Search Engine Optimization FAQ’s

When you experience uncertainties about your online marketing campaign and how to proceed in the creation of a strategy, you must be sure that you are basing your decision on the facts of the industry; how it works, whom to target, the dynamics of PPC, etc. Less than 100% certain could mean the difference between online marketing successes and unfortunate losses.

Below, we have compiled a cumulative SEO-FAQ report to provide you with basic knowledge about the dynamics of Internet Marketing, PPC, Organic Optimization and Social Media Marketing from an analytical point of view. In this industry, numbers don’t lie and we present statistical data to prove why you NEED a professional SEO or SEM agency to help you market yourself online.

Is my audience even online?

The Internet has grown rapidly over the last decade. Over the course of 10 years there have been major advancements in the speed of browsing, search algorithm refinements, Internet speed and online advertising. A recent report by Neilson-Netratings said:

Surveys fielded in 2006 show that internet penetration among adults in the U.S. has hit an all-time high. Our latest survey, fielded February 15 – April 6, 2006 shows that fully 73% of respondents (about 147 million adults) are internet users, up from 66% (about 133 million adults) in our January 2005 survey. And the share of Americans who have broadband connections at home has now reached 42% (about 84 million), up from 29% (about 59 million) in January 2005.

…And that’s just your adult market share. As you can guess, the percentages for younger adults, children and teenagers are much higher than the adult percentages. The demographic for online users is broad and, these days, the level of Internet usage is at an all-time high making it imperative that your services and products are have created an online presence.

Businesses looking to advertise online should be up-to-date on the percentages of Internet users and searches per month. The charts below show the average searches for April 2007, separating work searches vs. home searches.

A report by the New York Times published in 2004 quoted industry executives:

Roughly 85 percent of Internet users rely on search sites to navigate the Web and although the growth in Internet users in the United States is slowing — 77 percent of Americans are online — the average Internet user is searching more. According to NetRatings, online users conducted 1.2 billion searches in May, a year-over-year increase of 30 percent.

Statistical information is hard to ignore and, as the years pass, it is evident that the majority of Internet users will search online before exploring other avenues to find what they need. This means you CAN’T afford to NOT have your site ranking online, especially when your competition is already optimizing. We can help you find your competitive intelligence and provide you with the online success demanded by today’s business world.

Why is PPC important?

The rapid growth of the Internet and the rate at which websites are launching has developed an impressive practice that has potential of yielding great results. When you begin marketing your company’s website online, organic searches are best to have first, but organic search optimization can take time. However, Pay-Per-Click advertising can return results and top search engine placement almost immediately, making the importance of the tactic evident when hoping to increase traffic at a much faster rate.

The massive number of worldwide Internet users has created a pool of marketing opportunities that most businesses are capitalizing on and using to their advantage. In turn, the PPC growth rate is increasing by billions of dollars each year. Below you’ll find stats showing PPC growth rate in Google and Yahoo and make up the majority of the market share.

These numbers are impressive and show a profitable growth rate regarding PPC, but do not provide a clear picture on the projected growth rate of overall online advertising. See below for data collected in years past as well as a prediction (2011) of dollars spent on online advertising for businesses.

With the rapid growth rate of PPC and online advertising, these numbers give more weight to Pay-Per-Click advertising and the success of small and large businesses that are utilizing the method.

The SEO Agency takes a unique PPC advertising approach, researching your competitors’ angles, evaluating keyword efficiency and never participating in bidding wars. By focusing on product-specific, longer tail keywords within a market space that is not heavily competitive, we gain an advantage and a HUGE opportunity for our PPC clients who report almost immediate increases in conversion rates and improving quality scores.

How can Social Media Leveraging help my online marketing campaign?

Social Media Leveraging attracts a great deal of attention, as well as links, to your website; most consider the method to be “New School” SEO. This type of social media marketing is so effective that there are many companies relying solely on social media marketing as their campaign. Our motto at The SEO Agency is to combine the old and new school SEO tactics into one strategy in order to provide you with the highest level of ROI.

The graph below shows the initial traffic spike after a social media marketing campaign.

A client of The SEO Agency began with little-to-no online presence and received a 45,000 Alexa ranking, which translates to approximately 5,000 visitors per month in just 3 months. To do this, we implemented social media leveraging, along with social media marketing. The spike in February (see above) is the result of a piece of content we provided; then, we leveraged the content with our social media accounts. Following the implementation was a massive increase in ORGANIC inbound links from popular authority sites. Below you can see the Technorati rank achieved from this single campaign.

We use quality, effective, white hat and ethical techniques in our social media leveraging and have guided our clients in building powerful social media accounts. We also continue our leveraging in-house.

I have a small business and I don’t think SEO can help me.

Small businesses need SEO just as much, if not more, than large businesses; larger corporations already have brand recognition, along with a very flexible marketing budget. WE are here for the small businesses. We utilize many SEO techniques and provide your small business with the exposure it needs. Suggested avenues for small businesses include local search, pay-per-click, social media, mobile search and, of course, a budget-friendly SEO strategy. Below is a chart on local search ad spending.

See below for a look at how local search results can be populated within a search engines like Google.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, “More than a third of small business owners said that losing the Internet would have a major impact on their businesses, and 18% said it would put them out of business.”

An interesting fact about local search is that over 30% of all search queries have local intent and 80% of all purchasing activity takes place within a 5-mile radius of one’s home. The convergence of mobile search has helped increase these numbers as most mobile searches are for local businesses. With the emergence of Google 411 and its competitors, the growth rate of local search is literally the future of search marketing, making it ideal for small businesses.

Did you know that over 40% of small business owners have their own websites for advertising, receiving feedback, as well as communicating with customers, suppliers and employees? Small businesses have a great opportunity to capitalize on an almost untapped marketplace. When these percentages start to grow, you can expect to spend a lot more time competing for top positioning in local search, so jump on this opportunity NOW. People are searching for your business right now…. are you online?