SEM & Digital Marketing Advice New Orleans, Louisiana | WSI

One of the great parts of my work as an Internet consultant is helping clients who are “first timers” to the Internet. Often times when I talk to colleagues the first reaction may be quick to jump into “well it took long enough – it’s 2009 and they are just getting around to a website!”

But I look at it a little differently. As a self employed person I have tremendous respect for people who have successfully run a business for years without a website. That means the person knows how to run a business and is profitable and successful even without a site.

So before anyone snickers about being too late to the party – tip your hat to people who have been successful and are open minded enough to embrace new ideas and technology.

Adding new wrinkles, so to speak

What gets me excited is to help businesses like this add a new element to their “repertoire” so to speak. Just in 2009 we have helped 3 very well established businesses establish their first website and in all 3 cases it has added straight to their bottom line profit.

So I prefer to look at this as helping good businesses get better – and teaching them about the tools that the Internet has to offer.

And no matter what I do – there is nothing cooler than getting a call from a client and they tell me they got their first customer or closed a first deal from the Internet!

So welcome to the Internet – Greenberg & LaPeyronnie, LLC!

I am amazed at how many “industry” specialists there are out there in the SEO world. In prepping for a meeting tomorrow with an auto dealer I did a little searching and found a whole world of “auto dealer SEO” related websites.

Don’t get me wrong – some of these sites had really good information and case studies. But at the end of the day the methodology that is producing results is largely the same as it is for just about any other industry.

Constants in the SEO World
No matter what the industry certain things are important if you want to succeed with your online marketing:

1. Well optimized pages on your site – this means taking advantage of page titles and all of the on page factors important to your market segment. If you have a locally oriented business include as much information as you can about local markets or terms that would be of use for potential web users.

2. Importance of link building - While there are endless amounts of advice on the best way to build links, the fact remains that building visibility for your site in directories, blogs, other websites, article banks and news outlets remains important. And this isn’t just because Google likes links. It’s beacuse people are everywhere online and the more links you have the better your chances are that they will find your site.

3. Identify your target. The car dealer “case studies” drove this home for me. They showed examples of ranking well for “Ford dealer MA” and other sorts of phrases like this. No matter what industry or business you are in you MUST identify the key phrases you want to be found for and work towards those.

4. Search patterns are changing. Google and the other search engines are constantly changing the rules in an effort to provide users with the best results possible. This means that the results people see when they type in a given phrase will vary as time goes by. Being knowledgeable about these changes and adapting as they come is sound advice no matter what industry you are in.

Google AdWords is one of the most interesting programs I’ve seen in the advertising world. It’s where Craig’s List meets Newsweek Magazine.

What I mean is that Google AdWords is designed as a “do it yourself” program. Yes they have a wonderfully extensive help library and yes they representatives available to guide you. But at the end of the day you can setup, write and run your own ads on the biggest search network in the world. And while Craig’s List is easy to do because it’s more of a directory – effectively running online ads takes study and practice.

“Do it yourself” is the great equalizer

No doubt about it – Google has it right with their current advertising platform. “Do it yourself” and “free to sign up and use” leaves very little to complain about. However, the reality is that many business owners and executives have very full schedules and finding the time to study up on a program like AdWords takes valuable time which they may not have. This leaves many businesses with a real need to bring in a professional or a consultant to work on their advertising program in order to make it work effectively.

Compounding matters are estimates are more than 2/3 of internet users visit Google to find what they are looking for. With so many people present on Google it can be easy to run through your budget in no time if you aren’t careful about how your ads are running.

Google Adwords Professionals

In my opinion – the Google Adwords Professional program is a great way for Google to reach the business world. The Adwords certification means that an individual has met certain experience levels and have passed an exam which covers the most important facets of Google’s advertising program.

For business owners – this means that you can now find professionals in your local market who are qualified to help you with your online advertising needs. Google Adwords Professionals don’t work for Google but we know thier ropes and are available to share that knowledge and guidance with you to help you succeed online.

If you are looking for a Google Adwords Certified Pro in the New Orleans area we invite you to contact us at WSI. Contact us via email info@mywsiconsultant.com or telephone 1-866-345-8279.

WSI has franchise offices all over the world which are locally owned and operated. Our Mandeville, LA office serves all of Louisiana and offers search engine marketing services such as paid advertising through programs like Google Adwords.