Search Engines use software tools,
called spiders, to constantly crawl through the web to
retrieve information from every website it knows about.
Search Engines have developed very complex ranking algorithms;
some using over 90 different parameters gleaned from their
constant internet crawls to weight results. For your web
site to achieve the highest visibility possible on your
products and services, your web page must be optimized
for viewing by a search engine. In addition, your website
needs to be aggressively marketed to the search engines
and appropriate directories. Sprocket Data’s value
to you is to bring our experience with web design and
online marketing techniques to focus on increasing internet
exposure for your web site.
Sponsored
links: Links paid for by a third party
and provided to the Search Engine by that party. Each
search engine containing this feature has different criteria
for who is a sponsored link. This is often an affiliate
or partner of the search engine. Links are able to be
purchased by a large advertiser or contributor, with a
budget of tens of thousands of dollars.
Benefits – With
Sponsored Links you get immediate “top of page”
exposure, highly targeted traffic to your website, and
excellent ROI tracking abilities. It can be like having
a virtual “commission-only” sales force
and you only pay if someone actually views your site.
Advertising strategies can easily be change by altering
your keywords.
Drawbacks –
Sponsored links can be very expensive. Initial investment
can be as much as $75,000 or higher. Also, they are
often viewed as “commercial advertisements”
and tend to be overlooked or ignored. Results are temporary,
if your budget runs out, your advertising ceases.
Web Results:
Non-paid results based on pure search, also called organic
results. Each search engine delivers their results through
a process of collecting data then sorting that data according
to its proprietary formula, or algorithm. The process
involved in obtaining a high ranking in this area is called
Search Engine Optimization (or SEO).
Benefits – Web
surfers tend to click more often on Pure Web Results,
giving you more, if less targeted, traffic. These “organic
results” tend to be less expensive in the long-run.
Results are much longer lasting. Clients will continue
to reap results years after a solid, well-implemented
professional SEO campaign, thus costing less in the
long run.
Drawbacks –
This multi-faceted process involves inside and outside
factors. Results are not immediate Getting to the top
of the engines is a non-stop, time consuming, and arduous
process that requires you to keep up-to-date on all
current events, trends and technologies in the search
engine industry.
Pay-Per-Click,
(or PPC), is advertising where you bid for keywords or
phrases. Your site shows up as a banner or advertisement
on the side or top of a relevant web search “results
page”. Each time a user visits your website the
bid amount is extracted from a pre-paid account.
Benefits – With
a Pay-Per-Click campaign you only pay if a web surfer
clicks on your ad, thus creating a virtual “commission-only”
sales force. You don’t pay unless someone actually
views your site. This can quickly bring you highly-targeted
traffic and make it easier to track your “Return
on Investment” or ROI. Also, you can alter your
marketing direction almost instantly.
Drawbacks –
Pay-per-Click can be expensive, often costing hundreds
of dollars per month for one desirable keyword. Bidding
wars can cause the price of a single word or phrase
to skyrocket. Also, you only get traffic as long as
you have a positive account balance. The moment you
stop paying you return to being invisible and this highly
targeted traffic ends. Results are temporary.
Site
Review
An in depth site review by an Online Marketing professional
is an invaluable service. An SEO site review has nothing
to do with the appearance of the site to a web surfer.
It has everything to the appearance of your site to the
search engines and directories.
Search
Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is the art of organizing
your website and outside forces to obtain higher rankings
in the individual search engines. Since no one can guarantee
a top placement, work is done on a best effort basis.
SEO takes time to get your website to the top. Since search
engines do not update their indices daily or even weekly,
it can take two months or more to see the full effects
of a professional optimization job. The staff at Sprocket
Data has the experience and knowledge to make this work
for you.
Link Exchange
Program
Link exchange is self-explanatory. Search engines today
are putting more and more emphasis on links that point
to your site. They view this as a vote of confidence in
your site. Developing a solid link exchange program is
integral to the overall success of your SEO campaign.
Since this is often a long and arduous process, SDI offers
this as a separate service.
Pay-Per-Click
Management
Managing a Pay-Per Click campaign can be tedious, time
consuming and expensive. Constant attention must be paid
to what keywords are bringing you results, what ads are
returning the most paying customers, where your ads are
being placed, and how much you are paying. Letting us
manage you pay-per-click performance frees you and your
staff to focus on making sales.
For a list of basic SEO terms and definitions, please
see our SEO glossary.
