It’s great if search engines love you. But we’re focusing on making sure customers love you too.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a hot topic. And, it is important to have a reasonable and appropriate SEO strategy. Unfortunately, many people think that just getting high search rankings for very specific keywords is the goal - it’s not. Just like any other marketing or communications tool search needs to be part of a mix of marketing activity; there is a proper time, place and investment level for SEO. For example, sometimes the nature of the business/product/service does not lend itself to search as a major driver of traffic and business. Other times, the keywords and phrases for which high rankings are desired are so competitive that the cost to achieve high rankings is prohibitive.
The goal of a good SEO strategy is to generate cost effective, qualified leads - not merely first page rankings on Google. There are companies who may spend $25,000 to $50,000 a month on search marketing support and activities and have no idea what return on investment they are getting. They may be on page one for many keywords, but are they really reaching any new customers? Are they generating any incremental traffic? Does that traffic bounce when they get to the site, or do they convert? There are a number of factors to consider in determining the right strategy, tactics and investment level.
RD2 will work with you to recommend appropriate SEO objectives: We will run reports to determine general search volume and competition for keywords. Based on the objectives and the search environment for your identified keywords, we will recommend a strategy and try to set expectations for results. Finally, we will set up opportunities for conversion so that you can tell what you get for all the effort in SEO.
You see, it’s not just about stuffing content with keywords and waiting to get to page one, it is about anticipating what your most valuable customers will look for in searching and figuring out how to position you to capture their attention and get them to act.
RD2 wants you to get smart! This is the first of many discussions RD2 wants to have reguarding the buisness of transforming our creative energy into tangable results for our customers. After all, what good is great work if it’s off target? We will explore more specific elements about SEO strategies and a variety of other topics in future discussions on this blog all tagged Get Smart!.
Yesterday I got my first bike commuting flat 3 miles from home. Luckily, I didn’t fall or anything. I was a good boy scout and had everything it takes to fix it right there, but the replacement tube went flat as well within a half mile. It was old and I couldn’t pump it up enough. I’m really glad my wife was home and could pick me up. There may be nothing sadder than a grown man walking his bike home. I even had my backpack on for extra elementary school flashbacks. If I have gotten jumped for my lunch money under the 635 bridge, my spirit would have been crushed for weeks.
Everything is now fixed and I’m researching tougher road tires. Apparently the tires that come on bikes are meant for weekend rides once or twice a month. If you actually ride a lot, they wear out pretty quick. On the train this morning I was inspecting my tires and found 2 more weak spots. I’ll be riding home today with a little fear.
We raided the fridge a few days ago in an attempt to come up with the worst drink possible. Citrus Smirnoff vodka and Miller Highlife were the only two alcoholic beverages we had at that particular point in time. Brandon mixed it up and I was volunteered to test it.
I own about 142 text editors and organizational utilities/apps. Chris gave me another sampling of one of his favorite tools tonight. TextMate. My first attempt to use TextMate is as a tool for blogging. So far, it’s pretty easy. We’ll see…
There are plenty of tools to help you plan, budget, track, and otherwise mange projects. They range from heavy scheduling tools like Microsoft Project and OmniPlan, to communication and organization tools like Basecamp and Backpack, to generalized tools like Excel, to even things as simple as Post-its. On a large project I’m working on, we’ve used all of these in some form or another; and while they’ve been a help, they all share a common flaw. You have to teach the tools about the project, and that only works if you already understand the project.
Tools only go so far, and that’s fine since no tool will ever be a silver bullet. In this large project I mentioned earlier, we bid overall for the work appropriately. However, when it came time to track our progress along the way, we started missing our internal deadlines. We were already pulling some late nights and even weekends working on this, so where did we go wrong? We had done all of the “right things” you’re supposed too… After a good night’s sleep, the answer presented itself.
Scissor Dagger in Black and White, originally uploaded by Jurica G.
Simply, we had done what had worked for us in the past. We had based milestones on page templates, while in fact the work centered around modules that, combined in different ways, formed the bulk of the pages. I’ve built a lot of my experience around building B2B web sites, some noteworthy blogs, and a little heavy duty content management system integration. To help us wrap our minds around a different paradigm, I printed out every single comp, whipped out a pair of scissors, and headed back to arts and crafts time.
Now instead of dealing with a half dozen page templates that shared a lot of resemblance to each other, we were dealing with more than a dozen modules, and even modules within modules. With this new perspective, we rebuilt the entire plan and discovered not only were we not behind like we had thought, we were actually a little ahead! You won’t find the “scissors technique” in any project management handbook I’ve heard of, but that shouldn’t stop you from adding a pair to your planning toolbox.
