SEO Consultants can ask for the earth, and deliver the universe, but how do you know a good one from a bad one? There are a few things you can look at to find the ones that will deliver the right results for you.
Do they list their clients on their website?
Good consultants will not be afraid to list their successes on their website. They will proudly display the websites that they have ranked.
Do they offer other services?
Web design and coding is an integral part of SEO. The best web companies will list services that are additional to SEO. If you do not know how a website pieces together, then you don't really know how a search engine will see a website.
Is their English good?
The best SEO consultants will be able to twist and bend the English language to their will. They will be able to create words that sell. This is the whole point of SEO after all.
Do they already rank for particular keywords?
If they sent you an email, google their name. See if they already rank for a set of keywords. The best SEO companies will already be number one for keywords that count.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
SEO Training
SEO Training is becoming a staple of marketing programs everywhere. As a well optimised website can make all the difference in the growth of a business, marketing leaders everywhere are struggling to learn how to optimise their websites to make sure they get the business.
Creative Development is an expert SEO agency, and we have accredited trainers who can help show you how to make the most out of your business website.
What SEO training sessions are available?
We tailor all our training sessions to suit your business and the people who are being trained. We can work into a small or a large program and can even fit our sessions into an external syllabus. Broadly, we offer the following sessions;
- 1 hour conference session. In this session we can cover a little of the basics of SEO, and some things any business can do to make a difference. Depending on the conference we can also cover issues such as the new Google update, or the impact of Bing. From $220 inc GST.
- 1 Day session. We can cover most of the basics in this session. During our day sessions we usually split it in two and cover the basics of building a website that sells in the morning, and in the afternoon we work on website promotion. From $1100 inc GST
- 4 Day session. Across a four day session we can cover all of the topics listed below. This is a full training session with the aim of you leaving with a complete set of instructions on how you can get your website to rank well in any market. From $3600 inc GST
What will you learn about SEO?
There are many topics that can be covered in a session. Every SEO program is tailored to suit the audience, and the time given. Broadly we can cover the following topics;
- On page optimisation
- Website promotion
- PPC vs SEO
- What is Black Hat SEO, and how to avoid it.
- Getting to number one in Google
- Using the right descriptions for click through
- Selecting Keywords that sell
- Competitive analysis
- How to build a healthy relationship with a search engine
- Good link building activities
- Using Google Analytics
- How to track your website ranking
- Advanced linkbuilding techniques
- The effect of recent Google changes on your ranking
- Up to date training in the latest search engine trends
- Optimising for Mobile search
- Optimising for Local search
How much will our SEO Training cost?
All our seo training sessions are created for the market individually. Our pricing starts from $220 for a one hour session, and goes up to $3600 for a four day session. You will have to call or email us for a full break down of what your session will cost.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Does Your Business Idea Suck?
We get asked all the time what we think of this idea, or that business concept. Most-times it is as plain as “start a skip hire company” but occasionally the idea is one that really blows the doors off. So we thought we would write 6 ways to tell if your idea sucks. Obviously this won’t apply to all situations, and in most cases you won’t be able to truly know if the idea sucks until you are knee deep in it paddling like crazy. However, if you tick one or more of these boxes, maybe it is time to go back to the drawing board.
You can’t tell anyone about your idea
Unless you work in the intelligence community, this is the NUMBER ONE way to tell that your idea sucks. Aside from this being an unhealthy level of paranoia, it also pretty much dooms your idea to the scrapheap. If you think your idea is unique, but it relies on complete secrecy, then your idea is almost certainly a) not that unique and b) destined never to get off the ground. You can tell if you fall into this category because you punctuate any mention of your idea with the phrase “but tell anyone and I will kill you”.
If your idea is a good one, you MUST be able to bounce it off people. Also your idea should unique enough that no one except your closest competitors would be able to implement it, and even then they may not be able to do anything about a truly exceptional idea.
