Keyword Research |

January 20, 2015

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How To Choose The Right Keywords For Your Business

Researching Keywords

Source: Maple Wood Web Design

Planning Content For SEO

Many of you have likely heard the phrase “Content is king.” Publishing content is a search engine optimization technique used to rank for keywords and keyword phrases. For those of you that don’t understand search engine optimization, this is a process of techniques that are used to increase your visibility online. Content plays a vital role in the online world, every website uses some type of content planning for SEO. Most plan their content knowingly, others may not. If you don’t plan your content out or you haven’t begun publishing content yet, take this information to heart. Before you publish your next article, post, or page, you need to make sure you choose the right keywords.

So, how can you choose the right keywords? In this article, we’re going to explore how you can research the right keywords for your website, blog or business. So before you start your content, you need to take the time to start building your keyword list to plan your content around. Let’s start determining which keywords that you need to target and why.

Choosing The Correct Keywords For Your Business

While it’s never too late to start using the correct keywords, those of you that have a lot of published post and pages will need to re-evaluate your keyword panel. If your keywords are working for you, the changes may be easy for some. If your not seeing traffic and sales, obviously the keywords you have chose are not working and need to be evaluated. Choosing the correct keywords for your business is vital to your success online. This is an area where inexperienced SEOs and webmasters fail.

There’s a number of different ways to figure out which keywords work best for your business. Easier said then done though. You could be at a stage where your more advanced then others, perhaps others are just starting out, I’ll touch on as much as I see appropriately. Your keywords are going to be based on your business, your services or your products. For our example, we’ll take a look at the keyword “Social Media Marketing.” There’s thousands of companies that offer social media marketing. If a company is offering it as a service, then it would be a good keyword to target, right? Let’s analyze it.

How To Choose The Best Keywords

Keyword Research

Now, if you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see that we researched the keyword social media marketing to see how many monthly searches the keyword gets. This is only one element of the keyword. We see that the competition level for the keyword is 84 percent, which represents that it’s a high competition keyword. Social media marketing gets 18,000 searches in the United States and over 60,000 globally. We also see that this keyword has an ad cost of around $14.02 per click.

When your researching keywords for your business or project, you need to be extremely careful choosing the keywords you want to target. This is where many SEOs, webmasters and business professionals make mistakes. We already know the results from the keyword, social media marketing. It has everything you look for, right? High traffic, locally and globally. The bid is high, we’d much rather rank this keyword organically. The competition is high, but we’ve ranked high competition keywords before.

Although this keyword has everything you want, social media marketing may not be a good keyword to target. Now, there’s some factors in this decision. An authority aged domain would have an easier time ranking for this keyword then a start-up or website that has less authority. This matters, if my website is an 60-80 percent authority rating, I could target the keyword with success, but it still is a broad keyword. Social media marketing is used for a variety of different purposes, which makes is that much harder to rank for.

Rather then using a broad keyword like social media marketing, I’m willing to research more keywords and try to find keywords that would better describe the services or products that I offer.

Keyword Research

Keyword Results And Suggestions For Social Media Marketing

When researching your keywords, most popular keywords have a diamond in the rough and the same can be said for social media marketing. When we did our keyword search, we found the keyword marketing by social media. This keyword has nearly double the amount of searches, has a lower ad bid and only 29 percent competition. If this keyword reflects what your business does, which it does in our example, we’d rather target this keyword over social media marketing.

Targeting The Right Keyword And Audience

Every SEO campaign or project is different, it doesn’t matter if you have two cases that are in the same niche and field. Circumstances are always different. One thing that will never change is the importance of targeting the right keyword and audience. The right keyword will bring the right audience, only when your keyword choice is correct. Confusing? Perhaps a little, so let me explain.

At Hale Web Development, most of our clients are start-ups. The other portion are commonly those who have seen failure with their SEO attempts. We do our audit, evaluate their website and we determine a plan based on their needs. We are often asked to rank their keywords. When I research their keywords, I find that all of them have extensive search volumes. I get the thinking behind it, but this is the wrong manner to choose your keywords.

Keywords That Bring Conversions

Again, it all depends on your project, but you should never go down the line choosing high volume keywords only. You have to keep conversion in mind when choosing your keywords. Just because it is a keyword that has high volume doesn’t mean that the keyword is right for you. Makes sense, right? You have to open up a whole new level of researching keywords and that is keeping conversions in mind.

Once you get your keywords together, make sure you evaluate them. Get signed up with Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. If you’re doing marketing, SEO, you need some SEO software as well. We use SEO Profiler. You have Moz, Raven Tools, there’s a variety of SEO software providers that can be used. Analytics and Webmaster Tools are great if you don’t have anything, but you’re going to need more.

Back to keywords and conversions, what are you offering? Likely a service or product, right? SEO is used for organic traffic, so which keywords should we target? It should be keywords that describe that product, that describe that service. Why? Because that’s how we get organic conversions.

Let me explain this better. For example, I have a store online and I sell shirts for men. The ultimate goal is to sell shirts. Since shirts are my product, it only makes sense to target keywords that users can search for to find my products. It doesn’t do me any good to target pants or women’s shirts, I sell men’s shirts. In simple terms, your products are your keywords. You either try to rank for it organically or you pay Google for ads.

Keyword Ranking Factors

Every website has different keyword ranking factors, so results are always going to vary. Important to keep in mind. If you have a new website, it can take a long time before you’ll see your keywords ranking. With all the changes with Google, domain age is an important website metric. New websites are at a disadvantage from the get go, but don’t let it discourage you. SEO is a process that takes time and effort. Once you gain trust from Google and authority websites, the keyword ranking process becomes quicker and more efficient.

Growing your page authority, domain authority, link index value, Moz trust rank, all of these website metrics are important. As you grow these metrics over time, you should see increases in your keyword rankings across the board. The more authority your website has, the quicker your keywords will rank. You’ll be able to rank new keywords quicker and you should see content being indexed quicker also.

Optimizing Your Keywords

Optimizing keywords is probably the most important SEO technique that you need to apply and watch out on your website. Sometimes it can be very difficult for website owners who are not familiar with the SEO process. Developing content and link building strategies that grow your audience, build your brand, and increase your SEO and revenue is crucial for your business. OutreachMama has the latest info and strategies on how to do this.”

Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing |

December 26, 2014

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How Does SEO And SMM Work Together?

