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An Open Letter from Michael McDerment
If you're going to build a web site, you want people to find it online.
In a nutshell, search engine optimization is a measure of how easy
it is for your prospective customers to find your web site using search
engines like Google and Yahoo! If it is easy to find you site, that
is good search engine optimization. If it is hard, that is bad search
engine optimization.
Red Herrings
When incorporating search engine optimization into your marketing strategy, you
need to make some philosophical decisions about how you will generate
targeted traffic and for how long. There are many companies that are
waiting to seduce you with guaranteed top 10 rankings. Many of them
can help you get the top positions in the search engines, but the
questions you need to ask yourself are, "how long will it last?" and
more importantly, "how useful to my business will the search terms
that they optimize be?" The mark of an expert SEO is not how well
they rank for certain terms. It's how many terms they rank well for,
and how well those terms
convert.
SEO for the Long Haul
Our principal an owner Michael McDerment lectures about Search Engine Optimization
and Internet marketing at Humber College and the Learning Annex. He
has been doing this work since 1999 and trained our team. Anicon's
approach to SEO is tried, tested and true. At Anicon, we focus on
helping our clients generate new traffic that can be converted into
leads and sales, and we take a long-term approach to everything we
do. That does not mean we cannot help your business achieve results
quickly, but it does mean we will not use any tactics that may jeopardize
your business's online presence like some of the companies outlined
above.
Ethical Search Engine Optimization
We practice ethical SEO and like to count ourselves among the "white hats" within
our industry. What does that mean? It means we will help you focus
on building a web site with great content, which includes effective
calls to action - the kind of site that pays for itself by generating
a healthy return on investment.
Our Clients Are Our Salespeople
Our clients are our salespeople, and we have not lost a client yet. We do not
advertise - our clients do that for us. Take John Langford of Voyageur
Quest for example. John is a "monthly" client who has been with us
since 2001 - and by monthly we mean he gives us something to do each
month. He has brought us new jobs as well, and gone to bat for us.
He feels he is rewarded because we make him look good by adding value
to the organizations he works with.
Not Convinced Search Engine Optimization Is for You?
If you have a web site that you want people to find, then SEO is for you. In fact
you'll notice more and more search
marketing services being offered by Web hosting companies and
the like. The trouble is that search engine optimization cannot be
automated and that is what Web hosting companies sell: automated search
engine optimization. Why do they do they mislead you? It is a simple
way to increase margins and it has been going on for years.
Look Out for Snake Oil
Ever had a company offer to submit your web site to thousands of directories for
$30? Ever had a company offer resubmit your site monthly to search
engines and directories $30 per month? This service is a scam. If
you do not believe what you are reading, try a service like that,
then go to yahoo.com and type the following into the search box: "linkdomain:
yourwebsite.com". The results you get will be a list of all the links
that point to your web site, and if you're lucky, you will see one
or two that came from your purchase.
SEO the Right Way
There is no question that link
building by submitting to directories, and asking people to link
to your web site, is a very important part of search engine optimization.
Links that point to your website help generate link popularity, which
is an important factor when trying to get your website to rank well.
The problem is you cannot automate the link building process. It's
something that takes time and brings rewards with it. Here is the
good news though: for many small businesses, especially those with
very specialized products and services, or who only operate in a local
market, it does not take much work to start generating targeted traffic.
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Toronto SEO Services