ONLINE MARKETING FAQS (AND MYTHS)
Q. Why should I care about search engine marketing?
A.
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625+ million searches per day (18+ trillion per month!)
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from 9 major search engines, dominated by Google, Yahoo and now MSN.
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30+ million active websites, with
- only 5% are visible to the search engines
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in an industry that is only 9 years old.
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70+ billion pages are estimated to exist on the web,
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with millions being created each day.
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800 million Internet users and,
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90% of these users use search engines to try to find YOUR WEBSITE.
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Q. How important is web site traffic vs web design?
A. No amount of web design will overcome the lack of traffic for a website, or lack of content on pages. With web analytics, we can determine how many visitors you've had and what they looked at, and for how long. What you find is, the real challenge is getting relevant visitor traffic to begin with. And then even within the web site, the next challenge is to appear credible
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Q. Isn't SEO just about meta-tags and submissions?
A. It used to be. Back in the earlier days of search, AltaVista used meta-tags to index a site with keywords in the meta-tags section of a page. Then you would submit it and have a reasonable chance of being listed. However, it was soon evident that this could be abused (with meta-tag stuffing, spamming etc) and also not very useful as users would get to a legitimate site and not find the pages they were looking for. Google and other search engines followed with algorithmic criteria that made the search experience much more relevant.
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Q. What is the difference between email marketing and search engine marketing?
A. Email marketing is used much differently than search marketing. Email can be used for demand creation, and as a friendly notification of the products and services you provide. Search marketing is more efficient for acquiring visitors, and is based on the premise that the visitor is looking for what you offer.
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Q. What's the difference between Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Pay-For-Inclusion (PFI)?
A. PPC is much like advertising, and are those links that come up when you enter a keyword in a search field. Also known as sponsored links or recommended links, the advertiser pays a fee to the search engine every time it is clicked on. PFI is more like paying for a web site to immediately be considered for indexing. Using PPC and PFI can significantly increase the number of visitor you get. FoundPages can help you with both.
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Q. What's a natural search?
A. Also known as an organic search, these are the search results that most people think of when they use a search engine. Unlike a sponsored link or a paid for placement, natural search results get presented as a direct result of the search engine's indexing and search algorithms. Usually you do not pay for a natural search listing.
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Q. What is the Return on Investment (ROI) justification?
A. When using professional consultants, the justification is abundantly clear - without properly executed online marketing, your web site will only be a marketing expense rather than a marketing weapon. With professional online marketing services, we have seen return on investment payback in as little as 3-6 months.
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Q. Why is search engine optimization and marketing so important?
A. For return on investment, search engine optimization and marketing is unsurpassed - it will deliver much larger numbers of new, qualified and targeted traffic to your website over the long term than any other marketing strategy. You can expect traffic to grow anywhere from 50% to 1000% after an implementation. One thing is for sure - without it done right, expect little traffic except from spiders attempting to index your pages!
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Q. How soon will I see results?
A. It depends on your current status with the search engines and email lists. If your site is fundamentally search friendly, you could see results within a matter of weeks. And if your email marketing lists are current and in place, we can set you up in a few days. FoundPages can speed this up with a number of strategies.
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Q. What sort of guarantees to you offer?
A. First of all, anyone who does is probably misleading you. Results depend on the company, its website, its offers in addition to the traffic that the website will get. What we will guarantee is our best efforts, using professionals with state-of-the-art tools and processes, which will ensure you get the best results possible, and will we will back that up with tracking that is unparalleled.
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Q. Is it true that we can get banned using online marketing?
A. Search engines view some techniques as an attempt to subvert their logic and as a result, may ban the offending websites accordingly. Also, poorly done bulk email marketing can get your company's email server banned. This can be worse than not having anything done. Professional online marketing will ensure that this doesn't happen to you!
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Q. I'm a webmaster, Why don't I just do this myself?
A. Assuming you already have moderate to advanced knowledge of HTML, CGI scripting and some server side development skills, expect to invest at least 6 months of research and practice. Even then you may find the results mediocre and have wasted much of your time. As well, having technical skills is not the same as having marketing skills. .
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Q. We are already using email and search marketing, but we'd like to improve our results. Can you help us?
A. Yes, our 40+ clients and 100+ online marketing campaigns ensure that expertise and experience will improve your company's online marketing capability.
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