Fanatically Digital

Author: Justin

  • Service Area Pages

    Service Area Pages

    How Location Pages Can Boost Your Local SEO

    Service area landing pages are a critical–if sometimes overlooked–tool used in local SEO.

    Whether you call them location pages, town pages, areas served pages, or service area pages, they’re all essentially the same.

    In this article, we’ll take a look at how service area pages fit within your SEO strategy before going over best practices. 

     (And by the way, we’ll assume that readers will have a basic grasp of local SEO. But if you need a primer, check out our local SEO guide here).

    Service Area Pages & Your SEO Strategy

    What’s the point of creating service area pages? Why do we need them? 

    In short, it allows us to effectively target a larger, more diverse set of locally focused keywords. For example…

    Let’s say you own a moving company in the heart of Salt Lake City.  Most of your target keywords are going to include queries like moving companies, movers near me, movers in salt lake, etc. 

    These local-focused search queries will bring up the Local Pack on the results page. If you have a Google Business Profile (and you absolutely should!), many of your website clicks will come through these local pack results.

    Limits of Google Business Profile 

    But here’s the issue: 

    Local Pack results lean heavily on proximity. Meaning closer businesses will tend to rank higher than businesses far away. 

    Makes sense. 

    However, consider the consequences for our moving company example. Chances are, a Salt Lake City moving company wants to serve movers throughout the ENTIRE Salt Lake metro area. Not just those within a few-mile radius of their office.

    Salt Lake Local Map

    This is the problem: Your company wants to serve this entire map, BUT your Google Business Profile listing might only show up for someone searching from point A–next to your office in the heart of the city. And you probably won’t show up for someone searching from points B and C.

    This puts a huge cap on the effectiveness of your Google Business Profile listings and severely limits the reach of your local SEO and digital marketing.

    So now what?

    Well, in order to rank for relevant search queries at points B and C, we need to tell Google that your business serves these areas as well.

    And this is where service area pages come in.

    Expanding Organic Reach

    In order to reach users searching for moving companies out in Draper and Park City–points B and C–we’ll need to create pages that target geo-modified queries such as moving companies draper ut. 

    This allows us to target both (1) users searching for geo-modified queries like moving companies draper ut and (2) users searching for generic queries like moving companies from Draper. Without a service area page, we likely would not have ranked for either of those queries.

    Service area pages without a physical location will typically show up in the organic results (as in the image above) instead of the local pack. 

    Within our SEO strategy, service area pages generally target more specific geo-modified queries that are lower in search volume but also less competitive and, therefore, easier to rank for. 

    How to Build Service Area Pages

    Now that we know how these pages fit within our SEO strategy, it’s time to get down to the nitty-gritty. How do we best design and write service area pages for SEO?

    Step 1: Identify your locations. If your business has multiple brick-and-mortar locations, this part is easy. Create a page for each location. 

    On the other hand, if you have a single location or run a service-based business such as a handyman, plumber, moving company, construction, home improvement, etc., you’ll create a page for each town you want to do business in. 

    Step 2: Write your pages. They should provide a relatively comprehensive overview of the services you provide. Best practices suggest at least 300 words split into manageable paragraphs with informative header tags.

    Don’t be afraid to use (but not overuse) industry jargon. Nowadays, Google expects to see more than the keywords you’re trying to rank for. They want to see ‘secondary’ keywords that are related to your primary keywords.

    For example, if we want our moving company to rank for movers draper ut, we need to include secondary keywords such as household movers, international relocation, furniture hauling, full-service moving, etc. 

    Check out some of the top pages that rank for your target keywords and see what kind of language they incorporate.

    Step 3: Optimize your pages. Ensure your keywords appear in your URL, title, header, and meta descriptions. For example…

    LocationDraper, UTPark City, UT
    URLexample.com/areas-served/draper-ut-movers/example.com/areas-served/park-city-ut-movers/
    TitleMovers Draper, UT | My Moving CompanyMovers Park City, UT | My Moving Company
    H1Draper Moving CompanyPark City Moving Company
    Meta descriptionsMy Moving Company’s team of Draper movers provides unbeatable relocation services…My Moving Company’s team of Park City movers provides unbeatable relocation services…

    Step 4: Place a prominent call-to-action. There should be no question about how to engage your services. Whether it’s a big colorful CALL NOW button, a contact form, or directly scheduling service, clear calls-to-action will ensure higher conversion rates and more business.

    Step 5: Implement linking schemes. Without links pointing to your page, Google’s crawlers have no way of finding them. Link to your location pages from a parent /areas-served/ page, from the main navigation menu, or in natural locations in page copy throughout your site.

    Step 6: Add schema markup. This part is a bit more technical. If you have a dev team for your website, this is something they can help with.

    Schema markup is little bits of code that tell search engines exactly what your page is about. For example, if you have your office address on your location page or in your website footer, you can add markup that explicitly tells Google that this is your business address.

    This helps Google to make better sense of your page as well as provide information for Rich Results; additional information on the results page.

    Local SEO is increasingly becoming an essential part of any digital marketer’s toolbox, and building a reliable location page setup is a key part of that. Leveraging local search features can help businesses reach potential customers, boosting their visibility and benefitting both the customer and the business itself.

    Here is a bit about the concerns of duplicate content when building areas served pages.

    With this in mind, it’s important to take time crafting quality location pages for maximum impact – something that will benefit you for years to come!

