OK, this afternoon I began writing about SEO (search engine optimization) Off-Site Strategy and it’s VITAL importance in my weekly “Easy Tips, Cutting-Edge Tactics and Super-Secret Strategies” weekly column(if you haven’t signed up for it yet, you can find it on my home page at www.ArmitageInc.com or just click the link above ).

And, as, ehrm, per usual Diane-style, my weekly entry was getting a bit long in the tooth . .  (HEY! Gimme a break! I’m a writer!) . . .  so I’m finishing with more details HERE! Let me just reiterate to follow-along readers and new readers alike:

The strange (somewhat intimidating) world of “SEO” interacts with your web site like this:

  1. You have created a web site. This is your deserted island in the middle of a very big sea of web sites. (I’m sure it’s beautiful, though.)
  2. You have done SEO “On Page” as I instructed. This is tantamount to building the buildings, putting up the directional signs (“pool this way) and getting all your Jeeps shipped in and lined up for the Island safaris you’ll be conducting.
  3. You then do SEO “Off Page” work. This is the act of actually telling people about your resort (complete with pool and jeep tours) and seeing them actually fly to your island, one plane after another.

You can have the greatest web site (your resort) and even do fabulous “On Page” SEO work (“pool there,” “ocean this way,”), but without Off-Site SEO assistance, you can only hope that planes flying overhead might see your buildings and pools and carefully aligned Jeeps – and circle around to take a closer look. Chance of that? Uhmm . . . . not much.

So, here’s what I promised to finish here:

  • WHAT SEO Off-Site really IS,
  • What it should cost you, and
  • How to question SEO “experts” to get down to the brass tacks of what they really know and can do for you.

Not all Off-Site SEO is created equal.

Most programmers or “SEO experts” will tell you it’s about creating a number (like hundreds, preferably) of back links to your site, meaning that you post articles and press releases in various sites, blogs, social media and directories all over the world wide web, and they link back to your site.

All well and good – and certainly an important practice – but this is just a portion of the SEO Off-Site Strategy. We’ve seen too many web site owners spend WAY too much money on “linking” scams only to see no results or, worse, drop in the engines because of common violations that the engines openly punish.

When we offer the SEO Off-Site Strategy to Armitage clients, we’re offering what we call a “proprietary” blend of link types, custom-written articles (by none other than me), site profiles, content rewrite for congruence, unique Google tools for geographical and mapping boosts, and more advanced (and little known but perfectly legal) actions to absolutely ENSURE your site’s maximum ranking (think Google Page One again), and substantive traffic increases.

SEO Off-Site is not like SEO On-Site work

SEO Off-Site can’t be done once over a couple of weeks for one flat fee. Off-Site requires a 4-6 month contract (depending on how stiff your competition is, and the age of your web site, along with how much peanut butter you’ve eaten in your lifetime and if you like marshmallows or not … seriously, there are some strange parameters around every site that assure and ensure its rate of travel to Page One ranking and visibility). You need those 4-6 months at least to ensure your site gets top ranking and stays firmly cemented there once arriving.

How To Find Reputable, Truly Focused & Experienced SEO Off-Site Experts

While the price might seem high, our Armitage, Inc. pricing for monthly SEO Off-Site is the lowest I’ve yet found in the industry, particularly given our proven results time and time again. (. . . . Sorry, that was a slight to my lead SEO Genius Master of the SEO Universe . . . . our “proven” results tend to be outright amazing most times.)

We charge between $1,200 and $2,000/month for that 4- or 6-month contract and, again, the pricing primarily depends on:

a.) How many pages you want to optimize in the Off-Site world,

b.) How old your domain name is (if it has age, our job is easier),

c.) How competitive your market/industry is, relative to the search terms (key words) we determine to use on those various pages of your site.

So, when you’re entertaining an offer from an “SEO” expert or team, keep these pointers in mind:

What I’ve noted before in the SEO On-Site article I posted a couple weeks ago:

On-Site SEO pricing should be a separate figure from Off-Site SEO. If your programming team doesn’t differentiate between the two, ask them to do so, and ask them to give you bullets on what will be accomplished in each endeavor.

Nothing about On-Site or Off-Site SEO is “automated.” Don’t let programmers or SEO “experts” tell you that they’ll be using “auto-generated SEO” or anything that sounds remotely close to it. Yes, there are programs out there that do this – no, they’re not going to get you anything close to the results you seek.

Always ask for proof of their work. They should have Google Analytics and SEO Off-Site tools of their own to show you client success charts and graphs that can’t be messed or fiddled with. You should see a very pronounced shift/climb in their clients’ status under a number of pre-determined key word phrases (that they should share with you), and this shift should at least BEGIN to happen in a matter of 3-8 weeks. (If there’s not much movement at 8 weeks, that’s a SIGN: move to another SEO “expert!”

Once you see this “proof,” try the search terms out yourself (type them into Google search) and see if you find the same results they’re giving you.

Always ask for testimonials from their SEO clients and, if possible, make those calls to speak to the clients yourself.

Your investment in SEO Off-Site is Leverage, Leverage, Leverage

Now, getting back to the monthly cost of SEO Off-Site . . . to some of you, $1,200 – $2,000 a month might seem rich for your blood.

Remember, though – back in the day BEFORE we HAD Internet – what you’d spend on postcard creation and mailing, radio ads, newspaper ads, and 4-color magazine ads that had to be proofed about 17 times before you’d be able to print it. THAT was nightmare monthly marketing money, folks, and it was usually a one-hit, hope-they-read-before-they-throw-this-away affair.

In comparison, SEO Off-Site carries you above MILLIONS of other sites and competitor sites – millions! – and in a very short time frame.

SEO Off-Site is so much more effective than Pay Per Click, Ad Words, banner ads, Facebook ads, and 70 Tweets a day . . .all TOGETHER!

It guarantees your faster visibility to a world of people – your own niche audience sent from heaven above – who have never heard of you before.

And, best of all, it KEEPS you in higher ranking of the organics (the left side of a search results page where the REAL players play), which none of these entities I’ve listed above can even come close to guaranteeing.

 

Feel free to email me at Diane@Armitageinc.com with questions or to get a quote from me on SEO On-Site Strategy or Off-Site Strategy work for your site. As always, my dear reader, I will give you the straight and honest scoop.