October 18, 2019

Small Business Web Design & Marketing on a Minimal Budget

Posted by BAGM | website services | No Comments

Can You Market Your Florida Business on a Minimal Budget?

Developing and marketing your small business website is a must for any Florida business. If you’re a true small business, a mom and pop business or a self-funded entrepreneur, finding room in your budget for website services can seem challenging at best. But, allocating funds for website design and search engine optimization services should be on the top of your list of necessary operating costs. How do you know where to begin to find quality, affordable website services? If you choose incorrectly, how might it effect your expenditures and success going forward?

Bay Area Graphics & Marketing can help you to understand your options. We offer affordable website design and marketing services that will accommodate your business at every stage.

The Cost of Website Design Services in Tampa Bay

The cost of website design and the subsequent costs of website maintenance and marketing can fluctuate greatly from one firm to another. There are often very obvious reasons for the fluctuation. If you’re like most small businesses, you must first understand how to find the right Florida website design company , one that is small business friendly.

“You Deserve to Get the Best Return on Your Marketing Dollars.”

It can be extremely confusing for small business owners to understand the ins and outs of web design and SEO. Most do not know what they should look for, the questions they should ask and how to discern between the massive amounts of information provided online and by local website service providers. Small businesses are always searching for affordable web design and marketing firms in Tampa Bay and in Florida and there are many to choose from. Below are some quick tips on how to get the help you need to build and market your small business website, even on a minimal budget.

1. Do your research. Spending your money wisely doesn’t mean saying yes to everyone who promises you the moon. Anyone who promises you a top ranking is just not being honest. Look for a company who follows Google’s Best Practices and understands the importance of content, website health and functionality as it applies to visitor appeal and search engine ranking.

2. Web design and SEO pricing that seems affordable to some, may not be cost-effective or affordable for others. Know your budget, then, ask the company you are considering how they can work within your budget, and exactly what you can expect.

3. There are Florida web design and marketing firms who charge enormous fees for their services and yet they do not necessarily produce better results for their clients. Alternatively, the cheapest SEO and website design services may not have the longevity and stability that you want. Take your time, ask questions and be forthcoming with your answers, as well.

4. Understand that marketing your website to rank high on Google also means maintaining good health and functionality of your website. If your SEO firm cannot do both at a reasonable price, then you may wish to look elsewhere.

5. Social media marketing. Social media is important. How much time or money you allocate to it depends very much on your industry and your budget. Spending all of your money or time on Facebook and other social media platforms while ignoring the organic ranking of your website is always a bad idea. Using these platforms properly will get you more bang for your buck. Look for a company who combines services, such as SEO and Social Media Marketing as well as website maintenance. Not all firms have the experience to help you with each of these most needed services.

6. Work with a website design and marketing firm who isn’t opposed to working together WITH you to market and promote your business. After all, it’s YOUR business. How does this benefit you? One example: Many small business owners are contacted directly by companies who are selling paid directory listings. We have seen many businesses ruin their ranking simply because they were roped into paying for services that served no purpose at all, other than propping up the directory. To avoid costly errors, your SEO firm should be agreeable to work together with you, to help you to determine where your money is best spent. Additionally, ask if your rep can teach you or your staff the proper way to update your sites or even how to engage properly on social media.

7. Once you begin looking for a Tampa website design and marketing firm to assist you, remember if the company you are considering is using paid ads it doesn’t say much for their ability to get you ranked high organically. We would suggest moving away from these companies.

8. Maintain realistic expectations. Keep in mind that doing something is always better than doing nothing at all. If you have a very limited budget, discuss this with your website design & SEO firm. If they are truly small business friendly, they will be able to offer an affordable SEO package without contracts or strings attached.

9. Speaking of contracts. Avoid them. SEO contracts lock you into services that may or may not be beneficial. If your SEO firm is doing a great job, then you’ll stay with them. We think it’s just that simple.

10. Look to consolidate the tasks that you need the most into one service. In other words, avoid paying a web designer to maintain and update your website and an SEO & Marketing company to build your online business. Streamlining your services, get rid of services that are not producing results and put those funds into areas that give you the best return on your investment.

11. If you do not have a website, it is very important to understand the difference between a designer and an SEO specialist. Once you understand why, it will make sense to use a website designer who will optimize your site prior to launching. More often than not, we are optimizing websites that should have been optimized and were not. This is simply not cost effective.

Our Love for Small Businesses

Bay Area Graphics & Marketing has been providing help for Florida Small Business owners since 2001! We have always had a heart for the Florida small business owner, and we continue to derive great pleasure from their success! Find out how we can help your small business succeed too!

Reach out to us below, or call 813-778-9548.
You can also direct message us and chat with us on Facebook.

Reach Out to Us

“You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea.”
Larry Page, co-founder of Google

Florida Small Businesses Website Design & Marketing Services. We Call Tampa Bay Home!

October 19, 2018

How Long Does it Take to See Results from SEO?

Posted by BAGM | SEO | No Comments

Florida Small Business Owners Ask, How Long does it Take to Get Results from SEO?

As SEO experts serving Tampa bay and Florida since 2001, one of the first questions small business owners in Florida will ask (or want to ask) is “How long will it take to get results from search engine optimization?” If you do a search on Google and look at the average of what most (honest) Florida SEO firms are saying, improved ranking and results can take four to six months. Sure, you may find a few SEO firms making unrealistic promises. Avoid those firms. Many who promise miracles use black hat SEO. Google warns against these techniques. Although they may initially result in something that looks like progress, suddenly, those results will take a turn. That about-face could in fact have an end result of Google penalizing your website.

Answer: How Long does it take to Grow a Garden. What?

