Is your Instagram SEO strategy up to par? You can leverage the social media service to boost your rankings in search. Learn how here.

There’s no denying the value of Instagram for building a brand and connections. This little darling of a social media platform exploded in popularity. Instagram is now one of the preferred social media platforms of just about everyone.

There are more than a billion IG users worldwide.

Let that sink in.

You’ll want Instagram SEO to help your profile stand out.

This article shares some of the easiest ways to add SEO to your IG. So, follow along and prepare yourself to reach more people and build a stronger brand.

1. Optimise the Profile with a Keyword or Two

There are a couple of profile areas you could include organic keywords:

• Username
• Profile name
• About info

Your profile gets indexed on the Web (not photos). Like any site, Google and the other search engines rely on keywords to understand the page. So, try injecting a relevant keyword into these areas as you see fit.

2. Find and Use Great Hashtags

Hashtags are the informative and navigational elements of Instagram. These describe the photo or help it connect with a trend or topic. Hashtags are essentially meta tags which you control to boost SEO.

Try this:

1. Check competitors and note which hashtags they use
2. Post your media and include one or two relevant hashtags
3. Figure out which provide the biggest interaction
4. Make a new list of the best hashtags for your efforts

This little process cuts down on hashtag spam. And, boosts what works on the platform. The result is an active community that’ll build up your brand image.

All of this leads to…

3. Leverage Your Brand Image and Connection

A big part of SEO is building backlinks to improve your reach and authority. Instagram SEO is no different. The more your image spreads, the better chances you’ll appear in search results.

Extend your reach by trying these:

• Including your IG profile link in the byline when guest posting
• Using embedded IG images from your profile in blog posts
• Having webmasters link to your IG when they mention you

This gets your name out there while building backlinks to the profile!

4. Deliver Good, Quality Content to Followers

People follow your IG for its content and discussions. Deliver a great experience with remarkable images and you’ll have done half the work. 

Good content:

• Gets people talking, sharing, and linking
• Connecting and building up your brand
• Wanting to work with you outside of IG

You are, in essence, becoming an influencer within your space. This can lead to coverage and connections that help grow your organic reach. With this extended reach comes a greater impact on your SEO because you’re everywhere.

And to think… it all starts with taking high-quality photos.

5. Keep Doing What You’re Doing Well

Dig into your IG analytics from the settings and learn about your best posts. Then, create more of that content as you already know it’s a hit.

You can do extra things once you have the list of top posts, too, like:

• Adding them back into profile overview
• Advertising with the most eye-catching ones
• Reusing them on your site and in its content

Leverage what’s working. This creates a consistent experience for newcomers that translates into a broader reach!

Let’s Go Beyond Instagram SEO

A touch of Instagram SEO grows your reach through this popular platform. But it’s not the only important place you’ll want to get found online.

Visibility is everything, and you’ll want a strategy that works. Let’s work together and find an SEO strategy to grow your business. Then, amplify your impact through paid ads and incredible Web experiences.

Ready to explore what’s possible? Click here and let’s talk.

SEO vs PPC: What’s the Difference?

Are you confused about the difference between SEO vs PPC? Check out this guide to learn about the differences.

Did you know that Google handles over 3.5 billion searches per day?

It is most probable that you landed on this site through a google search or a series of them. Imagine how many people are doing so at this very moment worldwide.

The number is so big thus it is brave wanting Google to notice your company.

If you are on this site, then it means that you are interested in marketing your business through search engines.

There are two ways to go about it, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC). Read on to understand critical aspects when determining SEO vs. PPC.

Why a search engine

The world we live in today is pretty much run by the internet. Therefore, for your business to be relevant in the digital marketing world, it must have an online presence.

Create a website and advertise your products through it. This way, you will attract customers that would have otherwise remained inaccessible.
SEO vs. PPC.

You have probably encountered Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click in the online marketing world. You may think of the two are similar due to their functions but they happen to be very different tools.

They mainly differ in where listings appear on the search results page and how traffic is acquired.

Within The Locality

If you are a business owner, high chances are that you want to target local customers. Well, At least for now. To do this you need to optimize the local search.

How you go about it is different for SEO vs. PPC. Use location keywords to increase your chances of being among the localities that pop up is a consumer is searching for similar products.

Make sure that important information like business name and address is the same in all platforms.

Site Traffic

There are two major types of site traffic. 

Organic Traffic

Every time that you type into Google search bar, there are links that pop up. These, are known as organic results. They come up due to the similarity of content.

Now, traffic that comes from users finding your link among these results is the organic traffic. The probability of someone following on your link is pretty low if it does not appear among the first three. Therefore, you must be patient if you decide to pick SEO. Search Engine Optimization falls under this category.

Despite, the time factor it happens to be the most valuable traffic source and most sought after by buyers. Maybe if you are patient enough, you will be able to get more traffic at a cheaper cost per head.

Instant Traffic

As the name suggests, pay per click is chargeable.