  • SEO for Dentists

    SEO for Dentists

    A Complete SEO Guide for Dental Practices

    As a dental care provider, your primary goal is to provide your patients with exceptional service. Gone are the days when you could rely on word of mouth advertising as enough to build your practice. Today, it is more important than ever to build online visibility into your practice. Doing so can create impressive outcomes for any dentist. At the heart of this is the implementation of search engine optimization (SEO) for dentists. 

    Local SEO Overview 

    Why does SEO matter? Even if your current patient tells their friends about your services, chances are good that the individual will still head online to learn more about your company. A Google search could reveal fantastic information and encourage the individual to set up an appointment. 

    Local SEO is also critically important when it comes to helping people find your location. A person with a dental need may search for a provider within their local area that can help them. If your dental practice isn’t easy to find online, the prospective patient has no idea that you are available to them. Local SEO ensures your practice is visible when someone needs you.

    Popular SEO Tools

    SEO for dentists can be an overwhelming process, and whenever possible, it should be something done by professionals who can enhance your ROI. However, there are numerous SEO tools available today to help ensure your efforts get the most attention. Here are a few of them.

    • Analytics, such as those from Google, provide insight into who is visiting your website, how they are getting there, and how your site compares to your competitors. It allows for the adjustment of strategies to enhance outcomes.
    • Google Search Console is an excellent tool to help you to learn how well you rank for various terms and phrases people put into the search engines. It helps to monitor and then debug your website and then optimize the site without any need to learn how to code to improve visibility.
    • Moz Pro is a type of all-in-one tool that can help to improve search ranking for your company. It can help you to find SEO opportunities on your site, build reports, and track your growth over time. 
    • SEMrush provides a dashboard that provides insight into how well your domain is working as a whole. SEO Toolkit is one component of this tool that can help you with building links, selecting keywords, and monitoring competitors. 

    Keyword Research and On-page Optimization

    Keywords are a big part of SEO for dentists, but often not taken seriously enough in the strategy building phase. However, you need to know the following:

    • What phrases people use to find services you offer
    • How to include local components into your site to attract a more local audience
    • What amount of competition is present for any phrase you are using
    • How to improve beyond your competitors for key phrases

    Much of this comes down to on-page optimization or the process of understanding your target keywords and then utilizing them properly on your website to improve ranking.

    Site Health and Technical SEO

    While many factors impact the overall success of a website, the overall site health and technical aspects of it can play a big role in that process as well. If you do not have a dedicated staff or a professional available to handle your technical SEO – like the use of metadata, coding, and other behind-the-scenes components, you may be missing out on key opportunities to improve your strategy.

    If a website does not load properly, prospective patients go to another service that does. If the graphics do not display properly or the process of booking an appointment is complex or confusing, people simply will not wait to figure it out. Instead, they just move on. This goes beyond just setting up your website. Ongoing oversight remains critical during this process. 

    Google Business Profile and NAP Citations 

    Google Business Profile is one of the best tools for professionals like dentists. It is a free tool that Google provides. You will list information about your practice, hours, location, services, and any other data that’s valuable to your patients. Then, when someone Googles a dentist in your area fitting those criteria, your website shows up in the Three Pack – the three listings that appear on a search engine results page. This also makes it incredibly easy for consumers to book an appointment or call you without even going to your website.

    Also important are NAP citations. Across the internet, your business’s name, address, phone number, and other data are present. However, if there is data on one site that isn’t accurate or has a mistake in it, that could impact the patient who is looking for service. By monitoring and improving NAP citations, it’s possible to boost your SEO ranking. 

    Link Building and Content Strategy 

    Yet another component of building your practice’s online presence is using link building and content strategy. Google values links to your website on other websites. It shows that your website is valuable and respected. That gives you a boost in your search engine results if you are being linked to from high-quality and highly valuable websites. Creating a link building strategy can empower this process.

    Content strategy is the creation of content for:

    • Your website
    • Blog
    • Social media
    • Email
    • Other outreach tools

    The goal here is to create content that includes keywords and your overall SEO strategy, but also that is valuable. It is content that people will learn from, respect, and use to make their decision on whether or not to call you for help. Content also helps create engagement for your patients on social media. They can see your business, learn about it, learn from it, and then remember it when they have a need.

    SEO for dentists is a critical component of growing a practice. It does not have to be a challenge when done well, but it should be an ongoing effort. With the help of professionals, this could become one of the best ways to grow your practice over time.

  • Introducing Twitter’s Search Keyword Ads

    We are charging into the new year and officially have one month under our belt! With the new year comes new changes to advertising platforms, and Twitter is no different. 

    On January 24th, Twitter announced its rollout of Search Keywords advertising. Today we are going to go over what has led up to this announcement, what this new ad type looks like, and what these changes might mean for advertisers and Twitter alike. 

    TWITTER’S LOSS OF ADVERTISERS

    After a months-long battle of will-he-won’t-he, Elon Musk officially acquired Twitter on October 27th, 2022.

    According to Forbes, the November after Musk purchased Twitter, their ad spend was down 46% compared to the previous November. And based on Media Matters For America reports, 50 out of the top 100 advertisers pulled their Twitter advertising all together. 

    Though Twitter was experiencing a slow decrease in advertising spend in the months leading up to Musks acquisition, November saw its biggest plunge. September down 5%, October down 12% and November down 46% year over year. Many people point to Musk’s handling of the account verification controversies and spreading of false information on the platform as reasons why many companies may have pulled their spend for Twitter. 

    TWITTER’S NEW AD TYPE

    With the loss in ad spend over the past few months, it is safe to assume that Musk and his team are searching for ways to bring advertisers back to their platform. 

