How many SEO campaigns have you been involved with? What was your role for those projects? How many are still active? How many are inactive? If inactive, why?
Trafficdeveloper has been involved in nearly 200 separate campaigns as a marketing consultant company and search engine optimization specialist. Most of our current client list of nearly 150 clients are active on a regular basis. There are a few clients who have reached their objectives online, or, have cut back on their marketing budget. In either case, we're still in touch with and consult for most of them.

If is a part time or full time activity for you?
Full time. We provide ancillary services for clients as needed such as hosting, web maintenance, domain management, etc. Most of our time however, is spent managing the overall marketing of our clients businesses online.

Do you have website design experience? What is your technical background?
Trafficdeveloper has a team of award winning designers with whom we contract to handle all design aspects for clients. All members of the Trafficdeveloper team have a thorough understanding of the technical complexities involved with most sites.

What is link popularity? What linking strategies would you use to increase link popularity for our website?
Link popularity described in basic terms is the total number of links pointing to your site. Google, among others, highly regards high quality, relevant links pointing to your site in order to rank it. The only way to improve link pop is to research. Ongoing, our link specialists identifies relevant sites and requests that a link be added to your site, and gives a reason why the sites should be linked.

What keyword strategies would you use to select a set of keywords? Do you use any tools to generate the list of keywords? What tools (if appropriate) do you use?
First, Trafficdeveloper asks you what terms you would like to rank on. Some may be worthwhile, some may be too competitive and too general, some may be too specific and not used enough. Intuition comes next, we formulate 5 phrases we think would be best to optimize for, based on the list received from you. Then, we use Wordtracker, a keyword phrase research tool, to fine tune and adjust the list. From there, Trafficdeveloper optimizes the appropriate pages for the appropriate phrases.

What is Google PageRank™ and how does it affect our website(s)? How would you address improving our PageRank™ with Google, and other search engines that calculate the number of quality inbound links to our website? When is the next Google dance?
Google’s Page Rank ™ is a measurement of your websites link popularity, based on the number of links Google has counted to your site. A websites PR is viewable through the Google Toolbar. While it is not the magic bullet, it can be useful in determining your position as viewed by Google. While it would not be our intention to improve your Page Rank as a goal, it is useful to monitor occasionally to see where you are. No other search engines use the Google Page Rank. Improving page rank is a matter of increasing the number of inbound links, discussed above.

How often do search engine submission guidelines change?
It depends on the search engine. If they change their policies often, the submission guidelines may or may not change. Generally, most engines accept monthly submissions. For certain search engines, submitting is no longer necessary.

What is the difference between pay-per-click search engine and general search engine? What is the difference between search engine and directory?
A Pay Per Click search engine accepts payments for search position. The top bidder for a search term will have the number one ranking, but will have to pay for any click thrus. A general, or pure, search engine, ranks websites according to a specific algorithm known only to the search engine. There is no way to pay for your position. Google is one of the few pure search engines on the web. A directory differs from a search engine in that actual human beings review your site for inclusion, and can edit the title, description, and category. The Yahoo directory is the most prominent directory currently, but they charge a fee for review. DMOZ is another important directory which does not charge a fee for review, but the tradeoff is that it takes a long time to get listed. There are a handful of newer directories which will become more important as they grow.

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Do you have experience managing PPC - Pay Per Click, CPC - Cost Per Click, and other bid management campaigns? What kinds of results do you typically see with PPC promotion? Where have you seen the best results? What types of programs do you use for PPC bid management?
Trafficdeveloper has managed PPC and CPC marketing campaigns since their invention. We were one of the first users of Overture (formerly Goto, now Yahoo) and one of the first to use Google AdWords. We have successfully run seasonal and ongoing paid advertising campaigns for many of our clients to gain added exposure. The results have been more targeted traffic to the site and a corresponding increase in sales.



What other methods/websites are there to track the success of website optimization?
Measurement of Return On Investment. Depending on the data available, Trafficdeveloper can determine the exact dollar amount you can expect to gain from a one dollar investment. We can’t think of a more valuable data set for any company to have. This is the final measurement of the success of the website.

