SEO Success: Written in the Stars?

Monday, August 24th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | 1 Comment

When we’re asked by businesses what they should look out for when choosing a search engine marketing agency, we usually resort to a few hard, fast rules like research the agency you’re considering, get referrals, etc…

But in all our earnest efforts, we seem to have overlooked an more ominous omen important to selecting the right agency. Luckily we came across an article from SearchEnginePeople.com that gave valuable insight into internet marketers, and the astrology signs that make them up. Prompting us to ask each other questions that made our HR department a little uncomfortable like: Hey…I see you’re getting your fifth cup of coffee today and I couldn’t help but wonder…what’s your sign?

After some discussion, we matched the NetSearch Direct team with the article’s SEM astrology profiles. See if you can guess who’s who:

Cancer

At the heart of a Search Marketing company can probably be found a Cancer or two. Fantastic HR experts and account managers, they will always tell you how they feel about your account. They really do care about how you feel and have empathy for your point of view, but when you’re wrong, they will not hesitate to tell you so.

Leo

Friendly Leo is a social star. They belong in the spotlight, and they know it! These friendly and opinionated people are among the best people to lead and motivate others. Consider putting them in charge of any endeavour that demands networking with people or being on stage.

Virgo

Friendly and down to earch Virgos will always be able to tell you exactly what you can do to improve your campaign. Full of creative ideas and always able to keep an eye on the profit margin, these friendly folk are in it for the long run.

Sagittarius

Your Sagittarius account manager understands your issues and knows what you’re trying to achieve. They will happily sit and listen to your plan and give you the big picture context you need to put everything into place. They tend to be friendly and talkative and are easy to get along with.

Capricorn

Patient and organized, a Capricorn always sees the long-term strategy, and sticks to the plan to make sure it gets done. Although quiet and a bit reserved, you will always profit by having a Capricorn on your team, long after others have fallen by the wayside. Capricorn has bright ideas but explaining them can be difficult so just nod and trust you’re in capable hands, because you are.

Aquarius

If Cancer is the heart of your SEO business, then Aquarius is the soul. No, scratch that, because Aquarius could almost never bring themselves to stay long in a corporate environment. Your Aquarius consultant is filled with some of the craziest ideas you’ve ever heard but you have a feeling there’s something brilliant going on there you can’t quite understand.

Pisces

Always willing to lend a helping hand, your Pisces SEO will always celebrate your wins with you. They will take the time to figure out your exact issues while their investigative and analytical skills ensure that your campaign will be run well.

When you’ve got your nose to the grindstone it’s easy to forget to look up and take notice of the bigger things around you, things like constellations and the celestial lights that make them up twinkling away in the night sky. Turns out, these stars are more than just pretty lights – they may actually predict the success of your SEM. Dubious? Maybe. Fun? Absolutely. So, reader, we couldn’t help but notice that you’re still reading….what’s your sign?

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SEM Industry Buzz: Get in the Know

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Two buzz-worthy topics from the August NetSearch Direct newsletter:

1) How going green could earn your business some green, and;

2) Everyone’s doing the social media mamba – should your business join in?

Industry Trends are a regular feature of the NetSearch Direct newsletter, and give you an inside look into the latest search engine marketing trends. Be sure to check back for new topics every month and give your water cooler chat buddies something to really talk about.

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Three Things I Learned About My Business From SEO

Monday, August 10th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

When we talked to local business owners last month about their PPC campaigns, we also got an earful from the SEO side. Richmond business owners shared three valuable lessons their SEO campaigns taught them about their company.

You’ll have to read the full article here to get the entire perspective, but we’ll sum it up quickly for you on-the-go CEOs who have way to many things crammed into your 9-5 already:

Life Lesson 1: Network Your Website – Business owners speak to the value of link building for their website and how it’s affected their overall business

Life Lesson 2: Analyze From the Top Down – Company executives have learned the hard way that all the data your campaigns pull is pointless unless you utilize it correctly. The take-home message here is to look at the picture the numbers are painting for you.

Life Lesson 3: Put Your Best Online Face Forward – Your website is the online portal to your business so be sure your game face is on. If yours isn’t, you can be your biggest competitor will be laughing all the way to the bank.

If your SEO campaigns haven’t turned the mirror back on your business, we have to ask you why you’re wasting your time. NetSearch Direct’s clients receive monthly reports offering up analytical data and new opportunities for business growth and development. We know companies are constantly growing, and we aim to keep the momentum going.

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Three Things I Learned About My Business from PPC

Thursday, August 6th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Featured in the August 2009 NetSearch Direct newsletter, “Three Things I Learned About My Business from PPC“, is a daring, compelling article featuring exclusive information gained from our current clients.

Okay, maybe it’s not daring, or really even compelling, but three businesses sat down with us and shared the top business life lessons they have learned from advertising with PPC. These are lessons learned the old-fashioned way – through hard-earned experience.

Your PPC campaign is painting a bigger picture than metrics, data, and ROI. Taken from the article, your PPC campaign can give you a whole new understanding of what you thought you had a grasp on previously. Specifically, you’ll learn how PPC can teach you about:

1) Your target customer.
2) Your biggest competitor.
3) How to craft your website to reflect your company personality and still get sales.

If you haven’t read the article, check it out now. It’s a fast read and even though your business may not have provided us the insight for the article, we’re sure you can still learn something about your business from reading it.

Happy selling!

