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expert seo

How the Internet Has Forever Changed Marketing

In the last few years, consumers have changed the way they find what they want, and where they want to get it. Business supplies, concert tickets, and that perfect gift are now on the web, and that’s where many people are going. In the past consumers have responded to direct mail, cold calling, and trade shows in addition to conventional advertising. Those methods are less effective than the internet and also harmful to the environment through toxic ink, paper waste, fuel costs, and other excess energy consumption. With the use of search engines, it is now easy to filter out gimmicks and find what we are looking for directly. The tools are at the tips of our fingers and unlimited. We have access to search engines, social networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter), and blogs where we can find information as well as reviews on those services or products we are researching. Therefore, marketers must change their tactics to accommodate how the internet is changing business.

Inbound Marketing is now far more effective. The internet and the emergence of sites such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, Digg and other sites, allow consumers to research what they are looking for without involving the companies directly. “The internet has changed the dynamics of the business world, necessitating from ‘old marketing’ techniques to ‘new marketing’ techniques” (hubspot). Business owners now need to ensure that their website is optimized for this. Website content matters, as well as the location of key words or phrases. To optimize a website, key words must be in the page title, headings, URL, and in the page text. Keeping content fresh and updated is another good way to increase search engine rankings, especially when used in conjunction with viral videos, podcasts, and YouTube videos.

By adding simple tools such as a blog, a site owner creates a unique opportunity for search engine optimization (SEO). However, keep in mind that the blog set up with its own webpage for the best results. Websites are also setting up RSS Feeds. This allows consumers to have their favorite websites send them updates, as opposed to going to each website and searching for the information. Most people have very busy lifestyles and don’t have time to waste. By simply adding this feature, websites are ensuring more visits to their site.

Social networking is a huge way to market to consumers, with 34% believing that businesses should be involved with a social network, while 51% believe they should also interact with consumers through a networking site. After a website has established itself and has more visitors, the designers should add an online form for visitors to register for updates, newsletters or give-a-ways. This also generates new leads for the business. Credible inbound links also generate more traffic to your website and rank your site higher on the search engines.

With all of the “new” technology out there, it is far more effective for advertising dollars to utilize the web and market to consumers in the format that is easiest for them. By capitalizing on the efficiency of the web, businesses can track past search results, and optimize their pages for future searchers. Businesses can also measure numbers of web visitors, website conversion rates (Leads / Visitors), lead conversion rates (Sales from Leads / Leads), and costs per lead or per sale. With the abundance of the marketing tools available online, websites create a relationship with future and current visitors in a cost efficient and “green” way.

Source by Michelle Crossley

expert seo

Know When Your Business Needs IT Consulting Services

Businesses must ensure that only the latest technologies and software are deployed at the workplace, in order to provide quality solutions to their clients, and to be ahead of the competition. With the ever-changing technological trends in the industry, businesses find it cumbersome to adopt these technologies. Instead they can hand the entire function over to a sound IT consulting services company – who in turn will tap into their global pool of highly skilled IT professionals, who have the advantage of working in various IT environments, and have extensive experience across sectors. By providing assistance to business, IT consulting services providers free up existing resources; ensure IT transitions are smooth and problem-free; optimise key business processes; identify areas that benefit with further cost saving; build competitive advantage through IT; reduce IT complexities; provide IT strategy consultancy services, IT project management services and provide specialised programme management solutions – all of which, help the organisation achieve significant business efficiencies and cost benefits.

Choosing to work with an IT firm definitely boosts a company’s overall efficiency, which in turn decreases costs. Firms tend to look for a flexible and bespoke solution to address the client’s IT needs, thereby delivering solutions that are in tandem with the client’s goals.

The advantages listed above necessitate hiring an IT company. But how will a business know that it needs IT consultancy services?

A business may function with its existing IT architecture without knowing the benefits of such services. In order to discern the need for IT consulting services, businesses must first understand the details of their services. According to Wikipedia, ‘IT consulting is a field that focuses on advising businesses on how best to use IT to meet their business objectives. In addition to providing advice, IT consultancies often estimate, manage, implement, deploy, and administer IT systems on businesses’ behalf, known as Outsourcing’. IT consulting services firms thereby help businesses strategise and evaluate their IT functions as a whole and take the necessary steps to implement and/or deploy and then administer effective and robust IT systems in place. Businesses can seek the services of an IT firm when:

