SEO Consultants: Learning to Avoid the Bad Ones

SEO, or search engine optimisation, refers to the process by which a company can improve the visibility of its website in search engines, leading to more visitors and therefore hopefully increased profits. One of the jobs of an internet marketing company is to understand how search engines work so they can use SEO methods, such as identifying certain keywords and editing the content of your site and its html coding accordingly, to improve your search engine ranking.


However, bringing in a consultant will of course cost you money so it’s not a decision you should take lightly or rush into. You want only the best, as shoddy SEO can do more harm than good to your company.

To help you out, here are some hints on how to avoid the many unreliable SEO consultants operating today:

Where is the money going?: Before you sign anything, a reputable marketing company should be able to provide you with a detailed budget of where all the recommended outlay for the development of your SEO strategy should be allocated. Some companies will claim they are ranking you highly in search engines purely by using SEO methods such as keyword placement, which is free, when actually they are using pay-per-click to increase the visibility of your website, which is a different thing entirely. If a consultancy is not prepared to outlay all the costs then stay away from it.

Beware the unsolicited approach: Any consultancy that has to resort to sending out SPAM emails to drum up customers isn’t worth your time. You ignore all those emails from companies trying to sell you diet pills or ‘genuine’ Rolex watches, and you should treat such messages from marketing companies in the same way. After all, if they use this somewhat unprofessional method to get business for their own company what do you think they will propose to do for yours?

Unrealistic promises: Be wary of any internet marketing company making claims that sound too good to be true: they probably are. For example, don’t go for a company which is happy to guarantee you a number one Google rating very quickly. As any good consultancy knows, done right, SEO takes time to take effect so you have to exercise a certain amount of patience.

Are they above board?: Try to check out the background of a consultancy you are thinking of hiring. Have they previously operated under any other names, or do they have multiple aliases? This could be a sign that they have something to hide, or their past dealings haven’t exactly reflected favourably upon them. Do they own ‘shadow’ domains, which can channel users to a site using deceptive redirects, or have they in the past had any domains removed from Google? These are all things you should check out before you even consider hiring them.

Time to Hire a Marketing Consultant?

Every company needs a sound online marketing strategy in order to keep pulling in the customers, but it can take time to develop this to a point where you are starting to see results. Many companies panic when success doesn’t come as quickly as they would like, and hire an internet marketing company for the wrong reasons. Bearing in mind that there are always going to be peaks and troughs in business, how do you know when your strategy just isn’t working and it’s time to bring in a marketing expert? Here we look at some signs that your company could perhaps benefit from some outside help.


Lack of perspective: When you try to do such a major job as marketing in-house, the danger can be that you start going round in circles and lose sight of the wider business context. If you feel this is happening then this is the time to bring in an outside perspective. Many companies hire in a consultant for just this reason. Sometimes you can struggle on for months, whereas the reasons you are failing might be immediately apparent to an outsider, who will then be able to help you start afresh with a new outlook. They will also have the vital in-depth knowledge of the latest marketing trends in the business world.

Large project to complete: Some companies, if they have a particularly important project on such as a major new product launch which goes beyond their internal expertise or resources, will hire in an internet marketing company as a temporary measure. Not every company needs or can afford a permanent marketing manager, but there are those times when a project is too important to be left to chance.

Lack of expertise: Many small business owners start off thinking they can do the marketing themselves and then realise it is a great deal more specialised than they had anticipated. You may have some idea how to publicise your products or carry out email marketing, but perhaps find the techniques to analyse website visitor data beyond your comprehension. Bringing in an internet marketing company to help you learn about the various methods and techniques out there will give your marketing strategy a more solid and professional base.

Negative feedback: Another sign that you may need the help of a marketing consultancy is if you are getting negative feedback from customers and the users of your site. This is why it’s important to encourage your customers to communicate with you via your website and offer constructive criticism. It’s an old cliché, but remember that the customer is always right – so if they say that you have to make some serious changes, either in the way your website is laid out of the way in which you are advertising your business, then you probably do.

Many companies hire a marketing consultant for the wrong reasons, so it's not something you should rush into. However there are certain signs to look out for which may indicate that you could benefit from some outside help.

Even If You’re Not a Fan Of New Year’s Resolutions, Resolve To Become More Social Media Savvy in 2012!

