Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search Engine Optimization,

or SEO, is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines in the “natural” or unpaid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. The logic behind that is that to get more visitors to a website, showing up at or near the top of search engines (such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing, among the hundreds of others) is a key component of an overall search marketing strategy.

So, in plain and simple English, what is SEO? Watch this two-minute video for a brief overview.

Other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) target paid listings.  This is often referred to as Pay-Per-Click, or PPC for short.  Read more about PPC here.

In general, the earlier (or higher on the page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engines. SEO targets different kinds of searches, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Of course a HUGE part of that is for which keywords your page shows up – it wouldn’t matter if you had a million page one rankings for search phrases no one uses or that aren’t relevant to that specific page’s offer.   We’re not here to stroke your ego.  We’re here to help you grow your business.

Case in point:

An SEO client recently shared that their business is up 191.47% year over year for the January-May time period.  Their four best months EVER are in that time frame.  That’s because they’re getting more business by ranking for the right search terms – keyword phrases people are searching for specifically when they are looking to make a buying decision on a product or service.

Many SEO firms will promise rankings, but in the end it’s about growing sales.  Here at W3 Group Marketing, everything we do is designed to help you increase your sales and profits.

As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO incorporates a solid understanding of how search engines work and what people search for. W3 Group Marketing uses specific tools to estimate what search terms people type in as well as how many searches a given term actually is searched on during a daily or monthly time period.  W3 Group Marketing takes this several steps further and helps clients get more actual customers by researching keywords and keyword phrases to determine what terms people are searching for when they are looking to buy, not just browse.  After all, you could have millions of website visitors per month, but if no one is buying, you’re wasting your effort.   There are exceptions to this, of course, such as websites that attract visitors with the objective of a certain percentage of them clicking on advertisements on the site, for which the site owner is paid for each click.

Which online marketing strategies you end up using will depend largely on your business model and how you intend to monetize your website.  So SEO may or may not be the best method depending on this and other factors.  For most websites, however, SEO is (or should be) a strong component of the overall marketing strategy.

Unfortunately there are a lot of  ripoff artists in the SEO space.  Frankly, we don’t want you to waste a dime on those scoundrels.  So whether you end up doing business with us or not, we’d like to give you a free report on How Not to Get Ripped Off by an SEO Firm here.  Or you can get it on Amazon Kindle, if you prefer, for a whopping investment of 99 cents.

Optimizing a website typically will involve editing its content, HTML and other coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic.  A large portion of SEO is link-building, so an ongoing strategy to continually increase the number and quality of links to a website is critical to success in Search Engine Optimization.  A positive side effect of link-building is an increase in website visitors from the pages linking to your website, so this is a win-win scenario where efforts to improve website traffic from one source (the search engines) also tends to increase traffic from other sources (referral traffic, or traffic from websites linking to your site).  Social sharing and social signals (likes, favorites, comments, subscribes, etc.) are of more importance than ever in a proper search engine optimization strategy.  And as of April 21, 2015, Google’s algorithm now “rewards” sites that are mobile-friendly by ranking them higher than sites that aren’t, especially when searching from a mobile device.   To see whether your site is mobile-friendly in Google’s eyes, you can test it here: Mobile-Friendly Test

The acronym “SEO” can refer to “search engine optimizers,” a term adopted by an industry of consultants who carry out optimization projects on behalf of clients, and by employees who perform SEO services in-house. Search engine optimizers may offer SEO as a stand-alone service or as a part of a broader marketing campaign. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and site content, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. The term “search engine friendly” may be used to describe website designs, menus, content management systems, images, videos, shopping carts, and other elements that have been optimized for the purpose of search engine exposure.

Howard Cattie “The Coach”

President & CEO, CareerOyster 

David Wright is an excellent online digital marketer. He understands the details of SEO, websites, and lead generation. I’ve worked with him for almost 5 years and he is always current with the leading algorithms, analytics and trends. He makes substantial increases in leads for companies and his work is characterized by competence and integrity. I recommend David for any online marketing project

A different class of techniques, known as “black hat” SEO or “spamdexing,” uses frowned-upon methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that have a negative impact on both the relevance of search engine results and the quality of user experience with search engines. Search engines such as Google do look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.  If your website is key to bringing in business for your company, one of the last things you want is to be removed from a search engine index.

W3 Group Marketing only uses and condones white hat (ethical) SEO tactics and Search Engine Optimization strategies.  We also only work with ONE client in a particular niche in a given geographic area.   After all, there’s only one #1 spot on Google for each keyword. Plus that way you can rest assured that we won’t be doing the exact same thing for your #1 competitor down the street.

Amanda Hailey

Was a W3 Group Marketing client for several years then changed companies

David is a talented marketing professional with expert knowledge in SEO and internet marketing. He is reliable, easy to work with and his services are reasonably priced within the marketplace.