A Good Website Can Make You Good Money
By admin | May 19, 2009
A funny thing happened to me last night while watching the Pittsburgh Penguins game at a local restaurant/cigar bar. The owner and I were standing outside while he proceeded to show me all of the additions and ideas he had to help the restaurant expand in size and draw in more people. We talked for a few minutes about his remodeling ideas when I asked him about his marketing and how he was positioning himself to get in front of all these new people who had never been there for a great dinner out or a relaxing place to watch a Pittsburgh Sporting event while having a cocktail.
The conversation led to many different areas about marketing and his viewpoint was that he wasn’t being too aggressive now because he didn’t feel the restaurant was quite where he wanted it in order to handle an additional 80-100 people per night. His idea was that before he stepped on the throttle and drove more people to his website, he wanted to make sure that the restaurant looked great and he had enough room to accommodate an influx of new diners. His thoughts brought up a good point in regards to successfully marketing a website in the Pittsburgh Area.
A lot of marketers in Pittsburgh talk about getting more traffic to your website and landing a ton of people on the home page and then the idea is that they will see something they like and either stop in to eat, print out a coupon, or call to ask a few questions. Well I pose these questions, what if your website is poorly built? What if the website does a horrible job of showing the atmosphere and you get the wrong type of patrons? What if the website isn’t built in the way it should be and no one calls you or has any interaction with you? My opinion is that if first impressions are everything, then why would you want someone who has never used your services in the past to see a website that did not do a great job of turning that internet visitor into a cash paying customer? If you haven’t thought about building smart websites that can make you money, then you are basically paying for people to go to your site and you are giving them a bad impression.
We have prided ourselves here at Higher Images in the regards that we not only drive quality traffic to a website, but we also drive them to a website that is conversion friendly. We use a combination of paid search, local search engine optimization, online videos and directory optimization. Getting potential customers to your website is only half of the battle. The other half is taking those customers and giving them things that they not only want to see on the website, but things that will make them pick up the phone and call you or better yet, travel to your business and become a paying customer.
If you want a website and marketing program that can actually make you money, call Higher Images at 412.203.1996 and make sure you mention this article.
Chris Reidenbaugh Sales & Marketing Manager
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Make Internet Marketing Work For You With SEO
By Jennifer | May 11, 2009
Millions of people are searching the Internet right now for a product or service, will they find yours? The importance of choosing a good online marketing company that specializes in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is imperative for any business to compete. Unfortunately, unscrupulous SEOs have made it impossible for the amateur business owner to complete SEO independently due to search engine spammers. Search Engines are constantly changing their ranking criteria and are always on the lookout for the telltale signs of SEO on any given site. If you think that having your keyword phrases “in all the right places for SEO” is a good thing, think again!
Things that worked like a charm for many people in the early years of SEO may actually hurt rather than help now. The first thing is to find an internet/online unbiased partner such as Higher Images that can assist you in all your online marketing and advertising. When you hire this professional marketing team you will notice countless key advantages, especially as far as SEO goes.
When done right, an everyday user should not have any idea that a page has been optimized. A trained online marketing company is able to spot what your keyword phrases are, but it shouldn’t be glaringly obvious. Last, but not least, a marketing group like Higher Images will include a professional copywriter to work on the important pages of your site. This is the best investment you can make for your site and your business. You need someone who truly understands target audiences and how to speak to them about the benefits of what you offer. Ask yourself if your online marketing is working for you, and if you stopped to read this…the answer is probably no.
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Why You Should Use an Internet Marketing Company Instead of the Yellow Pages For Your Web Marketing
By admin | May 7, 2009
As a web marketer in the Pittsburgh Metro Area, I hear over and over again from my clients and prospects that they have been called numerous times by a local sales rep from Superpages.com, Yellowpages.com, YellowBook.com, or some other traditional phone book marketing group in Pittsburgh. Their promises are always the same, increased sales and so much new income that you won’t know what to do with all the business. They even leave messages telling a business owner that they want to send some business to them.
Often the pitch is the same: You have a limited time to get top placement or the highest rank on their site , We will get you over XXXXXX impressions per month (I hear it often from my customers), and although what they telling you is true: You do have a limited time to get top placement (limited until they sell the top spot to your competitor), and Although getting impressions of your Business is good for branding purposes; What they don’t explain is that neither of the above statements means anything about getting new business or new customers.
So I must ask all of you business owners, if the results are so great, why are so many businesses so frustrated by those traditional on-line marketing services? The answer is they have no interest in helping you get more business. Once that sales rep leaves your office you won’t see him again until your contract is up. They just cannot provide anywhere close to the same return that an effective SEO or SEM campaign can bring you. Traditional online marketing services fall short because they have invested all of their time and efforts into creating huge marketing platforms that inundate users with garbage ads and pop ups. They have not spent the time to keep up with the ever changing online trends like SEO and SEM. All they talk about is Pay Per Click marketing and how they can get you higher on their own online directories (or over the last guy they sold).
To succeed online, you need a company that takes the time to understand the way you run your business is going to give you the necessary suggestions and lead you down the right path. The company that you hire to market your business on-line should be an expert and not someone that has thirty different mediums to advertise you in. A company that specializes in on-line marketing is better than a company that specializes in all types of marketing.
I leave you last with a small case study: one particular on-line yellow pages company touts that its program will give you guaranteed clicks. Although guarantees are always good, do not be tricked by the wolf in sheep’s clothing. What good are guaranteed clicks if the clicks are coming from people that either have no intention of calling or contacting you. If you are a plumber, would you want all of your clicks to go to someone looking for plumbing fixtures or plumbing parts? The click program we are talking about also charges a flat rate for each click. If a click actually costs around .30 cents, why would someone charge you three dollars? A good on-line marketing company must take the time to understand your business in order to market you effectively. A good web marketing company also cares about the design and layout of your website and cares about how to turn on-line searchers into offline customers. If all someone talks about is clicks to your site, you should run in the opposite direction.
By: Chris Reidenbaugh the Sales & Marketing Manager of Higher Images Inc.
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