With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube continuing to grow their followings substantially in 2011, and other social networks springing up month on month, it’s clear that social media is far from the ‘passing fad’ some doubters predicted.

For many of us, social media has changed the way we do business – and there is no going back. If you haven’t yet got to grips with social media, then you could seriously be missing out on winning over a new generation of fans for your business. So here are some tips to get you started:

Maintain separate personal and business social media accounts

Unless you’re a celebrity, most people won’t be interested in what you had for breakfast, or where you went on holiday. So be sure to separate ‘personal’ and ‘business’ interests and use dedicated accounts for both functions. Also be aware that if you have a personal account for fun/ leisure purposes, that business acquaintances and colleagues might check out those postings too!

Let people know you’re on social media

Once you’ve signed up to a social media site and begun posting, be sure to let people know about it. The best way of doing this is by adding social media buttons to your website, blog, emails, business cards and snail mail. All your correspondence in fact, both online and off.

Upload a picture

A photo of you in a professional capacity is an absolute must for your social media business pages. If you’ve ever visited a LinkedIn profile page with no photo you’ll know exactly what I mean. An incomplete profile gives the impression that the person isn’t all that bothered – with the result that they are not taken as seriously as they otherwise might be.

Include a link with every posting

If you fail to include a link to your blog or website with each and every posting, then you are missing an opportunity to drive additional traffic to your site. Generally speaking, more traffic means more conversions and more revenue.

Make a video

Did you realise YouTube is world’s 2nd largest search engine and the 3rd most visited website? And YouTube Mobile gets over 3 billion hits a day – that’s massive! So why not make a video about an aspect of your business that will whet potential customers’ appetites. You can then upload your video to YouTube as well as embed it into your website. Better still, produce a series of videos. And remember to include a link to your videos in relevant blog postings and promotional materials.

Start as you mean to go on

If I could include just one tip, it would be this one: you don’t have to be on every social media site to see a difference in your marketing results – so choose wisely. And make sure you allocate enough time in your daily/ weekly schedule for the social media activities you decide to pursue, whether that’s working on a blog, updating your Facebook page, or networking on LinkedIn.

The main point about social media is that it needs to be embraced whole-heartedly, or not at all. Think of it this way: if you happened upon a business blog where the last posting was several months back, you wouldn’t spend too long on that site would you?

Outsource tasks to specialists

Remember, you don’t have to do everything yourself. If, like many people, you don’t find the concept of social media easy to get to grips with, then consider outsourcing your requirements. Outsourcing necessary business tasks or tasks you find difficult, laborious and time-consuming makes perfect economic sense. It means you get the services of a consummate professional who will use his or her expertise to make the most of your social marketing budget, while you get to concentrate on the aspects of your business you do best.

Now that’s time and money well spent.

Happy New Year!

Make Your Blog Content Go Further

You’ve spent some time researching suitable topics for your blog and producing
valuable content your followers will love. Here are some ideas for making that content go further . . .


SEO/ Keyword Integration

Choosing and using the right keywords in your blog postings can have a major impact on the amount of traffic your blog receives, as well as influencing your web marketing (negatively or positively). Once you have drafted a blog post, scan through your writing and pick out the main topic(s) covered. Then run them through Google AdWords’ Free Keyword Suggestion Tool and make a note of the main search terms and most popular words and phrases that come up. Run through your post content once more and see if you can utilise this keyword knowledge to improve your post title, content, meta description and tags.

Use Syndication to Extend Your Blog Content’s Reach

RSS, dubbed Really Simple Syndication, is a mechanism which allows you to syndicate your blogs content to many different sources at once and is the perfect tool if you’re into social media. If you have a blog, locate your site’s RSS URL and plug it in to your social media pages. For example, with a Facebook Business Page, search for the ‘Social RSS’ application in your applications area and set it to publish your content to your Facebook page wall automatically.

The beauty of using an RSS ‘plug in’ is that normally you will only have to set it up once!

Add Your Latest Blog Post Headline to Your Email Signature

You may be able to do this automatically as many blogging platforms have apps that can assimilate your blog post headlines into your signature, but if not, it’s often worth doing manually. You never know when a post title might strike a chord with an email recipient, thus sparking a conversation that could lead to a business deal or a joint venture.

