Fanatically Digital

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  • Seeing beyond our inner geek. A digital marketers biggest challenge

    Sometimes a flyer with big black letters printed on bright yellow paper stuck in a person’s front door handle is the best marketing tool.marketing flyer

    Okay, I said it. The world doesn’t revolve around digital marketing. Sometimes the best answer is the simplest, most straightforward, non technical approach.

    This is true on the spectrum of marketing. As we roll out digital marketing programs for our clients, there is the temptation (on their part as well, because they are all jazzed up on digital) to chase the shiny objects, newest social media fads, latest photo / video sharing sites, or whatever is out there at the time.

    Time tested, and perhaps altered a bit, methods of digital marketing are no longer sexy, but they are effective. From paid search (which some of us still think is pretty cool) to basic email marketing, all pointed to a creative site with great UX, is often the foundation of a good digital program. It’s not sexy like Facebook or twitter used to be, or instagram or (I hesitate to name channels because “cool” will change before I finish this paragraph), but if you are looking to drive business, then the basics have to be core elements.

    Looking at shiny objects without losing focus on the core contributors

    It’s not a matter of avoiding the shiny objects, but one of managing the resources and measuring the impact. One client (SMARTMD) has implemented a simple yet effective method derived from “The Lean Startup” that:

    1. Clearly identifies the problem and hypothesis for the solution
    2. Sets success criteria (before starting the experiment)
    3. Provides a timeline
    4. Tracks all experiments – successes and failures.

    To allow any testing regime to succeed, organizations need commonly accepted methods of tracking. I am a Google Analytics fan, and use it for simple and complex tracking/ analytics/ reporting, but the key is creating one view of the truth that everyone agrees to before hand. Too often we get caught up in why two methods of measuring don’t show exactly the same results (this could lead to a really long bit on methodology and technology differences) rather that focus on the objective. So, chose one measurement method and stick to it.

    By setting up the analytics and reporting methods, experiments can be executed quickly and either implemented or left behind. This way we get to play with the shiny objects and keep our proven performers in place and managed.

    ps. if you’re interested in those flyers on the image above, you can order them here. 🙂

  • What to do with SEO if You are not an SEO

    We get asked questions about SEO all the time… its what we do, so it makes sense. One of the things that come up from people who do not have the budget for a true SEO program is “what can we do to help our pages rank?”

    Well, one of the biggest things you can do with your site is to not get in the way of the search engines understanding your page content.  Too often we see pages that have very poorly organized content. In some cases, there are many different topics covered on a single page. This prevents search engines from understanding the key content and how it best relates to user searches. Here are a few things you can do to help search engines properly index your page content.

    Focus your topic

    Remember that search engines are trying to associate the user’s queries with the most relevant content. If your page has multiple topics on it, then it becomes less clear that it is associated to any given query.

    Use your H tags properly

    H1, H2s, and H3s, etc are like an outline for your page content. Use these similarly to how you created outlines in grammar school to write an essay. There should be only one H1 tag on a page with the primary topic. The H2 and H3 tags are subtopics. Each should be followed by a paragraph or more of content.

    Yoast SEO Plugin

    For the WordPress users, the Yoast SEO plugin is a great tool to help add Title and Meta descriptions to the page.

    Short Video on Title Tags, H tags and keywords

  • SEO & Digital Marketing For Business to Business

    B2B companies make up the core of our digital marketing clients. Over the years, our B2B clients have recognized that the shift in B2C purchasing is also taking place in B2B. While personal relationships will always be an important part of the B2B landscape, there is a shift to using the internet as a key purchasing & research tool.

    Websites can serve several different purposes for our B2B clients along the sales spectrum:

    1. Lead generation
    2. E-commerce
    3. Sale team support

    For our business to business clients, the websites serve one or all of these objectives. Knowing the role of digital marketing and the websites allows us to guide our clients and provide effective SEO and paid advertising.

    It is best to discuss specific tactics based on the unique situation of our clients. But, here are some of the areas we push on and how it’s helped our clients:

    Improving Domain Authority

    When the search engines rank pages on a website, one of the factors is the quality of the page and website. One (not the only) indicator of the quality is the Domain Authority. This is, in part, a measure of the number and quality of other sites that link to the clients’ site. Whether our clients start with low or mid range Domain Authority (DA), we increase the DA as part of the overall organic site traffic growth.