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Tags: ppc, ppc business lessons, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, seo business lessons

Friends Don’t Let Friends Choose Bad SEM

Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, PPC Advertising, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Just read a terrific article with MediaPost Publication which summarizes ten reasons clients don’t pick the right SEM company: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101432

This article is about prevention. A warning to companies to choose and choose wisely, because in SEM mistakes are costly, and in today’s economy nobody has time or money for mistakes. To save you from reading the entire article (although it’s a worthy read for businesses) we’ll summarize a few key points:

1.Don’t fall for the magic act. We’re talking about the wining and dining and 1-2-3-Presto! presentations that don’t really say anything and make unreal promises. No company worth its salt should guarantee you immediate results, and those that do will either resort to industry-termed “black hat” tactics which can get your site barred from advertising on the most important search engines.

2. Ask for references, and then actually check up on them. If your advertising doesn’t have a clean Carfax-like report, don’t bother. Take the time to talk to provided references and get a feel for the SEM agency’s handle on their business, their vertical, and their long-term relationship together.

3. Rockbottom prices mean rockbottom results. Yes, the economic cash crunch is being felt by everyone, but when it comes to your business nothing can be more damage than an off-the-shelf, cheap solution that will have you shelling out big bucks to repair later. We don’t think you should get swindled, but the cheapest guy in town is cheap for a reason.

4. Spend some QT together. The SEM agency you hand your baby, erm, business over to should be one that you enjoy an open dialogue with, and someone who you can see yourself growing your business with for the next 3, 5, even 10 years. Your SEM agency is not a vendor, like the article points out; it’s a relationship, and is only as effective as the lines of communication.

At NetSearch we do our fair share  of repairing damaged goods.  As a business, it breaks our heart to patch up companies suffering in the aftermath of a poorly constructed search engine marketing effort. It’s also frustrating because, much like a healing heart after love relationship has ended, these business owners build walls around their company hearts and are afraid to reach out to try new things. We’ve been up against those companies who wine and dine their potential clients and promise them the moon – sometimes clients recognize the song and dance early but we’ve also lost a few good potentials to the magic act. It happens. We just don’t want it to happen to you.

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Tags: good sem agency, how to find a sem agency, NetSearch Direct, online advertising agency, richmond seo agency, sem agency

Resession Time Means Marketers Move More Dollars Online…

Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 | Internet Marketing, Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Not surprisingly, the budgets of more than 54% of marketers worldwide have been negatively affected by the recession, according to data gathered from an eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit.  Most would guess that advertisers are spending less – way less in the case of newspapers, local radio and television.  Got that, but then where are they spending their precious ad dollars?  If you guessed “online”  you guessed correctly.

It’s a fact during tough times, more marketers are adopting search engine marketing techniques.   Over 90% of marketers polled by eMetrics said they would increase or maintain their spend on e-mail advertising, and more than 83% said the same about paid search. Advertisers also want to know what they are getting for their search engine marketing investment.  In fact, over 87% of those surveyed plan either increasing or at least maintaining their spending on web analytics. This all adds up to one thing…accountability.  In the advertising world it is all about return-on-investment, measurability and the ability to target – hallmarks of search engine marketing.

Lastly, it looks like this trend will continue.  A recent report by eMarketer.com states that search engine marketing (specifically paid search, contextual advertising, paid inclusion and search engine optimization) “will experience increased spending through 2013. By then total US search marketing outlays will reach nearly $23.4 billion, and marketers will be spending more on SEO than on contextual advertising.”

Isn’t it time that your moved more of your marketing dollars online?

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SEM Summer Reading List

Friday, May 8th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

Don’t Make Me Think
By Steve Krug. An awesome book on website usability. It will give you an expert’s ability to judge Web design.

The Big Red Fez
By Seth Godin. Solid and practical advice for anyone with a website.

Purple Cow – Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Another winner by marketing guru, Seth Godin.

Web Design for ROI
By Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus.  Increase conversion rates and turn browsers into buyers and prospects into leads.

The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines
By Jill Whalen. A how to guide for writing keyword-rich marketing copy.

Happy Reading!

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Tags: Search Engine Marketing

Top 5 SEO Tools

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

There are so many resources on the Internet that can tell you how to perform SEO on the html code but here are a few good tools that NetSearch Direct utilizes on every SEO campaign.

1. Keyword Research Tools (Adwords Keyword Tool and Keyword Discovery)
2. Track Rankings Tools (Webposition and SEO Book Tools)
3. Quick website information (SEOQuake)
4. Yahoo linkdomain search to find out competitor backlinks, also good link tools at SEOMOZ/linkscape
5. Patience

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Tags: Search Engine Optimization, seo tools

Guaranteed SEO Leads

Monday, April 13th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

How many times has an SEO company been asked to guarantee leads?  The fact is no one can guarantee leads through SEO.  The entire foundation of SEO is to get a site ranked as high as possible for keyword phrases within the SERPs.  You don’t see anything in that sentence about leads.

NetSearch Direct can tell you how many searches a keyword phrase gets and the percentage of clicks from the listings on the SERP, which equates to visitors.  From that, we provide an industry conversion percentage in order to estimate the leads possible — but no guarantees are given.

In order to produce a lead from your site, several variables must be optimized (site design, call to action, coupons, etc.).  NetSearch Direct provides our Internet marketing experience on all projects.  We can help your website convert more visitors into leads, but we cannot guarantee leads through just SEO.

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Tags: guaranteed seo leads, Search Engine Optimization, seo leads

The New NetSearchDirect.com

Thursday, March 26th, 2009 | Search Engine Optimization | No Comments

On behalf of the entire NetSearch Direct family I would like to proudly introduce you to the new and improved netsearchdirect.com. We have been working on our new site for the past few months and are really excited about the outcome. The new site offers loads more information about our industry, our products and our people. There is even an interactive chat feature where you can connect with one of our staff live.

Check out our new look and feel and tell us what you think. http://www.netsearchdirect.com

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