1. What’s the Difference between Offline and Online Marketing?
2. Why X-Factor Web Marketing?
3. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
4. What is Organic or Random Search?
5. Why is Search Engine Optimization so Important?
6. Is Optimizing My Website for Random Search Enough?
7. Why is Keyword or Keyphrase Selection so Important?
8. What are Inbound Links?
9. How Does Public Relations Relate to Organic or Natural Search Results?
10. How Does the Public Relations Process Work?
11. What is Article Syndication?
12. Why are Pay Per Click Results Valuable?
13. What are Micro-sites?
14. What are Podcasts?
15. What is an RSS Feed?
16. What is Search Engine Optimized Online Video?
17. Why are Blogs Beneficial?
18. How Frequently Will I Receive Reporting Regarding My Website?
19. How Long will it Take to See Results?
20. When Will the Web Marketing Effort End?
21. What Does X-Factor’s Web Marketing Program Cost?
1. What’s the Difference between Offline and Online Marketing?
Traditional (offline) advertising pushes your message at prospects that may or may not be interested. Online promotion attracts prospects that have already expressed interest in your products and services.
return to top
2. Why X-Factor Web Marketing?
Our foundation is a 20-year established and trusted marketing, advertising and public relations firm and SEO consultant specializing in corporations with more than $10 million in sales. Our unique business model melds public relations for submission to digital and traditional media to enhance your website's visibility increase Return on Investment using the Internet, and increase results in search engine rankings. We talk in understandable terms and prove our results with regular reporting. Technical search engine optimization consultants cannot provide the insight that our marketing experts are able to upon evaluation of web statistics. By utilizing X-Factor as your web marketing consultants, your company becomes more market-driven as opposed to market-reactive.
return to top
3. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of maximizing the visibility of a website through various techniques and leveraging outside resources like blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and syndicated articles to link back to a site. Due to extensive competition, SEO is a dynamic process that requires quarterly maintenance from a Search Engine Optimization consultant to maximize higher ranking results in random search engine results.
return to top
4. What is Organic or Random Search?
Random search (also called organic or natural) are the main listings in a search engine. Organic search results are gathered through search engine web crawlers to find the most applicable sites for the term being searched. Browsers believe these results to be more credible than sponsored links and click on them three times more frequently. return to top
5. Why is Search Engine Optimization so Important?
Research shows Internet spending is growing at an impressive rate of 10% a year as more browsers switch to high-speed connections and corporate purchasers become more comfortable with the medium. By 2011, Internet spending is forecasted to rise to $43 billion in the U.S. (Source - eBusiness news by AIS Media).
There are other factors that make web marketing attractive, regardless of the target market. Search Engine Optimization is one of the few advertising mediums that is highly measurable, making it much easier to identify Return on Investment. The marketing intelligence gained from website traffic statistics reveals new markets to approach and your company's most popular products and services. An optimized website will attract specific customers who desire your products and services.
return to top
6. Is Optimizing My Website for Random Search Enough?
No. Search Engine Optimization accounts for approximately 30% of increased traffic. The first phase of our program includes an analysis and recommended changes to your existing site. Once our expert web marketing consultants optimize your website, we employ public relations, which account for the other 70% of increased web traffic. These tactics include article and press release writing and syndication, RSS feeds, podcasts, social media and blogs to attract a specific market and increase ROI using the Internet.
return to top
7. Why is Keyword or Keyphrase Selection so Important?
Keyphrase selection allows you to promote and sell your most profitable products and services. It is a collaborative process between you and X-Factor’s web marketing consultants. One of the key factors in this process is to be creative and select phrases that a potential customer would use when searching for your product or service. X-Factor’s team analyzes various keyword options and assists in the selection of final keyword phrases based on competition and search volume.
return to top
8. What are Inbound Links?
Inbound links drive traffic to your site by linking from an outside source such as a syndicated article. As search engines have evolved, they are more intuitive and provide a browser with results to queries that are heavily ranked by popularity. This popularity is determined by number of inbound (not two-way) links. Think of inbound links as a “word of mouth referral” for your website.
return to top
9. How Does Public Relations Relate to Organic or Natural Search Results?
Search engines frequently “crawl” the web for fresh content to add to their search results. Continuous content development is vital to search engine ranking success.
