Finding A Good SEO Agency

Well done search engine optimisation, often called SEO for short, is designed to allow websites to show up in search results when people search for products and services rather than simply company names. The idea is that people looking for things online are able to find a business website without any prior knowledge of the business or its name. There are all manner of tricks and techniques which fall under SEO, but the good sustainable methods (also sometimes called “white hat SEO”) are based around the idea of making your website easier for search engine to read and understand, meaning they rank you higher in searches for appropriately relevant terms.

It is not uncommon to decide to outsource SEO to external marketing agencies and other companies, but there are far too many dodgy types out there who like to take companies seeking SEO – especially local and small businesses – for a very expensive ride. How then does one actually go about finding a good, honest and legitimate search engine marketer?

It is actually incredibly easy to find a decent SEO agency online. Go to a search engine like Google or Bing and type in “SEO agency.” Ignoring the paid ads at the top, whichever firm has landed at the top of the search results are what you want – they must be pretty good at SEO or their own website wouldn’t be so high in the natural listings!

To narrow things down a bit, you could try extending your search. Say you live in Essex and want a local agency – just type in “SEO agency Essex.” Or if your website is specialised and you want particular help with it you can add your industry or site type – “SEO tourism” or “SEO eCommerce” for example. This can be a great way to find niche SEO agencies who have specialist expertise in your field.

Sometimes SEO agencies (or at least people claiming to be SEO agencies) try to solicit companies by sending them emails or submitting contact forms with various enticements and offers. However if you see something like this come in then it is best to ignore it – if a company which supposedly specialises in search engine optimisation is reduced to spamming inboxes to get business rather than, say, doing SEO so their own website ranks highly and people can find them anyway, chances are they aren’t very good. The same is true of SEO services advertised on paid ads at the top of search engines or on banner ads on other websites. If their search marketing is any good, why are they having to pay for their placements?

Another thing to bear in mind is to steer well clear of any SEO agency that promises you “top position for x keywords” or something similar. Nearly all modern search engines used personalised searching, meaning that everyone sees websites in slightly different ranking positions depending on their personal search history. Absolute rankings are a thing of the past, any anyone claiming to deliver this kind of service is lying through their teeth. Modern SEO will use sustainable “white hat” techniques in order to bring useful traffic to your website, not use exploits and dodgy tricks, which will constantly get them slapped by search engine updates like Google’s infamous Panda and Penguin algorithm changes.

Once you’ve found an SEO company that looks mostly all right you’ll need to ask them some questions before you leap into their services. As well as the usual checks like existing client list and testimonials, it is a good idea to speak to someone directly on the phone or in person. Here are some good questions to ask them.

  1. Who does their search marketing work? Is it handled by in-house staff? Do they do any outsourcing, especially to foreign companies? A lot of agencies outsource to cheap link builders in Asia who tend to produce very low quality work that can have a negative impact on websites in the medium to long term.
  2. How often do they report, and what format do these reports take? Any professional SEO agency should be providing regular updates to all its clients, along with written reports detailing actions taken and progress made.
  3. What kind of skills and qualifications do they have? Take a look at their existing client lists for any recognisable big names, and see if they have anyone who is Analytics qualified. Some companies even use quality standards like ISO 9001 which is an excellent sign.
  4. What else do they do? A lot of these companies are primarily website designers who are resellers for outsourced SEO services to boost their profits. It is better to look for an online marketing specialist to ensure you get a good quality service.

If you don’t have the money to hire a professional SEO agency there are other options available. Some companies will let you pay for a one off website review to make recommendations on how to improve your site from a search marketing perspective, or you could research current techniques and ideas to do SEO for yourself.

Many online marketing methods are in fact startlingly simple. Boost your domain authority by getting other relevant sites to link back to yours. Get a backlinks boost as well as general marketing benefit by using social media like Facebook. Keep your website full of regularly updated and good quality content to encourage people to link to you as well as grow the site’s visibility and importance. Use a good, solid SEO plugin for your content management system, and make sure your website’s code is error free.

Remember you’ll get a natural boost from modern search engines if your website is

  • Well designed, easy to use and nice to look at
  • Full of good, up to date and useful content designed for real people, not search engine robots
  • Free of errors, fast loading and devoid of spammy ads or buggy code

Happy website marketing, everyone!

