Archive for category Search Engine Marketing
Five Major Red Flags For a Seattle SEO Company
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on September 16, 2014
If you’re in search of a local SEO company to help boost your ranking in the Seattle area then all well and good for you. SEO is still one of the most potent marketing options, and, if done right, can actually offer unlimited return. Unfortunately, when done wrong, it can do the exact opposite and ensure that your site never sees any organic traffic. While there are thousands of ‘SEO companies’ out there, not all of them are created equal, in fact, many of them have no idea what ‘SEO’ is anymore. So how do you sort out the chaff? Here are five major red flags that should send you running.
SEO Copywriting
The truth is that there is no such thing as SEO copywriting anymore. Sure, you can optimize content here and there and make sure that the content is right, but today’s ‘SEO copywriting is more about good grammar, relevance, and helpfulness rather than using algorithms or keyword insertion. If they’re selling SEO copywriting, steer clear.
One Size Fits All Packages
If they have packages like “200,000 hits in one this period of time”, you can basically just turn around and run. Basic packages that offer a lot of results for one set fee look good, but they don’t really promise anything. Without a tailored and structured package designed to drive targeted traffic to your site, that traffic might as well not be there. Why? Because ‘traffic’ does not mean a consumer who wants to buy your products.
Backlinking Services
Whether it’s backlinking, guest posts, directory links, or automated linking, you have to steer clear. Backlinks can actually hurt your site more than help it, especially with Google’s new strict rules about relevance. If the links are not from an approved, relevant, and non-spammy source, then they could actually get you blacklisted on Google, which means no traffic from the world’s largest search engine.
SEO Tools
Are ‘SEO Tools’ one of their main sells? If so, you probably don’t want the company. Real SEO has very little to do with automation and more to do with good old fashioned marketing, back end optimization, and quality. It’s not about using tools to get the most done.
They Promise Quick Results
You probably want fast results. You would probably be happy if the traffic started pouring in tomorrow. Unfortunately, SEO doesn’t work that way. No matter what search engine you’re aiming for, fast results just aren’t happening if you do SEO right. In fact, time to results actually vary depending on the company, the search engine, and the number of competitors. Saying you will get ‘fast results’ is like promising that there won’t be anyone at the Starbucks counter if you go in fifteen minutes after they open. It’s possible, but not very likely.
A great SEO company offers quality digital marketing, not gimmicks and empty promises. Watch out for the red flags to root out the ones who won’t be doing your business any good.
Four Things to Ask A Seattle SEO Company if You’re Looking for Small Business SEO
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on June 13, 2014
As a Seattle business owner, you probably hear about SEO all the time. In fact, you’ve probably heard that it’s incredibly important for your business to have localized SEO on your web pages if you want to come up in search. But, if you’re looking for a Seattle SEO company to optimize your pages, then hopefully you’ve heard a few other things as well. For example, that the quality of your SEO is actually more important than having optimization in the first place, because poorly optimized pages can hurt your traffic. While there are dozens of companies that offer SEO in the Seattle area, not all of them are created equal. With that in mind, here are four important things to ask before you hire a Seattle company that specializes in SEO.
How Do You Keep Up to Date with Google Algorithm Changes
Google is not the only search engine that you have to optimize for, but it is an important one. Because Google frequently updates their algorithm in order to provide less spammy results, it is important to hire a company that stays up to date with the changes. For example, if you hire an SEO company that is still using tactics from 2013 like guest blogging, then you’re not going to catapult to the top of search, but instead, you might have your site blacklisted until you make changes. Ask the company how they stay on top of algorithm changes before you hire them.
Is a Site Analysis Included With Your Services?
Any good SEO company can and should offer you an overall analysis of your site along with recommendations for improvement when they get started. For example, while you might go into SEO thinking that you need keyword optimization on your pages, the truth is that you might need a great deal more back end work to fix internal linking, coding, and internal navigation for search engines. An analysis allows you to get services that you need, rather than that you think you want.
How Do You Measure Results?
If you ask an SEO company how they measure results and their response is in traffic or impressions, then you might not be talking to the right people. The best way to monitor ‘results’ for you as a business is in generated leads and generated ROI. ROI or Return on Investment is your direct income from what you spend, and it’s the most important thing to keep track of in any type of internet advertising campaign.
How Do You Create SEO Strategies For Your Clients?
One of the worst types of SEO company is the one that tries to fit every small business into the same SEO strategy that they wrote up and try to use on everyone. If you want real success with your SEO strategy, then you need something tailored to your business, written around your strengths and weaknesses, and specifically targeting your market areas.
Want to know more about SEO for small business? Get in touch with us today to find out what we can do for you.
