LINK Pasadena, CA:

Search engine marketing has certainly changed over the years. I began my first website in 1997, only a year after Amazon came online. Websites were so archaic then but to make matters worse, connections were so slow that it made the experience of surfing a less than positive one.

Even still, our desire to gather information from other people’s hard drives drove us forward to improve the internet. If you have an hour or so to kill, check out a site called the waybackmachine. They keep ongoing copies of sites as they evolve. Taking a look at Google or Yahoo search engines when they were in their infancy is quite comical but it also gives you a very good idea of how quickly they have evolved…or have they?

As much as we’d like to think that the algorithms for Google and Yahoo (these 2 make up 75% of search so we forget the others), are perfectly brilliant, they just aren’t. How many times have you searched for something very specific and received every result but the one you needed, causing you to endlessly try other search phrases.

Even worse, how many times have you received results that have absolutely nothing to do with your search? Somehow they magically appeared on page one (the only page that really matters). Let’s go further. How many times do you think you have the right listing then you click on it only to find a maze of links? These sites try to hog the search engines somehow thinking that you’re going to give up and buy something from them just because you’re there. OR they get their money by signing up businesses then bundling them in their core site. The end result is the user has to dig deep to find what they really wanted when it should have only been one click away.

For me, if it’s not one click away, I’m not doing it neither are your potential customers.

So what do you do? There are thousands of companies offering this funny thing called search engine optimization or seo. They will promise you the world and charge you a fortune for it. Most will promise listings in the top 20 for your search terms.

Do you really know how your customers will search for you? You probably don’t and if you did what will 3 specific words or phrases bring you? What if your customers use different words, will they still find you? What if they’re not customers but rather, they’re looking for complimentary businesses, do they find you then? Do you go to a shopping mall with the intent of buying one item or do you look around to see what interests you?

The bottom line is that getting found on search engines is not terribly complicated and it doesn’t take long either. A 48 hour turnaround to get listed in the top 10 (that’s page one) is pretty typical. We have some really ridiculous listings where we have 6-7 of the top 10 listings, the record is 7, which was for an attorney service. On average 1-2 in the top 10 is standard, listings 11-20 are not relevant as far as we’re concerned.

Although it doesn’t take long to get listed, it does take time to craft the listing so it shows. It’s an art in itself because the goal is not only to get listed in the top 10 but also to get the searcher to click on the listing THEN, actually read the content and contact the advertising company. So, the job is hardly complete when a top 10 listing is achieved.

One must understand the business of the advertising entity. This understanding will lead to well crafted and relevant content that the reader actually will enjoy reading. How’s that for a change? The searcher will actually only be one click away from finding what they really wanted, what a concept!

We’ve done this for a while, in fact, Google did a case study on our contextual advertising efforts in 2004 prior to their IPO. They were so happy with us helping them in this case study that they sent a very nice, large Google beach towel! WOW!

If you’d like to read more on this case study or you have questions on getting your business found i.e. seo, search engine optimization send us an email.

We don’t publish our ideas and will only disclose fully what we can do for a business in person or by telephone.

For search engine marketing in Southern California, more specifically Pasadena and surrounding areas
email: consultants.west@gmail.com

Related article: Getting my Rancho Cucamonga business found in the search engines.

We’ve all heard the numbers. Consumer sentiment is down to its lowest level in 26 years. What does this mean? Basically, people aren’t feeling very good about the economy, their jobs, savings or their mortgages.

Rancho Cucamonga and Southern California has been particularly hard, likely due to the quick build-up over the last 5 years. Many people here bought homes at the peak of the market and now have no or negative equity in their homes. When people get to this point they just don’t run out and spend money at the local stores.

Discretionary funds are now used for necessities like fuel and food. Discount clothiers like Piper’s Space in Rancho Cucamonga are doing particularly well because they offer used or 2nd hand designer kid’s clothing at a fraction of the cost. Shopping at businesses like this just makes sense in this economy.

Regardless of what your business is whether it’s in the auto industry, clothing, or high-end services you still must continue to market. This is not the time to completely cut out marketing your business unless you want to be closing the doors soon.

We’ve seen struggling companies make strong efforts to market when they were against the ropes and it has paid off for them. Ford was hurting with huge quarterly losses. What do they do? They become the premier sponsor for American Idol marketing one of their smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles. Smart move, they posted a $100 million profit this quarter and surprised everyone.

