One of the things about search engine optimization (SEO) that never ceases to amaze me is the sheer ability of a business to underestimate the long-term consequences of their zig-zag, one-time SEO decisions.

What I mean by zig-zag decisions is a business’ ability to zig to implement the hottest or latest fad in SEO only to zag when the next best SEO tactic arrives for all to partake.

One of the problems with this type of SEO strategy is that it leaves you open and vulnerable to the long-term impact of negative SEO should the tactic become too popular and deemed black-hat SEO by search engine algorithms.

I never fail to receive an email or phone call from a potential customer asking me how much search engine optimization (SEO) services are or what the going rate is for SEO service offerings.

Most of the time, I answer their question about whether they aim to save money on SEO or drive tangible and profitable results using SEO.

Sometimes potentials then explain that they are on a very tight budget and looking to get the biggest bang for their buck without breaking the bank and their existing search rankings if any exist.

However, most conversations I classify as tire kickers because potential customers are truly not after sound SEO services as much as they are trying to make the price of SEO fit their understanding and budget of what a small business should pay for SEO services.

If you own or operate a local business and are in need of increasing local SEO and search rankings for your business, then you’ll definitely want to continue reading why paying per lead using local SEO is the most sound investment your small business can make.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a chance to raise my head and breathe.

Things around here at Kickstart Commerce are kicking into high gear with local SEO, converting more pay-for-performance SEO customers.

And why are customers choosing pay-for-performance SEO to boost their local SEO efforts?

Like most domainers, I’ve been watching and reading about the new gTLDs, also known as general top-level domain names or new domain extensions, for over a year now, following TheDomains.com, Rick Schwartz, Morgan Linton, and other domainers.

I’ve also followed GoDaddy’s new extensions promotion as well as 1And1.com’s new gTLD promotional commercial.

1And1.com created a great commercial that was well positioned, but what a waste of time and money in my opinion.

To think that 1And1.com wasted nearly 50 million dollars in one-time new gTLD advertising just baffles me to no end.

And for the record, I’ve not seen that same 1And1.com commercial advertising for new gTLDS since my post.

But I digress.

Personally, I’ve taken the stance that domain names, especially premium and super-premium keyword domain names, using new gTLDs are not going to be as successful as .com domain names.

Cheers to Google Authorship, having an image next to website search results, and all the added benefits it has brought my business over the past year.

If you have not a clue as to what I’m referencing, I invite you to read my recent post on the future of search engine optimization using Google Authorship.

As a major aspect of my content marketing strategy to gain greater visibility in search engines and an opportunity to increase click-through-rate (CTR) for search rankings, I implemented Google Authorship. I believe Google Authorship separates my website from my competition, adding a credibility boost to search rankings.

I’ve had Google Authorship implemented on my website almost a year now and amazed at the results.  

I’m back in the saddle for another SEO ride on a different day and many more SEO issues to tackle pertaining to GWT queries and impressions.

Today, I’d like to share with you an SEO experience that has driven a customer and me nearly crazy trying to figure it out.

The issue at hand was trying to identify why Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) shows minimal queries and impressions for their website.

Not too long ago, I wrote a post about performing SEO using multiple GWT accounts.

To my surprise, I thought that we had remedied the customer’s situation and all was well.

But as time passed since that post, nearly 30 days, we noticed that the GWT profile showed minimal data for queries and impressions.

Hmm, something must be wrong, right?

One of the things that drives me up a wall and back as an SEO professional is to have both potential and existing customers solely focus on the number of backlinks their competitors have achieved based on SEO tools.

I love SEO tools and I do use my fair share of SEO tools, but I realize that SEO tools cannot replace the hard work and effort that I must put into achieving and sustaining my rankings.

I use SEO tools as a gauge to monitor what SEO tactics are and are not working, but these SEO tools are not the end all, be all for how my website ranks across major search engines.

In most cases, people that are benchmarking using SEO tools are clearly wasting their time.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to benchmark and use SEO tools such as Advanced Web Ranking, Ahrefs.com, Moz, and OpenSiteExplorer.org to measure one’s website or compare one’s website to their competition.

The problem I have with customers using SEO tools is that most potential customers and customers are headed down the wrong or deceptive SEO path and proclaim SEO tools as the holy grail of SEO.

And why is this so bad, you ask? Well, any little discrepancy in the numbers or data shown by their desired SEO tool of choice causes such potential and existing customers to participate in reactive SEO, chasing things that don’t matter while neglecting to focus and stay the course executing sound SEO principles.

We all must remember that SEO is as fickle as the wind in general and especially can become a slippery slope when we start trying to use tools to reactively benchmark link building strategies.

That said, I wish most potential and existing customers would really take to heart and understand wholeheartedly what about about to say in the next paragraph.