However, it is instant. All you have to do is run advertisements on google and your site will appear among the first in Google Search results.

This major difference between SEO and PPC prompts you to now have much is time worth to you.

How much is the extra time saving your company?

Pros of Using SEO

Several ways in which you can improve your website using SEO. They include blogging and on page optimization. 

Organic traffic is not really free as it costs time and effort. Which implies capital, but other than that, there are no charges. It’s definitely more cost effective. 

Below are the advantages of using SEO. 

Credible Image

Most users tend to ignore ads and look for organic results. This will have a positive impact on your brand as you will have a credible image.

Awareness

The more time it takes for an organic site to gain a following, the longer it is to an internet user. If you have quality content, then there is nothing to worry about.
With time, keywords leading to your website will begin to pop up.

Your services might stick with the customers as opposed to sites that appear out of nowhere

Return on Investment (ROI)

This type of traffic has proven to have better returns on investments as opposed to the paid alternative. What PPC has to offer?

Now let’s look at some advantages of having a paid traffic plan.

Top position on Page

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, position on a page is crucial. Being on top of the page guarantees that most users click on your site.

Advertisements

With PPC ads, you have more space to market your brand. Make sure to add important information like location, pricing, and call outs.

Planned Finances

If you are considering paying for your advertisements, then it is wise to know figure out how much you are willing to spend daily on marketing.

To what level is business dependent on this? And can your online customer cater for this expense and more? Are some of the questions that you need to ask yourself beforehand?

Speed

How agile is your business? Any small business owner trying to stand out in the online marketing world understands that speed is a currency.

PPC gives you an economic advantage over your competitors. How so? You can be the first to market a certain product and benefit from the sales before your competitors catch up.

What Not To Do

Now you have understood the differences between SEO and PPC and what impact they have on your enterprise.

Let’s look at some crucial don’ts. Read keenly as they might make all the difference.

SEO

Avoid over-stuffing your page with keywords. Filling your pages with keywords won’t make it pop faster. Besides, the search engine is interested in quality content

Don’t use negative keywords. Avoid having duplicated texts in your website. Search engines are looking for content that will help the users. Having the same data twice will only weaken your game

PPC

Pick targeted keywords over generic ones. Monitor your ads to make sure that that they are actually getting conversations.

Avoid using negative keywords. If you do so, you will end up talking about what you are not selling instead of advertising your products.

Make the Best Choices in Digital Marketing

Advertising your business online and going the extra mile of improving its visibility to the user is bold and objective. At the end of the day, all you want is to grow your business and boost sales.

Be sure to take time and decide what best works for you, SEO vs. PPC.

For more information on beneficial online tools, check out this page.

Are you wondering how to verify Google Business?

Don’t worry, it’s easier than you might think. With over 1.2 trillion searches made on Google each year, Google understands the importance of streamlined processes. That’s why they design their tools with simplicity in mind.

Well, we won’t keep you waiting. When you’re ready to verify your business and master local SEO, read on.

How to Verify Google Business

Several ways to verify your Google My Business account exist, though some may not be available for your particular business. Though knowing some tips for getting around Google isn’t required, it certainly helps. Your verification options include the following:

• Postcard
• Email
• Phone Call
• Instant Verification
• Bulk Verification

After you create or claim your Google My Business listing, you’ll see the options available to you. The most common option is postcard (or mail) verification. It’s available for all business types and locations.

Phone, email, and text verification options are less common options. Instant and bulk verifications are much less common.

Verify by Postcard

After you’ve created or claimed your listing, it’s time to verify your information. The process is different for those of you who are in the middle of creating your listing and those of you who created it a while ago and clicked on the Verify later button.

If you just signed up, you’ll see Mail in the top left corner of your page. It’s on top of the map that shows your business location.

1. Check to ensure your business information is correct and click Mail.
2. Type in the name of the person to whom the verification postcard should be addressed.
3. Then click the Send postcard button.

If you signed up for your account a while ago but put off your verification, then follow these directions instead.

1. Sign in to your account at Google My Business, and your dashboard will appear.
2. Look for the red banner at the top of your page and click the Verify now button on the right-hand side.
3. Now check for the Mail button in the left-hand corner at the top of the page.
4. Make certain your business information is correct before pushing the Mail button.
5. Enter the name of the person to whom you’d like the postcard sent.
6. Finally, click the Send postcard button.

Now you must wait for your postcard. Warning: it will likely take a few weeks. On that postcard, you’ll find a unique verification code which you’ll need for the next step.

Simply sign in to your Google My Business account and click the Verify location or Verify now button from your menu. After you enter the 5-digit verification code from your postcard, you’re finished. It’s that easy.

While you’re waiting for your postcard, don’t change any information on your Google My Business account. If you do, you’ll have to send for a new postcard which will delay its arrival time by 1-2 more weeks. It’s also worth noting that Google makes a Google My Business mobile app which you can use for the steps above.