SEO And SMM Optimization

SEO And SMM Benefits

SEO and SMM are like peanut butter and jelly, eggs and bacon, we get the analogy. You can’t have one without the other, or at the least, you don’t want too. SEO and social media work great together for a number of different reasons that we’ll get into detail in this article. According to a lot of different elite SEO communities and metric websites, social media controls 7 out of the top 10 SEO ranking factors for 2015. I’ve studied several case studies at the end of the year and after evaluating the data, I believe it to be true. At the least, we’re looking at 5 out of 10. None the less, SEO and social media are crucial to the success of your website.

Many business owners and webmasters searching for SEO services believe that SEO is enough to make a business successful. After nearly 8 years of providing search engine optimization services, I can confidently say “SEO is not enough.” I’ve always been truthful with my clients before we begin the long journey of search engine optimization. Can SEO take your business to another level. Absolutely, it can, I’ve seen it time and time again. However, SEO can only get you so far.

Our monthly SEO packages at Hale Associations automatically come with social media marketing services. Very simple reason, because SEO is going social. We clearly see this with the new SEO ranking factors in 2015 and I’ve seen it in recent case studies. Social media metrics can help you increase your SEO metrics. The combination of the two is exactly what you need going into 2015 and beyond until we’re told otherwise.

SEO And SMM Optimization

Establish Your Social Platforms

One of the first orders of business is to establish your social platforms. Likely, if you’re already have an established website, you may already have some social platforms. If you don’t, you need to build your social communities. (4) social media platforms count toward your SEO rankings and include Google+, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. These are the four social platforms that are listed in our 2015 SEO ranking factors. It doesn’t mean that LinkedIn, YouTube and other social profiles won’t help. So do keep that in mind. You should have a general idea how much traffic is coming from your social websites. If not, you need to start tracking this with Google Analytic or some type of SEO software.

Building social communities takes a lot of work, and I mean a LOT of work. If you’re not promoting your website through social platforms, you likely have no clue how time consuming this can be. Sure, you can make a post in a minute and share it to all your platforms in 3 minutes with your software. Here’s the question, “how is that working for you?” If your social traffic is leading to sales and revenue, then awesome! Keep it up. If your social traffic is not buying anything or non-existent, time to make some changes.

I do a lot of training and speaking locally here in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. One word that often comes up in my marketing training is “human approach.” I use it all the time, our clients hear it all the time. What does human approach marketing mean? It’s very simple, your marketing efforts need to have a human approach. If your social media marketing looks automated, I doubt many people read it. You have to connect with your audience on a personal level to be successful. If you don’t content with your audience in terms they understand, you’ll never convert them.

I learned the hard way coming up as a young marketer. I loved marketing but I hated the time that it took, I didn’t have time for this. I wanted automation. I wanted an easy route. This is exactly why I failed at marketing for the first few months, I never connected with my audience on a personal level. I didn’t have the human approach. I’ve gone a little off topic, but I wanted to mention this because it’s critical in any type of marketing, social media marketing or elsewhere.

Building Engagement On Your Social Platforms

Be Active On Your Social Channels

 If you want to target the right type of traffic to your websites, you have to be active on your social platforms. All of your social platforms should have at least one new post a day. And just as we talked before, you need to make sure that your post have a human approach. If the pot doesn’t connect with the user, it’s likely that it won’t be read. Think about, when you’re on social media, why do you click on a post? You click because you find it interesting, you click on it because it’s useful. Yes! The human approach.

How many likes you get, shares you get, comments you get, retweets you get and pins, all of them matter. Getting the engagement and interaction going is not always easy, especially when you first start out and nobody knows you exist. It will take time, hard work and patience. The fastest way to grow your social platforms is by providing great high quality content.

Popular Social Post

Let’s talk about your social content for a moment. Some of the most popular social post are pictures, people love pictures. We all enjoy looking at a great picture. Infographics are one popular form of pictures. If your social post link back to you website, it’s an added benefit. Although social links are no follow links, you can benefit from it in terms of SEO. The value is little, but if your post lead to a call-of-action, it’s another added benefit.

The great thing about social media marketing is the fact that you can share other post to give your audience something great to read. You can always use this technique if you’re short on your own content.

Use Your Targeted Keywords In Social Content

Just how you target specific keywords in content on your website, you can do the same in your social post. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ all allow you to use #hashtags in your post. This is very important, all of your social post should contain at least one hashtag. This will allow users to possibly find your social post. You can concentrate on both main and secondary keywords. The more prominent your social platform becomes, the higher you will rank in social search engines.

Of course, before you do so, you’re going to need to know how to research keywords for your business. If you already have your keywords, then you can get straight to work.

When you publish a new article on your website, you should immediately share it on all your social platforms with the most relative keywords to the content. In some cases, this may free useful information. Perhaps, you did an article on a new product that you’re selling or looking to build a specific email list. There’s many purposes for sharing your content on your social platforms. The more you build your social communities, the more they will benefit long term.

Building Organic Traffic To Your Website

Organic Traffic VS Paid Traffic

Both SEO and SMM bring in organic traffic. In some of my studies, I learned that organic traffic is more likely to remain with you for the long term compared to paid traffic. Both organic traffic and paid traffic take an investment. With paid traffic, you have to invest your money. For organic traffic, you have to invest time and effort. If you’re paying for your SEO and SMM services, then you also have to invest money.

A lot of people think that SEO and SMM are different, but in many ways, they are two of the same. The combination of both search engine optimization and social media marketing can be enough to take your business to the next level. Likely, you’ll need other marketing techniqes mixed in but to the point, the combination of both are better then only SEO or SMM.

SEO Is More Then Just Ranking Keywords

Search engine optimization is a deep often misunderstood technique. There’s hundreds of techniques that could be classified as SEO. SEO is more then just ranking keywords. Rather, SEO is the process of optimizing your website and business to perform at a high level. The combination of SEO and other optimization techniques is the key that takes a business to another level. Understanding it all can be tough and honestly takes years to master. I thought the same when I was a young SEO. I quickly learned that SEO is just one part of the equation of success. SMM is another. Together, you give yourself the best benefit to growing your online website and business.

