Let me set the scene for you. I had just seen a tweet about an article “where you should go for business cards?” Battle of business cards an in-depth review of 5 companies.  Now, I opened the link and really thought it was a well written article and it gave me some insight. I’ve wanted to review online print companies against one another to see who has the best prices, product and shipping quality for some time. I decided to share the story on my Facebook wall and then the comments started.

Comment #1: The problem with this site… is that it doesn’t have any of the major printing sites on it. Then the poster goes on to list a few sites. *which I won’t endorse on JCD*

My response: Well the (major) companies you listed must do a better job marketing their services and improving their SEO. The author said she chose the top 5 print companies on Google! If I don’t get a recommendation by word of mouth, I use Google and if they don’t come up in my search then I won’t know about them. Google is the #1 search engine!

Comment #2: Well just because it’s Google doesn’t exactly mean the product and service is good. Also, if you purchase ads with Google which I think every business should do. Those companies are major gang print for fliers, business cards, posters and have been around long enough to probably not need to do a lot of promotion. Anyone can be top 5 in Google if you pay for the search engine to help promote you. Then there were comments about pricing, customer service and product quality etc.

My response: It has NOTHING to do with advertising! It’s a Google Search! I don’t pay for advertising yet if you Google certain key words my site will come up on the 1st page of a Google search. Words like (North Carolina, Southern Mom Blogger, Jael, Graphic Design Blog etc.) and if you Google my blog name I’m definitely number 1! It’s all about SEO and keywords when building your site. I blog regularly so I’m in the habit of using SEO and keywords every time I post an article. That gives me a better page ranking advantage. Price and quality should be a factor but, people need to 1st know that you exist!

Comment 3#: Great Points! I base my ranking off of price, quality and shipping. I have been using these particular companies for years.

While the above may be true … I’ve still never heard of the companies the commenter referenced and they’ve NEVER come up in any of my Google Searches. I wonder how they found those particular online print companies! My point being… Maybe they should use appropriate keywords so that their businesses show up in the top search engines! Honestly when I conduct a Google search I rarely pay attention to the sponsored links. I am looking for quality information from consumers depending on my search. I get my best information in forums or by the old fashioned word of mouth!

You can use SEO to get traffic to your website using targeted keywords for your blog or business. If you Google search a phrase like “Do you have klout?” You get back your results and they are broken into two sections. You’ll get your organic results which are usually 1-10 on the page then at the very top of the page and the right hand side you’ll see all of the sponsored links which are paid for. Now using SEO , keywords, back linking and optimizing your site does take some work but, you can do it! If you don’t have time to do it then I’m sure you can price some of the programs that are available to do it for you or pay for Google Ad Words or PPC advertising. Definitely do your background research on it all and choose what best suits your needs. I don’t have an advertising budget at this time, or any room for monetary risk taking  so FREE is going to win every time even if there is a little extra work involved on my part! I’d like to hear your thoughts on this matter? How do you get people to your blog or website? If you Google certain key words that pertain to your site, do you come up on the first Google page? Do you know your Google Page Rank?