Verify by Phone

If you’re wondering how to verify Google Business without postcards, the phone is your next best bet. If your business is eligible for verification by phone, you’ll find a Verify by phone option when you request your verification. You can perform your verification by opening up your Google My Business account or by using Google My Business mobile app.

If you’re using a laptop or desktop, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Google My Business account.
2. Pick the business you want to verify and click the Verify now button.
3. Make certain you have access to the business phone number you registered with your business account.
4. Click the Verify by phone button and Google will send you a 5-digit code via automated message.
5. After you get the message, enter the code in the appropriate line on your My Business account page.

If you’re doing this over your mobile app, follow these steps:

1. Open your app.
2. Tap the Call me now button.
3. Google will call and give you a 5-digit code with their automated message.
4. Enter your code into your app on the appropriate line.

After you enter your code, hit Submit. Then you’re done! Each of these methods should take you no longer than 5 minutes.

Verify by Email

You can also verify business on Google by email which is almost the same as verifying by phone. You want to get a hold of Google’s unique verification code for your business. Then, you enter it into the appropriate line in your Google My Business account.

Whether you’re performing the verification through your computer or mobile app, the process is much the same:

1. Choose the verification through Email option (if it’s available to you).
2. Check your email inbox for the letter in question.
3. Find the 5-digit code in that letter.
4. Enter the code into the appropriate line in your Google My Business account.

After you’ve put in your code, hit Enter, and you’re finished with the verification process. The entire process takes less than 2 minutes.

Verify Instantly

This option is available only if you’ve set up Google Search Console on your business’s website. If you have, make sure you’re signed into the Google My Business account for the business in question. Then click on the instant verification button.

Bulk Verification

This option is only available if you have 10 or more business locations. The steps differ slightly, for each business. If you’re interested to learn more, click on the Bulk verification option in your Google My Business account to learn more.

Other Local SEO Essentials

For those of you who run your own marketing campaigns, Google offers you Google My Business Insights. The tool shows you how your customers are finding your listing on Google Search and Google Maps. It also tells you what those customers do after they find your listing.

Be sure to keep track of your progress with an Ultimate Local SEO Checklist for small businesses. Though the process is mechanical and fairly straightforward, it has a long list of steps. It’s common to forget at least one and then wonder why your local SEO isn’t ranking.

What’s Next?

Now that you know how to verify Google Business, consider other ways to increase your local ranking. One of the most popular ways is to redesign the content on your site to cater to voice searches.

Voice searches differ greatly from typed searches. They use more natural keyword phrases. That’s one of the reasons “Frequently Asked Questions” sections rank so high on voice searches.

If you’d like to learn about other ways to improve your local ranking, hop over to our library full of other brilliant SEO and PPC articles.

There are over 1.5 billion websites live across the globe. Each site is clamouring for the same thing: The top spot on Google.

Needless to say, if you’re looking to stay successful, you’ll need to get competitive.

Stay ahead of the competition and increase your conversion rates by reading up on these SEO trends for 2019!

Mobile-Friendly Design

Smartphones make browsing easier, faster, and more convenient.

As a result, most people are choosing to browse via their cell phone or tablet than their PC.

As the mobile experience continues to grow in sophistication expect this trend to continue.

Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that you’re ready.

Make sure that your site looks and performs well on a variety of devices. If you’re not sure where to begin, Google has a few great tips worth reading.

Voice Search Optimization

The way people browse isn’t the only thing changing. How they search for information is drastically different, as well.

Voice assistants like Amazon’s Echo or Apple’s Siri provide users with information in an instant.

And though the method of searching for information has changed, the way these assistants pull information is still reliant on SERPs.

To accommodate these changes, change the way you phrase organic keywords and use longer keywords. You’ll also want to phrase keywords as a natural query.

Engaging Content

Yes, content is still king in the world of SEO.

Creating engaging original content is one of the best ways to boost your SERPs, implement backlinks, establish site authority, and partner with other like-minded peers.

But how you go about creating that content may need a refresh.

Branch out and experiment with a variety of content types to grow your brand. Video content in particular yields a high ROI.

Fast And Furious Load Times

The longer it takes a website to load, the more likely a user will be to leave the site.

If your site doesn’t fully load within two to three seconds, expect users to bounce from your site pretty quickly.

Minimize the number of redirects a user must go through to get to your homepage. You can also optimize images or compress content.

Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots

You won’t always be available to answer a client’s question. But by the time you get around to responding to their message, they may have already contacted the competition.

Fortunately, AI is advanced enough that it can do most of the work for you. Think of it as an advanced search feature for your website.

Using machine learning, chatbots can help customers answer some of the most commonly asked questions. If a chatbot can’t point a client in the right direction, they can send the message straight to you.

This has the potential to improve your overall user experience, and thus, boost your SEO.

Make 2019 Your Best Year With These SEO Trends

If you’re not first, you’re last.

