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July 30, 2010

Watch Out, the Lines Between SEO and SEM are Blurring

Filed under: SEO and SEM — Tags: , , , , , — Eric @ 5:04 am

I had a client recently ask me to review a company call Netbiz which guaranteed certain rankings in Google for a $150 - $175 per month. First off, any company that "guarantees" certain rankings is generally enough to trigger all the red warning signals that I need. There are no guarantees in life and there are even less guarantees in the world of SEO and the ever changing search engine algorithms. Nevertheless I thought it would be useful to delve into the details and ultimately try to present what I found.

NetBiz is basically a SEM company and not an SEO company. Unfortunately for most consumers these two very different types of services have been blurred into one. SEM is basically pay-per-click advertising and getting listings in online websites like yellow pages, Dexknows, ect.. SEO is much more complicated and requires an indepth understanding of web programming, search engine algorithms and what is required to get a good natural ranking. It appears that Netbiz does pay-per-click advertising through Google and presents it as SEO. Unfortunately I found a number of complaints like the one below where basically what they said over the phone was not actually what the customer got.

A review of NetBiz.com and their claim to being an SEO company by one of their customers:

I saw a post from a company called NetBiz.com that guarantees placement on the first page for certain search terms. I got a call from them probably about a year ago and gave me a major search term for my area. However, after I had paid the fees to get everything going, I did not appear under that search term. Instead it was under another search term that I believed would never get any business. Called and said they were sorry that I misunderstood the term that I would be listed with. However the gentleman said I will definitely get lots of action under the search term they gave me. I watched my statistics over a few months and never got one hit. Personally I  would be very careful of this and other SEO companies.

Jeff Launiere

When one looked up the BBB ratings for Netbiz their claims became even more suspect.

BBB Rating for Netbiz Inc

Based on BBB files, Netbiz Inc has a BBB Rating of C- on a scale from A+ to F.
Reasons for this rating include:

* 37 complaints filed against Netbiz Inc.

Bottomline is one always has to ask careful questions and make sure you understand what the prospective SEO company or consultant is promising. Having a first page ranking for an obscure term that will never generate any traffic is an obvious waste of money and completely disingenuous on the part of the SEO company. Our grandparents didn't tell the age old adage, "if it sounds to good to be true .... " for nothing.

For more information about our proven SEO strategies call us at 1-800-975-5695.

Kind regards,

SlickRockWeb Inc. a leading provider of affordable SEO services - "Bringing you business one click at a time."

June 9, 2010

SEO and QR Codes, a Current Japanese Fad or the Future of Online Marketing

Already an advertising staple in Japan, QR Codes are beginning to catch on here in the United States.  Similar to a bar code, these matrix codes (meaning two-dimensional bar code) allow URLs to be accessed simply by scanning them - usually with a phone.  For example, the QR Code below, if scanned, would direct you to the SlickRockWeb homepage.

slickrockweb-qr-code

Ok, so why does this weird square code matter?

While SEO implications and practices are not completely ironed out, theoretically the benefits are many.  As QR Codes are backlinks, the benefits at the very least will be similar to the benefits associated with URL backlinks.  It seems likely that Google will start recognizing and caching QR Codes and separate directories for these types of links will begin cropping up.

But beyond this, these codes will begin to provide a link between SEO and the older forms of marketing like newspaper ads, billboards, posters, etc.  Suddenly, these seemingly antiquated forms of marketing can be used to drive traffic to your website.  And better yet, that traffic will be trackable.

Whereas before a traditional print ad would have to read "check out our website at www.slickrockweb.net," the QR Code now provides not only a brevity of language (or images), but it also provides efficient user interaction.  Instead of remembering the URL and typing it into a browser, the user simply points their phone at the image and is directed to the destination instantly.  So, if you we were to buy a newspaper ad, include a QR Code for some URL like:

www.slickrockweb.net/qrcodeforournewspaperad

and have that same URL simply redirect to our homepage.  Then, by using free programs like Google Analytics or the like, we could easily tell what kind of "click through rate" our newspaper add is accruing.

Thus, as the number of smart-phone users, and the number QR Codes continues to grow, so does their importance for SEO.  Who knows, in the near future, an SEO Company might have to include QR Optimized Business Cards, Newspaper Ads and Billboards in their proposals.

We used the currently free QR code generator at the website called Kaywa. The process is quite easy, although the potential applications for these codes can be very creative and sophisticated.

The potential benefit of these QR codes is clear but what is also clear it that any successful company needs an SEO expert like SlickRockWeb as a partner and resource to navigate the rapidly changing landscape of online and digital marketing and the rapid adoption of new technologies.

For more information about our proven SEO strategies call us at 1-800-975-5695.

Kind regards,

SlickRockWeb Inc. a leading provider of affordable SEO services - "Bringing you business one click at a time."

April 6, 2010

Improving Bounce Rates Can Dramatically Improve Effective Website Traffic

Filed under: SEO and SEM — Eric @ 6:46 pm

There are many ways to increase traffic to your website. Greater visibility in the search engines organically, pay-per-click search engine traffic, social media referral traffic, direct marketing or any of the millions of other non-search related listings that produce referral traffic. Examples of this non-search related traffic would be click-through traffic from sites like Yellowpages or Dexknows or Craiglist or any of the other millions of directory sites that can bring a visitor directly to your website. These are all easily understandable sources of increased traffic to your website and they take varying degrees of time, money and marketing to achieve.