Public Relations appearing as news items are much more credible and believable than mass advertising efforts. Major search engines like Google* and Yahoo!* rank websites by the number of inbound links to a site. These links act as a "vote" for your company's site; the more votes the higher the ranking. Our team of web marketing consultants create press releases, expert articles, blogging, newsletter content, syndicated articles and RSS feeds to build higher link reputation while marketing your company. These articles posted online add visibility, better ranking results and more conversions of quality traffic for your site. Public relations is a powerful tool for influence, especially when combined with search engine marketing. Search engines "spider" text, which makes text a critical aspect of search engine optimization.
return to top
10. How Does the Public Relations Process Work?
X-Factor sends a brief questionnaire, and upon return, the writer begins composition of the specific piece. A telephone interview typically helps round out a great public relations document. All public relations articles are submitted for final approval prior to public release and distribution by our web marketing consultants. X-Factor’s Public Relations Coordinator builds and maintains relationships with editors at trade and industry-related publications of your choice. Success is measured using analytics and X-Factor’s clipping service, which includes monitoring, capturing, and reporting media and other coverage resulting from your public relations campaign.
return to top
11. What is Article Syndication?
Professionally written articles provide expert credibility for your company and improve web search visibility. Publishing articles on free and paid article sites create inbound links, enabling your company to rank higher on search engines. The end result: More pre-qualified traffic on your website. These articles feature authentic original content and are captivating and persuasive to appeal to the specific audience targeted.
return to top
12. Why are Pay Per Click Results Valuable?
Pay Per Click is designed to attract a pre-qualified market to a website. It is an advertising model offered by search engines that is fundamentally an auction for keywords. The higher the bid for a specific word, the higher the ranking. The search engines derive income from these "sponsored links" by charging the website owner each time someone clicks on the link to the destination site. When a browser enters a query on a search engine that supports Pay Per Click, these results appear either beside or above the organic search content. Pay Per Click is immediate, can be regionalized to appear in specific markets, and is a highly trackable tactic. Marketing intelligence like most "clicked through" keywords and rotating messages are gained from reporting. These results can be compared to random analytics results for better marketing intelligence.
return to top
13. What are Micro-sites?
Micro-sites are mini-websites that move prospects closer to a buying decision with strategically placed, targeted messages in a relevant environment. They usually act as a less cluttered version of a company’s website, focusing on a specific topic, product or service.
return to top
14. What are Podcasts?
A podcast is a digital media file, which can contain audio, video or both, and is downloaded by interested subscribers. It is distinguished from other digital media for its ability to be syndicated and downloaded when new content is added.
return to top
15. What is an RSS Feed?
RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication and is a way for browsers to identify specific content that they wish to have automatically downloaded for their own use. RSS is ideal for people who desire automated, customized content to be delivered to their PC. It is a web feed that can come in a variety of formats such as blog entries, articles or podcasts. RSS feeds are ideal for broadcasting specific content to a highly qualified market. Most computers now have built in RSS readers or "aggregators," meaning content is delivered automatically to a user who has clicked on an RSS button to initiate a subscription.
return to top
16. What is Search Engine Optimized Online Video?
Web enabled videos are invaluable for communicating complex movement, video testimonials and depiction of heavy equipment. Production of a creative video can lead to mass exposure to a broader audience, driving traffic to your website. Video results now appear in random (organic searches), increasing the possibility that they will be found and drive prospects to your website.
return to top
17. Why are Blogs Beneficial?
Blogs consist of information and personal views that are instantly published to a website. They are also frequently used to influence and can serve as a forum to share expert opinions. Blogs are beneficial to Search Engine Optimization efforts because they change frequently, are often rich with keywords and rank higher in search engines.
