Gervais Group, LLC – Internet Marketing & SEO Company

Once the decision has been made to use search engine marketing to raise the ranking and visibility of a site, the next question asked is, “What are the best and fastest ways get results?” Considering that search engine results pages are essentially divided into two parts, organic results and paid advertising, it usually makes sense to employ both for optimal results. In fact, paid advertising has two options in itself, presenting a total of three options to market a website. These options are:
* Search Engine Optimization – Aimed at achieving high rankings in the organic search section of the results pages, SEO is an online and on-site marketing strategy made up of several different elements. These elements include keyword research, the creation of off-site content such as blogs, press releases, and articles, on-site optimization, and link building. This process, unless a site is operating in a micro-niche with little in the way of competition, yields optimal results when left to an experienced SEO company due to the time, expertise, and labor required to execute a successful strategy. In the view of many, the biggest drawback of search engine optimization strategies is the length of time it takes to see results. As opposed to the immediate gratification offered by on and off-line paid advertising, getting to the front pages of organic search rankings can take weeks or even months. That being said, organic search (specifically on the front pages of the search engines) is where a growing majority of consumers go to research, find, and buy products and services. This makes the rewards of a successful search engine optimization strategy well worth the wait. For those looking for more immediate results while the search engine optimization work takes effect, the following paid advertising solutions can achieve the aforementioned instant gratification.
* Pay per Click – Found on the right hand column of the search engine results pages, Pay per Click (PPC) advertising can be combined with an SEO campaign to buy “real estate” on the front pages of the search engine results pages. Buying this real estate is done by determining the bid prices for PPC ads and making a bid which is high enough to reach the front page for the keyword or phrase selected. Once the bid has been selected and a short (about ten words) ad is created, searchers are able to see the ad on the front page for the relevant keyword or phrase as long as higher bidders for PPC spots don’t come along. From that point forward, a charge will occur each time someone clicks the ad in order to be directed to the associated website. Bid prices can vary widely depending on the level of competition for the keywords selected. This is another area where keyword research by a search engine optimization company can make a huge difference, providing a basis for avoiding expensive and competitive keywords with high bid prices, instead allowing for alternate keywords that can generate traffic without a high price tag.
* Sponsored Advertising – Search Engine Placement (SEP) is a relatively new approach to Search Engine Marketing which can actually guarantee fixed placement in the top three sponsored spots on the first page for your selected keywords. These fixed placements are found in the sponsored links/results/sites in the shaded area at the top of the search engine results pages. Unlike pay-per-click, the fixed payment guarantees a spot in the top three sponsored positions for as long as it is maintained. The fixed price eliminates issues such as exorbitant click-through fees, being out-bid, and/or being removed from an ad spot when the budget is exhausted.
While an organic search engine optimization campaign cannot be expected to deliver immediate results, adding pay-per-click and search engine placement ads can provide a front page presence while the SEO campaign gains traction. The Gervais Group is an experienced SEO company that specializes in balancing these three activities for maximum returns. For more information, visit them at www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

Business owners usually succeed by playing to their strengths while delegating work outside their areas of expertise to others who are either more capable and/or less costly in terms of handling specific tasks. When considerations are being made as to whether search engine optimization should be executed by in-house personnel or out-sourced to a professional SEO company, three issues must be taken into account. They are:
1) Time – For many people running small and medium sized businesses, there aren’t enough hours in the day already, even without taking on additional responsibilities. From its outset, a search engine optimization strategy will take time to develop and execute. Estimates of the time required to mount an effective SEO campaign can vary widely depending on a host of factors including competition, the number of keywords to be optimized, and the amount of necessary content, for starters. Add ongoing testing, measuring, and analysis of the campaign and suddenly the size of the time commitment can start to look overwhelming. In fact, the average time requirement of one hundred hours per month to start a campaign is often enough by itself to convince business owners to go with an outside search engine optimization company.
2) Labor – All of work requiring a time commitment also requires labor to conduct it. Staffing up for an SEO campaign, in addition to the time it takes for things like seeking applicants, interviewing, and then hiring them, often turns out to be a very expensive option. Most of this expense comes from the cost of the associated infrastructure such as office space, computers, phone lines, etc., as well as the ongoing cost of the labor itself. This expense can harm a company in several ways; stretching a possibly tight operating budget as well as reducing the potential return on investment, even if the SEO campaign is successful from the beginning. The distraction of resources attached to the implementation the in-house initiative would add to the cost as well.
3) Skill Sets – Without the appropriate skills, neither time nor labor will be able to deliver anything close to the results required to cover the costs incurred. As a combination of art and science, search engine optimization requires constant attention, creativity, and experience. Starting with keyword research, successful results for any SEO campaign require getting it right and getting things done in a cost effective manner. Additional requirements include quality on-site content for optimization purposes, link building, and the creation of blogs, articles, and press releases. Integrating these activities into a workable and successful strategy takes a level of skill and experience which is normally found only at professional SEO companies.
Search engine optimization which results in front page rankings on the search engines can deliver huge returns on investment by driving branding efforts, company recognition, and revenues. With increasing competition for consumer dollars, the importance of running successful SEO campaigns has never been greater. For that reason small and medium sized business must seriously and realistically take into consideration whether they have the wherewithal to succeed on their own where so many have failed before them. Professional SEO companies, like the Gervais Group can deliver SEO solutions which are long lasting, cost effective, and, most importantly, successful. For more information, visit the Gervais Group at www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

