10 Most Frequently Asked Questions About SEO for Small Business

1) How Much Time Does SEO Take?

It all depends on what your goals are. If you have certain aspects already up and running, most likely you only have a static website designed, and maybe not even optimized for keyword phrases that anyone is really searching on.

Just like any business environment, virtual business online is all about supply and demand. Our ability to quickly rank your website depends on many variables like the number of direct competitors you have online, and the current marketplace competition for keywords and high value backlinks related to your business.

People search online for specific product and service categories, even brand names and product descriptions, but rarely will they be searching on your business name. They may search for “24 hour health club” or “ family chiropractic clinic” in a geographic area where they live. From experience, we know that to rank well on Google and other search engines, an initial online marketing campaign can take anywhere from 15-20 hours per week for the first three to four weeks just to get started.

That would be comparable to hiring a part-time employee to perform all the functions that we do at Cosmos Network. You certainly do not want to make the mistake of attempting to train office staff or other personnel to take on the very important and essential aspects of your online marketing.

You also need to consider the time and effort involved in creating content, writing articles, organizing pictures, scripting and developing videos…not to mention learning how search engines work, researching keywords, and a laundry list of other necessary skill sets that will take you away from running your day-to-day business.

You know your business better than we could ever hope to know it. As in the first example of a local health club, if we did not know anything about “fitness” then we would count on you to provide information that will be used on your blog and to be distributed across the internet through a content network.

We always start by asking that you provide us a list of the TEN Most Frequently Asked Questions about your business (just as we are presenting here), and then for you to provide 200-300 words for each answer as a starting point. This is how we begin to build a content profile relevant to your business sector.

Generally speaking, we can say that most of our clients find measurable results within 45-60 days, and often much sooner. This all depends on many variables as mentioned in the second paragraph above. You can read what some of our client say on our client testimonial page.

2) If I Hire You for Services, How Much Do I Need to Budget?

Our services are provided a la carte and are designed for the needs of your particular business niche. The term we use for each specific task is called an “SEO Placement Service”. These are the services described in the main tabs of the header of this website (Content Distribution, Google Maps, Social Media Marketing, Traffic Blogs, Video Marketing) and we provide other placement services not yet published on the site.

Any Internet Marketing you may already have in place will have a bearing on our costs to you. Some of our services are designed as a one-time charge, and others involve ongoing and repetitive tasks that will be billed monthly as a fee.

Say for instance, you have several social media accounts already up-and-running, then you would save the time and cost involved for us to create these profiles. On the other hand, the task of link building is an activity that cannot be done all at once, and this task needs to be done on an ongoing basis for building an effective link profile and maintaining what is called “link velocity”.

Since we offer Select Placement Services, there are many different types of SEO work that could be done separately if you are working within a budget. However, we also can offer a Turnkey SEO Package to get any business up and running for a one-time charge and a modest monthly maintenance fee to keep everything working correctly to get your website ranked organically on Google for selected keyword phrases. The starter turnkey placement package includes the design of a feeder traffic blog, video production and distribution for your first video, network setup of 10 social media accounts, an initial backlink building campaign all for 1497.00, and then a monthly maintenance fee of 97.00. There are no contracts required and you may cancel at any time.

Other Placement Services we offer are listed below. Please contact us for additional information and quotations based on a review of your needs.

SEO Placement Services

• Super Links SEO Placement Service
• Vital Links SEO Placement Service
  
• Google Maps Optimization SEO Placement Service
• YouTube Optimization SEO Placement Service
  
• Video Production SEO Placement Service
  
• Video Distribution SEO Placement Service
• Press Release Writing SEO Placement Service
  
• Press Release Distribution SEO Placement Service
• Classified Ads Writing SEO Placement Service
  
• Classified Ads Distribution SEO Placement Service
• RSS Directory SEO Placement Service
• Blog Comment SEO Placement Service
• Blog Network Posting SEO Placement Service
  
• Article Writing SEO Placement Service
  
• Article Marketing Distribution SEO Placement Service
• Podcast Production SEO Placement Service
  
• Podcast Directory SEO Placement Service
• Link Wheel SEO Placement Service

These are many of the types of on-site and off-site SEO that can be added at any time and a future point. Our goal is to work with your budget and maximize the best use of your money and our time.

