SEO Helps Small Companies be the Big Fish

One of the benefits of working at Oneupweb is our location here in Traverse City, Michigan. Not familiar with northwest lower Michigan? Check out the Our Area page for a small photo sampling.

Oneupweb is located at the southeast corner of Leelanau County, which makes our office a great starting point for after-work and weekend excursions. One-stop-sign towns are scattered throughout Leelanau County, and are nestled in and around natural and man-made landmarks such as the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.

Leelanau County is the kind of place that thrives on tourists and summer residents from May through September but turns peacefully silent the moment the last orange leaf blows off the maple tree.

Following the great exodus, the million dollar question many Leelanau County locals try to answer is how to make a good enough living to allow for the opportunity to live here year around. As a result, a handful of enterprising individuals have created businesses specializing in niche products with a Leelanau County flair.

For the most part, these companies rely on internet mail order, local and national word-of-mouth (tourists are great at word-of-mouth), catalog mailings, the holiday gift show circuit, holiday gift giving and pleading with those Oprah people in Chicago to get in on some list.

Some of these companies have done an amazing job with these marketing techniques and are distributing their products all over the world, while others are still trying to get off the ground. Locally these companies are big fish in a small pond, but nationally they are small fish in a big lake.

So how does search engine optimization (SEO) fit into this?

I ran a few of these local companies' product keywords through the old Google machine and with the exception of one company that is a giant in the cherry products industry, none of them placed very high on a search engine results page (SERP).

After poking around a few of their websites, it didn't take long to start finding substantial mistakes which hampered their ability to place strongly on a SERP. Not good for the little fish.

Now this is where SEO can turn that little Yellow Perch of a Leelanau County business into the proverbial King Salmon.

What gets me excited about SEO is that it can give a small mail order company with an incredible product the opportunity to have a large presence in its given market.

Marketing departments, in companies large and small, need to consider how SEO can help give them the exposure that they are working so hard for.

Don't be the little fish in the pond. Learn how SEO can give you the opportunity to be the big fish.

Source:- straightupsearch.com/

SEO tips to get targeted traffic for your site

Unlike paid marketing, organic marketing or SEO is much more cost effective. The matter relies on how to do SEO effectively to get the most out of it, which means you can get massive targeted traffic within your time and money budget..

SEARCH ENGINE Optimisation (SEO) – is a process to optimise your website position in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), which means your website should appear at the first ranking for specific keywords on the first page of any search engines.

Why to do SEO? First, it maximises your web traffic because it’s the most visible in surfers’ search. The more visitors your website has, the better your conversion rates and ROI are and thus the higher your profit.

Next, unlike paid marketing, organic marketing or SEO is much more cost effective. You won’t have to pay for the traffic or the clicks themselves. More than that if you have time and knowledge, you can generate traffic yourself so your organic traffic can be completely free.

The matter relies on how to do SEO effectively to get the most out of it, which means you can get massive targeted traffic within your time and money budget. Some webmasters will opt to do everything themselves. However, they often get stuck half way being hopeless to wait for their website to get high rankings and the traffic to come.

The reasons can be simply either they are not aware of the latest Internet marketing techniques, which are being developed day by day by professional Internet marketers, or they just aren’t doing them the correct ways. Another reason can be they don’t have that much time to manage and complete the SEO process and leave it undone without having any results yet.

For those reasons, most of online business owners nowadays choose to outsource to reliable Search Engine Optimisers (SEOs). Among the leading SEOs in the current market, traffic assistants can be considered the best with their core competency in exclusive Internet marketing services provided by professional Internet marketers.


Source:- merinews.com/

Business column: Boost your marketing with online search tools

Search-engine optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a Web site. When SEO is done properly, it will place you high on search-engine result pages for certain key phrases and terms (i.e. real estate, law firms, doctor, etc.).

In today's online-driven world, the names Google, Yahoo and MSN are rapidly becoming more of a household name than the Yellow Pages. Most of us now have access to the Internet via work, home and mobile phone. According to research by Jupiter Media way back in 2004, more than 64 percent of people who are looking for information online use search engines. The number is closer to 80 percent today.