By utilizing these SEO trends, you can make sure that your website reaches — and stays — and the top of the search results.

Want to learn more about how you can improve your conversion rate? Get in touch today and let’s chat about how we can help your business.

The business world is an ever-changing matrix, shifting to reflect every new piece of technology going. To keep up with these changes the industry must remain reactive, creating new ideas almost constantly. 

Remain Customer-Centric

The consumer mindset changes almost as often as job roles; both shifting constantly to reflect new trends and opportunities. Customers are no longer willing to wait, instead expecting everything to be available at their fingertips. Brands no longer have the option to use multiple touchpoints; rather, they HAVE to engage in every one of these just to appear relevant in today’s society.

Different generations and genders demand different experiences. The most successful companies will be those who are engaging not only with the black and white of each of these categories, but also all the different shades of grey in the middle. Experts have predicted that over the next five years, 85% of relationships between the business and consumer will be conducted without any human input companies have to resolve to move with the shift, reaching into digital spaces and creating new ways for their consumers to engage with them. As modes of communication develop, so too must our communication with the consumer, finding ways to enhance their experience of the brand. 

Real vs. Virtual Environments

Real and Virtual environments are no longer two separate entities. These days, the two have become blurred, working in harmony to ensure the consumer gets the communication they want. The marcomm landscape has shifted and created an explosion in customer experience online as the number of individuals “logging on” shoots up.

Despite this, expert reports show that 82% of Millennial’s would still opt to shop in a physical store, proving that those most active on their mobile devices would still choose a physical store.

Artificial Intelligence is decreasing the demand for human interaction across a huge range of sectors, though the problem still remains – how can a machine create a customised experience for each individual? In answer, it comes down to how we engage and use AI to enhance the consumer experience rather than replace it. The online is working with the physical in so many areas, we fail to see how this cannot be adapted to work, creating a bridge between AI and human intelligence. 

New Technologies mean New Jobs

Another stat: it’s predicted that as AI and technology continues to develop, most children in school now will end up doing jobs we cannot yet comprehend.

Though not all job industries are under threat of an AI takeover, there are many whose jobs could be at risk of a technology takeover. For example, farming is a huge worldwide industry, but the creation of more intelligent machinery is making light work of our existing manual labour jobs.

In the marcomm industry, automation of some aspects of work is inevitable, though there is a huge opportunity to embrace and work alongside this. The machines may be efficient and ruthless in their perfect execution, but human intelligence is where the creative ideas lie – and that is why marketing companies must be careful to integrate their employees in with AI. 

Integrated Marketing Communications

Basically, this means deciphering exactly what people want to see and hear. It’s an experiential means of communication, which is growing increasingly more interesting and challenging as the variety of platforms for receiving marketing is expanding.

These communications are chosen by profitability, identifying the most profitable means of engaging with the individual and then exploiting this for the good of the brand. The brand message must be seamless across channels, following the individual round as they browse the online world.

It is vital that we see these new developments as opportunities rather than challenges and obstacles. The growth in technology and the current digital transformation has created a world in which we can be innovative in our approach, and the way we work with the technology rather than against it. 

The Impact Of Voice Search On Business Websites In 2019

Since Apple introduced Siri to iPhone users in 2011, voice technology has grown to become a staple feature not only on smartphones but across an array of internet-enabled devices in the home. Most notable of these is the smart speaker, which has quickly found itself in more than one out of ten Wi-Fi connected homes, with Amazon, Google and Apple all competing in the space. (Susan Engelson 2017, Comscore)

Statistics indicate that at least 50 percent of searches will be conducted via voice search by 2020 which indicates that business owners should start preparing for this shift in search engine optimisation (SEO).

With the primary objective of every website or business owner to assist potential customers to find and purchase their products or services hence if most customers are using voice search to find products or services they are looking for, then voice search optimisation makes a lot of sense.

Implementing the latest voice search marketing strategies means that you are in a better position to stay ahead of the competition and grow your business in the process. In this article, we look at the growth of voice search SEO and its impact on business websites in 2019.

What Is Voice Search?

Voice search is a technology that uses speech recognition to understand a user’s verbal query as opposed to the traditional way of typing the query into a search box.

The search engine or digital assistant then tries to answer the query by matching it with answers available online. Over the past few years, voice search optimisation has grown exponentially as more and more users are opting to perform online searches verbally through their smartphones, smart devices or computers. Voice search is specifically becoming popular among the younger generation.

Voice search is moving beyond accomplishing tasks such as questions and answers or navigation to more complex activities like email management, shopping, calendar management and many more meaning that it is no longer something to be ignored. In fact latest voice search trends seem to suggest that it is here to stay.

Traditional Search Vs Voice Search

When users perform a voice search, they use different terms for their search hence the traditional keyword strategies are not going to do the trick.

