Archive for August, 2011

Anyone Can Cook – Comparing Web Design Companies That Claim They Do SEO with Actual Search Engine Marketing Firms That Really Do

Monday, August 15th, 2011

So during a recent meeting with a potential client, they brought up that their current web company, who both designed their new website and was doing “SEO” for them, was sending them annual SEO reports that detailed their progress in their ten chosen keywords.

Yes, you read that correctly. Annual reports.

Now, far be it from me to question the business practices of another company, but that’s exactly what I’m going to do anyways.

SEO is an ongoing process that requires regular work on a monthly basis. Things can change at a moments notice, with competitors making advances in the rankings, reliable sites that link to you no longer being reliable sites, and, of course, Google changing the game on you with little or no warning. Because of that, having an SEO company that’s focused on that and that spends their time not only working to help your site rank but also researching new methods to effectively use SEO is paramount. Which brings me to my main point.

Have you ever seen the movie “Ratatouille”? In the film the main character, a rat named Remy (voice of Patton Oswalt), has aspirations to become a chef, inspired in no small part by his hero Gusteau’s motto of “Anyone Can Cook.” While I’ll spare you a long drawn-out synopsis of the film, we come to realize that the spirit of Gusteau’s motto was that while not everybody could be a great chef, a great chef could be anybody (like a rat in this case).

These days it seems like every web design, development, and marketing company says that they do SEO. Now I’m sure that some of them have brought on the necessary staff to do a respectable job of SEO for their clients. I’m also sure, however, that many of them are fumbling their way through it and are doing their clients, who probably don’t know any better, a huge disservice by attempting to do SEO for the extra money when they don’t really know how.

When you’re looking for an SEO company, make sure to spend the time and make sure they actually know what they’re doing. Ask for references and case studies. See if anybody has complained about them on the internet. Talk to them and make sure they seem passionate about what they’re doing. Make sure you have a good personality fit with them. It’s better to take your time and find the right company for you instead of ending up with annual status reports. Remember that not everybody can be a great SEO, but a great SEO can come from anywhere.

Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Bid on Your Company Name or Brand Name in Google AdWords

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Should you bid on your company name or brand name on Google AdWords? I am asked this same question all the time from many of our clients and it’s a logical question that I’m glad to answer. The short answer is yes, I strongly recommend bidding on your brand name in Google AdWords for several reasons:

1. You will be able to control more space on the screen and more importantly, space that is above the fold. Even if you rank number one for your brand name, having a sponsored pay-per-click listing above it ensures that anyone searching for you has to scroll a lot further to find someone who isn’t you. Getting your name to dominate like this should mean that you’re not just paying for clicks that would have been free; you’re actually increasing the number of clicks overall. This is especially important for ecommerce websites for well-known brands since their products are available on other major retail websites such as Amazon, Walmart and Target who all rank very highly in the organic rankings.

2. Your competitors can bid on your brand name anytime. If your company was not bidding on your brand name, those clicks and potential sales would go to the other major competitors that I listed above along with smaller direct competitors trying to take advantage of your brand name for pennies on the dollar.

3. It’s extremely cheap. Often less than a dime or even a nickel per click. Meaning you could get 1,000 highly targeted clicks a month for $50.

4. You can gain invaluable insights for keyword research. It’s impossible to predict every single different misspelling or variation of a brand name related keyword phrase that users search for, so by bidding on the company name we can look at the data to see all of the keywords the ad was displayed for and make changes as necessary.

5. It gives you more control over your message. With organic search results, Google usually picks up your meta description or the first bit of text on your page – but not always. With pay-per-click ads, you get to craft a bit of copy specially designed to increase click-through rates. Also, with pay-per-click ads, you have the flexibility of constantly testing new ad copy and seasonal promotions without worrying about losing your organic rankings.

These are just five reasons why I strongly recommend bidding on your company name in Google AdWords. This post was highly influenced by this article about 10 reasons why it’s a good idea to bid on your brand in Google AdWords so I encourage you to check it out if you’re still not convinced!

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