 

Search Engine Optimization |

December 7, 2014

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Search Engine Optimization Services; What Clients Need To Know

SEO And Client Relationships

Over the course of nearly 8 years, I thought I’ve seen every type of client personality you can when it comes to clients purchasing search engine optimization services. Well, long story short, I was wrong. Both client and SEO relationships can be strained for a variety of different reasons. You name it, any SEO or client that has been around the block knows these relationships. If this is your first time purchasing search engine optimization services, take the time to read this article. This will better prepare you before you step into the world known as SEO. And if you’re a new SEO or freelancer, there’s some great resources here to prepare you for the trip.

Search Engine Optimization Takes Time

If you’re looking for search engine optimization services that will bring you overnight success, forget about it. There’s no such thing. Sure, you can go with a black hat SEO and likely see quicker success from SEO efforts, but why risk your business that you’ve dedicated your time and efforts to? SEO takes time. Not a few days, not a few weeks, not even a month or two. SEO takes months and years. If you’re told different, good luck.

Here’s the thing, every SEO project is unique but different. There’s hundreds of factors that can determine the success and failure of search engine optimization. Start-up websites and young domains will always be at an disadvantage. Due to this, it’s going to take time to see first page rankings on Google. While some niches do have less competition, many are highly competitive and first page results are dominated by authority websites with high domain ages. Not to mention thousands of brands that are now getting a ranking boost thanks to Google’s last update.

Everyone considering SEO services should plan for long-term SEO, you have to be in it for the long run. There’s nothing easy about ranking a website among the world’s best. It’s a process that takes time and carefully strategies. While there’s a ton of bad SEOs out there, there’s also a lot of great ones. Competition is more fierce than ever. I guarantee every major brand out there has a SEO or marketing team in place, likely 100 times more than your current budget. If you’re in it for the long run, you can make up ground. The time it takes depends on many things.

Be Involved With Your SEO Expert

This is the best advice I can give you as a client. Make sure you’re involved with your SEO. I don’t mean emails every hour on the hour, but you should be in touch a few times a week. At the least, an email would do. Don’t expect to pay for your SEO and leave them to figure everything out. While some SEOs may prefer this, I want to take the time to learn the business. Anyone that has been a SEO for years knows that SEO alone is not enough to run a successful business. Search engine optimization is part of the equation, but not the total solution. It doesn’t matter how well you do SEO, if you’re not bringing in the bacon, your time is limited. Bottom line.

I always tell my clients, “anything you can share with me about the business, please do so.” I want to know everything. It takes time to build chemistry with a client, same for you with your SEO. SEO experts are technical gurus, not business majors. While we may have experience in niches, very few SEOs can be brought on to take over all online operations. Even less can do it successfully, but SEO is just one factor in online business. This is why I learn daily, I study daily, I don’t want my clients running off. Neither should you, so take the extra time needed to learn the business.

Think about that from a client perspective, if you think SEO is going to solve everything, it likely won’t. Especially if you have limited resources and funds. Ranking on the top of the first page is just part of the battle. Most people think they have it won then, but what if traffic isn’t converting? What if you have low CTR? Many clients come to us for SEO and we end up doing something else. Consider an evaluation to determine exactly what your business needs. At the least, get a consult.

I don’t even think I consider myself as a SEO anymore, I don’t even know what the proper term would be. I call it Web Development, but technically that is the wrong term to use. Bottom line, it’s all about sales, revenue and growth. That determines your job. You either sell a product or a service.

Back to clients, you should be willing to take the time to help your SEO in any way possible. Yes, you are paying for SEO services, but you should want your expert to know the business and what you expect. We can’t do this without you. If you want it done your way, give your SEO the proper information and intel to do so.

The Rise And Fall Of Your SEO Rankings

Keywords will rise, keywords will fall and everything between. Was you hoping to pay for 3 months of SEO and rank for the next 2 years? I wish it worked like this, but it doesn’t. Search engine optimization is a never ending battle. You’ll always have a need for SEO, especially for those of you that are competing against mid-level and major brands. Just because you hit the first page doesn’t mean that you will stay there.

Everyone wants to be the next big brand, the next big company. We all do. To get there takes hard work, dedication and a budget. I know some companies that pay $10,000 a month on SEO alone. How much is your monthly SEO budget? What are you looking for? I guarantee others are paying even more. The value of ranking first page for organic traffic is huge.

Ranking for some keywords will take time. This can be due to many SEO ranking factors. If you have a new website, no backlinks or no site content, this can be the reasoning behind not ranking. Keywords can be difficult because the level of competition or missing certain web metrics. Both content and links are two of the most important web metrics for keyword rankings. If you’re looking to hire a SEO, having content planned for your website can be a big benefit.

Make An Effort To Learn SEO

Every webmaster and anyone operating a website should have a basic understanding how search engine optimization works. Basic SEO is easy to learn, such as building internal links or learning how to optimize your content for SEO.  You need to learn these basic functions which will save you time and money. While basic SEO may not be enough to have you competing against larger brands, it can be enough to have a foundation.

At Hale Associations, we do provide SEO training for our clients. I tell clients about our website and more established domains on search engine optimization. Some SEO experts will take the time to explain the SEO process. If they don’t, ask them. Most of them will be willing to help. If for some reason they don’t, perhaps you should look elsewhere for services.

Research Before You Hire A SEO

If I had to estimate, I would say that 60 percent of our clients have reported a bad experience with prior SEO services. I hear a lot. In nearly all cases, we can evaluate the situation and determine why a website isn’t ranking. Even for SEOs, sometimes changes are out of our control, but it happens. In other situations, clients get scammed. It happens. Everywhere I turn, I see someone offering SEO. As a client looking for SEO services, it’s your responsibility to know who you hire.

Make the time to review your SEO. If a SEO expert is legit, they have nothing to worry about. Take the time to research for reviews. Read those reviews but also make sure it’s a trusted review website. While on-site testimonials can be true, you shouldn’t believe them. Many people use this as a marketing tactic. Look for a long proven track record of success. Remember though, everyone gets bad reviews from time to time. You can’t make everyone happy and that is just a fact of life.

SEO And Client Relationships

Business relationships can be difficult. After all is said and done, your relationship is about business. This doesn’t mean that you can’t become friends, it just means business comes first. My oldest client has been with us for over 5 years. Over this course of time, we’ve seen our ups and downs. Even the best business relationships are tried from time to time. Both parties should always be respectful.

Anytime you pay for a service, you want to see results. You want to see the ROI from your investment. You need to make sure that you’ll be getting important reports and analysis from your SEO.  We offer weekly reporting for our clients. At the very least, you should ask for a bi-weekly or monthly report to track data. Our reports include site audits, link metrics, keyword rankings, social signals, traffic and other important data.