    To encourage links, we help our clients develop new content and improve the visibility of existing content.

    The adage “build it and they will come” does not apply to websites. Gaining links to your website requires time and effort to connect with other websites to encourage new content or links within existing content. This activity not only takes time to execute, but the impact may take months to be evident.

    In the below case, link building activities were taking place for many months before they started to register, and search results started to reflect this.

    Ultimately, your objective is more business. Through increases in relevant site traffic, more on-site lead generation, or more e-commerce, we demonstrate growth for our clients.

    A word about keyword tracking

    Tracking keywords can be useful and we do it. However, keyword positioning is not the objective. Gaining more business is the objective.

    Users will search for products or services with a large number of permutations of the product names; this is particularly true in B2B.  From differences in the way they refer to a product to use of model numbers or attributes, the way you and your products are found extend way beyond any group of keywords.

    We have clients come to us with strong rankings on keywords and yet the business is not growing. Too much emphasis on keyword rankings and not enough on total performance puts SEO and digital programs at risk of failure. So, while we track keyword rankings, they are not the core focus of our SEO programs.

    Working with a digital agency

    SEO is a long haul opportunity. While any good agency will not lock clients into long term contracts  (we have 30-day outs), there should be an expectation that SEO activities may not bear fruit for more than 6 months. While we all like the quick hits, gaining and retaining organic search traffic take time.  To help your agency help you, you can do the following:

    1. Maintain your core goals. SEO is cumulative. If you change your focus, you often reset to the baseline. Seek the long term objectives.
    2. Expect ups and downs. Search engines change, competition changes, so your results change too.
    3. Focus on results above keyword rankings. De-emphasizing keyword rankings may seem odd for an SEO, but strong results come from overall site health and improvement, not just a few keywords.

    If you are interested in talking with us about your SEO or digital marketing program, please fill out the form or give us a call.

  • Google Exact Match Changes: Review Your Search Terms Reports

    Google Ads, (AdWords) has become a mainstay of most advertising programs, and certainly of most digital advertising programs. Let’s face it, it’s pretty easy to light up a new campaign. But, it’s not so easy to do it well. Then, once running, there are a lot of actions to make a paid search program run well. Chief among these is the search query analysis using the Search Terms Report.

    A little background for those unfamiliar with query data.

    When you bid on keywords, Google will decide if a user really meant something close to the keyword on which you bid. It used to be that you could say “match only exact queries.” But that option is gone. You can say “exact”, but Google will decide “how exact” you really mean. So, your ads appear for queries that are different than the target keywords on which you bid.

    This has always been true for broad (modified or standard) and phrase match bids. But the changes to how Google interprets exact match have moved it to a vague area.

    The query report shows the queries for which Google has shown your ad. These may look nothing like your target keywords. The times that you can isolate your terms based on exact match are gone, not even close anymore. Use the Google Search Terms report (in the keyword area of the UI) to see the queries for which your ad was shown. This also shows you the target keyword, ad group, and campaign associated with the query.

    How To Use The Search Terms Reports

    Getting the Search Term Data

    We find it best to pull the search terms data into a spreadsheet. You can download the reports in the Google Ads interface, or (as we do) connect to Google Ads via api and pull the data automatically.

    Google Ads Search Term Report nav

    If you have conversion data feeding back to Google Ads, be sure this is part of your data set.

    Before you dive too deep

    The first step is a quick review of the report. The purpose is to determine if Google Ads is showing your exact match keywords for a whole lot of non-exact queries. Ultimately, you should consider revamping the account campaigns to adjust for the changes in exact match. A review of this report will tell you if that change should happen sooner rather than later.

    If there are many queries that are different from the exact keyword, you will spend a lot of time managing the changes based on the Search Term report. If this is the case, you may want to jump to restructuring your campaigns now; essentially pushing everything to number three below.
    If you’re one of the fortunate people who have a lot of time, you should probably do #3 now anyway.

    Using the Search Term Report

    Reviewing the user queries should be a regular practice in managing your campaigns. The actions apply to all ad groups, and now, all match types.

