Know the warning signs of a bad Web site promotion service.
You have launched your Web site, you have content on every page, and you think you have hired an experienced Web development and SEO team to provide the best Web site promotion service for your company.
However, after a few months you begin to feel a tinge of anxiety because some of your goals haven’t been reached. What should you do?
Here are 7 Danger Signs that your Web Site Promotion Service is Not Working for You
1. You cannot find your Web site anywhere in Google. Ok, so it takes Google about 3 to 6 months (sometimes more) to index brand new Web sites; however, you can usually find at least one page of your site within the search results, even if it’s on page 27. It’s possible that your Web site promotion service has not selected the best buzz words for your industry or has not included those buzz phrases in the proper places for the search engines to find and index.
2. You have not received any traffic or ranking reports from your Web site promotion service. Hmm? At the very least, you should be given a search engine ranking report every month to track where you are located on the major search engines. If #1 isn’t an indication that your Web site promotion firm isn’t working for you, then this should be the real indicator.
3. No one has suggested implementing an analytics program to track visitors, sales, and so forth on your Web site. Popular analytic programs are
Google Analytics,
Hitslink,
Hubspot, which all have similar reports, but vary in cost.
4. Little to no recommendations for off Web site promotion services such as a blog, business article marketing, press release service, join social networks, participate in online forums, offer product/service reviews, and other services. Your Web site promotion should not just be limited to on site content and SEO, it takes much more than just throwing a ball into the field.
An experienced and ethical Web development and SEO firm should offer you additional ways to build your company’s reputation online.
5. Promises of top search engine rankings or a specific placement within the search engines or paying a low flat monthly rate to appear on the first page of Google. These are bad signs of an ineffective Web site promotion service, and they may be practicing “black hat” or unethical SEO practices and running away with your money. Although there is a science of getting your Web site ranked higher in the search engines (Google will never reveal their secret, but we have our resources), no one firm can make promises to get you on top in a short amount of time without doing something, which could potentially hurt you in the long run. If you are working on offline promotion consistently, then a reputable and honest Web site promotion firm will help you increase online visibility, but no guarantee as to how much you will increase your sales.
6. Web site promotion firms who cannot be reached to answer your questions. Although most SEO and Web development firms are extremely busy (because they work so hard to keep your site at the top of the search engines), they should be easily accessible by phone or email, and they should return your call/email within a couple days. If your promotion service is anything like contacting your cable company (always on hold or the line is busy), then this is a sure sign they are not working to help you achieve your goals.
7. You cannot find your company Web site ANYWHERE online, not even if you do a search with site:www.yourcompany.com. Google or Yahoo will not send you a letter or email explaining why your site has been removed or what you can do to fix the problem.
