SEO Consultant Ireland

How to handle the SEO jobs?

Irish companies are still not 100% sure if to have the SEO outsourced to the specialist SEO Company, or to hire SEO staff directly, and have them work onsite. The constant barrage from the SPAM email offers from mostly Far East SEO companies and their low pricing and the high contract rates of the local Irish SEO companies and professionals mate things even worse! To outsource to an unknown company on the other side of the world, or to hire a local provider – who will in most cases charge you twice more?

The reason it is so hard to hire a SEO staff or engage a SEO company is that there is relatively little understanding on what SEO really is. It is not uncommon to hear the completely opposite opinions and definitions on what the SEO is. Some people bring in the pay per click (PPC) in it, some talk about on site and off site SEO, some talk about link building (now, how do you build a link?). The social media, made things even more complex lately.

So how do you hire someone not knowing nothing neither on what the task on hand is, nor the results that are to be achieved? You are quite likely to fail. If you stick to it, you are quite likely to fail a few times as well.

The same is true if you hire internally or a external SEO vendor.

Do it yourself SEO jobs are the natural result of this situation. You either try to do it yourself if you are a small company, or you ask the existing staff you have to learn and do the SEO tasks for you. That is even more often a recipe for the disaster. You are asking of your staff to do a SEO job that they have not been trained for and have no experience in it. Jet somehow you expect them to succeed?

Hiring for SEO jobs is tough.

The best peace of the advice is to get a the best SEO professional you can get – to help you and do the job interviews for you. Regardless if you are hiring an external SEO company, or a onsite SEO vendor, or the person to do SEO inhouse on your payroll. You are far likely to get the right one to do your SEO jobs than trying to asses the candidates yourself (presuming you are not a SEO specialist yourself!).

What is the best SEO Software?

That is a question I get asked from almost every client. Jet I never really know how to answer that question. Why is that?

There are number of the SEO tools I have used and still use a number of them, depending on the site I am optimising. I wrote about a number of the SEO Tools on this site, and Hubspot is the one I use for a long time. They keep coming out with a new tools, relevant to the new things that happen on the web. Hubspot Twitter Grader is just another fine example!

I Wrote about the Stompernet Site Seer, a whole list of Google SEO tools like Google Webmaster Tools, KeywordSpy and many others.

But to answer the question – What is the best SEO Software, I simply cannot. I just realized I never even wrote a blog post about a single SEO Sofware package. Is WebCEO, SEOElite, Internet Business Promoter (IBP), SEO Suite, SEO Studio, and a long list of other SEO Software packages really not worth an article?

Well in all fairness they surely are! But each of them will cover a few task SEO specialist does, and try to automate the process in completing those tasks. Most of the SEO Software does a great job.

The unfortunate fact is that there is no SEO Software that does it all even for one type of the web site. I actually use Excel and Notepad more than any purpose built SEO Software.

Performance Related Search Engine Optimization Service is very, very interesting business model.

Let us compare it with the other forms of advertising.
Pay Per Click (PPC) is the first one that comes to mind straight away. In the PPC model, you place your advertisements for free, and pay only when someone clicks on your advertisement.
Pay Per Action is the next step, where the placement of the advertisement is free as well, and the payment is due when an action is created on your web site, like a product is sold, user have subscribed or in general – a conversion is made. Affiliate schemes work in the same way.

Both PPC and PPA are great advertising models to start with, since there is no setup cost. You only pay when the service is delivered successfully. You also pay only as much as many visitors or conversions you have made you your web site.

Applying the same way of thinking to the SEO – where it is 100% performance related SEO service has a few problems the need to be overcame for the service to work.

For SEO your site will need to be changed. Meaning SEO people will have to do it themselves or instruct you web development people on how to do it. If you have an interactive site, or an online shop, it will almost certain need to be your web developers who will need to make changes for the SEO on your site. This puts the SEO company completely at the mercy of the Web Development company. Yet the Web Developers get paid by the hour and SEO company is paid only by the performance of your web site in Google?

Would you go into the relay race (where you depend on all other guys in your team), where they are all paid for each race, and you are paid only if your team wins?