But what many people don't realize is that there is traffic and then there is effective traffic. Traffic that comes to your site and then immediately leaves without staying is called a bounce and every type of traffic will produce a different bounce rate depending on how well the referring site matches the visitor with the content and interest of your website. A floral shop referring visitors from its site to your site which is an Auto Body shop may produce a very high bounce rate for you. There are many obvious reasons why this might be the case. A website that sells auto tools that then refers its visitors to your Auto Body shop will have a better chance at producing relevant or highly motivated traffic and that referred traffic should have a lower bounce rate ... provided of course that the Auto Body shop site is functional and doesn't look terrible.

Anyway I think you get the idea. The effective website traffic to your website is your Total traffic - (Total traffic * bounce rate). Thus one can greatly improve their effective web traffic merely by improving their site's bounce rate. If your site is getting alot of traffic but has a very high bounce rate, say something over 60% a wiser marketing initiative for your company might be to work on reducing your website's bounce rate. Or at least analyze why it is you have such a high bounce rate.

To illustrate this the graph below shows the total monthly traffic coming to a website located within the state of Washington along the blue line and the monthly average bounce rate for the entire site is indicated by the red line. In the most current month the bounce rate is dramatically cut in half, due to the exceptional effort and guidance by a company such as say .... SlickRockWeb.

graph01

Because of this dramatic improvement in the website's bounce rate, even though the total monthly traffic actually goes down slightly from March to April, the effective traffic (shown below in green) goes up dramatically. This reduction in bounce rate produces the highest effective traffic levels in the past 9 months even though total traffic is only 60% of what it was 6 months earlier. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that this increase in effective traffic will correspond to an increase in sales.

graph02

The moral of the story is make sure you know what your site's bounce rate is and make sure you have a company strategy in place to analyze the monthly bounce rate and compare it to industry averages to make sure you are not losing significant amounts of effective web traffic every month.

From this simple example it is clear why having an SEO expert like SlickRockWeb as a partner and resource is such a valuable asset to any successful business.

For more information about our proven SEO strategies call us at 1-800-975-5695.

Kind regards,

SlickRockWeb Inc. a leading provider of affordable SEO services - "Bringing you business one click at a time."

December 8, 2009

How Long Term SEO Efforts Produce Real Intrinsic Value for a Company

Filed under: SEO and SEM — Eric @ 12:44 pm

The value of organic search engine placement rankings (SERPs) for a particluar search phrase for a particular company can be measured in terms of replacement value. Below are examples of three high profile searches in Google and how to value their impact.

This is an ongoing effort that we are currently under contract for and this particular client was not ranking in the top 500 positions for any of these search terms when we first started. If we are ultimately able to produce top 5 rankings for these searches we will have produced tremendous intrinsic value for this company. The marketing value we discuss for each search term below is based on what it would cost to achieve the same visibility and traffic using only pay-per-click advertising. That also assumes no bidding increases over the next 12 months which is not very likely since we have been seeing year over year increases of 20% or more for pay-per-click bidding on specific search terms.

Three Examples and the Estimated Replacement Value Assigned to Them

Currently our client ranks #45 for "water conservation products" out of a total of 5,750,000 results.

A top 5 ranking for just this one keyword is estimated to bring about a $781.00 a month intrinsic marketing value to a website or about $10,000 per year in free advertising. (This of course doesn't count any of the potential sales that could be generated)

Currently our client ranks #69 for "water saving shower heads" out of a total of 319,000 results.

A top 5 ranking for just this one keyword is estimated to bring about a $1616.00 a month intrinsic marketing value to a website or about $19,400 per year in free advertising. (This of course doesn't count any of the potential sales that could be generated)

Currently our client ranks #130 for "low flow shower heads" out of a total of 257,000 results.

A top 5 ranking for just this one keyword is estimated to bring about a $4576.00 a month intrinsic marketing value to a website or about $54,900 per year in free advertising. (This of course doesn't count any of the potential sales that could be generated)

From these examples it is clear why SEO services, such as what we offer, are in such hot demand right now and are so valuable to any business.

For more information about our proven SEO strategies call us at 1-800-975-5695.

Kind regards,

SlickRockWeb Inc. a leading provider of affordable SEO services - "Bringing you business one click at a time."

May 26, 2009

Recent Results from New Client LSS Data Systems Continues to Validate SlickRockWeb's SEO Strategies

Filed under: SEO and SEM — Eric @ 2:35 pm

Over the 30 day period of July 1 2008 - July 31 2008, at the start of SlickRockWeb's SEO implementation, only 7 different non-branded search terms were used to lead searchers to the LSS Data Systems website and non-branded search generated a measly 0.21% of the total traffic to the LSS Data website.

As of the past 30 days (April 25th - May 25th) 280 different non-branded search term combinations were used and non-branded search generated 9.5% of the total traffic to the LSS Data website. A number of high profile first page rankings have also been achieved for LSS Data Systems including the following:

certified ehr technology

#10 on Google
http://www.google.com/search?q=certified+EHR+technology&num=100

#1 on Yahoo
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=certified+EHR+technology&n=100

#2 on MSN
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=certified+EHR+technology&first=1&count=100

ambulatory ehr

#11 on Google
http://www.google.com/search?q=Ambulatory+EHR&num=100

#5 on Yahoo
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Ambulatory+EHR&n=100

#6 on MSN
http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=Ambulatory+EHR&first=1&count=100

Non-branded search traffic to the LSS Data Systems website has increased each successive month due to the SEO efforts of SlickRockWeb Inc.
Non-branded search results for LSS

For more information about proven SEO strategies call us at 1-800-975-5695.

Kind regards,

SlickRockWeb Inc. a leading provider of affordable SEO services - "Bringing you business one click at a time."

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