January 20, 2015

How To Choose The Right Keywords For Your Business

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.

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 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 |

December 7, 2014

| by richardhale

Search Engine Optimization Services; What Clients Need To Know

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.

Marketing |

November 11, 2014

| by richardhale

Best Marketing Strategies For Your Start-Up Business

What 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.

Tag Archives: search engine optimization services