What submission strategies do you use? Do you use third party software (which one) for that or do you make submissions manually? How do you track submissions?
Trafficdeveloper submits by hand to the most important and relevant search engines. We submit using software to a global list of country and region specific search engine to give your site world wide exposure. We re-submit when necessary and track submissions in our monthly reports. We are also constantly looking for new, high quality search engines to submit to.

What tools do you use for results reporting? How often will reports be provided? Will you provide consultation on how to interpret the reports so that we have a basic understanding of the statistics?
The monthly reports are a synthesis of data gathered from different sources- your web access logs, search engine results pages, and link pop checks. In the first report, we include a glossary of definitions, discuss why we track certain results, and what trends to look for. These reports are presented in our proprietary reporting software, TrafficdeveloperReports©. We are fully available to answer any questions that should arise from these reports. In addition, we include recommendations for other marketing strategies, paid link placements, or other techniques that will improve your results. It is then up to you to decide if you want to budget for these suggestions. We also favor Google Analytics for reporting traffic details.

Do you participate in the education of general public about benefits of SEO? If so, how? How do you stay current on all the latest SEO updates?
Chris Kramer regularly teaches classes on website marketing through the New Mexico Internet Professionals Association. These classes are arranged through local community colleges, small business development centers, and trade groups. We also make presentations at trade shows and local business group meetings. We keep up with the latest information in SEO the same way we learned this in the first place- by reading. We subscribe to dozens of SEO and web marketing newsletters, we read and post on SEO discussion boards daily, and we stay up to date on general business and marketing trends.

Do you do any SEO work on your website? If no, why not? If yes: what kind of work? If appropriate, what are some keywords we can use to find your website on major search engines.
Yes, we have optimized the Trafficdeveloper site. Currently we have a #5 out of 37 million results for 'website marketing questions'.

What are some of the best and recent references to read up of the field?
SearchEngineWatch.com, SEOMoz, SEOBook.

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How do you effectively compete online using traditional optimization strategies?
There are certain techniques known to nearly all search engine optimization professionals to get good rankings on search engines. There are also a lot of techniques that are considered SPAM, and will get your site removed from the results. One strategy we take to be competitive on an ongoing basis is to adhere to strict guidelines when optimizing your site so that nothing we do will put your site and it’s rankings in jeopardy. Some SEO’s may promise top ten rankings- we never promise rankings, as there is no way to know where a site will show up unless you pay for that result. However, Trafficdeveloper does guarantee that you will be satisfied with our services, and that you will reap the benefits of high rankings for a long time to come.

How can some of the directories/search engines penalize a website and what are some of the things a website can be penalized for? How would you go about resolving such situation should it occur to your client?
We would never use techniques that would put a client site in jeopardy. Our membership in a number of search professionals organizations is conditional upon adhering to the guidelines set forth by the search engines as to what is and what is not acceptable. Cloaking, IP delivery, keyword stuffing, link farms, and hidden text are some techniques which are considered SPAM. WE DO NOT use these kinds of techniques when optimizing a website, therefore, our clients would never be in such a situation.

Can your SEO Company assure us that the optimization strategies and methods utilized fall under the criteria of Best Practices for the SEO/SEM Industry? Can we assume that this means no penalties for our website?
Yes- without hesitation.

How should SEO be conducted for one website – continuously throughout the existence of a website, on a periodic basis – for example every 3 months, or one time only?
We recommend setting up a campaign and following up with it each month for a period of one year. Many of our clients elect to continue working with us, as their site traffic continues to grow, as do their online earnings. Once we get to know your business and industry area, we can make intelligent, targeted recommendations to promote your site further.

Services Offered

Below is a high level overview of the services we offer our clients.

Initial set up

What search engines/directories do you target?
Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, Ask Jeeves. Also Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Foursquare.

How many hours will you put into working on our site? Where will most of the time be spent?
This depends on the size and architecture of your site and the competitiveness of your industry.

How long until we see the first results?
Some will be immediate, but we normally see significant changes after about 4 months.

Will you undertake the project yourself or outsource to another company? If you do not outsource, how big is the team that will be helping us?
Chris Kramer personally handles all SEO work. We have full time staff members who does the link development, and search engine copywriting if requested. If there are design or programming requirements, we contract out to team members. All together, we have 8 skilled web developers as part of Trafficdeveloper.