Use Social Networking Sites to Establish Your Authority

Next time you’re involved in a group discussion on LinkedIn, or helping someone out with a query on a forum or discussion board, don’t forget to include links to any blog posts you have written which are pertinent to your discussion. Most social media and networking sites will allow this, providing the content you are linking to is relevant to the user and not blatant self-promotion.

Interact With Writers Whose Blogs Are Similar To Yours

Just finished a post on a particular topic? Why not do a quick search to see who else is blogging on the same topic or a similar theme. Perhaps you have covered an angle or point they haven’t. In which case, add your comment and preferably leave your URL as well.

It’s a useful exercise to compile an ongoing list of bloggers you would like to connect with, or write a guest post for. Try to aim for one new connection each week – you’ll be amazed how much extra traffic you receive as a result of these interactions. You can also consider the possibility of joint-venturing with like-minded writers/ blog owners.

Start an E-Newsletter and Expand on Some of Your Blog Content

Fair enough, no subscriber likes to see the same old content rehashed over and over again, it’s a real turn off. However there are times when you may want to repeat a particular blog post for a new audience, or when you want to expand on a topic that received a lot of interest first time around. Starting an e-newsletter doesn’t have to be a lot of work, particularly if it’s once a month. And you can always ask contacts and colleagues to help provide fresh content and ideas.

Develop a Winning Social Media Strategy in 6 Easy Steps

So you have set up a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and you’ve also created your business blog.


Great. What next? What’s the plan of action? What are your marketing strategies?

Hopefully you’ve decided to get into social media for a valid reason – and not just because every business acquaintance you speak to appears to be doing it. So how do you go about reaching new potential clients, whilst establishing your credibility online?

Follow these 6 easy steps and you’ll soon be using social media like a pro:


Identify Your Target Audience.

Take a long hard look at your brand and who you want to appeal to. Write a one-line statement about your ideal target customer. What is his age? Where does he live? What is his favourite media? What are his hobbies? What is unique about the product or service you are offering him? In other words, why should he buy from you?

What Language Does Your Ideal Customer Use?

To engage on a social level with your customers, you need to be speaking their language. That means using the right words and the right ‘conversational’ tone. The essence of social media is that conversations are informal – it’s certainly no place for the hard sell!

What is Your Reader’s Most Pressing Problem?

When thinking about content for your blog, focus on the questions your target customer would most like answers to. Make a list of their most burning questions. Of course you won’t have to have immediate answers to these problems, just some idea where you can find the answers!

As chief blogger, you’ll be acting as a researcher and editor – and in this role making sure you only provide links to the most interesting and timely content for each topic. In doing this on a regular basis, your readers will come to recognise you as an authority on your subject – and importantly – someone who doesn’t waste their valuable time. Like any great editor, you’ll only be using information from the most trusted and reliable sources!

Create Your Action Plan

Okay, so you’ve got some great ideas for potential topics in mind, it’s time to get them into some kind of logical order. One of the best ways of doing this is by using a Mind Mapping tool. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. If you don’t want to use a computer programme, a sheet of paper works fine. If you start with yourself/ your brand in the middle of the page, you can start extending ‘branches’ to your ideal type of customer, their problems ; possible topics and sources of content . . . you get the idea. Before you know it, you’ll have a whole load of possibilities worth exploring further. Just type ‘Mind Mapping’ into your search engine and you’ll find a whole host of resources, some of which are free to use.

Schedule Your Content

Using an editorial calendar to plan your blog content will make the process a whole lot easier. Also check out applications like HootSuite, TweetDeck and SocialOomph, which allow you to post simultaneously to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. You will also have the option of scheduling posts for a later date, which is really handy if you’re not around to do it yourself.


Put Quality Above Quantity

I can’t over-emphasize the importance of posting at regular intervals to your blog. Some people do this daily, but once every three days, or even once a week is fine. The quality of the content is more important than quantity, although don’t leave it too long between posts, otherwise you may find your loyal following dropping off.

Remember that, as an editor, your primary task is to source fresh concepts and topics and turn that information into valuable content that keeps your readers looking forward to the next instalment.

Why Video Conferencing is Beneficial to Businesses

In order to conduct business on a global scale, it pays to invest in the right types of communication technology. These days, many companies have satellite offices scattered around the world. Important clients and suppliers are often scattered across several different continents. Staying connected is critical, but the need to hop in a plane is increasingly diminishing. While the Internet has played a huge role in this development, video conferencing is making one of the biggest differences of all. Today's successful businesses rely on technology such as 3 way video conferencing to hold meetings, compare notes and to stay in touch when it matters the most.

