulent “SEO firms” promising top positions for chump change. Rather, I wrote this article in hopes that I could educate at least some people about search engine optimization and what to expect.

I’ve said it before on this blog, SEO can be done entirely for free if you do the research, find out what works and apply the time and dedication needed to reach the top positions of Google. This will take work and possibly months depending on the competitiveness of your niche. However there is one tool you can purchase that can cut the process down in terms of time and frustration and it won’t even cost you $300. It cost less than $200. It is not a magic bullet, close however, but not a magic bullet. It is software that will allow you to spy on your competition to see what they are doing to outrank you so you can copy what they are doing and apply what works. You can run analysis on any website, look at all of their back links and anchor text and has all the tutorials you need to begin to apply proper SEO.

This software is used by SEO firms, A-list bloggers and untold webmasters to successfully reach the top pages of Google and can help you do the same. You will still have to work but it will reduce the amount of hours you would otherwise waste shooting in the dark. If you want to apply Search Engine Optimization to reach page one of Google, there is no better software available. If you are like the article writer and want to pay $300 or less for SEO, there is not a better way than to purchase SEO Elite.

Here is a link to SEO Elite’s website. Hopefully this article has given you a better understanding of the SEO process and why it is ridiculous to think it’s possible to pay an SEO firm or Google for that matter, $300 and miraculously have your website sitting in the top slots of Google. Maybe in a perfect world....

Search Engine Marketing Memphis

The Power Of Search Engine Marketing Memphis

2008-08-31T17:58:00.007-05:00

Over the course of the last few months I’ve been conducting a bit of research on websites to determine the current level of search engine marketing Memphis websites have or…lack thereof. If you’ve been reading my blog, I recently wrote an article about local Memphis used cars dealerships and how easy it would be for a savvy dealer to come in and rank number one for all of the keywords associated with the used car market here in the Mid-South.

One thing that I have discovered locally, is that most websites in various different markets could be better optimized for organic traffic in the search engine marketing Memphis area. There are many different niches here in Memphis that are failing in reaching the people that search for everyday goods and services in Memphis. If you’re a local business owner and you haven’t optimized your website for organic traffic, you are letting customers and money pass through your fingers.

I’m not being hard on local business owners, rather I’m trying to give them a wake up call to the power of search engine marketing in Memphis. Actually the blame should not be placed on them. Most business owners are experts in their chosen field and know very little about web design and even less about search engine optimization. Many believe hiring a web design company to build a e-commerce or informational site to showcase products and service will somehow magically bring in customers. It won’t!

Unfortunately, many web design companies know very little about search engine optimization. Web design and search engine optimization are two completely different fields with one focusing primarily in on-page optimization and the other with
off-page optimization. Of course proper SEO starts even before a website is ever built and the website should be built with SEO in mind, including proper keyword research and selection also with relevant content placed on the website. Meta tags should be used with keywords that reflect the search terms that are associated with the market in which the website owner is targeting.

The above is called on-page optimization and is a necessary part of the SEO process, however, off page optimization is where the bulk and emphasis of search engine optimization should be focused. And this is where local websites are failing miserably. I have looked through at least twenty different niches and industries and all of the top 5 positions on Google in each of these industries could easily be replaced by anyone that has a website ranked below them if they were to apply proper SEO.

There are websites in the real estate industry that are 6 or 7 pages deep on Google that could easily outrank and replace the number one position for some of the top keywords related to real estate if proper SEO techniques were implemented. The amount of searches done just on Google last month for real estate related terms in Memphis is a gold mine that is being grossly over-looked. Designing and owning a beautiful website will do nothing to get traffic if proper off-page optimization is not utilize to capture organic search traffic.

This blog is three months old and cost me nothing for hosting. It is a free blogging platform owned by Google called Blogger. I wrote a few articles the first week with properly optimized keywords and left it alone for about 45 days and I’m already starting to outrank some of the web design companies that target the Internet, web design and SEO markets here locally that are years older than my blog. This blog is not fancy, in-fact it’s down right ugly, but it is optimized for search traffic. I received traffic and emails from all parts of the globe asking me for help and how much I would charge to help optimize their websites. Amazingly, this blog is only optimized for search engine marketing Memphis and people half a world away find me within the billions of pages on Google.

Web designers are very good at what they do. Some not all, know very little about Search Engine Optimization. I hate web design( I can do it if I must) and could really care less about it, it’s boring to me, but I love SEO. As I’ve stated before, off page optimization is far more important than on page optimization and requires weeks if not months to rank a website highly in the search engines. This is the difference between web design and SEO. Web design can be done in matter of days or weeks and then it’s done, however if proper SEO is not implemented, no one will see the website from organic searches.

