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SEO Company Isn’t Performing – It May Be Time to Fire Them

March 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Do you need to fire your SEO company? If you’re not getting the SEO results or customer service support you deserve, it may be time to fire your SEO company. Here’s how to know when it’s time to say goodbye:

  • You never receive timely responses to your emails.
  • It’s always another person’s job within the company to handle whatever it is you inquire about, i.e., keyword analysis, web design, SEO, etc.
  • They always have an excuse as to ‘why’ something wasn’t done. For example, “The web design wasn’t completed because so and so is still out of the office.” Most SEO companies have more than one web designer.
  • They outsource SEO services to contractors in other countries which creates a communication barrier.
  • They thought you were doing the SEO work they were supposed to have done.
  • Contracted employees aren’t familiar with your website.
  • You’re not seeing the results promised to you when you signed the contract for SEO services.

If you’ve identified with more than two of the above criteria, it may be time to find another SEO company.

How to Fire Your SEO Company in 3 Easy Steps

English: seo block

Image via Wikipedia

Be professional. There’s no need for petty name calling or pointing the fingers. All you have to say is, “It’s time for us to find another SEO company that fits our needs better. Thank you for your service.” Don’t go into details if your SEO firm doesn’t ask for them. End the relationship and find another company.

Stick to the facts. As Sergeant Joe Friday from Dragnet would say, “All we want are the facts, ma’am?”

Contrary to Point #1, your SEO firm may ask, “Why are you unhappy with our SEO services? Stick to the facts. If keyword analysis was supposed to be completed each month but isn’t, mention it. If the web design wasn’t completed on time, mention it. If you’re tired of playing ‘email tag’ with their contracted employees, mention it.

Customer service

Do you have to babysit your SEO company? If you constantly need to ‘check up’ on your SEO company, it may be time to part ways. While you should know what your SEO firm’s doing for your company, you shouldn’t have to babysit them. You shouldn’t have to send them email after email asking the same question over and over again such as, “Is the keyword analysis completed? Is the web design completed? If they can’t give you an estimated completion time, it’s time to find a new SEO company.

You decide it’s best to hire a local SEO firm. Perhaps, your SEO company is located in another state. Sometimes, it’s better to hire a local SEO firm because they’ll be able to visit your offices should you need training or want to have a meeting to discuss your SEO. There’s nothing wrong with hiring a local company. It’s a good way to grow your area’s economy.

Fact: If you’re a part of a trade association/group or barter group, understand that your company may not be a ‘top’ priority.

Firing your SEO firm may not be easy, but it could be in your company’s best interest to do so. Before you hire another SEO company, ask questions such as:

  • How long does web design (redesign) take?
  • What programs do you use for keyword analysis?
  • How will you help us determine the ‘right’ keywords for our company?
  • Do you outsource SEO services to contractors located in other states and or country? If yes, where are your contractors located?
  • How long does SEO take to implement?
  • What are the benefits of your SEO services vs. your competitors?
  • What am I responsible for?

Make sure you understand exactly what the company’s SEO services are before signing a contract. Your company’s SEO is important to the growth of your business and online presence. Find a SEO company that will work for you and with you to increase your organic web traffic. With the proper SEO strategy, your company’s web traffic and profitability will increase.

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Ridiculously Easy SEO Habits to Start

February 2, 2012 By 5 Comments
English: seo company

Image via Wikipedia

Consider this Amandah’s Freelance Writer’s SEO guide to optimizing your company’s blog/website. Take the struggle out of optimizing your blog/website with these ridiculously easy SEO habits.

SEO doesn’t have to keep your management team up at night. Although there’s a science behind SEO, it doesn’t have to be tricky or complicated. Basically, you use keywords/phrases and tags within web content to drive traffic to your website. The caveat is to have well-written content and not a bunch of copy stuffed with keywords and phrases. Google’s not fond of that.

Ridiculously Easy SEO Habits to Start

1. Review the company’s current keyword/phrase and tags. Perhaps, it’s time to analyze the effectiveness of your current keyword/phrase and tags. If your company’s website isn’t receiving the web traffic you thought it would, it could be your keywords/phrases and tags.

2. Review web content. How well are the keywords/phrases and tags incorporated into blog posts, articles, and pages? Your optimization is too low. Or, the content may not be that compelling. Don’t forget about writing SEO headlines. It’s important to put the keyword in the beginning of the headline. If you’re using a secondary keyword, place it in the middle or end. It’s not a good idea to have the primary and secondary keywords next to each other.