return to top
18. How Frequently Will I Receive Reporting Regarding My Website?
X-Factor’s Executive Summary is provided quarterly. Leveraging over 20 years of marketing experience, X-Factor’s web marketing consultants will analyze your website analytics and provide proactive suggestions for improving search engine web position and conversions. We provide simplified measurement reports in a logical and understandable format that help you quantify your results.
return to top
19. How Long Will it Take to See Results?
Once a website has been reviewed and modified to maximize search optimization, it takes two to three months to see ranking improvement among major search engines, depending on the market and other factors. Pay Per Click and banner ads can be utilized to build traffic during the initial optimization period.
return to top
20. When Will the Web Marketing Effort End?
Search engine rankings are constantly evolving. X-Factor's team works hard to stay apprised of best practices for success. There is no single way to reach the top of a random search and stay there without ongoing effort. The competition is constantly vying for a higher ranking position making an ongoing process necessary. X-Factor recommends website optimization, and following it with ongoing monthly website promotion using public relations, adding articles and press releases to the website, blogging, etc. This ensures that the website remains dynamic each month. Our search engine optimization consultants build your rankings gradually to adhere to ethical search engine criteria. Strategic growth is important because any attempts to "cheat the system" could lead to delisting from major search engines. By covering Google, MSN/Bing, and Yahoo, our program covers 94% of all random search engine traffic.
return to top
21. What Does X-Factor’s Web Marketing Program Cost?
X-Factor can customize a plan to fit your budget. We recommend an annual investment of $4,000 to $30,000, depending on the aggressiveness of the campaign. This budget includes optimization, as well as public relations. We will be happy to provide a free consultation to begin building your web visibility and better lead generation. Our client’s goals and financial consideration are important to us, and we are confident that you won’t find a better combination of service, results and value from any other Internet marketing agency. Please contact us for a custom quote based on your existing site.
return to top
2. Why X-Factor Web Marketing?
3. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
4. What is Organic or Random Search?
5. Why is Search Engine Optimization so Important?
6. Is Optimizing My Website for Random Search Enough?
7. Why is Keyword or Keyphrase Selection so Important?
8. What are Inbound Links?
9. How Does Public Relations Relate to Organic or Natural Search Results?
10. How Does the Public Relations Process Work?
11. What is Article Syndication?
12. Why are Pay Per Click Results Valuable?
13. What are Micro-sites?
14. What are Podcasts?
15. What is an RSS Feed?
16. What is Search Engine Optimized Online Video?
17. Why are Blogs Beneficial?
18. How Frequently Will I Receive Reporting Regarding My Website?
19. How Long will it Take to See Results?
20. When Will the Web Marketing Effort End?
21. What Does X-Factor’s Web Marketing Program Cost?
1. What’s the Difference between Offline and Online Marketing?
Traditional (offline) advertising pushes your message at prospects that may or may not be interested. Online promotion attracts prospects that have already expressed interest in your products and services.
return to top
2. Why X-Factor Web Marketing?
Our foundation is a 20-year established and trusted marketing, advertising and public relations firm and SEO consultant specializing in corporations with more than $10 million in sales. Our unique business model melds public relations for submission to digital and traditional media to enhance your website's visibility increase Return on Investment using the Internet, and increase results in search engine rankings. We talk in understandable terms and prove our results with regular reporting. Technical search engine optimization consultants cannot provide the insight that our marketing experts are able to upon evaluation of web statistics. By utilizing X-Factor as your web marketing consultants, your company becomes more market-driven as opposed to market-reactive.
return to top
3. What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of maximizing the visibility of a website through various techniques and leveraging outside resources like blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and syndicated articles to link back to a site. Due to extensive competition, SEO is a dynamic process that requires quarterly maintenance from a Search Engine Optimization consultant to maximize higher ranking results in random search engine results.
return to top
4. What is Organic or Random Search?
Random search (also called organic or natural) are the main listings in a search engine. Organic search results are gathered through search engine web crawlers to find the most applicable sites for the term being searched. Browsers believe these results to be more credible than sponsored links and click on them three times more frequently. return to top
5. Why is Search Engine Optimization so Important?
Research shows Internet spending is growing at an impressive rate of 10% a year as more browsers switch to high-speed connections and corporate purchasers become more comfortable with the medium. By 2011, Internet spending is forecasted to rise to $43 billion in the U.S. (Source - eBusiness news by AIS Media).