Voice search SEO is a unique technique used to optimise a website to be able to respond to voice commands. Voice searches allow for longer and more specific queries to be made compared to text-based searches but they should be very brief and to-the-point.

If you are optimising your website for voice search, ensure that your content is easy to read and comprehend as this will make it perform well in voice search.

The Impact of Voice Search On Business Websites

Most people use voice search when they want quick answers since it requires less effort and is marginally faster. Mobile search has gone up while the use of digital assistants and smart speakers is also on the rise. These technological changes are affecting SEO practices hence business owners need to be ready and prepared to adopt the future of search engine optimisation.

All businesses should ensure that their content is natural and conversational in order to achieve the Q & A pattern of voice search. The increased adoption of smartphone assistants and smart speakers such as Google Home or Siri has a significant effect on search trends.

Consumers are now changing the way they seek out information or search for products and services thus websites must be built to accommodate this latest trend. Voice search has ideally made it significantly harder to reach the target audience which requires online marketers to make changes to their content. This involves finding out exactly what users are looking for and how they are looking for it. Proper voice search optimisation should consider the difference between a spoken search and a typed search. Business websites should use more natural language to rank well for voice search.

People tend to use longer sentences and more words when speaking than they do when typing.The list of keywords should therefore include full sentences instead of focusing on shorter phrases or keywords. Most typed searches contain sentence fragments which is not the case for voice search. Voice searches occur in the form of longer questions and not few word requests which means that your content must adapt to this.

Experts predict that by 2020 at least 50 percent of internet users will be using voice. This presents numerous opportunities for marketers in the coming years especially due to the growth of mobile technology and the use of smart devices. If you are a digital marketer looking to stay ahead of the competition, get in touch with us today for the best digital services that include website design and development, digital marketing, digital strategy and so much more.

Meta tags refer to information that is inserted into the head area of a web page. Search engines use these to ensure your sites are listed in their index. Meta tags are used by web developers to identify HTML specifications, keywords, descriptions, refresh parameters, to name a few. Except for the Meta title tag, the information on a Meta tag will not be viewed by people viewing your page in browsers. Owners of web pages have some control over the way their pages are described by search engines by using Meta tags. They can even keep a page from being indexed.

Types of meta tags

Among the different types of Meta tags, the most important in determining search engine ranking is now the description attribute. This attribute contains a description of the content of the website, which comes up during a search engine query. This description is helpful when a search engine can not use a site’s content to generate its own description. Other commonly used Meta tags are the language attribute, which tells a search engine the natural language of the website, and the robot attribute, which controls whether search engine spiders can index a site and follow the links within. There are a number of other, less commonly used Meta tags as well, but those listed here are the most commonly used.

How to make meta tag effective

To make your title tag effective, make it interesting and eye-catching. When creating it, think of your audience first and the search engines second. Don’t make it too long; probably 90 characters would be enough. Here’s the format using “What are Meta Tags” as the title of a page: Importance of using a metal tag -By using meta elements effectively it’s possible to get good engine ranking. It enables the webmaster to control the way my website will appear during search results. The website with a proper description is more likely to attract visitors. Success lies in proving brief and to the point description of the site. -The meta keywords tag is also of the important determining factors in page ranking. It contains the list of keywords which the Webmaster considers important to each page. Effective use of keywords helps to get a proper ranking on web engines. The best way is to go through each web page carefully and then select ten keywords that best represent the contents of the site. Too many unnecessary keywords lead to incompatible web research results and using words may lead to incomplete message -Meta tags help to classify a website so that it’s visible during search results. These tags provide the search engines with key information about the website which helps the user to find the concerned site quickly. Without the tags, search engines, that go by the information entered by the user, will give inappropriate results without proper ranking of digital businesses. -They determine the headers which are sent before sending out the details of the website and also rules out the name and content of each header. There are a number of different types of Meta tags that can be used on a website. They can specify headers to be sent before actual site content and can dictate the name and content of each header. Meta tags can also be used to indicate the keywords relevant to a site or document or the state or area that the advertised business serves. These tags are also used in SEO, though they are typically not visible to site visitors. These tags give a great deal of information about the website in order to help search engines organize and classify the site. The “keywords” Meta tag used to be one of the biggest factors in a page’s ranking, but this has become less popular after some site creators began using a large number of irrelevant keywords to drive traffic to spam or even virus-ridden websites. In conclusion, meta-tags are not a magical solution to the very complex problem of online marketing. They must be regarded as one tool in an inventory of other tools and should be used responsibly. Properly implemented, they will help complete an effective marketing strategy and this will facilitate the tremendous growth of your digital business by optimising your website.

7 Reasons to Pay Attention to Local Search

When it comes to local search, it needs to be your top priority. See why it’s essential to dominate it so you beat out your competition.

When you offer a specialised service, it’s important to pay attention to your location-based clientele. People within your region will be your biggest customers because accessibility is key when making buying decisions. You need to optimize your site to ensure it pops up when people conduct local searches. Not only will site optimization help your search rankings, it will also help you convert leads into customers. Here are some of the biggest reasons why local search is important.