That is what a performance related search engine optimisation service really is (in most cases). And that is why performance related SEO projects fail so often.

Thanks again there is ‘The Dark Side’ of the SEO, where performance related SEO projects thrive. In most cases those are variants of the black hat SEO techniques involving hacking other web sites and placing large amounts of inbound links to your web site. The result is the instant top ranking of your web site, but in most cases fairly quick addition to the blacklist, and removal from the Google search results.

So without trying to use any scare tactics, you have to know your SEO Company very well, before accepting any kind of performance related SEO service deal.

As any other work, the Search Engine optimization has its Cost, that has to be part of you Online Marketing Plan, and your SEO Budget.

The Search Marketing is probably the most misused term in the marketing industry in general. At least 50% of the marketers use the term incorrectly! Why?

Half of marketing people would define Search Marketing as buying paid search listings. The other half would with the paid listings within the search marketing realm include the natural search results listing within the term of search marketing.

Half of them must be wrong – but which half?

The split is actually really down to the middle. While even the top online marketing institution: Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) includes search engine optimization (SEO), most of the Marketing Agencies who are providing the service to the customers would do a very basic onsite SEO, and pour the clients budgets in the paid search advertising. Google AdWords Pay per Click (PPC) program, would in most cases take at least of 80% of the search marketing budget.

So although in theory the Search Marketing should include the SEO, the reality is that if the client doesn’t specify exactly what they are looking for – most of their money goes to PPC. This is excellent for any short term, once off publicity campaign. It is great for a rock concert ticket sales or political activists in a month before the election (and silent for the next 4 years). But for a site where you need a constant stream of new web site traffic, and you plan to run the site for more than a month or two – Google AdWords or any other PPC is probably your worst enemy. It is quick and seductive because it delivers within hours. But it will also drain your budgets if not planned properly, and leave no funds left for the SEO.

The Search Engine Optimization on the other hand is extremely slow (in Interment marketing time). Some search agencies will tell you that you have to wait for months for the results! It is not measurable up front, and a lot of SEO experience is required to properly plan the SEO budgets.

So next time you think of ordering the search marketing services, think about what your goal is (long term or short gain), and ask your search marketing company where in the SEM will they spend your money in – Is it PPC or SEO?

Your Internet marketing strategy should start with creating of the Internet Marketing Plan. It should start with the definition of all the aspects of your web site content.

Here is a short guide for developing an effective content marketing strategy.

1. Research
In a nutshell, do your homework:

•Research competitors web sites content. Whether you’re launching a full web site or just a blog, see what the competitors are doing. What do you like from waht you see and what not? Can you replicate the good aspects and perhaps even build upon?

•Concept your style based on audience and type of content. Conversational for B2C, More professional with B2B communication. Your style should be reflect who you write to.

•Define the clear goals and message of your content. You will most likely confuse your audience if you do not have a strong definition, and if you do not follow it.

2. Design
Step 2 is all about planning

•Determine responsibilities. Before deploying a content marketing plan, ensure that you’ve outlined who will be responsible for the content. If you are not in a position to hire a dedicated resource, it’s essential to appoint someone to incorporate content maintenance into his or her current responsibilities (be realistic here). Content maintenance could also entail tasking each employee to contribute one piece of content per week or month.

•Organize content. Think structure here. Make it easy to search for a particular topic? If your readers have a difficult time navigating through your site to find useful content, they’re not likely to stick around for very long.

3. Build
Steps 1 and 2 complete, you’re ready to start putting the wheels in motion:

•Plan a style guide. Include as much information as possible regarding everything from tone and voice to target word count. Provide best practices for optimizing content. Include writing checklists.

•Create a copy deck. A copy deck is essentially a roadmap for your content pages, including text, graphics, advertising and links. It can be developed in stages, starting with writing a few paragraphs to describe the content.

4. Publish
With the first 3 steps in place, a content marketing strategy is finally ready for deployment:

•Maintain. It’s crucial to have a plan in place to continuously update content. Outdated content will quickly turn readers away. The stagnant site will not flourish in search engine results.

