International Search Engine Marketing Blog

The real estate market is extremely competitive these days as anyone involved in the industry knows. That is why SEM and SEO for a real estate website is more crucial than ever before. The most completive geographical areas in the country also tend to require the most extensive work. As an example market, companies in the Breckenridge real estate market are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote their services since it is still a blooming area.

One particular firm that has done an extremely successful job is Mr. Breckenridge Real Estate. Of particular interest is their usage of YouTube videos to help market the website. This helps from an SEO and SEM perspective. Even individuals outside of the U.S. in international geographies viewed this video and then visited the site. Visit www.youtube.com and search for “Breckenridge Real Estate” or visit their video directly here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzPIAMU7jTI  . Notice this company’s video appears at the top of the list and therefore serves as an excellent example of strategy other agencies might attempt to replicate.

It is also important to note that rather than only serving one region. This company services nearby areas as well including the Copper Mountain CO real estate and Silverthorne real estate markets. Doing such ensures that once people reach the site they have plenty of options to pick amongst. It is difficult enough to obtain traffic to a website so it is vital that once someone reaches the destination relevant information is there that keeps visitors interested.

The primary takeaway here is that if you are a real estate agent, no matter what area you serve, it is crucial to have a well respected web presence and usage of innovative techniques. Mr. Breckenridge serves as an excellent example of a website that is able to generate leads as a result. The internet is an ideal place to achieve a superior ROI for a company’s marketing investment. I always advise people to do what they are best at. I do not try to sell real estate and it usually best for a real estate company to hire an outside agency to help with their internet marketing.

Whether using Agilis Marketing or another SEM company, hiring a professional firm is a smart move. It is also important to note that we did not do the marketing for this company, nor is this real estate firm a client of ours. It appears they received professional assistance from another reputable SEO firm and therefore serves as an excellent example of what an agency can accomplish whether using our company or another. Visitors may also wish to take a look at one our past post about selecting an SEO company loacated http://www.agilismarketing.com/sem-marketing-blog/selecting-a-united-states-seo-company/ and also advice on common tricks to avoid during your search on the post entitle SEO company tricks. As always, please feel free to comment with your thoughts.

When launching a website deciding where to register domain name and picking an SEO friendly one are not always easy tasks. There are a plethora of places to go to do such, but there are only a handful of sites that we suggest to clients and prospects. We recommend a few options to register domain names. A list of those options is accessible by following the previous link. One item to keep in mind is whether to purchase a new domain name or buy an existing one. There are both pros and cons to each choice.

There are multiple positive SEO benefits to registering a domain name that already exists and has PageRank. The largest benefit is that it becomes possible to avoid the Google Sandbox, thus saving an enormous amount of time before your website can appear in the search rankings. Another benefit is that the domain might already have traffic going that way. Of course these are usually only of value if the domain purchased is in the same industry as the content and information a company is planning to put on the website.

The primary benefits of a registering a new domain name is that it is often cheaper and you can select the exact name desired. Often companies prefer to use their register their business names as their domain names. However, bear in mind if you own a business called Widgets XYZ, it might be better to register the domain discount-widgets.com rather than widgetsxyz.com. The reason for this is that the former variation is likely to help more with search engine marketing and optimization efforts. Regardless of which option is selected the resource mentioned earlier is an excellent place to buy new domain names or existing ones.

One other factor to keep in mind is that sometimes hosting companies will register your domain name free of charge, but it is not always a smart idea to pick a bundled hosting package and domain name. This is true simply because switching to another hosting company can become more difficult as your business grows. Therefore even after selecting a hosting company it is a smart idea to register your domain name separately through another company such as those suggested earlier in this article.

Recently, I came across a phenomenal site that has done an excellent job when it comes to SEM. Silver Cross sells recycled and new healthcare equipment and has done an excellent job of attracting visitors and converting them into customers. This case study will examine why they are succeeding at selling electric scooters, stair lifts, power wheelchairs, and many other health related products for those with disabilities.

A SEO Friendly Blog

Silver Cross developed a stair lifts blog to discuss the product and provide more information on the company. This is essential in the days of social marketing. A larger number of customers are looking at a website’s blog before they make a purchasing decision. The blog also does a nice job of integrating video into the website which further helps with SEO on both the local, national, and international levels. As a result of all this the blog is quickly becoming the destination of choice for those who are searching for stair lifts.