1. Reviews from Local Customers Will Boost Your Sales

A lot of businesses have a so-so attitude towards reviews. On one hand, they can really help your business stand out and attract customers if they’re good. On the other hand, a bunch of negative reviews can be disastrous for your organization. Especially, if they’re the first things people see when they search your company. Websites like Yelp have built an entire business on reviews. Yelp allows people to search for your business to find reviews, pictures, contact and location information. Yelp also uses a star rating system and lists the top rated businesses in the area. People who join Yelp are called Yelpers. They get to create a profile page with their picture and name. They can leave business reviews and photos. The Yelper system gives Yelp credibility. You know the reviews are made by real people who have patronized the business. In addition to Yelp, Google also has a feature that allows customers to leave reviews. Organizations can create a Google “My Business” page to promote their company. Customers can also leave reviews on the business page and post pictures. Reviews also help with search rankings. Google takes your digital imprint into account. If people are talking about your page and visiting your site, they’ll take notice.

2. Location-Specific Keywords Help You Target Customers

Keyword planning and research are going to set your business apart from the competition. Once you’ve found the right keywords, now it’s time to start creating keyword rich content. Avoid keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing is when webpage content is filled with the same keyword used repetitively in an unnatural way. For example, the keyword “maid service” can be used to show that a company offers cleaning services. If page content features the phrase “maid services” 50 times, then it’s considered keyword stuffing. Google will give you negative rankings for keyword stuffing. Instead, try using a keyword planner to find the right keywords for your business. A keyword planner will show you the search volume for specific keywords. Search volume is the number of hits a keyword or keyword phrase gets. It’s best to rank for a variety of keywords to encourage web traffic to your site.

3. Google Local Pack Displays Local Businesses on the First Search Page

The Google Local Pack is a list of local businesses that are displayed underneath a map on the first results page. The Local Pack shows the business’ name, location, and business hours. It will also list the number of Google reviews your business has. The Local Pack used to display several entries but Google changed the display. The biggest reason for the change was mobile optimization. Several entries couldn’t be displayed comfortably on a mobile device. The key to getting your business into the Local Pack is consistency. Your business’ contact information should be clearly displayed on your website and on other websites and directories. Make sure your contact information is registered with the local Chamber of Commerce and other community organizations. Google trusts these sites and it’s more likely to promote your business if you’re linked to these networks.

4. Reputation Management is Vital to Business Growth

In all honesty, your business is only as good as its reputation. Poor reviews and ratings will not lead to new sales or customers. When you’re business receives poor reviews, it’s time to start analyzing company culture and productivity. It can be hard to thoroughly access your business when you’re fully engrossed in the company, so the best way to see how customers feel is to interact with them. Conduct surveys and let the customers tell you what you can improve on. You should also interact with customers online and through social media. If you’ve created a Google My Business page or Yelp listing, you can respond to customer complaints. Openly interacting with angry customers online in a respectful manner makes you look good. Potential customers see that you have the right customer service skills and attitude to remedy uncomfortable situations. A positive online persona can help you win over users conducting a local search.

5. Most Users Conduct Local Searches on Their Phone

Google changed their entire display format for a reason. In 2015, research showed that people conducted more mobile searches than desktop searches. In this high-paced environment, people need to access information when on the go. They don’t have time to go to a desktop or wait for a website to load. Americans spend approximately 87 hours per month browsing their smartphones, so the majority of their local searchers will be from their phones. Mobile optimized sites perform better within searches and get higher rankings from Google. How do you optimize your site for mobile devices? You improve the user experience through faster page loading times, incorporating fluid layouts, and designing web content for touchscreens.

6. The Majority of Your Customers Will be Local Residents

Service-based industries such as food services thrive from local support. The fact remains that most of your customers will live within a 25-mile radius of your business. That’s enough reason to make them a priority. Their proximity increases the chances they’ll be repeat customers. If they enjoy your service, they’ll also encourage their nearby friends and relatives to support your business.

7. Link-Building Helps You Gain Relevancy

One of the best things link-building does is build local traffic. When local sites and influencers post links on their page to your website, it boosts your search rankings and drives new traffic to your site. But link-building can turn into keyword stuffing if it isn’t done properly. You need to reach out to the local newspaper, journalists, bloggers, and critics to encourage them to write about your company. Try hosting a mixer or another event and invite local influencers. Once they start talking about your company, it will create some internet buzz and new site visits. You can also post coupon offers on deal sites like Groupon. Most Groupon users conduct local searches and will patronize your business if they see a good discount. Groupon also offers links back to your website, so it’s a great link-building resource.

Conclusion

If you need help building the right local search strategy, Felicity Jane Digital can help! Contact us today to start a conversation about taking your business to the next level.

Direct Vs. Organic Search: What’s the Difference?