Washington Mutual was hammered (like most banks) with the subprime mess. Did they stop marketing? Of course not, in fact I’ve never see a bigger push by WaMu in banner ads and direct mailings. We receive 2-3 per week!

Yes, these are large companies with deep pockets but it’s all relative. There are consumers in Rancho Cucamonga spending money on goods and services. This pool of people is smaller so if you don’t market, they’re going to find your competition and spend their money there.

There are lots of avenues to market from yellow pages or yellow book as they now call it to advertising in the Daily Bulletin. For me, when I’m searching for something to buy I always go to the search engines. It’s the fastest easiest way to find what you’re looking for and most of the time you’ll also find business reviews, which can be very helpful.

If you have a business in Rancho Cucamonga, whether it be a $50 million/yr. or $10,000/yr., check the search engines and see how you do. Try dozens of different search queries, the way you think potential customers will find you. Do you show up or do your competitors? If you’re not there, you can guarantee that the limited pool of buyers is heading to who is there.

And remember, don’t visit page 2 of the search listings, no one else does. That’s just part of our need for immediate gratification on the internet. We must search and find what we’re looking for immediately, otherwise we jump ship and go somewhere else.

Find out more about promoting your business in Rancho Cucamonga.

Search engine marketing has certainly changed over the years. I began my first website in 1997, only a year after Amazon came online. Websites were so archaic then but to make matters worse, connections were so slow that it made the experience of surfing a less than positive one.

Even still, our desire to gather information from other people’s hard drives drove us forward to improve the internet. If you have an hour or so to kill, check out a site called the waybackmachine. They keep ongoing copies of sites as they evolve. Taking a look at Google or Yahoo search engines when they were in their infancy is quite comical but it also gives you a very good idea of how quickly they have evolved…or have they?

As much as we’d like to think that the algorithms for Google and Yahoo (these 2 make up 75% of search so we forget the others), are perfectly brilliant, they just aren’t. How many times have you searched for something very specific and received every result but the one you needed, causing you to endlessly try other search phrases.

Even worse, how many times have you received results that have absolutely nothing to do with your search? Somehow they magically appeared on page one (the only page that really matters). Let’s go further. How many times do you think you have the right listing then you click on it only to find a maze of links? These sites try to hog the search engines somehow thinking that you’re going to give up and buy something from them just because you’re there. OR they get their money by signing up businesses then bundling them in their core site. The end result is the user has to dig deep to find what they really wanted when it should have only been one click away.

For me, if it’s not one click away, I’m not doing it neither are your potential customers.

So what do you do? There are thousands of companies offering this funny thing called search engine optimization or seo. They will promise you the world and charge you a fortune for it. Most will promise listings in the top 20 for your search terms.

Do you really know how your customers will search for you? You probably don’t and if you did what will 3 specific words or phrases bring you? What if your customers use different words, will they still find you? What if they’re not customers but rather, they’re looking for complimentary businesses, do they find you then? Do you go to a shopping mall with the intent of buying one item or do you look around to see what interests you?

The bottom line is that getting found on search engines is not terribly complicated and it doesn’t take long either. A 48 hour turnaround to get listed in the top 10 (that’s page one) is pretty typical. We have some really ridiculous listings where we have 6-7 of the top 10 listings, the record is 7, which was for an attorney service. On average 1-2 in the top 10 is standard, listings 11-20 are not relevant as far as we’re concerned.

Although it doesn’t take long to get listed, it does take time to craft the listing so it shows. It’s an art in itself because the goal is not only to get listed in the top 10 but also to get the searcher to click on the listing THEN, actually read the content and contact the advertising company. So, the job is hardly complete when a top 10 listing is achieved.

One must understand the business of the advertising entity. This understanding will lead to well crafted and relevant content that the reader actually will enjoy reading. How’s that for a change? The searcher will actually only be one click away from finding what they really wanted, what a concept!

We’ve done this for a while, in fact, Google did a case study on our contextual advertising efforts in 2004 prior to their IPO. They were so happy with us helping them in this case study that they sent a very nice, large Google beach towel! WOW!

If you’d like to read more on this case study or you have questions on getting your business found i.e. seo, search engine optimization send us an email.

We don’t publish our ideas and will only disclose fully what we can do for a business in person or by telephone.

For search engine marketing in Southern California, more specifically Rancho Cucamonga and surrounding areas
email: consultants.west@gmail.com