You started a business and bought a domain name? Great! Now make the most out of the Internet with a high quality online marketing services company.
Why Your Website Needs Help
Operating a well-run business is a victory in and of itself, but in order to succeed on the Internet, your website needs an online marketing strategy. And while businesses that sell quality products at fair prices and with outstanding customer service will never go out of style, if you don’t utilize a viable online strategy, then your business may as well be invisible.
Quality online marketing strategy targets potential customers, drives them to your website and converts them to paying customers. And while making those customers loyal is up to you, strategic online marketing differentiates your business from the competition.
Avoiding the Bad …
The Internet boom brought with it a plethora of unscrupulous characters that prey upon eeb-enthusiastic but naïve business owners. The good news? As usual, when it comes to business services, a promise that seems too good to be true probably is.
Some search engine optimization and online marketing services companies claim to have inside information from employees at popular search engine companies such as Google. Since these employees sign confidentiality agreements, that’s a big red flag. Unsolicited offers that include free trials, guaranteed page rankings, lighting fast turnaround (less than two or three days) or very low flat rates is also suspect. And avoid any company that wants to own the rights to your site’s meta data.
Also, don’t let an SEO company post hundreds of links to your site. You can actually wind up getting blocked by search engine spam filters this way.
… And Embracing the Good
Real search engine professionals won’t promise to do the impossible and they won’t do it for next to nothing. SEO pricing can cost as much as several hundred dollars per hour and several thousand dollars per project. Surprised that it’s not so cheap? Don’t be – remember, an SEO-optimized website turns visitors into paying clients. And less than half the world is on the web.
Great online marketing firms often join the Better Business Bureau and don’t need to visit cheap work-for-hire sites to drum up jobs. Why? They have excellent reputations and get business by word-of-mouth. They spend days analyzing your site and consulting with you on how to make it better and reach more people. In short, it’s not the quick and easy work that some make it seem.
Evaluating Your SEO Professional
When you speak with your online marketing company, do they take the time to explain their processes to you? Is their SEO pricing strategy clear? Most importantly, have you seen a steady increase in site traffic and visitor conversion since the company began strategizing your content?
If the answers to these questions are no, then it may be time to reevaluate your partnership. Your business’s resources are too precious to waste on an online strategy that’s getting you nowhere.
After learning about what to avoid when hiring an online marketing firm, you’re probably ready to investigate more about SEO pricing. Guest post written by Michelle.