    Their solution: introduce Search Keyword advertising

    In the past, Twitter has offered a number of ad types including promoted tweets that show in users’ timelines based on if Twitter thinks it is relevant to that user, or follower ads, which target users who already follow the company. However, none of these ad types have allowed businesses to have control over who they think is relevant based on keywords.

    Twitter’s rollout of search keyword advertising is a new opportunity for businesses looking to expand their targeted reach on the platform. It allows businesses to target relevant users based on search terms, so they are only reaching out to potential customers with an interest in their product or services.

    Advertisers will be able to add keywords that they find relevant to their business or exclude keywords that they want to avoid. Twitter will then serve these ads based on keywords in users’ search queries, recent Tweets, and Tweets they have engaged with. 

    Twitter ads that use keywords can appear in three places: users’ home timelines, tweet detail pages, and search results and profiles. 

    Advertisers have the choice to use a few highly specific keywords or many general keywords. Deciding which approach to use is based on your goals. If you are looking to have a high engagement rate, using highly specific keywords is the best approach. On the other hand, if your goal is to reach more people and have a higher search volume, adding many general keywords is the direction to go. 

    This new type of targeted marketing approach can significantly increase campaign engagement and optimize the Return on Investment (ROI). 

    WHERE WILL THESE TWITTER CHANGES TAKE US

    Historically Twitter has never been the most popular advertising platform. In fact, according to Instapage, only about 46% of advertisers were using the platform back in 2022 compared to 87% of advertisers that were on Facebook. Will the changes to twitter’s advertising platform have an effect on these numbers?

    It will be interesting to see how well these keyword ads perform and if they have a higher ROI, engagement rate, and conversion rate than Twitter ads have historically had. Now that there is more control over who is seeing their ads, will these changes convince advertisers to come back to the platform or even begin advertising on Twitter altogether? 

  • A Beginners Guide to Local SEO

    A Beginners Guide to Local SEO

    Getting Started with Local SEO

    If you’re running a small business, you know that standing out in the crowded online space can be an uphill battle. But there is hope – local SEO! 

    Taking advantage of location-based search engine optimization tactics can give your business the edge over the competition and draw more attention to your website and social media profiles. 

    With a few smart moves and a commitment to making sure your business pops up in local searches, you could find yourself reaping the rewards.

    Let’s dive in and discuss how local SEO can help put your business on the map!

    Local SEO vs. National SEO

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is a widely used digital strategy to boost marketing and visibility. Looking at it more closely, we can draw a distinction between two strategic approaches: local SEO and national SEO. 

    Local SEO is concerned with bringing in local customers and gaining traffic from people searching within your geographic area. It involves techniques such as optimizing Google Business Profile (Google My Business) listings, focusing on local keywords, and utilizing online directories tailored to your particular locality or region. 

    On the other hand, national SEO focuses on reaching broader audiences with expansive keyword searches for larger networks that aren’t limited by geography. 

    In both scenarios, the goal is achieving higher rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs), driving organic traffic to your website and increasing conversions – only at different scales.

    Who Should Utilize Local SEO?

    Local businesses of any size should absolutely consider utilizing local SEO in order to maximize their potential for success. 

    Companies with bricks-and-mortar locations, like grocery stores and shops, can benefit from local SEO as it enables potential customers to find an establishment more easily based on its geographic location – a great boon if you’re hoping to draw in foot traffic! 

    Local service providers such as plumbers, electricians, lawn care specialists and more may also benefit too; nearly everyone has found themselves in the desperate situation of Googling a service provider with haste! 

    Components of Local SEO

    Let’s take a look at some of the tactics and tools used specifically in local SEO.

    Service Area Pages

    Service area pages are an integral part of any local SEO strategy. They allow local businesses to reach their target markets effectively by pinpointing exactly what they offer to a certain geographic region. 

    With service area pages, local businesses are able to tailor their products or services to areas within a city, county, state or country. 

    Additionally, service area pages help with search engine optimization as information from the page can be picked up by search engines and used to serve up more accurate results for people looking for services in their area.

    At the end of the day, service area pages make it easier for local businesses to promote themselves and reach their customers – making them an invaluable tool for any business hoping to succeed locally!

    Check out our complete guide to service area pages here!

    Google Business Profile

    Google Business Profiles are like the yellow pages of the internet world. A comprehensive list of all businesses, including name, address, associated keyword tags, contact information, and basic info about the services offered. 

    It’s an invaluable resource for consumers and a strategic tool for savvy business owners looking to maximize their online presence. 

    Google Business Profile is still one of the most reliable ways to boost local SEO strategy – a surefire way to stay one step ahead of the competition in terms of visibility and web traffic.

    Check out our Google Business Profile here!

    Citations & Link Building

    Integrating citations and link building into a local SEO strategy can seem intimidating at first, but with a bit of know-how, it can do wonders for your search engine ranking. 

    Citations, or NAP (name, address, phone number) listings, are simply listings of your business profile on local directory sites such as yellowpages, Yelp and the likes – think of them as like a name in the phone book! 

    Link building is the practice of obtaining links from authoritative websites which point back to yours, which is a key step to improve rankings. 

    Both strategies should play an important part in any local SEO efforts and when combined can make for some awesome results. So don’t be scared – just dive right in and see what you can achieve!

    Check out our guide to citation building here!

    Let’s Get Started!

