Search Engine Optimization for Industrial Companies
By John Juelich
In today’s economy, internet marketing may just be the best Return on Investment (ROI) for industrial manufacturers and distributors. A few years ago search engine optimization was not as complicated as it is today. Webmasters just added a few keywords into the content and waited for the web site to appear in Google or Yahoo search results. Since a few keywords brought good results some webmasters started inserting many keywords into the text, this is called keyword spamming. Since then, Google has made stricter regulations about the density of keywords on each page.
Webmasters tried many tricks to fool the search engine spiders like adding keywords that were the same color as the background. Google soon discovered their tricks and many web sites were either banned from the search listings or at the least their rankings were drastically decreased. This kind of deception is called black hat tactics. Today the search engines are savvier to any black hat or even gray hat tactics that will cause a site to be penalized.
Companies that want to hire a SEO firm should be wary of guarantees that promise quick results. Search engine optimization is a time consuming process that may take months to see any results. Google changes algorithms routines sometimes on a monthly basis. Therefore a competent SEO firm must always research any changes and adjust the web site to comply with those changes. A great article to read before you hire a SEO firm is www.imc-seo.com/how-to-hire. This article will help you understand more about the SEO process and provides you with questions to ask before making your hiring decision.
There are many factors that make up a successful web site marketing campaign. It is imperative to have a well designed web site that will not only appeal to your visitors but will also maximize search engine optimization. The content must be well written to keep your visitors attention and keep them reading and clicking on other pages on the site. The text must include keywords or phrases that your customers would search for to find the products you offer. A competent SEO firm will constantly monitor all keywords on the site to analyze their effectiveness and change the keywords that are not producing results.
Another equally important SEO operation is link building. Google considers good quality links to your site as important as all other SEO operations together. Good quality links are links from sites that are similar in nature to your industry. Quality incoming links to your site will create an increase in web site rankings with the major search engines. Most SEO professionals are concerned with Google and Yahoo guidelines because Google (72%) and Yahoo (14%) together represent about 86% of all searches on the internet. (Retrieved from ‘Hitwise’ http://www.cac.psu.edu/jbe/twocont.html) as of 5/20/2011.) Link building is a very time consuming process. It takes great effort to find quality web sites that are willing to link to your site. Google does not consider links from link farms as creditable incoming links. These are links you pay for and may not have anything to do with your industry. The best links would be vendors you do business with. They would be considered a good quality link back to your site.
Social media sites are the newest form of internet marketing. Sites like Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook are a great way for businesses to network and get higher rankings with the search engines. Creating a blog page on your site and linking to the social sites is the latest method to creating internet visibility. Google and other search engines want to see changes being made to web sites. So it is a great SEO strategy to have a blog or even a newsletter that will be updated on a regular basis.
For your company’s web site to be on the first page of the search engines listings, all of the above SEO operations are very necessary. SEO is a continuing effort that needs to be monitored on a monthly basis in order to be successful. It is important to hire the right SEO firm and to make sure they are competent professionals that know all aspects of search engine optimization. Equally as important they must know your industry and the products you sell or manufacture. It is risky for any company to invest in a marketing strategy that may take several months or longer to show results. Let’s face it, the bottom line is to get more leads and increase your sales. There is only so much business out there and if you don’t aggressively go after it, your competitors will. In today’s market, the best return on Investment is SEO and social media for industrial manufacturers and distributors.