Increasing a company's web presence - Search Engine Optimization

[TripleDigitRide]

My Father is in the beginning stages of opening a small business, and he understands that his web presence can impact his bottom line. Problem is, with the exception of free ads on Google, Yahoo, Bing, Yelp, Facebook, etc, he's not sure how to effectively increase his presence on the web.

I know there are companies who make all kinds of promises while offering their services for a fee, but I don't know if such a service is worth the money, or who to trust.

Anyone have any advice or someone they can recommend?

Edited July 31, 2013 by TripleDigitRide

[Peace]

Search Engine Optimization.  ... probably necessary, and is the rage in web-marketing..  but probably every single person on here besides me can better tell you about who to hire.

 

   Now...  a certain un-named, young, female country music star was given the task by her father to spend a couple hours each (and every) day on facebook interacting with fans (long) before her career took off.  It was like homework, and it was hard work....  and it did work.  If you could have been looking from the inside, you would've seen someone just as pretty, just as talented with a career track that parelleled hers.... without the difficult and laboriously repetitive ground-pounding on FB - that other someone is still trying to land deals that will make them a living.  The uber-successful star built a personal relationship with her fanbase... one message at a time.

 

   My suggestion is to remember to use the web "presence" to build relationships with individuals.... who, in multiples, turn into identifiable "markets".  ... The difference between you (your dad) and your competitors can be that your relationship with those individuals translates to everyone they know.... blah, blah, blah...    Web presence is good.  Showing up in the top 5 of google is great.   What you do with that web presence can be the key to real, lasting success. 

 

For Example:  If TGO David opened up a coffee shop, a gun shop, or even a quilt shop, how many of you would go out of your way to go in and see him... and find any excuse to buy something from him?   :)  see?

 

When someone "walks" into your web space, you want to treat them just like if they walked into your office/home/store...  and as close as you can get to "conversational" with them, the more they will feel cared-for and "known" by you.

 

That's my rambling... there are incredibly smart folks on this site who have put these principles to good use, and I'm thrilled to learn with you as we read their responses.

 

All the best to your father in his endeavor.

Edited July 30, 2013 by Peace

[itchytriggerfinger]

I used to send all of my clients to Louisville Web Group when I was in the web business.  Gary Rawlings did all of my SEO work. 

 

http://www.louisvillewebgroup.com/

[TripleDigitRide]

I used to send all of my clients to Louisville Web Group when I was in the web business.  Gary Rawlings did all of my SEO work. 

 

http://www.louisvillewebgroup.com/

I will look into them. Thank you.

[Spiffy]

Google BOMB!!!      I think there is actually a service you can pay for that will insert links in the path of the spider bots for Google, yahoo and bing to increase your hits in search results.

[TGO David]

 

For Example:  If TGO David opened up a coffee shop, a gun shop, or even a quilt shop, how many of you would go out of your way to go in and see him... and find any excuse to buy something from him?   :)  see?

 

 

 

High end liquor and cigar store.  One of these days.  ;)

[SupaRice]

Local company to Nashville that does this:

 

www.localsearchmasters.com

 

A good friend of mine owns it, and they employ about 50 Tennessee residents. Good group, smart folks.

[TripleDigitRide]

Local company to Nashville that does this:

www.localsearchmasters.com

A good friend of mine owns it, and they employ about 50 Tennessee residents. Good group, smart folks.

Thank you. I'll look into them.

Does anyone have any idea what the going rates are for such a service?

[TripleDigitRide]

Local company to Nashville that does this:

www.localsearchmasters.com

A good friend of mine owns it, and they employ about 50 Tennessee residents. Good group, smart folks.

Thank you. I'll look into them.

Does anyone have any idea what the going rates are for such a service?

[dunndw]

High end liquor and cigar store.  One of these days.   ;)

What's the joke...Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be a store not a .gov agency...

[Sam1]

Thank you. I'll look into them.

Does anyone have any idea what the going rates are for such a service?

Haven't used an seo service for a few years, but it can range from $100/year for doing things that are absolutely useless, to $300-$400/month for doing more things than you care about.

That's a fairly complex field, so you need to know exactly what you want/expect from the service before hiring a company. The companies do pay out to third parties for many of the services, so depending on what keywords you want and with who, will play a part in the costs. I have no experience with geo-searches though so I couldn't even begin to tell you how the map listings work.

[TripleDigitRide]

I have spoken with the gentleman that itchytriggerfinger recommended. While he seems like a very knowledgeable and all around great guy, I'm not sure my Father was prepared for the amount of fees involved. I'm sure he'll use his services in the future, but I don't think his budget will allow for it at this time.
Edited August 3, 2013 by TripleDigitRide

[itchytriggerfinger]

LOL, yeah SEO can get expensive.  I'm glad you called him though, and I didn't mention price because I didn't want to scare you off that the thought of this being part of your marketing budget. SEO has replaced a good portion marketing budgets out there.  I know mine is pretty ridiculous but it provides more bang for our buck than print or radio. 

 

Gary is good at what he does or I wouldn't have sent you there.  With that said, it's no hard feelings if you guys decide to do something else.  I wanted you to get an honest quote.

[TripleDigitRide]

LOL, yeah SEO can get expensive.  I'm glad you called him though, and I didn't mention price because I didn't want to scare you off that the thought of this being part of your marketing budget. SEO has replaced a good portion marketing budgets out there.  I know mine is pretty ridiculous but it provides more bang for our buck than print or radio. 

 

Gary is good at what he does or I wouldn't have sent you there.  With that said, it's no hard feelings if you guys decide to do something else.  I wanted you to get an honest quote.

When he does decide to go the SEO route, he will be the guy. There's no doubt he would be a great guy to deal with.

[Guest TankerHC]

Mentioned this in another thread. I mentioned I use constant contact. Constant Contact is really good, assuming you have a website going along with the business.

 

The other is email brain. email brain is far better than ipage. But they are both good.

 

Several things that are good about it. 1. Person to Person Contact to manage the accounts. 2. You see when someone has opened the emails. 3. Professional looking ads. 4. You try it for free (To see if it works for you, it will) and after you see it works, 99.95 per year.

 

Only bad thing about it, you have to build an email database.

 

 

http://www.constantcontact.com/home/signup.jsp?s_tnt=48655:15:0

 

Here is email brain in a top ten review. http://email-marketing-service-review.toptenreviews.com/email-brain-review.html

 

Since your talking about a web presence, I would assume he will have a webpage. If so, I would also start a FB promotional page and link it to the page. Those promotional pages are pretty good for small business (And big, just ask Winchester, RIA, Ruger, Smith and the other 10 million out there, big and small). You can see and respond anonymously to what your customers want, what you have, sales,  etc)

 

Start a twitter account, tweet sales, new products, etc. Link to businesses and people in the area he will serve.

 

Today you can reach a lot of people, without spending a dime, just time.

 

On SEO, there is plenty of free SEO Software out there that works well. Just stay away from Web Position (Which a lot of "pro's" use and is banned by google), you might want to try traffic travis free version and bump up to the paid version later.  No need to pay anyone for something you can do yourself for 50 bucks. They use the same optimization software and basically they all do the same thing.

Edited August 4, 2013 by TankerHC