    There are three basic decisions to make when reviewing the Search Terms(query) report:
    Add a query term as a negative match
    Add a query term as a new target keyword to the ad group
    Create a new ad group, or campaign structure

    Negative match

    If you add queries as negative keywords, look beyond the ad group that generated the query. It may be applicable to other ad groups or the broader campaigns. No sense restricting it in one ad group only to have Google Ads decide to show your ad from another campaign anyway.

    Add the query term

    There is a tendency for some campaign managers to throw everything from the Search Terms report that is relevant to the ad group into the keywords. This has a couple of issues.

    First, it leads to keyword bloat. Having hundreds of keywords in an ad group dilutes it’s relevance to any one term. Be sure only keywords that are tightly aligned with the core message are in the ad group.

    Second, Google has a “low search volume” designation that is applied to keywords that have few searches. The days of bidding on the hyper-long tail are gone; Google will simply not even create an auction for these keywords. Instead, Google uses its AI to decide if your ad should appear for the long search terms. Putting everything in an ad group simply clutters it with terms that never see the search results.

    Create a new ad group or campaign

    If you see a lot of search terms that truly deserve to be directly managed, pulled these from the report and develop new campaigns or ad groups just as if you were starting a new program. Build a solid campaign structure around these new terms, even if it is just one ad group.

    The change to Google’s Exact match policy has taken some level of control away from search marketers. But, with proper use of the Search Term report, you can effectively create an “exact” match ad group by building out a strong negative match list.

  • WordPress and SEO: Its more complicated than you think

    Over the past ten years, the cost of launching and keeping a site has decreased considerably. You can easily find hosting plans for less than $10/ month. With WordPress, you can update your site real-time, adding and editing content as frequently as you want. To the casual observer, this is great. To those in the industry, this creates significant problems.

    For search engine optimization (SEO), search engines score sites on a few broad criteria, each with a host of nuances. While many hosting plans make it easy to create a website, they also make it too easy to mess up on the core SEO criteria.

    Site Speed

    Storage and bandwidth are cheap. Quality storage and bandwidth are no so cheap.

    In shared hosting environments, your site is hosted in such a way that what happens on other sites can affect what happens on your site. The bandwidth is shared. The processors are shared. The ability to respond to requests (page requests) is shared. This leads to variability and even degradation is site speed/performance.

    Google has made it clear that site speed is a key metric for rankings. The ability to launch a site quickly now can lead to poor performance later. You are better off looking for quality hosting vs cheap hosting.

    In speed testing, we see the server first response lacking in sites. Often, these sites are in shared hosting environments.

    Page structure

    One of the most challenging aspects of managing a site is ensuring the page structure aligns with the way search engines look at content. There are few key areas that we see regularly messed up. The use of key phrases in the Title tag and a well-organized H tag structure helps the search engines understand your page content. This is often lacking.

    We have seen sites completely devoid of these tags. We have also seen the use of the H1 tag multiple times on a page because the person creating the page liked the way the H1 tag was styled. Either way, this messes with the search engines’ ability to understand your content.

    Page size

    Related to page speed, the amount of data being transferred to the user’s browser directly affects the page load speed. The biggest offenders in this area are usually images. Unoptimized images top the list of issues for most speed tests.

    WordPress has some plugins to reduce the image size. But, they can only do so much when a 4600×2200 10MB image is loaded into the library. The inputs have to be optimized in dimension and size to ensure the best possible performance.

    Site bloat

    For established sites, old files can clutter the system. Five years of weekly backups, unused themes, unused images, deactivated plugins, and other stray files can create huge sites, with no benefit to the user. Left unchecked, this bloat can cause performance issues and make the site difficult to manage.

    Most hosting packages, especially “cheap” plans, provide no site management. This leaves it up to the site owner to review the files, removed what is not used, and ensure the file structure is clean. Most users can’t do this.

    Failure To Update

    WordPress is extremely popular. This popularity makes it a favorite target for hackers. WordPress.org does a good job of patching issues, identifying vulnerabilities and trying to keep problems at bay. This is great when you keep your site updated.

    The challenge comes with site owners who don’t update their WordPress installation or fail to keep the plugins updated. These failures allow malware and viruses into the site.