Proper planning is a crucial step in the SEO process. Ask for a detailed plan and approach to the job. As I said earlier, every SEO project is unique and different. While projects may be similar via paperwork, every case is different. I know many freelance SEOs that give all their clients the same 6 month plan. How can a plan work if it’s not based on your website’s needs? It can’t. You should ask for a detailed plan based on what your website needs via SEO.

Communication is the key in successful SEO and client relationships. You don’t want to harass your SEO with daily emails. Remember, a lot of time can be spent explaining everything through email. I had one client that did this and it would cost us 3 hours a week just to keep them informed. It takes away from the time needed to help your website grow, so be respectful of that fact.

In closing, I want to briefly discuss SEO budgets. I know how hard it is to build a business with limited resources. However, SEO services are not free. If you don’t have the proper budget for SEO, you may want to wait until you get the proper funding. Again, if you think you’ll be able to control the first page in a few weeks, you’re wrong. It takes time and in some cases, it can take months and years. If your budget only allows for a few hours a week, don’t expect a miracle. A lot of time is spent researching and you’ll likely be charged for it.

Building a good relationship with your SEO is only going to benefit you and your business in the end.

 

SEO Ranking Factors |

November 22, 2014

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Google SEO Ranking Factors For 2015

 

Google SEO Ranking Factors

Every webmaster wants to know Google SEO ranking factors, more then anything. Every SEO has a need to know SEO ranking factors, although many of us will tell you we know. The truth of the matter, only Google knows and this billion dollar answer will likely ever be leaked. Thanks to the efforts of SearchMetrics and their credible research, we do have a great idea of all the SEO ranking factors that matter the most. SearchMetrics released their 2014 Google SEO Ranking Factors Report in September 2014. Based on their own results and our own studies over the last few weeks, we’re proud to release our first Google SEO Ranking Factors for 2015.

Official SearchMetrics SEO Ranking Report

Content Is Still A Leading SEO Ranking Factor

Every new SEO ranking factors report always has “content” near the top of the heap. All of us have heard the term “Content is King.” We feel that content is more important then ever. High quality content is more valuable then ever and the length of that content is also important. One element that continues to grow is relative content.

Content SEO Ranking Factors

  • Sitespeed *0.11
  • Keyword Position in Title (Characters) *0.10
  • Length of URL *0.10
  • Keyword Position in Title (Word) *0.10
  • H2 (Sub-Title) *0.07
  • H1 (Sub-Title) *0.05
  • Description *0.05
  • Video Integration *0.05
  • Keyword in Title *0.02
  • Keyword in Description *0.01
  • URL is no Subdomain *0.00
  • Keyword in URL *-0.01
  • Flash *-0.02
  • Keyword in Domain *-0.02

Social Media SEO Ranking Factors

Social media and social signals continue to become more of a SEO ranking factor. While we didn’t see much growth in this sector, moving forward we believe social media will continue to become more of a dominant SEO ranking factor. And for those that know, Google+ is the leading social media SEO ranking factor, followed by Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

As social media growth continues and Google counts social signals as trusted votes for all domains, we’ll continue to see the importance of social platforms continuing. We don’t expect social media growth to falter anytime soon.

Social Signal SEO Ranking Factors

  • Google+ *0.33
  • Facebook Shares *0.28
  • Facebook Totals *0.28
  • Facebook Comments *0.27
  • Pinterest *0.27
  • Facebook Likes *0.25
  • Twitter Tweets *0.24

Link SEO Ranking Factors

Links have been a relatively long-time ranking factor for SEO and expect no different in 2015. We did see that quality backlinks are important and the total quantity of links are still an important SEO factor. However, links with exact-match keywords are becoming less of a ranking factor.

When another website links to your website, Google views this as a trust ranking factor. You can view it as if it is a vote for your website. This is why you should only link to authority websites, websites that you trust. Backlinks are always going to be important, that is likely to change anytime soon.

Link Ranking Factors

  • Total Backlinks *0.31
  • SEO Visibility of Backlinking URL *0.26
  • Percentage of Backlinks rel=nofollow *0.23
  • New Backlinks *0.20
  • Backlinks from New Domains *0.20
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Keyword *0.17
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Anchor=domain.tld *0.16
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Stopword *0.16
  • Word Count in Anchor Text *0.11
  • Percentage of Backlinks from same Country *0.07

On-Page SEO Ranking Factors

Every webmaster should start in this area, there’s a number of ranking factors that are of importance on-site. Relevant internal links and external links in your text are both important. Site speed is becoming more of a top ranking factor for on-site SEO. Titles, sub-titles, body text, H1 and H2 are all important. Site navigation and site architecture as well.

On-Page Ranking Factors

  • Relevant Terms *0.34
  • Proof Terms *0.21
  • Number of Internal Links *0.16
  • Keywords in Body *0.15
  • HTML Length *0.14
  • Text Character Length *0.13
  • Word Count *0.13
  • Keywords in External Links *0.11
  • Sentence Count *0.10
  • Keywords in Internal Links *0.10
  • Number of External Links *0.08
  • Image Count *0.07
  • Keyword in H2 *0.02
  • Flesch Readability *0.00
  • Title Character Length *-0.01
  • Flash *-0.02
  • AdSense Blocks *-0.03
  • Keyword in H1 *-0.03
  • Adlinks *-0.03
  • AdSense *-0.03
  • Adlinks without AdSense *-0.03
  • TF IDF *-0.06

 User Signal SEO Ranking Factors

We’re seeing user signals and experience more relevant then ever. Three areas that you need to focus on moving forward is (CTR) Click-Through Rate, Bounce Rate and Time On Site. You don’t need fancy software to track a majority of these three areas, Google Analytics should be enough of a tool to set a foundation.

