Search Engine Optimization Archives - Sturm Consulting - Creative Web Design & SEO

Ten MIND-BLOWING SEO, Social & Web Statistics

cristalweb — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 16:01:54 +0000

If you’re still utilizing antiquated, yellow page-type advertising as your sole marketing strategy then you may want to reconsider. The following stats should certainly be an eye-opener in regards to where you should be spending your marketing dollars.

Think you’re ahead of the curve because you had a website built in 2003? You’re probably not. Websites and Digital Marketing are a new beast altogether. Gone are the days of simply having a Website, cramming a bunch of keywords on it and waiting for the phone to ring. It’s become a lot more complicated with the evolution of SEO/SEM, Online Video, Social Media and the increasing use of mobile browsing.

The bottom line is that as technology has changed so has the way people communicate, purchase, interact and locate things they want or need. Ignore these stats and you’re missing out on a tremendous amount of potential clientele.

Here is why:

93% of online experiences begin with a Search Engine. [Via Search Engine Journal]
The top listing in Google’s organic search results receives 33% of the traffic. [Via Search Engine Watch]
YouTube has become the 2^nd Largest Search Engine – bigger than Bing, Yahoo, Ask & AOL combined. [Via Social Media Today]
50% of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61% of those searches result in a purchase. [Via Search Engine Watch]
Companies that generate more than 1,000 Facebook Likes also receive nearly 1,400 website visits a day. [Via HubSpot]
27% of total U.S. internet time is spent on social networking sites. [Via HubSpot]
59% of consumers use Google every month to find a reputable, local business. [Via Search Engine Watch]
48% of users say that if they arrive on a business site that isn’t working well on mobile, they take it as an indication of the business simply not caring. [Via HubSpot]
Google Ads account for 64.6% of clicks for high commercial intent keyword searches. [Via WordStream]
SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound leads (such as direct mail or print advertising) have a 1.7% close rate. [Via Search Engine Journal]

Granted, some of these stats were generated a year or so ago but it still does not change the fact that we’re part of a very much technology-driven society. The digital age we’re in seeks quick and accurate results. Often times, search engines, a website and a bit of social media interaction will provide the individual with the exact answer they need – plus some options.

What do these Numbers/Stats mean?

Frankly, they mean that you need to have an up-to-date, fresh website (that is mobile or responsive) and need a Search Engine and Social Media presence – embrace the new age of inbound marketing!

As the saying goes “The door is open, you need to walk through it yourself”. This couldn’t be more true to the many still hesitant about utilizing digital marketing. We hope these stats are convincing enough.

The post Ten MIND-BLOWING SEO, Social & Web Statistics appeared first on Sturm Consulting - Creative Web Design & SEO.

How Much should SEO Services cost?

cristalweb — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:50:37 +0000

Nearly every business today must decide how much to spend on search engine optimization (SEO). This isn’t an if question. Robust online marketing is imperative for survival in a web-driven world.

The question every business professional must ask is, “How much will we spend on SEO?” Keep reading for all the information you’ll need to make that decision, plus some helpful tips on how SEO agencies work so you can be successful as you forge a crucial partnership with an online marketing firm.

SEO Payment Models

To understand the dollars and cents discussed below, you must understand payment models used by agencies. SEO agencies typically offer four main forms of services and payment:

Monthly retainer: In this model, clients pay a set fee each month in exchange for an agreed-upon array of services. The monthly retainer is the most common payment model, because it provides the greatest ROI. Monthly retainer arrangements usually include regular analytics reports, on-site content improvements, press releases, link building, keyword research, and optimization.
Contract services at fixed prices: Nearly all SEO agencies sell contract services. Often, before a client is ready to engage a monthly retainer, they will select contract services that they want to have completed. The services that an SEO agency offers are often advertised on their site, along with a price. A typical example of this is an SEO website audit which can help determine existing strengths and weaknesses in the client’s online presence, competitive analysis, as well as keywords that have the highest potential to return positive ROI.
Project-based pricing: Project fees are similar to contract services with the exception that they are custom projects created specifically for a client. Pricing varies according to the project. For example, a local cupcake shop may ask an SEO agency to help them with their local online marketing. The client decides that they want the agency to establish their social media accounts. The cupcake business and the SEO agency will decide on the scope and cost of the project.
Hourly consulting: This familiar consulting model is an hourly fee in exchange for services or information.

Most SEO agencies use all of these payment models. Likewise, clients may work with an agency using more than one model. For example, a client may choose to enter into a monthly retainer, purchase a contract service, and engage in a special project with the agency, thus entering into three of the payment models.

Typical SEO Costs

So, what should you expect to pay? Here’s a survey of the range of the costs according to the payment models described above.

