You are no doubt accosted by the fervent sales people from DexKnows, CitySearch, and dozens upon dozens of companies offering search engine optimization and/or some sort of page ranking scheme. “Sign up now and we’ll get you to the top of Google searches!”
Yeah. Right. I can do that, too. Heck YOU can do that yourself! All it takes is cash and a Google AdWords account.
Don’t get me wrong, a strong Google campaign based on appropriate key terms and well written will do wonders for traffic generation. In 2006 there were 2.7 million searches each month on Google; in December of 2008 that number reached 31.2 million searches per month! The trick is to use the right key terms and to write an effective ad.
But, this article isn’t about Google AdWords, its about effectively driving traffic to your website.
Obviously, search engine optimization is just one element in your internet marketing plan. (You DO have a plan, right?)
Search engine optimization is meant to develop organic search results based on the content of your website. Depending on the quality and quantity of key terms you are optimizing your website for organic search results may only take a week or two to get into the top 20 or may take several months of work and re-evaluation.
However, putting all your eggs into the optimization basket may not truly serve the total needs of your internet marketing plans. You will need to consider what we jokingly call “inorganic search results” … also known as PAID results … also known as ADVERTISING!
One of our team members, Anne, specializes in internet advertising and has, over the years developed a very effective and cost-effective advertising campaign that has proven benefits. While optimization is very important for your long-term goals, we simply cannot guarantee results — there are just too many variables. However, Anne’s program does guarantee results!
Simply put, Anne is heavily connected with the Top Ten internet business directories outside of the typical search engines. She works with our clients to develop local, regional or even national paid placement campaigns that will send a specific number of people to your site (click-thrus).
If you want to send 500 people per month to your site Anne can create a program that will get those clicks to you. Each advertising campaign is developed specifically for you and your website … just like everything we do here at Transmutation Sciences … there are no templates or pre-assembled packages.
Let’s say you are Elite Home Inspections here in Portland and you’ve just rebuilt your website and/or optimized it for the search engines but you want to kick start your internet presence with an internet advertising campaign. Anne consults with Elite Home Inspections’ Jerry Weaver to determine his goals and his budget. He has about $100 each month to dedicate to internet advertising – remember long-term investments equal long-term success! Anne builds a campaign to get him 200 unique clicks per month to his site using two or three local and one regional business directories with paid positioning.
That’s 50 cents per click, not such a bad deal because those are highly targeted clicks … not the general “who knows” kind of clicks he would get through a Google AdWords campaign. Additionally, because these are heavily trafficked business directories there’s an additional number of “impressions” that count simply for there value in being seen. And, with well-written ads, those impressions become “sticky.”
Of course, once Anne’s program gets traffic to the site we need to be certain that Elite Home Inspection’s website then gets the visitor to take action … and that’s a whole other article!