All three of these areas are important, as well as user experience. If your website struggles in these areas, you need to think about;

  • What type of traffic you’re targeting
  • What type of keywords are being targeted
  • Which keywords are bring traffic in to the website
  • Pagespeed, 404s and errors
  • Site Navigation

All Google SEO Ranking Factors

  • Relevant Terms *0.34
  • Google+ *0.33
  • Total Backlinks *0.31
  • Facebook Shares *0.28
  • Facebook Totals *0.28
  • Facebook Comments *0.27
  • Pinterest *0.27
  • SEO Visibility of Backlinking URL *0.26
  • Facebook Likes *0.25
  • Twitter Tweets *0.24
  • Percentage of Backlinks rel=nofollow *0.23
  • Proof Terms *0.21
  • New Backlinks *0.20
  • Backlinks from New Domains *0.20
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Keyword *0.17
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Anchor=domain.tld *0.16
  • Percentage of Backlinks with Stopword *0.16
  • Number of Internal Links *0.16
  • Keywords in Body *0.15
  • HTML Length *0.14
  • Text Character Length *0.13
  • Word Count *0.13
  • Keywords in External Links *0.11
  • Sitespeed *0.11
  • Keywords in External Links *0.11
  • Sentence Count *0.10
  • Keywords in Internal Links *0.10
  • Keyword Position in Title (Characters) *0.10
  • Length of URL *0.10
  • Keyword Position in Title (Word) *0.10
  • Number of External Links *0.08
  • H2 (Sub-Title) *0.7
  • Percentage of Backlinks from same Country *0.07
  • Image Count *0.07
  • H1 (Sub-Title) *0.05
  • Description *0.05
  • Video Integration *0.05
  • Keyword in Title *0.02
  • Keyword in H2 *0.02
  • Keyword in Description *0.01
  • Keyword in Description *0.01
  • Flesch Readability *0.00
  • URL is no Subdomain *0.00
  • Title Character Length *-0.01
  • Keyword in URL *-0.01
  • Keyword in Domain *-0.02
  • AdSense Blocks *-0.03
  • Keyword in H1 *-0.03
  • Adlinks *-0.03
  • AdSense *-0.03
  • Adlinks without AdSense *-0.03
  • TF IDF *-0.06

 

Credit Source: SearchMetrics

Marketing |

November 11, 2014

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Best Marketing Strategies For Your Start-Up Business

Marketing Strategies For Start-Up CompaniesWhat Are The Best Marketing Strategies For New Companies?

I’m sure you’ve come across articles and videos discussing the best marketing strategies for a start-up business, but how many of them go into great depth about a solid strategy? I did some recent research and I was surprised that very few of them offered detail directions. Of course, the articles are great but what if you don’t know much about marketing? What happens if you’re not website savvy? The terminology for these marketing strategies are enough to drive any newbie crazy and I wouldn’t consider most of them to be an authority figure to trust in the first place. And I don’t mean that to be disrespectful, just stating that these are the same marketing tips I see daily. If everyone was using the same marketing strategies with success, the world would be a better place.

I wanted to publish an article, a guide if you will that can help you build the foundation of your marketing efforts. I wanted to list the best marketing strategies for a start-up business, keeping in mind that most start-up companies have a small budget to start with anyway. I wanted to keep the terminology simple, but still have advanced marketing strategies that can help you develop your brand an identity. If you follow this best marketing strategies guide, you’ll have the foundation of your marketing efforts in place to see results.

Research And Development

One of the best marketing strategies for your start-up business is to focus on research and development. What does that mean? It’s very simple, know your niche like a pro. Have you ever been on a phone call and you know from the sound of someone’s voice that you know more then them? Similar point. If you want to be successful with your start-up business, you better know your field like a pro. Therefore, take the needed time to do your research, learn your niche, learn your market, and develop your business.

It can be extremely difficult getting market data that you can trust, especially if you’re new to online research, data or marketing. Credible sources are out there, take the time to find them. There’s a number of different market research companies out there to get data. You may be asking, “how will market data help my company with marketing?” Valid question, but your likely either providing a service or selling a product. Knowing who will buy that product or service is important. Knowing where you can find these potential customers is important. You can never have too much data to evaluate, use it to help focus on a marketing strategy aimed at targeting the right customer.

Choosing A Market

Choosing a market for your product or service is a crucial step for your start-up business. This step corresponds with research and development that we discussed above. Every start-up founder believes the world will love their product or service. Trust me, we all do. The truth is, only a very small percentage of the population will have a need for your company. Choosing the right market for your start-up business is a vital step toward success.

As I said before, most start-up companies don’t have the proper funds to go “all-out” with marketing campaigns. It takes a lot of money to build a start-up, manufacture products, hiring staff and everything in between. If you try to market your product to everyone, you’re going to spend a lot of time and money likely for nothing. Even if you get results, they’ll likely be minimal.

To determine your market, there’s a few questions that you need to ask yourself;

  • What is the market size of your target audience?
  • Are you trying to reach a local, national, or global audience?
  • Does your potential customer have the money to buy your service or product?
  • Is your product or service valued? Better then your competition?
  • Is your market highly competitive?
  • How many potential customers are in your market?

Online Marketing Strategy

Once you’ve done your market research and know your market potential, you’ll need to begin focusing on your online marketing strategy. There’s a number of different options that you have in terms of online marketing strategies for your start-up business. If you haven’t done so already, the first thing you need to do is have a website built. This is going to be the core of your online marketing efforts. The key is to display your products or services on your website, eventually building traffic to your website.

I would suggest that you have a website built on WordPress. WordPress is a content management system that has a variety of different options that can benefit your start-up business. It’s simple enough for a newbie with plenty of options for advanced users. I highly recommend that you build a blog for your business. One of the main reasons that you want a blog is for SEO, also known as search engine optimization. You’ve likely heard this term once or twice, we’ll discuss this in detail later. Another reason that you want a blog is to showcase your products or services. Learn how to write high quality content for SEO to help increase the visibility of your website.

Search Engine Optimization

As promised, we’re going to discuss search engine optimization, also called SEO. SEO is used to increase your search engine ranks. SEO can help your start-up gain more visibility in major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. One way that you can gain search engine rankings is by writing high quality content. All together, there is thought to be over 200 or more ranking factors when it comes to SEO.

Search engine optimization services can help your website begin to crawl up the major search engines. SEO will help you build traffic and customers. How long does SEO take? Valid question, right? Well, it depends. It depends on the niche you’re in, the competition of other websites and a variety of more factors. You have to understand, with a new website, SEO is going to take time. SEO takes months and years, but it’s a crucial step into growing your business. Search engine marketing is highly effective and often brings high conversions.

Ranking Your Keywords

As a start-up business, you’re at a disadvantage from day one. Even with great SEO services or the knowledge of an experienced SEO expert, it’s going to take time to rank your keywords. Don’t worry about where you’ll rank just yet, the most important element of ranking your keywords is choosing the right keywords to rank.