3. Check out the competition. What’s your competition up to? How’s their content? Read their web content and compare it to yours. If their web content is better, it may be time to hire a freelance writer to revise your company’s.

4. Review the number of internal and external links. Perhaps, your company’s link building isn’t what it can be. If you don’t link to high-quality pages within your company’s website, you’re missing out on the opportunity to optimize the website. Also, it’s important to provide customers with helpful, high-quality external links that complement your company. 

5. Look for ‘stop words‘ within permalinks. Search engines disregard common words as the ones listed below. It makes no sense to have them in your permalinks. 

Sample List of Stop words

about
above
after
again
all
and
for
get
to

6. The company’s website doesn’t have a search engine friendly design. It’s important that your company’s website is clean and easy to use. More importantly, it needs to be search engine friendly. If images are used it’s imperative to utilize the ‘alt text’ feature that’s available in blogging platforms such as WordPress and Blogger. This provides a text description of images.

7. Your company doesn’t provide transcripts of audio and video. Let’s face it; some visitors may prefer reading a transcript of an audio recording or video. More importantly, developing these SEO habit will help your company help search engine index these materials. This can lead to more web traffic which can increase customer conversion rates.

8. Your company doesn’t take advantage of SEO services. If your company doesn’t have an RSS feed (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), they’re missing out on web traffic. These are easy to maintain and code. They’ll update when new content is added to the website.

9. Your company doesn’t take advantage of SEO tools. Most companies use Google Analytics to analyze their website’s traffic. It’s easy to set up and use. You receive information on keywords and searches. It’s a great way to set up an ‘A/B’ test to see which keywords/phrases work for your company.

10. Pay attention to Google Panda. This is a job for your web master. Rather than having as many URLs indexed as possible, your company should have its best, highest quality URLs indexed. Have your web master remove all unnecessary, extraneous, low ranking, and duplicate URLs from the index. As mentioned in Point #4, link to high-quality external links. Google Panda is pushing everyone to put their best foot forward and publish high quality content. 

11. Stay up-to-date with SEO trends. Technology trends come and go. It’s important to keep up-to-date with the ever changing world of SEO. I myself am self-taught when it comes to SEO. However, I’ve been looking into SEO certification courses and programs. I just began my search.  

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Is Article Marketing Dead?

October 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Question: Is article marketing dead?

Answer: According to Jeff Herring, “No, it’s not.” However, the way you approach article marketing needs to shift if you want to attract the ‘right’ people to your website. These people will purchase your products and services.

Article marketing includes the following:

• Content creation includes audio, text and video. Content is king; however, building trustworthy relationships trumps content.

• Online visibility means people need to be able to find you online. It doesn’t matter how good your web design or layout is. If people can’t find you, no one will purchase your products and or services.

FYI: Write compelling articles and you’ll have something of value to add to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Digg, your Blog, etc.

• Traffic generation matters. Even if you’re receiving 1 million hits per day, don’t stop utilizing article marketing because you want to continue to earn an income.

• List building: Who do you want on your list? It’s important to connect with the right clients and customers. Stop wasting time marketing to those who won’t purchase your products/services or can’t afford it right now.

Tip: Review the traffic rankings on Alexa. For example, Google is #1, Facebook is #2, Twitter is #9 and LinkedIn is #13. Post your articles to these websites or give a synopsis of your articles.

• Product creation:  What problems are you solving? You could solve your clients and customers problems by offering them a book, eBook, online or home study course, teleseminars and webinars, etc.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that article marketing is dead. What has changed is how articles are written. They have more of a ‘sales’ undertone to them without selling to your target market. Remember, most people are tired of being sold to. They want to know, “What’s in it for me? What problem are you solving for me? How does this benefit me? Why should I care?” Pay attention to the above criteria and you’ll be successful with article marketing.

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How to Create Marketing Emails That Get Opened

September 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment
no spam!

Image via Wikipedia

Are your email marketing campaigns opened all or most of the time? If you’re experiencing lackluster results, follow the guidelines below to increase the number of times your campaigns are opened. Remember to avoid SPAM words such as Free and Urgent. Proofread emails carefully — you never know who’s reading them!

