As a small business owner chances are you’re exhausted with all the big promises from so called ‘SEO Experts,’ and you’ve quickly found out that your paying too much for SEO (search engine optimization) services that don’t do much.

Sean Hakes, Inc
Internet Marketing Consultants
1-800-496-1722 | sean@sean-h.com

These types of businesses are the exact reason that Sean Hakes, Inc is quickly becoming the standardized choice in small business internet marketing services. Our award winning design team combined with industry leading and affordable seo services has allowed us to quickly become one of the leading small business solutions firms in the nation.

Our team of passionate internet marketers and leading designers have developed a solution to not only allow your website to dominate your local search results – we’ve also developed a solution that monitors your website with performance analytics which then allows us to tune your website for maximum conversions.

The Sean Hakes, Inc difference is the fact that we not only practice what we preach but we become a valuable partner in your business. We invest the time to know your business, understand your customer and most importantly help you reach and exceed your marketing & sales goals.

Before you call anyone else – I invite you to give us a call today at 800-496-1722 and discover why more businesses owners trust Sean Hakes, Inc as their partner in long-term internet marketing stratedgy.

Let’s start a conversation about your business today!

Sean Hakes
SEO Consultant
1-800-496-1722

Denver, Colorado – July 13, 2010 – A Denver based marketing and ad agency, iClick Creative, announced the appointment of a new VP of Operations today.  Brandon Smith will assume the position as the company moves forward into an exciting era for iClick.  Smith will be taking on one of many new positions expected to be created by iClick over the next several months.

iClick Creative specializes in web development and  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services , focusing primarily on clients in the Denver area.  Denver SEO is quickly becoming your businesses most important growth initiative as consumers make a web search their first step in shopping for  products and services.  iClick recently announced the launch of an innovative online interactive service called “iClick Chatback.”  The service allows online visitors to communicate directly with live operators, dramatically increasing client conversion rates from web traffic.  The firm anticipates creating as many as 20 new positions over the next few months. To learn more about iClick Chatback or other web marketing services, visit them online at www.iclickcreative.com.

iClick Creative offers powerful strategic internet marketing services  for clients.  Services include web development, SEO services, visitor interaction, online social media optimization, and more.  iClick also has in house access to an in-house print advertising firm.

Contact:

Sean Hakes

iClick Creative
Sean@iClickCreative.com

Jill Whalen Interview!!!

I had the opportunity to interview one of the great SEOs; Jill Whalen! For those who don’t know, Jill she is the founder of an exceptional search engine marketing resource website and forum HighRankings.com. Enough of me here is my interview with Jill..

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your experience with SEO.

Well, my 12 years doing SEO professionally provide me with more experience than nearly anyone else in the SEO industry today. There is rarely a search engine optimization problem that I haven’t seen before or cannot solve. As I’ve been freely sharing my SEO methods with others in the industry, the approach to SEO that I’ve developed over the years has become the industry standard for search marketing companies across the world. It’s always cool when people email me to tell me that they got their start in SEO because of my newsletter! (The High Rankings Advisor.)

Do you think that web design and search engine marketing should be separate fields or do you think it’s important that web designers also be familiar with SEO?

They are definitely separate fields as there’s too much to know with either of them to be an expert at both. That said, designers/developers should definitely understand minimally how to create a “crawler-friendly” website. And SEOs should minimally understand HTML code so that they can spot any potential programming problems.

Tell us a little bit about High Rankings. Why is it such a great resource for those with little to high experience levels with SEO?

The High Rankings Advisor newsletter and High Rankings Search Engine Optimization forum are chock-full of great information. The newsletter generally addresses SEO issues that are on lots of people’s minds, while the forum is a great place to ask a specific question and receive answers from our expert moderators. SEO isn’t rocket science, and between those two things, anyone can learn what they need to know to optimize their own website. And for those who decide they don’t have the time or inclination to learn it all, they can simply hire High Rankings.

Do you attend or speak at any search engine marketing workshops or conferences?

Yes, I have been speaking at the Search Engine Strategies conferences for 6 or 7 years now. I’m also speaking at WebmasterWorld’s PubCon this December. Plus, I have been hosting the High Rankings Seminars since 2002, and I often do mini-seminars/conferences in-house at various companies around the world. I recently came back from one of those in Germany, in fact!

If you could pick out the top three most important factors involved with SEO what would they be?

1. Keyword Research

2. The words on the Page and in the Title Tags

3. Having something worth linking to, and then getting the word out about it.

What are the top five search engine marketing conferences you would recommend attending and why?

Well, the conferences I mentioned above are all I can really recommend as I haven’t been to others. I’m actually not a conference go-er myself as I can only learn by doing. Many people can learn with someone standing in front of them teaching them stuff, but I’m just not one of them!

What are your thoughts on the direction of Web 2.0 technologies with regards to SEO?

Web 2.0 technologies (like AJAX) are extremely cool and useful. Unfortunately, they’re not search engine friendly at this time. If you want to use those technologies on your site, you’ll want to be sure you have alternate content for the search engine crawlers to be able to index as well.

