Fanatically Digital

Blog

  • 4 Reasons Why Keyword Relevance Matters for Your SEO Results

    4 Reasons Why Keyword Relevance Matters for Your SEO Results

    Keywords have long been known as one of the key components to search engine optimization.

    But in recent years, technology has progressed and the algorithms have adapted. One of the newest systems added to the mixture is RankBrain, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to better interpret pages on the web.

    With the changes to the algorithms, many industry workers are wondering how important keyword relevance still is.

    How keywords fit into the scheme of search has indeed changed. But keyword relevance is still very important to strong SEO. Here’s why.

    Keywords Provide Context About a Page

    Keywords are still a critical part of creating context about a given page on your website.

    Most pages on your site will have a certain specific theme. Each product page highlights a unique product. Each blog post talks about a particular topic.

    Every keyword helps to paint a picture of the given page. The search algorithm looks at the words and phrases on the page and determines what the page is about.

    This is no different in principle from what previous iterations of the algorithms did. But in many ways, your keywords can now go farther than ever before.

    Previously, a keyword or phrase was taken verbatim. You would only rank highly in searches that included the exact phrase. But with the newer updates using more AI, the algorithm is better able to infer actual meaning from your keywords.

    So while the specific keyword doesn’t mean that much, just having a relevant keyword does.

    It doesn’t matter if your blog post’s keyword is “prepare for a hurricane” or “hurricane prep tips”. As long as you use something relevant and have other ranking factors in your favor, you’re in good position to show up on a search for hurricane preparedness.

    Without keywords, your individual pages would not provide the context the algorithm needs to correctly analyze and interpret the meaning of the page.

    Keywords Shape a Site’s Authority

    Just as keywords provide context about a specific page, the same can be said about a website as a whole.

    When determining rankings, the search algorithms don’t only look at the individual pages that they might link to. As one of the many factors the algorithms analyzes, the website, as a whole, impacts how a page might perform.

    Much of this has to do with the site’s authority on a given subject.

    If your website is full of keywords related to the subject you address on a blog post or product page, the algorithm assumes that the website specializes in the topic. Specialization highly correlates with expertise and trustworthiness, so a site that looks authoritative will often gain the upper hand in rankings.

    Here at Fanatically Digital, we talk about social media, SEO, and other marketing topics. Keywords related to those fields are all over this site. When we posted this article, Google’s algorithm saw that our other content was in a similar vein, and thus this blog post looks reliable.

    But you wouldn’t come to our website for a recipe. If we posted a recipe for baked chicken, that recipe wouldn’t show up on Google because our website isn’t one that frequently posts recipes.

    Keyword relevance is still vital to providing proper context to what you post online.

    Google Can Still Penalize You

    Keyword relevancy isn’t only about affirmatively using keywords relevant to your company and content. It’s also about steering clear of black-hat and detrimental practices.

    Keyword Stuffing

    Keyword stuffing is the practice of using a keyword as many times as possible in a post, even if it isn’t used in a natural way. In the past, this technique was used by some as a way to manipulate search rankings for a term.

    Keyword stuffing was occasionally successful in its goal, but it was frowned upon by industry leaders for its lack of quality. Over time, Google became smarter at identifying stuffed keywords, and it actually began to punish the websites who used this practice.

    Even though exact-match keywords don’t have the same priority they once did, keyword stuffing is still considered black hat. That means Google can still tank your rankings if they realize you’re doing it.

    Irrelevant Keywords

    It’s a novice mistake by somebody trying to improve their SEO to cast a wide net when it comes to keywords. Any keyword we can rank for must be good, right?

    Wrong. It does little good for your business website to rank for words or phrases that have little to do with your work. Your restaurant shouldn’t rank for keywords related to an auto mechanic or a shoe store.

    Anybody who might happen to find your site through an irrelevant ranking won’t be a rich lead. They’ll visit your site, see that you aren’t what they’re looking for, and then immediately get frustrated and leave.

    This hurts your bounce rate, which in turn hurts your SEO. A high bounce rate indicates to Google that you don’t provide the quality that people need. They’ll drop you in the rankings across the board.

    It’s still important to be aware of your keyword usage so you can avoid doing things that could penalize you.

    Keywords Help the User

    We talk so much about what keywords mean to the technology and computers and algorithms that make up the Internet.

    But we’d be remiss not to discuss the significant impact keywords have on the actual humans that are searching for information.

    You work so hard to please the algorithms and you’ve managed to make it on to the front page. But that’s only half the battle. Now you need the searcher to actually visit your site.

    No matter how much the algorithms get better at comprehending the intent behind a search, only the person typing in the query truly understands what he or she needs. Improved AI can make assumptions, but sometimes those assumptions are wrong.

    The rearrangement of a few words can make a big difference in meaning.

    Using relevant keywords in your titles and descriptions help show the user what your post is and how it can help them. Using the right keywords can make them click on your link instead of a competitor’s.

    Stay Updated on Keyword Relevance

    As the algorithms continue to change, the way keywords factor into the mix will likely change as well. For the best results, it’s important to stay updated.

