International Search Engine Marketing Blog

Oftentimes, I am approached by new companies that are just starting to build a presence on the internet. Many times business owners view a website as a business card – a requirement. These individuals are entirely correct in that a website is needed for a business to establish and maintain a professional appearance. However, just as a business card has little value if it is never handed out, a website has little value if nobody knows that it exists.

Understandably, prospects do not always have the budget to spend five digits to build a website and market it with the assistance of a search engine optimization company. Not surprisingly SEO and SEM take a backseat and are noted as advertising that is needed, but not required at the moment. SEO is then put off until later or added to a wish list of tasks to be completed. I suggest taking a different mentality.

While a business can certainly accomplish more with a $10,000 budget than a $500 one, there are many instances where a basic website can be built and marketed without an enormous initial investment. I find myself reminding prospects that it is much less expensive and better for their business to build a website with the search engines in mind than to go back and revise a website that is built without considering search positions. On many occasions, initially building a website that is search engine friendly, costs the same as creating one that does not take the search engines into account.

As the owner of Agilis Marketing we, I constantly encourage our clients to never overpay for any service. This holds true regardless of a company’s size. It does not matter if your company is large or small, nor whether it services an international market or a local one. Overpaying for services will quickly eat away at a company’s bottom line. This is one reason we suggest Lunar Pages when selecting a hosting company. They offer a reliable, robust, and competitively priced hosting package. It is also the reason most of our clients use Google Analytics. The program is free to use, contains valuable information, and is simple to add onto a new or existing website. However, there are services that are worth the premium charged. One key to a successful internet marketing campaign is to spend money smartly. The same maxim holds true throughout business and life in general.

With all this said, what is a new business owner to do? Research. Find the best company that charges a reasonable price. Stick with that company so long as the firm delivers as promised, but be willingly to leave if they do not. When hiring a company to build a website, make certain they have your business’ best interests in mind. Any website company, which fails to incorporate SEO considerations into the development of a new website, either does not have its clients’ best interests at heart or is not insightful enough to fully understand the importance of search engine marketing.

At the beginning of a SEM campaign most internet advertising companies, including Agilis Marketing, will ask for FTP access, along with other website information, in order to perform the work required to achieve top search rankings. For instance, our company kindly requests the following information to best service our clients.

1. FTP access to the website that includes the following:
   1. Username
   2. Password
   3. IP Address

Agilis Marketing asks for these details so that we are able to complete the on-page modifications needed to obtain higher search positions.

2. An email address (i.e.  marketing@domain.com) along with details on how to access this account.

This information allows our company to effectively acquire SEO friendly links from external websites.

Typically these are the only access details needed.

Of course, accommodations are always made for companies with more stringent security measures or complex access procedures. This may include downloading and using a specialized VPN client or other company specific requirements.

Oftentimes I am questioned about the benefits of hiring a professional SEM company versus starting a do it yourself (DIY) campaign. I receive this same question from local, national, and international prospects. One of the better analogies I can give is related to the medical field. If a loved one had a heart problem and needed a blood transfusion or operation then who is best equipped to handle the work? Unless you’ve spent years training as a doctor or surgeon, chances are you are not the best person for the job. Although we are not talking about health issues, the same is true with search marketing. It is impossible to gain, within a few months time, the same level of experience as a SEM consultant with a decade of experience.

Certainly, it helps to become knowledgeable of the techniques involved in search engine marketing. However, the reality is that a DIY marketer cannot expect to achieve top search rankings anymore than a layman could operate on a loved one with a heart problem.

There are websites that truly help the novice marketer. Search Engine Watch and Matt Cutt’s Blog are two such websites. However there are not any niche websites that offer insights into international search engine marketing (I hope to change that). Rather, most other websites offer invaluable information, wasting time that someone could spend effectively promoting a website.

The flipside of websites created to help people, is a blooming cottage industry of sites that preys upon individuals and business owners. These sites target those who believe it is possible for a novice web marketer to successfully promote a website without any professional assistance. Perform a quick search on Google for “SEO” or “internet promotion” and sure enough websites will appear that sell cheap marketing packages for $100 to $500. Oftentimes, these sites promise top search rankings for anyone willing to pay their small fees. The reality of the situation is that lighting money on fire is a better move. While most of these service provide little benefit, some of them can hurt a site’s search rankings via automated submissions and other techniques used.

I cannot stress enough the importance of using common sense when promoting a business and its website. Be smart, perform research, and go from there. Most people would not randomly select a heart surgeon, take the same precautions when selecting a search engine marketing company or in the alternative, if you decide to market a site on your own, do so carefully and armed with as much knowledge as possible.

There are a number of quality hosting companies available. When clients or prospects ask us to suggest one, Agilis Marketing typically sends the email included below or will direct them to this blog post.

Please use the link below to sign up for a hosting account. We do not host sites directly but we do work closely with lunar pages and they have served both ourselves and clients well.

http://hosting.agilismarketing.com

Then follow the steps below:

1. Click the sign up now image link
2. Enter your contact details
3. Select I already have a domain.
   or
   If this is a brand new site, click the second option and Lunar Pages will register a domain name of your choice for free.
4. I suggest picking either the one year or two year plan
5. I also suggest selecting the dedicated IP feature (This will improve performance of the site and allow for an SSL cert)

Please let me know if you have any questions when signing up. You will then receive a few email from Lunar Pages, please forward the login details so that we are able to access the hosting to work on the site.

This hosting company (Lunar Pages) allows our clients to make many server modifications that assist us when working on a search engine marketing campaign.