Why a Business Needs an Internet Marketing Consultant

1^st Click Consulting offers a monthly consulting package that provides traffic and ranking reports, pay-per-click advertising monitoring and reports and the opportunity to keep us on the client’s marketing team. All for just $100/mo.

It’s amazing how many clients pass up this opportunity, and I generally think it is because they don’t understand the value of keeping 1^st Click Consulting involved long-term. The reports obviously have some value, but mostly as a way to evaluate how your website is performing and whether the trend is positive or negative. Interpreting those analyses, so you know whether you need to take action is where the real value lies.

What benefit does an ongoing relationship with an Internet marketing consultant provide? Here are a few of the ways that we have been able to help consulting clients for $100/month.

• Reputation Management—We use tools that can help us identify any news, comments, reviews or social media postings that reference your company, business, or products online. If the comments are positive, you can use them in promotions, and sometimes add them to your Google listings. If they are not so good, we can help you address them in several ways, including by responding to the customer and by helping you move or remove the comment. There are ways to deal with reputation killers, and we know how to do that.
• Providing Guidance When Search Engine Ranking Algorithms Change—For the most part, 1^st Click Consulting does not engage in SEO techniques that are obviously just search engine manipulations that are likely to fail in the future. But, in the past there have been changes in the way that the search engines like to see things done on websites that can affect rankings. For example, at one time it was relatively common to have lots of links to interior pages of a website appear in footers. Because these links were often used to build search phrase relevancy for these interior pages, Google began at one point to penalize sites with footer links like that. This is obviously an easy thing to remedy, but it is helpful to have someone knowledgeable on board to tell you to do it.
• Monitoring the Web Host—The speed that pages load has become a major part of the search engines’ ranking algorithm—partly because of the emphasis on improving the user experience for mobile devices (which sometimes operate more slowly). 1^st Click Consulting subscribes to a tool that checks the page load times and general responsiveness of your website daily and lets us know if there are problems. Because most websites are being hosted in shared hosting environments where usage spikes by one website on the server can negatively affect others, this is a not uncommon issue.
• Making Recommendations When the Competitive Environment Changes—Smaller businesses just do not have the Web marketing budgets to allow them to do everything that can be done to generate good rankings. So, generally, 1^st Click Consulting takes a customized approach to the initial SEO work, analyzing the strength of the competition so that the client’s website can achieve page one rankings for as many keyword phrases as possible with as little work (and expense!) as possible. But often competitors that had little online presence decide later to invest in a better website and professional SEO assistance. When that happens, rankings are sometime negatively affected because that new stronger website has to supplant and outrank some website(s) for a desired keyword phrase. And, it could be my client’s website. If that happens, it is important to take action to restore rankings as soon as possible.
• Advising You about New Opportunities for Web Marketing—The Internet is a far from static environment for online marketers. New websites become popular. Popular websites begin to allow ads. Social media evolves to allow new ways to market your business. And mobile marketing continues to create powerful new ways to reach consumers and businesses. 1^st Click Consulting can help you take advantage of all of the new marketing options online as they become available.
• Helping You Make Decisions about Changes for Your Business—For example, our clients know to consult us when they are considering adding a new product line or service. Also if they plan to open a new location or move to a new location. These changes should be reflected in a company’s online profile.

Savvy marketing managers will team up with an experienced Internet marketing specialist, so that rankings can be improved and preserved and so that all beneficial online opportunities are utilized.