Low risk, high impact

In these tough economic times, business owners are becoming increasingly challenged and conservative with their marketing budgets. Most of us are seeking low-risk, high-impact marketing options in a down economy. When it comes to meeting these needs, search engines like Google provide a viable and cost effective solution.

So where should your advertising dollars be spent in today's market?

Consider the traditional advertising option of the yellow pages. For a prominent ad, your costs could be thousands of dollars per month Also, Yellow Page ads have limited flexibility, and you are usually locked in to a one-year commitment.

Optimize your Web site

How many times have you used the paper Yellow Pages this month?

How many times have you searched for a business or service on Google or Yahoo this month?

Now consider your Web site. You can further your business leads by making sure that more people are viewing it. You can optimize your Web site to rank in the main listings without any media spending at all. You can test multiple ads and list under multiple words or phrases all at the same time and get instant tracking on which ads are working for you.

The major search engines also can determine where the search is coming from. This means you can target ads all the way down to a city, or ZIP code.

If you are not currently utilizing this marketing channel, I recommend you take half of your local marketing this year and invest in search optimization or paid search ads. Work with a search-analytics professional to track the new program for 90 days. You likely will be surprised to see who's been searching for you, and see an immediate impact for your business.

Source:- recordonline.com/

SEO long term strategy and lead generation mix

Is search engine optimization in your long term strategy and lead generation mix?

Any business has two important channels: Production and Marketing, where marketing plays an important role; since many businesses have been cutting off on Production in-house. The business centers all on Marketing.

I know of a boy who used to write on communities and photocopy his articles and distribute them to the people residing near by. Then he wrote more and his write-ups took a form of monthly magazine which people started subscribing. And today it is a well-known magazine in different sectors with millions of readers online. When asked for the success, that boy (and the editor today) said: “Strategic Marketing”.

Today Businesses have Marketing Executives, Marketing Consultants and even big Marketing Departments with 100s of employees working specifically for building up the Company Brand. And today, as we know the Digital is transforming all Media! Websites have become an important tool for Marketing one’s Products and Services. Businesses today – small or big are sure to have a website (or a small online-presence –at least). These websites may vary from 3 to 1000s of pages.

But does your Online Business (or your website) really help you marketing your Company? Does your online presence get you leads enough to survive your business? These are some very important questions and your marketing strategies revolve around answering such questions.

Search engines play a dominant role in getting you more business. Search engine research takes place at least one to two months before the buying/final decision made by your customer and a research says “Organic SEO gets over 70 percent of the clicks”. In Search Engines, position is a factor: with over 60 percent clicking on the top 3 listings and moreover, most users decide which listing to click on in just seconds upon scanning the page.

Hence, it is very important to get your website a prime visibility in the Top SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). The most economic and best tool to help your website rise in the organic searches is Search Engine Optimization. Many Businesses go with many strategies and plans like On-Page Optimization of website, Off-page Optimization of website, Link Building, Search Engine Marketing Services, using Social Media to Market Services, etc.

The most important point that lies at the base is Strategy- Strategy of Keywords/phrases, Strategy of the campaigns to be executed - in what substance at what time, Strategy on how to market the services in Social Media, etc.

I have seen Search Engine Optimization working so well with the businesses getting over 1000% increase in their website traffic. I have noted our clients getting rise of over 50% in leads and revenue generation through Search Engine Marketing Services. But this has to be in a very very strategic way as we at Semaphore-software do.

We at Semaphore offer Strategic SEO (Website Optimization) accompanied with Strategic Link-building because where Optimized Content is the King in the SEO Market, Link Building is the queen. A Strategic SEO plan definitely helps a business to rise up in the Search Engines; hence getting more traction, more leads and more business.

Now-days businesses have started understanding the importance of Search Engine Optimization and have SEO as one of the important strategies in their Long Term Marketing Plan. But now arises a million dollar question for you: “Is search engine optimization in your long term strategy and lead generation mix?”

Source:- semaphore-software.com/

Does inbound links really helps to come in ranking?

Link Building is very famous and most important part of SEO, Search Engine optimization process. All web site owners who want to get top their web sites, pays for SEO to come in top ranking on major search engine ranking page. Many more search engine optimization services provider companies have added Directory Submission and Link Exchange process in their SEO Services menu.