  1. IT investments regularly overshoot the set budget. Fast-paced technologies and trends warrant proper planning. When making strategic use of the allocated budget seems difficult, seeking the advice of IT consultancy services providers is imperative.
  2. A business decides to relocate or reduce staff.
  3. Projects regularly miss deadlines. Lack of specialists, complex projects and shoestring budgets lead to inefficient project management. A sound IT consulting services company designs bespoke, safe and cost-effective solutions, either full time or part time.
  4. Challenges of globalization, technical and regulatory changes arise. Business and technology management when integrated help the business survive, and therefore IT strategy consultancy is important.
  5. Programmes and projects eat into the budget. A business needs specialised programme management solutions to achieve significant cost savings. A robust IT services company provides either the co-sourcing or the outsourcing model to help businesses remain ahead of the competition, by providing tailored solutions.
  6. There is a need to change networks or when the need to shift to a new IT architecture arises.
  7. The company is in need of a robust disaster recovery plan.
  8. There are no data storage systems in place.

Availing the services of the right IT consulting services company may be a challenge. A business must choose a provider before the problems stated above get worse – and must choose a provider who is able to set in place a sound IT system in place. Therefore, a business must choose a provider who provides flexible solutions. Businesses must also remember that though they think they are able to fix small issues, the reality is that these issues must be treated at the root, and they can be properly tackled only with strategic IT solutions – only provided by an effective IT consulting services company.

Source by Ramy Krish

expert seo

SaaS Vs Custom Website: You Get What You Pay For

If you are a modestly funded new business startup or a smaller business with not much marketing experience in-house, you are most vulnerable to falling into the trap of thinking that a shiny new website will get your business branded, noticed, and buzzing. It’s tempting to believe that you can just sit back and let the website do its magic, and then presto, the phone rings! But then it doesn’t.

Consider this: A shiny new website with no other marketing efforts is not much different than a shiny new business card that you never give to anyone. That’s right… you keep that box of 500 cards on the shelf just in case you need them. And when you do need one-you cannot find them! This is where most businesses fail to achieve a successful website or e-commerce strategy. They fail to grasp that a shiny new website is only the first step of many that lead to online success.

Let’s dive below the surface and look at the differences that are not so obvious but most likely will have a significant impact on the success of your website, and yes, your businesses go-to-market strategy.

First of all, I totally get the lure of “free” and the appeal of paying “only” $$/mo for a website that gets your business up and running online. These kinds of SaaS website companies have their place in the world. Yes, there are times when I recommend these services to clients.

I noticed recently that a typical marketing message of most SaaS website builders focus around the entrepreneur, characterized as the “get ‘r done” types that pull up their sleeves and chart the waters of website design with a pure passion for their business. Apparently, all these determined entrepreneurs need are some useful online tools that are seemingly smarter than they are, and the Internet is theirs for the taking. No doubt, it’s an appealing message to all those Type-A’s, but unfortunately, it’s not that simple or easy to be successful online for most businesses-small or large.

As a marketing director for 16 years in the high-tech industry, where I helped develop new B2B services designed and implemented as software-as-a-service, I have experience on both sides of the fence. That said, this article is not a rant but an explanation of what separates a reputable digital agency from an online service provider. It’s these differences that can make a difference for your business, and once you know what they are, it will give your fledgling business website a fighting chance for success.

Here’s my message-in-the-bottle to those that have been marooned on a deserted website island, unable to make their SaaS (or template) website successful by any measure, much less turn it into a thriving place to generate sales leads as most business owners want.

The first lesson business owners need to learn about the Internet is that just having a “cool” website design (however you want to define that) is not really going to get you where you want to go. Fortunately, a fumbled website strategy will cost you a lot less than this colossal mistake: Imagine building a beautiful store where no one goes because there are not any roads.

“Preposterous!” you say? Yes indeed, and this is the essence of what is going wrong when you only have a cool website and nothing else to support its purpose.

Of course, good website design is a skill that is an important part of your website strategy, but it’s just one part of a skill matrix that makes for an astounding website strategy. Here’s a sample of just some of the competencies a competent digital agency applies around a typical website project:

• Creative

• Graphic Design

• Logo Design

• Custom Programming

• Branding

• Marketing

• SEO

• Analytics

• Video Integration & Promotion

• Social Media Integration & Promotion

• Hosting, Testing & Troubleshooting

• Security

As you can see, when you hire a reputable website design company, you are in reality getting seasoned marketers, programmers, and creatives who partner with you to not just get you online-that’s the easy part-but to work with you to help build your website into a lead-generating machine, or whatever your purpose may be.

