The Magic of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Who, What, Where, When, Why and How

As an Internet Marketing Consultanting company, one of the biggest categories of questions we get come across our inbox is questions regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Now we can certainly understand why -- as an SEO expert it can be extremely difficult to explain to a potential client (often a stranger whom we have not had the ability to build rapport of trust with through previous projects) that there is this magical set of text, often hidden, on a website that tells those invisible search engine crawlers where to go, what to associate your provided information with (including those hidden components) and how to associate that linked information with your content.  Yes, there is information that can be placed on your website you can’t normally see on the surface that increases your visibility in search engines.  It sounds a little bit like online voodoo…  And we can certainly appreciate the skepticism.  What?  How?  Okay if I hire you, how do I know that work is even done if its invisible?  What exactly would I be paying you for again?  How much does this invisible work cost?  Yes -- We said we can appreciate it!

Search Engine Optimization

We are hoping to clear up a lot of the mystery that surrounds Search Engine Optimization right here, right now. 

First of all, Targeting Pro Marketing specializes specifically in SEO.  There are a lot of companies that both offer and claim to have “certification” -- when the truth is, as of the time this article is published, there is NO SUCH THING AS CERTIFICATION IN SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION!  We know - you're going to want to go and use your favorite search engine to go check that out, which is expected.  Don’t worry, we’ll wait…

Search Engine Optimization Help - Targeting Pro Marketing

See what we mean?  There are not only many companies that offer this “certification” (everything from a one hour online class to webinars to mailing you a nifty piece of parchment paper in the mail that didn’t even have to be tri-folded).  How can a company possibly “give certification?”  There are several degrees behind Targeting Pro Marketing’s list of achievements and knowledge … we know what it takes to be certified in many areas of Information Technology (IT).  What kind of backing would be behind those companies’ certifications?  Are they accredited?  Does it come from a Search Engine company itself?  (ie: Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc).  We went as far as to research this concept with several accredited colleges here in the United States.  The answer was always the same: “Now, why would a search engine company, who spends endless hours and funding to coming up with specialized search algorithms would possibly want to go and give away all of that scientific data and research to the public to exploit their search results?”  Thank-you!  That’s what we thought all along, too!  But the internet is flooded with these shady "black hat" SEO certification companies.  Not only that, but consider how many of those companies that claim to “give certification” and every company duped by their claims in becoming “SEO certified” with those mail-in pieces of parchment… Wow, that certainly is a lot. 

Take-away:  If you see a company claiming to be “SEO certified” you might consider packing up your bags and walking away.  There honestly is no such thing.  Even if that company honestly believes they have some sort of certification, they apparently are able to be deceived by one of the latest scams in the internet marketing book.

Now that all that is cleared up, let’s dig into the nuts and bolts of SEO.  The who, what, where, when, why and how. 

Who Needs SEO?

Those seeking SEO services are typically business owners or web developers who have sought specialized knowledge for their company's search engine placement.  At Targeting Pro Marketing, we take our consulting very seriously and in doing so have gained life-long clients through honest assessment and feedback of client needs.  SEO services are for those looking to take their website to the next level.  This is usually for new websites, revamped websites (keeping similar content and structure, but getting a bit of a facelift), or established websites looking to gain more traffic for a larger slice of the market share. 

What is SEO?

SEO is much more than invisible text on your website.  It is a series of logical and categorized information that tell the search engine crawlers what your website is trying to convey to the world.  SEO feeds information back to search engines like your company description, title pages, page descriptions, region (including coverage areas for regions such as countries, states, provinces, areas, cities and zip codes), and keywords associated with all of that aforementioned data.  It also includes links on the website that are placed intelligently with coherent corresponding information paired with alt tags (link information text) to further strengthen the informational bond search engine crawlers will use to associate the data you provide to the link you provide.

Where is SEO?