Seattle Social Media Management in Small Business: What You Need to Know
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing on June 6, 2014
Social media managers are becoming increasingly necessary for businesses who want to profit from Seattle’s busy social industry, but while big business corporations are already jumping on the bandwagon (and have already been profiting from social for years), the majority of small and medium sized businesses typically are not. In fact, many think that they do not have the budget, the time, or the need for a professional social team or manager. If you’re one of these smaller business owners, here are a few reasons you might be wrong.
Benefits of Social Media Management for Small Business
If you’re running a small or medium size business in the Seattle area, then a local Seattle social media management team or manager can do wonders for your revenue. Any good social media strategy can and will improve sales, increase hype, and help with your customer satisfaction. With the right training, you might be able to do all of that yourself, if you have the time for training and for the social media itself, but the thrush is that it is a lot of work, and it is easy to steer your pages in the wrong direction if you are not familiar with the market.
What a social media manager really brings to the table includes the following, and more:
Proven Results – You won’t waste time or money pursuing things that don’t work. Professionals know what and what doesn’t make money.
Consistency – Inconsistent social branding is one of the most common problems on small business social media, but when you bring in a professional manager, you can make sure that yours stays consistent so that you convert and keep more leads.
Save Time – Managing a good social media campaign can take hours per day, especially if you are not familiar with local social trends like hashtags, popular groups, or marketing trends. Professional social media managers are aware of, and stay on top of, all of these issues, so that you can save time, and still get the best results.
Outsourcing
While it might be beneficial for your company to bring in an in-house social media manager, the truth is that unless your social media is turning over at least twice what they are making per year, it’s not really worth it for you. Instead, consider what some of the top companies in the U.S. are doing, which is outsourcing. If you need a single social media strategy but don’t have the budget for a full-time employee, then an outsourced team has several advantages, starting with affordability. You get every advantage of a social media team, while paying less than you would with hiring a single person. You also get to work with a company that has guaranteed professionalism, and a history of working with other clients.
Creating a Plan
The most important part of hiring any social media manager, in or out of Seattle, is to sit down and create an outline of what you want to achieve with your social media. While you could just go to a social marketer and tell them to increase your traffic and sales, you are much better off sitting down, discussing expectations, and discussing what you can achieve within your budget. This is a great time to discuss other items that tie into planning, such as expected ROI, an expected timeline, and any other specific details that you, or the marketer, think are relevant to your situation.
Hiring a Seattle social media manager can and will make you money, even if you aren’t quite a Fortune 500 company.
Build Your Web Presence With These Localized Seattle Marketing Tips
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing on May 23, 2014
Whether you’re a startup, or a tried and true business growing your roots and expanding to the web, getting out there can be tough. The process of building a website, establishing a web presence, and building followers across social sites can not only be intimidating, it can be near impossible if you don’t know what you’re doing. In fact, you can waste hours of your valuable time pursuing outdated and irrelevant strategies that are often still quoted as the ‘best thing’, on various websites. While your specific strategies should vary depending on your business type and budget, here are a few quick tips to get you started developing your web presence in Seattle.
Get a Website
A website is the best way to establish yourself as a professional online. Even if you don’t know what to do with a website, you should have one. Websites inspire trust, allow consumers to learn more about you on the web, and might even allow you to make sales directly from the internet depending on your business module. While you can use a free theme or a professional custom CMS design, your site should load in 3 seconds or less, offer users easy access to everything on the site, and be mobile friendly.
Utilize SEO
Once you have a website, it’s important to utilize localized SEO so that you come up in search to people in the Seattle area. You can choose to pay for a Seattle SEO campaign, or do it yourself. The process involves optimizing your website for search engines with sitemaps, create a healthy link structure inside of the site, and then research the keywords, and search terms for your site. Make sure you familiarize yourself with current SEO standards, as they change frequently, before attempting to do this on your own. Keep in mind that if you want your generated traffic to stick around, the content has to be awesome for readers as well as search
Pick Three Social Platforms and Stick to Them
If you’re doing social media on your own, then it is a mistake to try to tackle too many platforms at once. Instead, try outlining the three social platforms that offer the most value to your business, establishing a presence on them, and sticking to them. You should be posting at minimum twice daily on any social platform you use.
Create a Strategy
A marketing strategy is an essential part of business success, and this is also true with the web. Unfortunately, you don’t and cannot outline exactly how you will reach your goals because social media is constantly changing. Instead, outline goals, assign amounts of time per day to get there, and then strategize how to get there.
Hire Professionals
Finally, many business owners should stick with what they do best, running their business, and leave the web marketing to the professionals. If you have a budget for marketing, then web marketing can and will produce a return on investment for you if it is being handled by professionals.