Most people that know little about websites and even less about SEO think they are one in the same. After browsing around the Memphis market for a few weeks, it is clear that search engine marketing Memphis is severely lacking in proper SEO techniques and procedures with most not having a clue about how to get their websites ranked in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page).

Search engine optimization takes work, tedious and boring work. But it must be done if you want your site to rank highly. Fortune 500 companies spend millions each year to be in the first position on Google because they understand the power of the Internet. They also understand that almost everyone will use the Internet first before opening the Yellow Pages to find what they are searching for…if they are below the age of 60. Older folks tend to still use the Yellow Pages because they don’t understand the Internet. However, the Yellow Pages should be on the endangered species list since their days are numbered.

The difference between being on the first page of Google and the second page of Google for a targeted keyword is enormous. Ranking in the number one slot can make you rich if you are in the number one position. Ranking in the number 10 slot on page one of Google will make money and in some cases on page two. Most people rarely go past page two or three since they’ve already found what they are looking for on the first two pages. If you aren't on at least page three, it is doubtful your site will ever receive one vistior from organic search traffic.

This is the power of search engine marketing Memphis, proper SEO!

Memphis Used Cars | Local Dealers Are Dropping The Ball On Memphis Used Cars

2008-08-29T00:07:00.006-05:00

Car dealerships are dropping the ball in Memphis and the surrounding area in terms of capturing potential customers from the Internet. On a monthly average there are over 14,000 searches for the keyword term “Memphis used cars” and related long-tailed variants of this keyword on Google. This does not take into consideration the other search engines like Yahoo, MSN and other smaller search engines with the 14,000 being on Google only. Combined, Memphis used cars and other Memphis used car long-tails are probably searched more than 16,000 times a month on average if you take into consideration the other search engines. This is being conservative since I rarely look at Yahoo and MSN since Google is the alpha dog among search engines and I don’t know the exact results for Yahoo and MSN, nor do I care.

When I say that car dealerships are dropping the ball in Memphis, I mean they are not optimizing their websites for these searches. Of course car dealers show up on the first page of Google in all 10 of the slots but not because their websites have been properly optimized for “Memphis used cars”, because they haven’t,,,I checked.

I did my own research and none of the top ten results are properly optimized for “Memphis Used Cars”. Google’s algorithm is sophisticated enough to understand what the user is searching for and brings up the most relevant result from within the Google index. However, a savvy dealership could take the first position if they were knowledgeable in SEO.

I visited a few dealer’s websites in the surrounding area and looked at the source code of their sites and what I found was amazing or appalling, depending on who you ask. Either their webmasters or advertising firms know nothing about search engine optimization, or the dealers just don’t understand how powerful a properly optimized website can be in terms of generating traffic and potential customers. Google does not place a great deal of emphasis on meta tags the way Yahoo and MSN does. But from looking at the meta tags in the source code of these dealerships websites, it was obvious that keyword research was severely lacking by whomever input the meta tags on their websites.

I believe Memphis used car dealers are just not knowledgeable about website optimization or their webmasters are excellent at website design but stink at optimization. However in all fairness, to rank high with Google, off-page optimization is far more important than on page optimization and website designers that only build websites can do absolutely nothing about this fact unless they are also knowledgeable in SEO

“Memphis used cars” receives a total of 5400 searches on average every month. Various other long-tailed terms related to Memphis used cars made up the rest of the 14,000 searches, again all on Google. I don’t know much about the used car business but I do know enough that sales managers would kill for an extra 5000 or more visitors to their website every month. So why are they not optimizing their websites for the most popular keywords that are searched each month?

The source code reveals that they are relying mostly on meta tags for search. While looking at the meta tags in the source code of one dealership, it appeared they had placed the entire car lot in their meta tags, naming each model. Unfortunately, this will not help very much with Google. Keyword stuffing meta tags used to be the things to do and it worked. No longer. Spammers and black hats used to use this trick to dominate the SERPS’s(Search Engine Results Page) to great effect, but it is not effective any longer.

If you want to rank high on Google and this is what any self-respecting webmaster should aspire too, concentrating your efforts on off-page optimization is the only choice.

Fortunately for car dealers in Memphis, off page optimization is so weak on most dealers websites that the first position could be taken rather easily, if they had the knowledge and resources. What amazes me the most about this situation is car dealerships are excellent marketers in most cases, especially in the other three venues for marketing: Television, Radio and Newspapers but fail completely on the Internet.