    For the latest news on keyword relevance and other SEO topics, stay tuned to our blog.

  • 7 Ways Your Outdated Social Media Campaign Loses Money

    Social media is everywhere. It’s in front of us at the office. We carry it around in our pockets. So it’s more important than ever for businesses to run a social media campaign.

    But with the benefits, social media can bring comes the complexities of the ever-changing algorithms and strategies. How do you keep up? If you’re not seeing the traffic growth or sales you had hoped for, it may be time to mix things up.

    These seven social media mistakes will tell you why you may be losing money with your current campaign and how you can turn it around.

    1. You’ve Spread Yourself Too Thin

    A lot of people think that to reach as many consumers as possible, you need to be on every social media platform there is. Which is true to an extent but is usually not the most effective method out there.

    Remember quality over quantity? Mmm-Hmm. This is a classic example.

    You need to get specific about who your target audience is and where they would be hanging out on social media. Think of it like this: if you want to sell a high-quality business suit, you wouldn’t put it on sale at the junior clothier down the street.

    The same holds true for social media. The demographic that frequents Facebook or Pinterest won’t necessarily be the same demographics that are always on Instagram and Twitter.

    To get the most of your time and your money, find out where your audience is and focus on creating a quality social media campaign for those particular platforms.

    Focusing on two or three social media accounts will not only save you time and money, it will enable you to engage with your audience more. And that will add up to dollar signs.

    2. Your Posts Are All About You

    Of course you want to share your content with your social media following. I mean, getting your products and services out in front of your customers is the point of being in business, right?

    But social media is a different kind of ballgame. Folks aren’t on there to hear sales pitches or see a constant flow of advertising. The whole point is to be social and build relationships.

    Your audience wants to see you being helpful and friendly, maybe even funny. Almost as if they were sitting around a table having a conversation with you. And by mixing your content with shared links from other respected, non-competitive sources in the same niche, you will ensure that they see you as a trusted resource that not only cares about business, but cares about them as well.

    And your social media platform will agree. They create algorithms that rank you on how much of your own content you post versus content from others that you share. Some algorithms want you to use the 5:3:2 rule when sharing content.

    Social media wants you to share the love, and so do your followers or they’ll go somewhere else.

    3. You Follow to Gain a Follower

    We’ve all seen it… someone follows your account so you turn around and follow theirs (you want to be nice, right?)… only to find they’ve unfollowed you shortly thereafter.

    Those are follower hoarders, my friends, and that tactic is so wrong for so many reasons.

    A follow for a follow is empty. Most of the time it’s not your target audience. Any social media campaign you launch will be lost on those who just aren’t interested.

    So it’s a tactic that shouldn’t be used to increase your own following. You want an organic audience, one that will be interested in your campaigns. It may take longer to build up, but it’s a following that will last.

    And a following that will earn you money.

    4. You Post at the Wrong Times

    Your target audience has a time of day that they are most active on social media. Whether you go for the early birds who are checking their feeds first thing in the morning or the night owls who love to scroll the feed after dark. Chances are there’s a “window of opportunity” that you should be shooting for.

    So don’t go posting at random times throughout the day. If you’re posting outside that window, your content will get lost in the feed by the time your audience does decide to sign in.

    Study your analytics, which most social media platforms provide for business accounts. Look to see when your posts get the most engagement. Find when the opportune time to post is.

    Then you’ll know when your content will reach the most followers.

    5. You’re Not Making Your Content Shareable

    Just because you now don’t use every social media account under the sun doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make your content shareable to them all, right?

    People love to share content they find interesting or particularly helpful. And the more they share, the more people will see your stuff. Word of mouth is sometimes the best form of advertising!

    If their friend trusts you, then why shouldn’t they, right?

    Enable all your posts to be shared on other platforms. Place those share buttons where they can easily be seen. Let them pin to Pinterest or click to tweet on Twitter.

    Talk about more bang for your buck.

    6. Ignoring Influencer Marketing

    As we already discussed, social media is about building relationships, not direct selling. And what better way than to use a social media influencer to promote your brand!

    Influencers already have a mass following and they have a strong relationship with their audience. People love to see what products they use and services they rely on, then they quickly turn around and buy the same stuff.

    By using an influencer, you’re not selling to the masses, they are. But it comes across to the audience as very organic and “real”, not pitchy. That’s the kind of marketing social media will eat up.

    7. Not Using Video Ads

    People are tired of seeing the same old ads. They need something new and eye-catching! And what better way than to showcase your brand in a video? Not only will it be visually appealing, it will also give a “face” to the brand–something that is so important on social media.

    Connecting on a more personal level with you will keep your customers coming back.

    Now Your Social Media Campaign Will Pop

    With just a few changes, and mixing up how you connect with your audience, you’ll see your social media following (and your profits) continue to grow.

    Want to learn more about how social media campaigns can work for you? Be sure to check out our blog or contact us to find out how we can help you grow your business!

