Golden Web Marketing SEO Tips

For businesses competing at a local level (e.g. restaurants, auto maintenance and repair, contractors, window installments, landscaping, flooring, carpets, patios, smog checks, pizza, etc.) there is one way to bring the local business you’ve been missing to you. Your website.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes… You are looking for a local affordable company to purchase services or products. You go online and search, for example, “Custom decks, Benicia”. What comes up? Will your company come up in the top three results? If it doesn’t, you have already lost 75% of your possible leads. Do your competitors come up? If the answer is yes, we can not only tell you why, but we can show you how to move to the top of the search page.

This is all done through keyword analyzing and creating website content that drives traffic to your site.

EVERY word you publish on the front and back end of your website is important. You must develop an online marketing strategy that allows you to say what you need to, while saying it in a way that transforms your content into a marketing tool.

How to leverage website content as a marketing tool:

Avoid keyword overload! Your website should be informative and reader friendly… The writing must be inviting, interesting to read, easy to navigate, and clear.

Simply using a “set it and forget it” method on your website is a tragic waste of time and money. This actually proves to be counterproductive and without the correct keywords you will fall further down on the search engine food chain.

Stay away from industry jargon that an everyday consumer might not understand. Make your content educational without intimidating potential customers – They will click back and move on to the next search result as soon as you lose their attention or use industry lingo they aren’t familiar with.

Make your content friendly and fun. Include interesting facts and an endearing company description that ties you to your community and the people you are trying to reach. Captivate your customers by making them feel like you are there for exactly what they need.

“Never put all your eggs in one basket” -OR- “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

The more we diversify, the less risk we run of missing a potential customer. The truth is, this is not a practical use of resources for local businesses, or nationwide business for that matter. Spreading your budget across dozens of advertising outlets will spread your resources too thin to successfully reach the audience you want.

There was a smart man that tweaked this idiom, and it was Mark Twain who said, “Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket.”

The 5 Most Common Myths a SEO, Web Design, or SEM Service will Tell Business Owners... 

Every local business in the Bay Area is looking for a trusted partner to enhance or create an online marketing strategy that will drive more business and beat out the competition. As a business owner, you might not understand all the complexities of a successful Internet strategy, but you should know when a service isn’t working for you or simply taking advantage by selling you tools that you don’t need or you can’t afford to make them successful.

What you should know about working with online marketing services:

Myth… “It can take up to six months before you show up on the first page of Google”: If done correctly, it should never take that long. If it does take 6 months, your Internet marketing service should have revisited your primary keywords and content strategies months ago. If you aren’t starting to increase in rank within the first month, there IS a problem with your website. It could be a number of things – industry keywords, SEO service, social bookmarking, website content, broken links, or your website is simply not speaking to your audience. If your website service is not frequently checking all the components, you are wasting your money.

Myth… “Monthly analytics reports prove they are closely tracking the success of your online marketing efforts”: Most SEO, social media, andwebsite design services are sending you the pre-developed analytics and tracking insights they pull from Google Analytics, or other similar phone tracking services. If they aren’t being transparent, they are likely importing it into a document with their logo, and passing it off as a detailed analytics report every month. But this doesn’t mean they are investing time in the success of your business! It’s important that the report is looked at from a qualitative perspective, the numbers might look good… but what do they mean? Where should you be removing resources and where should you be putting more resources? Don’t be fooled by fancy looking reports!

Myth… “Social media is not a proven vehicle for attracting leads”: If you’ve been doing your research then you know that fresh & optimized content will grow your reach and rank faster and organically. Every piece of content you develop (e.g. additional web pages, blogs, press releases, whitepapers, quick links, articles etc.…) should be leveraged across as many online outlets as possible. You don’t need to recreate the wheel because the content is already available. You are missing huge opportunities if you aren’t pushing all new content over Google+,Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and any other online vehicle you can contribute to. This is a primary way you benefit from social media, and if you write it off as a fad, you are missing a huge opportunity to get you message and brand on dozens of online outlets. This will increase online brand recognition and your overall online presence.

Myth… “You should be devoted to every social media outlet”: This is not true. Analytics will tell you where your hits are coming from. If you don’t find Facebook is providing valuable leads, stop wasting time and resources there. IfGoogle+ and Twitter provide a high volume of traffic to your site, consider investing more in that social vehicle.

NOT TRUE… “They know everything about SEO”: Everyday we read a new article debunking or introducing new SEO and SEM tools. No company or person has it all figured out, REGARDLESS WHAT SOMEONE TELLS YOU. This doesn’t change the fact that every business needs an online presence, even if they can’t afford a full website. The Internet landscape is changing too fast for anyone to fully understand the complexities and ROI that these social media tools provide. The important thing is that you trust your SEO or SEM service. Don’t allow them to set it and forget it while sending you monthly reports as if they are keeping tabs on the success of your online marketing success. Insist that they are making updates based on new search engine discoveries at least once a quarter. Especially the first month your website’s SEM updates launch, they should be monitoring for broken links, weak keywords, inbound traffic, and ensuring that everything is optimized to the fullest. Don’t get left in the dark with SEO technology that has seen massive improvements in the last year.

http://www.goldenwebmarketingco.com/news/5-seo-service-myths/