For some of those not working with a search engine optimization company, keyword research is a simple process of either choosing search terms with the highest traffic counts or writing down a list of terms assumed to be relevant to the associated website. An example of the first method would be for a website that sells snowboarding travel packages to select a keyword like “snowboarding”. Granted, in terms of traffic volume “snowboard” is an extremely popular search term within the category. Going with a broad keyword, however, presents a couple of different issues:
* The term is so generic that the competition for the keyword ranks near the top of the category. For even the most seasoned search engine optimization company the optimization process, at least one with any hopes of success,  would take months or years of work and an enormous budget.
* Even if, against all odds, a successful search engine marketing campaign managed to get a high ranking with the search engines for the term, the resulting traffic would be so untargeted that a majority of visitors that clicked through to the site would depart quickly because they were looking for something else related to “snowboarding”.
* Search engine users are becoming savvier and are now employing more detailed search terms (aka keyphrases) to find what they are looking for. It’s very likely that the people this website would love to target would be using a keyphrase like “snowboarding travel packages Aspen” and skipping the generic term “snowboarding” altogether.
The process of making assumptions and/or guessing on the best keywords has its pitfalls as well. Using the previous example, a list of keywords and keyphrases formed around “snowboarding travel packages” might actually contain terms that could be optimized successfully. The issue is that, without analysis, choice of the terms which would provide the greatest returns would be based totally on guesswork. For example, the assumed list could contain among its entries “snowboarding travel packages Aspen” and “snowboarding travel packages Big Sky Montana”. While Aspen is an internationally known destination, Big Sky might prove to be the better location to optimize for because they get traffic but there is less competition. Without keyword research the best keyphrase of the two would remain unknown to our theoretical company. Instead of guessing, keyword research done by an SEO company would define the answer to this issue, rank the other keyphrases by opportunity, and add many other cost effective keyphrases as well. This analysis is based on:
* Keyword and keyphrase relevance – Any terms which are going to be optimized must hold relevance at the site for the search terms. In this case, a person searching “snowboard travel packages” should immediately see that the page they have landed on is about “snowboard travel packages”.
* Potential visitor traffic – Optimizing for non-existent traffic is basically a fool’s errand. Getting to the top of a search engine results page with a term that doesn’t have any searches may be fun to look up on occasion but will do nothing in terms of getting visitors to the site.
* The level of competition for each search term – At the other end of the traffic spectrum lies high traffic/highly competitive search terms. These should normally be avoided as well in favor of terms that carry less competition but which can still deliver targeted visitors.
Keyword research is unfortunately one of the most neglected aspects of search engine marketing when website owners go it alone. The fact is, having the research done by an experienced SEO company can provide a massive return on investment by providing faster and more cost effective results while delivering targeted traffic which is much more likely to turn into customers that buy products and/or services. For a complete keyword research report for your website visit http://www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