Unsavory SEO company’s unrealistic projections aside, in general, I can agree that four to six months is a fair estimate. However, in theory, the results of SEO on your website’s ranking will depend on quite a few variables. Much like growing a garden, variables such as your marketing budget, competition, state of your website when SEO begins and current algorithms or “conditions” coupled with how much work you put into your site, all effect results. We have websites that take just weeks to show improvement and some that take several months. If you’re growing what thousands of others are growing (industry competition) you must be realistic in your expectations. Being prepared to out-grow your competition means being committed to your SEO. Out-producing the other growers is a wonderful goal, but simply put, you will get out your garden, what you put into it. Expecting anything more is being unrealistic. Does this mean you shouldn’t try? Keep reading.

Investing in SEO – Cost of Search Engine Optimization

Investing in your online presence through affordable search engine optimization services to increase your organic ranking is a must. If you have a website, you must invest in it if you want it to work for you. If you need website design services and you are just starting out, you MUST consider optimization when you build it. Back to the garden analogy. You can plant the seed, and spend thousands of dollars or hard work on website development, but if it is not tended to properly, and consistently, it will not produce. Like a garden, your website needs certain things to grow. The costs of SEO can discourage some business owners. Some will end up doing nothing because they fear they cannot afford it. Competitors with more money or time to invest in their websites count on that way of thinking. But we fixed that. Since 2001 our goal has been to help small business owners compete by offering affordable SEO services that help put them small on the map.

SEO Techniques That Produce Results for Florida Business Owners

Water. Sunlight. Nutrients. A little Luck from the Weather Gods.

Watering your website? Sure. Flowing a steady stream of content into your website, is like pouring water into dry ground. Google still loves water (content). Adding fresh, well written content that is perfectly optimized is just one step towards a website that will rank higher and produce results.

Sunlight? Sure. You think we’re getting crazy right, but, keep reading! Shining a light on your website, particularly the new content you add to it is crucial to its growth. Picture your website sitting in a dark corner. Until you add some sunlight to it, it will just sit in the dark corner. Some may pull out a flashlight in hopes that will work. But it won’t. Eventually the batteries will die and the light will fade out. And flashlights don’t have what the sun’s rays do. Each ray from the sun adds to the particular growing stage of a plant. How is this applicable at all to your website’s ranking? Adding some artificial sunlight in the way of backlinking, adding proper anchor text, image optimization and sharing on social media sites are just a couple of ways we can introduce sunshine to your website. There are many more SEO techniques and tasks that we utilize– but let’s move on. See there? Our garden analogy is looking less silly already– Read on.

Nutrients. If you’ve ever grown a garden you know that sunlight and water are simply not adequate enough to produce fruit–(revenue.) You must enrich your soil by adding nutrients. Enriching your website through building proper directory listings, digital footprints plus a variety of other enhancements that SEO experts use, is a must. Without these crucial steps, you will not grow organically. “Grow organically?” you ask. Yes. We should have addressed this early on. Organic ranking of a website simply means that your website ranks well on the search engines without paying for advertising. Good organic ranking should be what every website owner strives for. Just like food produced in an organic garden is better for you, so is a website that ranks well organically for the business owner.

The Weather Gods. (Google) Let’s face it, when it’s fair weather we have a tendency to forget about storms. Google can change their mind just like the wind can suddenly change direction. But, the good news is, is that we can count on Google for some basic weather patterns. In other words, some weather patterns are fairly predictable. Weathering changes in Google however, can be as simple as sticking to Google’s best practices. These are the things that they suggest every website owner must do to please them. Most of these best practices haven’t changed with time. When there is drought or heavy downpours, your Florida SEO expert is prepared to take these on without flinching.

Don’t forget the Weeds. Being choked out from weeds? Well, it may sound harsh but weeds are your competition. When your site is planted and tended to properly, weeds won’t overtake your crop. Think this is crazy? Maybe, but it’s true. You can never get rid of weeds (competitors) but you CAN keep them from overtaking your garden by improving the conditions in which your own website grows. Healthy, well maintained websites are less prone to pests (viruses, attacks, etc.) particularly with WordPress websites so you must consider how this effects ranking. Then there are weeds (competitors). If you are an industry with many local competitors, a realistic approach will result in production, an unrealistic approach will result in disappointment. We help our customers address both issues by keeping your website up to date (maintenance) while improving the overall health of your website through search engine optimization services.

So How Long does it Take Again to Rank Higher with Search Engine Optimization?

We tell our customers that it can take weeks to many months to see results from search engine optimization. The more you put into it, the better off you are and doing nothing at all is asking for failure. Again, compare good ranking to good gardening. Adding all of the above and expecting to produce fruit the next day is unrealistic but adding none of the above will result in a dead garden.

Tampa Florida SEO Experts – No Contracts, Affordable Small Business SEO

Do you have a new website that needs tending to? Perhaps your old website needs a boost or even a website re-design. Give us a call. Let us help you diagnose what problems you have, and give you an honest analysis on how to fix those problems. Most of the time, it’s not as bad as clients might think. Remember, we offer affordable SEO, website maintenance and website design services. Our no contracts policy help small business owners in Florida overcome the fear of obtaining SEO services. Affordable SEO services make it possible for every Florida business owner remain competitive. We are SEO experts in Tampa Bay with super green thumbs. We’ve been helping small business owners produce fruit (revenue) since 2001 and would welcome the opportunity to help you too!

Want to Learn More about Us?

Bay Area Graphics & Marketing – We offer website design, WordPress website design and website maintenance , SEO and small business marketing services in Tampa Bay and throughout Florida. If you have a question or need a quote, call 813-778-9548 or email us today!