If a company is not on Google, does the company exist?

I know it’s kinda sleazy, but go ahead… google yourself! Really, I dare you! Come on, google your company’s name and see what comes up. What? Nothing comes up? Can’t be. Oh, your competitors come up. Well, that’s not good!

Did you ever hear about the philosophical debate “If a tree falls in the forest and it doesn’t come up on google – does it make a difference?” Hey, you can ask yourself the same question when it comes to your business too. Because when the internet is google, you have to secure yourself a place at the top, or nobody will care about you.

SEO is more than just a nice to have. In these days, advertising campaign is the new nice to have and SEO means just about everything. Millions of prospective customers are surfing the internet right now, and you have to make sure that when they need the services you provide, they will get to you and you alone! Not having a clear SEO roadmap is basically losing money. Every day. Every minute. Every second.

By the way, ranking high up on google is not that complicated. All you have to do is open your mind and join the internet marketing revolution.

So think about it over Christmas. Maybe you can ask Santa for a better ranking on search engines. Or maybe you can just contact Ajax Union. Because we’re much closer than the North Pole!

Happy New Year from the Ajax Union team!

Should You Hire A Internet Marketing Company?

One question that should be answer before you start marketing your business online is... "Should I hire a internet marketing company?". The benefits of hiring a internet marketing company are amazing but many people doubt making the investment because they don't understand exactly how important hiring one can be. Enter the age of smart internet marketing which allows you to get it right the first time and start reaping the benefits today.

However, if you are still hesitant here are a few questions to ask yourself:

Question 1: How important is internet marketing to the growth and success of my company?

Things to consider: Am I in competitive market? Do I want to make sales outside of my community? Do I plan to expand?

Question 2: Do I understand how to increase my presence online through link building?

Things To Consider: Do I know how to obtain high quality inbound links? Do I know which links to avoid? Do I understand how to get search engines to pay attention to me?

Question 3: Can I optimize my website via meta-tags, title pages, product descriptions, and key word phrases?

Things to consider: Do I know how to find high value keywords that relate to my website? Do I know the best way to insert words into my meta-tags? Do I understand html, headings, and title pages?

If you cannot confidently answer these question with the expertise needed you may want to think about hiring an internet marketing agency.

What's Your Online Marketing Footprint?

With so many options on the World Wide Web including social media websites, blogs, search engine optimization techniques, social media optimization techniques, and much more, how do you determine your online marketing strategy is effective?

I call this your "online marketing footprint”. It’s just like your carbon footprint but it helps you take a look at all of your online venues and not only put them into perspective, but also decide which ones are right for your business.

So how do you assess your online marketing footprint?

Step One: Analyze
In order to analyze your online marketing footprint the best thing to do is go through all your social media venues and blogs and ask yourself a few questions.

1. Is this online footprint in line with my business goals and objectives?
2. Is this online footprint bringing lucrative leads to my website, blog, or profiles?
3. Am I just taking up space or am I actually interacting users and potential customers as well providing relevant resources?
   

Step Two: Condense
Using your analysis from step one, determine which online footprints needs to be abandoned. Every online user has jumped on a new social media site and created a profile only to find that they never go back. It’s okay to delete your account and move on. If you can't delete your account, email the site organizer or web manager and ask for them to delete it for you

Why not just abandon ship? Well, it’s important to not look "sporadic" online. Remember, strategy and planning are important characteristics of great business people and looking sporadic and unorganized on line is just as bad as looking that way in the boardroom.

Step Three: Equalize
Now it’s time to really research and find what additional footprints you are missing that could be beneficial to your online marketing plan. Every business person with an online marketing plan should have a strong presence on what I call MTF; Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook. If video is an important part of your outreach then a channel on YouTube is also important.

Finally, there are the small gold mines that you have to research and determine if it’s right for you. It may be a forum, a social media site, or someone else's blog, whatever it is remember to assess the benefits first and it works for you go for it.

So what are you waiting for? Increase your online marketing effectiveness by Analyzing, Condensing and Equalizing your online footprint.