SEO stands for search engine optimization. This is the complex, scientific process of getting your website to show up at the top of the Google search results for your main keywords.

Several years ago the number of links was the #1 most important factor in getting ranked. You could go buy 10,000 links the next week you could be #1 in Google. However, things change rapidly in the Google-scape, and if you did that today, you would most likely get your website de-indexed (removed) from the Google search results entirely. SEO has evolved from the simple days, to being a very complex algorithm comprised of 250+ items. Links, semantic text, on-page optimization, keyword density and link velocity are just a few of the factors that we have to consider as we are working on boosting your site to the top of the search engines. And, just like baking a cake, if you put too much of one ingredient into the batch, it can ruin the whole thing, so we have to systematically, and scientifically apply our processes to be sure to keep a solid balance.

As with all products and services, you can get the cheap version, or a good version. If you were going to buy a bungee cord and jump off the highest bridge, would you want the $2.99 bungee cord being sold along the side of the road, or the triple-reinforced, factory-tested and certified bungee cord made with the highest quality materials with a 100% success rate? With things that are disposable and don’t matter, then cheaper quality is fine, but with something as important as your business and your business rankings, you want the best. We are the ‘better bungee cord’ and we have a 100% success rate in getting our clients to the top of Google.

Results happen immediately, but visible results may not happen for a little while. This is all driven by your industry and how competitive your market and your competitors’ SEO efforts are. The efforts that put forth have an immediate impact, but that could mean moving you up from position 47 to position 32 in the first month. Most people, when they say ‘results’, they mean ‘when am I going to be at the top of the first page’. We have had some clients who were in the #1 position, nationally, within one week of us working with them, but that’s not the norm. Typically, it takes about 2-3 months for visible success, and sometimes up to 6 months to see top-of-page success. It all depends on your industry. When we have our consultation we can typically give you a good estimate of the timeframe to see results.

One of the great things about SEO is that the results typically have pretty long staying power, unless you are in a very competitive industry. We have customers with whom we’ve worked over three years ago. We got them up to #1 in their area. For budget reason they needed to discontinue, but they have remained at or near the top of the search engines since.

This is a strange question for us to put in our proposal, but it’s one of the main questions we get, so we figured we’d answer it. We’ve built our company on a platform of service – we want every customer we work with to become a raving fan. We are happy that we can look each and every one of our customers directly in the eye and know that we have done the best for them we could possibly do. To prove what we do and how we work, we have testimonials and references you can contact who will tell you about our service and the great things we’ve done for them. However, the bottom line on this one is … you’ll have to trust us (and you’ll be glad you did).

This is probably the biggest source of questions and confusion for people as it relates to Internet marketing. Click ads are the ads that show at the very top of the Google search results page and off to the right column. You can buy your way to the top of Google using the click ads and you can be there immediately. You pay ‘per click’ so when your budget runs out, your ads stop showing and when you decide to stop the service and stop paying for ads, your ads stop immediately. There is no long-term residual with the click ads. This is typically a short-term plan to get immediate traffic.

With SEO, it may take a little longer to get to the top of the page, but when you do, you can get an unlimited number of clicks for no additional cost. Also, if you decide to stop SEO services, your rankings will remain for a while, as all of the work that was done to boost your rankings remains all across the Internet and until someone else comes and takes you down, you’ll be at or near the top. This is typically a plan to get more traffic in the long-term.

One of the best ways to run your Internet marketing is to partner SEO (long-term) with AdWords (short-term) and adjust your budget with each as you go along. Once you are at the top of the search engines organically (SEO), then you can either quit the AdWords budget, or target different areas and/or keywords.

No. Unless you are in a very non-competitive market, one-time SEO is not very beneficial. Due to changing algorithms, increased competition and a changing landscape in general, SEO should be done on a regular, on-going basis. This allows for consistent, dynamic changes that can continue to keep your website at the top of the rankings.