    Once Google detects this malware, your pages are flagged in the search results, or sometimes dropped. If you don’t use Google Search Console or search for your site often, you may not know this happens. You may notice lower traffic or lead flow, however.

    Get the most from your website

    To ensure your investment in your website has maximum benefit and is in the best shape for your SEO efforts do two things:

    1. Pay for good hosting. They are not all equal.
    2. Hire a webmaster or agency that will maintain the site properly. It really is more complicated than it seems.

  • Exact Match Will Be Even Less Exact… what you should do

    Google Ads will no longer offer Exact Match. Yes, it has not been truly exact for some time, but now, it’s not even close.

    In the next couple of months, Google will do away with even the appearance of exact match.

    Google’s AI knows that when someone types in “maroon widget”, they actually mean “red widget”.

    But, it goes beyond that. Based on clues available only to Google, if someone search “blue macadamia nuts”, Google will know they really are looking for “red widget”.

    The explanation I received was simple and straight to the point. Google’s smarter that searchers and advertisers.

    According to Google, the  AI can tell that someone is likely to convert even if the search doesn’t match. So, the searcher should see the ad, and the advertiser should see more conversions.

    Share your data

    If you’re an e-commerce retailer, this may (or may not) work in your favor. You’ll know pretty quickly if the campaign performance is improving. If you give Google access to the conversion and sales metrics (and you should), the AI will benefit you.

    I know some folks are shy about sharing data with Google. But, the more you can feed the Google AI, the more it can learn about what works and what doesn’t. So, share as much as you can.

    Impact For Offline Conversion

    For those whose revenue comes offline, there is a problem. A cost-per-lead is great until you realize that not all leads are created equal. Factors such as close rates, margins and even LTV are important when deciding where to focus your money.

    Someone who types in “maroon” may submit a lead as often as someone who types in “red”. But what if “red” closes more often, or has a higher AOR?

    We know these metrics because we can see what happens offline. We know that an exact match on “red” is worth a lot more than a fuzzy match on “maroon.” That is why we apply exact match. It’s more work to structure accounts this way. But, it pays off in the end.

    What to do when there is no Exact match

    The simple answer that Google provided, build out your negatives on all campaign and match types.

    Given that Exact and Phrase are likely to behave the same way, you may just go with phrase match. (I wasn’t given clear guidance on the UI and if the pretense of Exact match type would even continue).

    Build out your negatives and keep building them out. The query stream is your friend.

    Be sure all broad matches are modified. Then keep an eye on the query stream to be sure the “fuzzy” matching isn’t happening there as well.

    We have yet to see where this will end up. But, over the next few months keep a close eye on the query report, build out the negatives, and track as far down the sales process as you can. Depending on how far Google takes this, you may be better off with a single match type and an extensive negative build out.

    If you want any help reviewing your program, please give us a call or fill out the request form.

  • Digital Marketing: The Long View

    Since it’s beginning, digital marketing has been thought of as the medium that can move quickly. Make a change to your AdWords account, and it shows up almost immediately. Change your display ad, and the ad server will start delivering the new one right away. This ability to have a nearly immediate response to our actions is appealing. But it may also be harmful.

    Sticking to a long-term strategy, guided by KPIs connected to sales, or sales directly, takes discipline. To ensure you manage to the long-term success, and avoid knee-jerk reactions, create a schedule of reports that align with your role with a scope that keeps you properly focused. Deciding in advance what KPIs you will monitor will help the organization to stay on track.

    Managing the organization requires that each person know their proper role and scope. The KPIs for frontline employees are quite different than a manager, and an executive. By providing each person with timely information (not necessarily daily), you allow each to focus on their core and maintain a steady path with the long-term strategy.

    For more on setting up your organization’s digital analytics to stay on course, download our free e-book.

    Digital analytics ebook

  • 5 Things You Need To Know For SEO

    If you have hired a few SEO agencies in the past couple of years, you’ve already made your first mistake. SEO takes time. Switching agencies too often will hurt your SEO efforts.

    But there are a few more things you need to know before you make another agency switch. Hiring an SEO agency takes time and resources. It takes attention away from other activities. And if done too often, it can hurt your results. Before you hire another SEO agency, here are 5 things you need to know and take to heart.

