The $64,000 Question

Do you remember the old game show, "The $64,000 Question"? Well, we've been feeling quizzed a lot lately ourselves - it seems like everyone wants to know "How long does it take for search engine optimization efforts to kick in? When will my web site start to rank higher?"

Unfortunately for all of us, the answer is, SEO takes longer than it used to. I like to look back, way back, at the golden days of SEO...back in 2002 or 2003. Back in those days of history, we'd change a few title tags here, reword some body copy there, and bingo - nearly instantaneous high rankings. The client would be happy and we'd look like heroes.

But a funny thing has happened over the past year or so. Search engines have gotten smarter and continued to refine their algorithms. More web sites have been launched, and a greater proportion of those sites have jumped into the optimization game. It's gotten harder, and it's taking longer, to get results.

So what now? Is all lost? Should we throw in the towel and turn instead to more expensive and less effective marketing tactics? Of course not. Companies can still reach targeted prospects via search engines, and they can still drive qualified traffic through SEO. They just need to have realistic expectations about what it takes to reach success.

Case Study

During the past year, we have been blessed to work with a pro bono client, the Atlanta Children's Shelter, which provides education and social services to homeless children and their families. We went through our usual search engine optimization process, and also focused on building links pointing to the site.

Link-building has become more and more important to the search engines over time, and they especially look for links from popular sites about related topics which are added gradually during a period of months and even years. So we diligently built links for the shelter through a variety of methods, including targeting directories and distributing optimized press releases across the web. We even went through a link reclamation process where we identified sites that listed the Atlanta Children's Shelter but didn't link to them (we requested links) as well as sites that had linked to a misspelled version of the shelter's domain name (due to their particular domain name, this happened frequently - we requested corrections).

This client is not in a particularly competitive space - we weren't battling that many other web sites for rankings. This should have been like shooting fish in a barrel - a year or two ago, we would have expected rankings to skyrocket immediately. But they didn't. It took five months before our results really kicked in. Over that five month period, we saw a direct cause-and-effect relationship - which we charted on a graph - of inbound links, search engine rankings, and traffic to the site. And now, in month six, results are still continuing to climb.

Today, we've got first page results for 88% of the search terms and search engines we've targeted - the vast majority of which are in the top three rankings. Even better, the amount of visitors coming to the site from search engines has nearly quadrupled since this time last year. We're now working on being able to track the true measure of success - online donations and volunteer applications - back to search engines or other sources.

New Search Engine Marketing Program Unveiled

Because our industry continues to change, we adapt as well. We've repackaged our SEO service offering in order to bundle in more services that'll allow us to generate success for our clients. In addition to optimizing web pages, clients now also get:

  • Ongoing link building efforts (including services from a top expert - see below).

  • One optimized press release a month (we'll give case studies of the powerful results these generate next time).

  • Search engine reputation management (again, this is another topic we'll tackle soon - the short version is, we monitor for negative mentions of your brand in the search engine results).

  • Software to monitor site traffic and conversions is included as well, so we'll be able to better track our results.

New Partnership

Although we pursue a variety of methods of building links, we're especially excited to announce our partnership with Debra Mastaler of Alliance-Link. Debra is one of the country's foremost experts on link-building, who speaks on the topic internationally and is frequently published. Prominent Placement clients get the benefit of Debra's expertise at no extra charge.

About Us

Prominent Placement, Inc. is a full-service, award-winning Atlanta search engine optimization company founded in 2001. Nationally recognized as a leader in its field, Prominent Placement consistently demonstrates its foresight to rapidly adapt and stay ahead of an ever-evolving search marketing industry. Prominent Placement provides comprehensive programs incorporating the strategic use of organic search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, local search marketing, Internet Yellow Pages, press release optimization, linking, online reputation management and SEM en Español.

The company's selective client roster spans multiple industries with numerous mid-size, growth-oriented businesses located in the Southeastern United States that value high impact results, and are well-focused, niche-oriented concerns. Prominent Placement distinguishes itself from the competition by its extensive marketing background and the ability to provide superior service through client collaboration and education.

For more information call us at 888.SEM.MKTR (888.736.6587). For a look at our comprehensive approach, please see our Search Engine Marketing Services page. And to discuss your company's individual search marketing needs, please use ourcontact us form.