SEO Consultants and Industry Trends

With increased online activity worldwide, it's not surprising to see a lot of companies offering search engine optimization (SEO) services that make it easier to achieve first-page ranking on Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. First-page ranking increases the likelihood of getting leads for your business. However, if the SEO consultant does not keep up with online marketing trends, your online marketing success may be compromised.

Search engines like Google and Yahoo! constantly revise their algorithms, mathematical formulas that determine website rankings based on several criteria. In the earlier days of the Internet, SEO companies resorted to tricks like posting duplicate content to rank higher on search engine results pages. However, these tricks can now get your website penalized or even banned, making it impossible for your target market to find your website.

Even big companies like JC Penney and the German BMW website were temporarily banned because of these outdated and unethical methods. It is thus advisable to hire an SEO consultant who takes the initiative to keep up with industry developments and thereby deliver the best possible results. SEO can help you get leads, but if it isn't done correctly and ethically, it can do more harm than good. As such, be sure to choose your SEO provider carefully.

The Importance of Online Marketing

Companies all over the world spend millions on marketing for one reason: success. Much of the success of a business, as well as its continuous growth, lies in effective marketing. After all, to boost sales, you must make sure that target clients are properly informed about your products and services. With millions of consumers using the Internet, you need to augment traditional marketing efforts with online marketing components.

Online marketing allows businesses to advertise their products and services to a larger audience much faster. You can also get word out about your business, interact with customers, and build brand loyalty through social networking sites. Online marketing can achieve in mere minutes what fliers and brochures take a month to accomplish, since one post is all it takes to garner thousands of views.

Companies that heavily engage in online marketing can save millions on advertising costs since tasks are done virtually. It is even easy to produce exquisite banner designs to attract more customers online without coughing up millions on printing and publishing. You have the option to hire a select team of online marketing experts or else outsource your marketing needs to a reputable firm.

End-users also benefit from this new approach to marketing because they can get the information they need without any on-site visit. Because most businesses now offer online services, customers can enjoy buying products without leaving home, making the purchase experience much more convenient for the average consumer.

Finding the Right SEO Consultant for Your Business

Search engine optimization (SEO) has revolutionized the world of marketing. It's a process that has endowed newbie entrepreneurs with an option that can help them amass more customers, gain more profit, and increase the efficiency of their operations for the company and the consumers' benefit.

To obtain high-quality SEO services, it is important to get in touch with a proficient SEO consultant. However, you should not settle for just anyone. Before hiring an SEO expert to help your business gain online prominence, make sure that he has an extensive knowledge of SEO techniques such as keyword analysis, content development, and link building.

Being in charge of promoting your company's website, your SEO consultant should know when to make critical decisions to keep your business from meandering in the path towards Internet fame and success. His actions and judgment should be aligned with your company's goals and visions, which a responsible SEO guru should be aware of even before he commits to the job.

SEO should also be a collaboration between the client and service providers. As such, choose an SEO consultant that you feel like working with. After all, it is a healthy relationship between you and your SEO company that will pave the way for an effective and hassle-free SEO service. 

Even Facebook Has a Hashtag Now

After months of experimentation, Facebook has finally joined the circle of social media websites by adopting hashtags. In a recent news release, Facebook announced the full implementation of hashtags much like how Twitter, the most notable hashtag user online, utilizes them. Facebook users can click on fully-functional hashtags to follow trends and updates from TV shows, current events, movies, and so on. Clicking on  #NBAFinals, for example, will lead you to posts that carry the same hashtag.

Denoted by the number sign, a hashtag lets users find posts and other content that carry the same metadata code. Contrary to popular belief, Twitter didn't invent the hashtag; it had already been used extensively in Internet relay chat (IRC) rooms years before. By putting a hashtag on a post or update, users can look for posts or updates of a particular topic with relative ease. Today, social media marketing experts will likely use hashtags to get their messages across to clients better.

In addition to Facebook posts, Facebook's hashtag system can also function on other social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter. You can say that the hashtag makes the world even smaller, which is nothing less of a benefit to casual and commercial users. This universal hashtag feature is far different from Twitter's hashtag, in which its hashtag system only worked on tweets. The hashtag will surely change the way people use Facebook in the years to come.