The best of the search engine optimization companies, when creating on-site content, develop text which is balanced between two types of viewers; the search engine spiders and visitors to the site. This balanced approach is absolutely necessary, as any content that is written without it risks losing one or both sides of this combined audience. In terms of the content presented on each page of the site, it is vitally important to remember that its objective is to quickly capture and ultimately convert visitors. The following activities can work to opposite effect, alienating visitors who click the back button and then never come back.
1) Overloading page content with keywords and keyphrases – Page content which is overloaded with keywords provides for a disjointed reading flow and a generally unpleasant user experience. Poorly written content also decreases a site’s professionalism and credibility in the eyes of visitors, making it less likely that they will stay on the site and eventually make a purchase. Cramming excess keywords in the copy doesn’t really even work with the search engines either. While slightly more effective at a time in the past, the sophistication of search engine spiders allows them to see this practice for what it is; a sloppily done grab for visitors.
2) Taking a guess on the best keywords and keyphrases for your product and/or services – Guessing on what keywords are going to prove to be relevant to your potential consumers isn’t necessary or advisable. Keyword research, as done by an experienced search engine optimization consultant, can define which keywords will provide maximum return by resonating with visitors which drives them to, and keeps them on, a website.
3) Catering to search traffic using awkward keyphrases – Much of what drives visitors away from a site relates to user experience, meaning that if they’re having a bad experience, they’re likely look elsewhere. Piecing together awkward keyphrases to generate search traffic is just another way to present poorly written content that will deliver a dismal return and send visitors packing. Even if the strategy works to drive some traffic, visitors most likely take a dim view of it once it is seen in context.
4) Catering to search traffic using misspelled keywords – Using misspelled words in the page content to drive traffic typically does more harm than good because visitors won’t know that the errors are intentional. They are much more likely to assume that the site has been assembled by amateurs that haven’t heard about “Spell Check” yet. Additionally, spelling errors will diminish any branding, trust building, or credibility efforts.
5) Using keyphrases in the same manner throughout the text – Repeating keyphrases throughout the content in the same way is a sure way to convince a visitor that the content was written by a third grader. For example, if the keyphrase is “little orange cars”, starting multiple sentences with “Little orange cars are…” isn’t going to capture your visitor. An SEO company can usually come up with many different ways to put the keyphrases in context while maintaining the flow of the content.
6) Ignoring your sales process while writing copy – Page content must both capture and convert visitors. While there may be some visitors that are so eager to buy that they will do anything to get a product or service, most visitors are not going to be quite that eager. For the vast majority, a site must have a process that leads visitors toward conversion in as simple a manner as possible. A major part of the on-site optimization, as done by successful SEO companies, is intended to build a clear path for the visitor from landing to conversion.
7) Taking a shotgun approach to your keywords – Shot gunning every keyword into all content has a much better chance of confusing visitors than converting them. The problem with taking a shotgun approach is that most visitors arrive at a site looking for assurance that they have come to the right place and that getting what they want will be relatively easy. If their search related content and keywords are not easy to find they will most likely assume that what they’re looking for isn’t there or that it’s too hard to find. The content on the landing page for the visitor should instead be very closely related to the search terms that brought the visitor in the first place to let them know immediately that they are in the right place.
Setting up a site with high quality content that captures and converts visitors can be much more difficult to execute than it sounds. For this simple reason, it’s often advantageous the hire a professional search engine optimization company to handle the complexities of on and off-site SEO. One such company is The Gervais Group, a team which has specialized in search engine optimization strategies since 2001. For more information, please visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

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As competition increases for the rankings on the front pages of the various search engines, the importance of getting search engine optimization and keywords right has never been greater. Whether you are doing your own optimization or have hired an SEO company, the following are some SEO tips and ideas to get your search engine optimization efforts off to a great start.

* Do a deep dive on keyword research – Keyword research is both the most important and most overlooked aspect of search engine optimization. This research is critical in that it will govern all SEO activities that follow it by providing insight into to the most optimal keywords and phrases on which to focus during an ongoing SEO campaign.
* Check the field – Part of keyword research is aimed at analyzing where competition exists and finding underutilized keywords which are generating traffic with nominal competition. These keywords are considered to be the “low hanging fruit” and are normally incorporated into the early stages of a campaign to develop traction as quickly as possible.
* Develop quality on-site content – Whether provide by you or through your SEO company, quality content is king. This is the content which will play a vital role as you build your brand, customer trust, and credibility so it has to be professionally presented.
* Set up your landing pages – Set up your landing pages so that a visitor who has arrived immediately finds content relevant to the keywords they used to find you. This is the capture aspect of on-site optimization, intended to let the visitor know that you have what they’re looking for and encouraging them to go deeper into your site.
* Develop quality off-site content – Off-site content can come in the form of blogs, informational articles, press releases, etc. Like your on-site content, this material must be of the highest quality possible considering that your off-site content will be the first impression for many of your visitors.
* Convert, convert, convert – Once a visitor has been captured, the next step is for conversion. Develop your content to encourage your visitors through your site’s sales process. Your site should be built to make this process as convenient and seamless as possible.
* Test and analyze – On and off-site activities should constantly be analyzed to make sure that the process is working at its optimal capability. This analysis should include traffic generated from keywords, visitor tendencies on the site, and a host of other measurable activities which can indicate weak points both on and off of the site.
* Have patience – The rewards from even the most expertly executed SEO campaign can take a while to develop. Committing and staying with the process will deliver benefits that will be well worth the wait.
* Know that instant gratification is available (For a price) – Sponsored ad placement and Pay per Click advertising can buy some real estate on the front pages of the search engines while you wait for organic results. An experienced search engine optimization company can integrate these ad campaigns with your organic search efforts for maximum effect without killing your budget.