Putting Together Your Seattle Search Engine Marketing Team
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing on May 16, 2014
If you’re getting ready to set up a Seattle search engine marketing team, then you have a lot to consider. Not only do you have to settle on a type of team, but also on foundational skills, attitude, and budget. While the process is complex, you can use these quick tips to help make up your mind.
Team Type
The first decision you have to make about your marketing team is whether you want them to be in-house or outsourced. In-House marketing teams are best for companies with a large budget for paying a team of one or more people full time, plus benefits. Hiring an outsourced company is the cheaper option, because it allows you to get the marketing you need without paying the full-time rates. For the majority of businesses, this is the way to. On the other hand, if you can generate enough revenue with search engine marketing to pay for a full-time team, then by all means go that route.
DNA Traits
The best way to choose team members or a company offering Seattle search engine marketing is to look at their DNA traits and yours. DNA traits are the root company traits by which you operate (such as Creativity, Honesty, Intelligence, etc.). The best advice is to make a list of your own traits, and then look for companies or team members with at least three of those traits, so that your company traits reflect in your marketing and online presence. Nelly Yusupova of Webgrrrls International suggests that this is the most important factor to consider when you’re hiring a new team member for your company.
Skills
Second, you don’t want to hire just anyone to establish your web presence. Look for companies based in Seattle, with a local knowledge of Seattle’s marketing and SEO trends, someone with the SEO, linkbuilding, internal optimization, and web development skills you need to create your online presence, and someone who is established enough in marketing to make things happen. After all, if you want to spend money, you want to see results.
Budget
Any good Seattle marketing team should be able to work out a budget with you based on the potential ROI and returns that they feel they can make for you. If you consult with a team and they can’t directly estimate a budget after asking you questions, then you probably don’t want to hire the team, because they aren’t sure they can get you ROI. You can talk with a couple of different companies first, and if you don’t already know the max you can spend, ask them about working out a quick estimated budget before you proceed with the hire. Of course, this doesn’t quite apply the same to bringing in in-house teams, which are a little more complex, as you’ll have to pay them regardless of your budget.
Want to know more about what search engine marketing can make for you? Contact us today to schedule a meeting, or talk about your search marketing needs.
How to Get Started with Localized Internet Marketing in the Seattle Area
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing on April 25, 2014
If you’re marketing a local business here in Seattle, then Internet marketing can actually do more for you than you might think. While many people think of the Internet as an all or nothing worldwide marketing venture, it doesn’t have to be. There are plenty of local outlets, websites, and tactics for locally marketing your business on the web. While it does start with social marketing, there are a number of different internet marketing tactics you can use.
Blog Marketing
If you have a produce then you can get blogs to cover your product. Usually the process isn’t free because you will have to offer them your product to review or write about, but if those blogs have a following then you can get customers from it. Great places to try include neighborhood newspapers, and local blogs that cover your niche. For example, if you want to promote a restaurant, you would want to look for local food blogs with a following, local social pages and groups about food, and local newspapers with a food column. In this case, by offering a free meal to the blogger or reviewer in exchange for coverage, you get increased hype and hopefully customers as well. The trick is that the person in question has to be impressed in order to write something good about you.
Content
Content marketing is the single best way to promote your topics to the world wide web, but if you want to keep things in the Seattle market then you will have to create selective content. Find out what local people want to know about your niche, and then create content that helps them with that. User created content like videos, reviews, and comments also help with local content marketing and help to boost your local SEO, so try encouraging user created content whenever possible.
Localization
Localization is a huge deal if you’re marketing to a specific area. While you can just include your address and a few localized keywords on your website, you can also localize in a few other ways. You can create blogs and posts based towards specific areas and neighborhoods. You can also set yourself up on Google Local and Google Places to come up better for localized search. Finally, set up your page with a location on Facebook so that you come up under Graph searches for content in your area.
Social Pages
Social pages are very important for almost any type of business, but the smaller your business, the more people want to see an active social page before they’re going to want to buy from you. The key here is to encourage your clients and customers to review you on your social pages so that new customers will see positive hype about you as soon as they go on the page. While you won’t always be able to make this happen, it will definitely help.
If you need help with your localized Seattle internet marketing then try contacting Rory Martin for advice. We’ve worked with dozens of companies, and we can help you too.
How to Boost Your Social Media With Referrals & Reviews – Seattle SMM Tips
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing on April 18, 2014
In today’s digital world, social shares and customer referrals are still among the best ways to get new customers, especially if you have a small business. Because the majority of consumers now do research online and on social media before purchasing products, getting your customers to recommend and refer customers to you can be hugely beneficial to your business.
