Q: What is SEO, SEA, SEM, PPC, SERPs?
A: The search world is full of acronyms. Here are some that we are using on this site:
- SEM (Search Engine Marketing): The practice of using search engines for marketing and advertising; encompasses SEA and SEO, defined below.
- SEA (Search Engine Advertising): Consists of placing ads for products or services on search engines and on content sites across the Internet. Other Names: Paid Search, Sponsored Listings, SEM, PPC.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): The practice of influencing the code, structure, links, and content of a website to improve its ranking in organic search engine results. Other Names: Organic Search, Natural Search.
- PPC (Pay per click): A model used by search engines, where advertising companies pay only when a user clicks on an advertisement to visit the advertiser's website.
- SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages): The resulting pages returned from executing a search.
Q: Why does Microsoft offer SEO Services for Microsoft Partners?
A: Microsoft’s continuously surveys its partner base to understand and address partner’s needs. In a recent study, “help with search engine optimization” was ranked in the top 3. It’s been proven through various industry studies that more than 75% of IT buyers start their product and service research process by utilizing a search engine and that organic search results are clicked on more than 4 times than paid results. It is these facts that drove the creation of our SEO service.
Q: Who can participate in this program?
A: This program is open to any Microsoft partner (Registered, Certified, or Gold Certified) who wants to increase the volume of traffic to their site. If you are not already a member of Microsoft’s Partner Program you can become one quickly by following the steps at http://partner.microsoft.com
Q: How does this program compare to other SEO services?
A: Microsoft recognizes that there are many SEO service firms and products in the market today. SEO while not a new concept is still underutilized as a key strategy for generating leads by Software and Services firms. Our service focuses exclusively on the needs of Software and Software Services firms. Our team of experts has vast experience in SEO, Software and Services Lead Generation, and development making them uniquely qualified to provide these services to you. In addition, one of the most important things to assess when evaluating Search Engine Optimization Services is the vendor’s ability to stay on top of Search Engine changes. Search Engines are constantly changing their algorithms in an effort to provide more targeted results. By keeping up with these changes and by utilizing our proprietary Search Engine monitoring tools we are able to provide you with the deepest level of analysis and quality.
Q: Does this Service help me only with Live Search or does it support Google and Yahoo as well?
A: We are committed to provide you with the analysis and recommendations that increase your results across all the major Search Engines. Each has its own unique methodology for ranking results and our analysis considers the uniqueness of each.
Q: What is included in the SEO baseline report?
A: The report includes 5 major sections: Page Design, Validation, Page Analysis, Search Engine and Keyword. For more details, consult this
information.
Q: I am done with the SEO changes, what's next?
A: Following the SEO implementation you will receive a monthly report with additional recommendations and changes. Because the major Search Engines are constantly changing the way they rank it is extremely important to provide continuously updated analysis to help maximize your results. Our monthly reports also provide comprehensive analysis on changes in search traffic patterns allowing you to analyze the effectiveness of your website changes.
Q: What do the 10 hours of consulting include?
The 10 hours of consulting can cover a wide range of tasks which include:
- Implement optimizations in existing pages.
- Carrying out extensive research to find the most searched for words/phrases that can be implemented into the customer’s web site in order to attract the most number of visitors.
- Provide suggestions to alternate text using important keywords while maintaining a good level of keyword density.
- Consult or implement technical tasks like JavaScript compression, CSS consolidation, or related.
Q: How much does this program cost?
A: The full details on pricing are here. Microsoft has invested in SEO Services for Microsoft Partners to keep the quality high and the cost extremely competitive.
Q: Who is producing the reports?
A: The reports are produced by a group of SEO experts selected by Microsoft as a result of a rigorous testing process among several leading vendors. Prior to production we ran an SEO pilot program with these experts and achieved very high results. .
Q: Do you offer any guarantee?
A: Microsoft is committed to the satisfaction of our Partners. It is virtually impossible to guarantee a specific organic position in any Search Engine. What we guarantee is the quality of the work produced and the certainty that the recommendations are SEO best practices.
Q: How long does this program take?
At the initial meeting, we will provide you with an estimate. It usually takes between 2 to 3 weeks to conduct the full analysis. About one week after the start of the analysis, we will contact you to get more information regarding your goals in SEO. At the completion of the baseline report, we will schedule another review meeting to walk you through the different aspects of the report. After that, expect to spend several hours a month tweaking your SEO.
Q: When will I see results?
A: Our analysis and detailed recommendations will be delivered to you approximately 2-3 weeks from our initial meeting. Depending upon which recommendations are deployed you can begin to see results shortly after implementation. However in some instances it can take several weeks or months to see results. During your first week in the program we do an analysis which gives us a better idea as to how much and how quickly we can improve your overall ranking.
Q: What about Link Building or PPC?
A: We are investigating the demand for Link Building as part of this program. PPC is definitively a different business than SEO, but it does have its place in organic rankings. If you are interested by a Link Building program or PPC, please let us know here.
Q: Which SEO tools are you using?
A: We are using custom developed tools specifically for this program. You can find a lot of tools on the web, but most of them are either not reliable or not producing the right results. Since we wanted a controlable environment for this program, we have decided to design and implement specific SEO tools.
Q: Are the SEO tools available?
A: Not yet. Those tools were not designed to be used in production, but we are thinking to make them available sometime at the beginning of next year. If you are interested to know more about those tools, please contact us.
Q: Do you support more than one language?
A: Yes. Today we support English, Spanish, German, French and Portuguese as most of the world’s websites are in those languages. However, we belong to a network of highly skilled SEO professionals and can often recommend a local partner if we are unable to support your request. Please
contact us for more information.
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