Search Engine Optimization Marketing Services

SEO Services For Small Business

Search engine optimization marketing services, (SEO & SEM) makes up a large percentage of what we do here at z5 Marketing. If you have a business website this is the hands-down most cost-effective strategy for long-term traffic to your website.

There is no other form of marketing that will get you a more stable long-term return on your investment than SEO.

What makes this form of marketing so unique is you actually own 100% of the content. When you begin to look at marketing this way you will quickly realize that in almost all other forms of paid marketing you are only temporarily “renting” your advertising.

With SEO marketing you are actually building up digital property (your website) that you own. When executed correctly SEO will turn your website into a digital asset for your business.

What is Search Engine Optimization Marketing?

There are many aspects to SEO and it’s a continually evolving landscape. The end goal for the search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc) is to return the most relevant content for their user’s searches. Many people view SEO as a way of manipulating the search engines to “game the system”, but that’s not really the case anymore.

True search engine optimization is the art of knowing what search engines are looking for and making your site fit that criterion while providing useful content that your visitors want to engage with.

This creates a win/win scenario for everyone involved when you are delivering quality content that users are searching for. In fact, Google even publishes basic SEO guidelines of what they are looking for and how to improve a sites search rankings.

SEO Misconceptions And Temporary Results

A lot of the myths and misinformation surrounding what the average business owners know about SEO. There is no doubt that this helps contributes many business owners getting burned at some point (often by well-meaning amateur SEO’s who don’t know what they are doing).

The problem is that fifteen years the average SEO’s strategy was to basically manipulate the search engines by manipulating their search results with very low-quality spammy sites. We are talking sites stuffed with so many keywords (search phrases) that they were barely even human readable, but the whole intent was to get you to a page with a phone number at the top.

And at that time frame, it worked. And it worked very well for that purpose. But the results provided very poor user experiences for those using the search engines and these search rankings were short-lived.

Eventually, the search engines wised up to these (shortcut practices) and they still to this day continue to become more and more sophisticated with their algorithms in an effort weeding out the latest spammy SEO tactics.

Most of these sites were eventually severely penalized and their search rankings fell like rocks.

It was basically a cat and mouse game like an episode of Tom and Jerry in those earlier years of the internet, but as things have evolved search engines eventually have gained the upper hand in low-quality SEO work (for the most part).

A Better More Long-Term Approach SEO Marketing

As stated above, search engines have evolved and come a long way from those early internet days. Back then it was mainly about Onsite Search engine optimization (the SEO in the content of your website) but nowadays a lot of weight is being put on user engagement and other Off-Site SEO factors.

Two of the most important ranking factors in recent years is the emphasis on users behavior once a visitor is on your site and how well your content is circulated on social media.

Both of these factors are key indicators of high-quality content that users want to engage with (which should have been the goal all along for lasting results).

Basically in a nutshell, if you are cutting corners and looking for cheap shortcuts, eventually your site will get smacked down by the search engines. It’s only a matter of time.

But if you want to create long-lasting results that will keep you ahead of your competition for years to come, you need to do things the right way.

This often includes things like well-planned site architecture, solid information architecture, good onsite SEO, high-quality content, good user metrics, and more.

Our point is that it’s not really that one thing that you do anymore but rather a combination of doing many things well over a period of time that will create the lasting results that turn websites into digital assets.

How To Avoid Getting Burned By An SEO Agency

• Ranking Guarantees – The reality is that search engines can change their algorithms at any moment and no SEO Agency has control over that. This should be an ethical red flag and high likely hood of being overpromised other things as well.  Be leary of those who promise things that they have no control over.
• Promised Quick Results – SEO is NOT an immediate process, it often requires a lot of consistent effort on the front end before you will begin to see results. You should typically any avoid agencies who promise results under 3 months. Even if they do deliver they are probably taking shortcuts that will more than likely get your site penalized.
• Long-Term Contracts – If an agency does quality work why do they need to put you into a 12-24 month contract? In our opinion, you retention should be voluntary and not forced. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and this should definitely be considered a warning flag.
• Limited Interests – Avoid an agency that shows little to no interest in anything other than your website itself. If they are not interested in other areas such as analytics, social media, etc. this is a good indicator that you are dealing with an amateur.
• Lack Of Reporting –  At a minimum, you should be provided with at least monthly data showing your site’s performance and any results or lack thereof for the money you are investing. Typically you should start seeing noticeable results within the first 3 – 6 months depending on how broad and how competitive your market is.
• Lack of Transparency –  Simply if they can’t tell you what you are paying for or share monthly ranking and analytics reports with you… run!
• Low Cost –  SEO is a highly valuable skill to a business and it’s a time-consuming process. When done right it has the power to change a business’s bottom line and should provide a high ROI (return on investment). However, if done incorrectly by an amateur it can be very costly and even get your site penalized or removed from the search engine entirely. Avoid abnormally low priced SEO providers. You will get what you pay for.

Learn More About Our Professional SEO Services

• Local SEO for Small Businesses
• Local Maps Marketing (Google & Bing Business Listings)
• Small Business SEO Audits
• SEO Consulting Services

If you have questions about our search engine optimization marketing services or would just like to discuss how we can help you grow your business contact us today!