Seo Redefined

Your Internet Marketing Planis just as important as your Business Plan. In fact it should have been part of your Business Plan when you first decided to go in to business. For an existing business it may not be something you have done yet. In fact most small businesses that have an Internet presence do not have a marketing plan. This is the single biggest reason for failure for an on-line business besides poor website design.  We are assuming here you already have a killer websitePoint2 site.  If not click here for some really great help with your Point2 site.

Most MBA's would agree that for any business to be successful it needs a Business Plan. Part of your Business Plan would include your Marketing Plan. The Marketing would include things like:

• Who are your Competitors?

•·         Analyze your Competitors Website.

•·         Analyze your Own Website.

•·         Who is your Target Market?

•·         Will you Market by State, City, or Neighborhood? (What is your Niche?)

•·         Research Keywords, Search Phrases etc.

•·         Analyze your Current Search Engine Position.

•·         Decide how Much to Budget each Month for Marketing

•·         Where will you Spend Internet Marketing Dollars?

•·         Will you Participate in Social Marketing?

•·         The list goes on and on

This Marketing Plancan be as in-depth and detailed as you want it. But the point here is that if you want to be successful on-line you need this Marketing Plan. Without this plan you will see minimal success and find yourself becoming extremely frustrated in your lack of growth. So where do you turn to get this done? You have a couple of choices.

You could do it yourself. This could take months to research and develop your plan. If you have the time then go for it. But who really has the time to do this when you are trying to sell real estate?

The second way and most efficient is to hire an SEO firm. I can tell you from first hand experience how my company, SEO Redefined does it. We first do an initial SEO Consultation which includes basic information about your site, your competitors and your Search Engine standings. This Free report is often a real eye-opener for most people. People do not often realize where in the Search Engines they rank and few know their on-line competitors.

The next step is an in-depth and detailed SEO Consultation. This includes a very detailed and in-depth analysis of your website and those of your competitors. We make recommendations on what we can do to raise your Search Engine rankings and drive more traffic to your site. Once this Internet Marketing Plan is complete the next step is the actual implementation of your plan. This whole process can take up to 6 weeks. But pays for itself quickly which can be seen in your ROI.

Once this plan has been implemented it is very important to have some type of monthly maintenance to keep your traffic up and solid placement in the Search Engines.

You gain an instant best friend- Only your best friend would tell you that your pink couch, purple walls and shag green carpet are hideous.

You gain an instant mother/father- Only your mother/father would tell you that your pink couch, purple walls and shag green carpet are hideous.

You gain a conscience- Yes you want to disclose that old termite damage in the attic.

You gain a lawyer- Yes you have to disclose that the old termite damage in the attic has been fixed.

You gain an administrative assistant- Paperwork is complete and accurate.  You have dotted all your I's and crossed all of your T's.

You gain a cheerleader- Yes your house is beautiful and looks even better without the pink couch, purple paint and green shag carpet.  WAY TO GO!

You gain a coach- Yes it has been more than 30 days since we listed your house but do not give up.  "The difference between the possible and the impossible lies in a person's determination."-Tommy Lasorda

You gain instant character and integrity- A Real Estate Agent is always a professional who adheres to a strict code of conduct.

You gain knowledge- Years of experience and hard work pay off, so listen

You gain a Jack-of-All-Trades- A person who has seen it all and knows how to fix it all

You have to be very proactive when it comes to your on-line reputation. The way the search engines work today any bad press about you can be listed in a matter of hours on the search engines. Deals could be lost and business relationships shattered if you are not proactive about your company and personal reputation. But how does one become proactive?

One of the easiest ways is to do a search on your name or your company's name. Try all three of the most popular search engines. They would of course be Google, Yahoo and MSN. Each one will give back a different number of searches and many times different websites in the top 20 or 30 links. Click on every that mentions your name and see what it has to say. The search can be refined by using a (") before and after the search term. A good rule of thumb is to check at least once a week. A very good move is to sign up for Google Alerts using your name and your company's name as an Alert Phrase. This way anytime there is a posting about your or your company and Google finds it, they will alert you of the post.

