Smart Spots

For years, one of the premier names in SEO services was known as SEOmoz. Today? Just call ‘em Moz. 

This company had a raft of reasons for the rebranding – everything from the hard pronunciation of “SEO” to the launch of Moz Analytics for single-platform inbound services – but their rationale basically came down to this: everything we thought we knew about inbound is evolving. 

The first adopters of Facebook were teens and college students. Today, adults comprise the biggest audience, and marketers embrace social media with enthusiasm.

If you're trying to stay competitive these days and have come to the realization that your online presence isn't...well, present. Part of the reason could be the sweeping changes that have come about in the world of online search.  Specifically, gradual changes Google has been implementing a little at a time toward some major announcements throughout 2013.  

If the first image that comes to mind when you hear “Internet user” is someone sitting at a desk, moving a mouse around and staring at a 17-inch monitor, then your imagination is due for a reboot. Today’s users – from casual shoppers to healthcare patients – are just as likely to be tapping as they are clicking.

In recent years, search engine optimization companies claiming genius qualities exponentially grew, leaving many business owners questioning how to select among the best SEO companies.

If you’ve built a website for your business, invested in a top-notch web design agency, created strong calls to action and provided interesting content, but you’re not getting a positive return on your investment because prospective customers just aren’t visiting your site, you’re not alone.  

No matter how large the company or whether its B2C or B2B, at its foundation every business is a local business. This is especially true in areas like healthcare services, where people come for hands-on help.

The “stay tuned” and “coming soon” messages began hitting the Internet marketing sites in spring 2013 – a new generation of Google’s spam-stalking Penguin algorithm was about to be introduced, and with it some other updates to the search engine giant that can take your marketing forward and help you work better with your SEO agency with your keyword ranking efforts.

The take-away from all the hype was that the new iterations would have an impact on search engine optimization (SEO) by further rewarding high-quality sites and downgrading those that engage in less-than-ethical tactics.

When it comes to getting found online – by Google, Bing and the people who use them – you have, essentially, one shot. If your site isn’t up there on page 1 for all to see, it’s a given that nobody’s going to look on page 2 or beyond.

You’ve heard about SEO and keyword ranking – and their importance to your overall marketing strategy – but if you’re still on the fence about inbound marketing, it may be because of a still- nagging question: how long until I see ROI? 

Everyone who tells you something like, “The Internet changed today’s marketing” got it wrong if they’re putting it in the past-tense. The truth is, “Today’s marketing is still changing and will continue changing.”

As technology evolves and the digital revolution continues its hold on consumers, it’s up to the best SEO companies to work side by side with their clients to navigate these uncertain but exciting waters.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a tool that has revolutionized on-line marketing and sales for the last decade, increasing the growth of companies and corporate entities through e-commerce, engaging on-line communities in the accessibility of viable markets for products and services.

Probably one of the first outside professionals your business contracted with was an accountant or tax professional. Most executives aren’t familiar with the intricacies of the Internal Revenue Code, and if you did invest the time to learn the thousands of pages of rules that might impact your business, they’d inevitably change.  

There seems to be a lot of confusion from business owners, both large and small, about search engines. There is a good reason for this. Search engines are complicated! Business owners and entrepreneurs already have enough on their plates just trying to run their own business. Local search engine optimization (SEO) is a particular area that should not be ignored.

How does your website measure up in the online search results? The answer lies in the keywords you rank for, the ones that bring your content in front of people when they search using those words. It’s part of the time-consuming yet highly-rewarding process called keyword ranking.

The goal is to rank at the lowest number possible for keywords you’re targeting, keywords that are valuable to your business. The ranking number equals your position in the lineup of links delivered by search engines when people search for something on the Internet.  Keywords ranking 1 through 10 are delivered on the first page and this is the best case scenario.

Here’s a comprehensive look at the process.

The rationale

Why would you spend time and money ranking for keywords, anyway? Because Google and other search engines generate more traffic to your website and will directly affect your lead generation and conversion results. This should be compelling enough even for beginners to try to rank for the search engines. Research has already shown that about half of searchers click on a result on the first page. If your site appears on the top pages, then users are likely to find you easily. If you don’t rank, you’re either making it hard for potential customers to find you online or making it easy for competitors to outrank you.

The keywords

Of course keywords are the raw materials of keyword ranking. Be sure you’re aiming for the right keywords. More often than not, people are more interested in guessing at what keywords their target audience use. Many more heavily depend on free keyword suggestion tools, which are often too limited to lead to meaningful results. You can try free tools such as Google’s Keyword Tool but don’t forget that these might only scratch the surface. Since there’s no way for you to measure how relevant these general keywords are, relying on them won’t give you a competitive edge.