Finding the Best Business Idea For Your Home Based Business

How many home based business opportunities are available to you? If you want to make money online at home, you really have many options to choose from. The big question is – which one will give you the biggest chance of success? Is there a ‘one size fits all’ answer? The simple truth is that not every opportunity is right for everyone, and not every opportunity will bring you the greatest amount of profit.

So, what are some home business ideas that can make money online for you? The quick and dirty answer is: the one that best suits your particular set of needs. Make a list of your priorities, including a high income; a low-risk schedule; freedom; flexibility; work-life balance; independence; something in your range of skills and expertise; and interesting work that you have an interest in… You can take this list with you and talk to people who are working from home on the same things that you would be considering. Chances are that you will find some great niches that fit your standards and your desires.

But what if you want to get started right away? It’s easy to think that you can jump into a new business idea and be successful immediately, but this often isn’t the case. It takes many different things to make sure that you will be able to get through the hurdles and actually make it to a point where you are seeing profit. If you don’t work at it slowly, you will be setting yourself up for failure. Here’s the lowdown on some different things that you should consider as you create your own business idea:

First, you need to think about what you have to offer. If you don’t have any ideas as to what to do as a freelance writer, a lowdown on finding a niche is very important. Many beginners go into this completely clueless. But if you know that you have a skill that others are desperately seeking, you may be able to provide them with the service they are looking for without having to spend much time building up a website or getting traffic to it.

Another thing to consider is what kinds of products or services would best fit a niche that you would like to get started in. In this case, the lowdown on finding the best business idea for you would include taking a look at what you love to do and what you can offer others. If writing is not your strongest point, but you love to get creative, consider freelance data entry. Freelance data entry does not require a lot of startup capital, but you still need to have the skills that will allow you to be successful in this area. The best lowdown on finding the best business idea for you is to simply start looking at what you like to do and what you can offer others.

There are many other areas of freelance writing that you can explore in order to make the most out of your home based online business. Freelance writers are in high demand online. If you have the skills that are needed to do well in this field, there is no reason that you should not be able to find a great home-based online business that will give you the income that you want.

Finding Funding For Your New Business

Although there are some businesses that were started with pocket change, most new businesses require money when starting up. The majority will need to buy equipment, establish a workplace and incur marketing costs – all before a sale is even made. As soon as the business starts trading, then there will be a requirement for cash to pay the bills and keep the business running.

There’s a range of financing options when starting up and running a business so it’s essential to choose the right ones to match your current status and your future requirements. Good planning will make it easier to raise the money the business requires.

It’s essential to have a written business plan to explain your business to banks and other potential resources. A good plan helps convince investors that you know what you are doing and that it’s worth risking their money in your business.

When you are choosing the best financial options, you might explore the advantages and disadvantages of the following resources:

1. Using your own money from savings, investments, equity, etc.

When starting a business, you’ll most likely have to put up at least some of the money. Most banks or investors will not put money into a business that the owner isn’t willing to fund.

2. Borrowing from family and/or friends

Friends and family may be more willing to lend money to you than a bank. Their repayment terms could be easier for you, but do treat them like any other serious source of funding by having a business plan showing how their money will be used. Understand that this could put a strain on your relationship particularly if your business starts to struggle. Never ask them to lend you more than they can afford to lose.

3. Bank loan

Overdrafts, credit cards and bank loans are the most common sources of finance. The overdrafts and credit cards are the most expensive way of borrowing. Banks will certainly want to know that you are a good risk. They’ll ask for a business plan, evidence of a successful track record, security and your own investment.

4. Outside investors or partners

Acquiring outside investment can be suitable for promising businesses that don’t expect to produce a lot of extra cash in the short term, but offer the potential of greater returns over a longer period. Business angels typically invest $10,000 and more along with offering business expertise. Whereas, venture capitalists usually invest more than $2,000,000 in businesses when they believe they will receive a high return on their investment when exiting,

5. Grants and government support.

The main advantage of grants is that it’s cheap financing. Check into subsidized or zero interest loan along with possible outright cash grants. Quite frequently the support schemes will offer advice, information or subsidized consulting. However, it’s important to note that there’s strong competition for grants.

Using a combination of these alternatives could be a consideration for many businesses depending on their needs and circumstances. As an example, you might invest your own money in market research; and then seek outside investors to share the risk and borrow from the bank to fund equipment and machinery purchases. Carefully explore your options to make the best choices when you are starting and growing your business.

