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One of our clients, Toogood International (www.ToogoodInternational.com.au), who specialise in mobile phone accessories and repairs told us today that they were telemarketed by a company offering Search Engine Optimisation services. The caller said that they couldn’t find them on a search for mobile phone accessories in Melbourne.

Now we think SEO-dedicated companies are a good thing, and we even partner with them for heavy-duty SEO services. This particular client has only a basic website set up by us and no further optimisation services other than some occasional updates of new products.

Upon hearing this, we were curious to see what Google results a search for “mobile phone accessories melbourne” would bring. Well, the telemarketing company was right, they didn’t get the first result in the regular results, but because of all the combined techniques we use to maximise a website’s exposure, including a thorough Google Maps listing, lo and behold, they’re in first place after the sponsored result!

Contact us to see how we can get your business highly ranked on the popular search engines.

Google search for "mobile phone accessories melbourne"

Following on from our previous article Google vs. Yellow Pages,

I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t include Yellow Pages in your marketing efforts, but consider the following information.

I phoned Yellow Pages the other day just to get an idea of their rates for having an advertisement beyond just the free basic listing.

A Matchbox-Sized advert in Yellow Pages will cost you over $5000/year!

A basic “matchbox-sized” advert in Yellow Pages will cost you almost $100/week which is over $5000 per year. Of course, 12 months is the minimum period since you will be in the anually printed version.

A ¼-Page ad without any graphic design is $19,000 per year and a ½-Page ad is a whopping $38,000 per year!

There’s also other options such as the Locality Guide, which is a section at the end of a particular category which lists your service by suburb, and it costs a reasonable just over $280 per year to be listed there.

But is this beginning to make a basic $3000 optimised website plus a few hundred dollars per year webhosting sound like a lot more economical investment?

Keep in mind that the Yellow Pages is a yearly fee for something which is a huge printed book, and not the average Australian’s online choice of first search. There are other online directories which have a stronger hold on the online marketplace than Yellow Pages (and they don’t charge extra to list your website – like Yellow Pages does!)

With your own website, apart from the initial investment, the only other ongoing cost is a few hundred dollars per year webhosting. It’s dynamic meaning it can be changed and updated, and will reveal much more information about your business than a static listing in Yellow Pages.

The number of people who use the Yellow Pages print directory less than once a month or don’t use it all has increased by 61% between 2002 and 2009. Roy Morgan Single Source Australia: December 2002 – 2009.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4cCZ0DHcBQ[/youtube]

I know for myself, I’ve tossed the last few year’s worth of Yellow Pages into the recycle bin (they weren’t practical enough to use as door stops) every time they got delivered, and spared a brief thought for the tree that was needlessly sacrificed for this aging service.

Sure, there must be some people out there who still use the good ‘ol Yellow Pages to find some service. But for the growing majority, we prefer to let our fingers do the typing and let our search engines do the “walking”!

Granted, Yellow Pages does have an online presence, but it was only very recently they woke up to the fact that having to first click and choose whether you were doing a “business type search” or a “business name search” was an unecessary extra hoop for customers to jump through. So if you were trying to locate the phone number or address of a business you knew in a hurry, you might be left scratching your head why the business name you entered into YellowPages.com.au didn’t show up – and that was because you didn’t notice the little radio check box “Search by business type” was ticked. So you did the quick and easier thing: just Google it. This American company not only returned results quicker, easier, more intuitively and more effectively than the Australian Yellow Pages, it also showed you the map and location, along with a photo of the street view if available.

Yellow Pages still currently charges extra to have additional information listed such as your website! As a result, even many of the businesses which do have websites aren’t listed by default on YellowPages.com.au. Now if you were doing a search for a business on the Internet, is it highly probable that you’re looking for the company’s website? Guess Google wins again.

When will Yellow Pages wake up and complete the transition to online searching for online information?

I just attended a weekend Internet Marketing seminar and was really shocked to learn that a lot of websites out there make this one very common mistake which I had always assumed that any half-witted website design or hosting company should know about: having relevant, targeted niche keywords in your website code.

Without getting too technical, the essential practice of “Search Engine Optimisation” or SEO is basically the practice of optimising your website so that people can find you on the search engines (e.g. Google). This is of paramount importance because if people can’t find you on the popular search engines, then it’s pointless having a website in the first place. It’s like having your business hidden in a dark alley with no customers or clients walking past!

Here are examples of what I mean in simple terms so that anyone can understand:

One company was in the car rental business. Amongst the very few keyword terms they had was the term “backpacker”. That means, if someone was potentially searching for the term “backpacker” on the internet, they might find this car rental website amongst the millions of search results if they were lucky, and only if the website had relevant information about backpackers! Not likely. Besides, if you owned a car rental business, why would you want to attract business from people searching for “backpackers” on the internet? Not a relevant keyword term.

I also mention niche – which means it must be very specific. One such example was a tree lopping company. One of their search terms was simply “tree”. Does that sound relevant? It kind of does. But just go try searching for “tree” in Google and see what comes up: something like over 200 million results! Maybe a few of those might be someone actually looking to remove a tree but good luck if they happen to find that particular website and in that particular location.

Some outdated web designers make the mistake of embedding very broad keyword terms in the hopes that more people will find them. If you were a dentist, or a mechanic for instance, what would be the point of trying to place yourself amongst the millions of other dentists and mechanics around the world in your search results? You want someone searching for a dentist or mechanic in your local area to find you. If you niche down further let’s say you specialise in orthodontics in Melbourne, or you’re a Ford specialist mechanic in Sydney, doesn’t it make sense that someone searching for a “melbourne orthodontist” or a “sydney ford mechanic” is much more likely to be doing business with you?

More often than not, website designers are good at design, and poor at marketing skills, so they impress you with a glossy website. Getting potential customers and clients to find you online is NOT about having a glossy website.

Remember, there’s no point in having a glossy, sexy website IF NO ONE CAN FIND YOU!

Get your web people to show you what keywords and phrases they have embedded in your website code and think about whether they are specifically related to your business. If you’re uncertain if those are good keywords, just imagine someone searching for those keywords on the internet and think whether that person would be trying to locate a business like yours to become your customer or client. If not, then maybe it’s time to look for a new web designer/web host.

Printed telephone directories are going the way of the dinosaur! More and more people are searching for solutions online. So if you want your business to be found online, you need Australia’s Best Web Hosting!

Australia’s Best Web Hosting is not just about designing a pretty website – any young student can do that for you! Australia’s Best Web Hosting is about getting YOU more customers or clients and hence make more money for YOUR business.

Having an online identity that’s optimised is a valuable investment in your business, and Australia’s Best Web Hosting is the best solution for small business owners in Australia looking for the best web host.

If you’re serious about getting massive exposure online and tons more customers and clients to find you, contact Australia’s Best Web Hosting services on our Contact Us page.

Let us help you get more customers and clients by being found online.

Watch this video of an interview with Google Engineer, Matt Cutts to see what’s important to getting high rankings on Google.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GK0aQrCDEo[/youtube]

You don’t have to worry about all the technical details about setting up an optimised website.

Let Australia’s Best Web Hosting do all the “techie” stuff for you to get more customers and clients, so you can concentrate on what you do best at your business and make more money.

Contact Us now for a free consultation to see how we can help you and your business grow.