    Local SEO can feel like a complicated jigsaw puzzle, with each piece having some connection to the overall picture. Taking the time to understand each piece of the puzzle and how it fits in is essential for building a successful SEO strategy. 

    Getting started isn’t hard—you just need an open mind and an eye for detail. With a little practice, you’ll be well on your way to dominating local SEO searches in no time!

  • B2B SEO: Content-Led Strategy

    B2B SEO: Content-Led Strategy

    Business-to-Business SEO Strategy

    B2B SEO is an important strategic marketing tool for companies looking to increase their visibility, gain website traffic, and create a strong presence online. 

    While the core components of SEO will remain the same regardless of your business objectives, your overall strategy and the specific tools you’ll lean on will vary depending on your industry.

    An eCommerce platform will have a very different SEO strategy compared to a B2B SaaS company.

    In this post, we’ll take a look at Business-to-Business (B2B) SEO strategies generally differ from B2C SEO strategies, how critical differences in the sales process produce these different strategies, and how B2B marketers can implement successful SEO programs focused on content and thought leadership.

    Cornerstones of B2B SEO

    Who’s Buying?

    Businesses typically aren’t making one-click purchases from their couch like many B2C buyers. The sales process is usually longer, higher stakes, and therefore, much more involved. 

    Typically, you’re selling to professionals who know their industry. More likely, you’re selling to a team of professionals. Or at the very least, someone who needs to justify their purchasing decision to company stakeholders.

    This means that your strategy will need to appeal to multiple decision-makers, each of whom might be looking to solve their problem in different ways.

    While this can be intimidating, it can be a good thing because it provides a ton of opportunity to leverage your content marketing.

    How so?

    Well, a big part of B2B SEO is “thought leadership.” And while it makes me cringe just to type that term out, it’s a critical part of any professionally-focused marketing strategy.

    Demonstrating your expertise on multiple fronts within your own industry is a big component of building trust within a sales prospect. Better still is demonstrating how you’re able to leverage that expertise (via your product or service) in order to address the pain points your potential clients/customers face.

    If they know the extent to which you understand the challenges they face within their industry, that gives the decision-makers more confidence to pull the trigger on your product or service.

    So, building trust within your prospect is important to closing sales. 

    No duh.

    The question is, how do we leverage this into an SEO strategy?

    Building Trust Through Content

    It starts and ends with good content.

    Whether in the form of blog articles, whitepapers, guest posts, eBooks, or podcasts, your content strategy should address customer pain points, provide not-so-obvious answers to common industry questions, and on the whole, work towards building the all-important trust factor.

    This type of content serves multiple purposes.

    As mentioned, it can build trust by playing an ongoing role in your sales process and can be provided or referenced by your sales team to nurture prospects.

    However, as a factor within your SEO strategy, it will play an important role in increasing visibility and acquiring high-value traffic from the SERPs.

    It’s important to remember users who land on your site aren’t likely to convert right away. That’s just the nature of B2B sales. 

    But by creating a memorable experience, you’re establishing an organic relationship between your brand and the potential customer. The next time the customer searches a relevant question and it’s your website that shows up, you’re furthering that relationship.

    If the user has another question and types it into Google, he or she might be actively looking for your site in the SERPs because you’ve established yourself as a reliable source in the field.

    That’s the essence of thought leadership.

    Now, how do we go about creating this type of content? How do we become “thought leaders.”

    Long Tail, Low Volume

    One mantra you’ll often see when comparing B2B and B2C is “B2C = high volume keywords and B2B = low volume keywords.”

    And to a certain extent, this is true. 

    Targeting potential buyers throughout the sales funnel will require answering specific questions and addressing pain points. This means the search queries will tend to be more obscure and specific. Hence, low volume.

    Because they will often be in the form of a question, the queries will be longer. Hence, long tail. 

    In order to optimally perform this strategy, marketers can leverage two different tools: keyword research and customer surveys.

    SEO tools such as MOZ and SEMRush are great for performing keyword research. They allow users to identify relevant search queries within their industry and develop content around them.

    Customer services are fantastic because they allow you to obtain direct feedback from your customers about issues they struggle with, major pain points in their industry, and ways to make their job easier.

    By speaking directly to them, you’ll gain first hand knowledge of how customers talk about your products and services, allowing you to further optimize your content.

    B2B SEO Success

    By implementing a content-focused SEO strategy, B2B companies have the opportunity to become thought leaders in their industry and establish themselves as a pillar of trust for their target markets.

    While it’s not the optimal strategy for every enterprise out there, the general focus of B2B SEOs should be establishing their business as an authority with the solutions your customers need.

    And if you’re looking for B2B SEO services, Fanatically Digital has the thought-leading, web-optimizing team for you!

  • 5 Steps to Clean Up Your Google Ads Campaigns

    5 Steps to Clean Up Your Google Ads Campaigns

    Why wait for spring cleaning when the start of the year is the perfect opportunity to freshen up your Google ad campaigns! With these quick 5 steps, we are going to cut the dead weight from your campaigns and breathe new life into our account. 

    Ideally, you are continuously optimizing your campaigns for peak performance, but sometimes non-crucial things slip through the cracks, especially during the holiday season. Now is the perfect chance to clean it up!

    Now let’s roll up our sleeves and jump in:

    Step 1: Remove Non Serving Keywords 

    Look at this! Google has done half the work for us. In your keywords under status, Google will label keywords as “not eligible. Low search volume” if there is little to no search history on google for this term. 

