I have always been someone who likes to help people.  I didn’t plan on becoming an SEO Specialist, it just sort of happened.  SEO has allowed me to work with various companies. I get to meet new people, learn about their businesses and then share my knowledge of SEO.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to hire an SEO specialist who does things the “right way”.  You never know when Google or the other search engines are going to change their algorithms. If your seo company takes shortcuts or tries to use cheap tactics to gain rankings, your company may end up at the bottom of the heap. We all know, doing things the right way is usually a bit more time consuming, but it is so worth it!

Learn more about our Buffalo SEO Company

Now, are there companies out there who practice other forms of SEO, which are considered unethical? Yes.  Here are some unethical SEO and internet marketing techniques you should avoid:

• Page cloaking
• Spamming of the submission process
• Automatically generated doorway pages
• Keyword Stuffing
• Irrelevant Keywords
• Duplicate content on different pages or sites (mirror sites, etc)
• Misspelling of common words, or well-known brands/sites
• Data blogs with no unique content
• Code Swapping

I found a great article by Barry Hurd that explains these techniques in more detail.

So Why Do I Do It?

As silly as it sounds, for me it’s not all about the almighty dollar.  There is no satisfaction greater for me, then knowing (1) I didn’t soak anyone for their hard-earned money and (2) they are getting more business and are happy.

I think a responsible SEO Specialist doesn’t just leave their customers when their work is done. It’s important to follow up. Check in on them from time to time and see if they have any questions. They will love you for it.

Buffalo SEO Company Shares the SEO Basics

In the martial arts we learn the importance of the basics. You must have a strong foundation and continue to go back and work on that foundation. The same goes for search engine optimization.

So, what are the SEO basics?

SEO basics include keyword research, analyzing your competition, writing good content, tagging your site, link building and reviewing your analytics.

Keyword Research – An important part of search engine optimization is keyword research. You can use Google’s keyword tool and others on the web to determine the words people are typing into the search engines for your particular products or services.

Analyzing Your Competition – Competitive analysis is another investigative part of search engine optimization. Check out your competitors’ websites and compare their rankings to yours and review their keywords and placement on the search engines. You can then put together a game plan with the keyword research you have done and take advantage of their weaknesses.

Good content. Good content doesn’t mean you stuff your pages full of keyword phrases. You need to write for your audience in a way that makes sense and draws them in. Once you have written what you feel is good content, go back and tweak it. Add keywords where appropriate or simply rearrange a sentence here or there.

Custom Website Tagging. In addition to adding good content to your website, you need to pay attention to your title, description and keyword tags throughout your website. Although people argue that you only need to focus on the title tag, I feel you should focus on all of them. Just do it right to begin with.

Link Building – There are so many ways to build links: press releases, blog posts, social media, bookmarking and more. A great way to start is to create a blog. Not just to have one, but a blog you will be interested in contributing to. From there you can link to your website, social media sites and other blogs. WordPress is great and you can link to and will get links from other bloggers.

Website Analytics – Website analytics is a tracking system that collects data from visitors to your website. This data will help you learn more about where your visitors come from, what keywords they are really using to find you, what pages did they visit, how long did they stay and whether they converted into a sale or lead.　

The basics are the core of SEO. No one said it was easy. SEO takes hard work and focus, but I know you can do it! Our Buffalo SEO Company can help you if you need it.

In the meantime, have fun with it. In the end, your hard work will pay off.

Have a wonderful day.

Simply put, if you want people to find you on the web, your sites need to be optimized. By sites I mean, in addition to your website, you should optimize your blogs, Facebook posts, Tweets, etc.

Search engine optimization (“SEO”) isn’t about just throwing up title tags and adding some keywords to your site. SEO is much more involved than many people realize.

I believe the key to quality SEO includes competitive analysis and keyword research. Having your site optimized does you little good if the keywords you have chosen aren’t being used by your potential customers.

You also need to know what your competition is up to. How are their rankings? What are they focusing on? Are they blogging? If so, what are they blogging about? Are they on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn? Make sure you are not just playing follow the leader. You need to have your own thoughts and ideas.

If you are unsure where to start, have a brainstorming session. Sit down by yourself or with others and just open the door to ideas. Throw it all out there. Once you have some exciting avenues you want to tackle, start doing some research.

Google keyword tool is a great place to get a grasp of the value of the keywords you are targeting. You may even find some hidden jewels with low competition and high search volume.

Type your chosen keywords in Google and see who comes up. Understand your competitors online may be a completely different cast of characters than you are used to. Review their sites and you will get a good idea of what they are thinking and may also shed some light on areas you can focus on for your own site.

Once you’ve done your research, start writing. Just write from your gut and keep those keywords on hand to reference. You don’t want to overload your content with keywords. Just be natural and it will flow together.

Have fun and if you need help, we are an experienced Buffalo SEO Company and will be happy to help.