  • Facebook Overview Presentation

    Download the Facebook overview presentation here: Facebook-overview

  • On Page SEO Analysis: How to Measure Success

    The only thing more important than having an SEO campaign is having a successful one. The only way to ensure this is to reach your goals.

    How can you determine if you’re reaching them?

    Well, if you can’t measure what you’re doing, then this becomes impossible. The key is to consistently measure different aspects of your campaign, so you know what requires improvement.

    Maybe you’ll find you need to switch up your keywords. Or maybe the content needs a new direction. Whatever it may be, you will need a means to track data so you can perform an on page SEO analysis.

    There are various tools you can use to do that. In this guide, we’ll cover some of the things you should measure to reach your campaign goals.

    Ignore Vanity Metrics

    It’s very easy to get swept up into the world of vanity metrics. Receiving a high amount of traffic, followers and user engagement doesn’t mean anything if it’s not converting into sales.

    This is where many businesses mess up. They believe that the end result is getting a boatload of traffic. Then they’re left wondering why it’s not helping their bottom line.

    Make sure you’re looking at the conversion rates more than anything else. Without improving this, you’re not succeeding.

    Focus On Conversion Rates

    What does it matter if your website reaches to the number one page on Google if it’s not boosting your sales? Now, there are different ways you can track this. For instance, you can take all the traffic coming into your site based on a particular keyword.

    Then you can see how much of the traffic is converting. Now, there are different types of conversions. For example, you can track how many calls or forms are completed from organic search. Or how many Google My Business calls you received.

    Track everything, so you can better perform an on page SEO analysis.

    Use Dynamic Numbers to Keep Track of Calls

    You may wonder how you can track calls from your campaigns. One way of doing so is to insert dynamic numbers. This is an essential part of your SEO strategy. It will greatly help on page SEO analysis.

    You can use tools like CallRail and Call Tracking Metrics to help track the source of your incoming calls. It’s better than using a call tracking number.

    If you don’t already know, your NAP (name, address and phone number) must be consistent on the web. Then as an added bonus, you can set it up so that your dynamic numbers have goals in Google Analytics.

    Find out which landing pages are responsible for generating the most calls.

    Determine the Quality of Your Traffic

    Now, the quality of your traffic is key because it’s what will determine whether it’s worth your time, money and effort. If you’re spending thousands on SEO and getting a bunch of traffic from the wrong audience, then you’re wasting time.

    It’s important to measure the quality of your SEO traffic to avoid this. There’s a report in Google Analytics you can use called the Assisted Conversions report. Activate this report and you can use it to see data based on a date range.

    For example, you can look at the last month and compare it to the previous period. A month-to-month comparison from search is what you’re left with. This will tell you about conversions related directly to search and conversions where search played a role but wasn’t the direct cause of the conversion.

    For instance, someone found your site using search, but then they returned directly and then converted. These reports are valuable for your on page SEO analysis. They help you to see both the decline and improvement in your search traffic conversion rates.

    If there’s a decline in your search conversions, but still have a steady flow of organic traffic, then this means your search traffic is low-quality.

    On the other hand, if you see an uptick in conversions from search traffic after refining your keywords, then your traffic is now good quality.

    Set Dollar Values for Your SEO Traffic

    If you’re like most businesses, you want to know the return on investment your SEO brings. You can determine this by assigning a dollar value to your organic search traffic.

    The first step is to identify the cost of buying the keywords for a Google AdWords campaign. With your Adwords connected to your Google Analytics, you can review the Queries. Afterward, go to the Keyword Planner and select ‘Get search volume data and trends.’

    Enter your top keywords from the Queries report, then hit ‘Get search volume.’ Next, click on ‘Keyword Ideas.’ You’ll see a suggested bid amount for each of the keywords, which is an estimate for the per click rate advertisers are paying.

    Now, take a look at all your traffic-driving keywords and check to see how many clicks they get. Then estimate the per-click cost. The total comes from multiplying the cost per click by the number of clicks.

    Here, you have the value of each of your keywords.

    Get Help with Your On Page SEO Analysis

    It’s alright if some of this stuff went over your head. You’re a business owner, not a marketer, so it’s natural that you lack the knowledge of running a successful SEO campaign.

    That doesn’t mean you should give up on having one. You can hire an SEO agency to handle it for you. At Fanatically Digital, we have a team of online marketing professionals.

    We can analyze your SEO performance, build a plan from scratch, and even assist with paid search marketing. Not only do we help with on page SEO, but off page SEO as well. This includes social media and email marketing.

    Need help with content and editorial calendars? We’ve got you covered. Contact us today to see how we can improve your business’s SEO.

  • SEO Analytics: How They Boost Business

    mag glass on keyboardYou know how shops run the numbers at the end of the day? It’s a daily activity to check the financials and how much money came through the door. Well, the web equivalent to that is SEO analytics.

    SEO analytics tracks and reports the site’s performance.

    You’d imagine every site owner would do this… you’d be wrong.

    Here’s what to know about putting analytics into effect.