    SEO Results Take Time

    Often it sounds like a cop-out when agencies say this. But it’s true. Moving up in organic search rankings takes time. Yes, you may get lucky and have a quick jump. But, that kind of ranking improvement is usually just that, lucky, or low hanging fruit that pops up in a less competitive vertical.

    If you switch focus or switch agencies, you risk losing momentum with your organic traffic. You may change tactics when things aren’t moving well enough. But the overarching SEO strategy should stay in place until it is either working, or several months have passed with no indication of improvement.

    It’s Not All About Keyword Rankings

    It is not that you ignore keyword rankings. But, your objective is more business and there are more upstream metrics that point to improvement than just rankings, especially early on.

    When just starting out, the upstream metrics are seen in Google Search Console (GSC). Before you see keyword rankings improve, you’ll see more impressions, usually far back in the SERPs. As time moves forward, the impression volume will shift from pages 5+ to pages 2-4, and then eventually on page 1. This is also true when you add content or shift focus.

    Google is connecting your site content to more queries. If your content is well crafted, the queries to which it is associated will be beneficial to your business. Using the GSC queries reports, you will see what they are. These should be related to the keywords for which you are tracking rankings.

    Your site traffic, and lead generation or sales will increase even if your rankings are not. Since Google maps content by theme and not individual keywords, it’s possible the specific keywords you track may lag behind the overall improvement.

    Be Wary Of Agencies That Focus On A Keyword or Two or Three

    In line with the above, promises of getting you on the first page for a couple of keywords misses the big picture. Agencies can game the system to get a few keywords to rank better for a short period of time. This usually doesn’t last and comes while sacrificing the SEO health of your website and the traffic associated with a keyword theme.

    SEO Results Fluctuate

    Your presence in the SERPs is not a simple formula. There are things happening that can affect your organic traffic. Understanding that your positioning and traffic will fluctuate allows you to be prepared to adapt. Broadly, there are three things affecting your results.

    SEO Competition

    Yours is not the only company trying to improve your organic search results. Other companies are trying to unseat you, and sometimes they’ll succeed. Be ready to fight back. The tactics will vary, but the adjustment will be needed.

    Search Engines Change

    You’ve heard it before. Google (Bing, Yahoo) change their algorithm, and a lot of sites get slammed. This can happen to you. By employing good SEO hygiene, you can mitigate (but not eliminate) the impact of these changes and be prepared to respond.

    Customers Change

    Customers can change the way they look for information. Keep an eye on your site search data and review google trends at least 2x per year. Subtle changes in the way people search for things can have a big impact on how or if they find you.

    A Good SEO Agency Helps You Convert The Traffic

    Driving traffic is only part of the equation. Your objective is to gain more business. Increased traffic without mover conversions is useless. Your SEO agency should be focused on the conversion level, not just the traffic level.

    SEO Terms vs Positioning Terms

    Every company wants to be uniques, differentiate themselves in some way. They’ll use unique terms to describe their service or products. These are positioning terms. They set you apart from other companies. Because they are unique, they are not things that people are generally searching for.

    The SEO terms are what people actually search for. They tend to be the explicit product or service without your positioning terms attached.

    So, when preparing for SEO, you need to draw people in with the terms they use for search, then convince them to buy from you (or at least contact you) using your positioning terms. If you confuse your positioning terms for SEO terms, you will be disappointed.

    Finding a good SEO agency requires patience. So does letting good SEO have an impact. Don’t switch focus, or agencies, too often. This will waste your time and your money.

    If you have any question about SEO, or digital marketing in general, give us a call.

  • 5 Questions to Ask Before You Hire SEO Experts

    Frustrated by the fact that your business’s website just isn’t rising in the search engine rankings?

    Tired of seeing a growing visitor count, but not an increase in your conversion rate?

    Just feel like your competitors have a stronger digital marketing and SEO strategy than you currently do?

    If so, then you may need to hire SEO experts to help you to get your website — and your brand as a whole — where you want it to be.

    But what are the most important questions to ask your SEO company to guarantee that you’ll get up-to-the-minute SEO expertise?

    Keep on reading this post to find out.

    1. “Can I See a Portfolio of your Other Work?”

