Tag Archives: cost

5 Key Reasons why SEO Should Be a Part of Your Marketing Toolkit

Wonder if first page search engine ranking is vital for your business?
Here are 5 reasons why you should ensure SEO is part of your company’s marketing toolkit:

Google-it
Everybody Googles It
Search engines in general, and Google in particular, are now the main route for researching any purchase. A proportion of your potential customers will use Google – just like you – to look for the services or products on offer. Being on the first page of the search engine results will drive more customers to your site.

91% of people surveyed said they prefer using natural search results when looking to buy a product or service online.

Even new customers that come to you through referrals will still search on Google for the services they are looking for and to see what’s on offer. You need to make sure that they see your company name when they are searching.

Shopping-around – Your Customers Are Looking Elsewhere
Even if you have a loyal customer base, or you are on a preferred supplier list, your customers are likely to be searching on your key phrases in Google. If your customers are researching the market, or even looking for a service that they don’t realize you are able to provide, do you want the competition to win the business just because they’ve invested in SEO and you haven’t?
If you are in a fairly competitive sector, you’ll need the help of an agency specializing in SEO, as there are a large number of both on-site and off-site factors to consider when you want to achieve first page rankings on Google.

Number-one = Authority.
Many people using the internet consider companies who appear on the first page of Google as leaders in their sector. 36% of search engine users believe that companies whose websites appear top of the search results are the leading companies in that field. Only 25% believe that top search engine rankings do not automatically signify an industry leader (iProspect / Jupiter Research 2006).
Further research also indicates that 62% of users click on results on the first page and 92% within the first 3 pages, with only 8% going further than the first 3 pages.

Cost Effective
Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) overall is far less expensive than traditional marketing methods, which allows you to increases your bottom line whilst reducing your customer acquisition costs.

Conversion rates from organic search tend to be lower than the conversion rates from paid search. Achieving high results for valuable key phrases in the natural search results is a very cost effective method of driving important traffic you your site. In a recent study conducted by Hubspot, 43% of businesses reported the cost per lead for organic search marketing (SEO) as below the average cost per lead for their business.

Trust
Organic search is more popular and trusted than sponsored links. You should use SEO to get more traffic at a lower cost. Sponsored links are a cost effective way to get your business onto the first page of search engines, but normally natural listings drive more traffic to your site at a lower cost per sale. When looking to buy a product or service online, 91% of people said they preferred using natural search engine results (Tamar 2008 Search Attitude Report). The same survey also found that 31% of people actively choose natural search over paid search results as they trust search engines to give them the most relevant results.

If you want to be a leader in your chosen market, ensuring that your position in the search engines reflects your market position is an essential part of your future customers’ perception of your brand.

Search Engine Optimization: Search Industry Terms Cp-Ht

In Search Engine Optimization: Search Industry Terms Co-Co, we discussed two critical elements of the internet marketing and search engine marketing industries. This included Contextual Relevance – the close association, relationships or similarities between types of content sources and content reference points, and Conversion Rates, which refers to the percentage of website or web page visitors that ultimately convert to a sale by taking action of some sort. In this installment of the series we’ll discuss four more crucial terms: Cost Per Click or CPC, Domain age and Name, File Transfer Protocol or FTP, and HTML or Hypertext Markup Language. Understanding these terms is a fundamental part of any successful SEO campaign.

Cost Per Click

Cost per click or CPC refers to a type of SEM or search engine marketing whereby a customer pays every time a website visitor clicks on a displayed ad. When viewing a SERP or search engine results page, the CPC ads are displayed above and to the right of the organic ads.

Site owners must use SEO to optimize their ads and landing pages to obtain a better relevance score from the advertising facilitator. In most cases the positioning of the ads on a SERP page depend on what company bids the most and how well optimized their landing page is for the keywords or key terms typed into the search car by the consumer.

Domain Age / Domain Name

The domain name is the actual name of the primary URL, and the age is the length of time since the domain was first registered, or in some cases the length of time since it was transferred or purchased after being dormant for some time.

Domain names are important because if they contain proper keywords they can provide a significant SEO boost. The age of a domain is important because search weight is generally given to older, established sites before new and unproven sites. For this reason there is a trend among some business developers and web masters to buy aged domains, or to repurpose domains in order to utilize the value built up within it.

File Transfer Protocol or FTP

FTP is a method of moving data – generally files and folders – for use in a website platform like WordPress or Joomla. FTP allows users to change website themes or skins, upload additional features such as widgets and advertising blocks, databases and other functionality. FTP can also be used to backup a site or manage multiple versions of the site in the case of a dynamically generated page or ad scheme.

Hypertext Markup Language or HTML

HTML is the most basic building blocks of the web. This simple computer code tells browsers and other software programs how to “see” pages in that it dictates the size, color and position of objects and graphics, the font and color of text, the functionality of links and other actionable item – essentially everything you see on a website is controlled at least in part by HTML.

Basic HTML can be written by anyone and is most useful for controlling text and other simple page elements. More advanced HTML should be handled by a professional because of the intricacies involved. If you need professional search engine optimization services now, use the links below to get a free consultation now.

What Web Marketing Can Do for Your Business

With the continuous evolution of the internet and exponential growth in the number of users everyday, most businesses now consider web marketing part of their major marketing plans. Web marketing means more potential clients and contacts which translates into more sales or funding.

There is an ever-increasing number of technology providers on the internet that offer much-needed Web 2.0 technologies tailored for all kinds of organizations, even for nonprofits. The costs of these applications and services are now within anyone’s budget. Providers also offer to handle the website creation from website design to its multi functions.

So what are the benefits of being part of the web marketing community?

Cost Efficiency
In these times of fluctuating economies, every cent counts. Although setting up a website and its accompanying functions may initially cost a considerable amount, the long-term benefits more than return the investments. News and updates pages incorporated in your website design saves cash that would have been spent on printing cost and postage for hardcopy newsletters and promotional mail.

Time Efficiency
Constituents, clients and donors appreciate getting information on time. Logging on to your organization takes only a few seconds compared to time spent in calling your office or waiting for the quarterly hardcopy newsletter and financial report. Web marketing is real time marketing with immediate results.

An online database of clients and suppliers can also be part of your website design. This database makes for quicker file retrieval, immediate profile updates, as well as on-time status reports. Your staff can more efficiently and more quickly connect people you do business with.

More Global Audience
Through internet marketing, organizations have access to a wider audience, can reach more prospective clients, and gain more global visibility. Supporters can come from just about any patch of the globe—from Africa to Asia—virtually holding hands across space and time for a common goal.

More Community Participation
Believe it or not, internet marketing also means being part of a social network. Community participation and support radically increases when your organization is part of an online social community. Clients, suppliers, donors, and beneficiaries have a common cyber lounge where they can exchange ideas. They are not just names in a list or database, they are very real people who not only contribute financial success but also give their very selves. So be sure to sign up with a popular social network and a make its widget part of your website design. This is web marketing with a social face.

More Money Coming In
Where more people participate and engage, the possibility of more sales or fund donations is not far behind. When people are informed, listened to, and given value through an organization’s website that they can access any time, they are more than willing to do business or donate. They also become your internet marketing evangelists, declaring the profitability of doing business with your organization.

If your organization still isn’t on the cyberspace map at this time, you’re organization is definitely in the dark ages. At the rate internet marketing is growing each day, more and more organizations are discovering the profitability of web marketing. Maximizing your website design by incorporating contact email address, social network widgets, and online databases will surely yield positive results and sales.