Houston, TX (PRWEB) November 3, 2008
In recent years, industrial and energy companies have been discovering something about their own websites: they need to have them found for search queries on Google, just like any other type of website would. It’s ultimately why you put up a website in the first place. What they have also recently discovered is that, despite sparkly degrees in marketing and/or business administration, their marketing team is most often completely up a moving stream without a paddle when it comes to attracting their customers’ attention in online searches–that is, until they happen along an experienced veteran search marketing company with experience in getting local results and traffic via methods such as press release optimization, social media optimization and more traditional SEO.
Office boardrooms all over the globe are singing the praises of what has been dubbed ‘long tail search’ due to the fact that companies are starting to care how search affects their bottom line. And while long tail searches are in fact the biggest money maker, they are normally not a major optimizing strategy per se. Why? Because a typical long tail search would include keyword components such as ‘houston flat screen lcd hd 1080 tv silver sony’. While this is in fact how a lot of flat screen televisions in Houston are actually found and purchased online, there would be more than hundreds of variations of keyword phrases of this one type of electronic product alone to cover all the kinds of TVs that any particular vendor actually sells. And that’s just the TV sets. What about the rest of the electronics? What about the rest of the other product categories that Circuit City or Best Buy sells? Optimizing a site for all of these individual keyword compoenents is clearly an inoperable (not to mention rather wasteful) strategy, and in fact is totally unnecessary.
Search engine optimization (including social media optimization and press release optimization) for targeted, high traffic, common keywords is the bread and butter of creating long tail possibilities. PPC can directly target long tail searches without need of the more competitive common keywords (that’s what PPC was designed for), but SEO already includes long tail searches by nature of the product and service descriptions right on the landing page, or an optimized anchor text link away. So even in the event that the right TV is not currently stocked in any Houston store, it will still come up for a major outlet in a town right next door, so long as that website has been optimized and a corresponding inbound linking campaign has been conducted–all focusing on the more competiti9ve common keywords. That is the beauty of quality search engine optimization. Optimize for the competitive industry common keywords that form the building blocks of targeted long tail searches, and you get the long tail by nature of your informative content that is already on the product or service web pages.
Search engine optimization creates natural search results. Natural search results eliminate much of the need for huge online advertising budgets by giving search engine users what they came to Google for in the first place — intelligent information about what they are looking for, reviews, price comparisons–all the tools for educated window shopping, which is how people actually shop online. Targeted content, delivered to targeted customers, searching for a product or service via targeted (yes, long tail) keyword searches. The paid ads more often attract the lightning-quick impulse buyer of things like rock albums and DVDs, the latest cool Blackberry and other limited life cycle items that are here today and almost off the map again in about a year. Things that have limited specs and stable pricing. That’s not so much the case with B2B products and services that build revenue and make production possible, things like press release optimization itself, software with version numbers or mining drill bits for differing types of drilling surfaces. The same axiom is ultimately true for many B2C items like finding a great 2001 Californian Pinot Noir or the best Houston martial arts school. Every business model benefits from gaining targeted keyword search engine traffic and carefully networked inbound link traffic to their sites. Every one of them, without exception. No ifs ands or buts. This even applies to non-profits, since their aim is also to locate and collect donations/revenue. But what are the real dangers of not going with true SEO “industry experts”? Is there really a difference between a web design agency with whistles and bells and a straight-ahead search marketing agency? They’re both web services agencies, right?
Let’s say you are in fact a Houston-based drill bit manufacturer. You are paying a very image-forward “web design” company to do your search marketing. Big mistake. Here’s why: web design companies are essentially comprised of graphic artists, art directors, a few programmers and a project manager coordinating the project to meet a projected series of deadlines. They may often have some branding experience and some advertising awards for good measure. That’s all great for the creative end. The problem, however, is that there are typically no SEO experts or even PPC management experts on board. Shocked? You should be. Yet this is most often how SEO is carried out, without search engine optimization or search engine strategies expertise of any kind in-house. So how do they get that expertise? They outsource through freelancers or other agencies, often flying completely blind over unknown waters.
Mark Brimm, seasoned Houston SEO veteran and Director of Search at Interface Communications Group recommends that potential SEO buyers carefully consider the often-jarring, ‘we-learned-too-late’ reality that SEO is extremely critical to their sites’ welfare and extremely rich in technical subtleties, requiring qualified search marketing expertise on deck. “The DIY approach is deadly play when it comes to organic search campaigns. SEO always works in the right hands given a reasonable amount of time and investment, usually with an astoundingly high potential return on investment.” Brimm added, “It’s essential to remember that search engine optimization is really not for amateurs any more than car mechanics, brain surgery or cutting your own hair would be. In search engine marketing, it is the kiss of death to ‘wing it’.”
So what about press release optimization? Isn’t it a simple matter of write a catchy headline and fill in the details? Brimm responded, “The same naturally holds true for press release optimization, which, though more in demand and more employed than probably any other SEO tool, is also the least understood most marcom managers and SMB decision makers.”
So how does one test a search marketing guru on their SEO acumen? First, says Brimm, “It’s not enough to hear an consultant say complicated-sounding ‘SERPS’ or marketing terms like ‘ROI’ and ‘KPI’ or ‘sales funnels’…ask if your search engine optimization company 1) offers some type of guarantee on their own work and 2) has case studies to prove it’s not a waste of your time. If they do not answer yes to both (and show proof) politely get off the phone and move down your list. It’s really that simple.”
For information on search engine optimization services and issues, such as press release optimization or on how to start a national or local SEO campaign to increase top rankings, expand reach, and improve web-based branding efforts, contact Mark Brimm at 281-206-2658, via email at sales @ 123interface.com or by simply filling out the contact form.
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