Why Doing Business On The Web Isn't (Shouldn't Be) Free

Christmas sales exceed Billions online!

You would think with the multiple years of Christmas retailing that have reeled in billions of dollars of sales online, businesses would be rushing to get a piece of the pie. Considering the ability to lower overhead cost and the outstanding Return-On-Investment (ROI) many online retailers have these days, you would tend to believe that everyone would be dying to get to that realm...When it comes to many small and mid-sized businesses, you would be wrong!

I'm Too Small To Deal With That!

Fear of the unknown is a strong deterrent to placing a small to mid-sized business online. Hearing from others around them who have "failed" to make money on the web gives them reason to hold back. Learning that others have spent tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars to place a site on the Internet leaves them feeling like a small fish in a big pond. How could they ever compete?

Proven Results!

Placing a business website online takes thought, planning and execution similar to creating a good printed mailer or other publication you expect a lot of people to use towards buying your product or service. You cannot expect to have just any "16 year old" create the site and make you money. {Before anyone comes after me saying their 16 year old could do it, I'm not speaking about any particular individual but rather the notion of professionalism.} It is this professionalism that this message is all about.

http://www.SeaWitchAntiques.com was the result of hours of planning and effort by Michael D. Hudson of H2 SEO, LLC along with the hours of photography and text by Dean Hudson of Sea Witch Antiques in Sneads Ferry North Carolina. Since its inception on December 26, 2003, the site has risen to a number one ranking for "North Carolina Antiques" on over a dozen search engines and directories including Google and Yahoo!. Add to this the site has reached over 120 keyphrases with a number 1 ranking position and maintained over 50 much of this time! That doesn't even get into the fact that a store with approx. 2000 square feet achieving over 150 unique visitors on occasion and maintaining over 80 uniques month after month. Understand that this is all during their very first year in business in North Carolina as well as on the Web!


But I Don't Sell Antiques!

Along with Sea Witch Antiques, we have driven consistent unique visitor counts to small upstart companies in Insurance Training, Trauma and Crime Scene Cleanup and a very small Virginia Radio Station. Each of these sites were created on a "shoe-string" budget and the SEO services were performed to help get them "off the ground". Contact the business owners of any of these example sites and you will hear their comments regarding what the Search Engine Optimization services of H2 SEO, LLC has done for their small business. Just in case you are wondering, they have not been paid nor offered anything exceptional to endorse us. We don't believe in "baiting" to get these comments. Satisfied customers will take care of speaking for themselves.

What About An Established Company?

http://www.TopSailBeach.com is the Topsail Beach Real Estate website of Kathy S. Parker Real Estate. Kathy has been in business for quite a while with the existing website for the last few years. She became frustrated when a company that promised to keep her website "top ranked" missed the fact that her "home page" had changed considerably and they hadn't seemed to do anything for months since that time. Along came H2 SEO, LLC...

With some major changes to the Topsail Beach Vacation Rentals portion of her website along with minor changes to the Topsail Beach Real Estate portion, Kathy's website was ready to begin promoting. Soon, www.TopsailBeach.com ranked number 1 on Google and Yahoo! for Topsail Beach Real Estate and ranked highly for other similar phrases. This "face lift" has been fairly recent, as of this posting, and only time will tell how far the site goes and just how many more visitors will continue to find the website and become customers of Kathy S. Parker Real Estate.

I Am Still Skeptical...

There are always more questions than answers when it comes to spending your money over the web. Feel free to visit the H2 SEO, LLC website at http://www.H2-SEO.com or email us at Website-Marketing@H2-SEO.com. If you prefer the phone, please call us Monday-Friday between 8:00 AM and 5:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (USA).

Google update of PageRank (PR) and BackLinks (BLs)

Last night and through early this morning, Google results were getting updated for both PageRank (PR) and BackLinks (BLs) for all of our clients, H2 SEO sites and for many other websites as noted by my counterparts around the world on SEO and Web Designer forums. This update was a rather significant change for some of the H2 SEO clients who are still in their infancy on the web. Changes caused sites with virtually no BLs listed on Google to jump to 40+ and PR values went from 0 to 4 and 5!

Many SEOs around the world noted on the forums that PR values have been on a roller coaster lately along with the rankings slipping. Examples of sites getting top rankings similar to their respective PR values in the outset slipped to almost random order between Google updates. Many of us are watching and waiting to determine of this gets "corrected" by the completion of the update or stays as a standard.

