Delivering SEO Services Just Got Harder

The SEO discussions are heating up. It’s early in 2009 and already everyone is talking about the changes we’re seeing in SEO. Some say it’s getting easier and some say it’s getting harder. Tomato or tomahto?

If you’re a large company with deep resources, SEO is getting easier because you have the resources to produce keyword rich content and user generated content on the social web.  You have the resources to study the changes and react to them favorably.

But, if you’re a small or mid size company SEO just got harder. It’s already challenging for smaller companies to write a lot of content and to produce rich media content such as video, photos and user generated content in social media.

Now that Google has personalized search results through SearchWiki studying your rankings is not as relevant as it was in the past. Producing incoming links is now harder because Google is favoring editorial links coming from user generated content which is found in social media sites like blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other Web 2.0 destinations.

So how does a business with limited resources win with SEO in 2009? Before I answer that, let’s examine why it’s important.  In July 2008 almost 12 billion searches were conducted in the U.S. according to Comscore. The sources of these searches were not limited to Google, Yahoo and MSN. They include searches on sites such as eBay, AOL, Ask, Craig’s List, MySpace, Facebook and Amazon.

Google continues to dominate search results with 61% of all searches. Google returns a variety of search results including blogs, Wikis, PDFs, social networking comments, video, photos and just about any frequently updated content on the web.

SEO services firms committed to winning for their clients provide free education through blogs, podcasts, newsletters, white papers and webcasts.

Small and medium size businesses should devote resources to getting educated through industry portals such as Sphinn and Junta42 as well as SEO services agencies who offer free education.

While the education process never ends, following SEO best practices will yield good results.  Follow these SEO best practices:

• quality content
• extensive keyword research
• natural editorial link building through social media
• clean website architecture with human readable URLs
• quality meta data
• internal editorial linking on important keywords
• avoid SEO sales pitches that promise quick results

Delivering SEO services is not easy due to the number of variables that drive successful results. Businesses willing to commit to the hard work it takes and following best practices will enjoy quality traffic that can deliver sales results. And, that’s what makes SEO worth the effort.

Bernie Borges
@berniebay

Impact of Economy on SEO Services

On the date of this writing, the world is in a financial crisis unlike anything we’ve seen since the great depression (years before my birth).  Yet, I’ve noticed a very interesting trend in our business.  Lately, there is increased demand for our SEO services. 

I noticed the trend about a month ago when more inquiries and referrals started coming our way for SEO services.  So, I started asking prospective new clients what they are doing right now in the face of this economy?  The answer I’m hearing consistently doesn’t surprise me.

Most businesses across all industries are cutting expenses.  Some industries are affected more than others impacting the severity of their cutbacks.  Most marketing managers are being forced to cut marketing expenses. 

So, why are we seeing increased demand for SEO services?  Because marketers are cutting back other more traditional forms of marketing and relying more on the web to “find and convert” new sales opportunities.

Marketers are relying more on inbound marketing strategies through the web and it starts with search engine optimization (SE0) recognizing that when someone has found them on the web and contacted them, they are a potentially serious buyer.  In this economy, most sellers want to avoid wasting time with tire kickers and only spend time with serious buyers and the web is the most efficient medium to source out serious buyers.

While this is good news for internet marketing services companies like us, there is one word of caution I share with new clients.  I advise all client not to put all their eggs in the Google basket.

I inform all our clients that our web analytics prove that the top five referring sources of traffic to Find and Convert’s website include Google as well as other social media sites such as StumbleUpon, Twitter, Junta42 and Sphinn.

I advise all our clients to build a rock solid foundation in their SEO plan, and build out a social media marketing strategy on top of it for best long term results.  I’ve always believed we should “fish where the fish are,” and Google is not the only pond that has fish.  Focusing an entire internet marketing strategy just on Google would seriously overlook “other ponds of fish.”

Your thoughts?

Bernie Borges