In Today's Issue
Search Engine Marketing
---> Opt Out of SEO at Your Own Peril!
High Rankings Happenings
---> Need Your Google AdWords Tuned Up?
---> Need Help Diagnosing YOUR Website Problems?
Twitter Question of the Week
---> Do you work with SEOs...?
Stuff You Might Like
---> Google AdWords Setup, Tune-ups, Audits
Advanced SEO Forum Thread of the Week
---> ASP to WordPress
Advisor Wrap-up
---> Want a free waterbed? Introduction
Hey everyone!
Glad you could join me here again. Remember – if you enjoy this newsletter, refer your colleagues who might also be interested in the information. You can direct them to the subscribe page.
Let's get straight to the good stuff.
Jill
Search Engine Marketing Issues
++Opt Out of SEO at Your Own Peril!++
If you're a small-business owner, you know you need a website in order to compete online. But I sometimes wonder how many owners know they don't just need a website, but one that's been developed with SEO baked in from the start.
Unfortunately, it's more likely that they don't even know what SEO is.
Part of the problem is that many business owners take a do-it-yourself approach to their  website and use whatever free or low-cost website creation tools they can get their hands on. And those who do hire a website designer assume that they will "do that Google stuff" when they develop the site.
Some website designers mention SEO as part of their services, either built into the design or as an add-on, but there's often not a lot of detail describing exactly what SEO services are offered. Other designers or agencies never mention SEO at all, either because they don't understand it, don't think it's important, or don't even believe it's possible.
Whose responsibility is it to bring up SEO?
If the business owner doesn't even know what SEO is, it's unlikely he or she will bring it up to their website designer. In which case, the designer may be relieved and assume they aren't interested in it. Except that the business owner may be thinking that all they will have to do is "tell Google which keywords we want" and they'll be all set. (I still get emails asking if I can do that!)
Yes, SEO does cost money.
On the other hand, getting most small-business owners to part with their money for something like SEO can be like pulling teeth. Many of them aren't willing to pay the extra costs involved in designing a website that has SEO built into it. But if you opt out of SEO services during the website design, you've got no one to blame but yourself when your website is a ghost town. And you may not be happy when you learn that the cost of SEO just doubled now that you're trying to wedge it into an existing site rather than baking it in from the start.
Every website needs SEO.
Many designers and do-it-your-selfers are now using freely available content management (CMS) tools such as WordPress, which makes it easier to ensure that they're built SEO-friendly. But, as with most tools, every CMS is only as good as the person using it. There are right and wrong ways of using WordPress when it comes to SEO. An out-of-the-box WP installation is likely to cause many SEO problems for the site owner when it comes to SEO. In fact, the default installation of WordPress often adds a nofollow, noindex robots meta tag to every page! I see at least 1 WordPress site a week that is inadvertently blocking itself from ever getting listed or found in Google. Whether the website is designed professionally or by someone's niece, it takes someone with knowledge and experience of the intricate world of SEO to ensure online success.
Let's face it, a site that is invisible in Google may as well not exist.
Yet every day websites are designed with no thought to it, and business owners are left to believe that this "Internet thing" is just a waste of time. The solution is for all business owners to insist on SEO right from the start. If your designer isn't an SEO expert (and most aren't), it's critical that they be partnered with an SEO consultant so that they're not designing invisible websites. While the cost of entry for a small business is going to be higher, investment will pay off many times over later on.
Jill Whalen is the CEO of High Rankings, a Boston SEO Agency.
Share your comments and thoughts here.
P.S. If anyone would like to republish the above article, please email me your request and where it will reside, and I'll send you a short bio you can use with it for your site.
Twitter Question of the Week ++Do you work with SEOs...?++
If you're a website designer, do you work with SEOs? If you're an SEO, do you work with developers?
goosh: I find it imperative to work with developers asap in a contract. Avoiding problems early on in SEO deployment is critical.
TonyVerre: I work with developers and designers. I teach them about what I do, and they let me in on their world too.
karl_ribas: Yes, and yes!
elizabethsmith: Yes, I work with developers to ensure that the client's site is fully optimized for SEO.
pmaceli: Worked w/ SEOs over the yrs and it changed the process in how I build websites nowadays.
derekedmond: All the time (work with developers ;-))
landaudesign: We are web designers and do our own SEO work. Haven't found an SEO company we love.
t_jones: If "work with" is a byword for "bicker with" ;)
griffiti: We develop sites on an in-house platform and have made many changes over the years to allow SEOs more flexibility.
domjbs: We work with a variety of developers / designers and dev / design companies for SEO projects. Sometimes find great partners.
blackwavetalks: Yes, our designers work w/ our SEO expert and our SEO expert works w/ developers to create effective / optimized sites.
netmeg: We do both. Fewer dropped balls.
chrbutler: Yes, we've worked with SEO's. Notably, you ;-)
Jill's Comment: I'm glad to see that many of my Twitter followers agree with me about the importance of SEO. I've found during my numerous redesign consultations that even really good developers can learn a few advanced things that they're not up to date with. They typically appreciate learning from my expertise because they can continue to use that knowledge for their other clients as well.
Want to participate in the Twitter Question of the Week?
Follow @jillwhalen on Twitter
Share your comments and thoughts here.
Stuff You Might Like ++Google AdWords Setup, Tune-ups, Audits++
I know you probably all think of High Rankings for your organic SEO services, but I wanted to make you aware that we're now offering Google AdWords services as well.
If you have AdWords campaigns that have been languishing, it's highly likely that we can go in and spruce them up for you. The beauty of it is that it doesn't have to cost you much (or in some cases anything) because our fixes will often make you more money than our fees ($85/hour for this).
Beyond AdWords tune-ups, we can also set up brand-new accounts and campaigns, and implement all the cool new Google features such as ads with plus boxes, site links, videos and reviews.
If you've had it in the back of your mind to revisit Google AdWords, now is as good a time as any!
Fill out our contact form today and we'll see if we can help!
Advanced Forum Thread of the Week ++ASP to WordPress++
Forum member "Kernelpanic" has a website currently with .asp extensions, but is moving it to a WordPress platform. He/she was wondering if re-rewriting the URL to stay the same as it currently is would be okay.
Read the thread and share your own thoughts here:
ASP to WordPress
![SEO Forum]()
Advisor Wrap-up
That's all for today!
Well...we finally did it. We're getting rid of our circa 1983 waterbed! Yep, that's right. We went bedroom set shopping on my birthday and ordered a new set. In the meantime, it's been a ton of work to get our bedroom ready for the new furniture, thanks to my having thrown every item of clothing I ever owned into my closet for the past 24 years.
So now I have 5 giant garbage bags full of junk to go out this week. Plus, my husband's been dismantling the bed. Needless to say, there's also a lot of dust involved! If you'd like to own the very waterbed I've slept on since 1983, you're welcome to have it for free. (I'll even autograph the mattress ;). You just have to cart it away. My husband is carefully making note of how to reassemble it because he knows that someone will surely want to sleep on it again someday. (I'm less than convinced.)
Even if you don't want to sleep on my old waterbed, you may still want to see me speak about SEO! Remember to register for the next SEMNE event, "Responsible Search Marketing," taking place in Rocky Hill, CT on July 20th.
Catch you there or in 2 weeks here! – Jill
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