    Some people may have a hard time removing these keywords because they seem relevant to their ad group and they want to cover their bases. However, if google is telling you that no one searches for that term, then it is just cluttering up your account.

    Time to pause these keywords and focus on your keywords that are receiving impressions. By cutting out the unnecessary terms, you will have a better view of what is relevant.

    Step 2: Remove Keywords With Few Impressions

    Now, step two is similar to step one. We are still cleaning out those keywords, except this time, google hasn’t done the first part for us. 

    When looking at about a year’s worth of data, focus on the keyword impressions. If a keyword has received relatively few impressions or even zero impressions, it is time to pause them. No sense in having them distract from important keywords that you have running. 

    Why are these keywords not receiving impressions?

    They might not be receiving impressions simply because few people are searching for them. They also might not be receiving impressions because your other keywords are picking up the relevant search terms.

    Over the past few years, Google has changed its definition of “phrase” and “exact” match keywords to be much more broad. Thus one keyword is more likely to pick up broader search terms. 

    Now, the majority of the time these are keywords that can be removed all together without a second thought. However, if you have a relevant keyword that you know gets a substantial number of google searches, but you still aren’t receiving impressions, it might fall to your bidding as the issue. 

    In this case, If you are working with manual bidding you need to consider your budget and goal CPC. If you believe your keyword is just that strong, then increase your max CPC. Just remember to check back in with this keyword and how it is performing!

    Step 3: Cleaning Up Your Ads.

    Alright by step three I’m sure you are getting the hang of it! Don’t keep what you dont need. It is very easy for ads to build up in a single ad group and before you know it you have ten ads and only three ads are regularly being shown. 

    What have we learned so far? CUT THEM!

    You may have been trying out a new headline or body copy variation, but if they aren’t being shown, you don’t need to keep them around.

    Step 4: Review all Extensions and Assets.

    Extensions and assets are a pesky one that tends to fall between the cracks because people often focus on their ad group or ads pages as a whole. It’s time to make sure everything being shown is still relevant. Some things to check:

    • Do you have any seasonal language that is out of date for this time of year?
    • Are all products and services promoted still provided? 
    • Are the prices still accurate with current site pricing?
    • Has there been any update in product packaging or company branding that doesn’t match your image assets?

    Not only is it important to check in on your extensions to make sure they are relevant but giving yourself a refresher on what copy and assets are running in tandem with your ads is always a good practice. And we get it. This seems very simple, and it is! However, we have also noticed that extensions often are live for an extended period of time and get overlooked or forgotten when managing a large account. 

    Step 5: Clearing Out Ad Groups With No Impressions

    Now after all of that, removing keywords, removing ads, and removing extensions, lets jump into our final step. Take a look at your Ad groups as a whole and how many impressions they are receiving. 

    If you have an ad group that isn’t receiving any impressions, you may have already noticed this when cleaning out keywords and ads that have not received any impressions.

    Hypothetically this ad group might not even have any keywords or ads left in it. If this is the case it is almost time to let this campaign go, but first a few checks.

    • Make sure your ad group is set up correctly and make sure no information is missing. 
    • Verify your targeting is set up properly for your intended market.
    • And finally, is your bidding competitive?

    If all of this seems in check and you still weren’t receiving impressions, say goodbye to the unneeded ad group and hello to a cleaned-up account! 

    Summary

    Congratulations! With those 5 steps under your belt, you now have a clean account for the start of the new year. 

    We know people either love decluttering or hate decluttering but either way, the feeling of a clean account is always a good feeling. Now hopefully, you can find insights and important information faster because you can focus on the elements that actually matter.

  • Optimizing SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages

    Optimizing SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages

    SEO vs. PPC Landing Pages

    Search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising both play critical roles in any digital marketing strategy. One of the most important for both is the landing page.

    Although both SEO and PPC landing pages follow many of the same best practices such as mobile friendly designs and conversion rate optimization tactics, there are a few key differences that separate the best SEO landing pages from the best PPC landing pages.

    In this article, we’ll take a look at how the differences in goals and strategy of these two campaign types generate distinct best practices in PPC & SEO landing page design.

    What Makes a Strong Landing Page?

    Good landing pages serve a particular function that advances your business goals. Whether it’s making a direct purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting a quote, meeting, or demo, a good landing page should be judged based on its ability to acquire traffic and convert users.

    SEO & PPC Tactics

    To understand the differences between PPC landing pages and SEO landing pages, one must first get a better overview of how PPC and SEO vary in the first place.

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing a website to rank highly in engines like Google. You do this through the use of specific keywords, among other tactics. The goal is to expand the page’s organic reach – meaning the page ranks highly on Google.

    Pay-per-click (PPC) involves a situation where advertisers pay a fee every time someone clicks on their ad. On a search engine like Google, PPC ads typically appear alongside the organic results. The benefit here is that you don’t have to wait for your page to rank highly for your desired keywords naturally. So long as you’ve created the right type of compelling, relevant ad, you’re targeting the right audience, and you’re competitive in terms of how much you’re willing to pay for each click, you can quickly “buy your way” to the top.

    While the overall look of both landing page types will be similar, the steps that you use to optimize them will vary.

    SEO Landing Pages

    SEO landing pages have a difficult job to do because they have not just one but two primary functions: user acquisition and user conversion. 

    Before we worry about converting users, we have to make sure they can find us to begin with. 

    Writing for Robots

    While the search engine algorithms are in constant flux, they generally prefer pages with longer content. More text provides the robots with more material that they can use to discern what the page is about. With a more complete understanding of the page’s content, they’re better able to decide which users and search queries will find the page most useful. 