I can be contacted at seomemphis@gmail.com if any of the local car dealers want any help in getting your share of the 14,000 monthly searches for “Memphis used cars” and it’s long-tailed variants on Google, especially in the current economy.

Search Engine Marketing Memphis | Do You Need SEO Services To Succeed

2008-06-28T12:32:00.006-05:00

When I started the search engine marketing Memphis blog, it was mainly for SEO educational purposes for people that wish to learn how to implement proper SEO to move their websites and blogs up in the SERRP's(Search Engine Results Page). I also thought I may pick up a few clients that really don't have the time to do their own search engine optimization and marketing online. Which leads me to the question, "Do you really need SEO services for your website to succeed online?"

To answer this question we must first look at why you have a website. Websites are designed for various reasons including informational purposes but mostly to promote and sell products or services. In order to have a successful website when selling products and services, you must have traffic which converts into sales. Organic traffic from search engines or traffic funneled to your site from other sources such Adwords or Pay Per Click campaigns or other forms of advertisement that directs traffic to your site.

It is understood by most that organic traffic is by far the best traffic not only because it is targeted traffic but most importantly because it is free. However, there are hidden cost in receiving organic traffic in the form of website hosting fees, website maintenance and the man hours needed to design and upload relevant content to the site. In order to receive organic "free" traffic, proper search engine optimization techniques and procedures must be utilized and implemented or you will not receive the traffic needed to convert into sales.

This leads me back to the question posed in the title of this article, "Do you need SEO services to succeed?" This question is relative only to the person being asked the question. Only you know if you need search engine optimization services. If you have the time and desire to learn SEO techniques and procedures, then you probably don't need SEO services. The learning curve for proper SEO is not something that can be attained overnight, but the knowledge can be attained with study and a bit of dedication over a few months. Wading through the mountains of erroneous and misleading information about SEO that is unfortunately so abundant on the Internet, is the first order of business. Only through testing, trial and error will you eventually learn which sources of information can be trusted.

Once you learn the the procedures for proper SEO, you can begin to implement them and most often will see an increase in traffic to your website, which is what you're after in the first place. SEO is not a one stop service like computer or hardware maintenance or loading a software program and then you're done. SEO is a fluid, ever changing process. What works today may not work tomorrow. Search engines are constantly updating and tweaking their algorithms to combat black hatters, scammers and spammers who are constantly trying to game the system.

The nature of search engine optimization is to ebb and flow, dynamically changing from day to day, week to week, month to month. Do you need SEO services to succeed online? Evaluation of your needs and time constraints are what is needed to answer the question. Reaching the number one position in the search engines is difficult if you are in a competitive niche and will take months of work with diligent and consistent effort applied to the SEO process.

Ultimately, the answer lies with each individual business to decide if SEO services are needed to promote your website. Proper SEO can mean the difference between having a successful or unsuccessful website in the business arena. An SEO service can be the answer if you don't have the time to devote to search engine optimization. This is what the Search Engine Marketing Memphis Blog is all about, helping you learn proper SEO or implementing SEO for you.

Search Engine Marketing Memphis

2008-06-25T15:09:00.006-05:00

I started the Search Engine Marketing Memphis blog because I thought I might pick up a few customers for my SEO business. I decided the best way to achieve this was to slowly move up in the search engine results page under the key word terms search engine optimization Memphis and search engine marketing Memphis. I chose these keywords, or keyword phrases, because keyword research revealed that these long tailed keywords are what people are putting in the Google search box to locate and find local SEO services here in Memphis and the surrounding area which is normal for anyone needing SEO.

As a result of my research, I've discovered that Memphis businesses are woefully lacking when it comes to search engine marketing and aren't capitalizing on the power of the Internet and depending on traditional forms of capturing customers such as yellow pages or radio. Unfortunately, these forms of advertisement can be much more expensive than a properly optimized website designed to reach a targeted audience.

Memphis isn't a large market for SEO, however there is enough people or companies actively looking for SEO services daily to justify me creating this blog and offering my services to them. While doing my keyword research on Memphis and the market potential for SEO services I discovered that on average there are twenty one searches placed in the search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN) for the long tailed keyword phrase "search engine marketing Memphis" or around 630 in a thirty day period. Not bad!

