Category: SEO

Finding New Ways to Reach Customes Online

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While the media used to reach customers may have changed dramatically over the last several years, there are some things that haven’t changed in the world of marketing: before you can sell your product or service, you first have to engage your target audience. And in order to engage that audience, you must reach out to them where they live. And today, the vast majority of people live online.

It’s axiomatic that every business must have an attractive, well-organized, and well-structured website rich in information. It must contain the relevant keywords so that it can rank as high as possible on all search engines, and it needs to have as many inbound, outbound, and internal links as possible.

Most important, it must include useful and original content that will resonate deeply with its intended audience. By maintaining a blog that targets potential customers’ interests, a business can position itself as a thought leader and expert in a particular industry. Finally, every website must be optimized for mobile and tablet usage, with as much video content as practicable.

In addition, to having a website, many businesses prosper with the use of paid channel advertising, specifically Google AdWords. Buying ad space on Google, or on another search engine, such as Bing, puts a company’s website on the engine’s first page, where most web surfers begin, and often end, their searches.

But in order to really reach the present generation of shoppers and consumers, a business, today, must know how to leverage the many social networks that people now use to communicate with one another. While the average person might only spend 15-30 minutes per day on social networks, many others spend multiple hours each week. That suggests that any strategic marketing plan must include a steady dose of social media.

The most widely-used social network is, of course, Facebook. Facebook provides an opportunity to showcase products, share company news and milestones, and present pictures and blogs that can engage and entertain the Facebook universe. It is an excellent way for people to see new content with every post. Facebook has a simple sign-up process that can establish a business online in minutes and it’s fairly easy to customize how a company can represent itself to its users.

Of course there are many other social networks that can be utilized to engage its users. Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., all have possibilities for the savvy business owner to exploit. The most important thing to remember is the importance of finding out where one’s potential customers are spending their time and then maximizing the relationship opportunities better than the competition.

Remember – regardless of the type of media used, the most important factor in getting and retaining customers is keeping them interested and engaged in your company’s product or service. We may talk to each other via many different electronic media, but keeping it human and personal is still the key to business success.

How SEO has Changed Within the Last Three Years

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For almost twenty years, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been used as an online marketing tool. And over that time span, SEO has changed and evolved as search engines, themselves, have grown and matured. The basic fundamentals of SEO are still important, however, and if done correctly will still yield favorable results. Content, performance, authority, and user experience are all concepts that have remained relatively constant.

Perhaps the major change in SEO began about a decade ago when Google became the top search engine and SEO authority, setting the bulk of SEO rules and standards. By changing its algorithms and administering discipline through search engine filters such as Panda and Penguin, Google severely restricted people who were trying to cheat the system by stuffing their websites with keywords or low-quality links in order to achieve high page rankings. Google and other search engines quickly put a stop to that practice, but in doing so, they have diminished the utility of keywords in general.

Over time, then, SEO’s new mantra became “content, content, content.” Rather than building a site for the sake of search engine attention, web designers were forced to create sites that their audiences would love and talk about online, which only then would get the attention of search engines. Of course, some webmasters tried to spin content by using text replacement tools to take one article and spin it into dozens of others that looked unique but did not provide any unique value. But that practice has since gotten harder and harder to do since Google became wise to the game. As keyword emphasis declined and spinning was cut off, the emphasis has been placed on pure, high-quality content.

Another seismic change occurred with the explosion of social media – especially Facebook which was founded in 2004, and has since become the dominant social media platform. A brand that can establish a reputation on social media can leverage that trust to bring users to its website. That site can then, ultimately, earn higher rankings based on the increased traffic generated via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. As social media became a prevalent force on the Internet, aligning it with SEO best practices became more and more important and continues to be a critical aspect of any SEO campaign.

Complementing the rise of social media has been the concomitant rise of mobile devices. It has been less than a decade since the first smartphones hit the market but they have since exploded into widespread use. Today, over 60 percent of adults with cell phones use them to access the internet and a third of mobile internet users go online almost exclusively on their phones. Ignoring mobile SEO has become a sure way to lose customers to the competition.

Another major change in the SEO landscape has been the arrival of Google Analytics. The ready and easy accessibility of the information presented by analytics suites has made it easier than ever for businesses to track everything from who visits their sites, to how long they stay, and what they click on.

Some of the more recent ways in which SEO has changed over the past few years include Google’s placing increased importance on mobile-friendly sites, brand mentions, and quality relationships with key influencers as opposed to simply creating more content. Also, businesses are more quickly integrating their SEO with their marketing departments and focusing more and more on actively engaging customers via social media. They are also trying to earn more quality inbound links and citations from respected publishers by providing more well-written blog posts to their targeted audiences.