Many premium keyword research tools can be tested for free within 30 days. See them in action and check how they compare with each other. Whatever tool you choose, make sure to list down relevant keywords based on accurate, current and private data. It helps to make an additional list of keywords that are closely similar to your set of primary keywords.

If you want to go beyond the basics, you can try keyword ranking for long-tail keywords. These are actually phrases, a collection of words that are more precise, less common and less competitive. They’re more targeted and are likely to reveal what searchers are actually looking for. Master long-tail keywords so you can better serve searchers and potential customers with good content tailored to their searches.

The plan

Your keywords are only as good as your keyword ranking plan. Don’t rush your initial keyword research without laying the groundwork first. Check if you have a strong website or landing page, one that attracts visitors or delivers a compelling call-to-action to your target audience. Also, make sure your plan aligns with your business model. Check again if all your keywords are relevant to your website. If you’re driving the wrong traffic to your website, then there’s no real return on your keyword ranking efforts.

Once you’re sure that you have the right mix of keywords, it’s time to conceptualize the content that will hopefully lead to the rank for your target keywords. Here’s a variety of content you can create:

• an article or blog post

• a press release

• a product page

• a landing page

• an index or directory of links

• an infographic

• a newsletter

• a video

You can start with any of these and publish them within the day.  Remember, it is an ongoing process and will require patience and regular attention.  How much time it takes depends on a number of variables; the strength of your competition, how well your keywords lend themselves to the creation of good content and how quickly you can generate a large volume of it. Don't worry, the rewards are worth the effort and will come in time if you stay committed to the process.

Thinking of a Pay-Per-Click campaign to buy keyword ranking? Download our free eBook to find out what you should know before you do.

Nowadays, technology has already spread throughout every aspect of our lives. To stay ahead of your competition, you are forced to utilize the best of the best strategies and a lot of meticulous planning. There are a wide variety of internet marketing strategies that were developed with an aim to help small business stay on the track of progress. One of the best and most useful being search engine optimization (SEO); with its help you can directly connect to your customers all over the globe.

Back in the day – maybe five or ten years ago – SEO mainly consisted of loading a website full of keywords and hoping they stuck with the Google search engine.

But just as you can’t get along with just a website today, you can’t depend only on a search engine to get SEO results. “A lot of website owners see search engine optimization as the answer to their search ranking woes, when things are considerably more complex,” notes Paul Boag in Smashing Magazine.

SEO services? Isn’t that just thinking up a couple of keywords and sprinkling them in some website pages?

Not if you’re serious about attracting visitors to your website, nurturing them into qualified leads, and finally converting the best leads into customers. To compete in today’s lively, ever-evolving inbound marketing environment, you need the nimble and flexible services that an experienced SEO consultant can deliver.

Consultation and Assessment

According to the inbound marketing gurus at HubSpot, as of 2010, websites with blogs netted 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages than non-blogging sites.

What would you rather see – engaging, informative facts or advice about something of interest to you, or a sales pitch from a company you never heard of?

Multiply your likely answer by the vast millions of web users, and you can see why blogging for business needs to be a vital part of your overall digital marketing strategy.

Technology hasn’t just changed the way B2B and B2C business gets conducted – it’s changed the way people look at marketing in general.

Someone out there is looking for you – how easy are you to find?

The typical web user begins and ends his search with the first page of Google results (and, to a much lesser extent, the second page).  And so the keyword ranking obsession begins.

Updated 2015: Part of any well thought out marketing strategy includes a website. A site on its own, however, is not enough. You must also understand how to increase web traffic to your site so that your message is seen by your target audience.

It goes without saying that marketing is an investment in the growth of your business. Some investments, such as a conference sponsorship or a radio advertisement, are by nature short-term.  You gain brand recognition through the exposure and possibly sales in the short-term, but most of the impact is concentrated in the moment.

In a perfect world, none of us would have to cold call, attend networking events, work a booth at trade show - none of that - our ideal customers would simply email or call us when they are ready to buy, right? Is this utopia even possible? Yes! Well, at least to some extent. (Sorry - you'll probably still have to attend networking events.)

With all of the new tools, software and social media channels that seem to be appearing almost daily, business owners have the ability to do their own marketing more effectively than ever. More than once I have heard business owners say, "I don't need to spend my cash having an agency do social media for me...all I need to do is spend a little time and I can do it myself."

Have you noticed?  LinkedIn has made a few changes to the design of their company pages. It's important for your page to be set up to optimize its effect on visitors and help you get more customers.