When it comes to direct and organic search, what makes them different from each other? Learn about which one you should be focusing on and how they differ.

In the past, differentiating direct and organic search was simple. According to many, direct traffic was when a person arrived on a website by typing the URL into their web browser. Organic traffic was when they arrive on a website via a search engine. While the above is correct, to understand all the insights from web traffic, it’s important to delve a little deeper into the topic. Before looking at the difference between the two, let’s learn a bit more about traffic sources.

Understanding Traffic Sources

There are various traffic sources and all these have different classifications. Web analytics platforms use an algorithm to determine the source of the traffic. Here are the different sources:

Social

Social traffic is when a visitor arrives on a page through a social network. For example, they may click on a link from their Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter feed.

Referral

Referral traffic happens when a person arrives on your website without going through a major search engine. They could arrive on a page by clicking on a link within a blog, for example.

Paid Search

A paid search is when a person arrives on a website by clicking on one of the paid ads on search engines. Google Adwords is one of the most popular paid search platforms.

Email

Email traffic is when a person arrives on your website because of successful email marketing.

Direct Traffic

Direct traffic is when the source is unknown. This could include a visitor typing in your specific URL into their web browser. It could also be by clicking on a bookmarked link.

Organic Traffic

Organic traffic is when a visitor arrives on your website via a search engine. This does not include the paid ads seen at the top of search engine results.

Tracking

The key difference between direct and organic search is tracking. According to Google, direct visits don’t have tracking information. They don’t have a referring source. In short, analytics platforms can’t track them through a search engine or any other source. Organic traffic comes from a search engine or other entity. These are non-paid visits.

Security

Tracking is a key differentiator between a direct and an organic search. But, security also affects how web traffic is categorized. Last year, Google started prioritizing security to rank websites. Today, websites not prefaced by HTTPS can’t be tracked. And, if analytics can’t track the website, the traffic towards these sites is classified as direct regardless. As you can imagine, companies of all kinds are now fighting to have an HTTPS preface to improve traffic.

Privacy Settings

Aside from tracking and security, privacy also helps define traffic. But, this factor is in the hands of the user. This is because a user can change the privacy settings on their browser. With just one click, your browser can stop reporting where traffic comes from. Now, Google has encrypted keyword data as an extra privacy measure. If one of your website visitors is logged into their Google account, you won’t be able to see which keywords they used to arrive on your website. Unfortunately, these new privacy settings have led to many organic searches being marked as direct traffic. This also applies to Apple iOS 6 users because the operating system changed its privacy settings as well. This means any Google searches undertaken on the Safari browser will classify as direct traffic. This is regardless of whether it is an organic search or not.

Direct Traffic

To summarize, direct searches are visits with no referring website. These are searches that do not link to other websites. For example, direct traffic doesn’t come from search engines, social media pages, email marketing, and so on. The most common type of direct traffic is when a visitor types in a URL into their web browser. Also, it could be when a person clicks on a bookmarked link on their browser. Today, direct traffic is on the rise. Here are some common reasons for this.

Employee Traffic

Your employees visit your website for work purposes. But, more likely than not, they don’t have their IP address filtered from web analytics. This increases your direct traffic. But, the traffic is less valuable as it is not a reflection of the number of customers visiting your website.

Customer Portal Traffic

If you have a customer portal or intranet, you may experience high levels of direct traffic. While you shouldn’t filter out this traffic altogether, you can change your viewing options on Google Analytics. This will enable you to view your analytics without this source of traffic.

Email Traffic

While email traffic is organic, your analytics may confuse it with direct traffic. Often, clicks from Thunderbird and Outlook pass through the radar as direct traffic. The only way to identify this problem is to look at spikes in direct traffic when you undertake an email marketing campaign.

Real Direct Traffic

This is when people enter your URL into their web browser. This is real direct traffic. It shows that your customers already know your company.

Organic Traffic

Inbound marketing works towards increasing organic traffic. This type of traffic occurs when a visitor arrives on your website through a search engine such as Google. Organic traffic does not include paid ads. These types of ads are often seen at the top of a Google search page. They have the word “Ad” in front of the URL on Google. An organic search derives from Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With this in mind, you have to rank for competitive and long tail keywords relevant to your industry. With the right content and SEO, you will see a steady growth in organic traffic. Google also uses 200 other ranking factors to determine the highest value websites. Some of these include but are not limited to:

• Domain age and history
• The quality of your content
• The length of your content
• The keyword density in your content
• How easy it is to read your content
• The loading speed
• Image optimization

Direct and Organic Search Wrap Up

Understanding direct and organic search volumes is key to determining your future marketing initiatives. By tracking results you can translate these into new campaigns and efforts to increase your return on investment. The key to using these results is to track your searches over a long period of time. This will allow you to identify trends and areas for improvement. To find out more marketing tips that will help your business grow, visit our blog today!