SEO should be on every page of your website … and beyond.  We know some of you may be scratching your heads at this time.  But SEO can reach much further than just your website -- think of the huge outside the box idea of social media.  BOOM.  You have grown your potential Search Engine Optimization reach on the World Wide Web exponentially when coupling it with social media marketing.  SEO can often be tucked away in areas of the website you cannot always see without going into the source code of your website.  You can see snippets of it when your website is built and you see those descriptions and page titles popping up all over the web!  You can also catch glimpses of alt tags if you hover over links in certain web browsers - you will notice when you hover over a link (don’t click on it), a little box with text will appear -- this is the alt text associated with your web link. Building up these different associations is how to build your SEO prescence on the web.

When do SEO results occur?

This is probably the hardest part of Search Engine Optimization to convey to eager customers who would love to instant results on their investment and efforts.  The hard truth about SEO is that you will not typically start seeing results until two to three months minimum.  If a company claims to give you results in days or weeks, prepare to be leery.  The results of SEO are both an art and a science.  There is logic and structure behind it, but how you decided to tie it all together and execute it can be as individual as the company who takes on the job.  You can map SEO results many different ways and depending on how you want to tie in all of that information can be a formula that is very unique and individual to that particular website.  Did a light bulb go off?  Viola!  That is exactly what search engines want!  Beautiful unique content that is tied to other beautifully unique content with information their search engine bots can understand and interpret.  BOOM. 

Why do you need SEO?

Having a good-looking website is great.  But what if we told you that ugly websites with great SEO probably get way more traffic than your $4,000 gorgeously custom-designed site?  Having an attractive website is great for a positive user experience, there is no doubt in that.  If you want people who do find your website to enjoy their interaction with it while they are there (whether it is for education, product showcasing, service offers, sales and specials, etc.)…  but don’t you want people to get there to begin with? 

How does SEO work?

We are sure many people aware of the sales funnel.  More potential in, the more conversions, the more clients, the more sales, and the more money your company makes.  Want to increase revenue?  Get a bigger funnel.  How do you do that?  Get more visitors to your website to start that conversion.  How do you get more visitors to your website?  Make the search engines happy.  How do you make the search engines happy?  GET GREAT SEO!  The sooner… the better.  Remember that turn-around time for results?  That clock starts ticking after you say go and your SEO Company adds the valuable information to your website.

Excited yet?  We sure are!  Targeting Pro Marketing has an absolute obsession with Search Engine Optimization … many dedicated hours to analyzing and understanding how it works plus the ability to map that information in a comprehensive way that applies to the subject website is what is key to success!  Targeting Pro Marketing takes great pride in helping people -- and taking your business to the next level with SEO is what we do best!

Search Engine Optimization Specialist

Contact us for a custom website analysis: 352-553-8739 of Contact Targeting Pro Online.

Mark & Christine Barber
Targeting Pro Marketing - Web, Graphic, SEO and Social Media Expert
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eMail Marketing Campaigns - Valuable Tool In Your Sales Arsenal

eMail Marketing Campaign - Design, Implement, Initiate

Custom eMail Marketing eBlast Design and Developement

An eMail Marketing Campaign can prove vital to growing any business.  We often receive a lot of questions on where to start.  Let's face it, setting up an eMail Marketing Campaign can be a little intimidating - especially if you have never had any experience with starting one.

Custom Graphic Design Marketing Campaign

The first thing you want to establish is what your eMail Marketing Campaign will be for.  What is the purpose behind it?  To sell more products?  To sell more of your services?  To educate your customers about your products or services?  To showcase how your products or services are superior to your competition?  To drive more traffic to your website?  To nurture your leads to eventually make a purchase?  To nurture your current/past customers to turn them into new customers again?  ALL of these are great reasons to want to start an eMail Marketing Campaign, and having several types of emails you would like to focus on will be crucial to what direction you will take when you want to plan.

Newsletter eMail Marketing Campaign - eNewsletter

Planning is essential to know what it is you want to accomplish.  How much time can you allocate to building comprehensive and professional looking emails?  Granted we would all like to get our message across - but if you do not present your company with a professional face to the world, will they really give your email a second glance?  Think about how you feel about email in your own inbox and what you find valuable enough to open, let alone actually read.  This is the most essential part of your endeavor into email marketing!

