What is SEO? The quick answer is Search Engine Optimization, basically setting up your website so that it’s easily read and catalogued by the search engines and engaging in strategies that both tell search engines what your site is about and tell them that your website is important. All this allows your website to rank at the top of the search results for the keywords (search terms) related to your website and brings your website tons of traffic.

This begs the questions:

• How do I make my site readable by the search engines?
• How do I tell the search engines what your site is about?
• How do I convince the search engines my website is important?

In this video I’ll explain what SEO is and what some of the strategies are which can help you to optimize your website.

“Hi, I’m Kurt Steinbrueck, Director of Marketing Services with OurChurch.Com. In this video…” You can read the full transcript at: What is SEO?

Check out other video posts in this series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO.

Share your thoughts:

• What have you done to optimize your website?
• What SEO strategies do you use?
• What SEO strategies do you recommend?
• Do you have any questions about SEO?

Last week Jason Wiser started a discussion in the Christians in Business G+ community about an article written by Himanshu Sharma titled, Here is why SEO is not for Small Business Owners. The gist of it is…

SEO is no longer just adding keywords in the title tag and getting links from cheap directories… SEO has become more complex than ever. Therefore it is no longer a question of whether or not you can do it yourself. You need outside help. Period. The question that you should be asking is whether you can really “afford” SEO with a small budget. The answer is “No”.

Himanshu justifies his conclusion by listing a whole bunch of strategies and tactics involved in SEO today including:

• Authorship
• Social Media
• Content development and marketing
• Local Search
• Co-Citations and co-occurrence
• SEO Tools
• Analytics
• Fixing/avoiding Google penalties.
• Reading blog posts 24/7 to keep up to date with the ever changing Search Engine Landscape.

The bottom line is that Himanshu concludes that SEO cannot be cost-effective for a small business, and therefore small businesses should focus on paid search ads such as Google AdWords which provide immediate results.

Himanshu is right in many respects.

• SEO has become more complex than ever
• SEO may involve all of the items listed above plus others he didn’t mention including keyword research, running ranking reports, monitoring search rankings
• It takes a lot of effort to keep up with the ever changing search engine landscape
• SEO takes months to get results while AdWords can provide immediate results

The problem with Himanshu’s conclusion…

… however, is that small businesses do not necessarily need to employ all the techniques he lists. Additionally, many small local businesses do not have a lot of competitors, and those competitors they do have often are not doing any SEO.

If you own a cupcake shop in Columbus, you’re a locksmith in Long Beach or a mobile auto detailer in Des Moines how many competitors do you have? 5? 15? It doesn’t take a whole lot of SEO mojo to make the first page of the search results. And with the right techniques and a moderate amount of work, a local small business site could be in the top 3 or even #1 within a few months.

The cost-effective SEO solution for small businesses

The challenge for most small business owners is they don’t have a good understanding of the complex strategies and tactics needed to do SEO well. And learning SEO, developing an SEO strategy, implementing it and then continue the ongoing work of monitoring and improving results is not most cost-effective use of their time.

But for the SEO professional who already understands SEO, has developed SEO strategies with proven results and has the tools and systems in place to do SEO efficiently, SEO for a small business does not have to cost a lot. For example, we at Ourchurch.Com offer a Local Business Search Marketing service for just $499 up front and $149 a month.

Can a small business afford $149/mo to be on the first page of Google?

When I compare that to the cost of other types of marketing and consider how many people are searching for products and services online, I can’t help but conclude a small business can’t afford not to be on the first page of Google.

And therefore…

SEO *IS* for Small Business Owners

You can read the full article, Here is why SEO is not for Small Business Owners, here if you like.

You’re thoughts?

You need to avoid black hat SEO. Black Hat SEO is the name given for search engine optimization strategies Google and Bing have specifically warned people not to do. They are dangerous for your website and can get you penalized or banned from the search engines.

