It's too often that we run into a disgruntled company or individual who has been 'burned' by their previous SEO company. It's the unfortunate side effect of having a virtual service that can be offered by any person or organization with little to no experience. For the most part, most prospective clients tell us that they ended up spending thousands of dollars over the course of a few months to a company that kept 'promising results' without actually producing any. When we ask for the specifics of what the company did for them, we're usually surprised to hear that the client had no idea. This is a big problem we find with most SEO companies; their insistence in being vague about their processes and refusing to disclose their 'secrets' to their clients. Don't let your SEO company fool you into spending unneeded funds and time with them, here's why you should force them to 'open up': Proper disclosure = better understanding. The fact is, that as a customer, you need to be able to understand why and what you're paying for. This allows you to build a better relationship with your service provider, and give you better insight as to how your business is performing. While you may not need to know the technical details to everything that's done for you, you should at least know why and how it works. They should have nothing to hide. For the most part, the SEO industry has no 'magic secrets', so if an SEO company tells you that they can't release 'proprietary information' to you, fire them right now. The service you pay for should be designed to benefit you and get you closer to your goal of reaching more people and gaining more sales. If a company is refusing to disclose exactly what they're doing for you, chances are they're using antiquated or prohibited methods, or simply don't have a full understanding of what they're doing for you. No SEO company should have anything to hide. Collaboration between client and agency is crucial! The fact is, that good SEO campaigns should be customized for each client. This means tweaking and organizing the campaign for different industries, objectives, and locations. If your SEO agency is working 'behind closed doors', that chances of them taking in your feedback and implementing things that are important to your goals are slim. Proper communication between you and your SEO agencies will ensure that you're both well informed and working together to reach your goals. Every SEO company should be 100% transparent about their methodology and workflow. The benefits you gain from a great SEO firm is not in their tactics, but in the strategy and professionalism in which they implement. If you're company refused to acknowledge your questions, it's time to move on to someone new. Motoza Marketing is an online marketing strategy firm based out of Austin, Texas, with services ranging from basic SEO strategy consulting, to full marketing campaigns tailored to each client. For more information, visit www.motoza.com or call us at 1.855.9.MOTOZA (1.855.9.668692).

A good way of thinking about your website is to consider it like it's your own home, or better yet, a home you're trying to sell. In many ways the two are very similar. Just like your physical home, your website has an address to let people know where it is ( www.yourdomain.com ), you can design it just about any way you'd like, sell it, expand it, and store as much information (or stuff) to suit your needs. While creating and running a website can be seen as technologically dauinting, by relating it to many aspects of home ownership, you can get a better grasp of how and why you do certain things. Imagine your website is a home you're trying to sell to prospective customers. Here are a few factors to consider for your website (or your 'virtual home'): Make it Presentable - Regardless of your personal preferences, it's usually highly advised to make your home presentable to guests (or in this case, potential buyers) so that you improve the chances of people accepting the home. Designing the look of the home is dependent on the type of buyers/visitors you have coming to your site. Looking at other homes (or sites) tailored to your specific demograpic can you give an idea of the colors, wallpapers, and imagery you should use throughout your site. In addition, follow best practices for usability. Have a clear navigation, easy to read text, and complimentary colors in order to not scare away new visitors. Design each room accordingly - Just like a home, it makes sense to have each room designed in a way that's expected by a vistor/buyer. The living room should likely have a sitting area, while the bedroom should have a bed and a Kitchen a sink. When it comes to a website, make sure each page has relevant information expected from that category. The contact page should have easily to follow contact information and directions (if you have a physical address). The services page should clearly outline your services and provide information to contact you if more questions are needed. By providing people with what they expect, you increase the chances of them taking that next step. Make the Floor Plan Easy to Navigate - Good homes have a logical floor plan that is easy to understand. For example, it's not very common to have a bedroom right between the kitchen and foyer, so don't design your website like that. By having a clear navigation, that contains appropriate sub-pages in each category, people feel comfortable navigating and finding the information they're looking for. When needed, hire an Expert - If you're wanting to make your home presentable and ready for visitors, it's sometimes wise to hire an expert to help with renovations. Most people aren't advised to attempt to add an extra room to their house on their own, or add a deck, or work on plumbing. The same thing applies to some aspects of websites. For higher level development that may involve redesigning your whole website, structure, or layout, or for more advanced implementations like search engine marketing, it's advisable to look for outside help. While it's perfectly possible to do it on your own, the time and expertise required to do the job right is usually worth the cost. As with most home work, finding a suitable contractor is very important. So the next time you look at your website, think to yourself "would I be happy to show my visitors around my home, or is it time to clean it up a bit?"

When it comes to search engine optimization, most companies only focus on ranking high in Google. This makes perfect sense, considering that Google is by far the most used search engine on the internet. However, while many agencies then recommend to go after Yahoo and Bing, it's often overlooked that YouTube is the #2 highest used search engine on the web. As of May 2010, YouTube exceeded over 2 BILLION searches a day. This is only one of many indicators that video optimization is and will continue to play a very large part in online marketing. Posting on YouTube is relatively easy and absolutely free to a regular user. The biggest barrier most companies have with using YouTube and other Video sharing sites is their lack of content (aka Video). While it may cost a lot to create a professional video for blogging or commercial purposes, there are several different alternatives available to small-medium companies. While I won't get into all the details and options, video making sites such as www.animoto.com are a great start to look into. If you do decide to create a video and begin promoting your business, here are three great tips to get you started: 1. Make video Relevant and View-able Make sure you share a video that is relevant to your business/organization and will interest people enough for them to want to learn more. You can usually achieve this by having a funny video, adding 'viral' elements to the video, or using interesting imagery to increase interest. In addition to having a good video on YouTube, make sure to promote it on your site, and any partner websites you can think of. A popular video may not only increase your exposure, but also help your SEO rankings down the road. 2. Properly tag your video YouTube allows video uploaders to add a variety of information to each video uploaded. It's beneficial for you to add as much relevant content as you can (beside the video itself) so that search engine crawlers (Google visits YouTube too!) know exactly what your video is about and credit it back to your site. Some of the tags you should pay attention to are: The Video Title, The Video Tags (aka Keywords), Description, Video Location (if your business has a physical office), Date of Video, and any citations/captions you have for the video. 3. Monitor and Interact with Commentary  YouTube is a very interactive community. Part of what makes YouTube so powerful is the fact that people watch, share, and talk about videos of all sorts. Companies trying to promote on YouTube should attempt to interact with this community as much as possible, so that they can try to learn from prospective customers, share more information, and show the community that they're active. So If someone comments on your video, whether its negative or positive, make sure to respond to the user so that if someone else has the same question/concern, you've already addressed it. It's also important to monitor your comments and make sure there isn't a lot of spammers attempting to gain links to their own sites. YouTube can be a very powerful SEO and Conversion tool. Make sure your business is utilizing to its full power today!