Jonathan's Web Marketing Blog

Not all companies can do what Page 1 does. In fact, I'm not aware of any company that does all of the things that Page 1 does to get our clients to the 1st page of the search engines.

The fact is, most companies can't reliably get their clients to page 1 because they don't have the infrastructure to take on such a monumental task. Page 1 isn't a big company, but we've created systems and hired the right people to support aggressive web marketing campaigns for our clients.

Many companies in the industries that we work in (cosmetic dentistry, personal injury law, plastic surgery, and ophthalmology) are website design companies at heart. When SEO became a necessary part of internet marketing, they tacked on SEO as an add-on, optional service. The problem is, they don't have the SEO staff to work hard on all of the thousands of websites that they built. They have the sales staff to sell website design and SEO, but the back end support is sorely lacking.

This creates a glut of unhappy clients, and we at Page 1 end up picking up the pieces. The clients are disenchanted and wonder if SEO is a viable strategy at all. We then have to re-educate the client so that they understand why their first attempt at web marketing failed and why their second attempt will succeed. If this story sounds all to familiar, contact me today.

I frequently get calls from people who want to know if we design and host websites. "Hosting" can mean a couple of things. Technically, hosting just means making sure that when people go to your website, they can see it. It means keeping your website "live" on the Internet.

When I'm asked the hosting question, I always clarify: Do you mean just host the website on our server, or do you mean marketing your website on the search engines? Most of the time I find out that the person calling is interested in search engine optimization also known as SEO.

Search engine optimization is the process of marketing your website on the search engines so that your website comes up on the 1st page (at least with Page 1 Solutions it's the 1st page) of the results when people are searching for your services.

In shopping for a web marketing firm, price is important, but should not be the deciding factor. In Internet marketing, like many things in this world, you get what you pay for. If you let price be the only criteria that guides you in your decision making while shopping for a web marketing company, then you'll likely end up with a program that promises great results for pennies on the dollar. The problem is these low-cost, often templated solutions don't work, and you end up wasting those pennies on the dollar. An investment that doesn't pay off, however small it is, is still a failed investment, and the opportunity cost is often incalculable.

There are also over-priced search engine marketing services out there. These are frequently offered as add-ons to website design. Website design firms will frequently offer "search engine optimization" when in reality, all they're doing is a once-over optimization of the website. This is not sufficient most of the time as other more aggressive strategies are required to get results. The problem is that they don't have the resources to back up their over-priced promises by offering these additional services. The only way to avoid these types of inflated web marketing solutions is to do your homework and learn about what exactly you're getting for your money. This is why price can't be your only decision making criteria.

Look for services that offer aggressive web marketing campaigns. Depending upon your particular situation, you probably need to go beyond a simple pay-per-click program, and a bare-bones search engine optimization program will not be successful in competitive markets. If you're in a market that is saturated with competing providers, you need to utilize advanced web marketing strategies, such as a blog, electronic public relations (article syndication on third party websites), regular content additions, on-going directory submissions and the like. These advanced strategies, in combination with thorough page optimization will yield dependable search engine results. The results won't be instantaneous, but the results will be better and more reliable in the long run.

Watch out for "get rich quick" schemes. If a web marketer promises 1st-page results fast, you probably want to walk away. These types of programs are either flat-out lies, or the company is using illegitimate, "black hat" techniques that will eventually get you banned from the search engines. There are also companies that promise fast, 1st-page results on Google when all they're really selling is pay-per-click services that will get you in the sponsored listings.

There just isn't an easy way to shop for Internet marketing services. You have to find an expert consultant to help you evaluate the different proposals that you receive. Use the expertise of the Internet marketing consultant that gives you the most helpful information, and share the other proposals (without the prices) with him/her and ask for a comparison of what their company is offering alongside the other companies.

One of the things that makes Page 1 different from the myriad other search engine optimization providers out there is our guarantee. People often wonder how we can offer a guarantee, and why other providers don't offer a guarantee. Our guarantee is simple. Our clients don't start paying for our services up front. Instead, they only start paying for our services when we can demonstrate 1st-page results on the search engines. That doesn't mean that we guarantee that they'll be on Google for any specific phrase, but they will see results before they pay.

I'm convinced that other providers could offer the very same guarantee if they really valued a win-win relationship with their clients, but they just aren't willing to make the investment. Instead, they go for the quick buck. They want their clients to shoulder all the risk and pay a big, upfront fee to get the search engine optimization going.

There is a lot of work on the front end that goes into search engine optimization, especially in more competitive markets where blog entries, new pages, and electronic public relations articles all need to be written (although none of the big name companies in our industry offer these services). But at Page 1, we do all of that at no cost to the client. This is our investment in the relationship. It takes that vendor/client relationship and turns it into a true partnership. This is the best way to do business, and it makes Page 1 a truly unique company.

Many website design firms make the mistake of sequestering video clips to a media player or "Video Website". This means that in order for people to watch your videos they have to make an extra click. Most people who are looking for a doctor or lawyer do not go to professionals' websites with the intent of watching a video, however they will usually be willing to watch at least a portion of the video if it is presented to them. Requiring an extra click means that most of your visitors won't see your website videos, but if you embed them within a page of your website, visitors will watch your videos more frequently.

Check out these examples of how you can embed video within your website:

http://www.tilpc.com/
http://www.lasikworld.com/lasik.html
http://www.drwendling.com/

Note that there isn't anything wrong with having a videos page or media section of your website, but don't rely on it to deliver your video message.

Occasionally I speak with potential clients who are faced with the challenge of targeting more than one metro market on the search engines. They don't like to hear this, but the best strategy in these cases is to use multiple websites. Basic search engine optimization makes multiple websites a necessity. Otherwise, the keyword density for each set of your phrases (ex. "Mobile Injury Lawyer", "Cincinnati Injury Lawyer") will be very muddled. The search engines won't be able to discern which location (market name) is the most important, and will therefore rank the website lower for all of the phrases.

Marketing with multiple websites comes with its own challenges. Each website needs to be promoted with its own aggressive search engine positioning campaign. Secondary and tertiary websites will not succeed based solely on the success of the main website. Each website must also have unique content. You can't just make copies of your main website and optimize them for the other markets that you're going after.

So, your choices are to either design completely different websites for each market or clone your main website and rewrite the content for the clones so that they are unique websites with the same branding.

Be sure to track each website separately so that you can tell which websites are performing well and which ones need help.