Book excerpt: In today’s business world, your success relies directly upon your ability to make your mark online. An effective website is one that can sell your products or services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many businesses turn to online marketing experts to help them navigate the choppy waters of online marketing. Web service providers can help make your website the “go to” resource for your — but how do you know who to hire? Online marketing providers come in many different price categories and levels of competency. Without doing your due diligence, you’ll end up placing the viability of your company’s website in the wrong hands. In this book, SEO services expert Jeev Trika will walk you through multiple categories of of search engine marketing that your business will need in order to have an effective presence online. Each chapter looks at an industry in depth and shows you what to look for in an excellent service provider or software package. The categories covered include of: search engine optimization, pay per click management services, link building, content services, social media, landing page optimization, video SEO, affiliate marketing, local SEO, mobile optimization, virtual spokesperson, site audit services, hosting, training programs, PSD to HTML conversion services, press release distribution services, SEO shopping cart software, PPC bid management software, email marketing services, web analytics software, and marketing automation software. In each chapter, you’ll learn the basics of each service or software and see real world examples of how actual customers have been helped by professionals in the field. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to confidently hire and work with a web services professional or company to get your website where it needs to be.