SEO & SEM
Search Engine Optimization & Marketing,
Web site Usability & Profitability.
Your prospects search
for websites on Search Engines (SEs) like Google, Yahoo, MSN, Alta-Vista,
Lycos and others.
- Websites that are Optimized for Search Engines will
appear high on the first search page.
- Search page listings show both "Organic"
as well as Sponsored search results.
- "Organic" or "Natural" searches
are the Non-Sponsored searches.
- Sponsored search results are the listings that are
highlighted at the top of the search page or
on the Right-Side of the search listings, noted as "Sponsored".
- Sponsored search listings are obtained by the owner
of the website bidding money for each and every visitor following a
click on the sponsored search listing bringing the visitor to the paying
website
(hence the term Pay-per-Click).
Getting listed within the Top 10 (First Page) on any SEs
is key to success and only websites that have been optimized for SEs obtain
it. There is a huge difference in business results obtained by having
a listing appear on the First page of a Search Engine, versus a listing
on successive pages. A listing on Page 3 or lower, has little if any value.
During the early years of the Internet
getting positioned on SEs has been relatively easy.
Up until 2001 if you had the necessary"Basics"
properly included in your HTML source code (i.e. Title, Description &
Meta-Tags) your website was very likely to appear in a high search engine
position, depending on the number of websites that were targeting those
same search phrases.
More recently getting positioned within the Top 10
listing on any of the major SEs for a 2-3 word phrase has become more
and more difficult. One word (generic) phrases are nearly impossible to
get unless you are a major player like Microsoft or NBC
and had the website on the Internet for a long time.
Most website owners who possessed good search engine listings
before, are puzzled when those positions deteriorate over time. The reason
is typically that the simplistic search engine components that were sufficient before,
are no longer working due to two major aspects. One aspect is the competitive
nature of Search Engine positioning, namely every business in each market
niche is competing with every other business for higher rankings. The
second aspect is the substantial effort by the Search Engine engineers
to make their ranking algorithms more fair and more difficult to manipulate.
In prior years there were so called "Black-Hat" tricks to fool
the Search Engines into granting high rankings to unscrupulous coders
of some websites. These techniques enabled a website to obtain high rankings
for search phrases that did not conform to the ranking formulas established
by the Search Engines to rank websites based on relevant and quality content
related to the search terms.
Many website designers who are excellent artistic designers,
do not have the time or experience to keep up with the techniques necessary
to retain a high search engine position. Website design is a different
skill from search engine optimization. The full cooperation of the two
skills is necessary to achieve both an attractive design as well as a
high Search Engine positioning.
As a consequence, getting a higher SE position is key
to success on the Internet. Sponsored listings or Pay-per-Click ads can
assist in overcoming a weak SE position, but its both costly and generally
viewed much the same as other forms of advertising is, with somewhat of
a bias. Visitors trust the SE's Naturals (or Organic) positioning much
more than they trust positions achieved by PPC advertising.
Getting a high SE Naturals position is not a one-time
activity, but rather part of an ongoing Marketing campaign. It involves
frequent review of the website relative to the competition and an ongoing
fine-tuning of website content to optimize the SE ranking. The ongoing
activities are not necessarily time consuming, but the regularity and
continuity is what makes a big difference.
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Tell me how you can help improve my website's SE Naturals' Positioning !
In many instances the SE's Naturals positioning is not
enough for certain clients as they wish to gain more exposure fast. Such exposure
is generally available as a Sponsored Link or a Pay-per-Click advertisement
in the "Sponsored Results" section (Usually top & right-hand) Search Listings.
Such ads can provide additional motivation for a visitor
to click on the link and go to the website directly, by using certain
motivating phrases, such as: Discounts, Quality, Money-Back guarantees,
etc. These paid-for ads, can be expensive, but if properly composed and
presented to the right prospective visitor "audience" can bring
substantial results.
The creation of such PPC ads is a result of research into
the website's visitor profile, the benefits available for clients of the
website and the investment the website owner is willing to make in such
an marketing program. When done properly, the Return On Investment (ROI)
can be substantial.
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Tell me how you can make my website's Marketing Cost-Effective !
Usability makes the website visitors' experience satisfying.