I’ve seen plenty of websites who were using black hat SEO techniques and didn’t even know it. They simply didn’t realize that what they were doing was against the guidelines of the search engines. Worse yet, I’ve seen plenty of SEO companies who use these techniques without their clients understanding of the risk to their site.

In this video we’ll discuss several black hat SEO techniques you need to avoid in order to make sure your site will not get penalized or banned.

“Hi, I’m Mark Steinbrueck, and this is Kurt Steinbrueck. We’re with OurChurch.com, and on this video we’re going…” You can read the full transcript at: Black Hat SEO – Mortal Sins to Avoid in SEO

Check out other video posts in this series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO.

Share your thoughts:

• What other black hat techniques do you think should be avoided?
• Do you think black hat tactics are worth doing if they move you up in the rankings?

In the past month Google rolled out a new Local Places for Businesses dashboard.  But the biggest news is not what’s been done, but what’s coming.  There were some big announcements about the future of Google’s Panda and Penguin Updates, Facebook’s search engine (Graph Search), and Google’s treatment of local businesses.

I’ll discuss all this in this month’s SEO update video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCCuU0flqBU

Hello! I’m Kurt Steinbrueck, Director of Marketing Services for Ourchurch.com. I’m here with this month’s SEO update for April… (Click here for a full transcript)

Summary:

• Facebook says they aren’t planning to launch an external search engine. Then again, with 1 billion members, do they need to?
• Google is planning to integrate their Panda algorithm into their main ranking algorithm.
• Google is planning another major Penguin update.  If you’re not sure what Google’s Penguin update is, you can find a quick explanation here.
• Google may start considering the quality of a business in their rankings (I. E. Customer satisfaction, quality services).
• Google updated their Local Places for Businesses dashboard.  It has new categories, widgets for Google Adwords and Google Offers, better integration with Google+, better accommodation for service area businesses and more.

Share your thoughts:

• Are you concerned by Google’s announcement of a major Penguin update?
• Have you tried Google’s new local business dashboard?  What do you think of it?

It seems there is no end to the number of SEO companies out there. But which company is right for you?

Not only are there lots of companies to choose from, but it seems the prices and services offered change with every company. Yet, all of them claim to be able to get you to the top of the rankings. So, how do you choose?

In this video we’ll look at 6 questions you should ask before you hire a company to help you determine if they are a good fit for you and your organization.

“Hi, I’m Mark Steinbrueck, and this is Kurt Steinbrueck. He’s our Director of Marketing Services at OurChurch.Com, and…” You can read the full transcript at: 6 Questions to Ask a SEO Company Before Hiring Them?

Check out other video posts in this series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO.

Share your thoughts:

• What do you ask when you are looking into a SEO company?

If you look around for an Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service, you’ll quickly come to find that there is a wide range of prices for SEO services, from under $100 to several thousand dollars a month. Why is that? What determines the cost of SEO?

There is no set definition of what SEO is. Because of that various companies claim a very different services to be SEO. In some cases, you could make an argument that what is being claimed as SEO really isn’t SEO at all.

In this video we’ll take a look at what some of these companies mean when they say they offer an SEO service and why there is such a disparity in prices.

“Hi, I’m Mark Steinbrueck, and this is Kurt Steinbrueck. We’re with our OurChurch.Com, and on…” You can read the full transcript at: How Much Does SEO Cost?

Check out other video posts in this series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO.

Share your thoughts:

• What do you think is the absolute minimum that has to be included in a service for it to legitimately be called an SEO service?

Search engine optimization is becoming more and more important for local organizations. With more and more people using mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to find things while they are out and about, it’s crucial that your local organization is showing up in the local search engines and ranking well.

I’ve Done Regular SEO. I’m Fine, Right?
Wrong! While local SEO has some similarities with regular SEO, it is actually significantly different. And if you aren’t doing the things needed for Local SEO, then you’re missing the boat.

In this video, I’ll outline the 5 essential elements of local SEO. By doing these five things, you can rank well in both the regular search engines and the local search engines.