At Cosmos Network, we offer a free analysis of your SEO needs before we perform any work, allowing you to budget and make sound business decisions. We often see first page results within 30-45 days.

3) If You Just tell Me What to Do, Why Can’t I Do This Myself?

If you are like we were when we started learning about Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing, then you probably will find that the realities of online marketing are probably not what you envision, nor what you have read or been told.

There is and endless array of new skill sets, technology, and tools to first understand, learn, and then master. Plus, the landscape of online marketing is always in flux and changes almost on a weekly and monthly basis.

This requires the time and resources to perform the necessary research, and then acquire the necessary tools and knowledge of appropriate online courses, webinars, and even wade through the scams found on the Internet.

This will take months (if not years) to get started, and potentially thousands of dollars spent to attain the knowledge through trial and error to find what really works for getting ranked organically on Google and other search engines.

This is like having a broken arm and trying to mend it yourself without a doctor. At Cosmos Network, we are the SEO “Doctor” and have been through our internship. There are plenty of websites that say they can accomplish this for you, and yes, they probably could…but it will likely end up being more costly.

4) How Can I Measure if SEO Is Getting Me More Customers or Orders?

While SEO does not ‘guarantee” that you will get customers or orders, the simple fact is that the more visible you are online, the more likely traffic will land on your website pages. Traffic is “people”, and it is possible to track what people are interested in on your blog and website, and also understand the traffic sources and analyze visitor experience.

It can be important when starting any SEO campaign too always ask your new clients, members, or customers how they found out about you and your business. A comment/survey form or some other method on your part is useful and integral to monitor the success of your online marketing efforts.

What you can say is that the Internet is the new yellow pages for people looking for products and services. Once you start getting rankings with our services, we can help you analyze aspects of marketing by providing comment/survey forms, and having new clients give you reviews, evaluation surveys, and testimonials.

Just as “location” is important for any brick and motor business in the off-line world, the easier your location can be found online is equally important. Our job is to make your business visible online, but naturally you still will have to sell yourself and your products and services based on things like price comparison, superior service, or added value.

5) I Don’t Have Any Videos. Can You Produce Videos for My business?

Yes, of course. Cosmos Network will produce your first video, optimize it for keyword phrases and then upload the video to Youtube and 10-12 other popular video sharing websites for free. Once you see how well videos rank on search engines, you will want to do more.

When it comes to video production we can mix audio or music with photos or slides. Videos can showcase products and services, talking about your business and what you do is very powerful. We provide this simple video production as a Placement Service,and depending on the scope and scale of the video production needed we will provide a quote for the desired end product. But remember, keeping it simple and real is important when you are using the Internet to sell and promote your business.

People love seeing people and what they do. We connect with people when we can see and hear or learn about products on a one-on-one basis, and video gives this perception. Some studies indicate that video will represent 90% of all consumer IP traffic by 2013.

7) I Own a Local Business, So Why Would I Need National Exposure on the Internet?

There is a good reason, and don’t sell your business short. Just about any business will find new opportunities from Internet marketing. You may be local now and only selling to local customers or wholesalers, however nobody needs to know how large or small your business is. You may be surprised to find there are ways to expand your business, create joint ventures, or just provide provide products and services on a larger scale.

You may even be able to compete nationally on a local business level without the expense. For instance, if you had a store that sells fireplace accessories, you would still cater to local customers, but you could also ship orders nationally. There would be no need to increase your store inventory necessarily, but marketing online to a larger client base and only charging extra for shipping costs.

If you sold skin care products and you are ranked on the first page of Google, you could be selling products nationally with just a local business, or even a home based business. Ranking well on the search engines decreases your competition and provides you with a high level of exposure. The cost of SEO in the scheme of things, is nominal compared to the expense of advertising nationally in any other form of media or advertising.

Even if you are just a local restaurant for instance, there is only a certain number of miles that you will have customers come from. However, if you market nationally online, then you can provide your address, directions, phone numbers or even an online version of your menu to target tourists who might be visiting your area. The most significant thing about a local business like a restaurant, accountant, or attorney, is that your competition is much smaller and it is much easier to be ranked at the top of Google and other search engines. If you already have a Google Maps listing, we can optimize your listing to get better results over your competition.