Efficient Pay-per Click Techniques Make a World of Difference for Your Business’s Bottom Line

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Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is an advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays the publisher – typically, the website owner or host – each time one of its ads are clicked on by a potential consumer, surfing the web.

Search engines such as Google and Bing allow businesses to buy listings in their search results. When someone searches on a keyword that is related to a business’s offerings, its ad will show up on as a sponsored link or banner ad on a results page, along with the natural, non-paid search results.

There are two types of PPC advertising – flat rate PPC and bid-based PPC. In the flat-rate model, the advertiser and publisher agree upon a fixed amount that will be paid for each click. In bid-based PPC, ad placement is sold at auction. Each advertiser informs the host of the maximum amount that it is willing to pay for a given ad spot based on a keyword. The highest bid has the best chance to appear first in the rankings.

Whether utilizing a flat-rate, or bid-based model, PPC’s effectiveness as a source of profit assumes that the costs of all the clicks will be substantially less than the overall gain from sales made as a result of the portion of clickers who eventually convert and buy. When PPC is not working correctly it can hurt a business’s bottom line – the cost for ads are greater than the income for sales that close.

Effective and profitable PPC campaigns rely on a broad set of carefully thought-out and well-implemented components: researching and selecting the right keywords; organizing them into ad groups; creating ad text and landing pages that are optimized for conversions; and knowing how to target the correct audience, how to test ads, and how to use the tools and analytics that measure, and can thus help refine, results. Search engines reward advertisers who can create relevant, intelligently targeted pay-per-click campaigns by charging them less for ad clicks.

Google AdWords is the largest and most popular PPC advertising system, simply because Google gets the most traffic. Every time a search is initiated, Google digs into the pool of AdWords advertisers and chooses a set of winners to appear in the valuable ad space on its search results page. The winners are chosen based on a combination of factors, including the quality and relevance of their keywords and ad campaigns, their click-through rate, the quality of the page to which and ad points, and, in the bid-based model, the size of their keyword bids.

So, in order to become and stay a Google AdWords winner, a business must do the essential work of creating and maintaining its PPC campaigns. Effective techniques include:

• Crafting relevant keyword lists, tight keyword groups, and proper ad text.

• Creating optimized landing pages with persuasive, relevant content and a clear call-to–action, tailored to specific search queries.

• Consistently reviewing the effectiveness of ads by testing them and then optimizing them as necessary.

• Tracking conversions and sales in order to measure return on investment.

• Avoiding keyword bidding wars that end up costing more than an ad’s potential return.

Pay per click is now a basic Internet marketing tool and very few businesses can afford to ignore it. But like any other marketing campaign, a PPC campaign must lift the bottom line, not drag it down.

Steps to a Google-friendly Site

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There is no point in having a website unless people visit it. And people won’t visit it often enough, if it first doesn’t please Google, who, like it or not, is the most important arbiter of how your website will be ranked. So, while you are indulging in your creative fancies, trying to make you site the most beautiful and technologically sophisticated in the land, you also need to pay attention to grabbing the attention of Google – your new, best friend.

Number one on the list of creating a Google-friendly website is realizing that content is still king – not clever meta tags or sneakily inserted and endlessly repeated keywords. You have to provide unique content that is worth reading, viewing, or listening to, and that is updated regularly. And make sure that your content is original. Google is particularly annoyed when you lift content from another site and try to fool it into thinking that it is truly your own.

The good news is that if you provide unique and useful content, other sites will link to yours. Google likes that and attaches a lot of importance to inbound links. Again, don’t try to fool the Google algorithm; inbound links that are the result of schemes or link farms are a no-no. Google’s algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural ones.

Also, don’t try to out-maneuver Google by creating multiple pages, subdomains, or domains with duplicate content, or stuff pages with key words that don’t actually relate to the content therein. If your site contains pages, links, or text that you don’t intend visitors to see, Google considers those links and pages deceptive and may ignore your site, altogether.

Now, for the more technically minded, here are some other hints to making your site more Google-friendly:

• Ensure that your URL is optimized for organic search because its structure is important to its crawlability. Eschew unnecessary parameters and irrelevant characters.

• Test your page speed using Google’s own tool.

• Make sure that you’re not linking to non-essential pages in order to maximize your PageRank filtration

• If you’re using JavaScript, ensure that you’re coding it correctly so that it can be accessed by search engine spiders.

• Don’t use images to display important names, content, or links. Google’s crawler doesn’t recognize text contained in graphics.

