Search Engine Optimization Consulting
If a tree falls in the woods and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
If you have a website and nobody can find it, does it exist?
If your website does not attract organic, natural visitors, your site is no more than a personal diary for your business. In order for your website to become a profitable tool for the growth of your business, it must attract new clients. This is where experts such as CertifiedMarketers come in and provide expert search engine optimization consulting.
Most people think that building a website is as simple as hiring a webmaster, or finding a cookie-cutter platform and filling in the blanks. While these are options for building a website, what is in the website will determine whether people will find it or not.
Website Search Engine Optimization
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) consulting is a combination of elements within a website that are designed to attract high rankings on search engine results pages. These elements include page titles, url structures, htags, content, links from other sites which point to your site, links from your site that point to other sites, links within your site which point to other pages within your site, and a variety of other elements. Proper website search engine optimization is an ongoing process that takes a team of experts assembling all of the proper pieces. The idea behind SEO is to generate natural, or organic traffic coming from free search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others.
SEO also requires the targeting of specific keywords or keyword phrases. If you have a page on your site dedicated to selling YoYo's, that page needs to be SEO'd for terms that will help you sell as many YoYo's as possible. Without finding the proper keywords to market towards, how can you optimize a page to achieve high rankings for targeted traffic? You can't, and that's what SEO looks to accomplish. Using a variety of keyword research tools that are available, SEO professionals can find highly targeted keywords for your market, then target those keywords for high search engine ranking.
Do not confuse 'webmaster' with 'SEO expert'. While some webmasters do have excellent SEO skills, many of them do not. Most professional webmasters have focused their time on learning different design skills to build websites that look and perform well. SEO professionals on the other hand have focused their time on learning how to get websites and web pages to rank highly on the search engines. These are two different skills that individually require years of hands-on experience and training before someone can claim to be an expert. Your webmaster might have created a beautiful looking website with tons of great features, but that does not mean you can assume the site was properly SEO'd.
When I talk to people about websites and how they work, I like to compare them cars. A car needs a frame, tires & wheels, a motor, seats, a steering wheel, and hundreds if not thousands of other little pieces that all work together. Certain parts of a car are required in order for your car to move from point A to point B. Other parts, such as the trunk, the stereo, and power windows, allow the passengers to enjoy other benefits, like hauling things, enjoying music, and... breathing.
In respect to a website, the website alone is the frame, motor, steering wheel, and a driver's seat.
The stereo, power windows and other optional equipment are the equivalent to the special features your website may offer to visitors such as video, quizzes, polls, or a forum.
SEO is the fuel.
Without the fuel, the car will stand still - no matter what fancy options the car has or how much horsepower is under the hood. The same can be said for a website. Without SEO, your website is going nowhere. Over time, the fuel runs out and the car needs a refill. Again, the same can be said about a website.
SEO is a constantly evolving creature. What worked 6 months ago, may not work today. What used to be the 'best' way of doing things may now be replaced with something better. The search engines are constantly looking for better ways to produce search results that lead their visitors to relevant, quality content. As a result, the algorithms that determine who is going to rank high or low on the search engines are constantly changing. Is your website evolving with these changes, or is it standing still?
Whether your website never left the dealers lot to begin with or whether it's running out of gas, Certified Marketers can help. Every single day we work with website owners who built a website and sat back waiting for something to happen. If the site wasn't properly SEO'd, it's a lot like watching grass grow. Actually, it's more like watching grass die.
We also deal with a lot of website owners who built a site, had it properly SEO'd, got a lot of traffic, and now the numbers have been falling off. What happened? Why was it doing well before, and so poorly today? Not only can we answer these questions, we can get your website back into form and producing well again.