If your site has no viewers, it does not exist.

It may seem like we are exaggerating, but think about it: Have your sales gone up since launching your web site? Do you have regular inquiries coming in from the site that you did not have before? If you look at your sales before vs. after the web site, has anything changed?

Most likely the only change is that you are out of the funds that were spent developing the website. It may not seem right, but most likely no-one is using your web site. And we seriously mean, NO-ONE! Why?

Because they don't know it exists.

If you are like most small to midsized businesses, you were excited about launching your company website and imagined all the business it would bring in. Months or years later, with no sales from the site, you pretty much decided that the web is useless and now ignore your site altogether.

But during the past few years, have you noticed that you pretty much find everything you are looking for online? If you need to find a business, do you still use the yellow pages, or do you search online? If you have not slept thru the past 10 years, you probably have a computer and regularly make use the internet for business and personal work. If you are using the internet to research and find the products and services you need, you can be sure that your customers are also doing the same?

Let's look at a typical scenario.

Your office widget system broke down, and you need to find a replacement. You decide the last one broke because it was not made well, and you want something more reliable this time. You go online and start by searching for the latest and greatest in widget technology. Most likely you start with a search website such as Google, yahoo, msn, etc. You type in "durable widgets" in Google, which says there are about 1/2 million relevant pages and shows you the top 10 on each page. You decide to look thru the first few pages and click on any websites that look interesting. You find plenty of great comments about a company called Super Widgets and decide they are the one you want to work with. You also notice their website is on the first page of the Google search results. You go to their website, which looks great and has plenty of information that confirms that they take widget durability seriously. You order a Widget2000 to replace your broken system. All this has taken you less than an hour and you are back to working on other pressing matters.

Wouldn't it be nice if your company was this easy to find online?

Try Googling what you sell and see if your company name comes up on the first page? Not there? How about on page 2? Page 3? 4? 5? 10? page 100? Are you even on the list? You have a great website, in fact it's way better than most of the others you are seeing on page 1 of the search results. How come yours is nowhere to be found?

Search engine sites like Google, have a system for determining that all those other sites are more relevant than yours. The first few pages of the list are what really matter. Few people will look past page 1 or 2 of results, and hardly any will go past page 10 of the results. Its takes a lot more than just pretty pages to get your site near the top on that list. Your site has to be carefully optimized to give the search engines the information they need to create those search results.

The general terms for this process is search engine optimization and search engine marketing ( SEO / SEM).

You have probably already heard these words thrown around and there are countless companies who offer SEO packages claiming to get you to the top of search results. Prices range from a few hundred dollars to six figures for serious dedicated SEM campaigns. If you can afford the top programs from the best marketing firms, you will almost certainly be in good hands. The problems mainly arise with low budget offers that simply cannot deliver on their unrealistic promises and can often do you more harm than good in the long run.

How can search engine optimization help your website?

First of all, we need to get serious about the web. Having a solid web presence is no longer optional, or something you can "occasionally" think about getting around to.

The web is a powerful business marketing tool and we need to treat it like one. That means the same rules of good marketing that are used to grow a business downtown have to be used to grow it online. You need to understand what we can and cannot do, and then use that to your maximum advantage for growing your business. At Pageimagine, we give each client the personal attention they need to get off to a smooth start and achieve meaningful long term results.

Meaningful results?

For example: If your company sells bear hunting supplies, you want it at the top of search results for "Bear hunting supplies". If after a year of SEO work, your company makes it to the top of results for "Teddy Bears" and still cannot be found anywhere on the results for "Bear hunting supplies" then we do not have "meaningful results". We want to work on getting meaningful and effective results that have a measurable impact on your bottom line.

This requires us to track and analyze our efforts to see if they are producing the desired effects.

Without analysis, we are just shooting expensive bullets in the dark and hope one hits our target. One of the first things we do when working with our clients is establish some analytical baseline data to show what the current usage of the website looks like. We take a look at how many viewers are coming in, where they are coming from , and how they are progressing thru the site. We then work with you to establish some goals for how that traffic can be increased, how the quality of the viewers can be improved, and how they can proceed thru the site to reach some desirable goals for your business.