If you find many negative posts then you should talk to a good Reputation Management Company for a free consultation. They can tell you if you need a lawyer and what can be done to have these posts neutralized. SEOredfined.com can help and we have a lawyer that can answer any legal question when it comes to Search Engine Reputation Management.

Being proactive makes good business sense and can directly affect your bottom line. So before that happens take a few minutes every week and check your reputation out

Reputation Management can certainly be a two edged sword. Though many companies use this "Technique" to legitimately rectify false and misleading information, others are using it to make a "Fresh Start". This so called "Fresh Start" is usually the result of the company in question providing poor customer service or just ripping the customer off.

The legitimate uses are practiced by some of the leading Fortune 500 Companies and by smaller business and individuals. Many times a former employee or disgruntled customer will go on many of the "Service Rating" websites and make false claims. They will also blog anomalously about some terrible injustice this company committed. These companies and individuals are then forced to rectify these false claims by "Pushing Down" the fake and false search engine listings with positive and truthful posts.

The same tact is often taken by companies and individuals who have legitimate claims of bad behavior made against them. They know that only a few minutes of searching for a company or individual name on a search engine can loose them a great deal of business, if the information is negative. They also know that many people will not look much past the second or third page of a search engine. So by blogging or posting many positive comments and reviews these companies and individuals can get a "Fresh Start".

There is no real set standard yet on how many posts it takes to disrupt a bad posts position in a Search Engine. But through some research that SEORedefined.com has done it seems to be running about 10 to 1 and in some case 25 to 1. Every negative post should be answered by 10 or 25 positive posts. This ratio seems to work pretty well. The further down you push a story the less likely it will be found.

Here is a link to the story.  There are many articles but this one is a quick read.  It does a very good job of explaining the issue in greater detail for you.   It is a very good example of what can happens when untrue information is unleashed in to the public eye.

By now you have probably heard about what happened to United Airlines. But for those of you who have not heard let me briefly explain what happened. In 2002 the Chicago Tribune newspaper published an on-line article about United Airlines declaring bankruptcy. This should have stayed old news, since this story is now 6 years old, but it did not stay old news. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, whose parent company also owns the Chicago Tribune, reran the article. But the Sentinel had a date of 2008 posted with the article. In no time flat this information ran around the Internet so quickly that investors began dumping their shares. United Airlines stock plummeted from $12 per share to just over $3 per share. Who is to blame here and what can be done?


The blame will have to be sorted out by the courts. I can not imagine that United is going to sit by and allow this to go unpunished. All parties involved are claiming that they had nothing to do it with and it was all an accident. But I am not so sure about that. Someone or some internal system is to blame for this and needs to be corrected. The trading of the United stock was halted that day and the shares ended the day at just over $10 but not before the damage had been done.


This situations is just another example of how powerful information can be and how fast that information can be spread. It is even more important now to have some type of Search Engine Reputation Management policy in place to stop these types of rumors before they cost a company or people their reputation.

Recently SERM (Search Engine Reputation Management) has become a hot topic and a very interesting niche market in the world of SEO. Many people are very unfamiliar with this new concept and how it actually works. I will attempt to explain it here.

SERM are tactics that many companies use to proactively protect their brand names from untrue and damaging posts made by people whose only goal is to hurt and damage a company's reputation. Many times these lies and deceptive practices are spread through search engine searches. This same tactic is used by stalkers and harassment artists who are out to destroy a person's (or company's) reputation and good name.

Until recently, there was not a lot that could be done by a person or company to stop this horrific and cruel practice of deception. But thankfully a few states have passed new laws prohibiting this kind of behavior and made this tactic a felony. Where a few years ago a person had little to no recourse, a company or person can now sue and have the perpetrator put behind bars.

