Having Realistic SEO Expectations

March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment

“The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience.” – Leo Tolstoy

To rank your website in the search engines you need a plan. That plan includes (but is not limited to) all of the above:

  • SEO Knowledge (what to do and what not to do)
  • Real world keyword and competitor data
  • Great content
  • Lots of high quality inbound links
  • Analytics integration
  • Realistic Goals
  • A timeline
  • A budget
  • Patience and the knowledge that your investments WILL pay off if you allow it

The last four items on the list are the topic of discussion today because I think it’s important for people to know that there is no secret magic trick to SEO. It simply takes planning, work, analysis and time and there is no way around this like there might have been in the old school days of the internet. Google never will release the details regarding how or why sites rank above others. We obviously have a good idea based on our experience and that experience shows that you need to create great content (lots of it), get other sites to link to it, analyze your traffic ongoing, continue to optimize your site based on the current data and hit the “repeat” button over and over and over. Read more


Posted by chris.auman | Filed Under Blog 

10 Reasons why SEO takes time and an ongoing investment

March 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment

clockWhenever somebody asks me how long search engine optimization takes, I counter by asking them, “How long does marketing take?” – AustinSEOguy.com

Here are some reasons why SEO takes time and requires an ongoing investment:

1. Starting and running an SEO campaign involves a lot of tasks

Many people think that ranking properly in the search engines involves some big secret that can be manipulated – if only we knew what it was. Unfortunately that is not the case and the secrets and tricks that we’ve used in the past are becoming rarer. To get started ranking in the search engines there are many, many things to do but they involve work, knowledge, experience, research and experimentation – not tricks. That work includes (but is not limited to) keyword research, setup of a sitemap, solving domain name and hosting concerns, website design and coding concerns, architectural/navigation concerns, content optimization and creation, analytics setup and integration, reporting, meetings, consultation, planning etc. (Just to name a few) Just the initial start of your SEO campaign can involve months of planning, research, setup, improvements and content creation just to get you ready to roll. Read more


Posted by chris.auman | Filed Under Blog 

Affordable content management systems

March 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment

One thing that Google and other search engines love is a website that’s updated frequently. This shows Google that your site is an active resource and that it’s continually improving the information available.

At Sanctuary Media Group we believe that you should have complete control over your website so you can easily add and modify your content anytime you want. The last thing we want to do (unless you need us to do it) is spend time updating your website. We would much rather see you spend that money on something that makes your business grow.

With that said, we have several affordable options available for you that will give you complete control over your content – ranging from our easy-to-use Site Manager service to a robust custom content management system. Don’t be fooled by the competition that wants to sell you their content management system for $5000-$20,000. We want to make your website “hands on” at the most affordable price possible. Please feel free to shop around and you’ll find that what we’re telling you is true.

Below is a short summary of the options available if you’re interested in gaining control over your website. Read more


Posted by chris.auman | Filed Under Blog 

Link building 101 – ways to find links

March 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment

Many people know that acquiring links to your site is very important. Google loves links… LOVES EM. A link is essentially “a vote” in favor of your site. A link tells Google that someone thinks you’re a good resource – a valuable destination. So, in theory, the more links you have pointing to your site (from quality and related sites!) the higher you will rank.

Sounds simple right? Well,  with all things Google, it’s not. We talked a little bit about what types of links Google likes yesterday so we won’t revisit that today. What we’re going to do is briefly look at a couple useful tactics for finding ways to get links. Read more


Posted by chris.auman | Filed Under Blog 

Twitter and blog comment links have no SEO value

March 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment

twitter_fail_whale_01Twitter is all the rage these days. As I said in a previous post, I use Twitter on a limited basis when I have time and have something valuable to say to my followers. But it is not the final, be-all answer to marketing. It’s just another tool in the marketer’s arsenal. Especially when you’re talking about Search Engine Optimization.

On that note, I just want to clarify something about Twitter. Many people know the fact that to rank well on the search engines you need to get links to your site. The more links the better. A link to your site (in the eyes of Google) is simply “a vote” that tells the search engine that someone thinks you have something of value. The more links, the more they relate back to other high value sites and the more the links relate to your content niche, the more Google will see that you have something of value to offer in your niche. The result will be higher rankings for your site because Google’s job is to return highly relevant search results. Linking is not the only answer to search rankings, there are hundreds – maybe even thousands – of things that affect your rankings. But linking is a major ingredient in the “secret sauce” of SEO. Read more


Posted by chris.auman | Filed Under Blog