    The Quick Wins of SEO Analytics

    Most businesses are collecting data but aren’t using it. This leaves them at a major disadvantage. It’s equal to operating the business where the only KPI used is whether they’ve made money.

    The SEO analytics is more than a collection of data.

    • Identifies customers and demographics
    • Sets a performance baseline used to track growth
    • Uncovers (potential) profitable queries
    • Helps the business understand customer interaction

    … and let’s not forget the wonderful search engine placement boost that comes along with refining high-performing pages!

    Let’s dig into those quick wins:

    Demos

    The data collected with Google Analytics provides your business with detailed visitor demographics. This information refines the message when writing website copy and marketing materials.

    1. Open Google Analytics
    2. Click Audience -> Overview

    Use this opportunity to look at the demographics and interests. Rework targeted campaigns for these keywords in ad placement. This refined approach saves money (from wasted clicks) while improving your market segment reach.

    Baseline

    Many website owners use traffic as the main KPI. Yet, it’s the conversions that matter — whether someone is buying.

    Do this:

    1. Set up conversion tracking with Google
    2. Record current traffic and conversions
    3. Check weekly to see performance and growth

    The baseline you’ve just created gives insight when applying growth strategies you’ve learned or have in place. It will tell what’s working (and what’s not). Then, it’s reapplying the effective strategies to improve traffic and conversions.

    Queries

    The long-tail is those queries people use, when searching, to find specific information. It’s the difference between “bicycle” and “where to buy Huffy 10-speed mountain bike”.

    Find these by doing this:

    1. Click on Acquisition in Google Analytics
    2. Drop down ‘All Traffic’ and open ‘Channels’
    3. Click on ‘Organic Search’

    Here you will find the search queries people use to find your site. Dig around and you’ll find plenty of keywords and long-tail phrases you could use to form content.

    Interaction

    The SEO analytics will reveal how visitors use your website — what they do once they’re on the page.

    This is found by:

    1. Clicking on ‘Behavior’
    2. Opening the ‘Behavior Flow’

    It looks messy but each of these visual items provides extra details about the visitor interaction. You could use this information to remove low-quality pages. Or, refine and improve conversions on performing pages.

    —

    SEO analytics is extremely powerful once you understand the platform and service. The “quick wins” are those you could perform today (after reading this post). But, what about a year from now? Or several?

    The Long Game of SEO Analytics

    The analytics will ultimately guide your online business efforts. It’s the same reaction you’d have at a shop if you noticed an item flying off the shelves. You’d double-down on what’s working while removing the low-performing activities.

    There are quite a few long-term benefits of starting SEO analytics early:

    • Discover quality upsells and cross-promotions
    • Repurpose content into new, marketable assets
    • Improve search rankings by tweaking on/off-page elements

    These are benefits that’ll form 6 months to a year from now. They’re massive improvements you can do today. Improvements Google will recognize (and reward) as your search listings update and settle.

    Most small businesses rarely undertake these long-term strategies.

    They tend to place more effort in building new assets (in hopes of raising traffic) rather than refining what’s already performing. The smart ones will hand the work to SEO professionals — those dedicated to the process.

    Think you’re up to the challenge? Try these:

    Easy Money-Makers

    Did you know? It’s 50% easier to sell to existing customers.

    We know — “duh!” — but our next question is: Are you offering more? As in, do you provide upsells and cross-sells to the customer during shopping or checkout? If not, you’re missing a wonderful opportunity to increase the transaction.

    The analytics gives us the user demographics. We use this information to find related products in our industry. Or, complementary products from related businesses. Then, they’re sourced and included on the site.

    The addition of these items continues to evolve with the analytical data. In 6 months, you’ll offer something different based on visitor trends.

    Repurposing

    Old content is given a new life when it’s updated or repackaged. The easiest way to do so is by taking old blog content and reworking them into:

    • Downloadables
    • Slideshows
    • Infographics

    This saves time on development (since it’s already done). The new format lets you share the piece on new platforms. Exposure to this information — in the preferred medium of the platform — drives traffic to the site.

    A large site could have thousands of these pieces.

    Fresh Content

    Evergreen content is meant to last.

    It’s the type of relevant content today or 10 years from now. Though times change and some of its information may become dated. Don’t let this piece rot.

    Use the analytics to find low-to-mid performing “money” pages. Update them with fresh information. Do this every few months.

    Aim for this:

    • A yearly revision of your major content pieces
    • Updated SEO practices while you’re on the page
    • Build new backlinks to this existing content

    The piece continues to promote your brand and offers. It will keep its placement in search engines despite new competition. This means a continual flood of traffic that converts.

    Quick Wins? Long Game? We’re Here to Help

    We understand your frustration with SEO analytics. It’s a mess of information… but you’re magically supposed to know how to use it. We don’t blame those small business owners not using the stuff — it’s a lot of work!

    We love that work.

    SEO is our passion and we’d love to work with you. We’ve helped many businesses improve their online rankings throughout the years. Our work has boosted their bottom lines — perhaps it’s time for yours, as well?

    Get in touch (800.861.9940).

