Prioritize & Optimize

September 16, 2015 – Ryan Shearer – webworks89 leads Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing campaigns for their clients. This article digs into what to expect when you hire SEO managers and the different ways this position can bring value to your company.

Modern culture has acquired a sweet-tooth for digital media, subsequently more businesses have domain pages and social profiles to nourish these cravings. Since the dawn of the internet search engines have been hard at work to optimize seemingly endless amounts of web pages. As the years have passed, the strategies of SEO have changed, but one objective has remained a constant- keep strong and valuable content listed above less helpful, irrelevant content. Now more than ever, Google has a full-plate of websites that they’re responsible for evaluating and sorting through.

What is SEO?

SEO may not be an acronym that every person is familiar with, but when explained in layman’s terms, even those with little-to-no digital savvy can grasp its fundamental importance. This field has grown and it’s now a common practice for businesses to hire specialized SEO marketers. This won’t be a redundant blog selling you on why your business needs SEO marketers; instead it’s aimed to teach average tech minds about basic SEO features as well as what to look for and expect out of SEO marketers.

So what’s the first step in hiring a SEO marketing manager for your company? And what questions should you ask these potential candidates during the initial interview?

Well first, you’re going to want to take your business model into consideration. Depending on the size and scale of your company, you may want to steer your SEO strategy locally, regionally, nationally or even internationally for those larger businesses. With more moving parts, it may be necessary to hire a collective team of SEO strategists. This way each aspect of SEO is overseen by dedicated experts who can focus on  area. Once you have this business model in mind with the SEO direction you want to take, you can then begin the interview process.

Hiring an SEO Marketer?

During this interview you’ll want to hear ideas that a candidate has previously implemented with clients to boost their SEO, some of these techniques will be mentioned later in this blog. Just like in any other interview, look for honest and genuine qualities from each candidate. Ask them if they can deliver your business a number-one page rank on Google or Yahoo search engines. ‘Black Hat’ SEO companies are notorious for making this promise, using forbidden techniques to catapult websites to the top of page ranks. Beware of these phony SEO marketers, your site will either be penalized or in a worst case scenario, black listed. ‘White Hat’ companies play SEO by the book and will explain to you that their are no guarantees of #1 ranks, as Google is the only one that can control the order of these rankings.

When search engines like Yahoo and Google first began, the optimization tactics were loosely regulated and some unethical practices were used to gain an edge in page rankings. One of these tactics is known as keyword stuffing. Although it is imperative for your site to contain keywords, plugging in redundant keywords for the sake of increasing page rank will decrease the quality of your site. Another ‘Black Hat’ tactic is known as Link Farms, where a page will link to 50 or more websites that have nothing to do with their content or market. These websites will hold no relational significance to users and their sole purpose is to gain site popularity by any means necessary. To counter these practices, Google has added algorithms that are constantly identifying ‘spammy’ websites and punishing them in the page ranks. Without these algorithms, there would be no ‘real time’ way of rewarding White Hat websites.

Now that you know what NOT to look for in SEO marketers and strategies, what strategies do effective SEO marketers utilize to elevate their clients in search engine page ranks?

What are Good SEO Tactics?

It should all start with key words. As mentioned above, you don’t want to overindulge, but without these keywords Google will have no way of identifying your business product or market. Some target key words would be your business, your target demographic, your location (local, regional, national etc.), and specified services or products. By placing these in well written, detailed content, Google will know that your site is a trusted place they can send visitors to. Creating content can be one of the most time-consuming processes involved with SEO.

By hiring SEO managers you’ll have experts who can focus on keeping it fresh, relevant and plentiful. Copywriters can also add routine, personalized blogs to your website on business related events or topics. Social media can also play a large role in the SEO process, adding notoriety to your business’s website. When these blogs are shared via social media you’ll gain additional advertising and see your SEO rank will blossom. These social pages can serve as effective platforms for gaining back-links to your site, effectively killing 3 birds with one stone. By generating quality back-links you won’t be blacklisted like other poser SEO strategist’s.

What are Backlinks?

These back-links are another major factor that search engines use to optimize websites. SEO managers can create and implement link building plans with target markets and connections in your industry. Adam Heitzman, Co-founder of HigherVisibility, said, “The more people that know about you, the more people are likely to link back to your website; thus improving your SEO. Google has actually started rewarding sites for their popularity and connections with authoritative sites.” With the proper link building plan in place, these back-links will add up over time and stamp an approval of credibility on your site.

SEO is not a ‘quick fix’ solution for your website, but the benefit of having a high functioning site filled with quality content will be lasting reward to your business. Some companies use PPC (Pay-Per-Click) ads through Google Adwords to generate quick traffic to their site. This short term strategy has some merit to it, however an effective SEO plan will ultimately be of more value to your business. Dale Cook, SEO Marketing for webworks89, had this to say, “SEO is the definitive long term strategy that will raise your company’s credibility, as well as offer a user friendly experience when your website is well structured and has content that is original and educates the consumer.”

It’s hard to put a price on the value SEO marketers can bring your business as it will honestly depend on how effective they can apply their strategies week-in and week-out. Make sure you establish a solid communication report with these contractors, whether that’s over phone, through email or in-person. You should receive monthly Google Analytic reports that detail your website’s traffic. If you’re having trouble interpreting these analytical reports, ask them to write them out so you have a better understanding of your website’s results.

The traffic of domain pages will continue to pile up on popular search engines like Google. Hiring an SEO manager may be the best route for your business to take so you can beat this traffic jam and sit atop of Google’s page ranks.