| 3-Step
Method to Evaluate a Web Developer
Internet marketing is a horse race where the most important factor is where you rank in the search engines for your keywords. Otherwise, who will ever find your website? So a horse can either run fast enough to be in the top 5-10 finishers, or it can't. It's very simple really. Everyone promises to make you a successful site, but who can really deliver?
The 3-Step Method will strip
all the nonsense away and let you evaluate the horse's
track record, but before you can use it you need some information.
Ask any web developer the following question:
Can you give me a list of at
least three client sites you have developed and the keywords
I need to find them in the Google search engine?
If the developers will not supply you with
that information, stop right there, and here's why: Only
Google matters, because if a web site gets
10,000 visitors a month from search engines, rest assured
9,875 of those visitors will come from Google.
Then, apply the 3-Step
Tests. Step 3 is the hardest,
but all you need is common sense:
- Check out their
page design. If you see ugly
pages, stop right there.
- See if the
client sites can be found in Google using the keywords they
supplied. If not, you're done.
No results in Google will equal only a meaningless
drivel of traffic to your site.
- Analyze the
Keywords being used:
Ask yourself: would anyone actually
be searching for those keywords?
Choosing Effective keywords...
As you can see, this is not rocket science...
Google displays by default 10 search results for any search you do, and that's about as far as most people get. If you are on page 2, chances are they will never know you exist. So your
horse is either in the top 10 in Google for some keyword that
will do you some good, or it isn't...:)
But what about they keywords themselves? Being number one in Google for something like "San Antonio Wireless Guage Supply" might get a few hits, but wouldn't just "Wireless Guages" be a lot better? Many so called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) "Experts" guarantee you top results for highly non-competitive keywords then pat themselves on the back for something fairly easy to accomplish.
If the developer gave you a client site that
is a hair salon in Alamagordo, NM, and the keyword is something
like "betty's alamogordo
hair salon", well, no
good. Why? Because you would already
have to know about Betty's salon and be looking
for it specifically. If you don't know
Alamogordo and are looking for a place to get a haircut, what
would you enter? Probably "alamogordo
hair styling" or "haircut
alamogordo", right?
Don't be surprised if you do
not see Betty's shop on the first page of Google results
for these broader, more effective keywords, because this critical
criteria is where most developers fall short.
RCM Enterprises can promise you effective results because we have successfully competed with some of the most competitive keywords on the Internet, such as "World Travel". That's like going for "digital camera" or "hotel reservations". Only someone who has the insight, determination, and resources to succeed in those arenas has even the faintest chance of success.
Even succeeding with a phrase like "las cruces auto repair" presents a formidible challenge (substitute your town, your service). National services directories such as SuperPages.com and InternetAutoGuide.com are large companies that spend thousands of dollars a month in their efforts to be in the top 10 for every city from New York to Podunk for about any kind of product or service you can imagine. These corporate lions usually hog up the whole first
page of the Google results, so a small site has to be a cunning little wild dog
to know how and sneak in there and get one of their spots.
Does
this not all make perfect sense?
That horse can either run faster than the
others ones, or it cannot. Don't
settle for just talk and nice looking pages.
Ask to see the history of that horse's performance, on the
track, where it counts. |