The measurability and transparency of internet activity combined with the experience of a seasoned SEO company can result in a search engine optimization campaign which delivers a great return on investment. The Gervais Group has been coordinating these kinds of successful SEO campaigns since 2002. For more SEO tips and information, visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

The field of search engine optimization is can be divided into three categories; the professional SEO companies, the newcomers, and the do it yourselfers. Each of the levels of expertise can be categorized by skill levels, resources, and experience which translate directly into how successful the end result of an SEO effort will be. Unless directed at a completely un-served micro-niche, any SEO effort will require a defined process, resources, and the skill to see it through to a successful finish. Here’s look at the three categories and the likely results from each:

* Do it yourselfers – This category is populated with two types of search engine optimization people; those that are on their own for budgetary reasons and those that assume that SEO can be accomplished using their existing skill set. In many cases, those who are operating with limited budgets get better results than the existing skill set group simply because they need to maximize the results for each dollar spent. This group will often use grass roots campaigns to begin developing revenues and then direct some of that income toward outsourcing the work to an SEO company due to affordability and the time commitment required for SEO campaigns.
* Newcomers – The field of search engine optimization draws new people looking to “put out a shingle” on a daily basis. These newcomers are usually small (1 to three employees) operations with skill sets which can vary widely. There are a handful of potential problems in dealing with a newcomer including the lack of any track record, determining their level of expertise, and their daily work load. Regardless of skill level and track record, if a two man operation starts getting busy, current clients will suffer in terms of level of service and SEO activities due to the fact that the company is now spread thin with limited resources and not enough time in the day to do everything. It’s common in these situations for a newcomer to take on a new, high paying customer who requires putting everything else on the back burner or outsourcing the work of existing clients to an unknown entity.
* Professional SEO companies – Dealing with a reputable SEO company is, by far the best way to ensure a positive outcome for your search engine optimization efforts. These companies always have track records, satisfied clients, and a set protocol for developing SEO strategies, regardless of the type of business. This protocol always starts with keyword research, a step neglected by a high percentage of do it yourselfers and newcomers. The primary goal of the research is to define the keywords which will provide the best return on investment. On and off-site optimization practices are then determined from the results of the initial keyword research and the strategy is put into motion. With keywords in place, the work then revolves around the labor, time, and resource requirements of implementing a successful strategy. A professional SEO company will always be able to describe the process in detail with realistic goals and objectives. Of the three options, working with a reputable SEO company is usually the most expensive choice, but the ultimate outcome in terms of return on investment, targeted traffic, and conversion ratios are typically much higher.

Dealing with a reputable search engine optimization company can literally make the difference between success and failure. SEO companies, like the Gervais Group, which can provide past client successes and present search engine results are much more likely to deliver optimal outcomes than those new to the field. For more information, visit www.gervaisgroupllc.com or call (770) 529 2262.

As social media sites continue their growth, the importance search engine marketing on them grows as well. For many business owners the ease of setting up accounts and profiles leads to the impression that marketing to the millions of visitors to those sites is easy as well. Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The nature of the web and these sites is that once a mistake is made, undoing it can require a lot of humility, work, and effort, if it can be undone at all. As with much of search engine optimization, the key is to avoid making mistakes in the first place. Here is what to avoid:

