Gervais Group, LLC – Internet Marketing & SEO Company

Gervais Group – SEO Tips and News by Gervais Group

There’s much that is misunderstood regarding search engine optimization (SEO) including some myths that have been dispelled but seem to carry on anyway. Here are a few of them:

1) New content always helps improve rankings on search engine results pages – New content might increase the frequency of spiders returning to a site but it’s not going to do much for rankings if it’s not relevant. Optimized new content that isn’t stuffed with keywords will help, especially if done consistently.
2) Meta tags must be rich with keywords to help with rankings – One of the early black hat techniques stuffed irrelevant keywords into meta tags. Once the search engines figured it out, they classified the tags as spam and don’t give points for it anymore. Meta titles and descriptions do help with rankings
3)  For search engine optimization (SEO) to be effective it must be submitted to the search engines repeatedly – Not true, the spiders are what count now. Search engine optimization, when properly executed and marketed, is very effective regardless of submissions.
4) Flash kills search engine optimization – Flash doesn’t kill SEO; it just doesn’t score with the search engines. Where flash hurts is when it is relied on exclusively. The spiders don’t read it so if there’s nothing to index there’s a problem. That being said, a little flash never hurt anyone.
5) A site that isn’t getting much traffic doesn’t need search engine optimization or marketing – Well, it may not be getting any visitors because it’s doing neither of these activities to drive traffic to the website in the first place.
6) Buying links will get a site banned – Black hat techniques used to manipulate the rankings can get a site banned but buying links isn’t considered to be one of those practices. If crawlers determine the link is paid, it won’t count the votes from that link but that’s a lot better than being banned.
7) SEO has failed if the site doesn’t rank as a number one – For search engine optimization to be effective, it must deliver a return on investment. That return can be wiped out if optimization isn’t cost effective, which can be the case in going after number one rankings. Due to the drop-off from page one to page two on all search engines, a page one ranking is important, but a cost effective ranking in the seventh spot is much better than budget busting number one ranking.

The one thing that will always be true about SEO is that it is constantly evolving. The algorithms and the general environment can change so quickly that what might be true today could end up on someone else’s “list of myths” tomorrow. The other possibility is that the myths written about today become truths at some point in the future, so stay tuned.

Gervais Group LLC - SEO Company / Atlanta SEO / Web Design Atlanta / Web Design Company

For more information call 770-529-2262 or visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com

Gervais Group – SEO Tips by Gervais Group an SEO Company

There is a lot of stuff out there on the internet. In July of 2008, Google announced that it had indexed over 1 trillion unique URL’s. The good news is that almost all of them are not optimized, marketed, or were designed based on any kind of market analysis. What that means is that there are almost a trillion URL’s in existence that are not producing anything of substance for their owners. Those are daunting numbers but having a productive website is not only feasible, it becomes highly likely if you’re willing to do some groundwork before you get started. Start with these six “to do’s” before you do anything else and you’ll go a long way toward building a website that is a true rarity; one that produces leads and revenues for your business.

Here’s your list:
* Determine who is going buy what you are selling – Selling the answer to a question that isn’t being asked is a sure way to burn both money and countless nights wondering why nobody is paying up for your brilliant idea. Being on the cutting edge is great as long as there’s enough demand to keep the lights on while you wait for traction. Just be sure that you’re efforts and expenditures are going to find some support, even if it’s a tiny niche at present.
* Get information on who else is already doing what you want to do – If no one else is in your space, figure out why. If you can’t figure it out revisit the cutting edge “to do” above.  If there is competition, don’t be intimidated. In fact, a little competition can provide some intelligence on what is being done well in the market you intend to serve, where opportunities exist, and validation that there is a market in the first place.
* Get your value proposition done – One of the best value propositions ever was developed in one of the most competitive businesses around. When Domino’s started saying “”You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less — or it’s free”, their business took off and never looked back. It’s alright if your value proposition doesn’t make it into marketing textbooks, but you still need one to differentiate your offering from everyone else.
* Learn how your market is searching for what you are selling – A “deep dive” into keyword research will be one of the factors that will maximize your return on investment. Don’t be tempted into the shortcut of thinking that the associated keywords are obvious and that you can write the list in five minutes. High traffic keywords can also be highly competitive, making it difficult and/or expensive to get to the front pages of the search engines. Going with less competitive and long tail keywords, derived from analysis, will make moving up in page rank faster and will bring more targeted traffic.
* Decide what you want visitors to do when they come to your site – Impressing a visitor is one thing, having them buy something is another. Long intro pages, special effects, and other distractions may look great but visitors will lose interest and bounce off of your site without some sort of immediate gratification. If the objective of your website is to sell products and services, make it easy and obvious to the visitor that you have what they want and how they can purchase it. Starting with the landing page, guide the visitor through the process in the simplest format necessary to get the sale. Giving them the information they need, a call to action, and straightforward navigation will go a long way toward getting conversions on your site.
The simplicity of setting up a website has lulled the vast majority of website owners into thinking that they can slap a website together and have it work miracles. It rarely works that way, but with some research and analysis you can beat the odds with a site that generates traffic, leads, and conversions.

About Gervais Group LLC  – SEO Company / Atlanta SEO / Web Design Company / Atlanta Web Design

Gervais Group LLC is a full service IT consulting company with global reach. Our company has been designed to provide state of the art results across a broad array of products and services. In our partnership with your business we only measure our performance by the success achieved by your business. We work for that success first by taking the time and effort to assess how your business operates, its objectives, and the IT solutions required to reach the full potential of your company. We’ll also provide solutions for the improvement and optimization of overall operations in the most cost effective manner possible.
Gervais Group’s analysis and implementation can then be applied to specific areas such as web design, search engine optimization (SEO), and search engine marketing and/or across your company’s infrastructure including full spectrum IT services such as consulting, strategy, governance, and process/service management. Additional services include programming, software customized to your business’ needs, information risk management, forms processing and database management.  In all cases we provide ongoing solutions management, allowing you to focus on running other critical elements of your business.
Partnering with Gervais Group LLC will provide a key component in the long term success of your business. Call us now at (770) 529 2262 for an initial assessment to maximize the potential of your business.
www.gervaisgroupllc.com