There are some things a company and person can do to limit the damage from this type of harassing behavior. You certainly do not want to ignore this and hope that the search engines will suddenly forget you exist. You will want to confront this type of harassment "head-on".

You may find that you need a lawyer to help you decide if there is some type of legal action you can take. In the event of a stalker or on-going harassment you will want to discuss your options with a lawyer.

When the matter is one of brand or name disparaging you will want to bury the offending posts, This can be done in many ways and certainly has many advantages. Most people do not go beyond the third or fourth page in search engine results. So blogging becomes even more important along with press releases. What you are trying to do here is bury the offending posts so no one will find them.

If the offending posts appear on any of the popular rating systems you then address each post as you find them. Offer to correct the problem that the person is complaining about. Address any negative information that that may have made against you. Be very careful not to resort to name calling or any defaming behavior. You do not want to give this person a chance to sue you.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about SERM. We have a lawyer on staff that is always happy to answer any questions you many have about your situation.

Anyone who uses Google Analytics on their website will tell you that sometimes it is hard to make sense of all that information.  I would have to agree with that.  Sometimes even the most experienced of us wish Google had done a better job than they did. Don't get me wrong...I think Google Analytics is a nice tool to use, but you should always use a second Analytical tool to track visitors and other information for your website.

I have been playing with several Google Analytic plug-ins and I have one I think is pretty decent.  Several of my clients really like it and think it is better than what Google has to offer.  They have told that it is easy to use and understand.  I think it does do a better job but I could see where new users to Google Analytics may find it a better tool to use than what Google has to offer.  I have been using Google Analytics for some time now and I am very proficient in moving around and analyzing the data.

The program is called Analytics Reporting Suite and is developed using Adobe AIR.  You can find this free download here.    Now this will not work unless you have Google Analytics installed on your website.  It works from your desktop, which is really nice.  Let me know what you think about Analytics Reporting Suite.

Website analytics can be confusing and darn right boring.  But recently I worked with a client to make their website analytics more exciting and darn right fun to boot.  The client asked if I had ever heard of VisitorVille and of course I had.  He wanted it installed on his site and recently bought a year subscription.  I could hardly wait because VisitorVille is so new I know of only one other person using it.

If you are a huge fan of SimCity then VisitorVille is right up your sim.  VisitorVille is an online interactive community based upon your website.  Here is what VisitorVille says about their analytics:

"It's easy: each building represents a web page; each bus a search engine; and each animated character a real visitor to your site.  Launch VisitorVille for Windows to watch your traffic in real time, analyze your stats, and provide Live Help. It's web stats for the rest of us!  Track your Adwords and Yahoo campaigns, plus email campaigns, accurately and with ease."

Here is a screen shot from VistorVille.com.  Each building in VisitorVille represents a page on your website.  Here's a helicopter view of VisitorVille 3D.

You can walk inside any building to learn more about the visitors who are there (as well as initiate chat with any one of them).

There is so much offered here that I could never cover it all in one Blog.   There are dozens of reports that can be run and exported for offline viewing.  So when you are through marveling at the interactive parts of the program you can get down to analyzing  your site with real-time reports you find with many of the higher end analytic programs. 

 Now what is the cost you ask? 

So if you are looking for something different and enjoy SimCity then this may be the analytical program for you.  Most people will be able to use the Basic package and be very happy with the results.  Either way, you have to admit this is certainly a different and fun way to analyze your website.

I want to personally thank Robert Savage from VistorVille.com for the use of the screen shots and verbage from his site.

I for one am always amazed how fast some website get crawled by the search engine bots.  I use Google Alerts to notify of many different words and phrase, including my name.  I posted a new Blog last night and the time stamp between here and my email was only 50 minutes.  That is very fast and many of my Blogs on ActiveRain have been indexed in less than 90 minutes.  Just goes to show you how popular Activerain is and how many links there are here.