Does page rank really matter? Would you suggest that SEOs and business owners strive for a higher page rank?

Real PageRank—the formula Google uses to calculate the number and importance of pages and links—is a very important part of Google’s overall ranking algorithm. But, the PageRank that you see on the Google toolbar is not important in the least. It’s only updated a couple of times a year, and it doesn’t actually tell you the importance of a page. Striving for a higher PageRank is an awful silly goal since PageRank in and of itself doesn’t get you anywhere. Striving to create an awesome website, striving to gain more targeted traffic and ultimately more conversions—those are what you should be putting your time into.

What’s your position on subdomain spam? By this I mean when you search in Google for a specific keyword and the majority of the results turn a specific website utilizing a handful of different sub domains.

I don’t actually see this all that much anymore, but that is definitely something worth reporting to Google when you see it as it denigrates the search results for everybody, and they would want to know about it. (They may or may not take action, but it doesn’t hurt to let them know.) There’s usually a link near the bottom of any search results page that says “Dissatisfied? Help Us Improve,” which is the best place to report bad search results.

Last! Do you offer SEO services? How might someone get in contact with you that is interested in your expertise?

Yes, I sure do! Even now, as High Rankings has grown beyond just me, I continue to take a hands-on approach with our clients to ensure that they receive the expert advice and recommendations necessary to achieving their search marketing goals. People can contact me through the High Rankings website at http://www.highrankings.com/.

I’ve seen everything from SEO Sabotage, to SEO Blackmailing to holding businesses hostage in fear of a substantial financial and seo loss. These are all unethical and potentially illegal practices that some SEOs use to place fear of loss into clients who are considering some kind of business transition or transaction. You can read more ways about SEO Sabotage tactics and their definitions here.

Here are just a few unethical SEO Tactics I’ve seen over the last 9 years:

Google Site Removal Sabatoge

Google Site Removal Sabatoge is one of the most dirty, effective and most commonly used tactics used by disgruntled SEOs. This particular tactic implys website ownership through Google Webmasters Tools as well as disallowing Googlebot from website access using the Robots.txt function. The Webmaster/SEO then manually request that the website be removed from Google search results from the Google Webmaster Tools CP which essentially wipes out the website in it’s entirety in a matter of seconds leaving a once well ranked web portal – non existent. Once the website is verified gone they will remove any trace of wrongdoing by eliminating the block code within Robots.txt and removing their personal Google Webmasters Tools Verification code.

Other forms of Google Bowling Include: Monkey linking, Blog comment spam, Ping spam, Referral Spam, Email Spam, Hosted Spam, spam hunters, whois details, Link killing, and Downtime

Sure these tactics are unethical but are they really a criminal offense?

A Computer crime or cybercrime is a form of crime where the Internet or computers are used as a medium to commit crime.

The definition is Gray so let me tell you about a personal run-in that I had with a past SEO Consultant who decided it was fun to play with peoples money and website.

Two years ago I employed a SEO Consultant/Contractor to help with overflow SEO Projects. This particular SEO Consultant used obvious unethical SEO tactics that would have given our clients short term gains and long term loss. Because of this I decided to quickly end their time as a in-house seo contractor. This particular contract decided to hijack our clients SEO rankings utilizing the Google Ranking Hijacking tactic explained above. Though this was a quick fix – it caused both my business as well as my client substantial financial loss and credibility to my business. I later spoke with an attorney who suggested that try to file criminal charges. Lucky enough for me I knew what had to be done to prove what this particular person did was malicious and had intent to drive financial loss. The District Attorney decided to take the case and charges were soon filed.

After 3 days of blood-sweat and tears the defendant was found Guilty of a Computer Crime which was has a minimum felony charge in the State of Colorado.

Since internet based crimes relating to SEO are so new – they are hard to prove but with enough evidence of malicious intent and financial loss – it’s possible. If you’re a SEO who delivers a punch in attempt to hart a current or prior client – you might want to consider a new tactic as the new definition of a Computer/Cybercrime molds definition.

For more info please contact me.

Liberty Bell Telecom

I was somewhat excited yet skeptical about Liberty Bell‘s new Growth Service Bundling – how well does it work, and how powerful is it for small businesses?

Because I am not on the market for outsourced SEO and Web Design, I find it fun to dig in and review other local businesses who offer SEO, Web Design, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) etc… Colorado is flooded with talented Web Designers and Search Engine Optimizers which makes it hard to pick players vs. posers. So here we go, my official review on Liberty Bell in Denver’s, Growth Services.

