Ask Dr.Hossam Darwish

Frequently asked Q&A:

Q: What is E-Marketing?

A: The Internet is a powerful and persuasive form of marketing. I am sure like most people you have used the Internet to find products or service you are interested in. E-Marketing is the skill known to many in the industry as online marketing and internet marketing. Generally E-Marketing refers to the positioning of websites in the search engines or website based advertising placements. E-Marketing can be a very powerful technique and it is vital to make wise choices in your selection of the company you plan on partnering with for an e-marketing service. It is not a task to be taken lightly as a bad choice might result your website being banned from the search engines altogether. Obviously there is a plethora of providers for e-Marketing services, so how do you separate the wheat from the chaff? Well, the common way to differentiate a good e-marketing provider is to look at where the e-marketing company place themselves for their main products and services within the search engines. If they are able to position themselves well then that e-marketer must be doing something right!

Q: About your company achievements:

A:  So, how did you find this page? I bet you found it in the Google search results didn't you? - No, I am not a mind reader; I just know that our e-marketing results speak for themselves.  We are able to position ourselves right near the top of the results in the search engines, so we choose to let you decide and let you think for a minute on this.  Do you think a company that can position themselves at the top of the search engines would know what they are doing?  Conversely, would you prefer to work with an e-marketing company that cannot rank themselves well in the search engines?  It’s a good question to ask yourself and seek answers on, within the rankings and positions on Google.

Q: What do we do?

A:  E-marketing means using digital technologies to help you sell your goods or services. These technologies are a valuable complement to traditional marketing methods whatever the size of your company or your business model. The basics of marketing remain the same - creating a strategy to deliver the right messages to the right people. It’s undeniable that the power of the Internet is growing rapidly, especially for commerce. It’s imperative that you maximize your online presence to market yourself. Developing your company’s website is only the first step of the process; how you utilize it will determine if it was worth the investment.

Search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), pay-per-click campaigns (PPC), and email marketing campaigns are just a few of the options available to help increase the amount of traffic that you drive to your website. These proactive marketing approaches will bring your website in front of your desired audience and help increase your site's ranking on search results for sites such as Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

Once you have attracted your targets to the site, what are they doing and how can you market to them better? We can install analytics trackers of your site to measure the habits of your visitors. Then we can work with you to optimize these habits, such as creating content- or promotion-specific landing pages, increasing your page visits and time spent on the site and decreasing the bounce rate. 

Q: Do you have a website design experience? What is your technical background? 

A: DR.HOSSAM has a team of award winning designers with whom we contract to handle all design aspects for clients. All members of the DR.HOSSAM team have a thorough understanding of the technical complexities involved with most sites.

Q: What is link popularity? What linking strategies would you use to increase link popularity for our website? 

A: 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. 

Q: 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?

A: First, DR.HOSSAM asks you what terms you would like to rank on. Some may be worthwhile, some may be too competitive and too general, and 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, DR.HOSSAM optimizes the appropriate pages for the appropriate phrases.

Q: What is Google Page Rank™ and how does it affect our website(s)? How would you address improving our Page Rank™ with Google and other search engines that calculate the number of quality inbound links to our website? When is the next Google dance?

A: 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. 

Q: How often do search engine submission guidelines change?

 
A: 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.

Q: What is the difference between pay-per-click search engine and general search engine? What is the difference between search engine and directory?

A:  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 thus. 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.

Q: What other methods/websites are there to track the success of website optimization?

A: Measurement of Return On Investment. Depending on the data available, DR.HOSSAM 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.

Q: 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?

A: DR.HOSSAM 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.

Q: 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?

A: 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, DR.HOSSAM Reports. 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.

Q: 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?

A: We organize conferences about e marketing and online marketing technology twice a year. We 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. .

Q: How do you effectively compete online using traditional optimization strategies?

                                                                       
A: 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.  DR.HOSSAM guarantees that you will be satisfied with our services, and that you will reach the benefits of high rankings for a long time to come. 

Q: 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 if it occurs to your client? 

A: 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.

Q: 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? 

A: Yes, without hesitation. 

Q: 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?

A:  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.

Q: How would you qualify the statement that SEO should be part of an integrated approach to marketing of my site and company?

A: 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 web pages online, it’s critical that your site has high visibility on search engines. Without search engine placement, you might as well not even have a website.

Q: How long are your typical projects?

A: 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 DR.HOSSAM as their trusted online advisor. We can help steer them clear of spammy junk, while taking advantage of promising new techniques. 

