Small Business SEO

Will a one-time SEO campaign get you results?

marciacatlin · October 13, 2019 ·

*The race is not always to the swift.* – Aesop’s Fables

The answer is NO and here are 5 reasons why!

You must build trust with the search engines, and that takes time.
Google has publicly stated that it makes over 500 search algorithm updates each year and that it looks at over 200 different “signals” to determine why one website will out-rank another.
Without monthly SEO services, you will have to keep up with the ongoing changes search engines make to their algorithms. SEO algorithms change daily.
Ongoing SEO is necessary because search engines are always evolving.
Just because one company makes a one-time SEO effort doesn’t mean that their competitors will give up so easily.

This is serious stuff and your business is on the line. Are you going to give up on SEO quickly after knowing that it is one of the most important, and possibly THE most important marketing influencer?

If you have tried it, and it failed, it means that you need to work harder or find better help.

In order to understand SEO, you need to understand Digital Marketing and SEO’s place within it.

The major digital marketing channels include search marketing, social media, display advertising and email marketing. Combined, digital marketing budgets exceeded TV ad spending in 2017. Of these digital marketing channels, the search engines reign as the primary driver of business generation.

Today, search engines produce about 200 billion searches per month. There are over 236 million people in the USA who will be search engine users in 2019.

66% of marketing professionals say that growing their organic presence is their top online marketing priority. Over 72% of people seeking a local store on their mobile phones will visit the store.

Social media actually generates only 3% of the traffic on average to a website. When you add it all up, search engines generate the lion’s share of online-based sales.

So is a long-term approach to SEO really worth it?

You have to consider what is at stake if your business is absent from the search engines. You will be missing one of the most popular marketing channels for driving business. Search-based web traffic is second only to a referral.

Search engines display your website to a person seeking the products/services you sell at the very moment they are interested. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Investing in SEO is a common-sense marketing strategy. Billions of people are searching for millions of things, and that high-volume traffic produces a strong sales ratio.

Check out our SEO Custom Packages, turtle-friendly and based on long-term value! Our goal for Search Engine Optimization? To bring your website up to the latest best practices for SEO. Then review, research, and develop focused keywords and implement the strategy.

10 Quick SEO Strategies for Small Business

marciacatlin · May 5, 2019 ·

These days local SEO for small businesses is an ever-changing discipline that requires complex strategies. And, it has never been more important!

Small business SEO is increasingly competitive. Why? Part of the reason is that many local businesses have finally realized the importance of doing the local SEO “basics” and are implementing basic local search strategies. This means more local businesses are vying for a limited number of high-ranking spots.

There are many ways to get started. First, you can start linking in local directories visited by locals. See below.

Top 50 Free USA Business Directories To List Your Local Business

Here are 10 other SEO strategies you can easily use:

Make all URL links readable by humans. For example –backlinkfy.com/news/how-ppc-campaigns-increase-business-exposure NOT http://backlinkfy.com/new/456drt…
Create a simple informative Facebook page.
Make sure you have a mobile-friendly website.
Your meta description tags should be 155 characters or less.
Get your business listed on Google Maps.
Include your descriptive ALT tags with keywords to all images, this helps with SEO.
Update your Title tag, description and location including products or services. Focus on local keywords in your area.
Start a blog on your site and update it often with local activities and other research articles that can help locals.
Create a Twitter account and start tweets from your blog.
Embed Find us on Yelp on the footer of your website.

High-Performance Local SEO
Professional. Affordable. Performance Guarantee.

“We practice what we call ‘holistic SEO‘. This means that your primary goal should be to build and maintain the best possible website. Don’t try to fool Google. Ranking will come automatically if your website is of extremely high quality.” —Yoast

Your Amazing Free Website from Google

marciacatlin · March 4, 2019 ·

Don’t you have yours? It’s your free website from Google!
It guarantees your business will show up on all third-party apps and services that rely on Google’s data. Get your business seen on Google Maps, Search, and other Google properties.
86% of people look up the location of a business on Google Maps.
Plus Google My Business is more important than ever for Local SEO.
If you are a small business with a limited budget, aiming to get the most visibility and traffic from Google, the very first thing you should do is focus on your Google My Business presence.
Sign up for here for Google My Business.
Here are more reasons.
Google has released almost a dozen new features within Google My Business or at least attached to the knowledge panel and business profile, in the last two years. Many of these features have the potential to be really impactful to businesses that are taking advantage of them.
For the last year, Google has been primarily focused on driving ad revenue, including user experience, and including small business engagement. Businesses are feeling the pinch from Facebook’s organic newsfeed changes, and Google sees this as an opportunity to convert some of the activity that businesses had been putting into Facebook into Google, thus bringing them along as advertisers over time.

Perfect Starting Point for An SEO Campaign

Every small business needs its own website that they can build on over time. But in terms of where to focus your optimization efforts, everybody should be looking at Google My Business first. It’s easier to update. You can hire your web designer to set it up or do it yourself. You can post your top questions and answers, respond to reviews, or ask your customers for reviews. You can upload better photos, so that people are more likely to engage with your listing on a phone, as opposed to your competitor.
These kinds of things are easy for a business to accomplish and take less time. They’re less technical, making Google My Business a great starting point for an SEO campaign.
Google’s Ideal Website
In the age of voice, in the age of mobile, in the age of knowledge panels, and structured data, Google’s ideal website, at least for a local business must answer these questions:

Who are you?
What products do you sell?
What services do you offer?
When are you open for business?

