Search Engine Optimization Has Lost It's Punch!
Are you still getting 10 calls per week from SEO people telling you that your website is not ranking on the search engines and they alone hold the key to magically make your site appear on the first page of Google? Most likely they even went so far as to guaranteed you they could place you there within the blink of an eye. If it makes you feel any better, we hang up on, hit the delete button or mark their ridiculous emails as spam about 10 times per week ourselves. The sad part is these folks are misleading trusting business people and giving all of us in the Internet Marketing arena a bad name by touting things that they cannot do. Let me say this clearly so everyone can hear my message. Google's utilizes a well thought out algorithm, with literally hundreds of elements in determining how to deliver the most relevant answer to a Search Query. Google will not allow SEO practitioners to successfully manipulate their organic search results, period! Our advice in handling those SEO gangsters is "Hang-up", "Hit the Delete Button" or tell them you aren't going to trust the future of your business to people who slink in from the shadows and try to serve up the snake oil.
Lets talk about what your business should be doing to help generate lead flow for your sales team, increase brand awareness for your firm and drive positive revenue growth from your marketing efforts.
Generate Lead Flow For Your Sales Organization 
Deploy a comprehensive marketing program that utilizes a blend of Internet, Print and Broadcast Media to ensure your message is reaching your target audience. We often get shortsighted when it comes to spending money on marketing. It's very easy in this economy to simply say, our budgets won't allow us to buy the advertising we know we need. Let me say this clearly so that you will hear me. The pool of available clients generally shrinks when our country goes through economic turmoil. Folks, we are currently experiencing arguably the most difficult economic times since the great depression. Please do not use that excuse to pull in your marketing horns and hoard your cash. That strategy will only lead to tragedy! All kidding aside, as a good friend of mine used to say, "Pulling in your horns during a time in which the pool of available customers is shrinking, only positions your competition to step in and grab your share of what is remaining from the available client pool. Pulling in your horns is like turning off the lights at your store. How many people are going to come in and shop if they think your closed?"
Question: What is the fastest way to generate a viable lead stream for your sales organization?
Answer: Plug in a Google Adwords Pay Per Click program and utilize the keyword phrases that best describe the products and services you are offering for sale.
Increase Brand Awareness For Your Firm
Brand Awareness is every bit as important today as it was 20 or 30 years ago. Driving brand awareness in today's market is slightly more complex though than in years gone by. Used to be we bought a TV spot and everyone in the MSA know knew who we were. Then cable came along and increased your channels to 100 + and we marketers were left scratching our heads trying to decide which of those 100 + channels are target demographic was now watching? We recommend that our clients allow us to deploy a comprehensive strategy for them that will allow us to properly build brand awareness in this new and more sophisticated marketplace.
Question: What elements should be included in a comprehensive program designed to build brand awareness?
Answer: First lets talk about Internet Options. We feel you can effectively build brand awareness by utilizing key elements of the Google Pay Per Click advertising program. In particular we like, "Click to Play" video campaigns served up on the Google Display Ad network. Also, create a blog either on Word Press or Google Blogger. Our personal favorite is the Google Blogger platform. Remember to ensure your blog articles deliver current, relevant, meaningful content to your readers. Next lets deploy a PR program. We utilize Internet Press Releases to keep the public aware of all the great things happening with our firm. Other great Internet branding tools include the major social media sites, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube. The elements noted above will create a solid base for you to work from. Once you have your Internet program in place and running effectively, it's time to bite the bullet and branch out into more traditional advertising vehicles like Print and Broadcast media.
Grow Your Revenue 
Question: How Do You Drive Revenue Growth For Your Firm?
Answer: Google Adwords Pay Per Click advertising is what we like to call the new Yellow Pages. If you own a small to medium sized service oriented business, utilizing Google Adwords is an absolute must. With the most recent changes that Google made to their organic algorithm, all you folks trying to drive revenue growth with SEO really need to take a moment and simply look at some Search Engine Results (SERP) pages and you can clearly see the approach that Google has been taking with their algorithm. In effect, if you are searching using keyword phrases for products and services in high demand or heavily competitive arenas, you are going to quickly realize that Pay Per Click ads dominate the top and right hand side of the SERP. Next you will notice that Google Places listings and perhaps even the Google Places map have been given a prominent position, near the top of the page. If you scroll down below the visual reference area of your computer screen, you will eventually find the organic listings. Are you visually with me at this point? The organic listings in these types of situations are much closer to the bottom of the SERP than to the top. The biggest revelation is that there are far fewer traditional organic listings spots available on the first page. Wow, did you hear what I said. If you have far fewer organic listing spots, and those listings are located near the bottom of the page, why would you consider paying an SEO firm premium dollars to try and manipulate the listings at the bottom of the page? Do you see a single traditional organic listing on the SERP below? Still believe that these SEO people that are bugging you on the phone can effectively manipulate Google's organic results?
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