Josh Steimle (the owner of MWI, a Utah-based SEO and SEM firm) recently criticized Vizad for creating what he calls “fake blogs.” I won’t go into the ethical debate of owning domain names with the intent of increasing search engine rankings - Josh has some of those (check out the especially useful and relevant links on the bottom, right-hand corner - my favorites include Pain Pump Lawsuit, Herbal Remedies and an Eating Disorder Treatment Center - it’s so hard to get those skateboarders to eat!).

What really bothered me was a recent post that seemed to call into question whether a girl could do SEO. See bottom of screenshot:

I don’t want to get into the local Utah-mudslinging - I think MWI is a great firm (look at that, no “nofollow” tag!). I also think that SEO.com (formerly known as Webtargeted), OrangeSoda, Utah Webservices and 97′th Floor are good firms (still not nofollowed!). I’ve seen some of their work, and although we are competitors and they’re not always my favorite people, to me it has always felt like friendly competition.

The hard part of being a woman and owning a company in Utah, however, is that a lot of “businessmen” still don’t realize that women can be effective in the world of business - more specifically, internet marketing. Most Utah businessmen have stay-at-home wives, and that’s how they tend to view a woman’s role. For now I have chosen to start and run my own business. Part of running this business is blogging on my SEO-related website - I guess I should take it as a compliment that Josh doesn’t think a woman could have written all this?

I’m not alone - I wanted to call attention to two other women in Utah who have been involved in the SEO-industry - Janet Meiners(aka Newspapergrl) and Elisabeth Osmolowski (a moderator at Search Engine Watch) - and yes, Josh, they are both woman who actually understand SEO!

Well, as I’m sure you guessed by now, I am a woman (see picture - no further proof will be offered - this isn’t that kind of a website). Hopefully this will clear things up for you about women and SEO and that yes, a woman can write a blog all about internet marketing.

Happy Blogging/Marketing/Whatever! (Even you, Josh! )

Aside from SEO, we are also a Utah pay per click company, an industry of internet marketing that I am continually learning about. I may not know much, but I do know a little about geo-targeting.

I am somewhat baffled at times when people don’t put any thought into geo-targeting their PPC campaign. For example, if you offer a service or products only available in a specific region of the states, why would you pay for ads to run throughout the U.S.? Or if you are looking to acquire clients from a specific area or country, then advertise only in that area. Not doing so merely equates to you wasting money, every single time someone outside your geographic realm clicks.

Thus, a more geo-specific PPC campaign may equal a greater ROI. Consider doing so if you are not already…you may be pleasantly surprised with the results.

So a little while back I received a call from a gentleman representing a rather large, reputable firm.  Apparently he had Googled “Utah search engine marketing” and our company popped on the first page (dare I say first result?).  Anyways, he mentioned his company was in dire need of SEO services and had used the keyword Utah SEO because he was from Utah and knew that it was “a mecca for SEO and internet marketing companies” (his words, not mine).

Is that so?  I am nothing more than a humble copywriter, but I only know a handful of competing firms within this localized area.  Is the Beehive state known as a big SEO hot spot?  Good Fabulous news for us if it is !

I was driving down the street the other day when I saw a sod farm advertising their “high quality sod” at great prices. I thought that it was nice enough - until I realized that all of the lawn in front of their business was completely dead! This wasn’t the middle of winter, either - this was summertime when the lawn should have been looking good.

Even with any type of water restrictions, just watering once a week should prevent this from happening. I guess the sod people didn’t care enough about the appearance of their business to water their lawn.

If I was in the market for sod, I have to say, I would shy away from a company that couldn’t even keep their own product alive in front of their store. I couldn’t trust that the sod would grow. Whether this is a true reflection of the quality of their product is beside the point - they may grow the best sod this side of the Mississippi, however, I don’t want to risk it because their image tells me the product may be low-quality.

The same goes for having an online image. If you have a great product, but your competitor is trashing you online, you’re going to look like you have a bad brand - whether this is true or not. Companies need to do brand management and make sure that they have good pr about their company, and that they own their company and/or product name online. You don’t want people to wrongly think your product is inferior just because your competition is doing well with SEO, or trashing your reputation in forums. Always stay on top of your reputation online. People turn to the internet for information, and if all they’re seeing is bad press (whether it’s true or not), that’s what they’re going to believe.

I received a very good offer from someone on the Ivory Coast wanting to give me several million dollars if I would just give him my bank account information. The email sounded really convincing until I read his name - James Diarra. It sounded a bit too much like another word that isn’t too nice. (Ok, the email wasn’t really convincing…but still, to some it might be. Not that I’m trying to give sales advice to Nigerian scammers…)

Now, this could be James’ real name. I don’t believe it is, though. Most spammers wouldn’t send their real names. I would advise Mr. Diarra, however, that if he wants to sound more convincing in his email scams, to pick a name that doesn’t sound like something so gross.

I guess we can all take something from this. Company name and image is important if you want to be taken seriously. A company that only has a basement office seems a lot smaller than one with an established office. Even if it’s a huge basement office with several employees - it still makes the company seem small. Just renting some office space is sometimes that push that’s needed to get potential clients to look at your proposal again.

Then again, not all companies care. But some do, and if you have a good name, office, and image (and don’t forget reputation!) you’ll probably do well with sales, as long as you have a good sales team, and the ability to take care of clients.

Like I have mentioned before, my meager SEO knowledge and abilities are expanding; and by expanding I mean slowly evolving one step at a time. The status of reciprocal links is something I learned while doing some (very) simple link building.