One thing small business owners have shared with me is the fact that they understand what I am talking about. That’s really important and exciting to me.  It should be important to you as well.

As a Buffalo internet marketer, I believe in explaining my seo and internet marketing strategy in a way that isn’t just a bunch of seo jargon they don’t understand.

Keep it simple stupid.  No disrepect here, but if you use the KISS moto, you may not always impress the CEO of a company, but Mr. Johnson, who just opened that hardware store, will certainly appreciate it.

Know your audience.  If you are trying to reach small business owners on their level, just be real.

• You don’t have to talk about the analytics, refer to it as the traffic reports.
• Don’t just throw at them that their ROI will increase.  Explain that by investing money in their online marketing, they will get more business.
• Don’t just say you want to optimize their site.  Explain it to them.  Search engine optimization is the process of getting your website ranking high on the search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Make sense?

On the other hand, I have spoken with small business owners who really know their way around seo and internet marketing, which is cool.  In that case, you can put your seo hat on and talk the talk.

Just remember, the whole point of being an internet marketer is to try to help people understand why seo and internet marketing is so important.  Don’t lose them trying to impress yourself.

As a Buffalo SEO company, we understand many small business owners are hesitant and unsure about SEO and internet marketing.

When we are asked to provide our small business clients with SEO and internet marketing services, we often suggest they take babysteps. You don’t have to dive into everything all at once.

Here’s what you could do.

• Have your website optimized and monitor it’s success/failures. A good Buffalo SEO company will sit down with you and make sure they understand what your goals are.
• Once you are happy with the work your SEO company has provided and are seeing results, take the next step. Start a blog or begin a social media campaign.

It’s basically up to you how you would like to progress. They key is hiring a good Buffalo SEO Company that will continue to move you in the right direction.

Don’t get me wrong, if you want to get things rockin right away, that’s great.  Our concern, however, is that you are confident and secure with where your hard earned money is going.  If you are going to spend money to get more business, then before moving forward, make sure you are seeing a return on your investment.

Over the years I have been approached by many companies who, in one way or another, claim to be the “Magic Fairy”.  They claim if you come on board with them, they will guarantee you number one organic placement for a specific keyword in Google.

Really?  My reply is usually, “No thanks, but feel free to tell the Magic Fairy to pay me a visit when she has a chance.”

I cannot stress enough that SEO is not a magic trick.  You know that, right?  The Magic Fairy is not going to suddenly make your SEO world perfect and move your listing to the top of Google.

Often times a salesman will take it a step further and stress that they are different than other companies, which is fine. I’m here to tell you that anyone who comes to you and guarantees organic rankings is just blowing smoke up your rear-end.

So, what are a couple of things to watch out for?

• Unreasonable pressure. Anyone who pressures you to give them an answer or the deal will not be there in the morning is full of bologna.  If the deal is there today, then it will be there tomorrow.  If for some reason it’s not, then they are not the company for you. Their deadline isn’t your deadline.
• Misleading traffic reports.  Ask them to provide you with proof of their success.  This can be in the form of how their rankings have increased other clients sales/leads.  I would caution that if they only provide you with the number of visitors, this can be misleading.  Example, say they give you stats that say when they started with Company X, they were getting 1,000 visitors a month and now they are getting 3,000.  That’s great, but where are they coming from and are they staying or bouncing off right away. There is much more to it than that.

Bottom line, follow your gut.  If it sounds too good to be true it usually is.  If you are uncertain, err on the side of caution and wait.  You’ve worked hard for your money.  Waiting a couple of days and doing a little research is well worth it.

Remember..there is no SEO Magic Fairy.

Is your SEO company leading the way, or are you trying to play catch up by following the crowd?

To be a leading seo company, you need to understand what your clients want.  What are their goals?  What is their reputation?  Do they need a new image?   Are they looking for leads or sales?  There are so many questions to ask and the key is to listen to the answers and draft out a game plan.

By leading the way, an SEO Company will research their client’s competition, analyze data and then put together a plan for success.  It’s not just about optimizing a website.  It’s about the big picture. It’s not about copying what your competition is doing, its about analyzing it and then incorporating the right moves into your clients plan.

Being a true leader in the seo arena means being honest and having integrity. No SEO company likes it when their client’s rankings aren’t as high as they’d like them to be, or that they haven’t received the number of leads they had hoped for. The worst thing any SEO company could do is lie to your clients about it.  Be honest, always.  Work with your clients to make things better.

SEO is not an exact science and there is no guarantee. If, however, you do things the “right way”, it will all come together in time and your clients will appreciate you and they will be clients for years to come.

Many internet marketers had to learn by being thrown into the arena.  In my case, I didn’t have a marketing background at all, I just knew a lot about the industry I work for.  That’s a good place to start.