    Asking a potential digital marketing company to see a portfolio of their other work one of the best ways to understand what to look for in an SEO company.

    First of all, you’ll understand if they have the required experience within your specific industrial/business niche. You’ll also get a feel for whether or not they can create content, web design, and linking strategies that will get your target market’s attention.

    You’ll be able to assess the size and scale of the companies an SEO company usually works with, and determine whether or not they’ve worked with brands that have revenues similar to your own in the past.

    You can also ensure that the variety of sites they’ve worked on in the past have enough variation — in both marketing tone, content, and visual appearance — between them.

    2. “Which Tools will you use to Monitor my Site?”

    One of the most important questions to as your SEO company?

    Which analytical tools, software, and other sites they’ll use to monitor your web traffic, track campaign successes, and even evaluate your presence on social media.

    Ask for how long they’ve been using each of these tools, and the sorts of data you can expect to get from them.

    The goal here is to ensure that the potential SEO company will continually monitor and track your website — and make adjustments accordingly.

    You can’t expect to grow if your SEO company just puts a campaign in motion or redesigns your website, and then just walks away.

    3. “How do you Keep Pace with SEO Trends?”

    When you’re looking for a reputable SEO company, you want to be sure that you work with professionals who take the time to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in digital marketing.

    For example, how will they plan to make voice search or video content a part of your overall marketing strategy?

    How do they keep track of changes to the Google Algorithm, and how long does it take for them to update your site in light of these changes?

    Ask about any conferences they attend, digital marketing clubs and associations they’re a part of, and even which websites/blogs they read or contribute to.

    When it comes to generating traffic — and revenue — for your website, working with a company who is always three steps ahead of the curve is essential.

    4. “Can I Speak with Past Clients?”

    Of course, one of the essential steps that you need to take before you hire SEO experts to help with your website is to speak with some of the clients they’ve worked with in the past.

    With fake online reviews on the rise, the unfortunate reality is that you need to take those glowing “customer testimonials” and rave third-party reviews with a serious grain of salt.

    The only way to really know what kind of experience and level of customer care and attention you can get from an SEO company is to speak to a minimum of two references.

    Ask them about continued site monitoring, if they felt they were a priority, questions about the specific goals of that website and whether those goals were executed, and more.

    Above all, ask if they would work with them again or recommend their services to you.

    5. “How will you get to Know My Business?”

    The final question you should ask when you’re ready to hire SEO experts to elevate your website and overall digital marketing strategy?

    How they plan to get to know the needs, long-term and short-term goals, and overall marketing style of your brand.

    In addition to that, you should also ask how they plan to conduct target market research, as well as how they’ll work to understand the needs of your local community. You should even take the time to ask questions about how they’ll manage competitor research.

    After your initial meeting, ask them questions that help you to determine whether or not they’ve really done their homework. Ask how they feel what you offer differs from your competitors, what they see as your target demographic, and what data points they’ll use to inform their digital strategy.

    If you feel like you’re not being made a priority, run for the hills.

    Ready to Hire SEO Experts you can Count On?

    We hope that you now have a much better understanding of the five essential questions that you need to ask before you make the choice to hire SEO experts.

    Remember that the best SEO companies will be happy to show you their portfolio, provide references, work to get to know your brand, and above all, be willing to talk you through their process.

    Looking for SEO expertise you can rely on?

    If so, look no further than us.

    Spend some time on our website to learn more about the wide variety of digital marketing services we can work with you on.

    Then, reach out to us to schedule a consultation or strategy meeting.

  • 8 Signs Your Company Should Hire Local SEO Experts

    Local SEO cannot be ignored in today’s augmented marketing reality. 72% of consumers who research a product online will visit a local retailer within a 5-mile radius after the initial discovery period.

    86% of those consumers will look up a business’ location on Google Maps. 78% of local searches result in an online purchase, as well.

    Local SEO is essential for business owners, whether they’re looking to build a regional reputation or extend their online reach. Local SEO experts can help you reach those goals, whatever they are.

    Here are some signs you should be thinking about hiring local SEO experts.

    Signs You Need A Local SEO Expert

    Every business’s marketing needs are going to be different. After all, it’s a marketing team’s job to help each individual product or service to stand out from the competition. That being said, there are some universal signs that you might need a local SEO expert if you’re looking to rise up in the SERPs.