I'm in the process now of scouting out the competition and seeing what search engine marketing specialist Memphis have to offer the local community. One thing I've noticed is one of their services is to submit their potential clients websites directly to the search engines through the website submission service offered by all search engines. Why? Submitting a website to a search engine directly is a waste of time and will take weeks to get a website indexed. There are easier ways to get a new website indexed and can, in some cases, be accomplished in a matter of hours.

We are not talking about submitting a new website and having it on the first page of Google within a matter of hours. Indexing a website is only the process of letting the search engines know your website is there and having it placed within their index and odds are if your site is in a competitive niche, you will end up in the Google sandbox anyway, but you will be indexed. The search engine sandbox is a form of website Purgatory where new websites go until the search engines decide whether the website is legitimate or a spam site.

Any SEO firm worth their salt knows that submitting a new website through a search engine submission portal is a waste of time but I suppose it makes for a selling point to potential clients that aren't in the know about Search Engine Optimization.

Do It Yourself Search Engine Marketing Memphis or Outsourcing SEO

Search Engine Optimization no doubt can be a do it yourself process and many people opt to go this route. But if you have a brick and mortar business to run or have a full time job that doesn't allow you the time to devote to SEO for your website, outsourcing is an option. Businesses such as contractors, attorneys, real estate agents, fishing camps or resorts or any business that can benefit from a website, often don't have the time to spend doing their own SEO so they hire someone like me to do it for them.

SEO is a akin to a living breathing organism since it is fluid and changes often. The search engines algorithms change often and competition is ever present trying to gain your position on the search engine results page. In very competitive niches or fields, on going SEO is a constant and has to be monitored from month to month to maintain position in the SERP's(search engine results page). With more and more businesses utilizing the Internet for advertisement and gaining market share, properly optimized websites are necessary if a business is to remain competitive.

Gone are the days when people would grab their Yellow Pages to find what they need. With high speed Internet connections and wireless communication through cell phones allowing access to the Internet, people first access the Internet to find local business that can fill their need. People under 35 are more likely to do this then the over 35 crowd, but this is changing as well with older Americans now beginning to understand the usefulness and power of the Internet.

Whatever your business may be, a properly optimized website can enhance your profit margin. People use the Internet for various reasons but the largest of these reasons is information. If someone has a need, what better way to gain information than the Internet? People no longer have to deal with pushy salesman or purchase items before having the proper knowledge to make an informed decision. Business websites allow us to make these decisions, find out about who we are dealing with and have an idea of what we will spend before deciding to purchase. This is the very reason search engines like Google and Yahoo exist, to bring the most relevant and up to date information to their users..you and I!

This is why up to date SEO is so vital to your online presence. The search engines are going to do their very best to provide the best product available to their end users. This is also why they change their algorithm so often. Scammers and spammers no the value of being in the number one and number two slots on the search engines and this is why they go to great lengths to game the SERP's using black hat techniques. Eventually Google and other search engines find them out and all of their work comes tumbling down in to a heap of worthless blogs and websites. Of course they have made their money and move onto finding out the next best way to scam and game the system.

Spammers, Scammers and Black Hats will be with us always, but properly optimized and legitimate websites will remain a constant and will almost always remain in the top positions because Google and other search engines do change their algorithm for this purpose. Relevant and fresh content with properly acquired back links from other legitimate websites and articles will always win. Legitimate websites that have aged and weathered the ups and downs of the market will remain on top. Occasionally the black hats will come in for a few days or even a couple of weeks or more and maintain the top position but their days are numbered always. Google and the other search engines make far too much money from Adwords, Adsense and various other forms of advertisements to let the black hats and scammers win.

As you can see, search engine optimization is an ongoing process that requires maintenance and time. Whether you decide to do it yourself or outsource your SEO is decision left to you, but money spent on a website that is not bringing in targeted traffic is not worth the hosting fees and a waste of time. For people that just don't have the time to do proper search engine optimization, I am available and affordable to help with your search engine marketing Memphis.

Keyword Authority and Anchor Text Beats Page Rank!

2008-06-03T16:14:00.008-05:00

Most webmasters and bloggers have niche websites and blogs built around certain keywords that are the most relevant to the subject of their blogs and websites for one reason: We want targeted visitors to come to our sites, read our content and in most cases we hope they purchase something we have for sale. People place terms in the search engine query box looking for what they need or information on what they need or want. Once they push the search button a list of organic search items are displayed on their screen, hopefully giving them a list of items relevant to what they are searching for.

This is what webmasters and bloggers live for, organic search! We all want our site to be the first result that shows up in the first position of Google. This position for us equates to dollars! Getting the first place listing in Google and the other search engines start with keywords and priority must be placed on getting your keywords to show up in the organic search results, or SERPs(search engine results page).