You have never worked in that field before (and don’t know anyone that has)
The road to culinary glory is littered with people who “just love food” but have never worked in restaurant before, or haven’t since they were 16. People love “ideas” because they are low maintenance, low risk and don’t harm anyone. When that idea is put into practice, that is when the damage is done.
The best ideas come from people who work in a field for years, and then have an ah-ha moment. Archimedes had been working on mathematics for years before he had his Eureka moment.
However, don’t feel that if you have never worked in your target industry you will never get your ideas off the ground. Taking influences from multiple industries is what makes some ideas completely unique. Just be careful to enlist the right help from within your target industry first. Also make sure that you can find someone you trust within the industry to support the creation of your idea.
You make money from the start
In order for an idea to actually float, you should be able to pre-sell the product first. This gives you two motivating factors, one an idea that you can actually make money from your business and two that you actually have to ship the damn thing. Pre-selling your product also helps you crystallise your marketing and sales information. If you are looking at 12 months of development before anyone can even look at your idea, or you are going to give the product away without any other financial support, your idea is probably doomed to the trash can.
You can give away a product to gather feedback, as long as you have a deadline when you are going to ship and start charging people.
Before anyone says ” but Google!” and other fabled rags-to-riches stories from silicon valley, there is one small addition to this point. Pre-selling includes gaining VC funding, which is what Google and other tech companies eventually did. Even hoping for VC funding is a bad sign as we see when;
You can’t map the business process in detail from beginning to end
If your business plan looks something like;
1. Collect Underpants
2. ? insert magic here ?
3. Profit
then there is a good chance your idea sucks. If you rely on VC funding, or something coming together at the last minute, then there is a good chance your business is doomed to fail. For one thing, VCs really will only fund businesses that are making money already, (see the above point). For another, VCs only fund a very small portion of the programs that get presented to them.
If you build it, they almost certainly won’t come. At least what you need to be able to do is fill in these blanks;
1. We are offering customers….
2. Which is created by taking….. and adding…..
3. Which will help improve customers lives by…….
4. They will pay us ……. because …….
5. Which we will take from them by……
6. They will find out how good we are by……
7. We will keep making money from them because…..
If your business is more complex than that, then great, but you still need to map out the process in detail. Another reason to map out the whole process is it will give you an idea of how long it will take you to build the thing.
Your mum says she loves the idea
Unless your family are the Rothschilds or the Trumps, asking them for feedback is generally a pointless exercise. Your family are pre-programmed to give a particular type of feedback, whether that is good or bad. Sometimes they will tell you they love it, when they don’t. Other times they just won’t be able to give any specific feedback, because they know how you will react. You need to find potential customers and get feedback from them. It is fine to give away the product when you are testing, because that can be a good way to iron out bugs, as long as you are getting good feedback.
You can’t put a deadline/timeline on when it will be available
Not putting a deadline on availability is usually a kiss of death for a business. If you have mapped out your business process, then you should be able to put a timeline on availability, and billing. Saying “sometime next year” is also a bad idea, because next year is always just around the corner, just ask the creators of Duke Nukem Forever. Deadlines also need to be adhered to, so if you get to your deadline without the end in sight, then it may be a good idea just to pull the plug and move on to more profitable exercises.
Things you need for your website
Properly planning your website will save money and headaches later. Before you spend any money, make sure you have but as you go, make sure you have looked in to and lined up the following items. All of these items are explained in more detail later;
n A Website Host that meets these requirements
PHP 4.3 or greater
MySQL 4.0 or greater
The mod_rewrite Apache module
n You have decided a website Username and Password
n You have text Editor Software (this is for making small changes to your website on your computer)
We recommend Edit Pad Lite
n You have FTP Client Software (This is for taking files from your computer and putting them on the web)
We recommend Filezilla
n Your Web Browser of Choice
We recommend Firefox
n A single compelling offer or proposition
n A single goal for users of the website
n The 3 and 4 Keyword Phrases for your website
n A Google Adwords account (which is free)
This is from our eCommerce eBook that you can get a free preview of here.
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