There are other factors that make web marketing attractive, regardless of the target market. Search Engine Optimization is one of the few advertising mediums that is highly measurable, making it much easier to identify Return on Investment. The marketing intelligence gained from website traffic statistics reveals new markets to approach and your company's most popular products and services. An optimized website will attract specific customers who desire your products and services.
return to top
6. Is Optimizing My Website for Random Search Enough?
No. Search Engine Optimization accounts for approximately 30% of increased traffic. The first phase of our program includes an analysis and recommended changes to your existing site. Once our expert web marketing consultants optimize your website, we employ public relations, which account for the other 70% of increased web traffic. These tactics include article and press release writing and syndication, RSS feeds, podcasts, social media and blogs to attract a specific market and increase ROI using the Internet.
return to top
7. Why is Keyword or Keyphrase Selection so Important?
Keyphrase selection allows you to promote and sell your most profitable products and services. It is a collaborative process between you and X-Factor’s web marketing consultants. One of the key factors in this process is to be creative and select phrases that a potential customer would use when searching for your product or service. X-Factor’s team analyzes various keyword options and assists in the selection of final keyword phrases based on competition and search volume.
return to top
8. What are Inbound Links?
Inbound links drive traffic to your site by linking from an outside source such as a syndicated article. As search engines have evolved, they are more intuitive and provide a browser with results to queries that are heavily ranked by popularity. This popularity is determined by number of inbound (not two-way) links. Think of inbound links as a “word of mouth referral” for your website.
return to top
9. How Does Public Relations Relate to Organic or Natural Search Results?
Search engines frequently “crawl” the web for fresh content to add to their search results. Continuous content development is vital to search engine ranking success.
Public Relations appearing as news items are much more credible and believable than mass advertising efforts. Major search engines like Google* and Yahoo!* rank websites by the number of inbound links to a site. These links act as a "vote" for your company's site; the more votes the higher the ranking. Our team of web marketing consultants create press releases, expert articles, blogging, newsletter content, syndicated articles and RSS feeds to build higher link reputation while marketing your company. These articles posted online add visibility, better ranking results and more conversions of quality traffic for your site. Public relations is a powerful tool for influence, especially when combined with search engine marketing. Search engines "spider" text, which makes text a critical aspect of search engine optimization.
return to top
10. How Does the Public Relations Process Work?
X-Factor sends a brief questionnaire, and upon return, the writer begins composition of the specific piece. A telephone interview typically helps round out a great public relations document. All public relations articles are submitted for final approval prior to public release and distribution by our web marketing consultants. X-Factor’s Public Relations Coordinator builds and maintains relationships with editors at trade and industry-related publications of your choice. Success is measured using analytics and X-Factor’s clipping service, which includes monitoring, capturing, and reporting media and other coverage resulting from your public relations campaign.
return to top
11. What is Article Syndication?
Professionally written articles provide expert credibility for your company and improve web search visibility. Publishing articles on free and paid article sites create inbound links, enabling your company to rank higher on search engines. The end result: More pre-qualified traffic on your website. These articles feature authentic original content and are captivating and persuasive to appeal to the specific audience targeted.