Custom eMail Marketing Campaign Development

Next in the process is to determine your schedule and time allocation for each email produced.  If you or someone on your marketing team is proficient on design.  Typically each email marketing campaign program comes with it's own "what you see is what you get" editor - which can be utilized with basic computer knowledge.  If you or someone on the project team is proficient in HTML and graphic design you can really design a piece that will knock the socks off your readers!  If you do not have a graphic and web designer at your disposal, you may want to consider hiring a third party marketing consultant that can help you design an email template that you can reuse over and over again for future marketing (the biggest bang for your buck).  After determining how much time it will take you to create and design an email marketing piece and still take care of all of the other business tasks at hand, you can develop a release schedule for your publications.  Do you want to do a stringent bi-weekly regiment or something a little more flexible like a monthly publication or a monthly publication plus major holidays?  Lots of things to consider!

Custom Designed Holiday eMail Marketing Campaign

Staying out of the spam filter is inherently important - otherwise everything you have done before this point is for naught.  If your email is too "salesy" or "spammy" your readers will never even have the opportunity to see it in the inbox.  You must develop a good marketing plan for each and every email piece you publish.  This includes subject, from email, intro text, body content, graphics, links, alt tags and clear unsubscribe area.

Tracking and ROI are also important follow-up and feedback for your mailing pieces.  How many opens did it generate?  How many unique opens?  How many click-throughs?  How many unique click-throughs?  How many unsubscribes?  Does your website have the ability to track your web traffic?  Or better yet track the customer who receive your email, opened and clicked on it to see if they purchased a product or service from you?  What about those who didn't as a lost sale? 

Sales Event eBlast Marketing Campaign

Follow-up planning is also a key element.  Are you pulling up the report of click-throughs and landing pages?  Are you following up with customers who clicked on items in your email they were interested in by email or phone?  This is an easy way to turn a lost sale in a return on investment!

Custom Graphic Design Facebook Cover Photo

It is also good to be sure to reinforce your marketing efforts cross-platform.  Be sure to share your promotional email on Facebook, Twitter, your Blog, LinkedIn, YouTube and more - it will grow your efforts exponentially!  

Custom Holiday Graphic Design - Christmas Special

Sound overwhelming?  Need a little help?  Not to fear!  Targeting Pro Marketing is your one-stop marketing shop and can help guide you through your entire eMail Marketing Campaign to get you setup, on plan, on schedule, on target and earning money!

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SEO - Search Engine Optimization Help and FREE Evaluation

Internet Marketing Help: Targeting Pro Marketing

It seems today we can't possibly think of selling a product or service without a website.  It is our digital face to the world, and the most constructive way to get our message out to as many potential customers as possible.  When you designed your website or contracted it out, were you asked what types of page titles you wanted?  Did you have a discussion on url names?  What about keywords - for each individual page?  Were you asked about your meta tags and meta descriptions?  What about alt tags? Have you ever consulted with anyone regarding Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Chances are most web designers specialize in just that - designing your website to look attractive.  This is all fine and good.  You might have even hired a graphic designer to create impressive-looking graphics to include in your website.  Again, very visually appealing.  But you may be wondering why you are not getting the traffic or web leads you are looking for...

And that's where we come in!  We are able to tweak your standard template into something completely custom that encompasses your business in it's entirety.  Break out of your cookie cutter website and become innovative in your field!  We don't just slam out websites, we make them an integral part of your marketing strategy.  Sure the text you have may be thought-out, but have you thought about it like a search engine?

Sounds funny, right?  Thought about it like a search engine - well how do they think?  The answer in it's most simplest form is: Logically.  When you have a standard website you will typically have a menu - either a top bar, side bar, or both.  The truth is, that doesn't have to be your only form of navigation.  Be sure customers can click on images and text links that can get them to where they are going via your content.  Search engines do not only follow the path of your menu and navigation, but they also crawl your site looking for "support links" which go to certain pages defined by links and alt tags.  This helps to not just build a tree navigation like your menu, but a web of navigation supported by anchor text, images and alt tags for images and links.

