A Canadian Leader in Search Engine Optimization Since 1996

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization or SEO is a profession that combines many marketing disciplines in particular direct/response marketing, with webmaster and web design skills. IWB CEO, Terry Van Horne, is primarily a marketer who became interested in web development out of necessity. The future webmaster had to learn the skills because he did not have the resources to pay an employee or a web designer to implement his ideas. As a marketer Terry has a natural flare and interest in promoting websites. Sharing promotion ideas and techniques with other webmasters on the HWG list and later in his newsletter and website has been a significant part of the IWB marketing strategy. Terry is a founding Member of SeoPros, and through CaSEM Technologies IWB maintains and promotes the directory. SeoPros became the Not For Profit Organization of Search Engine Optimization Professionals, the first Organization for SEO professionals in 2003.

IWB has maintained top 5 positions for client sites for literally a decade! These clients did not have to pay monthly fees beyond hosting and other related web presence expenses. The sites were built from the ground up using the methodology outlined below. These sites did not require a massive link development campaign because they are well established local businesses. The positions were not super competitive in the scope of the web, however, for their local markets the keywords are the top terms and were extremely competitive to the point the competition is directories or sites with worldwide scope.

Since, many businesses are looking for a local audience, general keyword phrases, which are the super competitive keyword terms, generally don't work well for these businesses. General phrases just generate a lot of low quality poorly targeted traffic. Shipping, currency conversion and jurisdictional bureaucracy generally make selling consumer goods outside the local and Canadian market extra tough for Canadian clients. Some services are also local by nature. For example lawyers and real estate agents.

IWB doesn't provide a guarantee for search engine optimization because we provide a targeted campaign that takes nothing for granted. The SEO campaign will be well documented and you will always know exactly what you paid for and the hourly rate applied for the activity. Unlike most of our competition, in particular those offering guarantees, our billing process is completely transparent so you are not paying for a "pig in a poke" or a guarantee that is often worded so it's unenforceable!

For more Information see our Search Engine Marketing page for information on PPC and other Keyword Marketing Techniques

Merging Marketing & Web Development Techniques For SEO Success

With 15 years of experience in web usability and web design and 10 years of web programming experience Terry can lead development and marketing strategy for almost any web development project imaginable. Overlaying marketing strategy on website design and programming requires a number of disciplines seldom found in one individual or even one firm. Graphic design, coding HTML and programming search engine friendly content is what IWB has become known for. Terry's 30 years of marketing experience in wholesale, retail and direct/response marketing enables him to take the best of these and apply them to internet and  search engine marketing.

SEO Services

IWB has developed a search engine optimization service based on client trust. Trust is built through total transparency of the billing, documentation of tasks and belief that all data collected is the clients and should be provided monthly unless otherwise determined by the client. Why do we work so close with clients giving them input into the process? Because nobody knows your business better than you!

1. Set Goals To Enable Quantifying Success

Using analytics and the web referrers log IWB can quantify any goal to be measured for SEO success. Using analytics and logs rather than rankings and traffic enables IWB to measure activity that is actionable! Rankings and traffic measure success poorly and provide nothing that can be used to determine actions to remove a problem or reason for poor results.

Sales aren't a goal! Sales are a direct result of providing qualified traffic to a page that offers the benefit a user desires enough to take the action the site wants. This may be sales, form submission or any action the site benefits from. Do not be led down the path of measuring SEO success based on rankings, traffic or any unquantifiable action. The action must have the ability to be tracked to be quantifiable. That action is best if there can also be a dollar amount attached. Can you take rankings to the bank? Can you quantify rankings. Yes, but not on Google because they have personalization and universal search algorithms which means no user gets the same result it is personal to them. That's why when you search for your site Google will often place your site higher for you then another "unassociated" user.

2. Website Competitiveness Research

Unlike our search optimization competitors we do website competitiveness research to determine the content that your competitors provide, what the user is seeking and the quality of content that is meeting those user needs. We do some SEO analysis but we are not big believers in copying or following the herd in your competitive space. We advise you on how to provide the content that will lead the niche not just be another site doing what everyone else is. That also means that you are always one step ahead of the the other sites in your space. When you have the content users desire then the inbound links are easier to get and will often be unsolicited one way links. That is how, link wise, "the rich get richer and the poor...".

3. Keyword Research

After the website competitiveness research is completed we've reviewed the category for the content requirements the keyword research starts the process of optimizing the content to be found by Search engines. Google provides tools to determine the phrases the site is already optimized for. We use these as seed keyword phrases for keyword discovery. During the discovery phase we determine the quality of the traffic targeted by the phrase and the total number of queries. We use the combination of the total queries for the phrase and its relevance to the site expressed as a % to determine the most attractive terms for high conversion. For a new site we would go straight into the keyword discovery phase.

4. Optimize HTML for Search Engines & Determine Google Universal Search Content Needs

Terry Van Horne was at the forefront of developing many of the HTML optimization techniques used by all SEOs, however, for Google these days it is content types that drive Googles' SERP traffic. Why don't we think it's keyword driven? Simple, providing the right content has now become a big part of the strategy to place on Google. Google's Universal and Personal Search has raised the bar on SEO and Search Engine Marketing. Google Search is not just text based matching it's also about providing the content that enables your site to appear in the five different types of Universal Search Results. Digital Asset Management for Local Search and Google Maps, Videos from YouTube, Product Feeds from Google Base, press releases, article syndication, blog posts and news from Google News and images from Image search. A sixth type is a OneBox for brands.

5. Maximize Website Visibility

Once the website is built and optimized the real work begins. IWB has a list of over 200 directories we've reviewed to be sure they are worth our time and possibly expense. Website visibility is generally thought to be about link development. IWB differs in that we have always believed if you have to solicit reciprocal links then someone did a poor job of choosing or writing the content required to attract reciprocal links naturally. IWB also believes that a natural link profile is going to include many and hopefully all of article syndication, press releases and directory submission. We never have and never will buy links for SEO. We only provide long term solutions. IWB has been providing innovative Product Feed visibility strategies to ecommerce sites for over 7 years well ahead of most in the industry.

6. We Have a Plan & We all Work the Plan!

Once IWB have meant your initial goals we provide a maintenance plan for maintaining positions achieved and raising the others IWB and our clients determined are best for them. We access the clients ability to maintain the positions with new content and website promotion. We believe is did the SEO correctly it seldom needs constant tuning to maintain positions. Competitive keywords terms are sustained by adding associated content and cross linking that content with the content that is placing. After 6 months you should be in a position to pretty much manage SEO yourself. We only continue beyond this point with clients who are retaining us to actively create and promote new content. Ultimately our goal is to work ourselves out of a job!