Gervais Group, LLC – Internet Marketing & SEO Company

How is search engine marketing (SEM) different than search engine optimization (SEO)?
Search engine marketing refers to optimization practices that take place off the website. Whereas SEO organizes the pages on the website for both the search engine spiders and the visitors to the site, SEM refers to all activities utilized to generate incoming traffic which is a vital element of moving site pages higher in search engine results pages. (SERPS) Common strategies and tactics include search engine and directory submission and back link development from blogs, ezines, forums, social media sites, and online news media.
If I my site has been search engine optimized do I need search engine marketing?
SEM is an active process of driving traffic to a website and improving search engine page rankings. Without it, a website would much like a bricks and mortar store that doesn’t advertise. Random passersby may find it but not in the kind of numbers required to make a business successful. Search engine marketing is the most cost-effective, fastest growing, and popular new marketing channels available, especially when compared to print and other traditional media outlets
Does SEM work for every kind of site?
Almost any site trying to generate revenues can benefit from a properly run SEM campaign. By raising awareness and driving traffic to your site the chances of purchases and or other forms of conversions increase. If you are in business, you need people to find your site and purchase from you. That is the core objective of SEM. The one instance where results could fall short would be where the cost of an SEM campaign would outweigh what could be expected from generated revenues.

Can I be successful running an SEM campaign on my own?
Running a typical SEM campaign can consume around one hundred hours per month at the outset and, because of that, is normally outsourced to SEO companies. While the do it yourself aspect might be tempting, re-dedicating a hundred hours to an employee or yourself is not going to be the best allocation of labor, especially there isn’t anyone in-house with SEM experience.

How do I know if SEM is working?
Contrary to advertising via traditional media, internet related activity is highly measurable. You will be able to track visits, click throughs, conversion rates, and a host of other metrics. Tracking is normally summarized by SEO companies on a monthly basis. Additionally, you can always check the keywords and phrases that are being optimized to see where your web pages are ranked on the search engines. One word of caution, any SEM campaign will take some time to show results so don’t be frustrated if you’re not on page one after two weeks. The timeline for significant results can vary widely depending on the level of competition for the keywords you are optimizing and your monthly budget.

How do I go about choosing an SEM/SEO company?
You’re going after results and the firm you go with should be able to deliver them. The best way to determine that is to check out how their existing clients are doing, i.e. how they rank, increases in traffic, conversion numbers, etc. If all other things are equal, lean toward a larger rather than a smaller one to ensure continuity should there be some turnover in personnel. Again, this is about results. You’ll have your choice of firms so be ruthless about demanding proof that each company can live up to its own billing.

Search engine optimization carries many benefits beyond the big one; targeted traffic. These benefits can sometimes be overlooked as focus can often be locked on how many visitors come to the site each day but they can prove to be extremely valuable over time. Taking the focus off of targeted traffic, benefits two through six are:

2) Branding – According to search engine user studies, 36% of searchers believe that company pages that rank at the top of search engine results are the top brands in their field. Consider the amount of money it would take for that kind of brand recognition using offline methods and suddenly the money being paid for SEO services looks like a bargain at ten times the amount.
3) Credibility – Running alongside the branding benefits, occupying real estate on page one of the search engines translates into higher credibility with searchers. Multiple listings on page one can lock up the credibility factor even further.
4) Proactive reputation management – SEO that results in multiple listings on the top pages of the engines can act as a pre-emptive reputation management technique by making it difficult for negative content to get to the front pages of the search engines. Compared to the process of moving negative content off of page one once it’s embedded, keeping it from getting there in the first place is a much better outcome. With statistics showing that nine out of ten users never go beyond page one and virtually no one goes past page three, a search engine optimization plan that occupies a lot of listings in the top thirty spots can keep damaging content from ever seeing the light of day.
5) A better user experience – Following basic optimization guidelines should mean that visitors immediately get a sense that they will find what they’re looking for, a key factor in keeping them on your site. Ease of navigation and quality content results in a positive user experience and increases the site’s trustworthiness, keeping visitors coming back to the site which improves the odds for…
6) Conversions – Combine branding, credibility, a great reputation, and a positive user experience and you are going to get conversions at an increasingly higher rate. Continuing search engine optimization and analysis to improve weak spots on the site can further improve the site’s overall performance and conversion ratio.

An experienced SEO company can deliver benefits which go far beyond a high ranking and targeted traffic. In fact, when measured against a typical advertising budget, the money spent on search engine optimization can provide deliverables and a return on investment that dwarfs what could be expected from traditional and offline efforts.

Search engine optimization is the practice of developing search engine rankings for a website. In order to develop good search engine rankings, there are a lot of different things that must happen to an individual website. Everything about a website can be developed a specific way to increase search visibility, although it takes a lot of time and a great amount of energy and research.