Q: What search engines/directories do you target? 

A:  Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, Ask Jeeves. Also Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and Foursquare.

Q: How many hours will you put into working on our site? Where will most of the time be spent? 

A: This depends on the size and architecture of your site and the competitiveness of your industry.

Q: How long until we see the first results? 

A: Some will be immediate, but we normally see significant changes after about 4 – 6 months. 

Q: 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?

A: Dr. Hossam Darwish personally handles all SEO work. We have full time staff members who do 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 DR.HOSSAM. 

Q: Do you have a working relationship with any of the large search engines or directory representatives? What is their typical responsiveness?

A: 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.

Q: Do you talk in terms of rankings or traffic or both?

A: Both- and return on investment (ROI).

Q:  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?

A: It depends on the client. Some clients have us do everything, based on what has been recommended. 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 5 days a week. Customer service is of paramount importance. 

Q: Should we include your link on our website?

A:  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 DR.HOSSAM 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.

Q: Do you offer any additional value added services? Tracking, ROI measurement, e-mail address gathering, PPC, directory advice, viral, PR, link building, copywriting, newsletters? Do you offer any of the software for value-added services on your website? 

A: 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. 

Q: Will you set up aspects of our SEO campaign on your server. If so, will we have access to it?

A: No. No aspects of the campaign will be run from DR.HOSSAMs server. The only thing we would provide in this case is access to your site statistics if you host with us. All optimization takes place on your web pages.

Q: 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? 

A:  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. 

Q: If doorway pages are used, do you have professional marketing writers on staff?

A: DR.HOSSAM 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. 

Q: 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?

A: Yes, we do not take on projects that are in direct competition to each other. We recommend that they visit SEOpros.org to find a qualified SEO. 

Q: Do you have consistent success placing clients in the major directories? What directories? Do you make recommendations for directory submissions?

A: Yes, Yahoo, DMOZ, and three newer directories. We recommend directory submissions and actually make the submissions as well.

Q: What sort of guarantees do you offer on your services?

A: DR.HOSSAM guarantees your satisfaction with our services. We do not guarantee ROI or specific rankings, as they are both impossible to predict. 

Q: 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?

A: 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. 

Q: Is online video marketing a good investment for a small business?

A:  Online video is KEY to the success of your small business. First it helps differentiate you from your competitors. You can think of online video like websites 10 years ago...you were unique if you had a website and it gave you the competitive edge. The same applies for online video.

Second, video is an excellent way for your customers to get to know you. It gives a personal touch to your brand because your customers can see you, get to know you (especially if you publish videos frequently), and they will get to like you very quickly. This will build the trusting relationship which is needed for customers to buy from you. People buy from people they know, like, and trust. Online video covers all three.

Online video can also help you rank well in the search engines, especially if you use tags related to your location (your city, state, etc) when publishing your videos on YouTube and other online video sharing sites. Also the point below about the mRSS is also a great one and helps with your search engine rankings. 

If you have any other questions, don't be shy to ask. We are all here to help.

Q: What is search engine marketing (SEM)?

A: Search engine marketing, commonly referred to as SEM, is a general term that describes marketing a website using various techniques to make it more visible in the search engines. Search engine marketing includes techniques like search engine optimization (SEO), buying pay per click ads (PPC), and a combination of both techniques.

Q: What are search engine spiders?

A:  Search engine spiders are computer programs with specific algorithms that identify websites across the Internet and scan the website’s code to figure out how to include it in their index and how it relates to search terms. All search engines have their own spiders that “crawl” websites. Larger search engines have multiple spiders continuously “crawling” the Internet each day. Anytime a search engine spider crawls your website, it means the search engine is updating its listings of websites that are already included in the index or to scan new content or add websites for the first time.

Q: Who are the major search engines?

A: Currently, the three most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. According to Comscore, Google holds 63.10% of online searches, Yahoo! holds 20.50% of online searches, and MSN holds 8.50% of online searches. The remaining 7.9% of searches come from other small search engines like AOL and AltaVista.

Q: How to track a blog?

A:  I think it is fair to say that the “out-of-the-box” tracking for bloggers is limited compared to that for most e-mail broadcast services. 

Your tracking capability will vary according to whether your blogging system enables you to modify the code. If, like me, you use a content management system for blogging, it is straightforward to track by inserting a JavaScript tracking tag from a web analytics tool like Google Analytics into your pages.

