Advice re Online Marketing/ SEO

cubix

We setup a basic web page last year just to get some kind of a web presence for existing customers. We would now llike to make the website work a bit harder and hopefully bring in some revenue.wondered if someone could give me an idea of where to start with out breaking the bank but not so cheap it wont show any results

Maybe even give a ball figure of what it would cost per month for SEO, I presume this would have to be done on an ogoing basis

StupidLikeAFox

So the big player is Google Adwords. If you are going to invest money in online advertising this is the place to start. You will have to understand how to pick the correct keywords, which can be helped using Googles keyword tool. Analyse your competition and make sure you are writing effective ad copy. You can control your budget completely here, and can specify paying X amount per week or per day. Create a proper landing page for each ad, Run an ad campaign over a couple of weeks and analyse it - you will gain a lot of data about who is clicking and who is not clicking on your ad, this will allow you to fine tune your ad over time to hit your target market. Then you can refine it and tweak it to get more bang for your buck

Setup a blog. Keep your content fresh and up to date. Make sure you are writing regular, unique content that people will read and is engaging enough that people will spend time on your site. Google loves this **** (but so do humans). If you are selling products don't copy and paste stuff from your manufacturers - write your own product descriptions - Google doesnt like duplicate content

SEO is a black art - there are lots of good guys and lots of bad guys out there. There is plenty to be learned from Googles SEO guide and various websites. It is the one topic where you can actually trust the top few Google hits for the search term "SEO Ireland". I was recently at a talk by a company called ringjohn.com, they seemed to know what they were doing (I have no affiliation with these guys btw). Beware of handing over money to guys who can "guarantee" you the number one spot on Google - SEO is a slow burner and it takes time to climb the rankings.

RedFly

First of all, do NOT fork your money over to an SEO agency. Your assumptions are wrong. Not yet at least. StupidLike A Fox offered some fantastic advice.

Start with AdWords if you really need to. In fact, I'd switch it around and start with your blog and content strategy first. Your blog is going to be your most valuable asset. It's your chance to demonstrate that you are the "go to" guy in your industry. Here's a fantastic guide that you should print out: http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/CMI_Ultimate-Blogging-final.pdf

I still use this every day. I make my clients read it too.

Print out the PDF or read the whole lot of this:
http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

It's the most accurate and trustworthy infor you'll find.

Learn the basics of on site optimization and forget off site until you've got a decent archive of evergreen/pillar content ready. This is the hardest part and the part most people get stuck on and give up. If you're truly passionate about your business, write about it. Write articles, op ed pieces, tutorials and give away as much as you can for free. Eventually you'll get recognized and the links will come.

There's a great book called "ReWork" written by the guys at 37 signals. It's in the context of software but it applies to all business. It's cheap and every second page is blank so you'll read it on a return train journey into the city (I did). I've given it to every client I've ever worked with as it's nailed the concept of content marketing starting at home. You can have my copy if you like if you promise to return it.


SEO in it's "traditional" form is now dead. So much of what used to work will get you banned from Google. It might work temporarily but it will happen. We no longer offer this to our clients for this very reason.

Build up your content library, like your writing a book. Add images and video. Use the on site techniques outlined in the SEOmoz guide, network with your peers, don't spam. Sales will start to trickle in. Then you can start with AdWords (and as a contributor on the AdWords support forum, I can tell you, it's become incredibly complex and difficult to use).

What's worked extremely well for our clients (and I'm talking worth multi million dollar/euros) is to market like thy would online and as if Google didn't exist. It seems counter intuitive, but it's the most solid foundation you can build. When the time is right, the organic Google traffic will come. If you're doing it right, it will come sooner than you expect.

Finally, please stay away from companies offering you either "Guaranteed listings" or "1000 links per month for $xx". These companies WILL get you banned from Google. We get about 10 leads a month from clients (some big ones that are in a LOT of trouble) because they went this route and are not nowhere to be found in Google. There's little to no way back for them. I have to say, I take a small but of smug delight when a client who we pitched business to comes back to us after going with the cheaper idiots that don't know what they're doing looking for help.

when you're first starting out, going with an external "SEO COMPANY" is not a good idea. Leave that until you're bigger, or at least until you understand what you're doing. On my last count, there was about 5-6 Irish companies that actually know what they're doing in terms of SEO. The rest are in the process of getting their clients into a lot of trouble as we speak. I obviously can't name names, but ask around and you'll find out who the good ones are.