Quality viewers?

Just like the previous example of the site appearing in incorrect search categories, careless SEO efforts will often attract incorrect viewers. A viewer who has absolutely zero interest in your products or services is of no value to you. This is a critical difference between SEM done right, and just done quick and dirty. If careless SEO drives a million visitors to your site, and they are all looking for "teddy bears", your business makes no money. Simply having a million irrelevant visitors is of absolutely no value to you. You are better off getting only 100 visitors who are seriously interested in what you have to offer. High quality viewers are those that are your actual target customers. We want to maximize those.

A few things that need to be understood.

When you start any SEM work with PageImagine or any other company, be prepared to stick with the process for at least a year.

Search engine results do not improve overnight. A consistent and determined effort has to be maintained to build up your website’s search ranks.

• There are no "secret" get rich quick schemes in SEO. There are plenty of too-good-to-be-true offers ; you can either disregard them or try firsthand and learn the hard way.

• SEO/ SEM is a slow process that requires persistence, planning, and dedication. We recommend a minimum of 6 months to a year, but in reality the process must be maintained even after you reach the top otherwise someone working harder will push you back down in the results.

• Cheating in SEO is not worth it. The penalties by companies like Google are severe, and you want them on your side. Do things honestly, and you will be successful in the long run.

• The best SEO results are achieved by intelligent, well planned marketing efforts. Remember, your website is simply a form of online marketing. Marketing rules, techniques and skills are necessary to achieve truly meaningful results that pay off. This is where most of the popularly advertised quick generic solutions will fail. Just like a company cannot sell everyone the same exact newspaper ad and expect it to bring in business, SEO has to be custom designed for each specific website to bring in the quality customers and deliver meaningful results .

Does this mean I got ripped off by my website designer, and I have to create a new website again?

No. It is important to understand the difference between graphic design and SEM. Design is simply a matter of how the site looks and functions, and if you are happy with your site, you will most likely be able to continue using it without much noticeable change. SEM involves market research, planning, and consultations to better understand your target customers, and how they can find your site online. A lot of the work for SEO/SEM has very little to do with the graphic design of the website.

As we proceed, if we note room for improvement in your site design, we will bring it to your attention. There are certain aspects of SEM that can benefit from the addition of web pages on your site to direct traffic towards a pre-defined goal. Once you better understand the marketing reasoning behind each page, you will be better equipped to make solid design decisions about your site as well.

Is good SEO & SEM expensive?

You are paying for marketing expertise , skills and time. Good SEO requires intelligent thinking, planning, and hard work. There is simply no way around it, and every year as search engines tighten their rules, the work becomes harder. You can either spend more per hour with a skilled expert and get meaningful results, or pay less and eventually do it all over again. As with most things in life, you generally get what you pay for and SEO is one area you should invest in the best you can afford. ( Yes, that means you can and should select companies even better than ours if your budget allows)

Our SEO/ SEM pricing is generally custom priced for each client and their specific needs. The amount of competition in your market can greatly affect how much time and effort will be required to achieve significant results. Here are some of the services that may be involved in bringing your site up to the first page of search results.

Site Review + Consulting ( $500-$1000 ) Targeted Editing of Pages/Code ($300-$3000) Keyword Research ($100-$500) Link Building Campaigns ($500-$5,000 ) Web Design, Development + Mktg ($5,000 $15,000) Monthly Retainer for Ongoing SEO ($250-2,500)

We generally divide development costs out over a yearly basis. This eliminates a large up-front cost and provides a fixed monthly payment ( usually $200-$2000) you can budget over the course of the project. This way you have affordable payments and can begin seeing actual results from your site as the work progresses.

Give us a call and let's talk about your specific web site and how to finally make it profitable.

Your company's needs will be different than others, and it's not possible to generalize and explain every scenario in these pages. Give us a call, and tell us about your particular situation. We're easy to work with and will do our best to give you an assessment of what steps should be undertaken to get your site running well. Let us show you what we can can do for you.