“Hi, I’m Mark Steinbrueck and this is Kurt Steinbrueck, we’re with OurChurch.Com. In this video…” You can read the full transcript at: The 5 Essential Elements of Local Search Marketing

Check out other video posts in this series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO.

Share your thoughts:

• How important do you think local SEO is?
• Do you have a local organization? Have you considered local SEO before?

Most marketing strategies have a finite return. You pay for a certain number clicks or a certain amount of time for an ad to run and then that’s it. When you stop the marketing, the well dries up fast.

Search engines, however, are different. With billions of searches being done every day, the search engines are a huge reservoir of people who could be visiting your website and once you’ve turned that spigot on, it keeps running even if your marketing isn’t.

In this video we’ll discuss the great potential of the search engines and how you can start realizing that potential for your website.

“ Hi, I’m Mark Steinbrueck, and this is Kurt Steinbrueck. We’re with our OurChurch.Com, and on this video…” You can read the full transcript at: Search Engines, The Gift that Keeps Giving

Check out other video posts in this series Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About SEO.

Share your thoughts:

• What strategies do you think best take advantage of what the search engines have to offer?

The things involved with good search engine optimization are not just about search rankings and conversions, though those are important.  Good SEO is also about security.

The security a good SEO plan can bring comes in several areas.

• By having a good content creation and link building strategy, you can be secure that your website is moving forwards.
• By using search engine approved SEO strategies, you can be secure that your traffic won’t suddenly disappear because Google/Bing penalized your website.
• By monitoring your website, you can be sure that your website stays optimized and that your site isn’t being hacked or having unwanted content added.

Meet Tim and Diana:
Tim and Diana Journy learned first hand about how important this security is a few months ago.  Before we get into that story, I’d like to introduce you to Tim and Diana, founders of the Christian marriage coaching ministry, “The Journey Through”.  I’ll let them tell you a bit about themselves and The Journey Through.

What do we do at The Journey Through?  We inspire others, especially married couples, to find peace, joy, fulfillment and purpose. We partner alongside with care and compassion so that others may be strengthened and find hope on their own journey of life.

Tim and Diana Journy, the founders of The Journey Through, have been married for over 36 years. In 2007, Tim disclosed that he had been unfaithful in their marriage. Any betrayal in a marriage is devastating. This is when they began their journey of healing.  They learned, grew, and began to rely on each other, but most importantly they began to rely on the Lord.

God Brings Forth Ministry:
Healing their marriage was hard work. It is because of this hard work, and the understanding gained through their journey that they are led to help others as wounded healers. On their journey, they found strength from Scripture, giving them a foundation to heal. And through Scripture they discovered the foundation of the ministry they have been called to serve.

“So take a new grip with your tired hands, stand firm on your shaky legs, and mark out a straight, smooth path for your feet so that those who follow you, though weak and lame, will not fall and hurt themselves, but become strong.” - Hebrews 12:12

There is Hope:
By sharing this part of their journey they are offering others hope. While a marriage may have been rocked by infidelity, there is hope for healing as a couple; while one may have felt alone in a marriage, there is hope that the marriage can be rebuilt together, and while the divorce may be final; there is hope that one can continue on and become strong.

At The Journey Through, we know the importance of strong marriages and offer a seminar hosted at churches called Building an Intentional Marriage.  For those marriages in distress, we offer a seminar called Recreating Your Marriage Legacy.  We also offer intense marriage workshops and personalized coaching programs.

Reaching People Online:
The passion Tim and Diana have for helping others, especially with their marriages, led them to found The Journey Through and eventually reach out to people online through their website, TheJourne
yThrough.com.  They quickly learned that just having a website didn’t bring anyone to them.  They had to go where the people are…searching for help in the search engines.

In the spring of 2012, we created our web site www.thejourneythrough.com.   We felt sure that the day we went live would cause a black out up the east coast due to surge in internet activity.  But nothing happened, that day, or the next or the next.  While we have a knack for relationships, we discovered our ability in the area of attracting potential clients using our internet site was limited.