• Use ALT attributes if the main content and keywords on your page can’t be formatted in regular HTML.

• Remember to create a Google Webmaster Tools account for your website so that Google can communicate with you directly.

A final word about the basics: Create your website for people, not search engines. The more usable your website is to humans, the more appealing it will be to search engines, anyway.

How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?

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The easy answer to this question is: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” But, of course that’s the easy answer and in business, there are no easy answers. Some experts suggest that you allocate 15 to 20 percent of your company’s annual income for the best results, but that answer is also a little too facile.

You know that you’re going to spend something for your business’ online presence and you know that it’s probably going to more affordable than print ads, radio or TV commercials, or sending out actual mail. But what you really need to do before you spend a dime, is decide what you want to achieve, where you will find most of your customers, and what aspects of online advertising and communication will give you the biggest bang for the buck by generating leads and sales and directing people towards your company.

Generally, you will have several main choices for your online spending: a website, which requires building it, hosting it and maintaining it; search marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), digital ads such as Google AdWords, pay per click (PPC) campaigns, etc.; a social media presence, such as Facebook, Twitter, and all the other various platforms; review site advertising such as Yelp and Foursquare; and email communication.

The most important of these is probably your website. There you have some choices. You can build it yourself using any number of off-the-shelf templates, such as WordPress, or you can pay to have one constructed for you. Your other basic costs will include a web domain, web hosting, a web developer (if your platform needs specific functionalities that are not available as plugins or extensions), and perhaps a social media manager (if you don’t have the time or the knowledge of how to manage the different channels). And remember: as the world becomes increasingly mobile-centered, it’s best to have a website that will display properly on smart phones and tablets.

Paying for SEO is another essential cost for many businesses. There are several models in play. You can pay a monthly retainer, which is a set fee each month in exchange for an agreed-upon array of services; or you can contract for services at fixed prices. Two other options are project-based pricing and hourly consulting.

Of course, you need to be on Facebook. It costs nothing, unless you wish to pay for boosting your content. The main expense is in labor. Facebook pages need to be updated constantly. In many companies, it’s a full-time job.

Sites like Yelp and Foursquare that offer customer reviews are also helpful tools for directing customers to your business through their advertising options. Most (non-PPC) advertising is priced on a CPM basis – essentially the cost per thousand impressions. You will have to do a lot of number-crunching to determine if this option will net you a decent return on your investment.

Finally, email marketing can be the centerpiece of any effort to stay in touch with existing customers, while reaching out and finding new ones. You can use it to promote new items and offer special discounts to loyal customers or to simply keep your customers informed. Blast email programs are relatively inexpensive, but you will need to pay a staff member to keep on top of everything.

Now, once you’ve done a lot of thinking, planning, and budgeting, you can re-ask yourself the question at the top of this post: “How Much Should I Spend on My Business’ Online Presence?” With all of your newly acquired knowledge, however, you will still likely wind up with the same answer: “As much as necessary and as little as possible.” Like we said, in business, there are no easy answers.

How Important are Mobile-Friendly Websites?

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Here’s the quick answer: VERY. By 2017, it is estimated that there will be 150 million mobile websites – that’s 149 million more than there were in 2007. With 4 billion mobile phones being used, world-wide, it won’t be long before many people’s first internet experience will be through a mobile device. If your business doesn’t maintain a mobile-friendly website, you are missing the opportunity to attract customers over their mobile phones.

Google has already recognized this shift when it recently rolled out of a major algorithm update that is designed to allow mobile-friendly websites to appear higher in mobile searches, while non-mobile sites will experience lower rankings. So if you want your site to rank high in Google, it is now imperative that it is optimized for mobile.

However, SEO ranking is not the only reason to have a mobile-friendly site. The fact is, that sometime in 2014, mobile usage overtook desktop usage for the first time, ever. If your business’ site is not mobile-friendly, you’re running the risk of losing over 50 percent of your visitors. So if you want to keep the traffic flowing, it pays to make the move to mobile.

Here’s another reason. Optimizing a website for mobile has been proven to boost engagement by almost twice the average traffic per user. Since the vast majority of people tend to move between devices when completing a task, offering them an engaging mobile experience increases the likelihood that they will re-visit your website on a desktop.

Also, research indicates that consumers are more likely to do business with an online retailer if it has a mobile-optimized site. And finally, many smart phone users employ GPS when they’re on the go. A mobile-friendly site that allows consumers to find nearby services and businesses while still in their cars can increase walk-in traffic substantially. Not only that, the use of bar codes on a mobile-friendly site can be used for instant discounts by those same walk-in customers.