  • Top Social Media Trends of 2017 & How They Impact Your Marketing Strategy

    If you thought social media wasn’t relevant to your marketing or advertising campaign, think again. The social media trends of 2017 have had a massive impact on advertising and marketing strategies.

    The world now uses social media in every aspect of their lives. Facebook has 2 billion monthly users. YouTube is not far behind with 1.5 billion monthly users and WhatsApp has 1.2 billion monthly users as of February 2017.

    Social media marketing is not going anywhere and it’s become even more relevant for marketers and businesses to stay on top of social media trends if they want to continue to scale and increase their customer base.

    Social Media Trends of 2017

    Half of creating and executing an effective marketing plan is staying on top of social media trends. With social media changing rapidly over the years, it can be extremely difficult to stay on top of all the relevant platforms and social media tools.

    The social media trends of 2017 are no different. In 2016, written content such as blogs and tweets were all the rage; this year it’s video content. Some of the other social media trends of 2017 are social messaging (including Chatbots) and influencer marketing.

    I’m going to briefly go over each one of these very important social media trends, as they are sure to be just as relevant in 2018.

    Video Content

    Authenticity is the name of the game when it comes to social media marketing. As a result, consumers have become jaded with the usual static ads.

    Because of this competitiveness, consumers are now searching for something different; they want to know and buy from the person behind the product or as commonly known to marketers, they want to connect with the brand.

    Nearly every social media platform around now has an option for users to create, share and connect using video.

    Video options on Facebook and Instagram have rapidly proliferated during 2017. On Facebook, you now have Facebook Live which allows marketers and brands to live stream directly to their followers.

    This has led people to consume media in a different way. According to this infographic, 80% of people would rather watch a live video than read a blog.

    Not only is it important for brands to create a video in order to connect with their consumers, they also have to invest in quality production and quality content. 67% of viewers say that quality is the most important factor when viewing a video.

    And on top of that other social media platforms have various other ways for you to reach people via video. Instagram has rolled out a live streaming feature and has an option to upload video to your profile picture commonly known as an Instagram story. YouTube has launched a cable package called YouTube TV.

    Not surprisingly, YouTube is set to surpass the viewership that television has.

    Facebook live, Instagram stories, Snapchat, and YouTube has ushered in a new craze for video. The use of video is the new and improved type of content that’s a must-have for any marketing or advertising strategy. Utilizing video content is definitely one of the biggest social media trends of 2017.

    Social Messaging

    Reaching consumers through their email inboxes used to be the best way to build a relationship with them. Now, since email marketing has become so crowded with other marketers, it’s become more difficult to reach people via their inboxes.

    Text messaging or using messenger apps are now the preferred way for millennials to communicate with one another. Millennials are now the largest generation alive in America today so it’s important to follow the trends of these consumers.

    Believe it or not, 9 out of 10 consumers want the ability to communicate with brands via text messaging. However, less than half of consumers have the ability to fulfill this need.

    Utilizing new tools such as Chatbots on Facebook can help your business stay ahead of the curve. Chatbots is an automated conversation that can help you build a relationship with potential consumers without having to actually speak to each one individually.

    Chatbots can allow you to get in front of consumers very easily because it allows you to find your customers right where they’re at; in their phones! Social messaging is definitely another hot social media trend of 2017 that’s not going away anytime soon.

    Influencer Marketing

    Influencer marketing is hot right now and is likely here to stay. What exactly is influencer marketing? According to Forbes, influencer marketing is a non-promotional approach to marketing where brands pay influencers who have large social media followings that consist of the brand’s ideal clients to give their opinion on the brand’s products or services.

    In this way, the brand is promoting their products and/or services in an indirect way which is more effective because the consumers already like, know and trust the influencer reviewing their products which makes the consumers more likely to purchase.

    The Best Way to Stay on Top of the Social Media Trends of 2017

    It is extremely difficult for businesses to stay on top of all the new emerging, yet relevant social media trends. However, it is crucial to know what your consumers are doing and what’s relevant to them in order to keep your business revenue increasing.

    Hiring a specialized team to help you strategize and implement those strategies is crucial to the success of executing your marketing and advertising goals.

    Here at Fanatically Digital, we specialize in content marketing, social media marketing, and email marketing. We’re experts in creating the type of relevant content that’s going to make your consumers love your brand whether that be in the form of videos, whitepapers, or simple blog posts.

    Our content marketing plan will help target your ideal client and ideas, strategies and tactics to reach and engage them. Read more about our services here and make sure to contact us to learn more about how we can put together a comprehensive plan for your business.

  • 7 Great SEO Solutions to Boost Sales for Businesses

    Do you want to boost sales for your business? With the right SEO solutions, you can increase your site’s visibility in Google, generate leads and win more customers.

    But SEO can be intimidating to a business owner. When you’ve already got plenty on your plate, you might not know where to start when it comes to optimizing your website for search engines.

    In this in-depth post, we’ll dive into what SEO actually means and how you can use it to boost business. Keep reading to learn our best SEO solutions.

    What Is SEO?

