Does Hiring A SEO Company Make Sense Anymore?

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While many respected retailers across the nation complain of lagging sales, the consumer market on the internet is booming. Many successful businesses have discovered that electronic commerce is a great way to make money. Many businesses have replaced their large stores with a website! The internet has allowed companies to complete transactions easily online and cut operating and payroll costs. Today, many companies operate out of a warehouse and send their products out for delivery. It is just that simple!

Let’s use Circuit City as an example. They had a well know national chain of retail stores. They saw a decline in profits and decided to close all their retail stores and conduct all of their business online. According to Circuit City, they are getting much better results.

However, reality chimes in and asks the question, how do they sell their products online? There are hundreds of correct answers to that question. Many small business owners are eager to market their business on the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. They discover that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the methods to market their business online.

Some aspiring business owners hire local SEO companies to complete the SEO services. However, is it a better idea to hire a SEO company or just hire an individual on payroll to complete the SEO strategy?

There are thousands of SEO companies available that claim to give businesses top rankings on the top search engines for many different keywords. They all have the same sales pitch. However, businesses need to understand that most sales pitches are truly outdated.

Here is how the process usually works. A business pays an SEO company $400-$600 to achieve better rankings on search engines. The SEO company gives their best effort and optimizes the website as promised. Their work is complete after a month.

At first, the business does notice an increase in traffic and positioning. Both parties are satisfied temporally. However, two months pass and the business notices that their website is beginning to fall in the rankings. Why is this? This is because the search engines rate websites on fresh content. Search engines love websites that update weekly or even daily. Websites that go untouched for weeks at a time will fall into extinction. The $400 seemed like a fair bargain at first, but we can now see that it is a waste!

If I was presenting this article to a 200 seat classroom, I would see 200 online business owners raise their hand and admit to experiencing this exact situation. There is no reason to feel embarrassed. Achieving top ranking on search engines requires time, creative writing and constant updates.

So what should these 200 business owners do now?

I would suggest to follow what many successful online businesses do today and hire an Online Marketing Manager to market your business. Many businesses hire individuals to manage their entire internet marketing campaign. Here is what you should expect from an Internet Marketing Manager.

• College Educated (Bachelor degree preferred)

• Good writing skills: Proper English and grammar

• Basic knowledge of web design including; HTML, XHMTL, XML, CSS and PHP.

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

• Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

• Website architecture

• Pay Per Click Management (Google Adwords, Bing and Yahoo Search Marketing)

• Social Media Management: Facebook, Myspace, Twitter and LinkedIn, Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, etc.

• Blog Writing: be able to write unique articles relevant to your product or service.

• Link building: knowledge of how the link building process works.

• Internet awareness: are they aware of the vast resources available online to market your business.

• Analytics and tracking: Google Analytics and ability to track progress

• Open-minded: internet constantly changes. A creative thinker will prosper with internet marketing.

In summary, hiring an Internet Marketing manager is the best way to achieve long term success. Your online business needs to have someone available to make updates to the website and write unique content daily. Establishing top ranking on the organic search is a long term commitment. However, the end result is getting the most bang for your buck! Good luck in finding the right Online Marketing manager.