SEO, Measuring Website Performance and Avoiding the Potential Pitfalls of Cutting Corners Advice for Practical Practitioners Who Want to Make the Most of Their Marketing Dollars and Sense

by Ricardo Casas

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
So your website has been created, coded to the latest standards, and is compliant with every major social media
venue. The next step is visibility so you can start capturing new business. SEO marketing appeals to two entities: the online audience and the search engines. SEO is a way to increase the relevance of your website in the eyes of both. Living in the Google age, it is essential that this powerful tool is fully leveraged to capture potential clients who are actively searching for your products and services.

Measurement
To be optimally effective, your marketing strategy should be devised through carefully measured, granular analysis. This facilitates deep insight into how your marketing goals can most successfully and quickly be reached. When properly implemented, Internet marketing offers real and measurable results and offers an outstanding return on your investment.Measuring the performance of each individual page of your website is an indispensable step to maximize the opportunity internet marketing affords you. Through electronic tracking, we are able to determine which keyword brought the visitor to your website, how much time they spent on your website, and whether they converted or not.at the top of the next column is a screenshot of a typical analysis that measures the user experience once they land on the site. Determining how users respond to your website is very important in understanding what they are looking for, what brought them to your site to begin with, and which of your offers are most compelling. With this insight, trained professionals can assess the effectiveness of each layout/offer combination and swiftly address any inconsistencies or underperforming pages.

Understanding The Data
Many of you have seen the Google analytics console. Retrieving the infor-mation is not difficult. Gathering the data
signals and acting upon each one is where the value of analytics lies. Being able to determine patterns, assess behaviors, and make the appropriate adjustments is what will continually perfect the user experience and improve the chance of converting these otherwise casual visitors into paying clients.

Info You Must Know
Searching online, you will find a plethora of seemingly inexpensive search engine optimization packages. Quick fix SEO has become a lucrative business for the un-scrupulous preying on those who don’t have adequate insight into the intricacies of it. Oftentimes, those offering these services have little to no SEO expertise. Many offshore companies offer the service for $299 a month and guarantee startling results. It is advisable to be extremely wary of these types of offers.

You Get What You Pay For
Professional services come with professional fees. and SEO is no different. To be truly effective in this arena requires strategies that can only evolve with special expertise, insight, and time. You are better off saving your
money rather than outsourcing your marketing to non-established, fly-by-night shops putting the reputation of
your business in the hands of an unknown entity. at best, you will not realize any gain or loss by engaging with such service providers. Worst case, you could find your website banned from search engines for excessive spamming which is one of the “black hat” techniques used by unscrupulous SEO providers. With the latter, you will have to go to battle to rescue your name and reputation.