Ask
The easiest way to get reviews on your social pages is to quite simply ask. If you have regular customers then take a few minutes to tell them how good reviews on your social sites (Facebook, Yelp, Google Plus) will help you to get new customers. Just take a few minutes for each customer, be genuine, and ask them to leave a review. Many of them will respond, especially if they know you relatively well.
Incitements
For newer customers, you may have to offer incitements to review. In some cases you can offer something simple like a 10 or 15% discount. You don’t want to go too high, but if you make the discount too low then they might not want to leave the review. On the other hand, if you usually offer incitements to get customers to return, then you can offer a slightly higher discount for the review. Alternatively, you can offer small prizes or something for free to people who leave a review. However, you do not want to ask them to leave you a good review, just an honest one.
Offer Referral Bonuses
Referrals are another great way to get customers, and you can offer referral bonuses, even if you don’t have any sort of online sales. Instead, you can track the referrals from each person using a business card with their name on it, and when they get to a certain amount of referrals, offer them a discount or a bonus. Usually a great way to create this sort of referral bonus is to offer a 10% discount to the person being referred and then a $5-$10 discount per referral to the person doing the referrals. That way, everyone wins. Some people try to use this sort of program to get likes on their social pages, but this is most likely a waste of time as likes on a page aren’t necessarily profitable.
You should keep in mind that while reviews can do a great deal for your page, you do want them to be natural. Fake or paid reviews tend to stand out, and if all of your reviews are the same then clients will notice. Keep the reviews and referrals on your page genuine, and your consumers will respond. Usually the best way to get great reviews is to offer great service, and then ask for the review.
Do you want to know more about localized Seattle social marketing for your business? We can help you by putting together a professional marketing scheme that will get you the reviews, referrals, and hype that you need to grow your consumer base and make more money.
Seattle SEO Management Tips for Business
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on March 28, 2014
If you’re running a local Seattle business and you want to rank for local searches for your types of businesses then you have your job cut out for you. Without a professional Seattle SEO manager to help you out, you’re going to have to research, plan, and strategize an SEO plan that will hopefully get you onto search above your competitors. Unfortunately, that’s not always easy. Seattle is a hotspot of small and medium businesses that are growing under the huge job market thanks to big tech companies in the surrounding area. With that in mind, here are a few handy tips to help you rank higher in local Seattle SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Content Marketing
Content is one of your most powerful marketing tools because content attracts visitors. By ensuring that your pages are localized and relatable to local readers, you are encouraging the citizens of Seattle to read your website. You’re also giving yourself more fodder for sharing on social pages to make them more popular.
Hyper Localization
What’s more, you also want to hyper localize your content. Yes it’s important to tell your readers, your ads, and to put on your website that you’re in Seattle, but don’t forget your local area, neighborhood, and street. For example, if you search for ‘restaurants in Seattle’ there are over 3,397 competing restaurants. On the other hand, if you search for “Restaurants in Georgetown, Seattle”, there are just 125 restaurants within that local area competing with you in search. When you narrow that down to “Restaurants on Airport Way, Georgetown, Seattle, you’re looking at just five search competitors. Apply that concept to your local area and your business and you could find yourself capturing hyper local customers.
Website Speed
You’ve probably heard this half a million times already in 2014, but it’s important. Make sure that your website loads quickly on every device or you are loosing your hard earned clicks. Enough said.
Go Easy on the Links
While Google loves to see new content, they’re not so hyped about the links. Take it easy on linking to and from other websites, and try to avoid guest blogging for the same of links. If you do include guest blogging in your policy, try offering your website URL without linking it. This will allow interested readers to follow you to your site without bringing unnatural links that could result in a Google penalty.
You probably already know that the backend of your site has to be in shape, that you have to research keywords, and that you should use them sparingly. You should also know that quality is more important than quantity, and that you will be penalized for trying to influence search. With that out of the way, you just have to make sure that your website is for your readers, offers value, and is what it appears to be about. Other then that, you’re on your own with creating your SEO strategy.
If you want to know more about what a professional Seattle SEO manager can do for you in terms of results, contact us at Rory Martin.
Seattle Social Media Management Tips Improving Social Engagement
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing on March 14, 2014
While statistics show that some 80% of small businesses are using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google +, but those statistics say nothing about active engaging pages. Unfortunately the majority of business owners have no idea how to engage with their fan base, and most have no idea how to grow their fan base, other than by inviting their friend’s list from personal pages.
Understanding Fans
The first step to improving any sort of Seattle social media campaign is to understand your fanbase. Depending on what platform you happen to be on, your fans may want to see entirely different things. You also have to consider how and why you asked your fans to join the page in the first place.