Sound confusing?  It can be!  But don't worry, here at Targeting Pro Marketing we specialize in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and can help assist you along the way.  You can start getting a grasp on these proper link techniques by checking out the Targeting Pro Marketing - Internet Marketing Consultant homepage to see how we structure our links. 

Targeting Pro Marketing on Google

Meta tags are also the "hidden information" your website provides to search engines to help them know more about your message and what it is you are offering.  Are you a contractor?  Do your page titles and meta descriptions explain that for search engines?  Remember, they think logically, so the more structured keywords and supporting links you have going to certain pages, the more hits the search engines are going to say support your claim.  So if you are selling Chrysler vehicles, don't have a confusing message by mentioning other makes/models, don't use tags for competing brands, and try to get as many inbound links to your page regarding the product as possible.  We are constantly learning the latest trends, news, and techniques in internet marketing - we're experts so you don't have to be! An expert knows they became an expert by excelling in their field, we know you have to dedicate a lot of time to what you do in order to be successful, you can leave your online marketing to Targeting Pro!

Now this may seem like a lot of work - and we're not the type of company to lie to you - it truly is a lot of work.  As much time as you have you can keep putting into your website, including landing pages, blog updates, custom image additions, custom graphics and more and we like to think of it that a homepage is like a home - it is never truly finished.  There is always work to be done and always areas you can improve, enhance or add a completely new element to.  We're here to help!  We know web design, graphic design, social media and SEO - and we're happy to have all of our knowledge in your corner when you step up and take the plunge in enhancing your website, social media presence and networking.

Check out our Targeting Pro Marketin Reviews - We're real people working for real people! Our mission in life is to help others, and we simply love what we do. If you have any questions, please contact us for a free evaluation and estimate, we can't wait to hear from you!


Contact Targeting Pro Marketing for your next marketing project.
Mark & Christine Barber
Targeting Pro Marketing - Web, Graphic, SEO & Social Media Expert
Targeting Pro Marketing Professional Website
Targeting Pro Marketing on Facebook  
Targeting Pro Marketing Blog
Targeting Pro Marketing on Twitter
Targeting Pro Marketing on LinkedIn

Social Media Marketing - Emphasis on Quality

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is beginning to get more attention these days than say, seven years ago when we were first getting into it for business.  Now more and more companies are starting to see all the benefits social media marketing can give them, and what kind of exposure they can get in our now plugged-in world.  The problem that arises with this, is that there is no degree in social media marketing, there is no certificate, there is no training program one can go through to verify they have the knowledge, the skills and the understanding of how to do it properly.  So – how do you make an informed decision if there is no verification certificate?  The purpose of this article is to help guide you through the process on how to select the social media marketer that is right for you and your company, and how to spot red flags.

How To Choose A Professional Social Media Marketer

Social media marketing is a delicate balance of compelling graphics, valuable information/content, and modern trends you offer your friends, fans, followers and partners.  Does this mean you have to sacrifice quality?  (And we do emphasize QUALITY social media marketing!) Absolutely not.

It seems that every teenager or person living in their parents’ basement can claim to a “Social Media Expert” … but what does that mean, exactly?  You spend 30+ hours a week on Facebook?  You tweet 20 times a day?  What makes a social media marketer rather than a social media addict?  Quality content.  Anyone can make Facebook posts (heck even Grandma is doing it), anyone can use their smart phone to send out a tweet.  But what is the purpose behind it?  What does it mean?  What is it offering?  If you’re not giving your listeners something important – you’re just making digital sound waves.  And not the good kind. 

Sometimes social media marketing doesn’t get taken very seriously – if you are a social media marketer (ahem, check out Targeting Pro's SMM information here), you often get the “Oh so you just play around on the internet all day?”  After the dedicated professional side of us has to seriously refrain from doing bodily harm to that individual, we realize that this is simply due to a lack of understanding of the power social media marketing holds within a business plan.  There are many individuals out there who claim to be SMM’s but honestly, they do not take their marketing seriously nor do they perform it in a professional manner.

