Overview
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We analyze your website to see where improvements can be made and how Search Engine Marketing can help your bottom line.
Search Engine Optimization & Search Engine Marketing
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is, in simple terms, a way to make your website more search engine friendly. Each search engine, i.e., Google, Yahoo!, AOL, Bing, etc., uses a sophisticated algorithm to determine how your site should rank within their SERPS (search engine results pages). There are many factors that make up this algorithm and SEO experts and marketers try to “crack the code” so to speak. The basic explanation on how to rank higher on the various SERPS is to have your site be found to be important (real or perceived) to a particular subject, product, or service.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) does overlap with SEO but, again, in simple terms it is a more direct approach. In other words, paid advertising. The sponsored links you see in the various SERPS are paid for, usually through an auction process. This process is instantaneous to the user. Not even an auctioneer could talk fast enough to keep up. Basically you set a bid, in search engine terms a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per 1000 impressions (CPM)(explained in-depth later). If your max CPC or CPM is high enough, you will rank somewhere on the first results page, which is where you definitely want to be.
Cost-Per-Click vs. Cost-Per-Impressiontop
Cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per-1000-impressions (CPM) basically accomplish the same goal; getting your ad placed on to the various SERPS. CPC is exactly what it says it is. You only pay when someone clicks on your ad. CPM is a budget based on a certain amount of money spent for every time your ad is shown 1000 times. Depending on what your budget is and how it is allocated, your keywords will trigger your ad or ads to appear somewhere on the page. The more you spend, and you can spend wisely, the greater chance you have at landing your ad on the first page.
Now, before we go any further, your spending does not necessarily guarantee you top ad placement. This is where a company like us comes into play. It takes more than good copy and a tall budget to get results. Part of this goes back to SEO and the ability to make a search engine believe that your content is king (hopefully it is already). What this does is tell the search engine that your ad is in fact relevant to the content and it will give your ad preferential treatment over others. This can drive your costs down and click-through rates higher.
Inbound Linking as well as inter-page linkingtop
A very important metric that Search Engines look at when determining whether or not your site is relevant is how many inbound links you have. An inbound link (IBL) is anyone linking to your site without you linking back, which is called a reciprocal link. This is important for two reasons. First, if you have a lot of IBL’s because you have gotten to the point where your content can be considered an authority, the search engine “trusts” you to be relevant to a particular search. For example, if you type iMac into Google, the first sponsored ad and first two natural results are Apple. This makes sense because Apple is obviously the most authoritative resource about its own products. Second, the search engine takes into account the relevance and trustworthiness of the sites that link to you. For example, if you have an exhaustively researched site about the history of the technology industry within Silicon Valley and the New York Times links to your site as a reference to a story or series of stories, that IBL is worth more than if some dude with a blog with no real following linked to you.
Maximum Media makes sure your site is submitted to the various websites, directories, and databases specific to your product, service, and industry.
Inter-page linking (IPL) is good for SEO because it gives a search engine the ability to index how your site works. IPL is you making sure that all of the pages on your site link to each other in some way. If too many of your pages are buried deep within your site hierarchy, the search engine will deem the site as less than navigable. This helps in another respect that is the very reason why the search engine “feels” this way. A well inter-linked site is simply easier to navigate for your users and regardless if you wish to rank higher on the various SERPS, it is simply good practice.
We consult you about inter-page linking to make sure you are on the right track and that search engines deem you worthy of a higher page ranking.
Lead generation can be done purely on the Internet or through traditional marketing initiatives, i.e., television, radio, print, direct mail, etc. We specialize in a combination of the two. As much as the Internet has changed how to advertise (what hasn’t it changed?), traditional media is still a powerful tool for marketing initiatives. Maximum Media uses a three-step approach that combines Internet and traditional marketing.
Step one is deciding what particular products or services you wish to rigorously promote. You do not need to promote your entire catalog or range of services. This initiative is to gain customers hopefully of the return variety through a focused campaign. We build a custom website (usually 1-3 pages) with a unique URL (web address). This site links to your main site and is promoted heavily.
Step two is promotion. A SEM campaign is launched along with direct mail, cable and radio to promote this promotional website. The point is, of course, to get as many people to visit this site as possible. Once there, users will be directed to make contact in any manner that they choose (email, phone, or walk-in). We recommend 1-800 numbers if your target area encompasses a lot of area codes, i.e., several states or dense urban centers like Boston, New York City, Chicago, etc.
Step three is training on how to manage these leads. Although you probably know how to sell to your customers and do not believe you need to be versed on this fine art, we agree. But, it is amazing how many companies are ill prepared for the amount of high-potential leads that our system provides. Potential customers will be making contact at all angles and it is imperative that anyone that interacts with customers within your company be trained to handle the promotion that we have developed. We are one of the best at generating new leads for your company but as always it is up to you to convert these leads to customers. When everyone is on the same page, this becomes much easier.
It took Facebook two years to reach an audience of 50 million people. To put that in perspective, it took radio 38 years and television 13 years to reach the same penetration. Myspace has over 200 million users, and yes, that would make them the 5th largest country in the world between Indonesia and Brazil. Companies such as Blogger (bought by Google in 2002) and Wordpress make it dead simple to publish any content you want (copyrights notwithstanding) any time of day, any day of the year. Craigslist has replaced the classified section in your local paper.
What does this mean to you? It means that a mass migration away from traditional media has happened in the last 10 years unlike any other era in history. Social media is where the eyeballs have gone. The only thing that has stayed the same between traditional and new media is that advertising supports it.