Google Analytics is free blog tracking option with plug-in for integrating with blogs like WordTracker, so I recommend that. This gives me data on unique visitors to my blog pages, the most popular pages and which sites and search keywords are referring visitors to my blog. Similarly, with Movable Type, WordPress or Blogger you should be able to configure your templates to incorporate tracking and there are also specific plug-in available to make it easier.

Q: How do you get good SEO results when using mainly flash in your site? I am really struggling with a 99% flash site:

A:  I’m not going to tell you to scrap the Flash, so working with what you have, “Quick Wins” are to make sure you have good <title> tags for each flash application since Google attaches a lot of significance to these (much more than meta tags) and to also set the alternative text to describe the Flash content. 
That’s obvious, so the next stage is to provide alternative key phrase rich content for the search engines in <h1> s, links and body content, either using code within <noscript> tags or a <div> based on a Flash description script. 

Q: How do the SEO and PPC programs differ?

 

A: The main difference between these programs is as follows.

Q: SEO Program:

A: The SEO program produces visitors from "Natural" or "Organic" listings, those that show up on the search results page below the paid advertisements (sponsored listings). The Upside; As time goes on, these natural listings will bring more and more visitors to your web site for the same fixed monthly cost. Think of SEO as an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. The Downside; The SEO program takes many months to achieve desirable results so you have to be patient.

Q: PPC Program:

A: The PPC program produces visitors from "Paid Listings". PPC is a bidding process where you agree to pay a specified dollar amount each time a visitor clicks over to your web site from a paid search listing. The Downside; If you have a fixed budget, over time there will be a decline in the number of visitors each month because the bids for your keywords will generally go up, yielding less visitors for the same money. The Upside; your paid listings can be live within 5-7 business days and you will see immediate results. 

Q: Which program is more effective, SEO or PPC?

 

A: They are both extremely effective at getting relevant traffic to your web site. Over the long run, the SEO program will bring an increasing number of visitors each month for the same fixed monthly budget. On the other hand, the PPC program will generally bring fewer visitors each month for the same fixed monthly budget because of a steady increase in the cost-per-click (CPC).

PPC is more flexible if your keyword strategy changes from month-to-month. For example, if you're selling seasonal items, the PPC program may be a better fit since keywords used to promote these items can be taken offline at any time, then reactivated when needed. SEO is a much slower process that can take months to get results that PPC can achieve within days.

Q: Assuming price is no object, which program is better, SEO or PPC?

 

A: If you have the money to spend, we recommend investing in both programs at the same time. Over time, the PPC program may become cost prohibitive because the average bids "Cost-Per-Click" (CPC) keep going up, which increases the conversion costs. Several months down the road when the SEO program takes hold and the target ROI has been achieved, the monthly budget for the PPC program can be scaled back thereby improving conversion costs. 

Q: Why should my web site be resubmitted on a monthly basis?

 

A: Web sites should be resubmitted to the search engines and directories on a "regular" basis for a number of reasons. Since web site content will change frequently as part of the SEO process, resubmitting gives the search engines a chance to reevaluate the content and index it appropriately. This new or updated content could potentially get your site a higher ranking. What's more, your web site listing with each search engine will be kept up-to-date, allowing you to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Q: Which search engines will my site be submitted to for indexing?

 

A: Your web site will be submitted to the following search engines and directories: About.com, AllTheWeb, Altavista, AOL Web Sites, Ask Jeeves, DMOZ (Open Directory Project), ExactSEEK, Excite, Google, HotBot, ICQ Search, iWon, Jayde, Lycos, MSN, Netscape, Teoma, WiseNut and Yahoo Web Results among others. 

 

Q: How long does it take to get my site "indexed" on the search engines?

 

A: The time can vary dramatically depending on the search engine. In general, most search engines will index web sites within 2-10 weeks, again depending on the search engine.

 

Q: What is "indexing"?

 

A: Indexing is a term search engines use to determine in which position web site listings appear (first page, second page etc). Generally, the higher a site is indexed, the more visitors it will receive.

 

 

 

Q: Besides the one-time setup and monthly fees, are there any other charges for this service?

A: No. Ongoing optimization is included in the monthly cost. 

 

Q: How much does it cost to get started on this program?

 

A: Our basic SEO program starts at $300 per month and includes optimizing up to 5 site pages, plus a one-time setup fee. Setup fees vary and are based on the amount of work required to make your web site search engine friendly. 

Q: Ok, I'm ready to get started, what do I do next?

A: To get started today please contact our offices at 00201223293909 and one of our sales professionals will explain the setup process and get you started.  Drhossamdarwish@gmail.com