How do I choose the right keywords for my business? This depends on the keywords of your business. What are you offering your customers? What terms would be used by your customers to find your services or products? How many services and products do you offer? The answers to these questions should determine the type of keywords that you target.

I’ll use an example so you understand. If I’m a new start-up that sells social media marketing packages, “social media marketing packages” could be a term I use, right? Absolutely. This keyword example describes the exact service I offer and this is a search term that a customer would use to find and buy my service. So, when you’re trying to determine the right keywords for your business, think about;

  • The services you offer customers.
  • The products you want to sell to customers.
  • What a customer would search for to find your business.
  • What your start-up business does, sells or provides.
  • Any secondary service or product you may offer/provide.

I know it can be tough as a start-up business to purchase SEO software or SEO services. Two free tools that can provide you with helpful SEO date is Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools. Sign up for a free Google account and get your website associated with these two free tools.

How many keywords should I start with? You need to make sure you have a set of primary keywords and a set of secondary keywords. As a start-up business, I would suggest starting with 5 primary keywords and 5 secondary keywords. At the most, 10/10. With Google Webmaster Tools, after a few weeks, you should start seeing search queries registering in your data. This will give you insight to what keywords and search terms are bringing in traffic to your website. With Google Analytics, you’ll know where the traffic is coming from.

Social Media Marketing

We’ve all heard of Facebook, most of us already know how to work Facebook like a pro. If you don’t have a Facebook business page up for your start-up, this would be a good time to get one up. One of the best marketing strategies you can have in terms of social media marketing is Facebook. Facebook is the largest social media platform online. You should take the time to learn how to market on Facebook. Facebook has helped thousands of start-up companies succeed, it can do the same for you.

Considering your start-up budget, this marketing strategy only cost a few minutes of your time. One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to make sure that they are on every social media platform possible. They think because the competition is, they should be but that’s not the case. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, they all have differences. Finding the correct social platforms to market on could be the key to succeeding with your social media marketing efforts.

The key to social media marketing is being effective, maximizing your reach and making your time there count. Learn the right time to post and engage your audience. Learn what your audience wants to see, what your audience responds to as well. For example, on Facebook, users usually respond to pictures and graphics. You don’t have to be on every social media platform to be successful, but you do need to be successful on the few that you operate on.

Lastly, make sure you take the time to connect with authority social accounts. Did you know that nearly 80 percent of  social media users said posts by brands influenced their purchase behavior moderately or highly. That is huge. As a start-up, it will take time before your brand influences thousands of people. Until you get to that stage, connect with other accounts that already have that level of influence.

Creating Content

Earlier in this article, we briefly discussed the important of creating high quality content on your website. In total, there’s a number of different content types that can be used to promote your start-up business. Content can be considered as;

  • Blog Post
  • Ebook
  • Infographic
  • Newsletter
  • Video
  • Webinar

While you do want to make sure that you’re publishing fresh content on your website, there’s also a need to publish content elsewhere. If you have other websites or blogs that are established, you’re going to want to use those online resources for your start-up business. Any online resource that can be used to promote your business should be considered. Of course, you want to do a proper evaluation.

One of the best marketing strategies any start-up business can do is publishing content on authority websites. Some may refer to this as guest blogging. This goes back to earlier in the article when I was discussing making relationships with authority people on social media. You should be doing the same with bloggers and webmasters. Getting your article published on an authority website with thousands of visitors could be huge for your start-up.

You can use all these content types for various strategies. Newsletters are used to build your email list. Webinars are a great way to influence customers to buy. Videos are great for landing pages and marketing. Make sure your content always serves a purpose.

Content Planning

While it’s normal to get excited about publishing content on your website or elsewhere, you should plan your content carefully. Writing content about anything is a waste of time and money. Instead, you need to focus and plan your content around your brand. Remember the need for keywords and SEO also. If I’m offering a service, I want my content focused around that topic. If I offer certain products, I want my content focused around what I’m selling to customers.

I know some SEO experts like using PR, Media or press releases for SEO, I wouldn’t recommend it. Now, as a start-up business, this is a good marketing strategy for you. A press release is proper when you announce your start-up or a new product/service. However, I would continue to use PR just for the purpose of SEO and link building. Press release can cost a lot of money, you want to make sure you use that money right.

A/B Testing, Data And Analytics

From day one, everything that you’re doing should be recorded. Everything that is important should be documented. The best marketing strategies can be backed up by proven results, results proven by data and A/B testing. If you haven’t heard of A/B testing, this is simply testing one strategy against another.

A/B testing is often used to test landing pages, among other things, but often to see which page has the highest conversions. I can’t stress it enough, data is important. Knowing how your customers respond to your marketing strategies is crucial. Test everything from day one, document everything. See what marketing strategies work for your start-up and what techniques don’t. Evaluate your strategy and test again.

Conclusion

There’s no secrets to the find the best marketing strategies for your business. Starting a business is the easy part, making it successful is another. Many start-ups fail for a number of different reasons. The key is finding out what works for your start-up and rolling with it. You know the marketing strategies used, you know how to find what works and what doesn’t. You know the importance of research, development and A/B testing. We’ve touched on SEO, SMM, content marketing and PR. Make every second count and make every relationship count. Don’t waste your time, don’t waste your money and document everything. Find what works and run with it. Lastly, never stop improving.

Keyword Research, Search Engine Optimization, Uncategorized, Web Development |

July 30, 2014

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Why You Should Start Your SEO With Long-Tail Keywords

 

Benefits Of Long-Tail Keywords

Long-Tail Keywords

SEO, also known as search engine optimization, is a field that is ever changing and often out of our control as SEO experts. Competition is fierce for all competitive keywords and start-up websites are off to big disadvantages from day one. Nearly August 2014 and SEO is different then now then it was at the beginning of 2014. No matter what, Google controls your results, not your SEO. Important to remember. Key point? Abide by Google’s rules, it’s that simple. Don’t worry about short-term gains with unfavorable SEO techniques. Your rankings will pay for it later.

Now, to our topic of this article, long-tail keywords. We all should have some concept of a keyword and the importance of such words in search engine rankings.  If you don’t, a keyword is a term that you try to rank for to benefit the goals of your website. Your goal could be traffic, email signups, to sell a product or service. What ever the need may be, you have to rank for keywords, keyword phrases, key terms or any other word used to describe keywords. With most websites, conversions are the goal and this can be accomplished by ranking high for your search queries. More traffic equals more opportunity to sell.