Question on social media posting quality: “ZOMG, Wud u want thsi 2 represint ur companee?” 

Not very impressive, is it?  In fact, poor social media marketing can be damaging to a company.  How would you feel if your name was misspelled in a post?  How would a partner feel if their name were misspelled in a promotional offer?  What about offering incorrect information on a sale item or give-away and having to honor it?  What about misrepresenting a product?  You lose credibility.  You lose customer trust – and that is a hard thing to build.  The world wide web, and especially social media, has made it easy for a dissatisfied customer to share their experience with the world, so great care should be taken into who you want being your “voice to the world” in social media.

Some things a company should consider when selecting a social media marketer to add to their team (either in house or contracted):

• Brand Awareness
• Event Promotions
• Sale Promotions
• Business purpose behind each action
• ROI (tracking) & Analytics

Some companies feel the cheapest form of social media marketing is the right price for them, and they may lack the time or ability to research their business options adequately for their needs.  Often times when the cheaper option is taken without investigation, there can be a a lot of negative impact that occurs when a poor SMM gets a company labeled in a poor public light.

Now try to put yourself in a customer’s shoes – how would you feel about a company that offered marketing material that had:

• Punctuation errors
• Spelling errors
• Grammatical errors
• Poor sentence structure
• Misspelled graphics
• Inconsistency, either with branding or sale promotion that offered something different after the link was clicked
• Using “I” when speaking as the company’s voice
• Linking to articles that display competitor advertising/links
• Lost sight of the purpose of being in touch with customers on a social media outlet
• Delayed responding to a question or comment posted on a social media outlet
• Did not respond at all to a question or comment posted on the company's social media outlet
• Flat out erased complaints on the company's social media outlet instead of dealing with them

Would you trust your hard earned money with a company that partook in the above marketing activities?  Would you not think they perhaps “didn’t have their stuff together” and would not be a good candidate for handling your purchases, processing your credit card, or may be unable to offer you the deal they promised?
 
We pride ourselves in being a social media marketing company.  It is a specialty niche in the marketing world that is constantly evolving and are addicted to it.  A social media marketer is always on, always learning and always a professional voice for their client.  There is no “We don’t know” in our vocabulary.  Targeting Pro Marketing is completely upfront with clients about our abilities and skill levels when it comes to meeting your needs, and if we are unable to assist your company directly we can certainly give a reference for a partner who can.

Want some tips on picking a great social media marketer?  Be sure to at least ask for the following items from your next candidates:

• Ask for references (happy customers should always be willing to refer a good marketer, talk to them, not just reference a review page that can be falsified)
• Ask for examples (request links to previous examples of work to show professionalism and tone in writing or graphic design)
• Ask for a proposal or business model (what are they going to do for you, exactly?)

These are what we would call a bare minimum requirement for any social media marketer you are looking to hire.  After all, a company should not think twice to request these three items from a web designer, graphic designer  or SEO expert, you should expect no less from a professional in the social media marketing field. (PS: We do all that, too!)

Contact Targeting Pro Marketing for your next marketing project.
Phone: 352-553-8739
Info@TargetingPro.com
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What is a Virtual Assistant?

A Virtual Assistant is a highly trained individual in various areas of expertise to help support your business in lieu of a full or part time employee. These business services are typically done via the internet, phone or fax to meet a client’s specific needs.

Hiring a Virtual Assistant (VA) is much more cost effective in today’s economy considering wages, benefits, unemployment and the ability to keep an employee hired for the originally agreed upon hours once a project has been completed. You hire a VA for as long as you need them – with no worry of over-extending yourself or possibly having to lay off employees in the future.

A Virtual Assistant will typically have an appointment with you or supply you with a questionnaire to help solidify the type of work that you need. Once the needs of the client are established the client is given a rate of pay for the services they are requiring. If the pricing is acceptable a Virtual Assistant can then be hired on a contractual basis depending on the needs of the client.

If you would like to start the process of hiring a Virtual Assistant - I would be more than happy to figure out a plan that works for you!

Email: Info@TargetingPro.com
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