As a way to expedite the growth of a backlink profile and increase page rank, websites will often exchange links (commonly known as reciprocal links). This form of link building is not such a hot idea because not only are they easy to recognize by the search engines, but reciprocal links appear to be a barter or swap rather than authentic endorsements. Thus, they can carry little, if any, value with the search engines.

Doing triangular links is a much more viable option – linking to one site that links to another site which links back to you. So site A links to site B, site B links to site C, and site C links back to site A. Grasp that? Triangular links appear much more legitimate and valid than reciprocal ones. And although theoretically Google and other search engines could pick this up, they are much harder to detect.

The best and most effective method perhaps is simply getting relevant sites (the higher the page rank, the better) to link to you without having to link back. Much easier said than done, I know. But getting a back link like that is pure SEO gold.

I have to say that I am very fortunate that my fellow co-workers here at our awesome (yet always humble) Utah SEO firm have granted me access to post on SEO gurl.  I have a rather limited knowledge of SEO compared to our resident link ninja and internet gurus, but I am certainly learning more and more everyday.

However, as the best copywriter this side of the Rockies, there is one thing I have learned for certain: the  importance of having original copy on a website.  As SEO gurl pointed out in a previous post, original copy is imperative primarily because the search engines (namely Google) will award higher rankings in organic searches to sites with original content than those with duplicate. 

 Still, it never ceases to amaze me how much people constantly underestimate the importance of original copy.  And not just original but good, quality copy as well.  So now potential clients and customers have found you, but no one will give your company (or any for that matter) a second thought if the website looks like it was written by a 7^th grader.  If you are trying to market a product or service or even just get your name branded, you need to have copy that is quality and professional or people will not want to do business with you.   Original copy will enable potential clients to find you, while quality copy can help you retain them.

I googled “Utah SEO” the other day to see how my company is ranking in the organic results, and I noticed in the sponsored results, right next to my company’s link, one that said “Forget Utah SEO Firms”. The ad was for text-link-ads, a company my company has done business with.

Needless to say, I was dismayed to see this. I emailed the president of the company, Patrick Gavin, asking why this was there, and saying we can’t do business with a company that is trying to drive clients away from us.

I received an email within the next couple of hours from him stating that it was an affiliate company doing this, and he would have them remove it immediately. He also apologized for not catching it before we did.

I have to say, I’m really impressed with Mr. Gavin’s response. I checked today to see if it had been taken care of, and sure enough, that sponsored result was gone.

The moral of the story, I suppose, is to give companies a chance to make things right before writing them off. It wasn’t even his company that was causing the problem - it was an affiliate. I appreciate the quick response and resolution to the problem. Great job, Text Link Ads!

Ok, so I received an email with the following message (I’ll call the company Firm X, located in Arizona):

Your site is strong enough for top placement on Yahoo! and Google! Allow us to give you a free site review. If you want to be in the top three positions with page one exposure - we can show you at no charge how we can increase your online placement. Email us at (blank)@speedy.com.pe today and we will give you a free web site review. Our results are guaranteed. See how you can change the landscape of your online business. Remember to include all the site(s) you want us to look at and how you would like to be contacted

Sincerely,
Client Care

The funny thing about this is they’re an SEO firm sending this to me, someone that works at a utah seo company. They need to do their homework before spamming companies. The other funny thing is that my company is actually ranking on keywords while Firm X doesn’t rank on anything. (Or at least nothing worthwhile.) I googled Arizona Internet Marketing, and they didn’t show up on the first 3 pages, nor were they anywhere in the sponsored results.

I’ll use this as a word of warning to anyone searching for an internet marketing company. If an internet marketing firm “guarantees” their results - run. No reputable SEO firm will ever guarantee results because no one can predict what Google will do next, nor can they know what other SEO firms are doing to rank your competitors.

Also, see how well the firm is doing for their own website. Are their title tags well optimized? (Sorry, Firm X - another blunder you’re making.) What kind of a backlink profile do they have? What keywords do they rank on?

There are a lot of factors to consider when you’re picking an SEO firm, but do your homework so you’re not throwing your money away. There are a lot of good SEO companys out there, but there are also a lot of clowns straight out of clown college.

I just got back from the FOOA conference in New York last week, and it was a really great show. There were some excellent speakers that gave me some great ideas for my utah seo company and ways we can work to increase our advertising impact.

There were lots of upsides to the show such as the variety of speakers that were in attendence. Carson Systems did a great job of organizing the show, and I loved the smaller more intimate feel to the show. (There have been plenty of huge shows that I feel a bit lost in the crowd at.) Some of the speakers did a great job delivering messages of what we can do as a small business to increase our ad ROI online. There were some very cool products that were talked about, such as Video Clix, software that allows users to interactively look at videos and find out information about products in the videos by clicking on them. Go to their website to see what I’m talking about.

Another product I appreciated was the analytics software that Numeric Analytics showed that allowed you to analyze your advertising campaigns, and track whether they are producing well or not. It helps you decide when to end the campaign, or if you should keep it going.

A couple of drawbacks - the food (breakfast and lunch) was delicious, but it felt more like appetizers, and I ended up going to some of the street vendors for a bit more substantial lunch. (Sabrette hot dogs, anyone? :)) Also, some of the speakers felt to me that they were pushing their products rather than informing the attendees about what’s to come in the world of online advertising.

Overall, I would say that the show was a great success, and I’m glad I went. I look forward to coming back next year!