This economic downturn has been tough for everyone, including small business owners, like us.  Our sales are down.  And, the competition is getting fiercer and we are all forced to offer bigger discounts and fight for fewer customers. 

Amidst all of this, there are a few things we can do to help generate leads and possibly increase our sales and market share.  More importantly, we can build right now for success tomorrow.  We can position ourselves to take greater market share and thus benefit from the economic turnaround that is now slowly beginning to show.

So, what are we talking?  How do we actually go about increasing our sales?  As the title indicated, this article is about SEO and how small businesses can benefit from SEO.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization.  It is a set of methods, coding, and know-how to turn your website into something that is more than just a placeholder on the web.  With proper SEO, your website becomes accessible and readable by search engines and also more likely to be found and visited by potential customers.  Essentially SEO is the Web 2.0 version of pull marketing.  Proper SEO will drive also actually help generate leads for your business.

How Does SEO Generate Leads for My Business?

SEO incorporates the use of targeted keywords, ones that are used by people (hint: your potential customers) when searching for (your) products, services, and information.  These keywords can be added into your business site to optimize your site, so that when customers search for these keywords, your website is likely to appear in the search results.  For example, if you have a shoe shining business in Cherry Creek, then you might consider doing on page and off page optimization for your site for keywords “shoe shine Cherry Creek”.  And, when potential customers search for that exact term “shoe shine Cherry Creek”, voila, your website shows up in the search results!  Of course, there are many other factors to consider, such as the competitive nature of the keywords, effectiveness and quality of the SEO activities, etc.

A Few Notes on SEO and Keywords

Keywords are only one part of the SEO equation.  You also need to make sure that your website has a search engine friendly structure (SEF), one that can be crawled and indexed by search engines.  Sadly, there just are too many sites that are not easily accessible and readable by Google and other search engine’s spider bots, which do the crawling.  Essentially, this just means that those websites designed without SEF structure are less likely to appear in search results.

In addition to SEF structure, there is also what’s called off page optimization.  Basically, it revolves around building relevant and quality links pointing back to your website.  It is good to have as many of these quality links as possible.  

However, make sure to not sign up with some of the slick SEO scams that promise to give out hundreds or thousands of links for next to nothing.  Link building and other off page optimization work takes time and effort.  Often it can take up to 3-4 months before results begin to really show.  Doing it right the first time will be good for you for many reasons.  First, doing SEO wrong could result in your website being penalized or even blacklisted.  It is very important to not try to cheat the system and do it right.

So, How Do I Get Started with SEO for My Business?

As alluded above, it is best to find a quality vendor who is knowledgeable and truly interested in your success.  However, this is one of two major options.

First, you could consider doing it yourself.  There are many of us who like to call ourselves as do-it-yourselfers.  And, this is perfectly fine, especially if you have the time and the drive.  The thing to note is that learning this internet marketing and SEO stuff will take months before you even get the basics down.  To be an expert, you need a few years.  Also, be prepared to make some mistakes.  Along the way, it is quite possible for you to realize that the domain name you picked is not the best one after all, that you have been trying to optimize your site for the wrong keywords (too competitive or overly niche), or that you have made some serious mistakes along the way.  If you are series about doing internet marketing and SEO on your own, be prepared to spend a ton of time and to make some mistakes along the way.

For majority of us, it is probably best to hire the best SEO consultant for your budget.  It’s quite similar to hiring a salesperson.  The quality of results will greatly depend on the quality of the work that the SEO consultant puts in for you.  And, similar to a salesperson, SEO consultants can actually MAKE YOU MONEY by increasing traffic to your website and generating more leads for you. 

Beware SEO service providers that guarantee results

You should run away at the first hint of anyone promising the sky or guaranteeing results. You most definitely do not want to sign up for any services that will enlist your website with 900+ search engines for $9 kind of deals.  First off, link and URL submissions are best when done manually with each one differing slightly.  Secondly, vast majority of these search engines are junk. You will not get any visits to your website from them.  

SEO is a lot like picking the right stock.  SEO consultants can help you do all the right things, but no one really knows how the Google algorithms work and it’s always changing.  As such, this is quite alike investing in stocks.  Stockbrokers know quite a bit about stocks and stock markets and can help you make some picks, but no one really knows for sure the exact results.

But rest assured: if you do all the right SEO stuff, more likely than not, you are going to see some great results.  That’s all we can do every day.  Just get up and do the best we can and hope our existing clients are happy and that we find new clients, right?

How to find and hire the right SEO consultant for your business

There are many great SEO consultants out there.  The key is to find good SEO consultants who are driven to see you succeed.  After all, what good is it to find talented SEO consultants who are too busy, have higher paying clients, or are have more or less a cookie cutter approach?  Some of the top industry leaders will not do that, but they can be quite expensive.  

You should also consider whether paying for the top players make sense for you.  Top players cost quite a bit, and it does no good if the increased leads and sales do not lead to increased profit.  The thing is you may only be able to sell X amount of products or services.  As such, it is good to work out your budget beforehand.  In general, you can expect to pay on anywhere from $5,000/mo to $15,000/mo for about six months depending on the products/services and competitive nature of your field.  Often, it takes about 3-4 months before results really show.

It’s worth noting that some younger SEO consulting companies seeking to improve its client base can be a great deal.  They may offer a very good quality service at lower cost, something typically in the range of $2,500-$10,000/mo.  There also are some that can offer part time consulting packages from as low as $1500/mo or $500/mo (see our affordable SEO services section towards the bottom of our SEO services page), whereas some of the industry leaders, such as Todd Malicoat of StuntDubl, charge $500 for just one hour of consulting with no preparation.  It that case, you are probably better off going with the startup.  Just make sure to do your homework and find a good young SEO consulting company.  There also are many who say they offer internet marketing or SEO services, but do not quite really know the subject matter enough just yet because they are so new.

In the end, you want to go after the most quality that you can reasonably afford.  First, figure out a budget.  Take into account that increased sales will in can and will pay for itself.  Then, go after SEO consultants who are knowledgeable but also are dedicated to seeing you succeed.  There is no point in hiring the best if the best is too busy to make time for you.  Nor does it make sense to hire a complete newbie.  Maybe you can find a happy medium where the SEO service provider is knowledgeable and will do everything they can to see you succeed.

Quick summary on finding the right SEO consultant or service provider

We encourage you to shop around for the right consultant that fits your needs.  We also encourage you to take a look at our rates.  Feel free to compare them.  As of right now, our rates are probably some of the best that you can find anywhere.  Please take a look at our search engine optimization (SEO) services offering page.

In order to focus on providing and delivering a high quality results with our SEO services, we try to limit the number of clients that we are serving at any given time.  You can find out about our availability and our offerings, by contacting us or by requesting a FREE quote. 

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