SEO Consult Blog

Search engine optimisation has been around for a while and since its inception has changed beyond recognition. In the ‘innocent days’ it was about a few well placed keywords and you were up and running. Now it has evolved into a mighty industry that employs countless people who makes a career of the task of optimising other peoples’ websites.

It is not even slightly dramatic to state that SEO has turned into the biggest online marketing craze since the beginning of the Internet. It is quite awe inspiring when you trace how optimisation has changed and keeps on changing as more and more demands are placed upon the industry to develop techniques to boost websites to prominence.

Crucial not to miss a trick or a trend

A huge swing in how online marketing is done came about when ordinary people started having their say on the Internet. The birth of the blogosphere has brought radical changes to where today user generated content literally rules the cyber world. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has gone blog crazy and this is far too good an opportunity for any Search Engine Optimisation Expert to miss out on. Adding blogging to the SEO bag of tricks is a stroke of brilliance.

The web spiders simply love bogs as fresh blogging on a daily basis tickles them to come and have a look at your content. This of course is extremely good for your search results page ranking and that is what optimisation is all about; the best visibility to potential customers.

How do blogs benefit your SEO campaign?

Blogging has an informal and easy style without the restrictions of official website protocol. This gives you the optimisation opportunity for totally different keywords than those appropriate for your official website. You talk to people and they can respond to you in the same informal manner. The blogging medium gives your company and your products a personal feeling and this puts people at ease and makes them more agreeable to do business with you.

The traffic to your blog can be converted to paying customers and you have the opportunity for advertising through affiliate programs, Google Adsense advertising as well as selling straight advertising space. With the increase in your page ranking, optimisation in the form of Link Building outward from your blog comes into play and you can promote your other websites from here.

All-round fuel for SEO online marketing

Blogs are the easiest and fastest way to spread the word on the Internet and its a fun way to put a daily titbit out there for the search engines to pick up on. Blogging in itself is easy to do as you do not need special tools and the uploading is quick. Your SEO Marketing Strategy would miss out greatly if you do not add this invaluable tool to your SEO arsenal and use it as much as possible. Blogging has become the cyber equivalent of the village grapevine on a global scale and a valuable tool for optimisation.

It is imperative to allocate budget to fund the management of our site if you want your site to be successfully keep growing with your business. Without proper management your site is little more than a billboard type of advertisement, when in fact it should be viewed as a major form of marketing and branding for your product.

However a fair amount of technical knowledge is involved in site management and this costs money. What goes into site management is involved. It requires constant attention to details such as content, building and maintaining links, testing usability of the site and being able to design and generate reports for analysis.

Options available for managing your site are to either outsource or employ somebody in-house. A basic job spec for employment would read something like this. This person has to have graphic design capabilities as well as web programming skills. They must possess Good Copywriting skills in order to write good content and must be a fundi in SEO practices and have a very detailed knowledge base about web technologies. They have to be a business analyst and be able to forecast future business trends. After reading the list, you may have to employ a team.

Outsourcing is often a good idea, but can come with a hefty price tag, however they do have a place for smaller companies who are not able to fund a team of experts to manage their sites on a full time basis.

Ammunition

So, the decision makers have to be convinced that a budget needs to be set aside for managing your website, and quite often this entails new funding. But the alternative is to allow your website to die a slow death. There is enough research and information available to help you convince senior management that this form of marketing is strategic and is cost effective in the long run, especially when it is compared with other forms of marketing like media. Web management also attracts a unique form of client, return on investment and branding compared to other forms of marketing.

How much funding is enough?

As always marketing budgets are usually spoken about in percentages, that is, a percentage of the company’s sales, so the amount allocated varies from business to business. Some companies allocate a large percentage while others only need to allocate a small percentage; it all depends on the nature of the product. It is best to investigate what is the ‘norm’ in your industry.

Information about your website needs to be taken into account too, information regarding content, keywords, history of performance and what your Current Ranking is. This will have to be analysed by a competent business analyst who needs to determine best practice and what services will be required.

Tools

Whatever your budget, site management cannot be accomplished without maintenance tools and training of staff who will be using them. However, that being said, funding for SEO Management can be customized to fit any size budget, but it cannot and should not be ignored or omitted from your business plan.