Unfortunately, the "industry" is full of cowboys because of the OLD barrier to entry. That's no longer the case and those who have been involved for a long time are the ones who'll give you the best advice.

As I mentioned, we don't offer SEO as an "off the shelf product" any more so I have no bias in saying all this. SEO is PART of your content marketing strategy, not the other way around.

I have this conversation with every lead that comes in asking us to "do SEO" for them and I'll gladly have a chat with you about it too in person or over skype if you like. It really grinds my gears seeing Irish startups, especially those making a go of it after being unemployed or giving up their regular 9-5s getting screwed over by these cowboys. Yes, I have a personal vendetta against them and I certainly hope that they all have professional indemnity insurance.

As I said, hit me up if you need some advice. No charge and I'm not selling anything. Just don't want you falling into a hole before you begin.,

mark8511

Hi

In my opinion, First of all you need to research on the keywords which can bring targeted visitors to your website. Suppose you prepared a list of 10-20 keywords.

Then as per few replies above, Organic seo is slow process and it will take time to reach to top rankings and getting visitors to your website from there.

Till then you can start with Google adwords - targeting just your 20 keywords, It will not only help in getting there in just few mins but also give you information that which keyword is bringing visitors those are converting into customers.

Side by side you can start with some SEO work - these days creating a great content and promoting it over social media is great way to boost your website ranking.

or hire some freelancer in start who can do all this for you but be sure that everything need to be result oriented, so that your money and time do not get wasted.

Atomico

cubix wrote: »

We setup a basic web page last year just to get some kind of a web presence for existing customers. We would now llike to make the website work a bit harder and hopefully bring in some revenue.wondered if someone could give me an idea of where to start with out breaking the bank but not so cheap it wont show any results

Maybe even give a ball figure of what it would cost per month for SEO, I presume this would have to be done on an ogoing basis

Hi OP,

Great advice so far but the first thing I will advise you to do is to educate yourself a little. Do a little reading on SEO - the beginner's guide to SEO on Moz.com will steer you right, and also take a look at Google's guides and resources.

This will put you in a much better position when you start sounding out who might be qualified to help you, because as mentioned - the barrier to entry in this industry is literally non-existent.

cubix

Lads thank you for the input and really apprecaite the indepth answers by some.

eCeltic SEO Dublin

cubix wrote: »

We setup a basic web page last year just to get some kind of a web presence for existing customers. We would now llike to make the website work a bit harder and hopefully bring in some revenue.wondered if someone could give me an idea of where to start with out breaking the bank but not so cheap it wont show any results

Maybe even give a ball figure of what it would cost per month for SEO, I presume this would have to be done on an ogoing basis

Hi

SEO costs in and around €500 per month...
This would be a 6 month contract and would get you ranking on Google for a range of keywords.
This is a longer term investment it involves lots of content creation and link building and you need to find a quality service provider who understands your business/ target market.


PPC is more of a short term solution... you set the budget per day week month, your ad pops up in the little orange box on google and you pay for it if/when someone clicks on it.
It is however a little more complicated than that.. you must bid to be ranked on google so clicks can cost anywhere between .20c and €5 pending on the competition - you can set a max bid though.

Realisticly you will need to spend money to make money..
Many of our clients use a combination of both... they use PPC for the first 6 months doing SEO in the background..then switch off the PPC and let the newly SEO ranked keywords bring in the business.

AaronDig

I cannot really agree with anyone on this.

I just got back from China where I was marketing manager for a school with a big focus on digital.

If you are running a business it is great to get PPC and SEO knowledge to make sure you do not get screwed over but running a business and also doing all the content creation etc etc. would be very time consuming. Getting someone in to help is great but make sure you sit down and really talk about what you need and make sure they are making sense.

Content creation is key as Red Fly said so if you or another stakeholder in the company could set about creating a blog thatd do wonders

Using Adwords then switching to Just SEO will not be a good idea I can assure you of that.

Shoot me a PM if you want to have a chat on the phone, I would be more than happy to have a chat on the phone or whatever

AaronDig

With regards to what eceltic and I where saying about SEO+Adwords then just SEO take a look at this