* Spamming – This is perhaps the quickest way to alienate your followers and become a non-factor in social media. Pushing a sales agenda on sites where the primary activity is for social purposes simply won’t work. Communications should instead be conversational with intent to become a valued member of the community.
* Ignoring negative feedback and/or commentary – The advantage of social media sites is that they provide a great opportunity to communicate with a targeted audience. Failure to communicate should things go wrong won’t make them go away; it will probably make them bigger. Be sure to either monitor these conversations yourself or have your SEO company do it for you so that you can respond as quickly as possible.
* Being the “point man” for your site, even if your uncomfortable with it – If you’re not comfortable with, or have time for, regular communication on your social media sites have someone else do it. Depending on how things are going, this can be a full time job by itself. Having an SEO consultant provide that work instead can ensure that communications are prompt and framed properly.
* Set your pages and profile up in a haphazard manner – Remember, this is essentially an online storefront for your business. You would set up a physical location that looked like a hurricane just hit it so don’t do it with the social media sites. Like your physical location, your online visitors will be judging your business by the quality of its appearance and its presentation.
* Let your site get stale – Even if things are cruising along nicely, be sure to update your social media pages regularly. Just like SEO for your website, fresh content will keep your audience coming back, hopefully bringing their friends and followers with them.

Social media sites afford a fantastic opportunity for businesses to develop a following, brand their products and services and, communicate with existing and potential customers. To see how your business could benefit from the traffic generated from the growing audiences at social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, call The Gervais Group today at (770) 529 2262.

The migration of advertisers away from traditional media and toward the internet continues to grow each day. While there are many reasons for this migration, one of the primary ones is the different approach required of each venue.
The push of traditional advertising
The hallmark of traditional advertising has always been “push marketing”. Push marketing is essentially outbound communication in the form of direct mail marketing, newspaper/magazine ads, and television/radio ads. These formats have several factors in common including:
* Expense – Each format can be extremely expensive, mostly due to the fact that these types of advertising methods are rarely successful on a “one and done” basis. It’s common for campaigns to take months before they generate any meaningful measures of revenues. For many small to medium sized businesses the cost of these campaigns is so high that they are not even contemplated.
* They can be seen as an interruption or intrusion – People rarely look forward to seeing commercials on television or getting junk mail soliciting them for the next big thing. The development of “Do not call” lists is further evidence that consumers do not want their lives interrupted with sales calls. To compensate for the decreasing appeal of push marketing advertisers are now required to fund larger and more expensive campaigns thus pushing them further out of the reach of business owners.
* Push advertising is difficult to quantify and measure – A familiar quote “I know half of my advertising budget is completely wasted, I just don’t know which half” attests to the difficulties of measuring what is working within a campaign. While print circulation or television viewers can always be estimated, it’s impossible to know how many people are actually seeing or acting on the ads. This leaves the effectiveness of any type of campaign of this nature open to debate.
* The campaigns are temporary – Once an ad is run or a mailer is sent, that specific event has run its course and must be repeated, one of the primary reasons these formats are so expensive. Once the campaign is stopped, it’s over.
The Pull of Search Engine Optimization
An SEO campaign is basically designed to increase the visibility to consumers who are already looking for a company’s products and/or services thus pulling consumers toward them. Pull marketing then, sits on the opposite side of the coin from push marketing on a psychological basis because the consumer is already looking for a company’s product or service . This pull on consumers has several advantages over push marketing:
* Affordability – Search engine optimization campaigns can be tailored to the budget of a small business. It’s not uncommon for months’ worth of SEO work to cost less than a single print advertisement.
* A growing medium – Estimates show that between 60% and 80% of consumers use the internet prior to making a purchase.
* Search engine efforts are quantifiable – Unlike traditional advertising, search engine marking efforts can be analyzed and quantified in many different ways, allowing for visibility into what is working and what is not within a campaign.
* Search engine marketing efforts remain in the public view – Search engine marketing materials will stay on the web indefinitely whether a campaign is ongoing or not.
Business owners looking to maximize the return on their advertising dollars are increasingly seeing the value presented by search engine optimization over traditional advertising methods. For a free consultation on what a search engine optimization campaign can do for your business, call the Gervais Group today at (770) 529 2262.