Finding the Right IT Support Company for Your Business

It can be a daunting task trying to find the best IT support a company has to offer and the right IT support services for your needs. There are so many factors to take into account, and it can often feel like navigating a minefield.

The truth is that if you want your business to operate at its peak potential, it’s a minefield you must conquer. One of the key factors in running a successful business, and optimising your activities and processes, is finding the right IT support company.

Here’s a rundown of the process of choosing, and the essential steps to getting it right.

Step 1: Assess your requirements in terms of IT infrastructure

This can be quite an involved process, but it’s pivotal that you get it right! Assess your current IT requirements and identify what you need right now, and what you’re going to need moving forward.

Step 2: Do some research

Make a list of prospective IT support companies and do some research. Be sure to get several references and, if you can, speak to someone at a company they’re currently servicing. Check out their customer reviews and client testimonials -They should have dedicated sections on their website where you can freely view these. Google the company and see if they have a Google business account – this includes reviews!

Step 3: Get in touch

Once you are crystal clear on what you need (now and looking ahead) and you have your list of possible companies, get in touch with them and tell them your requirements. Ask for an obligation-free estimate. Gather responses, and see what they come back to you with. Don’t be afraid to meet them in person and discuss your needs. Think of it like any other interview – if you were hiring a new assistant or manager, you wouldn’t rely on email or even phone calls, you’d interview the candidates in person. You need to see how you get on, personally, and whether or not you’re compatible enough to form a good business relationship. Get them into your office. While they’re there, assess their attitude and perspectives, bring up a specific issue or two that you’re having, or have had in the past, and see how they react.

Step 4: Read the fine print

A tedious but completely necessary step is to look at the fine print that comes with each of the companies you’ve met with. How good is their confidentiality agreement? What are their terms? How long would you need to give notice if you needed to change to a new company? Are there any ‘hidden’ charges that might apply to you? There are a myriad of small details like this that can sway your final decision. Make a pros and cons list for each company based on their estimates, your experience while meeting them, and the benefits and downsides of working with them.

Step 5: Make a decision

It’s time to be decisive! Making the final decision really comes down to a combination of price comparison, the benefits on offer, and gut instinct. When all else is equal, go with your gut!

Step 6: Choose a person

The work doesn’t stop when you choose a company to work with. It’s your responsibility to keep on top of things, take care of all the basics and liaise with your new support company to ensure you are getting exactly what you need. You should appoint a single person to act as the point of contact between your business and your IT support. One person who always deals with them and knows the workings of your relationship backwards. Any problems, on either side, they deal with them – it will make everything run a lot more smoothly!

Step 7: Start a fault log

This is a simple but often overlooked process. Start a log of all faults in your system. It ensures you have a record if you need it and will aid your new support company in looking after you as best they possibly can.

The Four Steps In Your Ultimate Niche Finding Formula Give You the Product That Sells!

This article describes Tools For Marketing: specifically, the four steps in your ultimate niche finding formula that give you the product that sells!

One thing I want to emphasize right up front is this: having a niche is a good thing because it gets you to focus on one thing, and thus you can get very good at it. Main reasons people fail to be successful in the internet business are luck of having a plan, a direction, and a focused point. Therefore, having a focused point, a niche, can allow you to combine several related interests into something that is unique and solves a particular problem. In the end, having a focus and an overall goal, i.e., a niche, will make you more successful and bring you more money, long-term.

Finding your niche and the right products to promote requires a methodic way of searching for value, volume and high profit potential. The whole process has to be done right from the beginning. That is why you need a winning formula you can follow, step-by-step, from the beginning to the end. We will therefore start with the basic niche finding – niche getting – niche winning formula that you have to follow, your blueprint if you wish, that will get you results…

Below are the four steps of your ultimate niche finding formula that will maximize the potential success of your efforts to accomplish this task. They are derived from your personal interest on a topic which denotes your passion for that topic, your knowledge about the competition – because you need to know the size of the market, and your ability to do market research to find out the demand for your niche (are people out there looking for products within your niche).

1. Brainstorming a list of potential niches. As a rule, this is the first thing you need to do to determine if there has been enough interest in the market for a particular niche. The idea here is that if there is enough interest out there for a particular topic, people would have written books about it. Dummies.com is a good place to start.