That is when we met up with our friends at Our Church.com.  We needed help in an area where we did not have skill. The team at Our Church.com helped us to be more focused in our marketing plan and internet attraction. Our site activity continues to grow and we continue to have discussions with the team at Our Church.com to tweak our keywords. Our goal is to help couples and Our Church.com has helped us to do that by being more visible.

Website Hacked!

As part of the search engine optimization service OurChurch.Com offers, we regularly monitor all our marketing partner’s websites.  This allows us to know when websites are changed so we can make sure those changes don’t hurt the optimization of the site.  Usually, these changes are made by the owner of the site…but not always.

In addition to marketing, the team at Our Church.com also provided us protection.  In early 2013, the team at Our Church.com detected that our site had been compromised by an unknown source and that certain code had been unknowingly placed within the site which could cause havoc for us and others.  The team alerted us immediately and walked us through the steps to remove the unwanted code. Working with the team at Our Church.com has given us peace of mind.

Someone had accessed the admin of their website and inserted spammy content on every page with links to pay day loan sites.  They also used a certain script which hid all of that content from being visible on the site.  So, by looking at the site, no one would have known anything was amiss.  In the code, however, the spammy content was quite visible.  The intent was to make the search engines think TheJourneyThrough.com was about pay day loans and that they were linking to a certain pay day loan website.  The idea being that it would increase the search rankings for that pay day loan website.

This was extremely dangerous to The Jouney Through.  Hidden content like this is a violation of Google and Bing’s guidelines.  Spammy, keyword stuffed content, which this was, is also a violation of Google and Bing guidelines.  Linking to spammy sites can also hurt search rankings.  So, there was a very real possibility that  this spammy, hidden content would hurt the rankings of TheJourneyThrough.com or even get the site penalized or banned and Tim and Diana would never have known why.

Their Website Is Secured:
Thankfully, by monitoring the site, we were able to quickly remove the hidden content and deal with the security issue.

So, good SEO doesn’t just get you good rankings, it can provide security from all kinds of bad things.

Visit The Journey Through:
I hope you will check out TheJourneyThrough.com.  If you know someone whose marriage is in trouble, please let them know there is help like The Journey Through available.  If your marriage is feeling strained, don’t wait until things get worse.  Tim and Diana can help you and your spouse work through your difficulties helping you build or rebuild a strong, secure marriage.

Take the Next Step With Your Website:
I also encourage you to take the steps towards the security you can have from a good SEO strategy.  We’d love to help you with that as well.  To get started, you can request  a free SEO consultation today: http://marketing.ourchurch.com/christian-search-marketing.php

Share Your Thoughts:

• Have you had to deal with malicious content on your website?
• Do you even know if there is malicious content on your site right now?
• What do you think is the best way to secure your site?

You build a site a while ago. It looks great, but is it really getting your message out? How many people are visiting your site each day and which pages are they visiting?

You’ve spent several hours optimizing a few pages of your website and you’re spending a decent amount of money on ads. Traffic has picked up, but which thing caused the increase in traffic?

It’s important to be able to answer these types of questions about your website and your marketing efforts. It let’s you know what’s working and what needs some work. To know the answers to these questions and more, you need a website analytics program. Thankfully, Google offers a really good one for the great price of free. It’s called Google Analytics.

In this video we’ll demonstrate exactly how to setup Google Analytics on your NE1 website so you can start tracking how much traffic your website is getting, where it’s coming from, what visitors are doing on your website, and much more..

“Hello. Welcome to this edition of SEO Quick Tips for NE1. I’m Kurt Steinbrueck, Director of Marketing…” You can read the full transcript at: How to Setup Google Analytics on Your Website

Share your thoughts:

• Do you think tracking the traffic on your website is important?
• Are you using an analytics program? If so, which one and what do you like about it?
• How has analytics helped you achieve your mission?