A Search Engine Overview

When a search engine user goes to a specific search engine and searches for a specific keyword phrase, a listing of websites will come up in the browser. A good example of a search engine is Google (as they are the biggest and most impressive search engine). Google, MSN and Yahoo! are the big three search engines, and they all have one specific goal in mind. Their goal is to produce the most relevant results for the users of those search engines.

More than half of all Internet users take advantage of the search engines on a daily basis.  With that said, you can see why they are so important. It is the best way to find information quickly and effectively. In order to understand Search engine optimization (SEO), you will need to understand how the search engines work.

A Look Inside SEO

The practice of SEO can be very complex, but has two different main tasks to accomplish. The first is all about keywords. A keyword is a specific phrase that is searched for in the search engines. As someone that would be doing SEO, it would be their job to figure out which keywords (related to the websites topic) people search for. From there, they can pinpoint the keywords they want to rank for in the search engines.

After the keywords have been discovered, the next step would be to implement different methods to rank for these phrases. The most basic concept of SEO is to be sure that these keywords are placed throughout a website in the proper places. If they are, then that is a good first step to having good SEO on the website.

The complexity of SEO

While many think that Search Engine Optimization is just simply adding keywords to your content, it really is much more. The way your site is designed, the quality of your content, the uniqueness of your content and the amount of quality inbound links to your website are all very important factors. Along with that, there are still literally hundreds of other things that could affect search engine rankings both negatively and positively.

The search engines have secret algorithms that they use to decide what websites rank for what keywords. They have a lot of different variables that come into play and nobody knows exactly what they are. This is the main reason why SEO is such a lucrative and high demand service for SEO experts. A very big part of Search Engine Optimization is theory and guesses to what will work and what will not. There are a lot of proven facts out there about SEO, but there are also a lot of secrets. The number one rule for SEO is to simply create quality and value for the Internet. The rest will all fall into play, including search engine optimization.

Gervais Group – SEO Tips and Information by Gervais Group

Protecting and promoting your company’s brand is important, obviously; what’s less obvious is how to both protect and promote your brand using search engine optimization (SEO).  People recognize your company through your brand, and if it isn’t treated properly it can destroy your sales.  Companies are willing to spend thousands of dollars on office space a month, but they try to get away with spending less than a thousand on their website.  Today, your website is the face of your company and it represents you, your brand and your perception.  The content on your website will drive traffic to you, or potentially deflect it away from you, which is why SEO is a vital part of any successful online marketing campaign.

Targeting your SEO correctly involves carefully implementing keywords that are associated with your brand.  For example, if you sell dress socks line, it’s important to note all the terms that are associated with dress socks.  Associated terms for “dress socks” include “men’s dress socks,” “wool dress socks,” “nylon dress socks,” and so forth.  If you leave these terms out, or if you’re too inclusive with your terms, you could get traffic you don’t really want or not enough.  Quality search engine optimization is often an art, not a science.

Part of getting the most out of your SEO is having realistic expectations.  Whereas in the past, every CEO wanted to be on the cover of The New York Times, today they want to be on the first page of Google for a particular search term.  Neither expectation is realistic after one press release is sent out, or after your website has been online for two months.  These days, it can be difficult to get high rankings for keyword phrases, even if they’re rarely used.  If your site isn’t at least a few years old, your SEO efforts will be less likely to provide the results you want.  That’s why it is important to have a long-term goal in mind when considering how to measure the effectiveness of your SEO.

For example, at this moment there are hundreds, if not thousands of debt consolidation companies.  The keyword phrase “debt consolidation” is most likely incredibly saturated, so expecting to have even a top 50 ranking three months after your site has gone live is just not realistic.

A skilled Internet marketing and online reputation management company can move you forward much faster, but even then it is up to the mighty search engine gods.  Using keywords for SEO properly, measuring your analytics accurately, using social networking tools and Google adwords will all move you in the right direction as quickly as possible.  It will take time however for even the most sophisticated product and service launches to garner the kinds of results every business owner is looking for on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask or other search engines.

Overall, having a highly qualified online marketing agency that understands the history and future of SEO is going to be important to your success.  Handling it on your own, or paying your nephew to do it on the side won’t yield the kind of results you’re most likely looking for.

If you are looking for a sophisticated approach to strengthening your brand using SEO, contact the Gervais Group today at 770-529-2262 or visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com
Gervais Group LLC – Atlanta SEO / SEO Company / Atlanta Web Design / Web Design 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

It was once said about the cost of advertising, “I know that half of the money I spend on advertising is totally wasted, I just don’t know which half.” The same cannot be said about search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing due to the incredible amount of documentable information on the internet. This information allows for more focus and precision in terms of targeting customers than ever before in any other medium.