Understanding the Dynamic Relationship Between SEO and Digital Marketing

SEO and digital marketing can work hand in hand in helping your business become a visible, lucrative venture. Here’s how they assist each other.

What’s the difference between SEO and digital marketing? How are they similar and what can they do for your business? Digital marketing is a growing, projected to grow into a $306-billion industry. With more and more businesses in need of a better online presence, digital marketing becomes a need. SEO and digital marketing go hand in hand since both use a lot of similar functions and skills. Most digital marketing efforts include core SEO tactics to their strategy. You can say that the relationship between the two is collaborative. Let’s discuss the relationship between digital marketing and SEO further.

How SEO and Digital Marketing Work Together

A lot of people think that SEO and digital marketing are the same. The truth is that they’re two separate things. SEO experts have the knowledge to make websites better through organic search traffic. Digital marketing uses electronic media to improve the company’s exposure. Digital marketing specialists partner up with SEO Experts to help in their advertising campaign. They use SEO as a tool to attract more customers to the businesses they’re promoting. SEO is an important aspect of digital marketing. It’s one of the many tools used in digital marketing. Some of the other strategies used in digital marketing include:

• Email marketing
• SMS marketing
• Online advertisements

These marketing strategies become greater when coupled with SEO strategies. That’s why the latest trends lean more towards the integration of digital marketing and SEO techniques. If the trend continues, it won’t be long until the two merge together. Businesses in the past thought SEO was enough to gain an online presence. But with the growth of social media and mobile devices, it now takes more than that to reach your market. To become more competitive, you need to use digital marketing alongside SEO strategies.

SEO and Digital Marketing Integration

The strategies involved in SEO changes all the time. The reason is that search engines like Google and Yahoo update their methods to rank sites. The most recent changes involve incorporating digital marketing into the mix. The new strategy rising from this trend is Search Marketing Integration (SMI). It’s the product of the search engines’ progress toward perfecting the ways to measure website value. The main criteria they use are content quality and relevance. Digital marketing and SEO overlap to revolutionize the way you approach marketing. It combines the best practices and strategies of both. That way, you have an edge over your competitors.

Common SEO and Digital Marketing Collaborations

SEO is a must in a lot of digital marketing campaigns. The SEO approach has changed to become more holistic over the past years. It collaborates with digital marketing disciplines such as:

Social Media Marketing

The growth of social media marketing spiked these past years. Businesses spent approximately $19.3 billion in 2017, making it one of the most prominent digital marketing strategies. When integrated with SEO, the social shares help generate natural backlinks to your website and content. Make an SEO strategy that fits your social media program to get the maximum benefits of SEO. The social shares help you know whether or not your strategy works. If you’re a small business, try focusing more on local social media marketing. Google places a lot of value on locality, and social media platforms give you a place to interact with your local communities. Combine SEO and digital marketing strategies to help your brand gain more followers and trust. Consider keeping up with local events to stay relevant with your community.

Content Strategy

As search engines improve their algorithms, it becomes clearer that content is king. It’s an important SEO strategy to make websites rank higher in the search engine results page. Make a strong content strategy that combines with SEO to raise your business conversions and increase your brand’s authority.

Paid Search

If you’re using paid search, you need to incorporate SEO strategies to make the expense worthwhile. SEO can help optimize the landing pages, the proper keywords, and content strategy that improves paid search. When you combine SEO and content marketing, you can gain organic traffic more.

Conversion

If you combine SEO with digital marketing conversion tactics, you can get more organic traffic to your business. Make the best customer experience by using SEO best processes to give them a good content journey. Ensure that you use SEO and digital marketing to understand your users and adjust your website accordingly.

PR and Brand Mention Strategies

Your PR team can collaborate with SEO experts to help with brand mentions. It helps increase your business’s online presence and make it more visible to search engines. You shouldn’t take online reputation management for granted.

Website Development

Your website’s optimization determines your online presence. SEO is important to web development because it helps optimize load times and mobile responsiveness. Web developers can learn a lot from SEO experts especially when they need to adapt to the newer technologies. When collaborating with web development, SEO makes it easier for you to have a user-friendly website with clear navigation and optimized Meta tags. It helps your content have a balanced keyword density while ensuring it’s relevant and consistent. SEO’s best practices help your marketing campaign have unique and non-plagiarized content without stuffing it with keywords.

Discover Digital Marketing and SEO Benefits Today!

Combining digital marketing and SEO can help your business stay competitive and relevant. The relationship between these two is collaborative, but you can say that SEO is a subset of digital marketing. SEO allows you to use the required keywords and best practices to help you rank higher in search engine results. It works in sync with digital marketing through content creation that you can share on your website and your social media platforms. It helps in the digital marketing campaign effort that gives your business the exposure it needs to gain customers and sales. Putting these strategies together help you serve customers better and make them come back for more. Using both for optimization helps build brand loyalty and customer retention. Not sure how to implement them together? Do you need SEO and web design help? Contact us today and we can help you out!