I think we all know the marketing hype around SaaS website services. Some of it is justified-much of it is not. Let’s flip the hype over on its backside and read the small print to learn what a business is not getting from an online website service:

• You are not getting a custom website that looks UNIQUE.

• You are not getting a custom website that DOES exactly what you want it to do.

• You are not getting any unique functions that may be CRITICAL to the success of your online business.

• You are not getting a website development team who has your best interest in mind by working with you as a PARTNER.

• You are not getting a uniquely branded and positioned website developed by MARKETING specialists.

• You are not getting top organic GOOGLE rankings because SaaS-based websites have less than average SEO capability.

On the other hand, with an online SaaS provider, here’s what you are getting:

• An amateurish, template-based website that you will pay on monthly FOREVER!

• A DO-IT-YOURSELF service that requires you to be the expert on everything. How much time do you have to devote to this endeavor?

• OK, since you are going to be the MARKETING EXPERT, who’s going to actually run the company?

• A SaaS website is a proprietary website (typically) STUCK on another host with no easy way to transfer. Professional websites use WordPress or other open-source platforms that give you unlimited hosting options.

• Unless you are paying BIG SaaS BUCKS for digital talent (real people not just algorithms), you will only get a slight amount of technical support and little marketing insight.

So by cutting through the marketing hype, some important questions any business owner needs to ask can be boiled down to… How much is my time worth? And… How much expertise do I have in the major website competencies that will be enough to set my business apart to reach brand objectives?

OK, maybe you are a jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur often portrayed in the SaaS website promotions, and you really do have multiple skills that will create new leads or sales for your business. We wish you only the best. However, before you journey to deeper waters and make hard-to-break commitments of a SaaS/template service, you might consider some additional facts of custom websites vs SaaS that you may not have thought of yet.

A digital agency that develops websites offers a lot more than a faceless DIY website builder service, which is the essence of what SaaS online builders are selling. For example, a digital agency provides expert branding, marketing, SEO, and programming expertise with on-going consulting that will craft the central message of your website into a unique, differentiated customer experience. Digital agencies are commonly found in your region, they understand your local culture, and they have an intrinsic interest in your community because it’s where they live and work, too. Bottom line: Your success is their success.

Source by David Little

expert seo

The Numerous Benefits of SEO Services

There are numerous benefits of SEO services and using SEO services provided by a professional and experienced SEO company can help your business to scale new heights in online marketing and search engine rankings. Search engine optimization services are customizable and cost-effective and there are numerous types that include:

SEO Copy-writing

Internet Marketing

Website Redesign

Link Building

Social Media Optimization

Email Campaigns

Reputation Management

Each of the solutions mentioned above should be provided in a systematic manner so that they will give your business the maximum advantage.

SEO services should be provided by companies that have a vast amount of experience in the various elements involved in the complex world of SEO. This experience coupled with the close relationship that you should have with your SEO company, ensures that any SEO service you pay for do not prove to pointless and should also mean that your SEO services do not lose focus.

Finding a company that provides flexible and client-friendly website optimization can bring you huge advantages as these solutions can be tailor-made for your needs. Ultimately you will get more traffic through your website which can mean increased conversions. This will be as a result of positive rankings in the major search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that all this together will lead to a higher return on investment.

When SEO services are working for you, you should always be ready to capitalize on innovations and fresh marketing opportunities. Your SEO Company should be looking out for changes in search engine algorithms and should also be able to identify new opportunities such as social media opportunities. As and when these changes and new opportunities appear you can react quickly and capitalize on them if you SEO Services Company is taking care of your search engine optimization correctly.

SEO copy-writing services will take care of the content in your web pages, blogs and articles and should ensure that they are user-friendly and informative and are also optimized for keywords. They should also ensure that the content of your web pages is worthy of social sharing and is something that visitors will find useful and even share the information with the friends and followers. This can be a vital means of generating back-links.

Social Media Optimization is becoming increasingly important and web designers should make your website user-friendly by adding the relevant social media buttons. You can also provide social sharing opportunities from your shopping carts on E Commerce websites and internet marketing experts at your SEO Company should be able to identify new and diverse advertising opportunities. These can include pay-per-click, banner advertising, email campaigns, click-through-ads and many more.

A professional SEO company should know that all these processes are interrelated and should ensure that they are integrated efficiently for the best results and to provide you with the best return on your investment in SEO services.

Source by Mehboob Talukdar