Tracking the available information allows for extensive testing on what is working and what isn’t which, in turn, will increase the efficiency of advertising and marketing efforts. The list of what can be tracked and tested is quite long but includes the following:

* How much traffic is there for the business category – This can determine the overall size of the online market, the budget required, and/or the viability of SEO/SEM

* What keywords are driving the most traffic in the category – What searches will lead visitors to your website

* How much competition is there for specific keywords – Going after highly competitive keywords in an SEO strategy may be counter-productive due to the high amount of resources and time required to move up in search engine rankings. Focus on can provide more immediate results

* How many  visitors are coming to the site – Provides a base line to measure against for effectiveness of SEO/SEM

*  How many visitors are search engine spiders/crawlers/robots – Another base line measure

*  What keywords are driving traffic to your site now – If these are working, incorporating them in   the SEO campaign is a must

* Unique vs. repeat visitors – Another baseline measure

* How long do visitors stay at the site – This can determine the effectiveness of keywords, possibly used in Pay-Per Click, the “stickiness” of the site, or whether there are navigation issues. If visitors are bouncing back off of the site within seconds, the keywords being used could be too broad in nature. Another factor could be that they’re not seeing what they’re looking for when they arrive so they “back” out. Figuring theses issues out is especially important if you’re using PPC as you are paying for these visitors that are bouncing out immediately. If visitors are leaving the site after visiting a specific page it could be a sign that there are navigation or content issues that are driving visitors off of the site.

* Is PPC profitable – PPC in general is carrying less weight for visitors than say, eighteen months ago. The organic searches are what most visitors consider important so a review of the profitability of your PPC efforts is probably in order. If PPC is not generating enough leads or conversions that money might be better spent on SEO/SEM, focusing on a higher page rank.
These are only a few of the metrics that can be tracked online. The companies that are successful on the web are constantly testing, analyzing, and fine tuning their marketing efforts. Using the information available, you can too, and with a little determination and planning your website can be converted from an online brochure to a cash generating machine.

Search engine optimization (SEO) and the manner in which people search on the internet are evolving so fast that books on the subject can be outdated before they make it to print. One area in particular is the extension of single and two-word keywords into the optimization long tail keywords or key strings. In many instances optimizing for one or two keywords can have several disadvantages. Among them are:

* They can be too general in nature – The term “mortgage” has loads of traffic but the term is not targeted toward anything specific. This keyword could cover someone looking to take out a loan, do a mortgage modification, or someone looking for a mortgage calculator.
* The competition for keywords can be intense – With high levels of competition, getting to the front page of the organic section of search engines can be a long and costly endeavor. Upon getting to the front page you’ll still have a generic and untargeted visitor.
* Pay Per Click’s can use up a monthly budget in a heartbeat – Highly competitive keywords have become very pricey. All of the top 50 keywords cost $50 or more according to spyfu.com. It’s expensive and extremely frustrating to be paying that kind of money when you’ve got visitors bouncing back off of your site after being on it for less than ten seconds.

Longer key strings will not carry as much traffic but they do have distinct advantages such as:

* A longer keyword decreases competition and defines the searchers purpose to the point where you can anticipate their need and offer content that will greatly enhance your chance at conversion. A phrase like “loan modification mission viejo ca” is very focused. A searcher clicking through that finds that you have what they’re searching for is highly likely to convert.
* Competition is decreased – It will be much easier and more cost effective to move up in page rankings. Being on the front page for 20 targeted key phrases will be much more advantageous than one front page listing for a generic term. A variety of long tail keywords can dominate specific small niches, providing less traffic but a much higher conversion rate.
* Pay per Click – Pay per Click becomes much more manageable if clicks aren’t costing you fortune, especially if the click through’s are converting.

It’s easy to guess at a few keywords and assume that a website is optimized for them. This is area, however, where some research can go a long way toward determining the long term success of a website. The right key phrases will both make and save you money. Unless you’re “fluent” in search engine optimization, having a pro do the research on key phrases that will drive targeted traffic to your site will be one of the best business investments you are likely to make.

It’s a familiar story. A business owner gets a website built and, knowing he needs to drive traffic to the site to make it worthwhile, starts shopping for a company to do some search engine optimization (SEO). The bids that come in vary so much in price it’s like comparing apples and oranges. One of the biggest differences between the companies bidding for the owner’s business is that the ones with bids ranging from $100 to $200 all guarantee a page one ranking on Google, Yahoo, MSN, and the rest of the search engines in a matter of weeks. The bids that come in at $2,000 per month and above don’t come with any guarantees. Instead of guarantees, these companies give an estimate of hours doing link work, writing content, and doing press releases. “It’s a process, it can be done, and we’ll do all the necessary work to get you on page one”, goes the pitch. To make things even more confusing, the higher bids are more conservative about how long it will take to get to page one than the cheaper guys.