To sum up: SEO, traffic, engagement, and sales are four good reasons why your website should be optimized for mobile as soon as possible. And remember, your competition is already making the move. If you don’t want to be left behind in this next technology wave, you need to make the transition, now.

The New SEO Rules of Google

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SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of making a website rank as high as possible on a search engine, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing. SEO is considered to be one of the most important elements of any digital marketing strategy because most contemporary consumers use a search engine in order to find goods and services over the web, and the higher a website ranks, i.e., the closer it is to the top of the first page that a person sees, the greater its chances are of attracting traffic.

And Google, in particular, has been the 800 pound gorilla in the room that has set the rules that companies must follow, in order for their websites to rank as high as they can.

But over the years, Google’s rules keep changing, so business owners need to keep abreast of the constantly shifting SEO landscape in order to know how to drive as much traffic as possible from search engines. This year, new rules give businesses an opportunity to fine-tune and re-evaluate their SEO efforts, or risk losing organic traffic, or even having their websites removed from search engine results, altogether, for not abiding by Google’s new guidelines.

Google’s biggest adjustment this year is its announcement that it will rank a site differently if it isn’t “mobile-friendly.” The rate of use of mobile devices has grown tremendously over the past few years. More and more people are now browsing websites on mobile devices, which means they need to have an experience that can be loaded clearly on them. This means that a business must either create a whole new mobile site with a separate domain for mobile users; or utilize “dynamic serving,” which is a technique that detects what device a site visitor is using and then redirects them at the server level; or employ “responsive design,” which determines the resolution of the screen on which a page is being viewed using media queries, then adjusts the size and layout of the page appropriately.

Long-form content will continue to matter strongly in 2015. The length of a post really does help when it comes to how well a website ranks. Most important, however, is that content be helpful, educational and/or entertaining, and provide verifiable value to users.

This year, content will need to be shared as much as possible on social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, in order to increase the odds of getting natural links due to more exposure. A balanced, back-link profile will still be essential, as well; relevant, fresh, and authoritative links always help move a business up in search engine rankings. Also, according to Google, site speed will play a larger role, this year, in mobile and desktop rankings.

It’s not always easy to keep up with the changes in SEO best practices, but if a business wants to strengthen its brand in 2015, it would be wise to understand and adhere to Google’s newest rules.

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Is e-commerce Right for my Business?

seo-618434__180According to the U.S. Census Bureau, retail e-commerce sales for 2014 were estimated at $304.9 billion, an increase of 15.4 percent over the previous year. They accounted for 6.5 percent of all total retail sales, up from 5.8 percent in 2013.

By anyone’s reckoning, that’s a lot of money, so it’s not unusual that many businesses are wondering whether e-commerce is the right way for them to go in order to increase their sales and beat the competition, especially since e-commerce – the sale of products and services over the internet – is the fastest growing segment of the American economy.

The beauty of e-commerce is that it allows even the smallest business to reach a national, or even a global, audience with its product or service at a minimal cost. Your customers can have access to information about your company 24/7, 365 days a year, and can buy from you at any time, day or night.

But before you consider whether or not you are primed and ready to become the next Amazon.com, you need to consider what it takes to become an e-commerce retailer.

First, you need to decide if you have the right type of product for e-commerce. The truth is that not everything can be readily sold over the internet, and many of the products that can and do, already are being offered by huge companies that essentially have cornered the market, making it difficult for a newcomer to gain any traction.

Second, if you do decide that your product is a good candidate for online selling, and that there is a potentially lucrative market out there for it, are you ready to make the effort into finding your customers? Because in order to do that, you’re going to have to create a winning website that can convince buyers that you are the go-to company for what they want or need.

Your online store will also need to be hosted and supported, either by yourself or by one of the growing number of e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify or Volusion. You also need to make sure that you continue to keep your website current with fresh content – your site ranking depends on it.

Then, you’re going to have to create a marketing strategy that maximizes your ability to reach your customers in the most cost-efficient way possible. That can include any or all of the following: SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay Per Click), social media, email, or video marketing.

You’re also going to have to figure out all of your logistics and fulfillment costs to see if they are less than your expected profits. Remember, shipping your product is not going to be free.

E-commerce can be an excellent choice for your business but you’ve got to take the time to learn how to do it properly. And that includes understanding not only its advantages but all of its potential pitfalls. So before you decide to launch into the world of online commerce, it makes sense to talk to an expert in the field. There are no shortcuts to success, but there are many roads that can take you there.

Does My Business Need an Internet Marketing Platform?