How to Create Marketing Emails That Get Opened

1. Create an identifiable look and feel of email campaigns.

2. Use consistent a color pattern.

3. Use a short and simple subject line. Remember, mobile devices don’t read that many characters. Incorporate a specific benefit for readers. Why should they care? Why should they open your emails? What’s in it for them? Also, don’t forget to include your brand in your email campaign. Capitalize and punctuate carefully.

Layout of Email Marketing

Business to Consumer

1. Use a newsletter layout.

Incorporate equal images to text, i.e., lifestyle shots, product shots, etc. Remember, 60% of email readers view with images ON.

Business to Business

1. Use a card layout with ALL or mostly text.

2. Give facts about the product/service.

3. Have a clear call to action.

Note: Most business to business email readers view emails with images OFF. If images are off, type out your business name. Make sure your brand is present by including a description for an image; make it a clickable link. Also, add to Safe Sender List.

FYI: The text version is viewed by 15% of your list.

4. Place important links at the top. Include an engaging message before the links. Shorten the link it it’s too long.

FYI: Smartphones now show HTML emails.

LESS IS MORE! 15-20 SECONDS IS SPENT ON A CLICKED MESSAGE

LIMIT YOUR NEWSLETTER OR CARD 3 TO 5 TOPICS

5. Use power words such as New, Introducing, Save, Discover, Results, Top-Notch, etc.

6. Avoid weak words such as Maybe, Hope, Try, Wish, Perhaps, etc.

FYI: Assist email readers with scanning your emails. Be mindful of bullet points, whitespace, bold headlines, keywords and columns.

Calls of Actions … What’s the Objective?

• What’s the next step?
• What’s in it for them?
• What do you want the reader to do?

BE DIRECT AND SPECIFIC BY USING WORDS SUCH AS:

BUY NOW … LOYAL CUSTOMERS … LEARN MORE (Include multiple links for newer relationships)

Effective Calls of Actions

• Direct readers to the correct landing page by including the proper link.
• Typically, the home page isn’t appropriate.
• Use Readable URLs … must be a legitimate URL.

Insert a video in your Email because this increases click through rate by 300%.

Note: The video doesn’t have to be yours. It could be a video that compliments your business/industry.

Other

1. Include share buttons such as social media, forward to friends, etc.

2. Include a JOIN MY MAILING LIST button which makes it easier for people to join your list.

3. Preview emails BEFORE you send them out.

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Five Surface Errors that Make You Look Unprofessional

September 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I recently signed up for a newsletter and downloaded the ‘free’ eBook that was promised to me. I started reading and proofreading the eBook (habit) and found a couple of errors within it.  Mistakes happen from time-to-time; however, if they happen more than once, it may be time to pay closer attention to who’s proofreading your newsletters, brochures, web content, policies and procedures manuals, blog posts, articles and eBooks. Content matters — but error-free content matters more.

Five Surface Errors that Make You Look Unprofessional

1. Misspelled words. Let’s face it; spell check doesn’t catch all errors. Remember, some words sound the same (homonyms) but aren’t spelled the same. Examples are: there, their and they’re; pair and pear; know and no; its and it’s; you’re and your; hear and here; to, too and two; and many others. Proofreading your eBook or newsletter is the best way to catch errors. Spell check can only do so much.

2. Improper use of quotation marks. A period and or comma belong inside not outside of quotation marks. A semicolon does not.

3. Off-the-wall paragraph spacing. It’s important to have enough white space but too many spaces between paragraphs makes an eBook or other written material out-of-balance.

4. Too many spaces after a period. Most people were taught to use two spaces after a period; however, it’s best to use one space. You may be shocked to learn that some elementary and high school students across the U.S. are still being taught to use two spaces after a period. Only one space is needed.

5. Too many em dashes and exclamation points. Use em dashes and exclamation points sparingly; I even have to remind myself of this one. Too many exclamation points can be seen as obnoxious. Too many em dashes can overwhelm readers.

Surface errors happen; even Number One Best-Selling Authors aren’t immune to the occasional misspelled word. However, it’s important to present a polished end product. If your newsletter is filled with errors, your clients and customers may email you about it. Whether or not you pay attention to their complaints is up to you. Surface errors could deter clients/customers from utilizing your services or purchasing your products. Like it or not, presentation matters. Present a clean, error-free eBook, brochure, newsletter, direct mail card, white paper, etc. and you’ll make a good lasting impression.

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