•Monitor. Leverage analytics tools to gauge what worked best and what failed. Look for patterns in the most popular types of content—i.e., checklists, charts, case studies. What search phrases do visitors search for when they come to your site? What do they read? What is the best article length for your site? What titles work best? Do images help?

5. Rinse & Repeat
The final step to creating an effective content marketing strategy is ongoing:

•React and Respond. No content marketing strategy was made perfect. Based on analytics reports, continuously tweak your content efforts to maximize results.

What steps would you add to create an effective content marketing strategy?

Looking for an SEO Expert?

Or are you a SEO Expert yourself?

Not? Well everyone else seems to be? So what’s wrong with you?

In reality, everyone calls themselves a SEO Expert nowadays. There are no credentials required really. Most of us think that there is no experience really required. Kind of – you get up one day and decide – today, I will call myself a SEO Expert.

And the world all of the sudden seems so different to you. You are important professional now. People are very interested to hear what you have to say.

It feels great actually to become a SEO Expert all of the sudden. It is a life changing experience. You are invited as a speaker to pretty much any conference that you can think of. If you add a bit of the social networking in the mix of your expertise – you will have to run a busy schedule! You get invited to speak and are asked for quotes from the editors of the magazines you didn’t even know existed!

You can pick the projects you want to work on. Greed clouds your judgement and you tend to choose the SEO projects with the largest budgets. Months are passing, and your clients see no benefits from their investment in you – the SEO Expert of their choice!

Problems. Project cancelations. Clients asking their money back. You of course, the SEO Expert keep on explain them that it is either their fault or that SEO takes time.

In the meantime you are also realising what works in the sales process of the search engine optimization. It really is very cool how the phrases like

• First page in Google Guaranteed
• Page 1 ranking in 30 days

Open up the check books instantly. The Guarantee works somehow as the insurance to the buyer. It can only be a REAL SEO Expert offering 100% Money Back Guarantee, right?

Clients are piling up. There is a waiting list now. You think of the expansion. I should hire SEO staff to manage the demand! If the demand slows down a bit, you can always pour a few thousands in Google AdWords, and the hungry clients will come for your SEO Services.

Soon enough, this country is too small for you…. Expansion to Europe is on the cards. Or perhaps the Far East? Or should we do the IPO first?

Such is the life of the self proclaimed SEO Expert. Not easy really. Tough choices.

Read any good SEO books lately? No? Me neither.

Why is that?

SEO is evolving far too quick for the traditional book publishing process. If you have even been involved in book writing – you know well enough that it last for months if not a full year.

A year in ‘Internet Time’ is a long as a Geological Era really. Think about what the Internet looked like a year ago. Than one more year ago, than one more… and you can see Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, WordPress Blogs, Blogger, …. diapering.

If you start writing a SEO book today on you will write it from the today’s perspective (at best). The day the book gets published the data it describes will have more Historical value than the real one. You might as well call your SEO book: ‘Internet, as it once was…’.

To learn about the search engine optimization, do not try to find a magic SEO book that will teach you all. That SEO book does not exist. That SEO book cannot exist.

Read blogs. Like this one. Forget SEO books!

The most important part of the on page SEO optimization is the title of your page. Google search engine gives a lot of weight to the title of our website. Your web site will be displayed in the search engines – by the Page Title. Crafting the perfect title is a core skill of the SEO optimization.

As the first step you need to find your main keywords or search phrases you are targeting. Once you have 2 to 3 keywords or phrases you can start with the title optimization of your website by placing the keywords in your title tag.

From a small keyword research here are 3 key phrases to target and use in our title to target if you are selling ‘USB memory sticks’.

To decide what of those keywords to optimize the site, and it’s title for, you need to check the competition. Why? Most likely there will be tons of sites optimised for the main keyword, and most likely a handful of sites optimised for the keyword that has just half the search volume. You will have to decide if you want to go for the main keywords, or will you settle to be the best in the smaller ‘market’. In most cases optimising for the keyword that is not the leading one in the market will return results far more quicker and your ranking will get far higher. Simply enough – there is less sites competing for it.

