Today all businesses have one thing in common. It really makes no difference if the business is a brick and mortar storefront or an internet business. You can have the best food, you can provide the best service or you can be selling the next big idea. Unless the client can find you the chances of success are dismal. Google controls somewhere between 70% and 85% of internet searches depending on the source you use. The “Key word” based model has now been replaced with a “content based” model. It is counter intuitive for most of us to pay money for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) businesses to write articles, index your web site pages with Google and keep our website “Fresh” just to be found.
If you do decide to pay for the SEO companies to make your business more likely to be found just be aware that this is an on-going process. You don’t just pay them once and sit back and wait for your business to explode with new business. The rules keep changing and the cost keeps mounting. Take it from me because I spent over $20,000 dollars to a company that guaranteed me they would have my business on the first page of a Google search within a month. And they actually did get me on the first page of a local search for about a week. My placement on the page dropped each day until you needed a flashlight and a GPS to find me on the third page.
So it works like this, if you are a contractor, a real-estate agent or any business where each job nets you a large amount of money the return on investment may be worth the cost. If you offer a service or sell a product where the net sale return is low you are going to spent more money on advertising than you can afford. If you own any business you already have been contacted by hundreds of these companies offering you their service that will increase you sales. After speaking with salespeople who at one time sold SEO services and now are doing something else the story was the same. These companies already know by looking at what your business is, what you are selling and along with other factors they can have a good idea of your chances for success. The truth is these guys get paid for convincing you to buy their product. One former salesman told me that over half of his sales force came from the used car industry.
Several months ago I was contacted by a soft spoken gentleman with a strong Indian accent. He had helped Google design the algorithm they are currently using. That fact along with him being local was interesting enough that I agreed to meet him just to see what he had to offer. He explained to me how Google looks at each web site and how to use a series of words and code to produce back links to other popular web sites. My computer Doctor Business is already getting as much business as I can handle. I do have another internet business that has great potential but too much competition. Understanding the algorithm and how to implement the program had me on the first page of a Google search after a month and I am still there. If you are interested in learning more about this system feel free to contact me. I can show you where my other business ranks and the small amount of money is actually takes to get there.