So, why should a website want to rank for long-tail keywords as we call them? There’s a number of different reasons that you want to begin ranking with long-tailed keywords. For one and possibly most important, long-tail keywords are targeted less. Most companies choose to bypass long-tail keywords in hope of ranking for higher traffic keywords. This is often a mistake and a costly one at that. Two word keywords can take months and years to rank for, these keywords should be part of your long-term SEO process.

Another important reason why you want to target long-tail keywords is to target a specific demographic to buy a product or service. Just because a keyword has less traffic doesn’t mean that it isn’t a good keyword to use. For example, we’ll use the keyword Samsung Galaxy S5 16GB Smartphone. This is considered to be a long-tail keyword, (5) words make up this one keyword. It would be easier to rank for this keyword compared to Samsung Galaxy Smartphone or Samsung Galaxy S5. This is only an example, remember that. This keyword is going to be highly competitive, but this is an example only. I can hear the other SEOs now! Point noted.

Now, what is another benefit of having long-tail keyword campaigns? We will once again look at the same long-tail keyword, Samsung Galaxy S5 16GB Smartphone. Although this is only one keyword, how many keyword are actually in this long-tail term? Now I have you thinking. I can name 5 different combinations off the top. BINGO! This is a great SEO technique to use. You get the benefit of 5 keywords with one long-tail term. Yes, the search bot can read it as one term or many. I’ve tested this before, I’m sure other SEOs have as well. When using long-tail keywords, we ranked for other keywords within our long-tail keyword. It works, it is an effective SEO technique to use.

Retail websites, ecommerce websites, webmasters, you want to use detailed keywords for your products, right? If you’re not, you need to switch your focus. I know many of you focus on high traffic keywords and rightfully so. However, you have to mix these long-tail keywords in with your keyword plan. You may have 50,000 monthly searches for Samsung Galaxy Smartphone but only 300 for Samsung Galaxy S5 16GB White Smartphone. Why be descriptive and detailed? Many shoppers are looking for specific products. If they search for Samsung Galaxy S5 16GB White Smartphone, that is what they want. In most cases, the long-tail keywords are easier to rank for. If I have a top keyword bringing in 30,000 of the 50,000 monthly searches, I’m not worried about it. If that BIG TRAFFIC keyword is only bringing in 1 visitor a month, I would rather target the long-tail term to increase my opportunity for sales. Affiliate marketers, this goes for you too.

Your website should be diverse in key terms anyway, a great mixture of short and long-tail keywords. Retail has once again been hit with a Google update. A lot of traffic has been lost. Did you hear about this? Go search for a few terms. When I did, all I saw were local rankings. I’ve seen it with a few clients of my own and traffic is down for all our retail clients. I haven’t read much about it or I would have shared a link, I apologize. A little off topic but something to be aware of.

 You don’t want to abandon your keyword campaigns. Short-tail keywords are still priority. They bring in the most traffic and always will. However, there is a benefit for the long-tail terms. Learn how you can use all types of keywords to benefit your rankings, traffic and conversions. Thanks for taking the time to read my article. As always, it’s greatly appreciated. If you liked it, please take the time to share it to help others. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Search Engine Optimization |

July 11, 2014

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How Long Does SEO Really Take?

How Long Does SEO TakeYou’ve heard that SEO is needed to make your website visible in Google. You’ve took the time to research search engine optimization and you know that your website can benefit greatly from it. You may or may not have the time to do SEO yourself, so you choose to hire a SEO company or even a freelancer. Now that everything is in place, you’re ready to hit the top page of Google. Months go by and you see very little change. Your likely disappointed at the results and you question the SEO services. Your told SEO takes time but how long? How long does SEO really take?

First Page Results On Google

This is actually a question that we get on a daily basis. I’m sure all SEOs have been asked this at some point or another. There may not be a more difficult question to answer as a SEO. If you’re a legit SEO provider or firm, you know that this is a question that has to be answered carefully. Why? Truth be told, nobody knows how long it will actually take for you to get to the top page of Google. We can give you an estimate based on our experience but we can’t guarantee how long I will take to get there. Although a SEO can control certain aspects of where you rank, it is Google that has the final say.

Think about this, what does everyone in the world want in terms of their online business? The answer, first page results or course. Everyone wants to be on the first page. The first thing you should come to terms with is the fact that nearly all websites on the top pages of search engines have paid their dues. Most of these websites have high domain ages and high authority. In 2014, trust and authority are extremely important to your SEO rankings as Google continues to improve their search results and take out low quality websites.

How Long Does SEO Take?

Your SEO rankings will depend on the search engine optimization techniques used to rank your website. Your search engine rankings also depend on the current health of your website and online resources. A website with Google PageRank and authority links will usually rank quicker then a start-up website. When your starting a new website, it’s going to take time to rank your website and build your business. It’s going to take time to build authority and trust in your respected niche. You have to be patient, especially with start-up websites.

Just because you have an established website doesn’t mean that the SEO process is quicker or easier. In some cases, it can be harder. We’ve seen many websites struggle lately due to low quality links. With a start-up website, you have control over link building and development. With established websites, you could have an entire mess of bad links causing your low rankings. There’s a lot of different elements that control your rankings, both on-site and off-site. The point, there’s no specific guidelines that determine how long it will take your website to rank on the first page.

Everyone determines SEO success differently. It’s important to note that there’s a lot of outside factors that can determine your rankings. You can do everything right according to Google but in the end, Google controls your rankings. SEO services are usually not cheap, your ROI will likely be high. It’s normal to worry if you’re not seeing results after some time but you have to be patient. It takes a good 6 months to see your SEO results starting to trickle in. By 12 months, you should start to see good results. By 18 months, you should have your keywords in position to start pushing harder to rank keywords closer to the first page. This is our estimates based on our past experience.

SEO Rankings Will Always Differ

Every website has different needs in terms of SEO. Some keywords are harder to rank and take more time and effort to get to the top page of Google. Local keywords are often easier to rank for because there’s usually less competition. There’s many factors that control rankings and these rankings will differ from one client to another.

Keyword research is a huge element of search engine optimization. If you don’t chose the right keywords, your website can struggle with search engine rankings and traffic. If you don’t have high quality links to your website, it will effect your search engine rankings. If your not properly optimizing your web pages and content, it will effect your rankings. If you feel that your website is not benefiting from SEO, these are a few of the more common reasons that keep you from ranking.