Liberty Bell Takes a Stab at Online Marketing & Development Services – Read more

Liberty Bell Growth Services:

• Web Design & Development
  Think it will take thousands of dollars and months of time to get your presence on the web? Not with Liberty-Bell. We’ll listen to you and help you determine what your site needs to look like and how it needs to function. Then we’ll design it and build it to meet those needs. We can get you started for less than you’d ever expect.
• Video Production
  Give your business more than just a bunch of words on a screen. Give it a face with a video. Videos can be powerful ways to inspire confidence in you and interact with your customers and potential customers on a more human level. Plus, with free use of our video studio, it doesn’t have to cost a fortune anymore.
• Search Engine Optimization
  SEO is all about content. What words do you use to describe your business or products? Without the right words search engines will put you at the bottom of their list. We can help optimize your content to get you higher in search results. If you’re building a new site we can include SEO as part of the process. Already have a site? We will help improve the content to get better search placement.
• Google AdWords Management
  With Google AdWords you can get the word out about your business to potential customers who are ready to buy. Why? Because they are searching for what you sell. AdWords uses your keywords to place you in Google’s content network where it is most relevant for your business. It provides a level of exposure above and beyond what SEO provides. Our web marketing experts can get a campaign set up, monitor the results and adjust the campaign to be more effective. All at a price that is as flexible as your budget.
• Social Media Marketing
  Now you can connect with customers on the web through social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. These sites let you start truly communicating with your customers so you aren’t only talking to them but they are talking to you. This provides you valuable opportunities to build brand, establish a community of customers and gain valuable insight into what you customers want. We can help get you started in social media marketing by helping you plan the best strategy for your business.

Learn more about  SpyFu here.

I have been using SpyFu off and on for the past few years and have  found several of the services for a few years now and have  had some fun playing with their tools. In many cases it takes the leg work out of researching targeted keywords.

SpyFu sells you on the fact that you can use your competitors hard-work and research to your advantage. What if your competitors screwed up? What happens when you copy an entirely faulty SEM Campaign and have to start from scratch?  Sounds like a great sabotage technique if you have money to blow – in reality, SpuFu is a very helpful tool.

SpyFu Features

• Download your competitors PPC Keywords.
• View SEO rankings, top organic rankings, and top ads for an competitor.
• View the top 100 Most Expensive Adsense Keywords

Key Benefits:

• Export feature makes it easy to quickly add keywords  to your PPC campaign.
• Pull your competitors domain’s and use them to  find targeted keywords.

Don’t take it from me – click here to check  out SpyFu’s educational / promotional video. If you plan on jumping into SEO or SEM it’s worth subscribing .

I set an appointment, drove all the way across town for what  I  thought was an impressive presentation not to mention a portfolio of many leading Denver businesses. I sat down the the Marketing Manager for the business (not the DM, first mistake) and showed her examples of my work as well as my  impressive top placements her own industry.

I  quoted their business a generous 1-time fee, most SEOs in the same business would have quoted what  I said multiplied over  12 months…

About a month later they FINALLY got back to me and said they had selected another firm. It most have been the fact that I already had 1st place placement so maybe they thought they would be competing with themselves? Regardless I have been following their progress since and uncovered they have subscribed to a company (and there are many out there) that for a flat low monthly fee add you to a massive network of link farms.

This specific company was added and their placement has gone up, not a lot – but it’s gone up. I noticed there was NO on-page optimization which is crucial for them to compete with a page full of companies who have obviouslly subscribed to legitimate SEOs, not link farms or link schemes.

My advice to business owners  is this… Do research on who you hire. Just because someone offers you a small low-monthly fee doesn’t mean they are legit, in fact – within a competitive industry this is most likely a scam or against Google’s Quality Guidelines and when you thought you signed up for a great SEO package – you really subscribed to assess penalties and even complete SE removal.

This is why I lost a SEO Contract, this is why the business owner will be back in the near future asking about the removal of penalties.

That’s when pricing doubles

According to Google news there  were less than 50 news articles and blog post about  the update.

How does Google personalized search work?

Google can learn your search habits and in particular favorite websites. For an example, if you search often and click on links from Ebay Google will learn that you really like Ebay and will react by giving Ebay a ranking boost which means you start seeing more Ebay listings from areas that Ebay might have not shown up before.

Google Personalized results are  custom for each individual.

Prior to the changes two people from two locations could perform an identical search and see the same results. For an example two people who Google’d Denver SEO would see the exact same results.

Personalized results are the new norm and most end users won’t even be able pick up on the changes.

The new question for SEOs is how will Google Personalized Results affect SEO?

Chances are it won’t make a big difference to SEOs but it will in fact cause some confusion when a SEO see’s one results, shoots his findings to his/her client and the client sees something different based upon their personalized results.

Should SEOs be concerned? Google claims SEO will always be around but it consistently evolves and implements changes such as Google Local Maps and PPC Advertising that counteracts how SEO is delivered as well as its effectiveness.

Just like everything else SEOs will need to evolve and we will. There is an abundance of ways to counteract Google’s attempts to gently toss out SEO to a new personalized social media revolution.

Sean Hakes, Inc and subsidiary clients now have the ability to rate, listen and review calls driven through it’s organic and paid advertising services. Advertisers have the ability to not only listen to the quality of phone calls, but they now have the ability to control which sector and keywords drive calls and prospect sales.

About Sean Hakes, Inc:

Sean Hakes, Inc is the parent company for Big Nose Media – a local internet advertising agency that provides Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing and Digital Advertising for local small businesses.

For more information about the new features please visit www.seanhakes.com.