The obvious answer to this question is, “Yes, your business definitely needs an internet marketing platform.” Today, more than ever, every business needs to be found everywhere consumers are looking. And they are increasingly looking online. In fact, all the traditional advertising mediums – the phone book, the Yellow Pages, even newspapers, radio and television – are rapidly being eclipsed by the internet and the countless computers, tablets and smart phones that now allow consumers to find and directly connect with businesses like yours.

So the real question that you need to address is, “What kind of internet marketing platform makes the most sense for your business at a price you can afford?” But first, some explanations and definitions – What do we mean by “internet marketing platform,” anyway?

Well, an internet marketing platform is any tactic, method, or approach that uses the internet in order to connect your business with its potential, as well as its actual clients or customers. First and foremost, your business’s website is a key internet marketing platform. How you choose to optimize its effectiveness, however, depends on your overall marketing strategy.

For example, you can attempt to boost it rankings over time with well-designed SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and valuable, high quality content, or you can employ PPC (Pay Per Click) to quickly get your URL in front of web searchers. You can also choose to gauge the results of this particular platform by measuring things like bounce and conversion rates – how many eyeballs looked at your site and how many searchers performed some action in your favor, after looking.

Social media marketing makes use of the social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Tumblr, Instragarm and Pinterest. These various internet platforms have exploded in popularity over the past several years, offering an array of new options that allow businesses to produce engaging content in a variety of media forms. You merely need to choose which platform(s) will help you to best reach your target audience. And the added benefit of these platforms is that they are basically free to exploit.

Email marketing is an internet marketing platform, as well. It allows you to promote new products or services to your database of current customers, keeping them informed of your company’s news, while soliciting feedback from them. Your emails can include e-newsletters, pictures and graphics, and even video content. Studies have shown that email marketing garners an excellent return on investment (ROI) – somewhere around $38 for every dollar spent.

For many businesses – perhaps yours – it will be necessary to employ an internet marketing company to help you develop and set realistic, well-thought-out, and affordable internet marketing goals and then help you determine the best mix of platforms that will help you achieve them. The internet is a competitive realm and unless you have the right type of internet marketing, you risk losing customers to more net-savvy companies.

What are the Differences Between PPC and SEO?

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Current marketing research makes it clear that in order for a contemporary business to flourish, it must have a strong web presence in the most commonly used search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. Under the general heading of Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are two tools that businesses use in their internet marketing campaigns in order to get their brands in front of their target audiences.

Research also shows that, in many cases, the ultimate success of an online business will often depend on the amount of “traffic” it can generate for its web pages utilizing either, or both, of these two modern marketing methods. However, there are several differences between PPC and SEO, and under certain circumstances, one approach may be preferable to the other.

First, let’s look at SEO. SEO is considered an “organic” method of driving web traffic because it is free, and depends on its success by means of its intrinsic value. SEO employs a number of sophisticated techniques whose aim is to propel a website to the highest place possible on the first page of the major search engines, where it will be seen by the greatest number of people. It does this by providing a website that is “optimized” for search engines.

An optimized web site has the most accurate and well-written content, the most “keywords” that people enter when they are searching for something online, and the widest variety of links to other sites. For example, Google, which is the world’s foremost search engine with over 400 million searches per day, employs a complex algorithm that ranks websites according to their level of relevant and accurate information, and how constantly they provide their searchers with continuing value.

SEO is most beneficial for an online business that wants consistent results, a reputation for authority, and benefits that are more affordable in the long run. Ranking high in search engines takes a long time, but most marketing experts agree that the results are worth the cost and effort.

PPC campaigns are more like traditional advertisements because they are paid listings. PPC ads are the ones you see on a search engine that are above or to the right of the organic SEO rankings. They are in the “Sponsored Ads” or “Sponsored Links” section on a results page. The closer they are to the first page of a search engine, the more they cost. Popular PPC systems include Google AdWords, Yahoo Advertising, and Facebook’s advertising platform. The good news for advertisers is that they only have to pay for their ads each time one is “clicked on” and not every time they are merely viewed.

PPC is more useful for short sales cycles, limited time promotions, or new websites that need to get immediate exposure. A business can get a first page listing almost immediately – if it is paid for. On the other hand, PPC campaigns disappear as soon as a business stops paying for them, which means their existence is usually much more temporary than an SEO listing. However, if there is an adequate budget, and sales need to be made quickly, a PPC ad can be very effective.

Research shows that PPC ads have a slight edge in conversion rates (the percentage of users who buy a product or otherwise do something else based upon their searches) over SEO listings, because the people who click on them are conducting more specific searches and, thus, are more likely to act. PPC ads are also appropriate when a website isn’t particularly designed for SEO.

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