2. Discover the search volume for this niche. This is the second step towards finding a profit making niche. Here is what to do: use the Google keyword tool (you can find this by Googling for it), then search for the keywords of the topic of interest – look for keywords with a very high number of global searches – 100,000, 500,000, etc. You do not want to be in the 25 million range as this niche is bound to be too competitive and therefore hard to make money with it.

3. Determine competition. In this step you want to make sure that there is a small number of paying vendors out there – paying for ads – which means they are making money. You do a Google search for key words of interest and see the number of competitors on the right hand side of Google’s web pages; must have at least 5-7 competitors.

4. Determine if there are existing affiliate products in your niche. Once you have determined that there is a niche for you out there, and enough people are searching for products in this niche, and there is some competition for that niche, meaning people are making money in this niche, then you need to look for products to promote. You do this as follows: log on to ClickBank.com – one of the biggest depositories of affiliate products, and click on “Marketplace”. Search for your keywords related to tour niche – and see if there are enough products for you to promote and sell.

There you have it. The four basic steps to find your niche, find a product for your niche, and sell it for profit!

5 Steps For Finding the Right Business Online

Simple and honest advice as to how not to be taken in on an Internet business scam. Follow these simple 5 steps and you will save yourself a lot of wasted time, energy and money.

Number 1. Do your diligent research above all else, do not act on your emotions. This would include, making sure you Google a. name of the person that is trying to bring you into the business. b. name of the company. c. name of the product. This will give you a dearth of information you can use, when making your decision to join or not to join this business.

Number 2. Make sure that the business you will be joining has a high profit margin and high cash flow. Too often people join a multi-level marketing company, and push pills, vitamins, lotions, and potions, insurance, vacations, health and energy drinks, etc. They have to put in hundreds of hours on the phones, and try to make a small profit on hundreds of items. Simply, does not leverage your time.

Number 3. Marketing will be the key to your business success. So make sure you have have a market for the products your promoting, and for sure target that market. You should have high technology internet tools, such as, an automated auto responders, emails, templates, lead capture pages, just to name a few.

Number 4. Training and mentoring. Without a doubt, make sure there is support and training provided and that your never left alone in the new business venture. There should be a training site, live conference calls and the person that brought you in, should also be a good coach and trainer.

Number 5. This is the most important point. Who ever is trying to bring you into this new business, simply do the following. Ask that person for at least 2 references with phone numbers of people that are making at least 50K per year on a part time basis. If the person, refuses to give you the names and phone numbers, and says something like that information is “confidential”, avoid that business. When you do get the references, call those references up and interview them about the business.

So, if you follow the above, will it assure your success in an internet business. Naturally, there are no guarantees, but it will go a long way to finding a legitimate business on the Internet.

Lead System Pro, A Solution For Finding Free Targeted MLM Leads Online

Lead System Pro (aka LSP), was created two years ago by a few struggling network marketers, who had been trying to build their MLM businesses on the internet, as well as face to face marketing. After achieving success online, they developed a system to help other MLM business owners succeed, with leveraging the internet.

Lead System Pro shows business owners how to generate their own MLM leads online with the “attraction marketing” concept. Rather than trying to recruit friends and family members into their business opportunity, Lead System Pro teaches MLM business owners how to sponsor highly targeted MLM leads into their business by finding those leads online.

With all the methods that are used for building an online business, (pay-per-click ads on Google and Yahoo, blogging, and even Facebook), new MLM business owners that turn to the internet to find new leads, can easily get lost and not know where to start marketing their opportunity. LSP has several marketing strategies that educates MLM business owners to effectively market with mentioned methods listed above, and many more.

Lead System Pro has 17 affiliate programs built into their “funded proposal” system. For example, if any leads that are generated into your LSP back office don’t join your primary business opportunity, you will receive a commission check if that lead purchases any other product or service through your affiliate links.

Lead System Pro will also show you how to stay in contact with your leads via an e-mail auto responder, (which you can integrate into your Aweber or Get Response account), and has 26 follow-up messages ready for you to use if chosen.

Lead System Pro has the best MLM training in the industry for building a business online. “How to” videos, training calls, and webinars can be viewed anytime in the LSP back office. There is also a live training webinar every Wednesday that features other successful MLM business owners, and/or LSP members that share their methods that are helping them generate leads online, and how to be successful with the correct mind-set as well.

Does Lead System Pro work? It is a well thought of program that can help any struggling network marketer or MLM business owner build their business on the internet. It’s up to each individual to put in the time and effort to do so.

Exit mobile version