Simply put, the content presented on your site will determine whether your site is successful or not. Create targeted, search engine optimized content and you will drive traffic to your site looking for exactly what you have to offer.  Provide compelling content which caters to the interests of your visitors and you will keep them on your site once they have arrived and motivate them to return in the future. Lastly, organize your content so that it guides your visitor through the conversion process in as simple a manner as possible and your conversion ratio could improve dramatically. The short list of rules for optimized content which will yield optimal results can be divided into the following three categories:
Writing content for the search engines:
* Define the keywords which will most efficiently drive targeted traffic to the pages on your site.
* Use specific keywords on separate pages on your site. This will assist the search engines’ crawlers determine each page’s relevance to each keyword instead of diluting relevance by throwing a kitchen sink of keywords on to a single page.
* Do not overuse or cloak keywords in the content or anywhere else on the page. These practices can get a site blacklisted, as well as create other problems (see below).
Writing content for your visitors:
* Once your keywords have been specified, work them into the flow of your content. Forcing keywords into your text will read awkwardly and give your site an amateurish feel.
* Visitors will arrive at your site with either a “What’s in it for me?” or a “Do they have what I want?” mindset. Be sure that your content can answer those questions quickly by conveying clearly that you have what they came for with content directly related to their search term.
* Make sure that your content reads well, doesn’t contain spelling and grammatical errors, and keeps your visitor interested.
* Don’t let your content go stale. Fresh, search engine optimized content keeps the crawlers happy and gives your visitors a reason to return to your site.
Guiding visitors through the conversion process:
* The AIDA formula (attention, interest, desire, action) has been around for about eighty years and is as relevant today as it was at its inception. An SEO company will start with information that grabs your visitors’ attention by using content targeted at addressing their needs. At that point you’re well on the way.
* Make sure that navigating the process is easy so that your visitors will be able to convert at any time during the process. Your “buy now”, “add to shopping cart”, and/or other conversion actions should be accessible and visible in case your visitor makes a buy decision prior to getting all the way through the process.
* Simplify your shopping cart or other conversion pages as much as possible. Once the decision has been made to buy you don’t want to overload your consumer with too many choices. An intuitive and clear path through the completion of the conversion process will eliminate dropouts due to confusion or the uncertainty of whether the consumer is making the right decision.
The decision on whether to do your own search engine optimization can include many factors including the investment of time and money and whether writing your own content is within your skill set. Talking to professionals in the field of SEO could help you determine the best option for your company. For a free initial consultation call The Gervais Group LLC at (770) 529 2262. They have a variety of packages available which can put your website on the road to success.

While there is no bad time to hire an SEO company, the best and most efficient time to hire is either when a new site is being started or when you are re-designing an existing site. These starting points will allow the incoming SEO company the opportunity to optimize your site using their own protocols instead of adapting to and/or interpreting pre-existing architecture. Whether you are hiring for work on the fly or starting fresh, hiring the right company for your search engine optimization needs is one of the most important aspects of your website’s success. The following questions, and the answers to them from each prospective company you interview, should be able to clarify which company will be the best to suit your needs, drive targeted traffic to your site, and improve the conversion rates from your site’s visitors.

On experience:

* How long have you been in business? – Hiring a new company carries its share of risks, even if their rates are discounted from the other companies you’re interviewing.
* Can you show me some of your successes? – Front page success is what you’re looking for and if the company has done it with others you’re on the right track. Take it one step further and see if you can talk to the companies which have had successful campaigns run for them.
* Can you tell me about some of the people in your company? – This gives you another experience metric to measure and leads to the next question.
* How many employees do you have? – Avoid one or two man shops whenever possible. The risk here is that, should they get more work than they can handle, your project will end up being outsourced or put on the back burner.
* Have you done search engine optimization for anyone else in my industry? – Industry specific experience may not be critical as most SEO work follows similar paths. This question can be used more as a tie-breaker if all other things are equal between companies.

On the services provided:

* How will you search engine optimize my website? – This answer to this question should help define whether the company is going to use ethical tactics for the optimization of your website. Be wary if the company is offering to do your SEO work at a steep discount to other companies, especially when the discount is combined with an unclear description of optimization techniques. The likely outcome here will be underperformance at best, and major problems such as being removed from search engine indices if the company is employing unethical or black hat techniques.
* Do you provide search engine marketing? – Search engine optimizing on the site is only half the battle. Be sure you’re working with a company that can build in-bound links to your site and create content such as press releases and articles for submission to blogs, news sites, and social media sites.

On the partnership:

* How and how often will we be in communication – Quantifying this answer isn’t as important as determining that communication is both open and welcomed. Run away if you get a “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” type of response.
* How will we define success and what’s our timeline? Getting to the front page for defined keywords will be one measure. An experienced and successful SEO company will be able to provide estimates on your timeline but can never guarantee a result. Should the company you’re interviewing respond with a front page guarantee within a certain time, they are simply telling you what you want hear and don’t have your best interests at heart.

Search engine optimization is a process usually conducted in a competitive environment with an ever-changing landscape. The best SEO companies won’t be afraid to convey to that information to you. One such company is The Gervais Group LLC, which has being executing successful SEO campaigns for a variety of clients across multiple industry groups. Call us today at (770) 529 2262 for an honest appraisal on conducting a successful SEO campaign for your company.