Did you offer coupons and discounts to fans on the page? Did you just invite everyone you know to the page? You can also use some analytics information to see what your fans are responding to the most, and you can also check to see what your most active fans like from their page (unless this information is private). Understanding what your fans want to see helps you to create a better content strategy that engages people, because it is what they want or love.
Balancing Engaging & Promotional Content
The main job of any social media site is to entertain and inform. You want your page to do this, but you also want to balance in promotional content. Unfortunately, most people don’t respond well to pages that simply share their products, or share things about themselves. If you want to share something and you don’t have a good reason (such as it being on sale), you want to do so in an interesting and informative way.
Sometimes that way is to share it with a customer photo and customer review, other times it is to point out that a celebrity or popular TV show used it or something similar. You can also write blogs about it and share those as a form of promotion as well. For example, if you sell modern lamps, blog posts about different types of modern lamps, how to style modern lamps, and even how to fit lamps into your modern styled house could all go over well. Finally, you can post humorous content relating to your topics, interesting photos of your products, or reviews and quotes about your products from around the web.
What Makes Good Content?
Good content varies depending on the page, but a good rule of thumb is to create your content, read it, and if it’s not interesting or informative in some way, you probably don’t want it. Consider “Does it ask a question”, “does it teach something new”, “does it make people think”, “does it make people laugh”, “If this were not my business would this make me want to purchase something?”. If you can say no to all of these, then it’s probably not worth posting.
Hiring a Professional
While many small businesses cannot afford to hire a full time social media manager, some 37% of small and medium sized businesses do. A well managed social campaign can and does improve sales, and paying for a social media service should pay for itself within a certain amount of time. Want to know more? Send us a message to find out more about a Seattle Social Media Company can take your social pages and turn them into highly engaging pages that market themselves to sell your products.
Setting a Marketing Budget – How Much is Your Seattle SEO Campaign Worth?
Posted by Rory Martin in Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization on January 14, 2014
If you’re planning on starting an SEO or marketing campaign for 2014 then you have a lot of decisions to make. First, you have to set a budget. Unfortunately, setting a budget on any sort of marketing campaign isn’t as easy as quoting a number and going with that. You have to decide a budget based on your spending goals, the company you’re hiring, and your potential for return on investment. Finally, all of this has to be tempered by your market and your demographic. For example, a localized Seattle SEO campaign is much smaller than an international one. Ready, let’s get started.
Demographic
Your demographic should be a huge part of setting your budget. How many customers do you have the potential of reaching with a good SEO campaign? On top of that, how many of them are you capable of serving? If your target demographic is only very local, for example, Greenwood, then you’re not going to get much out of a thousands of dollar campaign. You need something small, and targeted locally, which typically means smaller budget. On the other hand, if you operate a web shop selling women’s clothing that delivers worldwide, then your demographic is as wide as you can get it. In this case, a huge marketing campaign would be in your best interest.
What Affects Pricing
There are a number of factors that affect SEO pricing; especially in the Seattle area. Some companies charge more for SEO simply because they are more in demand. For example, an SEO professional with experience managing campaigns for big companies. On the other hand, some companies charge more just because they want to. On average, the following considerations affect pricing the most.
• Industry Competitiveness
• Current Ranking (Yours and Competitors)
• Size
• Resources Required to Achieve Results
• Geo-Location
• Current Risk
For example, if you are in a highly competitive industry such as finance, your ranking is quite low, and you have no real quality website or social built up, then your SEO company will have to invest a great deal just to get your SEO going. For that reason, your campaign would be more expensive. On the other hand, your website might already be in good shape, and all you might need are a few strategic links, better keyword optimization, and backend tweaking to improve website performance.
Defining Your ROI
ROI is an acronym that stands for Return on Investment, while often nothing more than a bit of overused jargon by anyone who wants to sell you something, it is the single most important thing about your marketing campaign. Whether you’re investing in social media, in SEO, targeting the world, or targeting a small, local Seattle marketing campaign, you need ROI. Your return on investment is the money that you make from your marketing investment, and like any other type of investment, if it’s not there, then you need a new strategy. There are two types of basic ROI including ‘anticipated ROI’ and ‘actual ROI’. Deciding on your anticipated ROI is how you determine how much you can afford to spend on your initial SEO campaign, while your actual ROI is how you decide on what to continue spending.
What is your marketing campaign worth to you? To us, any SEO campaign is only worth as much as much as it can make you in actual returns. Want to know more? Contact us today to talk to one of our local Seattle SEO professionals.
Recent Comments