Sure you can have your keyword placed on your website over and over or in your meta tags to try and "game" Google's crawlers, but this will do nothing but get you penalized for keyword stuffing as well as get you sent to the Google Sand Box quickly(Yes Virgina, it does exist!). One thing we can do that will return results in spades is using anchor text in conjunction with the all important back links.

First we must define anchor text. Anchor text is the clickable link that is seen on millions of web pages that describes a subject or term relevant to the website the hyperlink in is linking to. For example, this blog is about search engine optimization and focused mainly on the Memphis market. If I were writing this article for submission to an article submission site, I would first place the article on the submission site. In the resource box I would give a brief description about me and then I would place a hyperlink with the name of my blog(my keywords)as the clickable part of the link as seen below:

"Hello my name is Bozo The Clown and I'm learning about search engine optimization from a this fella over in Memphis, Tennessse. Why don't you visit his blog at Search Engine Optimization Memphis if you want to get yourself clued in about SEO."

By doing this I have not only created a back link to my blog, but I have also helped my blog gain keyword authority for the keywords "Search Engine Optimization Memphis".
As of this writing I am not currently ranked for these keywords and it will be only a matter of time before I will be in the number one position for these keywords on Google.

Using anchor text when linking back to your site from other sites shows Google that you are an authority in your niche. Not only does anchor text help to gain keyword authority, but it also can help you out rank high page rank sites and move above them to higher positions in the SERPs. I would choose keyword authority over page rank simply because I have seen many websites and blogs have a higher position on Google than websites or blogs with higher page rank.

Page rank is a number between 1 and 10 that Google assigns to websites to show how important Google believes these sites to be compared to other websites or blogs. Linking to a high page rank sites does pass on greater link juice than linking to lower page rank sites, but in the end I would rather have the greater keyword authority to push my website above all others into the number one position on Google.

Anchor text is the best way to acquire keyword authority and fortunately anchor text can only be used in links helping you kill two birds with one stone...getting back links and building keyword authority!!

Bookmark Search Engine Optimization Memphis For Future SEO Updates.

Search Engine Optimization | Keywords

2008-05-21T22:53:00.007-05:00

Search Engine Optimization can be done for free without hiring anyone to do SEO for you, make no mistake. Everything that is needed to do proper SEO and move your website up in the SERP's(Search Engine Results Page) is freely available and the only ingredients needed to apply proper SEO is knowledge and time. Everything that follows in this blog is free, however this does not mean I do it for myself for free because I don't. I have spent money on software that helps me cut the time in half for proper SEO, but this does not mean you have to spend one nickle for your own SEO process to have good results. Having these software programs do nothing more than reduce the hours, days and weeks that manual SEO requires. They are not designed to make you rich by pushing a magic button, they are simply tools.

Most people when the have a newly designed website often are excited and ready for the world to see their work of art or if they have a monetized website, they are ready for the money to start rolling in. They submit their site to a few search engines and hope that visitors will mysteriously show up and view or buy whatever is on your site. After a few weeks pass, reality sets in that maybe just submitting their site to the search engines isn't really all there is to getting their site seen by the masses. Then they decide maybe I need to "optimize" my website around my main keywords and this will make people show up. A few more weeks pass, no visitors, no money. A big waste of time!!!

This is the point where people either lose interest and give up or build another website(with the same result). Eventually they figure out that this is not the way to go about getting traffic to their website. It was possible to do this maybe 10 years ago, but not today,folks. The search engines have gotten way smarter as has the competition. To compete today online, you first must learn some very specific procedures as follows.

Let's say we are going to create a golf related website. Before we put one second into creating the site, we must first do keyword research. (I will provide a list of free keyword research tools in a later post along with other free tools). We will place the keyword "golf" in the research tool and the tool will show us a list of golf related keywords. Below are examples of golf related keywords and how often they are searched each day on average for the previous month.

5274 golf
2190 golf clubs
1049 golf tournament gifts
960 mini golf
839 callaway golf
830 golf carts
828 golf wedding favors
822 golf equipment
803 personalized golf balls
790 golf channel
784 topless golf (Very interesting this one)
776 masters golf
757 golf balls
750 golf travel cases
749 golf galaxy
749 golf travel case
747 logo golf balls
649 robin williams golf
638 golf shoes
615 golf masters scores (The Masters Tournament was last month)

I've listed the top 20 results for the main keywords related to golf that were searched the previous month. With exception to a few of the words, most all of these will remain in the top 20 each month. With some SEO tools it is possible to drill down hundreds of keywords related to one specific niche just like golf. There are thousands of different niches that can be built around one root keyword.