Welcome to the Memory Stick Web Site

…is probably the worst tithe for your site. Jet so often that is exactly the formula people use to craft a site title – or a first heading on the home page.

So why is that so bad practice really?

Remember that your sites Title is displayed in the search results. It needs to be inviting to the visitors to click on it. ‘Welcome’ and ‘Web Site’ are not doing any good. If a person is searching for the Memory Stick, the title should be ‘Memory Stick’.

SOE optimization practice is to get the title to 100% match the search phrase. If not 100% than as close as possible. Your Title has to contain the (exact) search phrase you are SEO optimizing for. To make it more inviting you might put a word or two ‘around it’. Preferably ‘behind it’.

In SEO optimisation this is usually referred to as Keyword Prominence, The keyword prominence really important aspect of title SEO optimization. For better title optimization the prominence of the keywords in your title tag should be at 100%. The keyword prominence formula for title optimization is based on three factors:

Based on the three factors to have a better title SEO optimization you need to:

Confused about all this SEO services you are being offered constantly? Receiving a million of SPAM emails a day from the Best Indian SEO Company? Talked to a number SEO companies and got contradicting advices? If you recognise yourself here – read on. This article explains what SEO Services really are.

SEO Services Basics

The aim of the SEO is to bring your web site more relevant visitors. Majority of the visitors to any site are from the search engines (with a very few exceptions). For the search engine like Google to bring you visitors the following must occur (in the following order):

1. Your web site has to have text
2. The text should be relevant to what your web site is about
3. The text needs to be presentable to both visitors and search engines
4. The search engine needs to find your site
5. The search engine needs to index your web sites textual content
6. The search engine needs to include your web site in the search engine results pages
7. Your site has to be ranked high in the search engines – to be find by humans searching
8. Your site needs to be presented ‘nicely’ in the search engines to invite humans to click on them in the listings

This is what needs to happen. The way to achieve it is the following:

SEO Services Tasks

1. Creating the content – copyrighting
2. Preparing he web site for the search engine indexation
3. Creating links from other web sites to your site.

The first two are called On Site Optimization Where the last one is called Off Site Optimization (it is not performed on your own web site).

This are the basic general tasks offered combined as SEO Services. Some companies claim to have some mystic knowledge or powers, and others will guarantee you top ranking in Google. The reality is that the more guarantees you get from a SEO company, the less likely will you be satisfied with their performance. Their performance – being measured in your web sites increase in the search rankings, and therefore increased numbers of visitors.

If the Internet is in the core of your business, it might be wise to hire an in house SEO consultant to perform your SEO Services. If you are a smaller company or the online aspect of your business is not of a great importance, you will engage with an SEO company that provides the SEO services. The SEO process is the same in both cases.

First there was Marketing.

Then they invented the Internet, Google, and the search engine optimization was born!

Marketing people felt under the threat. Is SEO going to replace the need for marketing in general? Where we are today in the evolution of the online marketing is that the SEO is the key ingredient of most of marketing campaigns online.

Why SEO Marketing?

Why would I bother with SEO, when I can just purchase the traffic via Google AdWords? Both SEO an d PPC have their advantages. PPC is instant, and that’s why people love it! SEO is long term investment, and is far less transparent.

SEO Marketing is unavoidable if your PPC campaign cost is getting higher and higher. Historically almost every search keyword is getting more and more expensive. There is a point where a cost per click (CPC) becomes so big that it eats up all your profit of an online sale.

When SEO Marketing?

When CPC costs overflow! Your cost of sale should be (far) below your margin, so that there is some profit at the end. Your margin is not likely to increase, but with the cost per click rising – any business gets to the stage where the cost of the visitors is simply greater than the margin – in it becomes unprofitable business model. PPC is a short sighted marketing planning. SEO Marketing is what builds sustainable long term online businesses.

If your online business is depending on the constant flow of fresh web site traffic, your best choice is the SEO marketing. If you have a once off event, like opening of a new cinema, and you need to fill it for the opening night – PPC is your best friend.