8) How Can I Submit to Local Map Listings and Get High Ranking for My business Niche?

Google Maps is functionally a separate search engine and different SEO techniques need to be employed. This is great when used for promoting local businesses. If you have special offers you can create a coupon code and have customers review your business on your Google Maps page. When your customers review you on Google Maps, this also increases your exposure.

If someone is searching for “barbeque restaurant in Woodstock Georgia”, then we can optimize your listing so you will be seen right at the top of the Google Maps search results. This is an efficient SEO technique, and very powerful in terms of providing directions, location, and phone numbers for your business. Plus the listing is free.

People basically are searching the web for information and are looking for instant gratification. Map listings are a way to get top rankings and help potential customers find your business quickly and easily.

At Cosmos Network, we provide this as a Placement Service and is well worth the modest one-time cost involved.

8) How Can I Submit to Local Map Listings and Get High ranking for My business Niche?

Google Maps is essentially a completely different search engine and different SEO techniques need to be employed. This is great when used for local businesses. If you have special offers you can create a coupon codes and have customers review your business on your Google Maps page. When your customers review you on Google Maps, this also increases your exposure.

If someone is searching for “barbeque restaurant in Woodstock Georgia”, then we can optimize your listing so you will be seen right at the top of the Google Maps search results. This is an efficient SEO technique, and very powerful in terms of providing directions, location address and phone numbers for your business. Plus the listing is free.

People basically are searching the web for information and are looking for instant gratification. Map listings are a way to get top rankings and help potential customers find your business quickly and easily.

At Cosmos Network, we provide this as a Placement Service and is well worth the modest one-time cost involved.

9) I Already Have a Twitter and Facebook Account, What Else Do I Need to Know about Social Media Marketing?

That’s great, but do you really have the time to constantly update your accounts and interact with hundreds or even thousands of other people? Social media is not just fun and games and needs to be optimized to pay off.

We set you up with a network of 10 social media accounts that will push traffic to your website automatically. Our method of linking the top social media sites together allows us to post updates for you on an hourly and daily basis.

If you find that you can only occasionally spend time just on Twitter and Facebook alone, then you already know that you need to devote several hours every few days just trying to let people know what you do, who you are, and then promote your business without risking being accused of spamming these sites with promotional material.

At Cosmos Network, we have these techniques down pat to optimize this part of your SEO to build traffic. This is also part of the so-called funnel effect, attracting people to your marketing message and guiding them through your sales funnel. This is where social media can work for you on auto-pilot, linking content, video marketing, backlinks, bookmarking and tagging…all funneled down to one single point. This allows you the greatest exposure on the Internet and will create targeted traffic from people who are truly interested in you and your business.

10) I Really Enjoy Cold Calling, Direct Mail, and Networking. Won’t That Do the Same Thing for My Business?

While old school marketing techniques are still important and can get you results, wouldn’t it more effective to have people running to you, your products, or service?

This is the proven new approach to marketing, and is what Search Engine Marketing Placement is all about. You want to drive the traffic to you. This is the power of Attraction Marketing and using online marketing tools that keep new leads and business coming to you.

You no longer have to beg, sell, or cajole people into buying anything. They have already found you on Google and are already interested in your product or service. Now you will be able to spend time on your business rather than trying to figure out the most cost effective advertising or marketing campaigns. We never discourage other methods, but SEO is the most cost-effective in the long run, creating less stress for you.

As one of our clients told us, ”I’m too busy being a doctor and don’t have time for marketing”. Learn how to funnel website traffic to you, and leave the background work and technical details to us. Cosmos Network SEO has developed and refined a specific process that we know will work for any business.

Submit Your Own FAQs

Have we left something out? Leave your own frequently asked questions about SEO and Search Engine placement below. We suggest you browse the site first, and in particular you may find your question already answered in the “Recent Questions” and “Recent Answers” in the sidebar.

This section of the FAQ page is designed to be interactive and uses an automated plugin utility to organize and send us questions. However, please note that it may take up to several days (or more) to have a question answered. While you wait, take the  time to read other articles, posts, comments, and may we suggest  to also watch the videos provided on this website.

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