    Sign #1: “What’s A Local SEO Expert?”

    At the risk of sounding counter-intuitive, if you have to ask what a local SEO expert is, you should probably consult with one. Local SEO experts keep track of Google’s quickly-evolving algorithms to make sure that your web presence shows up in the search engine.

    Local SEO experts perform an extensive SEO analysis of your website and digital assets to find out how your material is performing. They can give you insight into profitable keywords and phrases to develop content around. They’ll also update your existing web content to help you get rank in the SERPs.

    Sign #2: You Haven’t Updated Your Google+ Business Page

    If your business’s location is not established, Google will assume your business is international. This means you’re competing against the entire globe instead of a 3-mile radius.

    This can cause a major digital decline in sales and exposure. Consider a niche with a lot of competition, like ‘beauty supplies.’ You’re going to have a hard time reaching even the third page of SERPs with so much competition.

    If you offer a local service, like a hairdresser or mechanic, it’s going to make you miss out on even more business.

    Google now requires businesses to verify their physical address, to qualify for local SEO. Local SEO experts will know all of the latest updates and will be able to make the necessary adjustments quickly and painlessly.

    Sign #3: You Focus On Content

    Content is still king, in 2018. We’ve all shifted our thinking to creating world-class content that establishes us and experts in our industries. That’s always a useful way to spend your time, money, and resources. There’s a little more to it than that, however.

    Local SEO experts will know specific keywords that will help you rank for local searches. It’s both an art and a science. Local SEO experts are artists at the science of getting your content found.

    Sign #4: You’re Still Building Links Manually

    Many of us remember the early days of the SEO gold rush when digital marketers raced to take advantage of every scammy, spammy way to draw eyes and ears to their websites. That approach blew up in their faces.

    Unethical link-building can do great harm to your SEO ranking. It also does nothing at all for your page ranking.

    Most public link depositories are considered “NoFollow,” at this point. This means Google doesn’t factor them into your ranking.

    Sign #5: You Need More Social Reviews

    It’s hard enough to get customers to sign up for email lists and loyalty programs. Now, you’ve got to convince them to leave you reviews on Google+ and Yelp, as well.

    Social reviews play an important part in local SEO ranking. When you aren’t proactive in asking your loyal, satisfied customers for reviews, you run the risk of only hearing the negative reviews.

    Local SEO experts have all manner of tips, tools, and techniques to get your customers to leave you positive reviews. Remember, it’s unethical to ask for positive reviews, which can even result in getting some of your social accounts banned. It’s okay to entice happy customers to share their feelings, however.

    Sign #6: You’re Ready To Optimize For Voice Search

    Using keywords organically is an artform of its own. Now consider working phrases like “butcher shop near me” into an informative, entertaining article or blog post.

    Local SEO experts know how to do that very thing. Voice search is becoming increasingly prevalent as more and more users are switching to browsing on mobile devices. Working with local SEO experts lets you get ahead of that curve, and your competition.

    Sign #7: Your Traffic Isn’t Converting

    Getting your audience through the door to see your content is only the beginning of the battle. Now you’ll need to figure out how to convert those visitors into actual sales and leads.

    SEO experts have all manner of tricks to help you accomplish that goal. They could help you redesign your sales funnel, for instance. Then you could work with your social media marketing department to turn those leads into promotional campaigns.

    Sign #8: You’ve Already Got Too Much To Do

    Most business owners and marketing departments already feel overwhelmed with their daily to-do lists. You were already feeling overwhelmed just trying to come up with content for your blogs and websites. Now you’ve got to update the content you’ve already written?

    Digital marketing is a double-edged sword. It lets smaller independent businesses compete against major league Fortune 500 companies. It also greatly increases our daily workload, which can leave you feeling more overwhelmed then you were in the beginning.

    Working with highly trained experts helps to diminish that workload, so you can focus on building and growing your business!

    Ready To Find Out How A SEO Expert Can Help Your Business?

    The Internet is changing at the speed of thought as we develop tools to navigate this shifting landscape. Google’s updating their algorithms like never before, which can have major implications for your digital presence. Check out our listing of SEO services, and let us help you get found in the search engines today!