In the olden days of the internet – we’re talking just 5 to 10 years ago – it was seen as rather risky to buy traffic to your website. It was kind of like if you paid someone to be your friend – it isn’t really an authentic or trustworthy thing to do. But, things change. As the search engines became smarter and more sophisticated, marketers found new ways of staying friendly with them. Buying traffic to your website is not a new strategy, but it’s an improved strategy.

Do you have a small business that is just getting started and needs to find a good source of customers? Or maybe you work for an established company, and are trying to increase conversions on your website and reduce the cost per lead. Either way, you have probably been told to buy SEO services at some point along the way. Today’s post is to help inform you of what exactly SEO services are and are not, so that you can be more informed as you consider paying for this form of marketing.

In today’s market, many customers no longer rely on conventional advertising to find solutions to their various needs. The prevalence of search engines like Google has streamlined the process of pre-purchase research, giving users immediate access to the most informative, accurate answers to the questions they ask.

Because search engines have refined their methods of searching so well, marketers have to put their full effort into making sure their online marketing content appears as high as possible on a list of search results. This practice is called search engine optimization, or SEO.

Imagine what life must have been like before the modern technology we all are so used to today. Imagine visiting New York City say, 100 years ago. You arrive by rail, are hungry and have really wanted to try one of those new “frankfurters” (hot dogs to most of us today). You start walking into the city, and soon you hear someone yelling from the next street over that they are selling them. You head that way and see that there are actually several vendors on the street. They are all trying to get your attention by yelling out what they are serving up. You have choices, they have gotten your attention, and you go with the one that has exactly what you’ve been wanting.

Along with our own experience as a marketing agency, I’ve collected some of the best SEO tips and tricks from across the web. If you’re a business owner that's trying to get the most out of your search engine optimization strategy, you’ve come to the right place.

You’ve probably heard a lot about mobile search lately. It keeps getting more and more popular, as consumers are shifting to their smartphones to research, find local businesses and even purchase products.

In a recent article, Search Engine Land reported that the Google search app is now the 4^th most popular app according to ComScore research. This is really significant, and here is what Search Engine Land had to say:

Is your SEO (search engine optimization) service making you money or costing you money? Are you having any success at all with your SEO efforts? A lot of small businesses go with the cheapest options, and pay for the most basic of SEO services. This type of approach may not be worth it for your business, and you may end up shelling out money and getting no results. To get an idea if your cost effective SEO is worth it you need to know the features and benefits that they offer compared to a full service SEO firm.

You know a thing or two about using search engine optimization (SEO) as part of your online marketing strategy to get more customers. With the help of an inbound marketing agency you’ve done keyword research and developed all kinds of materials to attract people to your small business – a good looking website, blog articles, eBooks, and social media posts – and you’re even getting people filling out the forms to actually get their hands on your material. But now that you have the SEO leads – people who have shown interest in what you’re offering - what should you do with them?

Are you wondering what kind of marketing services you should invest your money in for your business? You hear about all these different types; ads on Google, Facebook ads, PPC, paying for links, etc. But which one makes the most sense and is the most beneficial for your business?

Internet marketing for many small businesses gets put on the back burner and the “more important” stuff gets shoved up front. But then it catches up with you and you realize your business needs to be found online. The answer everyone is talking about: SEO. But what is that really?