Lately, I’ve been talking to a lot of potential clients that know they need to be well established online, but have absolutely no idea what that entails (lately, our high search engine ranking for particular terms is generating some great leads, especially in Israel!). So I’ve been doing some basic educating. It’s good to remind ourselves every once in a while that no matter what business we are in, we are immersed inside — and people that are not living in that world on a daily basis - understandably don’t know exactly what goes on there and why. So in talking to “lay” people, carefully explain things in terms they can understand. Even the most seasoned business people, I have found, are not familiar with basic Internet marketing concepts. Anyway, here is what I wrote to a recent lead and it seemed to help him “get it”.

One of the unique traits of WebWhile is that we have a rich experience in both international marketing AND ecommerce/online marketing. So our clients enjoy our ability to take a more holistic approach to their business. When you called, you asked if we do SEO. And I hesitated when I answered. Not because I don’t do SEO, but because I don’t tend to take on projects where someone wants JUST SEO – because there are very few sites out there that are doing everything “right” and just need some SEO to improve their ranking and than watch the business magically grow. You already know that “Build it and they will come” is not true on today’s crowded Internet. But now you also know, since putting your site up and even spending some cash on Google Adwords, that when they do come, that is still not enough – you want them to be compelled to take the next step (whatever we would decide that step should be).
So here is the general scope of what I think you need to do  - and we are capable of doing for you - to get things moving for your business online:

1. Market and competitor overview – what is going on in your market online? Competition, potential customer profile, how can your customers be reached . . .
   
2. Keyword Research - The first phase of SEO is to conduct keyword research. This is to determine what terms your target audience uses to find companies/service /opportunities like yours. General terms generate an abundance of varied results and are difficult to rank well for. Furthermore, it is unlikely that your target audience uses general terminology to search for products like yours.  On the other hand, the terminology that potential customers may use to search for your products, is likely very varied and not always obvious, even to you.
   
3. With the above information in hand, we would then start looking at your site and determine how it needs to be structured, types of content and design concept in order to provide the visitor with a more compelling and credible experience – to generate as many leads as possible. An important issue that  needs to be addressed, for example, is that you need to get into the head of each customer profile to deliver the right content to drive him towards converting. For a customer involved in marketing medical care in Israel, for example– beyond explaining his services, he needs to convey to potential North American customers that the Israeli health care system is modern and trustworthy. So some of the content needs to be directed to the patient that is searching for the type of care this client is offering but may know nothing about the country.