    You’ve likely heard the acronym before. It stands for search engine optimization, which is a digital marketing tactic to increase the visibility of a website in a web search engine’s unpaid results. Basically, it’s a way of attracting customers to your website on the Internet.

    By implementing SEO solutions for your website, you’re working to increase your traffic through organic search engine results. Doing this the right way increases both the quality and quantity of traffic your website receives.

    Acquiring quality traffic means that people are coming to your site because you offer what they’re looking for. When you have the right people coming to your site, you’ll definitely want to increase the quantity of that traffic. That’s where organic traffic – meaning traffic that you don’t have to pay for – comes into play.

    SEO Solutions to Boost Sales

    If you don’t know where to start, here are 7 SEO solutions to implement into your strategy.

    1. User Experience

    The best place to start with SEO is to optimize your website for a friendly user experience. Search engines determine your site’s ranking by your website architecture, meaning how easy it is to navigate your site and how long it takes the site to load. URL structure and page coding are the biggest things the search engines look for.

    If your site is laid out well, users will have a better experience and stay on it longer. Search engines take into account how quickly visitors leave your site or how often they take action on your site. When users can’t easily find what they’re looking for, they’ll be quick to leave.

    Ideally, your site should point users to take action. Direct them to make an online purchase, send you an email or visit other pages on your site.

    2. Keyword Research

    The way you attract the right audience to your website is by using the right keywords that they will be searching for. What words and phrases that customers type into Google or Bing’s search box are called keywords and keyword phrases. To rank higher in the search engines, you need to incorporate the keywords into your web content and site tags.

    It’s important to understand your customers’ needs to find the right keywords. You’ll always need to research what keywords your competition ranks for. Use a free tool like Google Keyword Planner to perform keyword research.

    When incorporating keywords into your website, you must do it wisely and naturally. The search engines know when they’re being tricked, and will rank your site accordingly. Use keywords in places where they make sense, and incorporate them into our photo tags, page titles, headers and written content.

    3. Content Marketing

    Providing excellent content is one of the best SEO solutions to boost business. The right content drives customers to make a purchase, visit a landing page and enter their email address.

    Your web content covers everything from testimonials and blog posts to videos and photos. The text and images should be appealing and attractive, describing in clear detail what your business is about. Make your content relevant to your target audience to make your site more discoverable by search engines.

    4. Link Building

    An SEO solution to gaining more organic traffic to your site is to have other influential sites linking back to yours. This helps you gain publicity and drive traffic to your site.

    Start by sharing links to your website on your social media channels. Use your site links in your marketing emails as well. Reach out to other website owners to include links to your website where it is relevant.

    5. Publicity

    Generate traffic to your website by gaining publicity and awareness for your business. Do this by getting bloggers and other online influencers to talk about your product or service. They will ultimately provide authoritative backlinks that drive users to your site.

    6. Social Media Promotion

    If you use social media correctly, you can drive more quality traffic to your website. With more people clicking links to your site from social media, search engines will be able to index your site pages quicker.

    Include all of your company’s details – name, address, phone number, hours of operation – on your social media channels. This signals to the search engines that the contact information on your website and social media sites are a legitimate match, giving you a boost in rankings.

    7. Analytics

    Check your website analytics often to measure the results of your SEO solutions. Google Analytics will help you see where your traffic is coming from and how users are interacting with the content on your site. This tool can help you see if people are using your keywords and keyword phrases to find your site.

    Through Google Analytics, you can also see how many people are finding your site through Facebook, Pinterest or other social platforms. The reports also show you how much time people are spending on your site. This valuable information can help you adjust your SEO tactics to fit your target audience.

    Implementing SEO Solutions

    SEO is a great way to generate leads and boost sales in business. With these 7 SEO solutions, you’ll have an effective strategy in place to gain more organic traffic to your business’s website.

    If the process still seems overwhelming or you simply don’t have the time to do it, check out our SEO services.

    Contact us today to learn how we can help you increase your online presence while you tend to your strengths within your business.

  • Business to Business Sales & Website Strategy

    We all like to think that we, or at least our functions, are critical to the success of our company. In fact, our roles should be, or the roles should not exist. The question many companies face is one of emphasis; where do we put our budgets.

    Companies that have a long history of direct or premise sales teams often put a great deal of weight on the impact of an independent sales department. And in many industries, that is still valid. The question the companies need to answer for digital marketing, first and foremost, is what role the website plays in the overall sales strategy?

    Understanding the role of the website is pivotal to developing the site’s strategy and how you engage in SEO and digital advertising.

    Websites and the sales process

    Websites As Sales Support

    When sales departments focus on networking, cold calling and relationship development, they develop prospect lists the old fashion way. They are pounding the pavement, hitting the phones, and shaking hands.

    The role of the website tends to be in support of the sales efforts. It often becomes the repository of product information, technical specs, and event presentations. It is a place that salespeople can direct prospects to for more information and even walk them through materials. The material is not gated (no email or form submission required), it is made to be easily accessible.