    Therefore, a big part of ranking on Google is demonstrating expertise on your given topic. They want to see websites approach their topic from different angles.

    For example…

    …let’s say you’re a law firm looking to rank for “car accident lawyers”. Google wants to see that your company knows what it’s talking about when it comes to traffic, insurance, and personal injury law. 

    As a result, you’ll often see landing pages for car accident attorneys featuring a wide range of content. They often contain instructions about what to do after an accident, facts about vehicle collisions, comparisons between different types of accidents, penalties for certain infractions, and on and on. 

    This content demonstrates a sufficient level of relevant knowledge on the given topic, and therefore, is worthy of ranking.

    Now, are most users really going to find all of this information useful in their search for attorneys? 

    Probably not. 

    While some may find it useful, writing that much content takes valuable time and effort and could be better spent elsewhere. But it’s important for SEO, i.e. user acquisition.

    In other words, it’s written for robots. Not humans. 

    Consequently, SEO landing pages tend to have a lot more “fluff.” But in the end, that’s what makes a good SEO landing page. They balance writing for robots and writing for humans.

    PPC Landing Pages

    On the other hand, PPC landing pages don’t need to “convince” search engines to rank their page. PPC user acquisition is primarily done off-page; in the Google Ads interface for example. We acquire users by creating quality  ads and making competitive bids. 

    Because we don’t need to dedicate on-page space and resources to user acquisition, we can focus all of our efforts on maximizing conversions. 

    Writing for Conversions 

    In PPC, we’re paying a little bit for every user who lands on our page. Which means there’s a greater cost for non-converting clicks. We lose money for every user who lands on the page and doesn’t convert. Therefore more of our resources, efforts, and overall design should be spent on maximizing conversion rates. 

    What does this mean exactly? 

    Generally, it means that pages are more streamlined. The content tends to be short, sweet, and relevant. 

    If we’re bidding on key terms such as “car accident lawyers”, we don’t need all the “fluff” content about what to do after a car accident or penalties for certain infractions like we might see for SEO. 

    Our content should be dedicated to convincing users why our law firm is the right one to hire for their case. 

    Good landing pages (both SEO and PPC) also feature prominent calls to action with big obvious buttons and clearly marked forms. Users should have no question about how to engage your services. 

    CLICK HERE! SIGN UP NOW! CALL TODAY!

    Moreover, we want users to convert. Not click away from the page. Thus, you might see PPC landing pages without any internal or outbound links. Not even a main navigation menu. 

    In the End

    Overall, both PPC and SEO landing pages have a home in your digital marketing campaigns – you just need to better understand when and where to use each one. SEO landing pages tend to stand the test of time – meaning that once they rank in Google, they continue to bring in traffic. PPC landing pages tend to be focused on the short-term, meaning that they’re likely to lose their internal value once your campaign ends.

    By understanding the best practices you need to use when optimizing each one, you’re left with invaluable resources that will help you accomplish all of your goals and more.

  • Email Marketing: an Overview

    Email Marketing: an Overview

    Email marketing has something of a mixed reputation. On the one hand, marketers tout its ability to connect with audiences, promote deals & products, and turn favorable ROIs. 

    But on the other, we’ve all seen that horrible dumpster fire we call a spam folder, often filled to the brim with clickbait, phishing schemes, and your run-of-the-mill rubbish and superfluous nonsense.

    Thus, we get a mixed reputation.

    But clearly, email marketing must provide some value to businesses. The question becomes, who does it benefit the most? What businesses should pursue email marketing?

    So in this post, we’ll run through what email marketing is, what it’s good at achieving, what it’s not, who should implement it & who should steer clear.

    Email marketing… what is it?

    Email marketing is a form of direct marketing in which businesses send commercial messages via email.

    Typically email marketing involves sending advertisements for specific products or promotions. 

    However, it is also used to foster brand awareness, trust, and loyalty. This can be in the form of announcements or newsletters, re-engagement emails, and even more personalized emails such as birthday messages.

    Email marketing campaigns are best run through dedicated marketing clients and applications since free-to-use email service providers like Gmail and Outlook don’t support mass emails. 

    Popular platforms such as MailChimp, Sendinblue, and Hubspot allow businesses to create email templates, schedule content calendars, and upload huge contact lists.

    This is important because email campaigns tend to have low open rates and even lower click-through rates, meaning large mailing lists are a necessity for most campaigns.

    Businesses can compile contact lists from many sources including their own customer database, opt-in subscriptions & newsletter sign-ups on their website, and purchasing contact lists from customer databases. However, these paid contact lists tend to be much lower quality and less likely to convert than recipients who opt in.

    Nevertheless, email campaigns have the potential to deliver some of the best ROIs in marketing. Let’s take a look at what they’re good at achieving and who stands to benefit most.

    What’s Good About Email Marketing?

    Inform About New Products / Sales / Specials / Promos

    Email marketing campaigns are fantastic at promoting or highlighting products and services. From new product launches to sales promotions, email allows for a broad, but targeted and personalized reach. This makes it great for eCommerce, retail and high-volume product sales, travel & hospitality services, restaurants, and more.

    Re-engagement & Cart Abandonment 

    Email is often a great way to re-engage inactive customers. Whether it’s a subscriber who made a purchase years ago or someone who abandoned their shopping cart yesterday, email campaigns are often used to reignite interest in potential customers.

    This is especially the case for eCommerce platforms that wish to follow up with users who left the website without purchasing items in their online cart. 