return to top
12. Why are Pay Per Click Results Valuable?
Pay Per Click is designed to attract a pre-qualified market to a website. It is an advertising model offered by search engines that is fundamentally an auction for keywords. The higher the bid for a specific word, the higher the ranking. The search engines derive income from these "sponsored links" by charging the website owner each time someone clicks on the link to the destination site. When a browser enters a query on a search engine that supports Pay Per Click, these results appear either beside or above the organic search content. Pay Per Click is immediate, can be regionalized to appear in specific markets, and is a highly trackable tactic. Marketing intelligence like most "clicked through" keywords and rotating messages are gained from reporting. These results can be compared to random analytics results for better marketing intelligence.
return to top
13. What are Micro-sites?
Micro-sites are mini-websites that move prospects closer to a buying decision with strategically placed, targeted messages in a relevant environment. They usually act as a less cluttered version of a company’s website, focusing on a specific topic, product or service.
return to top
14. What are Podcasts?
A podcast is a digital media file, which can contain audio, video or both, and is downloaded by interested subscribers. It is distinguished from other digital media for its ability to be syndicated and downloaded when new content is added.
return to top
15. What is an RSS Feed?
RSS is an abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication and is a way for browsers to identify specific content that they wish to have automatically downloaded for their own use. RSS is ideal for people who desire automated, customized content to be delivered to their PC. It is a web feed that can come in a variety of formats such as blog entries, articles or podcasts. RSS feeds are ideal for broadcasting specific content to a highly qualified market. Most computers now have built in RSS readers or "aggregators," meaning content is delivered automatically to a user who has clicked on an RSS button to initiate a subscription.
return to top
16. What is Search Engine Optimized Online Video?
Web enabled videos are invaluable for communicating complex movement, video testimonials and depiction of heavy equipment. Production of a creative video can lead to mass exposure to a broader audience, driving traffic to your website. Video results now appear in random (organic searches), increasing the possibility that they will be found and drive prospects to your website.
return to top
17. Why are Blogs Beneficial?
Blogs consist of information and personal views that are instantly published to a website. They are also frequently used to influence and can serve as a forum to share expert opinions. Blogs are beneficial to Search Engine Optimization efforts because they change frequently, are often rich with keywords and rank higher in search engines.
return to top
18. How Frequently Will I Receive Reporting Regarding My Website?
X-Factor’s Executive Summary is provided quarterly. Leveraging over 20 years of marketing experience, X-Factor’s web marketing consultants will analyze your website analytics and provide proactive suggestions for improving search engine web position and conversions. We provide simplified measurement reports in a logical and understandable format that help you quantify your results.
return to top
19. How Long Will it Take to See Results?
Once a website has been reviewed and modified to maximize search optimization, it takes two to three months to see ranking improvement among major search engines, depending on the market and other factors. Pay Per Click and banner ads can be utilized to build traffic during the initial optimization period.
return to top
20. When Will the Web Marketing Effort End?
Search engine rankings are constantly evolving. X-Factor's team works hard to stay apprised of best practices for success. There is no single way to reach the top of a random search and stay there without ongoing effort. The competition is constantly vying for a higher ranking position making an ongoing process necessary. X-Factor recommends website optimization, and following it with ongoing monthly website promotion using public relations, adding articles and press releases to the website, blogging, etc. This ensures that the website remains dynamic each month. Our search engine optimization consultants build your rankings gradually to adhere to ethical search engine criteria. Strategic growth is important because any attempts to "cheat the system" could lead to delisting from major search engines. By covering Google, MSN/Bing, and Yahoo, our program covers 94% of all random search engine traffic.
return to top
21. What Does X-Factor’s Web Marketing Program Cost?
X-Factor can customize a plan to fit your budget. We recommend an annual investment of $4,000 to $30,000, depending on the aggressiveness of the campaign. This budget includes optimization, as well as public relations. We will be happy to provide a free consultation to begin building your web visibility and better lead generation. Our client’s goals and financial consideration are important to us, and we are confident that you won’t find a better combination of service, results and value from any other Internet marketing agency. Please contact us for a custom quote based on your existing site.
return to top
*Google, Yahoo, and MSN/Bing, Facebook are registered trademarks who belong to their respective owners.