Who is Going to Make My Local Company Thrive on the Internet?

Everyone wants the internet to make them rich. Making money from the internet is all about driving traffic. The more who visit your site, the more opportunities to capture a lead or even a sale. Choosing who is the best to person or firm to make your internet site drive bundles of new business to you is a process similar to picking a prom date.

There are two basic aspects of a website. One is how your site looks and how convincing it is for visitors to make that inquiry or purchase. The second design aspect is how your site is designed to drive search engines to put you on the first page.

Your choices to get a design that puts you on the first page of searches comes in four categories.

I am The One!

This is the person who tries to learn a little of everything and then does it all themselves. While it saves money, it doesn't usually make you money. Your expertise is in whatever you are trying to sell on the internet, not in the complexities of the internet. Spend your time on perusing leads and servicing customers. Let the people who spend their day researching and keeping up with the details of SEO do what they do best. What's SEO? If you have to ask, you really need a professional to handle customizing your web site to bring in potential clients.

The Basement Expert

This is the guy or gal who learned a little in school and self taught the rest. Everyone kept telling him "you should start your own business." Next thing you know he lost his job at "the company" and decides to go for it. If you hire this person, he or she will most likely be the hardest working of the bunch. They are in it for the love of it and thrive on their successes. Unfortunately hard work does not always equate to smart work. SEO is all about knowing how to attract attention to your site. There is that term again -- SEO. Even scarier about this option is if you decide to let this person manage your ad budget. Experimenting with your money and no proven way to demonstrate results directly from your ad dollars is a way to burn through the money fast. If your guy doesn't figure out for the first two months that Google Ads will automatically set your bid price for you to appear first in the ad list; you're wasting money. First is good isn't? Not if it cost you a dollar more per click than being third in the list. Does your newbee expert know that and does he know how to select key words with little competition and strategically stack your site with the same words in your ad? It's not about just writing a catchy ad that yields the best value. Google rewards advertisers who get the most clicks per viewing and for relevance. The reward is believe it or not, a lower cost per click price. Google's formula for all this is quite complex and is constantly changing. Ask your expert about how they keep up with the ever changing internet rules.

The we can do that too expert

This type expert usually has expertise in another media such as traditional advertising. Then one day an advertising client asks if they can increase traffic to their web site. The client services manager immediately responds "You bet. We're a full service agency." The client services manager then dashes off an email to the agency's leader asking if they have anyone who can meet with their client about SEO. Walla. They are in the SEO business.

At some agencies it happens this way instead. Economy is bad. Revenues are down. So they have a meeting to figure out how to get more business. The youngest member of the team says, "In school they stressed the coming importance of SEO". After explaining herself to the techno-dummies, the boss announces the agency is now in the SEO business and our new grad will head it up.

Either way, they want to become experts experimenting with your reputation and money (see above).

The SEO/SEM specialist

This a company made up of specialist that have the inside track on knowing how the internet formulas work and how to exploit them to your advantage. You will want a specialist that can show definitive tracked results for the money you spend. That is to say they must provide reports on cost per click vs. leads and sales. You especially want to pick a firm or individual who specializes in your category of business. That means, if the firm specializes in clients that advertise nationally, they are not the firm for a local company. Local companies have specific needs and the strategies are all different from national draw sales.

Picking the right fit...

Use this handy checklist of questions.

1. What is the makeup of your clients? (size, product types, budgets)

2. Do I have an immediate new for new business? Or am I

ok with traffic increases over time?
3. How will you prove the increase in business is the result of your internet marketing and it is not just results that would happen anyway?

4. How do you keep up with, or better yet, how do you keep ahead of the ever changing search engine formulas?

5. What is your philosophy concerning the results marketing?

6. How important is your businesses reputation?

7. How much support and customer service are you needing?