Think Long-Term SEO

You should plan for long-term SEO no matter what situation or current rankings that you may have. Search engine optimization takes time to develop and come full circle. With Google’s recent changes, ranking quickly is over. Be careful using SEO providers that promise quick results. If your website was penalized, what would it cost to your business? We’ve had a few clients come in with penalties and nearly all of them were promised fast results. Sure, they ranked high quick but it killed their bottom line. You have to be careful when your hire SEO services.

SEO firms commonly come across clients that are in desperate need to increase their sales fast and quick. These are often the type of people that don’t understand how SEO works at this point and time. SEO is always changing as Google adds updates and algorithms. Client and SEO relationships are important and your client/SEO relationship can determine the success of your efforts. Always make sure that your clients know that SEO takes time. Don’t make promises that you can’t deliver, give your best estimate and leave it at that.

It also takes time to develop trust and authority. You can’t expect to come in and do 2 months of SEO work and outrank a top-tier website that has been online for a decade. It’s not going to happen. You should concentrate on building your trust and authority with Google. One way that you can do this is by following Google policy and guidelines. Write helpful, informative content as this can open the doors for link opportunities. Your goal should be high quality links from authority websites, which can give your SEO rankings a big boost.

Understanding The SEO Process

I’ve been doing SEO for over 7 years now and I’m still learning about SEO. You can never learn enough. Plus, SEO is always changing. Make sure you keep up with important updates and new search engine optimization techniques that are bringing results. Make sure you know the main ranking factors for SEO.

Take the time to learn search engine optimization. Every webmaster should have a basic understanding of SEO anyway. Make sure your client knows SEO, help them learn what to look for so they can relate to you. If you get a proposal from a potential client that wants quick results in a month, turn it down, you know better. Try choosing clients that understand how the SEO process works.

No matter what new SEO techniques you use, SEO will always take time. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results right away, it does take time. You do need to make sure that the right SEO techniques are being used. Make sure your on-site SEO score is high. Make a checklist of SEO techniques that need done. Always record your efforts, this will give you insight on what is working for your website and what is not. The more search engine optimization you know, the better off you’ll be.

Complete Guide To WordPress SEO

Search Engine Optimization |

May 27, 2014

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Search Engine Optimization-Plan For Long-Term SEO

Search Engine OptimizationLong-Term SEO

Most people already know what search engine optimization is or have a basic understanding for the term. Even more our SEO experts, right? Joking of course. For those of you that don’t know, search engine optimization is a term used to describe techniques and tactics used to help a website, blog or web page rank get higher visibility in search engines. In simple terms, it is used to increase your Google rankings, among other search engines.

We all want to rank on the first page of Google. Google controls around 68 percent of all search traffic. Search engines such as Yahoo and Bing control 10-12 percent, something in that realm. Today, I wanted to talk about long-term SEO and why your business has to plan for search engine optimization success for the long road.

Google In 2016

SEO is always changing, evolving and we’re always adapting to those changes. Personally, a lot is the same, but SEO is different now than last year, the year prior and so on. When I refer to long-term SEO, obviously I’m talking about white hat SEO strategies and techniques.

Relative Topics, Content And Referring Domains

So far this year, I’ve ran several case studies in regards to relative topics, content and the referring domains sending the backlinks. What I have found is that all 3 are important and when I say these 3 are top ranking factors in Google, that’s an accurate account.

Again, you should be planning for long-term search engine optimization. If you do have an aged domain and established rankings, you should take the time to evaluate your SEO. Take the time to view your link metrics, review your content and any other element of search engine optimization that matters. If you have a new website or blog, you have to establish a foundation for your business. Your main goal should be indexed pages, you can get indexed URLs by writing content and descriptive products if you sell items.

The Value Of Quality Content

I don’t care what you’ve been told by others, throw it out the window. If you’ve been told that content is dead or that content is a waste of time, forget what you’ve heard. You can never go wrong with high quality content. In fact, you should have as much content as possible, but don’t get lazy with it. Every search engine optimization project should include a content campaign, new domains and old domains. There’s a variety of ways that content can help your SEO rankings. If you write quality content, it’s going to benefit you with higher search engine rankings, higher quality links, more traffic and more profit.

It can take 6 months or longer for your content to come full circle, to fall in place where it will rank in the search engines. I’ve seen some content take a full year. Most SEO companies that offer “honest SEO services” will tell you that it takes at least a year for you to see the results that you seek, some up to 18 months. This is a correct evaluation, it does take this long. Many of the websites that rank on top probably have years on you. They have more content, indexed pages, links, higher link values, more diverse anchor text, the list goes on and on. If you plan for short-term search engine optimization, how are you going to see the results of your efforts in a few weeks? Few months? You won’t. You have to hang in there, follow your plan or campaign and plan for long-term results.

Getting Your ROI

If you’re doing your own search engine optimization, you really don’t have to worry about getting your return of investment. Yes, you’re out time and effort, but no money. However, if you’re buying paid links or contracting, you could have additional cost. Short-term SEO will never bring you your ROI. It just won’t. You have to quit expecting to see results in weeks, early months. Again, plan for the long-term. If you quit your SEO or a hired SEO company or freelancer, you’re going to lose progress and momentum. Momentum in search engine optimization is very true. If the SEO stops, you’re going to see a surge in upcoming weeks. Afterward, your rankings will fall. In order for you to get the benefit of SEO and your ROI back, plan for long-term search engine optimization.

SEO Is Only Half The Battle

Over the years, we’ve served a lot of different people and companies. If you’re a SEO yourself, you can relate. How many of you have come across clients that want to make more sales? Very common in our field, right? Most of us would say that you need SEO, sign you on or come to a mutual agreement and begin search engine optimization services. It’s important to know, SEO is used to increase your rankings and traffic. SEO can also increase your profits but only to an extent. Very important to note. Your designed website can also be SEO optimized but it doesn’t guarantee that your products will sell.

For those who sell products, which nearly includes us all, the products itself has a lot to do with what people buy or don’t buy. SEO is not marketing, although in some sense, the two can relate. I only mention this because I know this can become an issue for some search engine optimization experts that don’t know marketing. As a SEO, the best thing you can do is learn marketing and how to sell products. For WordPress and other popular content management systems, a crafty plugin or two can help. A general knowledge in marketing is always important.