Our Philadelphia Internet Marketing and Local search Marketing Insights:

3 Reasons Why Most Businesses Struggle
To  Get Leads & Sales Online

Failure to place Keyword Discovery & Analysis at the start of the project.

The first step you should undertake when launching a website for your business should be Keyword Analysis. Many small companies that try to do their own in-house design or use the services of someone not familiar with search engine marketing will either ignore this step or place it at the end of the project. This is a costly mistake and most times guarantees that the site will be unsuccessful in reaching their target customers. By crafting your content structure and on-page seo around keywords that customers are using on Google to find similar products and services you position yourself to receive this traffic.

Placing graphical web design issues over SEO  & marketing strategy.

Elaborate web design features and the overuse of graphics and flash can hinder your website's ability to be found in the search engines. It's the equivalent of having expensive brochures made for your business and then placing it in the closet.

When people are looking to buy or solve a problem they go to the web for information. You need to give them that information and not try to entertain them or impress them with your web designer's latest, new fangled graphic gizmo. You have 7 seconds to show them you can answer the questions they have in their head when they reach your site. If you force them to wait or create any indecision on where they should look or click for that information you will lose them to another site.

Entrusting the wrong person to develop your online marketing campaign.

Anyone can put a web site on the internet these days. That doesn't mean that everybody should. There are a combination of skills needed to launch a successful website. These include project management, search engine optimization (both on-page and off-page) , local search marketing, copy writing, lead generation techniques, pay per click expertise, web design, knowledge of social networks, email marketing and a host more. To entrust someone with the success of your company's web marketing initiative that does not make this their daily business is a prescription for failure. I can surely carve up the Thanksgiving turkey but that doesn't make me a surgeon.

Being successful online involves following proven internet marketing principles. You may need to use a combination of local search, pay per click, social media (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) as well as Youtube, email marketing and other practices to beat out your competition for the limited internet real estate that defines your niche. From the start you need an internet marketing blueprint to guide your decisions and strategy.

The days of small businesses just "throwing up a website" are long gone.  You do more harm than good putting an unprofessional website online. You only get one shot to make a good first impression. Nowhere is that more true than on the web.

Instead of looking at your website as "How can I get this done as inexpensively as possible?".

You need to be thinking "What steps do I need to take to market my products and services as I prepare my company to compete on the internet?"

This is the battle we fight in everyday for our clients.