Maryland SEO - Search Engine Optimization
Professional SEO Services for Small Businesses
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the Internet marketing services we specialize in. SEO is the process of making changes to your site, adding content to your site and promoting your site which will lead to improved rankings when people search for terms related to your business on one of the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN).
Organic search engine optimization helps improve your website’s visibility and the amount of traffic reaching your site in the free search engine listings (shown in green), as opposed to pay-per-click management (PPC) where you actually pay for traffic visiting your site (in red).
A well thought out SEO campaign will not only target keywords that receive a large number of searches, but also keywords that are likely to bring visitors to your site that convert into new clients, customers or sales. This makes the area search engine optimization a form of advertising with the potential to provide a high return-on-investment (ROI) for our clients.
Our 7-Step Process for Effective, Results-Driven Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
1. Understanding Your Online Marketing Objectives
We discuss your overall business goals, identify your target market, determine the primary action you want visitors to take when they reach your website, and get a feel for how your web marketing plan fits in with the rest of your business strategy.
2. Keyword Research
We carry out comprehensive keyword research using a variety of tools to aid in the development of a list of the most lucrative keywords related to your business that are being searched for on the Internet. With your input, we then help you decide which keywords will be the primary keywords to use for improving your rankings.
3. Competitive Research
Once we know which keywords are related to your business, we look at your competitors who are already ranking well in the search engines for those terms. We analyze various aspects of their site that likely helped them achieve those rankings and use that information as an input into your customized search engine marketing strategy.
4. On-Page Search Engine Optimization
This step consists of making changes to your site so your existing pages have a better chance of ranking well for some your primary keywords. More often than not this step also includes adding additional content to your site to drive traffic for other keywords identified during keyword research.
5. Off-Page Search Engine Optimization
This portion of our SEO service involves establishing links to your site from other authoritative websites relevant to your business. First, we’ll submit your site to a very limited number of online directories.
In addition to targeted directory submission, we’ll design a plan for creating and distributing content in the form of articles, press releases and other formats throughout the Internet. By submitting to high-quality, general article directories, to websites within your market that publish guest articles, and to online press release sites, we’ll be able to draw in traffic from these sites and create quality backlinks pointing to your site with the right keywords to improve your overall rankings.
(Link building is the single biggest factor in achieving high rankings and is the step that has the greatest influence on the time/cost required to achieve them).
6. Testing and Tracking Your SEO Campaign Results
We’ll setup web tracking on your site prior to starting your optimization to gather statistics about your site and to establish a baseline level of traffic. Then, as we roll out your SEO plan, we’ll monitor the change in your site’s rankings, level of traffic and level of conversions for each keyword that brings you traffic. Then, we’ll provide you with recommendations on elements we can test to improve your conversions.
7. Ongoing Improvement
We’ll also keep track of which keywords are bringing visitors to your site. If we don’t have specific content planned for those keywords, we’ll consider whether or not it would be a good idea to create a new page with content (such as an article) specific to that keyword. We continually observe, track and adjust your SEO plan until the desired results are achieved.
SEO Pricing
We design each of our SEO campaigns to be custom-tailored to meet the needs of your business based on your business goals, existing elements of your current site, and the amount of competition also attempting to reach your target market via search engine rankings. Because of that, the specific steps we’ll take in implementing your SEO campaign will vary from one business to the next, as will the cost.
However, as a general baseline for planning your marketing budget, our monthly retainer for SEO services generally starts at $1495 per month for a period of 3 to 6 months. Please note that this is just an baseline for your planning purposes. The duration and monthly retainer fee for your particular SEO campaigns may vary, dependent upon the particular business you are in, the level of competition and other factors. The monthly retainer includes outsourcing all on-page, off-page, content creation, link building and other SEO activities to our firm, making your SEO campaign a hands-off project for your company (other than the occasional review of content written on your behalf).
Calculate Your SEO Return on Investment
Use the calculator below to get a rough estimate on the return-on-investment you can expect from your SEO campaign.
Instructions: Fill in the gray fields with information related to your business or the specifics for your SEO campaign.
Recommended Values:
- SEO Campaign Monthly Fee: $1495
- SEO Campaign Duration (in months): 6
- Number of Searches Per Month: Refer to Google Adwords Keyword Tool, SEOBook Keyword Tool, or Use Rough Estimate
- Percentage of Searches that Visit Your Site: 50% (assumes you achieve #1 ranking for keywords)
- Conversion Rate of Visits to Actions: 2%
- Conversion Rate of Leads to Sales: 20% (depends on your company's ability to convert prospects into sales)
Can You Just Learn SEO on Your Own and Do It Yourself?
With some clients, this question inevitably comes up. The truth is, there's nothing magical about good SEO. Like most things, it just takes the right know-how and commitment to put in the hard work required to achieve solid search engine rankings and traffic. Our opinion is that anyone with the determination to do so can learn how to create and manage their own SEO campaigns for their business.
However, this is much like doing your own taxes. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. A better question to as is whether or not doing your own SEO is the best use of your valuable (and limited) time. After all, there are a lot of moving parts to an SEO campaign, factors that change and new opportunities that become available.
Do you have the time and energy to stay on top of all of these developments? Do you have the time to weed through the massive amount of information related to SEO online and offline? Do you know which information is current, which is outdated and which might actually hurt your search engine rankings?
If not, then why not leverage the talents of a knowledgeable partner to assist you in running your SEO campaign. That's where companies like ours excel and we look forward to working with you.
SEO Methods and Best Practices
Our firm only uses white hat SEO methods, in keeping with current search engine optimization best practices.
Click to Download in PDF Format
To learn more about what to look for and what to avoid in an SEO company or consultant service, we suggest you download the PDF report titled, "Illegal SEO Techniques". You can also view related articles and other resources on our blog, including info on hiring and working with an SEO agency and how to partner with professional, freelance consultants.
If you’d like to find out more about how our search engine optimization plan can help improve the rankings for your business website, please contact us using the contact link at the top of the page to request more information or a quote for your project.
We’d be happy to provide you with any further information on our SEO consulting services and how we can provide a customized solution to meet your business needs. Expect a response from us within 2 business days at most, and likely much sooner than that.
Note that while our company is located in suburban Maryland, near Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, we are available to work with clients around the country and worldwide in addition to local clients within the state of Maryland.