by Myra Stacey | May 15, 2017 | Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Services
Blogging is not an easy thing to do for most busy business owners. Creating content takes work and time, and time is money when you run a small business. I recently explained why blogging matters for your business. Now that you’ve started a blog, let’s take a look at how often you should post.
The Short Answer on Blogging Frequency
The short answer is every week. The easy way out is once a month.
Why Blog Regularly
Search engines crawl your website. If you create new content often, they will crawl your site more often. You want the robots to visit your website to help your Search Engine Optimization. More blog posts also mean more opportunities for people searching to find you.
For best results, blog as often as you can. Inbound marketing firm Hubspot conducted research on blog post frequency and website traffic. They found blog frequency matters, especially for small business owners:
“Small companies that publish 11 or more blog posts per month drive much higher traffic than companies of the same size that publish fewer than 11 blog posts. Those that published 11+ posts per month had almost 3X more traffic than companies publishing 0 – 1 monthly posts, and about 2X as much traffic as those publishing 2 – 5 monthly posts.”
Of course, you run a business and don’t have time to write a blog post every single day. Once a week is a strong showing for your blog. However, I find many Cary business owners struggle to keep up with that schedule, so many of them post new entries twice per month instead.
Quality Over Quantity
Despite those statistics, posting less frequent, but thoughtful, pieces that help your clients and relate to your business is far better than churning out junk posts every single day.
Consistency is Key
Whether you blog once a week or once a month, the most important part is to remain consistent. If a potential client sees your blog hasn’t been updated in more than one year, he or she may wonder about your reliability. Readers of your blog will lose interest if you begin to falter. To improve your consistency (or the appearance of it), try the following:
● Most blog pages show the dates of your posts. You may want to remove that feature so people cannot tell when your last blog post appeared.
● Create an editorial calendar, which is a schedule of what topics you will blog about and when.
● Schedule time on your calendar each week or month to write your blog post.
● Hire a freelance writer to manage their blog posts or work with a marketing agency like us to help maintain your blog.
Questions about content marketing? Contact us for guidance on creating blog posts and other content for your business.
by Myra Stacey | Apr 16, 2017 | Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
SEO. Search Engine Optimization. By now, a lot of business owners have heard of SEO. Many know it’s something they should be doing, but many of you aren’t. One of the reasons people hesitate to deal with SEO is because they aren’t sure what it is, what it means, and how it works.
It’s OK not to be an expert; you can hire an SEO guru to manage your rankings. But business owners should have a grasp on the basics, so use this cheat sheet to get started.
Q: I know what the letters stand for, but what is SEO?
SEO experts are all trying to do one thing: to get your website to show up on the first page of search results for certain words or phrases. Example: Jane Smith is searching for a veterinarian for her dog. She goes to Google and types in “Raleigh veterinarian.” Those are the keywords or search terms. She is likely to click on the first few websites that appear and make her selection from there. SEO is your way of showing up near the top.
Q: What about location? That matters, right?
Yes. You and I will perform the same search from different places and get different results. That’s because Google and other search engines use your location to decide which results someone sees. Search engines will also use your history, so you and I can sit in the same room and search for the same terms and still see slightly different results based on our past search histories.
Q: How do I optimize my website and business to show up near the top?
There is no one thing you do to make your website appear at the top — unless you’re buying one of the paid advertisement spots. SEO is a combination of efforts both on your website and off. Here are just a few:
● New content regularly posted on your website (updates to pages, a blog)
● Metadata filled out
● A website that loads quickly, meaning all the text and images appear quickly when you type in the URL
● A website that has responsive design, meaning it looks good on all devices {link blue to 040517 post}
● Lots of quality links to your website from other websites
● Mentions of you on social media from other people/companies
● Testimonials on your site
● Contact information on your site
● A sitemap
● No broken links to other sites
● And much, much more
Q: Someone is telling me they can guarantee me on the first page. Is that right?
No. Do not trust anyone promising you to rank on the first page. Chances are, he or she may use what are called black hat practices. In other words, they will cheat and use any methods necessary to rank your website higher. That might sound just fine to you, but if Google or another search engine finds out about it, they will make your site disappear from search completely. Do NOT overstuff your page with keywords or purchase links.
There is a lot more to know about SEO; we could write a whole book! But we hope this gets you started. If you have heard an SEO term you’re not sure about, check out this useful glossary of SEO jargon.
If you’re ready to rank higher, contact us to learn more about how we can help.
by Myra Stacey | Apr 16, 2017 | Inbound Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
Blogging feels like a chore to small business owners. And unlike bookkeeping or some administrative tasks, this chore is one you often push aside.
Reasons You Don’t Blog
I’ve spoken to a lot of business owners about blogging, and there are plenty of reasons not to:
● I’m busy.
● No one reads it.
● Whoops, a client emergency. Too busy!
● I have no idea what to write.
● I don’t care much about blogging.
● I use other marketing tools.
● Something came up. (I’m busy.)
Does one of those sound like you? Even if you have every intention of blogging, you might get started in January only to stop by March. Lapses happen to a lot of people because blogging takes time, research, planning, and energy. And when your website visit numbers are low, you may think spending your time or money on a blog for your website is a waste.
OK, Myra, I know why I’m NOT blogging. Tell me why I should bother.
Why Your Business Needs a Blog
Blogging is not a waste of time or money. If you own a business, create a blog and publish an entry at least twice a month. Here is why:
● Credibility. According to a Demand Gen Report, 47% of buyers viewed three to five pieces of content before engaging with a sales rep. People who visit your website will not read every single blog post. But if they go to your blog in search of information, they can find it on your blog. That blog shows a stream of posts that share your expertise and prove you are worth their investment in you.
