These days, one of the most important things a business can do is invest in solid internet marketing. More and more consumers every day are doing nearly all of their shopping online and whether it be consumer products, b2b services, or consulting, businesses need to be found online and they need to be found quickly and before their competitors. Companies like SEO Cincinnati run what are called “Search Engine Optimization” campaigns, with the express goal of helping clients improve their rankings in the search engines (especially Google).
According to leaked AOL search data, nearly all people using search engines click on the top 3 results (nearly 75% of all clicks go to the top 3). This means if your business is even ranked on page 2, you’re probably not benefiting from the search engines like you could be.
The primary reason for this is that internet users have short attention spans. They come online to find information quickly and they don’t like to waste time. The entire success of Google is based on the idea that information should be made as easy to find as possible. Google invests an enormous amount of resources into ensuring it’s search results are as relevant to whatever the user is searching for as possible. Don’t get me wrong, other search engines like Bing and Yahoo are doing the same thing…it’s just that Google did it first and they did it better, so they now enjoy a majority market share in the search business.
One thing most business owners are completely unaware of is exactly how Google ranks websites. This is a pretty in-depth topic so I won’t go into it in too much detail here, but I will say that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) involves understanding how Google and other search engines rank websites, and making changes that help Google to rank a website higher.
Many web design companies are offering SEO services now, including Web Design Cincinnati, and some of them are very good at it, but it’s important to interview a company and get references and examples of other websites they’ve been able to rank in the search engines. Obviously price is an important factor, but don’t let it play the majority role in your decision to hire an SEO company. The reason is that SEO companies vary dramatically in their strategies and, because it’s such a complicated field that is constantly changing, many of the strategies that worked last year don’t work anymore.
I’ve personally seen SEO companies offering services that haven’t worked at all in several years…they’re simply working on outdated information, so you absolutely have to ensure the company you work with has solid examples of rankings they’ve acheived for their clients; and ask for recent examples because the way Google ranks websites is constantly changing and what worked last year may not work this year.
Obviously, keeping on top of these changes in the way search engines rank websites takes a lot of time and research and so you can usually be sure that the cheapest companies probably aren’t going to be able to get you ranked.
The other thing you should consider when getting SEO pricing is, how much more traffic and revenue might be generated if we rank in the top 3 for our search terms? Compare the quote any SEO company gives you with the expected revenue and increased traffic. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.