Electric Scooters and Power Wheelchairs

These are two extremely competitive keyword phrases for any company to target. Yet Silver Scooters does an excellent job of going beyond the basics. They carefully exercise the practice of deep linking into their overall marketing strategy. A couple pages targeted are those that focus on electric scooters and power wheelchairs. Many companies make the mistake of only targeting their homepage. Silver scooters ensure that visitors are also directed to their electric scooters, power wheelchairs, and many other product specific pages. This is an increasingly important strategy as Google and the other search engines look beyond links pointing only to a websites homepage.

These are all excellent strategies for any company to keep in mind. Whether selling electric scooters, another health related product, or anything else on the internet these same strategies apply. Silver Cross is doing an excellent job at implementing all that mentioned above.

These days almost every smart business owner knows the value of search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing their websites. However, a fewer number of businesses can afford to pay for the services needed in order to achieve the results desired. There are many sites the offer low cost and little to no value directory or index submission services. Did you know that it is not required to submit a website to Google and that a well executed search engine marketing program will allow Google to find a website on its own? Be wary of any low cost service or one that tends to sound as if the offer is unbelievably low.  Purporting the need for index submissions is simply one of the tricks that a scrupulous SEO company will use to legally extract your money. A few of the other common tricks are:

Take a Look at Our Website.

Simply because an international SEM company is able to achieve results for its own website does not mean that same firm will devote the same resources to yours. Be wary of any firm that is only is to provide their website as an example of results achieved . Be equally concerned if a company is not even able to use their own site as an example.

Client Testimonial on SEM Sites

Take caution when looking at companies that advertise client results. First, they are patently admitting and identifying to Google that website XYZ is utilizing their services. If that alone does not scare you then keep reading. Ask the SEO company tough questions. One question might be if the other firm had a similar budget to that of yours.

Long Tailed Keywords

It is not overly difficult for a search engine marketing company to help a website appear in Google or other search engines for long phrases or those with little competition. A true test of the firms abilities is whether they are able to rank highly for shorter more competitive keyword phrases.

High price Equals Excellent Results.

This is a fallacy in the industry that is quite costly. Simply because a firm is charging more does not mean it is going to do much more work than one of the directory submissions companies. Use caution and watch out for this trick. As with anything purchased with a high price tag, ask for a detailed written contract and explanation of exactly what you are receiving for the money. An SEO company is unlikely to reveal everything, but they should provide you with enough information for you to ensure they deserve the amount spent and for someone to monitor a website’s performance.

These are just a few of the tricks employed by the SEO industry and why many people never use an SEM company. It is also why the industry is frowned upon by many companies while relied upon by a large number of firms. Remember that top search engine rankings are only half the battle. The best firms will let you know this and focus on the entire conversion process rather than simply the search rankings.

Interestingly, while this trend is most apparent in the U.K., it appears that the entire international search engine marketing community is jumping on board to assist these growing online shops. Sometimes it is difficult to determine whether or not a company is hiring an SEM company to perform their tasks or if they’ve hired an individual to work on their campaign in-house. Regardless it is apparent that a larger number of companies everywhere are jumping on the silver Celtic jewelry bandwagon.

There are many companies out there and it is not Agilis Marketing’s goal to point out specific firms. Nonetheless one website in particular caught our attention, www.northeastcelticjewelry.com , since it appears to of operated for a short time yet already made a significant presence in the online community. I spoke with a representative their and it appears to be a top notch shop.

Particularly their focus is silver Celtic jewelry even though a variety of other Celtic pieces are also available. The reason for mentioning it on an international SEM blog is that it should serve as an inspiration for entrepreneurs everywhere. Aside from, top search rankings across the board both in natural and PPC results the website is extremely well constructed to receive high conversions. Ordering is simply a few clicks away and there are plenty of validation logos to ensure visitors they are dealing with a reputable company.

Despite the downtown in the economy this Silver Celtic jewelry shop is illustrative of the many opportunities that still exist for innovates firms - Kudos to this company and their management. Those looking to replicate a successful shop our encouraged to continue reading blogs such as ours or to hire a search engine marketing company if their budget can support doing such.

In the previous post we tested out our hypothesis regarding backdating and back links in order to regain a Google Page Rank. Now is what occurred a SEO fluke or fix? Agilis Marketing is happy to report that the experiment resulted in a successful outcome. While it cannot be ascertained if either factor singularly resulted in the change, the blogs PR is now restored. As originally mentioned, it is imagined to be a result of the two and we might further hypothesize that it simple a result of an increase in links.