    This type of site can help with SEO, but the intent is not lead generation. The purpose of the site it to help salespeople close business. The site content is written in a way to help buyers understand the product more deeply, understand the company better, and move forward in the sales process. Writing content for this type of user is quite different than writing content for people just entering the market.

    Websites as Lead Generators

    Even for heavy industry clients, websites are becoming a source of valuable leads. By using tools like Pardot or Adobe Marketing Cloud, companies can set up their websites to quantify and qualify lead quality. When the prospect submits her information or request for more information from the company, good lead scoring schemas can help prioritize and direct the lead to give it the appropriate attention.

    When writing content for a site intended for lead generation, then you are writing for people toward the top of the purchase funnel. The content is often less about the details of a product than about the applications of it, categorical content, and attributes that may be searched for by potential buyers.  This is a very different way to approach website content.

    Often, lead generation sites will gate some content. When this is done, companies have to be sure that the content is truly valuable to the buyer. The last thing you want to do is frustrate a person by wasting their time before you even have a chance to speak with them.

    Content for Both Lead Gen SEO  & Sales Support

    With the basic premise of marketing being that you know your audience and cater your message accordingly, you can develop parts of your site for sales support as well as lead generation. Before the time is invested (and money), to cover the spectrum, be sure of two things:

    1. That the sales organization will support and use the tools. Creating a sales support site to which salespeople don’t direct prospects is clearly a waste of resources. The same goes for leads that the sales team does not take seriously. Make sure you have buy-in, particularly if you have a strong cultural leaning one way or the other.
    2. Develop and write for the sections of your site specifically for the target group. Slapping a submit form on a page does not make it a lead gen page. Be sure content, structure, and functions are geared to the audience for whom the section of the site is intended.

    Once you have acceptance from the sales team for your strategy – sales support, lead gen, or both – you can start your website project. Keep the sales team involved as you do this. Salespeople are notoriously focused on the next opportunity. If you are out of site, you will soon be out of mind and you will risk losing their support. Find opportunities to involve them at various points in the process; keep them engaged.

    By determining your website strategy upfront and getting buy-in from the sales team, you’ll find it is easier to develop content and prioritize your SEO strategy and tactics.

  • Top 6 SEO Things To Discuss with WordPress Developers For A New Site

    WordPress is a great CMS. But, if it is not setup properly, there can be a lot of SEO “fixes” that agencies have to do in order to get programs started. By talking with the developers well before they start customizing and developing, you will end up with a site that looks great and is SEO friendly.

    Creating Websites

    It helps to understand that good website creation is a multi-disciplinary project. There are four primary areas of responsibility.

    Business owners, these are not necessarily the legal owners of the company, but the people who are charged with understanding the objectives of the site and the target markets.

    Designers are creative and user experience (UX) specialists who ensure the site looks good, key functions are accessible, and it is easy to navigate.

    Developers are a crucial component from a technical perspective; they do your coding and make sure the site works.

    And SEO is a fourth specialty needed to ensure the site can index properly in search engines.

    One of the strengths and simultaneous weaknesses of WordPress is that it is easy to launch a site without having any of these expertise. With the myriad of templates, novices can launch a halfway decent looking site without knowing anything about design, development, or SEO. But, therein lies the problem.

    If you are launching a website that is intended for more than just a couple hundred visits a month, at the very least, you will want to get a developer who specializes in WordPress. They can ensure your site is setup to scale with the proper plugins and customizations. If you don’t do this, your site may look okay, but it will slow down and some functionality may stop if there is too much traffic. The developers however, may need to be reminded about SEO functionality as you work with them.

    SEO Issues in WordPress

    One of the first things to understand about SEO is that it is not static. A given page will be edited over time (maybe over short or long periods, but it will change). So, when your developer tells you they’ll “SEO the site” when they are developing, don’t stop there. The site must be developed in such a way that you can edit the key SEO areas easily.

    In our experience there are six areas that are frequently overlooked when developing for SEO. Talk with your developer before they start work and be sure they cover the following:

    Title tags

    Title tags provide the content that the search engines typically show on the first line of the search results. It is also the first level of content indicators for the search engines. What you put in the title tells the search engines the subject matter of the page. All things flow from this.

    Meta Descriptions

    This is a block of text that the search engines usually display in the search results right below the title and URL. While the search engines don’t use this for ranking, it is your “sales” message to the searchers… why they should click on the SERP for your page.

    We cover more about the SEO of these areas here. These are really your first pitch (and perhaps only pitch) to prospects using Google, Bing, Yahoo! or other engines. You will find yourself changing the Meta Description and Title to increase clicks, experimenting with different messages and calls to action.

    If you don’t designate these tags, the engines will populate the SERPs dynamically, giving you no control. Our favorite plugin for this part of SEO is Yoast. Have your developer install the plugin.

    H1 Tags

    This is a big one. The H1 tag, like the title tag, provides another indicator to the search engines as to the subject matter they should expect. For many WP templates, the Page Name is pulled into the page and make the H1 tag. We like this.

    Here is Where H1 Tags Go Wrong.