Do you have a working relationship with any of the large search engines or directory representatives? What is their typical responsiveness?
We work with many search engine and directory companies relating to the purchase or use their services for clients. Typically, they are quite responsive, but that varies by company.

Do you talk in terms of rankings or traffic or both?
Both- and return on investment.

What are the procedures you have in place for working with your clients? Do you outline strategy and if approved go about executing it or you work closely with client on every step of the way, or simply make recommendations for client to implement and then check on their progress? Any other methods? What is your responsiveness?
It depends on the client. Some clients have us do everything, based on what has been recommend. Other clients are more self sufficient, or have smaller budgets, and elect to do the work themselves. For example, we have one client who is currently setting up a Google Base feed by himself, and uses us for consultation when needed. We try to respond by email or phone to your inquiries immediately. We are available by email and phone 7 days a week, at any reasonable hour. We charge a lot for our services, and we make sure our clients have immediate access to us. Customer service is of paramount importance.

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Should we include your link on our website?
If you think that our services are worth promoting on your own website, we would certainly appreciate the endorsement, but we would never ask for the link. Some clients have elected to place a link to the Trafficdeveloper website from their site as an endorsement of our company. SEO’s that require a link back to their site as part of the working agreement should be avoided.

Do you offer any additional value added services? Tracking, ROI measurement, e-mail address gathering, PPC, directory advice, viral, PR, link building, copywriting, ezine, newsletters? Do you offer any of the software for value-added services on your website?
Any technique that is suitable for your marketing efforts, we will recommend, and can usually implement as well. We have managed PPC campaigns, built email lists, managed email marketing campaigns, created community discussion lists, made directory recommendations, employed link building, all of the things mentioned above, and then some. Our proprietary reporting software is offered to our clients, allowing them to see historical data of their websites performance.

Will you set up aspects of our SEO campaign on your server. If so, will we have access to it?
No. No aspects of the campaign will be run from Trafficdevelopers server. The only thing we would provide in this case are access to your site statistics if you host with us. All optimization takes place on your webpages.

What changes can we expect our SEO to make to our website to improve our positioning in the search engines? Will these changes be visible? Will there be changes in the coding of our website?
We make changes to meta tags (not visible) title tags (visible) alt tags (not visible), include H1, H2, H3 tags (not visible) We will make recommendations to changes in the text, and the presentation of the text. If you want full copywriting services, this would be contracted separately. There may be changes needed to the coding of the site depending on the current structure and platforms used. You can have your current web programmer do the work, or we can do the work.

If doorway pages are used, do you have professional marketing writers on staff?
Trafficdeveloper does not use doorway pages. This technique is against Google’s Terms of Service, and you could get your site banned. We look at all the pages of your site as doorway pages, and optimize them accordingly.

Do you turn down projects for the clients in the competing industries? Do you refer such projects to other SEO companies, if so which ones?
Yes, we will not take on projects that are in direct competition to each other. We recommend that they visit SEOpros.org to find a qualified SEO.

Do you have consistent success placing clients in the major directories? What directories? Do you make recommendations for directory submissions?
Yes- Yahoo, DMOZ, and three newer directories. We recommend directory submissions and actually make the submissions as well. Chris Kramer is also an editor at Skaffe and GoGuides for New Mexico.

What sort of guarantees do you offer on your services?
Trafficdeveloper guarantees your satisfaction with our services. We do not guarantee ROI or specific rankings, as they are both impossible to predict.

Can we contact any of your clients? How can we see the results of what you have done for them? What are some of the other sources where we could see a reference to your SEO work?
Yes, You are welcome to contact any of our clients. If you speak with them you will gain an understanding of what results they have experienced.

How would you qualify the statement that SEO should be part of an integrated approach to marketing of my site and company?
Usage studies on the web continually show that people use search engines nearly every time they are looking for something online. If you do not have a top 10 ranking, your business will be invisible on the web. With untold billions of webpages online, it’s critical that your site be have high visibility on search engines. Without search engine placement, you might as well not even have a website.

How long are your typical projects?
We begin with a one year contract, and then continue on a monthly retainer depending on the level of service needed indefinitely. We like for our clients to think of Trafficdeveloper as their trusted online advisor. We can help steer them clear of spammy junk, while taking advantage of promising new techniques.

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