Wonder What the Big Names Spend on Google Ads?

I personally believe Digg is one of the most underrated social media sites on the web. What it is: DIGG is a social news site where people go to add and read news about just about anything. If you have a business, you should be writing news about it here. The more people who "digg" your article, the higher it places in the Digg ranks. Bloggers go here to digg up good subjects and articles for their blogs. Digg is also a very popular place to store your website links. --  SEO Value:  High  -  Search engines like to see that lots of people have links to your site on their Digg profile pages. It’s a great place for keyword link ranking assistance. Your website will also get indexed quicker because Google loves Digg articles and so do bloggers who will post your story on their blogs.  --  WEBSITE TRAFFIC Value:  High  -  Great place to get your blog articles noticed and drive traffic to your site or to find bloggers in your industry.  --  BRANDING Value:  High  -  As long as your article doesn’t read like an ad this is one of the best places for online press promotion of your brand.  --   CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION:  Low   - But Digg wasn’t meant for direct communication with your customers. Use FaceBook or Twitter for that. Digg is an article submission site to get you posted on other people’s blogs. Avenue 25 has some of the top Phoenix, AZ advertising, web designers, graphic designers and internet marketing professionals in the industry. If you need any assistance with your website or marketing, please call us for a meeting.

For most clients...as Jack Nicholson once said “You can’t handle the truth!” (Watch this short YouTube video to see the truth.) How does 6 to 18 months grab you? You can’t just have a website designer make a site for you and expect to find it on Google. You need an SEO specialist and it still takes time.

With a good SEO company, your site could be on page one of Google within a few months for certain keywords if your keywords are in your domain name and the competition isn’t like the last Suns/Lakers game. But that's just for words in your domain name, other keywords will take more effort and time. The most difficult aspect to overcome is Google's “age of site” issue. Not only do they want to rank older sites first, but your site must be optimized with your desired keywords for a serious length of time before they’ll give it credibility. (Please note that Yahoo and Bing have different algorithms and ranking is generally much faster. But with 70% of the search market, Google is by far the best traffic source.)

It also takes a LOT of continuous work to make your site rank well. During this time consuming adventure, you will experience such things as instant high ranking followed by a large drop in ranks (a little joke Google plays.) Then it’s a slow, steady climb with intermittent, unexplainable stagnations and dips here and there. Finally, there will be a sudden quick climb to page one and a battle for top positions.

What do we charge to go to SEO war for you? First there is a setup fee of $1200 to $5000, and there is a monthly charge of $1200 to $3500 (and we’re on the low side.) Actual fees depend upon how many pages you want optimized, how many search phrases you want optimized for, the competition for those words and how hard you want us to work to get you there and keep you there.

Words of caution: beware of the SEO company who guarantees top ranking in a short time. I don’t care what they tell you, these companies will use “black hat” techniques. Your site may reach page one position, but it will get busted and quickly banned by Google (after your check has cleared.) The best and quickest way out after this debacle is to build a new website and change your domain name. But if you’re looking for the best web design Phoenix has to offer, Avenue 25

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Social media is the latest marketing buzz word. But what is it and do you need it? Over the course of the next few weeks, I will be writing this Leveraging Social Media column to help you understand the differing values of the major social media sites as they relate to marketing your business. Businesses small and large are scrambling to hit the social media landscape, but honestly, most just don’t know what they’re doing. They’ll insist they need a Facebook and Twitter presence, but don’t know why. The purpose of this column will be to provide you with a clear understanding of these tools so you can choose the one(s) right for you. What Is Social Media Marketing? Social media is simply a different way of connecting with your customer. It is a more personal connection which takes place on a website. It all started with internet website blogging then sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn popped up. Now companies can virtually “talk” with their customers on a personal level through one of these sites. Visitors or “friends” of a company page usually expect some kind of special deal or discount for being a “friend” of the brand. It’s also a good place to meet with other people who share your love for a brand. The “talk” can be through the typed conversation, short article, a few words or even through video. Where does Social Media Marketing fit in with your corporate marketing department? Because of the necessary constant flow of text and the need for proficient writing skills, I see social media as an arm of the public relations department which must work closely with the promotions department. Larger corporations may appoint a person or people to act as the “voice” or “personality” of the organization through one or more of the organization’s social media sites. Or they might hire a social media marketing company like Avenue 25 to either provide these full services or for consulting. Although social media marketing is in its infancy, it is very effective when handled properly. Marketing professionals around the world are still trying to forecast the direction social media is headed and how to best exploit these opportunities to our client’s best interest. Not the least of which is how to accurately measure results. What we are certain of, is that these are powerful new tools and this is an exciting new era of advertising and marketing. At this time, Avenue 25 is one of the few Phoenix web design and advertising agencies to offer social media marketing. And we’re excited to be playing an

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