    We see sites with no H1 tags and we see sites with multiple H1 tags on a page. There should be only one (1) H1 tag per page.

    No H1 tag and you miss an opportunity. More than one, and you confuse the content indicators.

    When developers create or edit templates, they either don’t pull in the Page Name as an H1 (they’ll use “Strong” or custom CSS), or they use H1 in the template in multiple places. Sometimes the default style of the H1 looks good as a section title, so they use it there.

    Have your developer use the H1 tag only once on a page and implement in a way that you can easily edit it. The Page Name is a good field to use for editing this.

    Image Alt Attributes

    Images are a great way to enhance the content on your web pages. But, search engines are not great at determining the content of images. So, each image tag has an “alt” attribute. This is simply a description of what is in the image. It is a great way to provide more signals to the search engines about the subject matter on the page and to improve image search results.

    When customizing WordPress, developers often forget to pull in the alt attribute that is entered when you first upload an image to the media library. Be sure images that are programmatically set have the alt attribute as well. (For images that you add manually, you can add the alt attribute to the tag.)

    Navigation Menus

    WordPress has a great menu functionality built into it. It provides the ability to create and edit multiple menus, changing anchor text, links, ordering, and menu placement on the site. When you work with a developer, you may unwittingly request functionality that causes them to bypass the native menu functionality in WordPress. Be sure you will always have control of the menus.

    XML Sitemaps

    Sitemaps are lists of the pages on your site. They also have other information about relative page priority, update frequency, and other metadata. This is a good way to keep search engines up to date on site content.

    WordPress does not automatically create sitemaps. But, the Yoast SEO plugin mentioned above can do this, as well as other plugins. Just be sure that if you have two plugins installed that are capable of creating the XML Sitemap, only one is actually doing so.

    If you work with your developer to ensure you have flexibility to edit these key areas, you will be able to optimize your pages easily and quickly. While not exhaustive, this list provides a good starting point for creating a WordPress site that you can get to index and rank with the search engines.

  • Writing for SEO

    We have long known that search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo! have moved beyond the single keyword. Semantic search has been part of the dialogue for quite a while now. But what does that mean for good SEO page content? Well, it means good content got more complicated, yet still logical.

    Google has said, for years, that we should write for the users, not the search engines. At the beginning (15+ years ago), that was difficult. When search engines rewarded keyword stuffing and single-term focused page content, they put good SEO in direct opposition to quality writing. With semantic search, that changed.

    Write Naturally

    When we speak about a topic, we rarely use the same word too repetitively. For most topics there are multiple ways to refer to the subjects, and we tend to pepper our speech with these variations. When writing for almost anything other than SEO, our natural tendency is to also vary the way we reference ideas, items, or people. This same approach is critical for creating content on the web site; it reads better and is better for organic search.

    If you are not sure where to start, think back to how we learned to write papers in grammar school. We started with an outline, and worked our way to an essay or report by working through the elements of the outline. For the search engines, a page on your website is structured in exactly the same way.

    Logical Content Structure

    Every page starts with an overarching topic. This topic can then be divided into subtopics that help explain or elaborate on the overall content theme.

    In school, we created outlines. In HTML structure, we use Title and H tags.

    1. Title:   Only 1. Main theme, content area
    2. <h1>:  Only 1. Different words, same theme as Title
      1. <h2>: sub header
      2. <h2>: sub header
        1. <h3>: sub header
        2. <h3>: sub header
      3. <h2>: sub header
        1. <h3>:sub header
        2. <h3>: sub header
          1. <h4>: sub header

    The html Title and H tags are not something you see as a reader, but you do see the content. These tags “wrap” the content so the search engines can see the structure of your page.

    For each H tag header or subheader, we write content directly related to the topic. A small paragraph can be sufficient, but there should be enough content to make your point.

    What if a single subheader has a lot of content unto itself? This is not uncommon, and usually indicates that you have another theme to explore. In these cases, you write a small bit of content for this page, and link to a new page that elaborates on the sub-topic as it’s main theme.

    As an example, if your content is about employee productivity, many of the subtopics are worthy of their own pages. Worker productivity increases with training or improved morale. Certainly these are proper subtopics to productivity as well as worthy of their own pages.

    So, how much subtopic material should be on this page? This is where your qualitative assessment must come into play. As a reader, if you begin to wonder if the topic is about productivity or about employee morale, then you’ve diluted the primary topic too much with subtopic content. There is no magic formula, so use your judgement or ask others to review the article.

    Creating Quality Content

    You have your outline, and you’ve created decent blocks of content, but you’re not done yet. The search engines are grading your content on several levels, and one of them is quality of writing.

    No one is looking for Pulitzer level writing, but you have to have the basics covered. Google is able to assess spelling and grammar in page content. While we can’t say how much weight is given, and how “wrong” it can be before it’s a problem, Google has indicated that the quality of the writing is part of the overall page assessment.

    Let’s face it, what the search engines are asking from us is that we create relevant content that users can easily consume. Their algorithms are simply now aligning to the goals that they’ve been articulating for the past 15+ years.