It’s always helpful to hear what SEO companies SHOULD be doing in terms of content, technical aspects, trust factors, etc., but what are some of the things that your SEO company should NOT be doing? As more and more SEO gurus pop up on the radar, it’s becoming increasingly more and more difficult for companies to decipher what’s legit when it comes to search engine marketing.

Here are a few things that should trigger an exodus from your existing SEO company:

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I was part of a dynamic team meeting this week that consisted of some very bright minds. We were collectively consulting for a client who has been immensely successful, but needed a bit of insight into what and where to go next with his online presence. One question that arose out of that meeting stuck and rings inside my head with every new prospect and with every existing client: Who Is Your Customer? While this is a very simple question, you’d be amazed how many business owners can’t answer it.

Who Is Your Customer?
- What do they look like?
- Where do they hang out?
- What do they search for?
- What do they value?
- What do they need from your business?
- What are they hungry for?
- How will your business address and solve their problem?
- How can your business connect with them and relay the relevancy that they are seeking?

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I had an email exchange with a prospect that really got me thinking about why some businesses make and why many do not. This particular prospect informed me today that they are going to be taking baby steps to get to their Internet marketing efforts. First, they are going to try some print, then maybe some new business cards, then maybe a few ads in magazines, then, once they get through that, they will be, most likely, looking into the Internet. Unfortunately, this business probably won’t be around long enough to make it to the Internet part.

Let’s face it: the businesses that are thriving are focusing on their online presence. They aren’t surviving due to their Yellow Page ad campaign, they aren’t surviving because of their brilliant post card scheme, they are surviving & THRIVING because they are being found online. They are getting serious about content generation, they are serious about reaching out to their prospects via smart phone advertising, SEO or pay per click campaigns, they are getting serious about their social media presence. They simply get the fact that the wave of consumers cannot be sold to. The new consumer comes to your business, not the other way around. The new consumer isn’t phased by billboards, they skip TV commercials with their DVR, they switch to XM radio when tacky car or appliance commercials inundate their FM channel, shopping and purchasing decisions are now literally, in the hands of the consumer.

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So, it’s 2012. Where is your business going? How will your business stand out on the Internet? How will your marketing plan capture and engage an audience that is out actively seeking your products and services RIGHT NOW and On Their Terms?

Here are some amazing Internet marketing stats your business needs to be paying attention to and devising a plan around NOW.

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We all have a tendency to miss some very obvious marketing opportunities on a daily basis.  I’ve had several ah-ha moments over the past few years when I realized I was missing the boat on a huge marketing opportunity, oftentimes, the opportunity only takes about five minutes to implement:

I’ve put together a few easily overlook ops that you can implement quickly to help bolster the Internet marketing efforts for your business.  I’ll break them down into offline ops and online ops:

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“What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.”
David Ogilvy

Yes, here I am beating a dead horse, but time after time, year after year, Content remains king.  Through the years this has rang true, from the first advertisements written on papyrus, to skywriting airplanes, to a brilliantly done TV commercial, to an SEO campaign or a mobile app advertisement, it’s always the content that sells.

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I’ve encountered a few clients who absolutely demand a splash page be their home page on their web site.  I am always against this, unless the client happens to be someone like Coca Cola who doesn’t really need SEO.  If you are not Coca Cola, you need SEO. Your web site needs to be designed to make it easy on your prospects to navigate, and secondly, make it easy for Google, Bing & Yahoo to crawl and index your web site.  Splash pages pretty much block all of that from happening.

A splash page is typically a very minimalist page that ‘greets’ the site visitor with some pretty stuff.  Typically large images, or graphics which are used to push the site visitor to the next page.  Here’s a list of why they don’t work for both site visitors and search engines:

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Activity Begets Activity.

Oftentimes, I’ll have a prospect come to me very frustrated that their web site is NOT generating any traffic. Every time they look at their Google Analytics, they don’t see an increase. My first question: what’s your ongoing content strategy? Or, how many new products / services have you added to your web site lately? Your web site cannot be a one time upload. It needs to live, breathe and grow in order to entice two distinct audiences, 1.) Your prospects. 2.) Google.

Here’s five possible reasons why your web site traffic has flat-lined and what to do about it.

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“Some people try to make everything complicated, be the person who tries to make everything simple.”
~Davy Waters

I read a fascinating article that struck home today about Black Friday.  This year (2011) black Friday sales were up 16% over last year.  That’s a great sign on many levels.  But even more interesting is this: MANY stores with long lines LOST sales due to mobile phones.  That’s right.  People waiting in lines for that must have Xbox game were getting annoyed, getting fidgity, getting mobile.  The longer some folks waited, the quicker they realized that they could pull out their trusty smart phone, find a better price on the desired product and BUY it right then and there.  No lines.  No nonsense. Better pricing.

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