Link building and link exchanger is a process which is very famous to get top ranking, here most of website owners are looking for one way link exchange, means get inbound links from other related site, without giving him back links, as some are getting paid links, it’s not as hard as free one way link. But how one way linking is effective is possible for top ranking in search engines? I think all inbound links will not be counted by search engines as back link. Than what is benefits of that link which has not been counted by search engine? Actually I have read many more time on web and specially in forums about one way link or back links from directory submission, but if this is very effective, than why we need to work on other seo activities like forum posting, bookmarking article submission.

source:- semaphore-software.com/

How to Make Your Page Search Engine Friendly and User Friendly

Every web publisher wants to attain top positions in the search engines to increase traffic. To attain a high ranking, your site has to be search engine friendly.

Search engine spiders index your web site. They only read the HTML code in your web pages. They don't read graphics, JavaScript code and other scripts and features.

Just a few simple changes to your web pages can give your site a huge search engine boost. Even better, it can bring in ongoing FREE targeted traffic.

It's important to create a search engine friendly site while at the same time keeping your site friendly to your visitors. You want to structure your pages for maximum search engine exposure without compromising the content or look of your site. After all, what good is traffic if your visitors won't read your pages?

Keyword-rich, theme-based web sites will give you both targeted traffic and good search engine ranking.

Here are 10 easy steps you can take to make sure your pages are search engine friendly and user-friendly.

1. Selecting a domain name:-

There is a lot of disagreement about whether search bots give importance to the keywords in your domain name. I suggest that you select a domain name that indicates what your site is about. Even if it doesn't matter to search engines, it's important that it tells your visitors what the topic of your site is.

2. Focus on one theme:-

Search engines love specialized content. If you have several topics, then you should create several web sites. The more you focus on one topic, the more your page will be optimized for search engines and the more relevant it will be to your visitors.

3. Create multiple content pages:-

Make a separate page for each important keyword and key phrase. If, for example, you want your site to come up for the key phrases web consulting, web design, and search engine optimization, make three separate pages. Create a web page for each major keyword. Don't create automated pages just to get search engine exposure. To keep visitors at your site, you have to give them good content. Keyword-rich articles are a good way to optimize your pages for search engines while providing useful content to your visitors.

4. Optimize each content page for ONE of your key phrases:-

Put your targeted key phrases in your content. Include them in your page title, description tag, ALT image tags, comment tags, and in internal and external links. When providing a title and description in the META tags, your listing may be displayed in the search engine listing as you provide it. Make your titles and descriptions informative and compelling to attract potential buyers to your site. Provide a benefit or solve a problem.

5. Put your keywords in your content:-

Search engines are looking at how often your keyword appears on a page. That's how they determine relevancy. Short pages provide a larger percentage of keywords and are better for search engine optimization. The keyword density of a Web page is important for search engine optimization. How often you should mention your keyword throughout the text is different for each search engine, but it varies between 3% and 5% of your text. In other words, use your keyword 3-5 times for every 100 words on your page.

6. Naming files and directories:-

Put important keywords in all file names and directories/folder names describing the content. For example, to promote e-book covers, I name my files ebook-covers.html, cd-covers.html, box-cover.html, etc.

7. Naming graphics:-

The search bots don't see your graphics but they can see the description of your graphics and navigation buttons in ALT tags (alternative text describing your images for visitors who browse your site with the images turned off). If your navigation links are images, I recommend that you provide text links in addition to the image links for search engine optimization.

8. Navigation:-

Have your main navigation links on your home page so search engines can follow your links and index your pages. This is just as important for your visitors as for the search engines.

9. Link your pages together:-

You can easily link to all your pages by creating a sitemap.

10. Directory structure:-

Put your important files in the first level. Sub-directories that lie deep are more difficult for search engines to scan. Creating a site map for large sites and providing a link to your site map on your home page is a good way to get all your important pages indexed.

Make it easy for search engines to index your site. Apply these simple tips, and you will be well on your way to having a search engine and user-friendly web site!

Source:- promotionworld.com/