It is important to understand the basics of search, including the difference between paid and unpaid search, before starting any SEO campaign, especially a campaign that has both paid and unpaid elements.

Terminology To Know:
Organic: Un-paid search results
PPC: Pay-per click
SERPS: Search engine results page

Pay-Per Click Results:
PPC results are advertisements.  If you run a PPC campaign, you pay everytime a user clicks your ad and follows it to your website.  You usually choose relevant search terms to bid on, and your ad is displayed when a user searchs that term within Google, Yahoo, or other search engines. PPC results are displayed above and to the right of organic listings in both Yahoo and Google.  Google calls these ’sponsored links’ while Yahoo uses the term ’sponsored results’.

Organic Results:
Organic listings are un-paid results that are typically displayed in the main column of the serps.  These results are ranked by a number of factors used to determine their relevance to the search term.  Some of these factors include: keyword density, title tag relevance, incoming links, Google Page Rank and meta tags.  Organic results can contain map results, product results, blog results and video results.

The Above Image Shows How Google Displays Organic & PPC Results

What is email marketing?
Email marketing is an inexpensive way to connect with your current customers by sending news and special offers via email to customers who opt in.   It is a great way to keep your company on the minds of people who have purchased your products and services in the past and bring them back for a repeat sale.  It is also possible to gain new customers through email marketing because if your recipients know someone who would be intersted in your email, they will forward it to their family and friends.Why use email marketing?
-It is less expensive then comparable forms of marketing.
-It is typically easier to get a repeat customer than a new customer.
-Email marketing can have a viral effect.
-Your customers want to know what is happening with your company.

 What should your emails contain?
This really depends on the nature of your business, but typically e-newsletters contain company news, special events at your location, educational information, information about new products or services and/or special offers.

How to get started:
-Start collecting the email addresses of interested customers today.
-Create ways to collect email addresses (postcards, forms on your website, guestbook in store).
-Give us a call at (770) 786-1455 for more information

There is a lot of talk lately about business and corporate blogging.  To a small business owner who just wants to sell more, a blog may not at first appear like a great idea.  I want to take a minute to go over the very basics of how business blogging should be done and how it can drive more traffic for your business.

How To Blog For Business:
When blogging for business, it is important not to come across like a desperate car salesman. Write posts answering common questions your core customer has. Do not write posts that say nothing more then “buy this product” or “you need this.”  By answering questions and writing other posts that help people, you establish yourself as an expert in your field. Once the customer reading your blog sees how knowledgable you are in your field, you no longer need to say ‘buy, buy, buy’ because when the customer is ready to purchase, they know who you are and will come to you.

How Can A Blog Drive More Traffic To My Website & My Business
Blogs can drive traffic and increase sales in number of ways.  Your blog should have a prominent link to your website and should contain your contact information.

Blogs tend to have more content and newer content than traditional websites.  Search engines like constantly changing content and sites that have lots of good content.  This will help your blog and your business get into the search engines for important keyterms for which your traditional website might not rank. 

Blogs also tend to have a certain social quality that traditional websites don’t have.  You may be missing customers and sales because you cannot be found on social and bookmarking sites like Facebook, Digg & Delicious.

You may have noticed the way that Yahoo, Google and other search engines serve up content is different now than how it was a few years ago.  In fact, it is ever changing.  Whereas once there was a seperate engine for web, images, blogs, products and video, now they are all appearing in the main web results.  To be really successful within search engines, we have to attack this from all angles.  Blogging is just another angle that will help your business.