In the case of golf, we would not center our website around the specific keyword of golf since the field is way to competitive and it would take more time than most of us have to rank highly for golf, if we ever could for that matter. What we are looking for are what is called "long-tail" keyword phrases. More on this later in the post. If we wanted to rank for golf, we first must search out the competition. We would go to Google and place the word golf in the search query box like this, "golf" in quotes. This tell Google that we only want to search specifically what we put in the query window.

As of this post, there are 501,000,000 websites that show up in the results window on Google for the keyword "golf". I don't know about you, but this appears to be very stiff competition. We now know that we must drill down a little more and find something related to golf that we can rank highly for in the SERP's. We can choose a "long tail" keyword phrase like "logo golf balls".
Logo golf balls is searched on average about 747 times a day or 22,410 times each month with 157,000 competing websites in the SERP's. 157,000 is a whole lot easier to rank for verses 501 million, wouldn't you say? Competitive but not unreasonably so.

Ok, we've settled on our keyword phrase which is the long tailed keyword "logo golf balls". In my next post we will learn how to center our website or blog around our long tailed keyword phrase. Plus, long drawn out articles that border on epic tend to give too much information at once and tend to cause the glazed eye effect for readers. Bookmark Search Engine Optimization Memphis for later updates.

Until then,
Cheers!

Search Engine Optimization Memphis

2008-05-19T23:02:00.004-05:00

Search Engine Optimization is the rage today as it should be and this is why I created this blog and named it Search Engine Optimization Memphis. I'm local and have lived in Memphis all of my life and know there are people and businesses here that can benefit from a source that provides relevant information about Search Engine Optimization in Memphis. Billions of dollars are earned and spent every year on and for Internet advertising. People and businesses with monetized websites understand how important being listed on the SERP's(Search Engine Results Page) can be to the bottom line and most importantly, the first page of the SERP's. The difference between being listed on the first page of Google and the second page is comparable to the difference between a penny and a $1000 bill. The fact is, Internet browsers and searchers seldom go further than the first page of Google and we have Google to thank for this.

Google prides itself on delivering a product that provides the freshest and most up to date information to it's end users, you and I, and they go to great lengths to constantly improve their algorithm to deliver this information. This is good for people that are using Google to find what they are looking for but bad for the business that has a wonderful product or widget to offer to the public, but are unable to get listed on the first page of Google. Search Engine Optimization is the key to getting on the first page of Google. Without proper SEO, your website or blog is doomed to being seen by only you or the people you pay to send there by various other forms of advertisement. You will never receive organic search traffic unless you apply proper search engine optimization.

The good news is that Search Engine Optimization is part art and part science and can be done for very little cost if any, depending on if you do it yourself or pay someone to do SEO for you. SEO is not like computer repair or website design where you spend a few days working or designing and then you are done, although design of your site does have some aspects that lend itself to proper SEO which I will cover in later post. Most SEO comes from what is called off page optimization. Sure keywords are important and content on your website is very important to Google, but ranking high on Google is a process that takes time and effort with application of off page procedures that are both time consuming and necessary if you are to maintain a 1st page listing in the SERP's.

These procedures can be done by any business owner with a website if they have the time and this is where the business owner runs into a very common problem, time management. Trying to run a business and having the time to do Search Engine Optimization usually ends in frustration for the business owner. If the business owner has deep pockets, it isn't a problem to get listed on the first page of Google providing you have the money to pay high page rank sites to link back to your site. But this avenue will eventually close since the word in the SEO community is that the mighty "G" (Google) is beginning to frown on paid links and may soon penalize websites that have paid links. Another problem is relevancy. In a perfect world, you would want a link from a high page rank site that is in the same sector or niche that your business is in to show Google how important or relevant your website is within the niche or sector. Google loves relevant content for the search words put in by surfers and browsers. The problem is, some of these high page rank websites are unwilling to share their link juice with you even if you offer to pay them since you are in direct competition with them. Catch 22!

There is a way to do proper search engine optimization and do it correctly. It just takes time although there are many variables including how competitive the niche or sector may be. In later post I will discuss ways to improve your search engine rankings with procedures that can be implemented for free and will only cost you time. I plan on updating this blog at least three times a week if not more so come along and let's learn about search engine optimization Memphis.