The Net Impact Roadmap

“Build it and they will come.” Really?

“Build it and they will come.” is a great movie line. It is also is a recipe for Internet disaster. Replace that phrase with, “Build it, make it informative, make it useful, keep it fresh, help them find it, get others talking about it, keep it interesting, get a lot of high quality links…and they will come. Unless, by the way, some other firm in your market space does all of that better.” Oh and don’t forget, “Building it tomorrow may be different than building it today and will be different than building it next year.”

The same is true for “Marketing it.” Anyone who works in the SEO industry knows that getting the “prime” key words for a site onto page one can be grueling. This is literally the top ten list. Your website earns its placement only by being better than the competition. This top ten list changes constantly as a new savvy player enters the space and old players become complacent. To be on page one for organic search in a competitive marketplace requires consistent thorough competitive research, technical correctness, fresh content, links from other authoritative sources, outbound marketing and market awareness. It’s a full contact sport.

Blogging for Traffic and Internal Benefit

Increasingly that sport includes social network site marketing as well. As an example, over the past six months we have created numerous blogs for our clients. These have been both for integration into their website and stand alone blogs that relate information about their company or a particular aspect of the firm that had its own story to tell. The resulting SEO improvement from the links and fresh optimized content has been consistent. In addition, when done properly, the new blogs will create great enthusiasm and excitement within the organization.

Social Marketing Examples

In another instance a client site has experienced a large increase in links and thus traffic from some effort in working with Del.icio.us and Stumble Upon. Stumble Upon in particular brought in unexpected traffic generated from Western Europe. The truth is, with social marketing, you genuinely do not know what will roll in with the tide of traffic. But through careful web analytics patrol and review, you can discover marketing gems that are delivered to your doorstep to nurture and improve. “Build it and they will come.” I really wish that were so…but then, what fun would that be?

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“Why can’t I just buy a $99 per month package and be number one?”

Every week The Net Impact team runs into a discussion regarding SEO packages offered by other SEO firms. The conversation usually begins with “Why can SEO Company A offer us a SEO package that promises to deliver results for $99 per month while other firms, like TNI, only offer custom solutions that are higher in price?” It is a fair question to ask. One that is not easily explained without first educating our prospects a bit on what SEO really is, or maybe better stated, what it has become. Once upon a time SEO solely meant, to most providers, developing site-appropriate meta data, keywords and submitting to directories. When the bar was lower for most firms competitively, then it was possible for an automated program or an unassociated third party to simply follow a routine and achieve some results. Also, some years ago, there wasn’t the appreciation of how powerful the Internet had become as a marketing tool. Firms did not yet realize that the search engines had become so entrenched into the daily lives of individuals. With those points in mind we now fast forward to 2008. Today, developing a website or operating a website meant to market your services or product without taking organic search and other traffic generation marketing efforts into consideration is, for lack of a better term, marketing suicide. Yes, there are still sites strictly built to support a professionals business card. If your networking is all local and you do not feel the need to drive extra attention to your business then perhaps a GoDaddy hosting account and a Web Site Tonight template could be exactly what you need. No argument. For any firm though that is embroiled in a competitive marketplace or wants to bring in more recognition this solution, without a lot of web-savvy support, just won’t fly.
What should I look for in a SEO service?

Let’s start with the obvious. See how your potential SEO service provider does for their own firm. Do a search on, “Search Engine Marketing firm City” or use your state if you prefer. See if they come up on page one. I absolutely throw out the argument that their SEO service is so busy taking care of customers they cannot do justice to their own site through their own effort. Really? We use our own site as a “test tube” for SEO on a regular basis. Only by continuing to quest for advancement can you achieve superiority.

Next, want to see their site (or your site) as the search engines do? There are many tools available for this test, try out this tool. SEO-Browser.com Or, you can download the Google toolbar to your desktop and check things out. There are way too many other “tools and toys” to mention. The fact is, you have ways to investigate.

Other steps are pretty common sense. Ask for references. Don’t just read testimonials. Review their client’s sites. Do their clients face the same level of competition your firm faces? There is a big difference in the way you would market a national sales automation firm vs. a local plumbing supply firm. Both need SEO, but differently. Interview the SEO firm. Ask tough questions. Ask about their process. See if their past experience matches your needs. Will they require any information from you or is this an automated program? Remember, your competition is product, service, region and keyword specific. How can they exclude you from that process and achieve results?

Finally, weigh your investment. Is this a closed-end package that ties you up for a year or more or are their services month to month? Do they seem eager to sign you up without ever knowing your circumstances? Like any good relationship, you have to feel comfortable that your energy will be well spent as well as your cash.

Make the selection of SEO support more than just a price proposition. Consider the decision based upon the desire to be on page one!

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Filed under : Web Marketing, TNI Learning Center

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For years now The Net Impact has been working with clients on the slow and painful process of getting competitors and just plain “traffic trap” sites to stop using trademarked names and terms. In some cases webmasters have inserted competitors names and products right into the titles and descriptions of landing pages engineered to steer searchers to their site rather than the intended destination. E-mails, threatening letters and phone calls from unleashed attorneys can eventually have impact but that is all corrective action after the fact. In some cases the lost sales or even worse, the potential brand confusion that can occur during the misuse interim can be substantial.

This particular “Wild, Wild West” frontier of the web may be coming to a close. According to an April 8th post in Search Engine Watch by Frank Watson titled, Others’ Trademark Terms in Meta Tags Illegal: Georgia Court Rule, there finally may be some definitive standards being put into place. Frank does a great job of defining the issues in this particular case so there is no reason for me to repeat those. From a white hat perspective, all SEO firms have known that this practice was unethical if not defined yet as illegal. Still there were times when a site owner found their site in competition for their own brand with interlopers. This being a state court ruling of course means that we could be 49 decisions away from a standard. Trying to nail down web legalities to physical borders is at the basic level very messy as we have seen in a wide variety of issues including online sales tax, wine sales, privacy, spam and the ADA.

Also to be interpreted (or misinterpreted based upon your side of the courtroom) still are issues related to very generic trademarks. Frank Watson points to the term “Kleenex” in his blog. Eric Goldman in a July 5th post last year titled, Google Subpoenaed for Keyword Purchase Data–Rhino Sports v. Sport Court directly displays how the trademarked term as a common use term issue can become very litigation friendly and involve parties large and small. Google seems to frequently find itself embroiled at least in the headlines for this type of case. Sometimes maybe it’s not so good to be the king.

We will undoubtedly see additional rulings in this arena very shortly. In the meantime, The Net Impact aggressively searches the web through automated (such as Google alerts) and manual efforts looking out for our clients and of course our own growing brands. Like every other element affecting Internet marketing, this one will continue to require study and vigilance. The Wild, Wild West may be getting a little tamer.

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Filed under : Web Marketing, Internet and Law

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