Lack of usability creates a frustrating experience and
is the cause of visitors abandoning the site.
When usability increases, visitor conversion rate to customer
increases dramatically.
The first step in usability evaluations is thorough testing
to accurately gauge the site's usability by its visitors. The tools and
techniques available for measuring and improving usability are based on
Human Factors principles and know-how and have been widely used for industrial
and consumer design for almost a century.
Website owners are just beginning to realize that the
only parameter consistently determining success on the web is site usability.
Major improvements are generally available by making only minor changes
in most instances. Usable sites are likely to retain and bring back customers
for the long term. By providing customers a satisfying experience, site
owners have the ultimate edge against their competitors. Too many websites
offer more in colors, sound and dynamic images than usability and as such
the difference between the usable ones and the rest is very obvious. My
experience in human factors and usability enables me to improve the usability
of our customer's sites resulting in increased success on the web.
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Tell me how you can help improve my website's usability !
Profitability is a result of the following factors:
1. Converting prospect coming to the website and turning them into customers.
2. Making first-time customer into repeat clients
3. Helping customers find and purchase more products and/or services on each visit
4. Helping client recommend the website to their friends and relatives
The "Bottom-Line" is that it is far less expensive (more profitable) to keep clients than to have to constantly acquire new ones. The cost of client acquisition is far more expensive than to keep current clients satisfied and coming back for more purchase.
So how can I help you make you website more profitable?
Depending on your business model and the products and services you offer on the website, I would work with you to define and implement approaches to make prospects into clients, keep them coming back and recommending your site to their contacts.
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Tell me how you can help improve my website's profitability !
I have a
Ph.D. in Human Computer Interfaces (HCI) and my professional
focus is making websites work for businesses.
With the intense
competition on the Internet, just having a well-designed and well-functioning
website is no longer sufficient for success.
Search Engine Optimization is critical to be able to get the attention
of prospects and Usability ensures that the visitors will be able to get
the results they are searching for, whether its a purchase, getting specific
information or just browsing for content.
On
the Net since 1994, I learned early-on that the newest technologies did
not always create then best results.
I created my proprietary methodology to optimize
websites for Search Engines (primarily for Google),
as well as evaluate and recommend website usability improvements.
This enables me to provide inexpensive and readily actionable recommendations
to make websites work for a business.
Due to my low
overhead I can offer the best possible ROI for my clients.
Doing one project at a time enables me to deliver
the results on time and stay fully focused on each client's
objectives.
Using my decades of consulting and human factors experience enables me
to take-on the experience level of the target-user population and evaluate
the website's usability relative the real user's experience levels.
My pragmatic,
task-oriented approach enables me to focus on both SEO and Usability which
are in effect intertwined.
The detailed, actionable deliverable enables client
management to easily implement the identified issues.
The item-by-item report pinpoints the issues for the site programmers
for quick access and resolution.
The usability report provides the highest value possible for a modest
investment, delivered on-time and within budget.
I only work
with a few high-end clients as I do not have employees or use contractors.
This allows me to provide all my clients my full attention and ensures
full cooperation between myself, the business's marketing team and the
website development team.
Let me know
your concerns and I will provide a No-Obligation quote for SEO objectives
and Usability improvements,
that are quick, professional, and will bring
the results you are seeking.
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My goal is to help
improve your company's results from the Net.
I do that by being a focused, small,
leading-edge and practical SEO and Usability specialist,
helping clients improve their results from the web by providing advice
and services, delivered personally or over the Internet.
Call
or EMail me!
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I am located on Cape Cod and only second
from anywhere on the Net through broadband connections.
I have been a member of:
- Usability
Professional's Association (UPA)
- Human
Factors Society of America (HFSA)
- Association
of Computing Machinery (ACM)
- Operations
Research Society of America (ORSA)
- Industrial
Engineering Society (IE)
- Cape
Cod Technology Council and
- Cape
Cod Internet Council.
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I am available by E-mail (preferred),
Fax or Phone.
I always respond to E-mail messages within 2 business days unless you
indicate higher urgency.
- EMail - General
Information - Webmaster
-
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Phone - 508-353-8722
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Fax - 508-276-0432
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Address - P.O.Box
653 , East Dennis, MA, 02641-0653
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& Comments about this web site.
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