First and foremost Agilis Marketing wanted to restore the Page Rank to its search engine marketing blog. Therefore, if another blog performs a similar experiment it is first suggested to see if relevant blog owners are willing to provide links back as a first step to see if that works. Afterwards, if that has no impact then attempt backdating posts. Please keep in mind there is always an unknown delay in updates to the Google PR bar.

Determining the exact factor for the change failed since Agilis Marketing’s primary goal quickly became making its SEM content easily accessible once again. Therefore we utilized both methods mentioned in the previous blog posting. Either way, individuals and firms can draw one definitive conclusion, that a minimum a combination of the two previous efforts is effective, although further experimentation is suggested. Many blog owners might be able to use these techniques on their own. Others who rather seek assistance from a company that already succeeded are welcome to contact us (shameless plug). If anyone else had similar issues with their blogs or extends this experiment please feel free to update the community with insights.

Lately the blog on this site took a back burner to ongoing clients and Agilis Marketing spent much more face time with these clients rather than simply posting information on the blog. I am now refocused on the search engine marketing blog and this post is in part a test on the ability to reclaim Google Page rank for a blog. The SEM blog dropped from a 4 to the dreaded grey bar. The hypothesis is that one or both of the following events caused this.

1. Google loves content and blog posters often lose touch in updating their blogs. Therefore a distinct possibility is that if a blog does not show recent posts after a set time frame Google no longer value the blog as highly. While this goes against the PR algorithm it could fall into the realm of a penalty that eliminates the visible page rank.
2. Fewer sites decided to point links to the blog since Agilis Marketing failed to keep the content up to date. Eventually, all links pointing to the blog, aside from the site’s internal ones disappeared, and thus the page rank indicator turned into a grey bar. This also goes against Google’s algorithm since Agilis Marketing’s internal link structure should allow for the blog itself to still maintain a decent page rank.

Therefore an end hypothesis is that is a combination of the two events outlined above. Backdating this post may help, but I have my doubts. Therefore the first control will be to address item one. However in doing so if another site provides a link here, and it is certainly welcome, then the experiment loses its control and the only definitive conclusion that is possible to draw is that both the above factors play a role. Of course if the search engine marketing blog never regains its Page Rank than it is known that neither one of the above can help reclaim the PR a blog might lose once the Google’s indicator turns grey and another method is required to correct this.

It is important to keep in mind the idea behind this entire experiment is not to circumvent anything Google wants to accomplish, but rather to make pertinent information that is contained within this blog easily accessible to the public that searches the internet using Google.

When financial times are tough often one of the first items a business attempts to skim off the top line are their marketing investments. Oftentimes this is the best opportunity to market your company, either through SEO or a more complete integrated marketing campaign. The reasoning is fairly simple. Companies are able to receive quite a bit more “bang” for each of their marketing dollars. This is largely a result of the fact that other companies are deciding to reduced their budgets, yet the advertising space available remains the same and even grows.

The international financial markets are currently experiencing a ‘run for the hills’ mentality. I certainly will not discredit those leaving. However, most of the individuals are those who placed all their eggs in one basket and did not diversify their portfolios. Those with diversified portfolios, realize that over time the stock market has provided an excellent return on investment to those who stay invested. The same is true with investing in a search engine marketing campaign. Those who keep a well balanced marketing strategy will end up on top when all the dust settles. While there certainly might be a rough storm ahead, those that did not run for the hills and maintain a well balanced marketing portfolio will be the largest beneficiaries.

The question then becomes whether or not now is the right time to invest money with an SEO company or is it better to hold off. My suggestion is the same as most financial advisors. If you already have an existing strategy you might revisit it, but it is not wise to stop marketing any more than it is to sell all your investments. Likely rebalancing of your marketing strategy is needed. Certain companies will decide to invest more during these times, while others will scale down their search engine investments and wait for brighter skies. The choice ultimately depends upon a number of factors that only each individual company can answer.

Those companies who are starting a new marketing strategy or a new business will certainly want to proceed with caution. Careful and smart planning is a necessity. However, it is essential to have a strategy in place and make certain the financial resources are there to execute upon it. There are few businesses that can generate income without any form of marketing and search engine marketing is still the fastest growing segment available to advertisers. The best advice I can provide is to diligently research all advertising venues and select the ones that deliver the highest ROI. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment fields below.