Google needs that data. They need it as quickly as possible and as cleanly as possible.
Building Blocks for Small Business
What small business needs to get for the biggest bang for the buck? A basic website that Google can read, and that loads quickly for your customers. After that, it is essential to pay attention to Google My Business.
Questions? Call Marcia at 561-906-3436 or email.

How To Trust An SEO Agency

marciacatlin · February 25, 2019 ·

It continues to be the elephant in the room for small business owners. How to trust an SEO agency. It’s kale and you know you should eat it. But you hate it.
As a small business owner, you may see SEO as an unnecessary expense. You may even believe it is not worth your time and effort because SEO is dying anyway — but this could not be further from the truth. SEO is constantly growing in importance and expanding into new areas. Before, it played a major role for large and midsize businesses. Now it is just as crucial for small businesses.
Inside Google Marketing: 3 ways we think about SEO
Here are important questions you need to ask your future SEO agency or consultant:

Qualifying Questions

- How long have you been performing SEO?
- How did you learn SEO?
- How do you stay up to date on SEO changes?
- Who will be working on my project?
- What will you do as part of our engagement?
- Will we have a formal project plan and list of activities?
- How will we communicate?
- How often will we interact or speak live?
- How long will the engagement last?
- What will we measure to judge progress and ultimate success?
- Will you audit my website?
- Will you review technical SEO as part of the engagement?
- Do you review website personas and map the customer journey?
- How will we perform keyword research?
- Do you map keywords to content?
- Who is responsible for writing content?
- Do you have resources available to help create new content?
- What’s involved in the content optimization process?
- Who is responsible for updating the website?
- Will I be able to review changes before they go live?

Just Don’t …
Start the conversation with a request for backlinks.
Require industry experience unless you’re in a high touch industry like healthcare and pharma.
Ask for guaranteed results.
Ask for a prediction of ROI (return on investment).
Ask for a “quick win” or limited engagement.
Expect a discount or special pricing.
Expect you’ll have a hands-off project.
Credit: What Questions Should You Be Asking Your Future SEO Agency?

The Takeaway

To thrive and survive in the business world today, you need SEO. Whether you have a local business with a brick and mortar presence or you are a niche company with a specialized audience, you will fail without SEO. Without SEO, you have no
visibility online, which means when a consumer searches for what you do, they can’t find you and do business with you.
Extras
Do you want to speak personally on the phone to the CEO of the SEO agency you’re checking out? Want to receive a free SEO and Marketing Assessment?
Check out our High-Performance Local SEO. Then email or call Marcia at 561-906-3436.

Why SEO Is A Business Necessity Even for New Websites

marciacatlin · January 7, 2019 ·

As a small business owner, you may see SEO as an unnecessary expense.
So how important is SEO for new websites?
All websites start small with a few pages of content and no organic traffic and gradually they become bigger. How successful a website will become, depends on the SEO tactics you will use from the beginning.
The Most Powerful Digital Marketing Tool
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of making your website more visible to search engines. Without doing SEO, your visibility is not increasing and this means no growth.
SEO is a tool for every website, either small or big, new or old.
SEO elements fall into two categories:
• On-Page SEO. Any effort you take to improve individual pages to enhance your ranking in search engine results is on-page SEO.
As well as keywords, this includes formatting, URLs, navigation, load speed, on-site blogging, and responsive design.
• Off-Page SEO. You can also improve SEO by taking action off your website. The most well-known aspect of off-page SEO is link
building, but this category also encompasses social media, business profiles and articles.

Benefits of SEO for new websites or startups:

It’s the most cost-effective method of marketing your website, especially with a low budget. Any money or time you spend on SEO at the beginning will pay off later.
With PPC or other marketing channels, you can get traffic as long as you pay for clicks on your ads (either Google or Facebook), but with SEO is different.
When you are patient enough to wait for SEO to work, you will get traffic and leads 24/7 without spending a dollar on ads. The best model for growing an online business.
You can do SEO on your own.
SEO is not a short-term solution. If your goal is to create a foundation that will last for years to come, then SEO is your answer.
SEO traffic is targeted which means higher conversion rates at a lower cost.

How does a new website start ranking?

Learn below from Yoast, step-by-step, how to start working on the SEO for your new website!
SEO For A New Website
The Competitive Edge
If your competitors are still relying on outbound marketing or are just hoping for the best with their websites, you have the perfect opportunity. Many small companies just have a free Facebook page or Instagram account.
There is no need to start big. Begin with the basics and build up gradually as your company grows.
FREE SEO Review & Quote
If you are considering SEO for your website, or if you are not satisfied with the progress of an existing SEO campaign, contact us for a FREE SEO assessment and service proposal. Call Marcia at 561.906.3436.
Check out our High-Performance Local SEO package.