Save on Transportation Costs

Fuel prices are at all-time highs. It's more expensive to travel by plane than ever, which means that the costs of holding in-person meetings and conferences can be prohibitive. In many cases, there's no pressing need to have every key player in the same room. With video conferencing, a company can still get together on a face-to-face basis without having to spend vast amounts of money to get everyone in the same place. Video conferencing happens in real time, so meetings can be scheduled when they are needed.

Last-Minute Meetings on a Whim

Emergencies crop up from time to time. Discussing such matters by phone can be quite inefficient. With video conferencing technology on hand, a company can hold an emergency meeting on a last-minute basis. Notifying the people who need to attend is easy, and getting the conference started is too. Using video conferencing in this way is akin to calling everyone to the boardroom. In this case, however, the participants can be located in far-flung corners of the earth. It is well worth it for a business to invest in this type of technology because it can keep business moving along no matter where various employees are.

Brilliant Presentations

From keynote addresses to presentations about new products and services, big announcements call for special features. The nice thing about video conferencing is that it allows businesses to hold presentations that include a wide range of cutting-edge features. These presentations can be shared with people across the world, and those people can interact and provide feedback at the same time. New ideas and exciting new strategies can be developed between participants who are located in several different time zones. The possibilities are endless.

Spend Less on Travel Accommodations

Hotel accommodations can be quite costly. In lieu of sending an employee out to participate in a conference, video conferencing is an affordable alternative. More and more companies are turning to this type of technology for this exact reason. Even if video conferencing is only used on special occasions, the amount of money that it saves a business can be considerable. Reducing overhead is an obvious way to enhance profitability, and 3-way video conferencing and related technologies can go a long way towards achieving that goal. In addition to that, it enhances employee productivity by eliminating a lot of wasted travel time.


There's no doubt that video conferencing is one form of technology that isn't going away any time soon. If anything, it will only become more ubiquitous in the months and years to come. By getting on board with it now, today's businesses can start enjoying all of its benefits as early as possible.

Four simple marketing tips for small businesses

As everyone knows, marketing is a key part of any company’s arsenal if it is to succeed in today’s world of instant communication and fierce competition. But whilst it is certainly essential to have a business marketing strategy in place, you don’t have to overcomplicate things – particularly if you are a small or fledgling business with a limited budget for promotion. 

Here are five simple and relatively low-cost tips to get you started:

• Strategic advertising: Big corporations will often have huge advertising budgets for both television and national newspapers or magazines, not to mention online. But if you are a small company you won’t have the capital for this so you have to think a little more creatively. Place adverts in local papers or on local website and remember that it is more effective to place smaller, cheaper adverts more frequently than to splash out on a big advert that you can only afford to place once a month. Also, design your advertising to help bring in more sales by including some kind of special offer to draw in the customers.
  
  
• Email marketing: Using the internet is a perfect form of business marketing for small companies because it is cheap and you can use it as often as you like. The crucial thing here is to compile a detailed database on your customers so you really know which products will be suited to them. Then you can work on sending out targeted marketing emails which are specifically tailored to their needs. Send out regular e-newsletters as well as this serves both as a reminder that your company is still out there, and as a way of keeping customers informed of new products or offers.
  
  
• Professional website: This is so crucial: your website is your biggest marketing tool and yet so many companies neglect it or allow it so look amateurish. It is worth it to hire a really good web designer to put together an eye-catching and simple-to-use site. Yes, it will cost more but every customer visiting your site will be impressed by its professional look. Once you have your website, update it regularly with new content to keep it fresh and current – another thing many companies fail to do.
  
  
• Joint promotions: Another useful marketing strategy if your budget is small is to team up with other small companies who are not in direct competition with you, but complement your business in some way further up the chain. For example, if you are a catering company, perhaps you might want to contact an events organiser or wedding planner and offer to publicise their services in exchange for them recommending yours. This is a simple and, more importantly, completely free way of generating new business.

If you are a small or medium sized business you may not have the budget or time to spend a great deal of money on your marketing strategy. However, every company needs a marketing strategy of some kind and luckily there are many simple and low-cost methods you can use to get you started.