    Brand Awareness, Trust, and Loyalty

    Email allows businesses to keep in touch with past customers, subscribers, and leads, exposing them to their brand and creating awareness. When businesses use email to build brand awareness and trust, it’s often in concert with content marketing on blog and social media channels.

    Not all businesses depend as heavily on repeat customers. But for those that do, email is one of the best ways to maintain engagement between purchases and build brand trust and loyalty.

    Lead Nurturing

    Businesses with a long sales cycle can leverage email to nurture leads at every step of the process. Use email to communicate expert insights on your products or industry with newsletters or whitepapers (again, in concert with content marketing), gauge interest with responsive drip campaigns, and close on more prospects.

    Cost-Effectively Reach Audience

    Start up costs for email marketing are rock bottom. Many platforms offer their bottom tier plans for free. This enables businesses that are strapped for cash to get their foot in the door and establish marketing channels for no cost at all.

    However, even the more expensive plans are relatively cheap. High quality plans might run for several hundred dollars per month, allowing businesses the freedom to experiment and optimize their marketing schemes and email templates.

    What’s NOT Good About Email Marketing

    Email is a Numbers Game i.e. You Need a Large Audience

    Given low open rates and even lower click-through rates, email marketing is a numbers game. If you’re a local business providing, for example, B2B or home services, your target market might simply be too small for an email campaign to make sense.

    Low-Quality Lists 

    Compiling high-quality lists of opt-in users can take time. And for websites with relatively low traffic or those looking to expand their audience, that means leveraging paid contact lists from customer databases which tend

    International Regulations Can Make Things Tough

    International regulations on mass email marketing differ significantly between countries. If your business is active in European or overseas markets, different rule sets may require separate campaigns, designs, and strategies.

    Consistency is Key

    Successful email marketing campaigns require consistent optimization and content updates. It is NOT a set-it-and-forget-it strategy.  Although it provides a low cost barrier to entry, it requires dedicated oversight, whether by your in-house marketing team or an agency. This has the potential to increase costs.

    Is Email Marketing Right for You?

    Email marketing is rarely implemented on its own. Often, it is used in conjunction with content marketing, SEO, or PPC advertising. If you’re considering implementing email marketing within your broader marketing efforts, contact Fanatically Digital to learn how we can help your business.

  • SEO Timelines: How Long Does SEO Take to Work?

    SEO Timelines: How Long Does SEO Take to Work?

    How long does SEO take to work?

    It’s a pretty straightforward question with a less straightforward answer. Because that answer (like it always seems to be) is a frustrating it depends.

    Sorry. I know, that’s never any help. But the answer will never be the same for any two sites because, quite simply, no two sites are ever the same.

    So, while I cannot give a straightforward answer to ‘how long does SEO take to work,’ what I can do is offer a typical timeline for a generic SEO strategy as well as the factors that determine how quickly a site might respond to that strategy in each phase. So let’s dive in.

    Typical SEO Timeline

    Compared to PPC campaigns which provide almost immediate results, SEO is a long haul that can take months to build a strong foundation and years to create a powerful, sustainable search presence.

    Most SEO strategies can be split up into four phases with distinct levels of activity. If you’re considering hiring an agency, they’ll likely follow a similar timeline.

    Phase One

    Defined: The first phase is almost always dedicated to research and review. If you’ve hired an SEO agency, they’ll likely spend the first month or so researching your industry, niche, or market, keywords, competition, as well as become acquainted with your website and tracking schemes.

    Time: Phase one is usually about a month or so. If you’ve hired an agency or SEO that is already familiar with your field or niche, this will be even quicker.

    Expected Results: don’t expect any.

    Phase Two

    Defined: Phase two is when activity really begins. If the agency discovers major technical issues or finds areas to improve the code or structure of the site, these are typically tackled in the first round of activity. We want to make sure that search engines can easily access and read your site. This is also the time in which we’ll begin our link building efforts.

    Time: For small, healthy, or young sites, phase two may only take a couple of days if it’s even necessary at all. But for larger sites that may be older (especially if multiple developers have managed it over the years) and less technically sound, this process can take a while; sometimes up to several months.

    Expected Results: Once the technical aspects are fixed, it is certainly possible to see improvements in impressions or positioning. But technical fixes alone won’t make a successful SEO strategy.

    Phase Three

    Defined: This is where content production and improvement begin. Once we have a solid technical foundation to build on, agencies will start to optimize current landing pages as well as schedule and publish new content to drive inbound traffic. By this point, link building outreach is in full swing.

    Time: Phase three will take anywhere from one to six months. By the end of the third phase, once technical fixes are made, existing content has is optimized, and new content is published, by this point, there should definitely be some favorable movement in the organic search metrics.

    Expected Results: This doesn’t necessarily mean you’re getting new clicks left and right. It could simply mean a respectable bump in impressions for a handful of landing pages. Which brings us to…

    Phase Four

    Defined: Phase four is really just a continuation of phases two and three. Agencies will make adjustments according to search performance, client feedback, and changes to the almighty algorithm.

    Time: Phase four is indefinite. By now, enough time has passed to collect data on those initial changes from which we can fine-tune and further optimize our strategy moving forward

    Expected Results: Phase four is where you’ll see sustained, steady growth. This is where SEO is really meant to shine and the results you can expect will depend on just how good your SEO team is. But with a solid team, year over year increases should be expected and great SEO teams can double organic users every few years.

    So… How Long Will This Take?

