Can Good SEO Change Your Business… for the Better?
I had an Austin,Texas area school fundraising business that in 1997 I put online. It changed my life in several ways but two of the most profound things that little website did was:
1. It got me off the road making sales calls (All my business started calling me!
2. It doubled my income for 3 years in a row. (That is a 5 x increase in income over those 3 years!)
Needless to say,my wife was REAL happy about that second one! 
I sold that business and I still work with the new owner on his SEO,but now I also help other businesses owners do the same thing with their business that I did with mine.
All of that to say this. A business website and SEO can be a life changing thing for many people,but what I'm finding is that most business owners don't really grasp the power that is in those keys on their computer desk. Or,you may know about that power,but have no idea of how to harness it and make it work for you. Just before I put my company on the web for the first time,I really didn't see it amounting to much. I was wrong.
Can the internet do a similar or better thing for your business? That's the million dollar question. Which brings me to the subject of the most frequently asked questions I get from business owners about web marketing and SEO. So let's take a look.
Frequently Asked Questions About SEO Services
FAQ #1:Why should I hire a firm like MakePageOne? 
Many business owners turn to web designers when they perceive they are having "problems" with their website (little traffic or few sales). Web designers do a great job at making your site look and act the way you want. I've met few that also know SEO or what makes good marketing. Just because a site is pretty doesn't mean it's going to "Sell" well or have people find it when they are looking for your type goods or services.
Most business sites are simply an electronic version of a company brochure,and it just doesn't cut it in the "online" sales department. That's because with print media you have the advantage of repetition which you don't get on a website (usually). On a website you literally have seconds to answer the question searchers care about… and that is,"What's in it for me?" or "Why should I care?" What MakePageOne.com does is drive lots of traffic to your website and helps you grab your prospect's attention and business with the words and video you have on those pages.
Already have a website and a website guy? Great,keep them. But… what you do want is a guy like me helping guide your website designer to make sure that your site is optimized to get found AND be a sales machine rather than a feature rich electronic brochure that doesn't give them a reason to care who you are and what you do. Seriously,do I care that "you have a courteous and friendly staff?" EVERYBODY DOES!
FAQ #2:The most common question I get asked is "How much do your services cost?
But the real question you should ask is,"How much are your services worth to me?" If your business makes $30-$100 per new customer,you probably can't afford me or any other professional SEO company. You'd be making too little to justify the cost. There are exceptions to this (based on volume) but a hairdresser can only cut so much hair in a day. However,If you make $500 or more per new customer,you can't afford to be without a guy like me.
FAQ #3:What advice do you have for a business looking to hire an SEO & Marketing provider like you?
Most SEO "experts" I've seen,do a lot of Razzle-Dazzle around a phrase that sounds REAL GOOD to most business people… "We'll get you on Page One of Google,Guaranteed!" That is really an incomplete sentence! The rest of that sentence reads… "For any worthless keyword your want." Heck,let me pick the keyword and I can have you on page one in less than 4 hours!
So the advice I would give is either know something about keyword selection or hire someone (like me) who is not going to "Sugar Coat" the truth just to get your business (and charge you huge sums). There are some markets that may take 6 months to a year to get on page one of the search results for key phrases that will actually bring them a substantial amount of business. If you're not hearing that from your SEO guy,RUN! Then,call me. I'll do your keyword research for you even if you want to hire someone else to SEO them. But you'll have good keywords and won't be wasting your time or money!
FAQ #4:What are the most common types of business that can benefit from good SEO services?
Really,any type of business that would profit by having more people,locally or nationally,find them would benefit by good SEO & Marketing. As mentioned above,there needs to be enough profit or interest (or both) in your product or service to make hiring someone for SEO feasible. If a hairdresser already has 80% of her schedule booked,adding 20% more business will not make her happy. If her goal however is to add help and chairs and eventually get away from "hands on" styling,then good SEO will help her accomplish that.
FAQ #5:What is THE most important part of SEO?
I could give a real smart alec answer here and say "The part that brings you more sales." But that is the GOAL of SEO not the "How To." I look at SEO like a house. What is the most important part of a house? Some would say the foundation. But if that is all you built,you couldn't live there. Then some would say the roof. That will keep you dry but if the windows and doors weren't good,you'd freeze in winter. You get the picture. So to answer that,I'd say that you start from the ground up and build your SEO on a good foundation of:
- An optimized and easy to navigate website.
- Then you find out what words people search for when looking for your goods or services and pick the ones to get started with based on the competition and search volume of those words.
- Then you make sure that your site addresses the needs,pains and wants of your prospects while addressing those chosen keywords.
- Then you build links to those pages on your site and get your name spread all over creation so people start running into you and your business everywhere. Volume/quality and consistency are key here.
Here's the thing about SEO. It can be learned and done by anyone,including you! It's not rocket science or painful. It's simply a matter of learning what you need to do and then doing it on a consistent basis. If you want to learn it,(which I recommend) then AustinSEOAcademy.com is a good place to start. Then you need to practice what you learn. If you don't want to do that,that is when you would hire someone like me. However,even if you are going to do that,it is a good idea to learn as much as you can about it so you will know what any person you hire is actually doing and why they are doing it. Understanding that will help you keep from being taken advantage of by the "Guarantee" people out there. They can't take advantage of you if you know a little bit about how and why SEO works.
With that said,have a go at this AustinSEOAcademy.com site and learn what you can. You can also fill out the form at MakePageOne.com and I'll give your site an SEO evaluation at no charge to help you get started. (A $395 value report for free!)
