Internet Marketing/Web Design Tips & Advice

Over the 10 years the internet has changed the way people do business. Dynamic new ways of generating business information and reaching target markets are continually emerging. One of the new techniques for harnessing the power of the web is the creation of internet algorithms, otherwise known as “spiders” or "web crawlers".

In basic terms, here is how spiders work:

• Spiders visit a website and records the site info;
  
• Next, they scan the meta tags – this identifies the site according to subjects;
• Finally, the web crawlers follow the links from the site to other pages

These spiders are quite flexible and tend to be hard workers. Because of the many links between pages, a spider can start at virtually any point on the internet and keep moving continuously. At the end of the day (or when whenever it decides to stop) the web crawler returns the info gathered on its voyage to the search engine’s central database of information, where it is organized and stored. Eventually, the spider will revisit the site to see if the site content has changed, but until it does the material in the search engine will not change. This is why some searches yield pages that can no longer be located.

Finding out what these spiders are looking for can be a tough task requiring both patience and hard work. The team at TheeDesign studio are experts in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and know how to feed these creepy web crawlers to get your business ranked higher on search engines. Give us a shout at 919.341.8901 or schedule a complimentary consultation and one of our web experts will be in contact with you shorty.

TheeDesign Studio works hard to get you noticed!

eCommerce is short for electric commerce, which is simple the conducting of business through the internet. Specifically, eCommerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital communications. The term “e-tailer” refers to a business who utilizes this technology.

eCommerce used to require a personal security certificate and an expensive interface however this is no longer the case. Virtual storefronts are available through a number of hosting services and large sites like eBay offer turn-key solutions. These options require little or no online experience.

Tools for operating eCommerce sites are now built into hosting servers and include benefits like shopping carts, viewing inventory, and the ability to accept secure online payments.

In the past, security was a main concern however; improved technology combined with credit card companies offering refunds to fraud victims have encouraged individuals to shop online.

The internet is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and eCommerce is a profitable and cost-effective way for companies to do business at any time. The professionals at TheeDesign Studio have created several functional and profitable eCommerce solutions. Call our Raleigh office a call at 919.341.8901 or fill out the contact form on our website.

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The question has been asked for years: which search engine marketing strategy is better – cultivating your natural (organic) search engine marketing strategy or simply spending your way to the top through an effective Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaign? It is a difficult question to answer for any company owner who does business on the web.

So which one works best? Is there an easy solution? How about both? Here is what your friends at TheeDesign Studio think.

PPC

When you bid for top positions and essentially buy visitors or “clicks” from Google or other search engines it is called Pay-Per-Click (PPC) search engine advertising. PPC allows you to potentially increase web traffic by paying or bidding for keywords related to what you are trying to sell.

Here are some of the positives:

• No more trying to figure out search engine algorithms and its impact on your position.
• It is scalable and controllable as you set your budget and have a good idea of how many leads you should generate.
  
• It’s fast as you just fund your account and watch your results.

On the downside:

• It can be relatively expensive. The competition for keywords is fierce and now Fortune 500s have jumped into the fray with plenty of money to spend.
• Researching and selecting effective keywords to bid on is very time consuming.
  
• Managing what you’re spending on keywords, adjusting how much you spend, measuring returns and intelligently running a profitable PPC campaign is a full time job.

SEO

On the other hand we have “Natural” or “Organic” search engine optimization (SEO). Generally speaking, organic SEO consists of optimizing your existing website to enhance their position in search results. Organic SEO consists of ensuring search engine "spiders" can easily crawl and understand what is on your web pages.

It is essential to utilize clean codes and search engine friendly content that appeals to human readers, as well as spiders. You then start trying to move increase your site your site ranking by doing things like cultivating inbound links from other sites. Inbound links dictate your “link popularity” so by acquiring links that point to your web site can improve your ranking. Blogging, social media marketing and online videos are very effective methods to acquire quality links.

Here are some of the advantages:

• Organic SEO is very cost effective. The labor costs of setting up and managing a PPC campaign are usually the same or even more than SEO. Plus, there are the continuous click charges you pay after set-up.
• Search engine positioning is stable compared to PPC as positions continuously change according to your competitors’ bidding tactics.
• “Click Fraud” is still a concern as some companies use manual clicks or software that simulates human clicks from different IP addresses throughout the world. Your competitors can jack-up your click charges and eat up your budget. Google can detect some of this fraud but there are ways to evade this detection.

Some of the drawbacks include:

• SEO takes longer to see results compared to PPC. It can take months after you optimize your site to see an improvement in your ranking.
• SEO is an ongoing process. Your site will never be 100% “optimized,” it will only improve as you put more work into it. The good news is that your rankings will improve in the future and hopefully your business will be reaping the rewards of having invested in SEO.
• SEO is not free because if you do it yourself since you are investing your valuable time. You can purchase SEO tools or hire a firm to do SEO for you, then obviously it’s going to cost you a few bucks.

So which is better? Well, it really depends on the industry and budget. The team at TheeDesign Studio suggests a search engine marketing strategy that includes both natural SEO with a well-structured PPC campaign. Our team has the expertise and the knowledge to work with your company to create a plan that maximizes your budget and produces a positive Return on Investment. We can concentrate on our search engine marketing, allowing you to concentrate on your business.

If you would like to sit down with one of our SEO Specialists, call our Raleigh office at 919.341.8901 today! Or simply fill out the contact form on our website and a member of our team will contact you!