    It will probably be a number of months before your SEO agency will be able to offer any evidence of progress. As a business, it’s important to understand that going in. SEO requires patience and long term strategizing and any agencies that guaranteed they can get you to rank #1 in “x” months should be viewed very skeptically.

    If you’re considering SEO for your business, check out Fanatically Digital’s services as well as our SEO pricing.

  • 4 Critical Website Mistakes Made by Small to Mid-sized Businesses

    4 Critical Website Mistakes Made by Small to Mid-sized Businesses

    It’s the 2020s. With few exceptions, all businesses have websites nowadays.

    Yet despite this, many businesses treat them as a bit of an afterthought. Maybe because websites are complex and intimidating things or perhaps it’s because they can be too expensive to actively maintain.

    Whatever the reasons, the fact of the matter is that, as a digital marketing agency, we see many businesses squander their website’s potential because of misunderstandings and critical mistakes.

    Here are the most common mistakes businesses make when designing and creating a website and how you can avoid them.

    Mistake 1) Businesses don’t have an established “purpose” or “function” for their site.

    All too often, we see SMB owners who throw together a couple of web pages — because, again, it’s the 2020s, and having a website is just ‘the thing that businesses do now’ — without considering how to integrate them into their sales process.

    How to fix: Clearly define how and where your site fits within your sales funnel; define its role in how it helps achieve business objectives. Depending on that answer, your priorities and website will look very different. 

    For example, if you’re a B2B firm, then a probable function of your site might be to generate leads for your sales team. If that’s the case, then investing time and resources in good search marketing, copywriting, and conversion rate optimization is a must. On the other hand, maybe you’re a restaurant looking for more sit-in diners. Then strong local SEO, a Google Business Profile account, clear branding, and an appealing menu with quality images on your website will be critical.

    Mistake 2) Fail to understand how search engines work at the most fundamental levels. 

    If you expect a significant amount of traffic to come from search engines, then a strong understanding of how those search engines crawl and index websites is crucial. Specifically, mistakes can include a lack of internal linking (such as orphaned pages), no sitemap, and lots of unnecessary code that can slow down load speeds.

    How to fix: In the absence of professional developers or search marketers, unfortunately, the best fix here is simply to research. Don’t worry, there are a wealth of good articles and explainer videos teaching the best ways to design, organize, and code a website to rank on search engines.

    Mistake 3) Designers don’t give enough thought to marketing and SEO.

    You’ve made your sleek new website. Great. Now, how do your potential clients/customers find you? Whether business owners handle it themselves, they hire in-house, or go the agency route, marketing is a step that CANNOT be overlooked if a website is to be worth the effort, resources, and frankly, the headache.

    This is the scary part for most business owners. Nobody wants to fork over a ton of cash — usually thousands of dollars a month — for something that won’t guarantee returns right away. 

    How to fix: If your website plays any role in your sales process, ensure that your marketing team has at least some grasp of SEO and digital marketing. Search marketing tools such as Moz or SEMRush offer great SEO overview courses and are well worth the investment.

    Mistake 4) Don’t have a dedicated in-house webmaster.

    Even if a business outsources its website management, there needs to be someone in-house who is responsible for overseeing the website. As a digital marketing agency, it’s common for us to onboard new clients who have forgotten the login credentials for their CMS, hosting service, or Analytics accounts. Needless to say, if you can’t even access the site to make changes, install updates, or fortify security, it can quickly become a major liability for your company

    How to fix: Assign or hire for the responsibility of webmaster at your company. Ensure the person can, at the very least, keep track of login credentials, make simple updates, content changes, and ensure that security measures are up-to-date.

    How can these mistakes hurt a business?

    A bad web designer has the potential to put a business under. This is especially the case when established sites decide to redesign and relaunch their site. Here’s a true story from one of our clients (again, we are a digital marketing firm for SMBs):

    The client was a small Ecommerce site selling heavy equipment. We had been working with them for years at this point. They had strong SEO, decent year-over-year growth, and a good website structure. They wanted to redesign their site and went with a small, local firm — turns out to be just one guy. 

    Without our consultation (another big mistake; everyone working on a website needs to be in the loop about big changes at all times!), the client and designer changed the URL scheme of ALL of their core landing pages.

    This guy (a “professional” webdesigner) didn’t realize that Google operates by keeping all of the URLs it knows about in a massive database.  So when the new URLs didn’t match anything Google had in its database, in the eyes of search engines, the landing pages simply disappeared and new ones were created. And, for many different reasons, new pages take time to start ranking on Google (and also note: THEY DIDN’T BACK UP THEIR SITE — maybe the biggest, most costly, most avoidable of all possible mistakes involve big changes and no back up).

    Predictably, traffic, and therefore sales, plummeted. However we’re still making a slow but steady recovery. So in short, this bad designer hurt their business because he and they (the client):

    1) didn’t understand just how important their website was to their sales process (mind you, this is AN ECOMMERCE WEBSITE!)

    2) didn’t understand the fundamentals of the internet and search engines in particular.

    3) gave no thought to the SEO aspect of web design.

    Should You Go With a Pro?

    Websites are extremely complex and powerful tools that have the ability to skyrocket your business beyond the ‘small-midsize’ level. But, at the same time, one bad line of code can tank the whole thing. The more ambitious your business objectives are, the more necessary a good professional web developer will become.

    Fanatically Digital is here for all of your digital marketing needs. Whether it’s SEO, PPC, social media marketing, or any other web-marketing project you have, contact us today!