If you find yourself at a dead end in your career, but know a lot about the field you are currently in, then use your experience and try internet marketing.  Making the transition into internet marketing may not be as far fetched as you may think.

Search engine optimization is one place you can being with.  Learn what seo is all about and then add other aspects of search marketing. I would recommend attending as many webinars as you can.  Many are FREE. Ding Ding Ding. You can simply search on Google for Free Seo Webinars, or Free Internet Marketing Webinars, etc.  If you are able to attend a seminar or workshop, they are very helpful, but pick a good one. I would recommend High Rankings with Jill Whelan.  This will give you a great overview on what seo is all about and its best practices.  You can’t go wrong.

Internet marketing is not for the lazy at heart.  If you think you can make a transition into internet marketing and sit on your tushie eating bon bon’s, then think again.  However, if you have a good work ethic and are ambitious, then I would highly recommend a career as an internet marketer.

Take Care All!

Well simply, the answer is yes and no.

Fresh content is critical to your long-term life on the search engines.  However, if you just fill your pages with content and don’t take the time to properly research your keywords and optimize your pages, then you could be wasting  your time.

In checking out the various search engines, I obviously don’t know the algorithms and wouldn’t know what to do with them if I did.  I do know, however, Google likes when you do the right thing.  Meaning keyword specific pages, good links, good site structure, etc.  Google also loves blogs, which means they loves fresh content.  ding ding ding.

Yahoo seems to love fresh content, as well. Some tests I have done showed a significant jump in my rankings. Anytime I was on the move and made significant content changes or added new pages, it got Yahoo’s attention and thus affected my rankings.

Now with Bing, well it’s too early to tell, but my initial reaction is that they put a lot of weight on the url.  I’m not saying it’s exactly that because I simply don’t know, but many of the tests I have done gave a ton of weight to companies with one of the keywords in their url.

I’m certain that Bing, as well as the other search engines are hungry to be fed, so feed them. If you don’t have the time or manpower to continue to add to your website, then a blog is your answer.  Add content as often as you can. Twitter is also a simple way to tell the world what’s up and link it back to your blog, thus creating traffic and links.

Listen, I understand as well as anyone how tough it is to find time for anything nowadays. I work full time, am a wife, mother of 3 active children and am trying to get a new business off the ground.  It’s not always easy to find the time to get your website the way you want it, but a blog can really make a difference. So once you get your site up and running, I would focus my attention on my blog.

Let’s do a content test for the fun of it.  Our blog is currently listed 10th on Google under buffalo seo company.  Once I publish this blog, over time, I will go back and check it out to see if I was able to get it to move.  It’s not magic people it won’t happen immediately and may not happen at all, but let’s see.  I’ll let you know in my next blog how we did and how long it took to increase our results (if I was able to do so).

Fuel the Web – Buffalo SEO Company – Fueling business on the web one site at a time.

With so much competition on the web, many people wonder how they can compete on the web. I’m here to tell you, you can make a difference.

We have missed the point of what this country is all about.  With hard work, you can make a difference.  Even if it’s just one little babystep at a time. If you sit back and hope that the magic fairy is going to catapult you ahead of the competition, well then I certainly hope you are a patient person.

I’m here to tell you that you can make an impact on the web and can compete with big companies.

Let me share a story with you.  I began jogging a couple years ago and could hardly breathe.  I thought I was in decent shape, but I could barely get around the block without gasping for air.  After a couple of months, I was able to get myself up to about 3 miles.  Pretty cool.  Well, I then started having knee problems and had to stop jogging.  Instead of grabbing a bag potato chips (which actually sounds pretty good), I decided to start riding a bike, which I enjoy pain free and continue to see the benefits.

There is a point.  Search marketing follows the same concept.  When you start off, often times, your website is out of shape.  As time goes on you see steady improvements.  Some times along the way, you may hit a road block or plateu. When that happens, it’s time to look for other options.

Many people are looking for instant gratification. I am a getter done kind of person and learned that putting the right pieces of the puzzle together can pay off.  Here’s what I suggest:

1.  Ask an experienced search marketer to look at your website.  They will be able to tell you what areas you should focus on (i.e. tagging, keyword placement, etc.). If you don’t have a website yet, I would suggest you find a web design company that also understands search engine optimization.

2.  Start blogging.  You can make an impact relatively quickly. I would suggest you just be yourself.

3.  Start participating in the social media arena. Start a Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn account to begin with.

If it sounds like a lot of work, well, it is.  For seo people like me, however, it’s exciting to watch your hard work make a difference for the people who have hired you to help them.  The biggest impact comes when people get involved in their own business and don’t expect an outside company to do everything for them.  A hands-on approach is important.

If you are focused and make steady changes or additions to your seo and search marketing strategy, you can always make a difference and an impact for your business.  You can compete with big business.

If you have questions or need help along the way, just ask.  I am happy to help.