Monthly retainer: $750-5,000 per month. Within this range, the amount that a client pays depends on the size of their business and the extent of services provided by the agency. On the lower end of this spectrum are small SEO agencies that offer a limited range of services. On the upper range are businesses with greater needs working with full-service SEO agencies. Most businesses pay between $2,500 and $5,000 for a monthly retainer.
Contract services at fixed prices: price variable. Businesses that are just testing the waters in SEO usually choose a contract service as an entry point. Typical contract services include things like SEO copywriting ($0.15-$0.50/word), site content audit ($500-$7,500), link profile audit ($500-$7,500), and social media site setup ($500-$3,000).
Project-based pricing: price variable. Since there are a variety of projects, there is a wide range of prices. Most projects cost from $1,000 to $30,000.
Hourly consulting rate: $100-300/hr. SEO consultants, whether individuals or agencies, usually charge between $100 and $300 per hour.

(Some of these figures are taken from a 2011 SEOmoz survey of 500 consultants and agencies.)

Things You Should Be Suspicious of

Any discussion of SEO agencies and pricing isn’t complete without a few warnings. To help you guard against indiscriminate SEO agencies with unethical business practices, read and heed. Be suspicious of the following promises:

Guarantees. SEO firms generally can’t provide guarantees due to the constantly changing nature of the industry.
Instant results. True, some SEO tactics can get “instant results” by gaming the system. Be warned that these can hurt you in the long run. Instant results often involve SEO practices that are against webmaster guidelines put out by search engines. Invariably, Google seeks out these techniques and penalizes them, resulting in lost rankings that can take months to recover.
#1 spot on Google. If an agency promises you the number one spot on Google, it sounds great. Hopefully, you’ll be able to get it. However, it’s not something that a firm can promise to hand over to you.
Costs lower than $750/month. When it comes to SEO, you aren’t shopping for the lowest price; you’re seeking the best level of service. Be wary of rock bottom prices or “unbelievable deals.”
Shady link building services. Link building is a crucial part of SEO. You can’t have a highly-ranked site without inbound links. But there’s a dark side of link building. Link trust is gaining importance to appear high in the rankings. Before you enter into an arrangement with an SEO agency for link building services, ensure that their link building services are ethical, white label services. You may even wish to ask them where they may be able to gain links for a business in your industry.

Things to Keep in Mind

As you begin shopping for SEO agencies and making your decision, be mindful of the following points:

SEO takes time. A monthly retainer is best. Think of SEO as a long-term investment. Aggressive campaigns and major pushes may have their place, but the most enduring SEO results come from a long-term relationship. In SEW’s Mark Jackson wrote, “The real value of SEO efforts are, generally, not realized in the first month(s) of the effort.” It’s true. SEOs don’t wave a magic wand and get instant results. Instead, they perform extensive operations that will produce results months down the road.
SEO changes, and your rankings will change, too. The field is full of competitors, and rankings rise and fall with the changing of algorithms and the entrance of new competitors. One-and-done SEO tricks simply don’t work. It takes constant monitoring to keep your website ranking well and performing at top-notch levels.
Not all SEO services are created equal. Again, SEO isn’t about shopping around for the lowest prices. It’s about finding the finest agency you can. Look for an SEO agency that defines its scope of services, and takes the time to educate you.
SEO is important. Do it. The point of your website is to increase and/or improve your business. Unless people are finding your website, it’s not even worth having one. The smart thing is to pay what it takes to keep your site findable by the people who are looking.
Hiring an SEO agency is best. You may be thinking, “Can’t I just do this SEO thing on my own?” A tiny percentage of business owners or professionals have the skill and savvy to do their own SEO. Even so, comprehensive SEO takes way more time than most business owners can afford. Even an employee who “knows a lot about SEO,” will be hard-pressed to deliver the level of services and excellence found in a SEO agency. You’ll rarely come out on top if you try to go it alone, and you’ll never get the same level of ROI that you would with a competent SEO agency.

You Decide

For most businesses today, SEO is the highest ROI marketing effort. The benefits it provides exceed the value of other marketing approaches – direct mailing, broadcast advertising, online ads, etc.

No longer do businesses decide whether they need SEO services. Instead, they decide how much they’re going to spend. As long as they choose a quality SEO agency, their decision will lead to incredible amounts of revenue.

You can decide how much that’s worth to you.

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SEO Is one of the Best Investment for Your Small Business

cristalweb — Mon, 10 Sep 2018 15:52:43 +0000

For most businesses with a website, the foremost source of traffic to their website is user searches. Over 70% of users click only on the top 10 results from a search and ignore the search results that fall further down on the page or beyond the first page. How do companies get the number one spot? Or one of the top 10? Or at least one in the top half of the first page? Answer: by recognizing the power of optimizing their websites for search engines. Search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., use complex algorithms to determine the order in which companies will appear in the search results. These algorithms include hundreds of ranking factors that determine the position a company website will appear when a user search is made.

SEO – search engine optimization – is one of the most important marketing tools a small business can invest in. SEO can produce an extraordinary return on investment (ROI) by increasing a website’s online visibility, thereby attracting visitors who convert into customers. Company listings displaying in the top half of page one search results capture 99% of consumers, which could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per year. Most business owners miss out on the vast majority of internet traffic, and sales, that would otherwise be theirs if their website was optimized for search. Small business owners must not underestimate the value of SEO and its impact on the bottom line.

