The 543 Group

SEO Benefits From the Human Touch

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, is a 'standard' service offering of the 543 Group, and encompasses components that have been delivered to scores of our clients over the past several years.

For those unfamiliar with SEO, it is part of the process of building or enhancing a Website such that it will attract traffic from major Web search engines and directories.  It is not, as many believe, just about metadata, the 'hidden' data behind the viewable pages of a Website that describe the page and all of its contents.  Properly implemented, it can raise the 'natural' position of your Website on major search engines, often to the important first page of results and 'above the fold' (requiring no user page scrolling to see it).

There are several 'best practices' to proper development and implementation of an SEO program for your Website, including the following:

• Domain Name Selection
• Site Copy Development
• Metadata Development - including keyword, page title, description, and image alt tags
• Site Linking and Site Map Methodology
• Directory and File Structures
• Robots.txt File Placement
• Search Engine Submission

Many providers of SEO services will tout their automated services to map your site and create proper metadata.  Don't be fooled into thinking it is that simple, because you really do get what you pay for.  SEO is not a commoditized, software-only driven process.  Part of the process can be somewhat automated, but often the difference in success or failure of a site's popularity with search engines is the human guidance provided to each step of the process.

It is also important to know that many of the steps necessary to a proper SEO program can be implemented by your own company staff.  At the 543 Group, we do not force you to pay for any SEO services you can easily do yourself.  Thus, our value is in delivering only the components you need at a reasonable fixed fee.  Properly implemented with the attention to detail required, we have experienced increases in search engine site results from as far down as the 10th page of results or lower (which means no one ever finds your site) to the top half of the first page.  The resulting increases in site traffic are quite measurable and can raise awareness for your competitively differentiated products and services.   

How Fast Do You Need It?

The 543 Group recently was asked to develop an engaging interactive 'splash' Website to support a press event for the launch a hot new consumer electronics product.  The requirements included design of the site layout, creating all of the HTML code, providing for contact information and e-mail capture to create a mailing list for future announcements, and designing and building a 30-second Flash movie to create energy around the new product's features and benefits.

The real challenge?  We had a weekend to put it all together.  We delivered on time, on budget, and to the client's satisfaction, and the press event went off without a hitch.  While not the desired routine for every project, it can be accomplished when everyone pulls together and planning includes exceeding expectations. 

In this business, it's not "What have you done for me lately?"  It's "What have you done since lunch?" Often, it's quite a lot.  What can we do for you today?

Online Marketing Strategy - The Way It Should Be

Over the last few months our company has been engaged in a large online marketing strategic planning effort for a major computer industry manufacturer, and it is very gratifying to see the ROI that can be delivered when a company makes the proper investment of time and resources to create a complete strategic roadmap for their online marketing initiatives.

For this project, our team has been involved with development of a five-stage set of deliverables including the following:

• Strategic Brief
• Functional Brief
• Creative Brief
• Technical Brief
• Reach & Engage Brief

Together, these five documents detail the who-what-when-where-why and how for a multi-million dollar implementation effort planned for 2007.  They set the stage for a series of integrated marketing initiatives to dramatically increase sales from online marketing efforts. 

But that is not enough.  In order to show immediate return on investment, our team was also asked to get quickly involved with daily Web operations for the company to identify 'low hanging fruit' that would deliver rapid results.  We developed and implemented a targeted list of productivity improvements that increased sales from specific sectors by as much as 1000%. 

This approach works - to have your strategic partners also working shoulder to shoulder with you to deliver measurable results every week and, sometimes, every day, in addition to longer range strategic planning. 

What also makes it work is ensuring that all phases of the customer lifecycle are fully examined, and re-examined over time, to continue to identify the initiatives that will provide the greatest return.  We accomplish that levering the following model:

This model looks at every possible customer and prospect touchpoint, so current activity can be assessed for its ability to improve or tarnish the brand.  Never has this been more important since a company's online experience is usually the first, and often last, impression a brand leaves on those who encounter it.