How to Develop an Ultimate Internet Image Through Advanced Search Engine Optimization – SEO
As an Internet marketer or simply as a traditional brick and mortar businessperson attempting to build traffic to your website, one of the key ingredients necessary for an ultimate Internet image is an effective SEO strategy. SEO, for the uninitiated, is search engine optimization and means, quite simply, developing an online strategy that will enable search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN, ASK, and the myriad of others to find your Internet real estate, web property, your website and/or blog. SEO is more of a process than a single action and it takes time and an intelligent, well thought out strategy requiring time, patience, and yes, money. However, if the SEO strategy is developed properly, and with an eye towards long range goals, in other words getting to page one of the various search engines and staying there, a holistic approach to your ultimate Internet image and your inbound marketing, search engine optimization strategy is required.
Why Inbound Marketing and SEO?
Why SEO and online, inbound marketing as opposed to a traditional offline, outbound advertising strategy? Well, there are a number of reasons but one of the main reasons is there has been a shift, a transition from outbound, intrusive advertising to a customer/client driven, inbound, new media approach to marketing. Why? Quite simply it has to do with the emergence of the search engine and the ability of prospective customers to initiate the search process and seek out marketers, particularly businesses offering the service and/or products they require. There has been a transition from the consumer as a passive recipient of advertising messages to the catalyst in the process, seeking out and finding merchants online, via the various search engines competing for their attention, and their business.
The Importance of Page One
So why SEO, why not some other form of marketing, some other Internet image building strategy? Significantly, it has been demonstrated that as many as 80% of all individuals initiating a search on the Internet by way of the various search engines, “Googling” as it is commonly referred to, do not actively record where they have been or the web addresses they have uncovered. It has also been demonstrated that individuals engaged in a search rarely go deeper than page one, on any search engine, and almost never deeper than page two. Interestingly, many times the prospective client initiating the search, instead of going on to page two or page three, will simply types in a new search term or phrase, referred to as keywords or long-tail keywords, and continue on rather than going deeper into the search engine result pages or SERPs. As a result, it is critically important to get to page one on the various search engines as soon as possible if you want to have a chance of being discovered.
The Cost: “Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later!”
While SEO may be expensive initially, the long-term costs when weighed against other forms of marketing and promotion may in fact be the most cost-effective way to promote both online and traditional brick and mortar businesses. The main drawback to SEO, if you can call it a drawback, is that it generally takes time. Search engine optimization may also be expensive, at least initially, but in terms of a long-term marketing strategy it is relatively inexpensive. When compared against PPC or pay per click advertising and traditional, outbound marketing strategies like the Yellow Pages, television and newspaper advertising, SEO is in fact a pretty good deal.
SEO Chops Shops: When the Price is Too Good!
Of course there are what I refer to as SEO chop-shops. But beyond mentioning them, and reminding people of the age-old adage, “You get what you pay for,” I am not going to say a whole lot about them. The results you get from such sources, I won’t even dignify them by calling them specialists, are generally impermanent and, interestingly enough, may end up causing you your good name and your ranking. So take care when considering price alone as the determining factor because the adage is true and the cost may ultimately be much higher than anticipated to undo the damage caused by these “experts.”
When Old SEO was Enough
To continue, for a long time search engine optimization consisted of making sure a website, blog, or both, was keyword rich. Optimization included a keyword appropriate domain name or URL, an optimized website or blog title, the appropriate meta tags, an optimized description, and a solid linking strategy. While there are other components, these are the main ones traditional SEO specialists concentrated on, in fact many still do. We will cover each of these in an upcoming article but for now suffice it to say, these were considered the necessary ingredients, The Holy Grail of SEO.
The Changing Face of Internet Marketing and SEO
Interestingly, there has been a change in optimization strategy and in what is now referred to as new media or inbound, Internet marketing. Significantly, traditional SEO is simply not enough by today’s standards. Old search engine optimization strategies are certainly not enough to get to a search engine’s first page, and stay there. In today’s competitive world, a holistic marketing strategy must be engaged if one is to achieve a lasting presence and The Ultimate Internet Image. In subsequent articles we will cover this in greater detail but for now, what I refer to as a holistic marketing strategy is one that includes not only traditional SEO methods, but e-mail marketing, blogging, video marketing, social networking, social bookmarking, and a comprehensive branding strategy developed with one goal, getting to a search engine’s page one…and staying their! In the next article in this series we will discuss, in great detail, the various ingredients necessary to achieve a solid ranking and The Ultimate Internet Image, an online marketing strategy employed to not only get you to page one but to keep you there, long-term.
Transition and The Ultimate Internet Image!
The transition from traditional, outbound, old media marketing to an innovative, inbound, new media strategy is the focus of The Ultimate Internet Image, a new venture created to serve traditional brick and mortar businesses and Internet marketers alike. The Ultimate Internet Image focuses on an inbound marketing strategy while realizing that there is still power and usefulness in some outbound marketing media platforms. The UII marketing strategy creates a synergy, a synthesis of the old media with the new media in order to create a marketing plan designed specifically for the individual client, not a cookie-cutter, one size fits all approach so commonly seen online.
The Ultimate Internet Image has offices in Maine, Florida, New York, Minnesota, Ohio, and Illinois, with more opening every week. We welcome you to explore the ultimate opportunity, as a client or as a director and owner. Contact information is available at The Ultimate Internet Image’s blog, listed below.
We invite you to discover what it means to offer The Ultimate Internet Image!
For more on this topic: The Internet Marketing Quest Revealed
Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimateinternetimage.com
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