For those unfamiliar with PageRank...

From: http://www.google.com/technology/

PageRank Explained

PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves "important" weigh more heavily and help to make other pages "important."

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don't match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page's content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it's a good match for your query.

For those unfamiliar with Back Links...

From: http://www.computerdictionary.info/computer-term-details/Back-Links

Any and all links that you have coming to your website from websites outside of yours.

Of course there is so much more involved. Luckily, there are some really great people out there who help fill in the voids. That is why people come to technology geeks like us and why we spend countless hours developing solutions to make the business world on the web a bit better.

Search Engine Optimization and Website Promotion taking hold...

As of today, H2 SEO, LLC. has made significant strides in promoting our client websites via Search Engine Optimization and Website Marketing. The evidence for this centers on some of the number 1 rankings for keyphrases, increased unique visitor counts, as well as over 2,000 Inbound Links (IBLs). This goes to show the impact of true SEO on marketing a business website by H2 SEO and the speed with which it can take place.

Examples?

Sea Witch Antiques is a small Antiques & Collectibles shop located in Sneads Ferry North Carolina on the mainland just a short drive from the Topsail Beach vacation areas. Their site opened days after Christmas of 2003. Since that time they hold a number 1 ranking in Google for the phrase North Carolina Antiques. They have held over 120 other significant number 1 phrases already and continue to climb for others while achieving increased daily unique visitor counts and IBLs.

Topsail Beach Real Estate by Kathy S. Parker Real Estate is another fine example of the success achieved from the North Carolina SEO services of H2 SEO, LLC. The Topsail Beach Real Estate site represents a rather small brokerage service that handles both real estate sales as well as Topsail Beach vacation rentals. Having already achieved first page rankings for the keyphrase Topsail Beach Real Estate in the short time H2 SEO has had the site is a wonder. Realizing this has happened during the period of time with the site having significant downtime is a minor miracle (H2 SEO does not host this site!).

Insurance Training Services is another small business that is a client of H2 SEO, LLC. Insurance Training Services specializes in providing continuing education and prelicense training for insurance professionals. H2 SEO built the Insurance Training Services website in the early spring of 2004 and already has them listed on national training classes websites as well as first page rankings for keyphrases. Being such a specialized business with clients who often rely on word of mouth and internal business contacts, this SEO project has been a challenge to make headway. Headway is starting to be achieved which directly affects their bottom line! They are already in the top 10, first page, for the keyphrase Insurance Training Services on Yahoo! web results.

There are other accomplishments made by H2 SEO, LLC which we will go into in future statements. Until then...

Virginia SEO: New To Blogging

Being new to blogging, this is my first attempt to let the world know via this tool about Michael D. Hudson and the company in Ashland Virginia known as H2 SEO, LLC. If I make mistakes, please consider me human and politely point out my indescretions directly to me so I may attempt to make corrections. I will make every effort to do the same for others.

About H2 SEO, LLC

In October of 2003, I started doing website design and some search engine submissions for a couple of clients as Michael D. Hudson Internet Consultant. This was slowly starting to build into a respectable business due to the extensive technology background I have as well as the family and friends who support me throughout life. More recently, my wife joined forces with me in the business world and we purchased the license and name for H2 SEO, LLC.

From that point until now the business has been one continuous whirlwind. As we perform the Search Engine Optimization for our business clients, they rise in the search engine rankings. As this occurs, they recommend us to other potential clients and we start the whole process over and over again. It is better than a pyramid scheme! Sometimes I feel like I just need to pinch myself and wake up.

Please understand that I am a perfectionist and this may sometimes drive my wife and others absolutely nuts. I work long hours performing extensive research to ensure our clients get the best service possible. This diligence may help explain why they keep coming back as well as recommend us to others. Whatever the reason, it works and keeps paying the bills.

On top of getting the content correct on the websites, H2 SEO, LLC handles the Website Marketing of our clients' business websites. Understand, we started with clients from around Ashland and Richmond Virginia as well as along the North Carolina coast in Sneads Ferry and Topsail Beach.

One of our biggest achievements was the creation and promotion of the North Carolina Antiques & Collectibles website for Sea Witch Antiques in Sneads Ferry North Carolina.

There is so much more to say...maybe in the next post.

Virginia SEO Blogging is Alive and Well!

This is the initialization of blogging on Virginia SEO.

Looking forward to seeing where this might lead...