One of the biggest problems we face as an SEO company is a client having unrealistic expectations about what SEO can achieve. There are a lot of cases where it feels like clients seem to think SEOs have a direct line to Google and when they pay for work done we will get on the phone to Eric and Sergey and inform them we want X site ranking in X position.

As much as we wish this was true it is unfortunately not the case. The reality of the situation is Google is trying to provide the most relevant results for specific searches and in theory as an SEO company we aim to try and make a website selling “Blue Widgets” be as relevant as possible for the term “Blue Widgets”.

Unfortunately it is not always as simple as just making the site relevant for “Blue Widgets” there are quite frequently a LOT of other  website targeting the same term, so we need to somehow make this site more relevant that everyone else. This is then quite frequently accompanied by a client not being satisfied with ranking for “Blue Widgets” but they want to rank for “Widgets”. This can make things considerably more difficult.

If we take a more realistic example, let’s say we sell SIP Voip Phones, it would be a realistic expectation to be able to rank for SIP Voip Phones. Seeing as that is what we specialise in, then someone searching for SIP Voip Phones or SIP phones may find us in the top ten of Google and they will be content with the fact a relevant result.

However if the person searches for VOIP Phones and we rank in the top ten then does the site really deserve to be there? There are all sorts of VOIP Phones out there and I am assuming that the average person searching for VOIP Phones is more likely searching for a traditional VOIP phone or a SKYPE Phone, therefore having a site specialising in SIP Voip Phones ranking in the top ten of Google is NOT a relevant result.

This problem is them amplified if we wanted to rank for “Phones”. Yes we sell phones, but it is just not relevant at all to rank for that term, there are hundreds of types of phone, and SIP phones are a very specific niche so why would Google want our site ranking for phones? And the answer is they don’t want the site to rank for this term, and this is exactly what they are trying to stop.

Obviously this doesn’t mean we wouldn’t target “VOIP Phones” (we might not bother with just “Phones” though) but in reality it could be very difficult to rank for this term, and to some extent you end up playing a cat and mouse game with Google.  If there is a technique that improves rankings and SEO Company will likely use it (obviously) however at some point if Google feels people are using a technique to manipulate the search engines they will likely devalue the technique. This has happened with dozens of techniques over the years including directory submissions, mass article syndication, reciprocal links, selling links, along with various on site techniques such as having a high keyword density.

A more realistic and profitable approach is to spend less time obsessing about ranking for unrealistic terms and more time concentrating on improving sales, and specifically improving the conversions from search engine traffic to a certified lead or sale.

While getting the example site that sells SIP Voip Phones ranking for Phones may generate a lot of traffic is it likely that this traffic will really convert into a sale? Ok, yes a small percentage might, it would be more fruitful to spend time trying to improve the people searching for “SIP phones” into sales than it is spending time getting the site ranking for “phones”.

Unfortunately the drink and debauchery has had to come to an end and we are now back at work, though not at full capacity until Monday.

First of all I will apologise for the lack of posts recently, December is a bit of a hectic month at the best of times but we have also taken on 3 new clients, and been looking for new larger offices.

I will be trying to spend a little more time blogging over the next few weeks.

Hopefully we can also have the new offices sorted by the end of this month, but we will be keeping the postal address the same in order to avoid confusion for our clients.

I hope every one had a good break over Christmas and hope we all have a profitable year!

Ok it has been a long day and I am tired so I may be chatting rubbish, however I was just checking some stats for some clients when I did a search for the term liquidation. The number of results it returned was 3,280,000, I took a screen print of it incase I am actually spelling it wrong or something equally stupid.

Now I made a post on the 10 of October with some of the SEO Results we had recently achieved for some sites. At that time the search term Liquidation returned 29,100,000 results. Er so what happened to the other 25,820,000.

I am not going to do any more screen shots because I am too lazy but some quick comparisons of numbers that are showing for me now.

I presume this is just a glitch in Google’s information though a few my keywords have jumped from page 2 to page 1. Again I can not be bothered looking into detail if all my sites have been affected and I am sure everything will be back to normal by tomorrow!

One of the worst part the worst parts of my job is having to invoice clients and do our accounts. I am not sure why really, you would think invoicing someone should be a good job, it means that people owe me money and that is always good. I always used to use Sage Accounts, and while I am sure its a brilliant piece of software for my accountant I can’t bear it!

The past 2 months I have been trying out FreshBooks as an alternative method of invoicing. It is basically an online invoicing and time tracking service which simplifies you client and invoice management.

Some of the features it includes are:

1. Easily create, send and manage invoices
2. Track time (for you and your staff)
3. Send invoices by snail mail or email
4. Accept payment with PayPal, Authorize.Net, & more
5. Automatically send invoices & late payment notices
6. Create robust reports and import/export your data

Click here to go to the FreshBooks site.

The main aspects of FreshBooks I like are: (After the jump)

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At Dolphin Promotions we pride ourselves on the results we deliver our clients. We happily provide case studies on the Web Design and SEO work we do. We also do our best to ensure we focus on keywords that provide the maximum return on investment for the client. We realise these keywords are often also the most competitive and other companies may shy away from targeting them. We typically target a combination of highly competitive and medium competitiveness terms along with giving the client an approximation of how long these terms will take to rank well. Read the rest of this entry »

Finish short messaging and microblogging service Jaiku has been acquired by Google, the company says. That Google bought this competitor of Twitter, the service founded by Blogger founder Evan Williams, instead of Twitter is notable. Jaiku may be stronger on the mobile platform than Twitter and probably came at a much lower price. Google has been buying up no end of very young mobile services in order to improve it online dominance further. With the aid of Google it is likely that Jaiku will be able to outgrow Twitter.

Dolphin Promotions frequently come across clients that have been spending money on automated solutions from other SEO providers or who have paid out good money to a company to teach them about SEO. Now the question is are these services really worthwhile and if so why would you want to hire an SEO?

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