The business owner goes with the guarantees and low price of the cheapest bid. In real life, a nephew, a friend at the lodge, or his wife’s friend’s son just out of college can be substituted in place of the cheapest bid. At this point there are three possible outcomes for the endeavor:

1) Nothing – Either the winning bidder doesn’t have the wherewithal to deliver on the guarantees made or he does but ends up with a bigger, more lucrative project that takes most of his time. After dedicating long hours to the design, marketing, or whatever else the bigger project entails, there is just not enough time or energy to do what needs to be done on the smaller project. Both paths lead to the same destination; frustration, money spent, and no traffic to the site.
2) Something, but it’s not good – Trying to optimize a site by taking shortcuts and trying to trick the  search engines is one way to offer a labor intensive service for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, search engines are very good at detecting shortcuts and trickery and don’t take very kindly to either practice. “Black Hat” techniques, as they’re called, may be the only way to deliver on a guarantee for these types of companies but it also results in the site being black-balled from the search engines. The business owner is now put in a position where he has to shut down the original site and start from scratch with a new site.
3) The Business Owner Decides That Search Engine Optimization Doesn’t Work – Getting ripped- off with no results or getting them and then getting penalized for it, quite frankly, sucks. The bad experience convinces the owner that SEO simply doesn’t work and if there is going to be another website it will be one that people can find when they see its address on his business card.

This is a story that gets repeated on a daily basis which is unfortunate because search engine optimization/marketing, when done properly, can do exactly what it’s supposed to do. Doing it properly takes experience, creativity, and time. How much of each depends on the size of the market the business plans to address and how much existing competition there is in that market. A company in the business of supplying side view mirrors for ’55 T-Birds, for example, will require less SEO than a company trying to get on page one for cell phone accessories.

Prior to starting a project, a responsible SEO firm will be able to determine keyword traffic, competition, and whether doing search engine optimization/marketing makes sense for the company. A viable project may take 100 hours of work to get started and 100 hours of work per month to achieve the desired end result of getting listed on the front page of the search engines. That works out to about $2 per hour for the guys bidding $200 per month for your project. As the saying goes, “If it seems too good to be true…”

For more information about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com.

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing, when properly and ethically done, can yield spectacular results for companies that want to have a presence, build a brand, and generate revenues on the web. Much like any competition, there are no short-cuts to long lasting success in either search engine optimization or marketing. Still, shortcuts and tricks are often offered by companies promising guaranteed results at a cost of pennies on the dollar. Being a relatively new industry, there is much that is misunderstood about both the practice of and terminology surrounding SEO and SEM. What follows is a list of the kind of shortcuts and tricks that can backfire on a website, incurring penalties and/or landing it on a permanent blacklist.

* Black Hat Techniques – Black hat SEO is the catch-all phrase used to describe a variety of tricks and shortcuts that are considered unethical by the SEO community and the search engines. Use of these techniques can be tempting because of their lower costs and the fact that they can work temporarily. Basically considered a short sighted solution to a long term problem, these techniques will ultimately hurt the ranking of a website at best, with the worst case being that the website gets banned or blacklisted by search engines.
* Cloaking – A bait and switch technique designed to fool search engine crawlers. This tactic has a site’s server feed keyword rich content to the crawlers but if a visitor clicks on the link he will see completely different content.
* Doorway Page – A doorway page is meant to trick the search engines into thinking that a page is rich in relevant keyword content. These pages typically contain only keywords and are therefore useless for visitors.
* Hidden Text – Relevant or keyword rich content that is programmed into the html code which is invisible to the reader but will be picked up by search engine crawlers.
* Keyword Stuffing – Just like it sounds, the practice involves cramming as many keywords into the text as possible to increase the page ranking. Readers know keyword stuffing when they see it because of the blatant repetition of the same terms throughout the copy on a page. Keywords can also be stuffed in comment tags, alt tags, and in hidden text on the pages of the abusing site.

These are but a few of the unethical practices which describe black hat SEO techniques. The search engines are very aware of “search engine spam” techniques and are always on the lookout for them. Getting caught using them is costly both in terms of rebuilding a site that has been banned, and from the lost sales opportunities as a result of getting tossed out of the search engines. Also hurt in that type of situation would be any branding efforts involving the offending website. Building and marketing websites can be extremely lucrative over the long term when done correctly. Trying to cut corners using black hat techniques is a sure way to turn a short term problem into a long term quagmire.