Online marketing success requires setting goals and developing a strategic plan to achieve those goals. Some of the elements of search engine marketing – SEM – strategy include:

creating an attractive website with rich, constantly updated content
developing a carefully researched and employed keyword list to use in headlines and copy
properly designing video, photos, graphics, and other website features
having all of website code reviewed and optimized by an SEO expert
developing a strategy to acquire high-quality inbound links to the website
using metrics to track traffic and rankings

A well-executed SEM campaign assures your advertisement and website link appear immediately at the top section of page one in the search engines. How sure can you be that SEM will work? How long will the process take? As with other forms of marketing – newspaper, yellow pages, TV, radio, direct mail – there are no guarantees. However, unlike other forms of marketing, SEM allows the small business owner to track rankings, traffic and sales to see quantifiable results.

Let’s go on a short journey into cyberspace and review an example of what this might look like.

Let’s pretend you are a hair stylist.
You cater to the Phoenix, Arizona market.
Your business name is “Swank Salon.”
A Google search for “On-time Pool Servicen-time Pool Service” lists you at Page 1, Rank 1.
Fantastic!

As the owner, you might be overjoyed that you rank well for that search term, but does a high ranking on your name profit you? Probably not! Searches on your company’s name will rank your company high in search engines. But searching on your business name only works when the user already knows it. Usually, new customers will not know the name of your business. They may only be searching for a company that can help them fulfill a need and will instead search for a keyword or phrase that describes what they are looking for in their own words. If your goal is to increase traffic to your site and attract new clients, you need more than high ranking on your name – you need to rank well for the right keywords.

Are you using the right keywords in your content for your local market and target audience? Let’s Google “pool cleaning service” to find On-time Pool Service. Are you attracting the largest number of local visitors possible to your site with these keywords? At this point, comprehensive research is needed to determine the search terms your business should be ranking well for based on the amount of search engine traffic tied to those terms. This research draws upon specific information collected from the business owner about the top competition, target client, and the industry.

As we conduct deep research for On-time Pool Service in SEO for the Swimming Pool Service industry, we learn:

990 people search for “pool cleaning service” every month
3,600 people search for “pool service” every month
1,890 people search for “pool cleaning” every month
Fewer than 10 people search for “ontime pool service” every month

From this research, the company that can gain the most business from online shoppers is optimized to rank well for “pool cleaning.” Only a proper SEO review can ensure that your website is using the correct terms to rank well. If On-time Pool Service relied on the keywords “pool service” for SEO or the keywords “ontime pool service”, they would get fewer than 10 searches per month. The service would lose out on the 3,600 other consumers interested in their services who are searching on “pool service.”

So how does On-time Pool Service rank in “pool cleaning service Sarasota”? Doing a Google search places them near the top of the list. But they are not the top. The sites at the very top are pulling in 70% more traffic from consumers. On-time Pool Service could use an SEM and SEO campaign to get the number one spot. Is search engine optimization all you need to bring in business? Not quite…

What happens when you click on the link to the On-time Pool Service website? Ugh! The poorly designed website will cause most of those visitors to back out of the page and find a pool service with an attractive website that is easy to use. For a small business to achieve a high return on their SEO efforts, visitors must both (a) see the site listed near the top of search results and (b) like what they see so they stay on the site long enough to make a purchase. For example, take Pool Service XYZ, a competitor to On-time Pool Service. While Pool Service XYZ has a superior website design that appeals to their target client, their ranking is horrible. By appearing on page 2 for most relevant searches, they are getting very little of the total traffic available. Their website may be superior, but they suffer from low visibility. They could benefit from increased SEO and SEM that would place them above Swan Salon. Their superior website design would then capture thousands of dollars in increased revenue as a result.

SEO is one of the most successful marketing tools today. To take advantage of the tremendous online opportunity to grow your small business, you have to invest either money or time. As a small business owner, do you have time to become an SEO expert? SEO success takes a lot of work and time to achieve, even with the most sophisticated SEO techniques and skills. You may be able to learn the basics, but your business will grow much faster and you’ll see a greater ROI much sooner by using an online marketing firm experienced in web design, SEO, and content writing. You will also save a lot of money, by investing your marketing budget into the proper areas immediately via the expert strategy and guidance your SEO team provides.

In addition to expert search engine optimization, you should find a firm that will do more than promise to drive traffic to your website. As demonstrated in the example above, money spent to drive traffic to a poorly designed website will most likely result in lost sales. The professional team at seen Sturm Consulting in Sarasota, Florida, provide you with comprehensive online marketing services at affordable rates. We provide you a complete team of experts in the fields of online marketing, content writing, web design, SEO, SEM, programming, and social media. We will design the best website for your business. Then we will drive traffic to your website, and get your website ranked above all of your competitors.

Can you afford to let your competitors capture the bulk of the sales from your target market? Give us a call and let us design the best website for your company, and then put expert online marketing strategies in place to get your website seen first, before the competition. We offer a free one hour consultation and will sit down with you to learn about your business and provide a custom plan tailored for your needs, call (941) 284-2654 to learn more.

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