Take your small business to the big time with Google!
In the information age, new and exciting business opportunities have been created due to the world wide web. Unfortunately, this has also translated into a large number of businesses offering services that are not up to standard. In other words, charlatans selling snake oil to unsuspecting customers.
The search engine optimisation industry is sadly one of those business sectors that is rife with bad eggs and trying to find the real gems amongst an overcrowded marketplace of good, bad and downright ugly suppliers is a literal minefield to aspiring business owners. No wonder so many avoid going down this path.
The trouble is, when you consider the alternatives, its a tough choice between taking a chance on an SEO or spending potentially thousands more on paid ads which never promise good returns either. Anyone with an ounce of sanity would think internet marketing is just one giant money making scam. Nothing could be truer when speaking of the internet that its vital to have as much knowledge and connections as possible. Sourcing an SEO supplier is never easy so how do you go about doing this effectively?
The first issue is to identify your core market. In 2015, search trends took some very interesting turns and as much as the world has gone global, searches have in fact gone more local. With handheld technology such as phones and tablets now overtaking internet usage above and beyond desktop devices, search giants such as Google saw this change in user habits and understood that users on the go needed local answers to local problems. When you think about it, it makes complete sense. So this is why local results are now the most prominent in Google search results pages.
1) Location – seeing they are close to you, they will understand the local market and be easily accessible to you for meetings, communications and effectively, speak your language linguistically and business wise.
2) Support – if you need support, guidance or just a simple answer to a common problem, a local SEO expert will more likely to be able to help you quickly and effectively. No sending emails to overseas suppliers and sitting round waiting for a reply that may never come.
3) Trust – someone who works locally to you has nowhere to hide so it’s in their interests to provide a great service because they too will rely on a good local reputation. If they lose that, they will lose business so keeping you happy is a win-win for all involved.
4) Costs – its far easier to negotiate and deal with someone locally as they will completely understand the types of budgets and fees companies of your size can afford. So if you have a budget in mind, never be afraid to tell your local SEO expert what marketing budget you can realistically afford and work towards some form of budgetary common ground.
There’s always the temptation to seek out the cheapest, easiest and quickest SEO supplier and these tend to be offshore, package deal based websites. Remember, sites such as these offer extremely poor customer services and with the supplier being so remote, the chances of getting a good return on your investment is extremely remote.
When you ask a search marketer to work on your websites online visibility, you are effectively entrusting your business in their hands. So would you really want to give that much responsibility to a complete stranger? You’d have to be crazy to do so. By going local and working with a search engine optimisation expert in your close proximity, you massively reduce the risks involved in selecting a preferred supplier.