● Search results. You may have heard of Google. Content is an important part of getting found in search results. This works in a few different ways. First, people will search for something and click on a link within the first page or two of search results. Your blog posts may appear in search results, and if someone clicks, he or she is more likely to consider using your product or service. About 50% of search queries are four words or longer. That means people are typing in longer questions. Your blog post needs to be the answer. Second, companies that blog have 97% more links to their site. The more links you have, the higher you rank in results.
● Social media. Sharing photos of your team and other office news on social media is a fantastic way to connect with your audience. But social media is also useful for sharing information — so your followers and fans can share it with theirs. Create your own content, so people will click and come back to your website, not a competitor’s.
The Real Deal
Studies and statistics are showing that content works. People ignore paid ads and focus on organic results. So even if you are spending money on Pay-Per-Click ads or other marketing tools, you need to be blogging as well. If you’re not sure about getting a blog post written every week or even every month, contact us to learn how we can help.
by Myra Stacey | Feb 9, 2017 | Search Engine Optimization, Web Design
Want to improve your website SEO? Check out this story and see if you can relate.
I got an email from my veterinarian the other day and when I went to check it out, I realized that it was actually from my previous veterinarian. I haven’t seen him since I moved about six years ago but I guess I gave him my email address and he finally has a reason to use it.
Anyway, I went to his website to check out the article on rabies. Once I was done, I went back to my emails and noticed that I had another email from my veterinarian. Only this one was from the vet that I actually see.
Interestingly enough it was the same email pointing to the same article but on a different website. It seems that there is a local web designer that specializes in providing websites to veterinarians. This web design company had met with all the vets in the area at one of their meetings. I have to say that they must have been pretty persuasive.
I did a quick little search of local area veterinarians and discovered that the majority of them have the same website. There are small differences but they are hard to notice. Mostly the differences have to do with color, the contact information and the about us page. Here’s the problem, search engines love content. But what they really love is original content. When there are multiple websites sharing the same information, there is nothing to help you stand out from the crowd. When you do a search looking for a service in your area and there are multiple places to choose from, what’s going to help you choose?
I’ll tell you what’s not going to help and that is having a website that looks just like the other guys. I’ve seen this a lot in the network marketing industry. When someone get’s started with a MLM company, they get their “very own website”. But it looks just like everyone else’s website except for the name and phone number. After a few months the marketer wonders why they haven’t made any sales.
The Answer is Content
Like I said search engines love content but it can’t just be any ole content. If you want the search engines to help you get more website traffic your content has to have the following:
- It has to be original content to get the search engines to move you up in the rankings.
- It has to be written at a level that your target market can understand. The article that I have been seeing from my veterinarians are written for other health professionals not for ordinary people that need information about their pet.
- The content has to address an issue that your prospects are having. You can’t just write some nonsense with some keywords thrown it. Your content should answer a question that your prospect has.
- It helps if the content is about your customers and not all about you. It’s may make you feel great to say that you are the number one at something but what people really want to know is “what’s in it for me”. Make it about your prospects.
Take a moment to think about how you shop. Do you just do a search online, pick the very first website that is listed and make a purchase right away? I don’t and I’ll bet you don’t either. I’ll bet that you check at least three websites before you make a decision. Think about that while you are putting content on your website. Think about what you would look for from the point of view of the customer. (Buyers Journey)
Now that you know what search engines look for before they will promote your business, you have no reason not to give it to them. If you would like further help with your online business, click here. I would be happy to spend 30 minutes with you on the phone to see if we can do anything that will help your small business kick your competition’s butt.
by Myra Stacey | Feb 9, 2017 | Search Engine Optimization
A website is never really finished. It should be constantly getting better as time goes on. But how do you improve on a website when you don’t know what is working and what isn’t working. Here is the number one website must have to beat all the other website must haves.
Measure and Track Your Website Analytics
In order to make smart marketing decisions, information is essential. With the proper analytics tools installed on your website, you will know who has visited your website, where they came from, and what they were looking for.
Here are some elements that you should be monitoring on your website:
Site Traffic – keep an eye on your web traffic and try to increase the number of new and repeat visits you get and watch out for any trends that may appear.
Traffic Source – an important thing to watch is the source of the traffic you are getting so that you can relate your marketing efforts to your traffic trends. Some traffic sources you should track are:
- Organic search traffic – the traffic that makes it to your site as a result of an unpaid search result.
- Direct traffic – that’s when people find your website by typing in your domain name.
- Referral traffic – these are visits via a click-through from another website or from an advertisement.
- Social media traffic – website traffic generated by social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
Landing pages – these are the lead work horses for your website, so it’s important to keep an eye on their performance. Landing page conversion ratios can reach as high as 60%. Their performance varies based on the strength of the copy and design and the overall appeal of the offer. Identify your best performing landing pages and analyze what makes them so effective. Then try to replicate the formula.
Tracking social media – social media is a powerful online marketing tool. It’s important to track not only the site traffic generated by social media, but also track your reach – like the number of Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest followers you have. How many connections on these social media sites do you communicate with each week? By tracking your reach, you can see how you’re building your communication network.
Track your blog subscribers and the number of views of your blog articles. you may be surprised to see how much your blog traffic snowballs.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. So install Google analytics on your site, it’s free, and you’ll be able to track and measure your efforts to see what is working and what isn’t.
If you would like more information on how to make your website work hard for you, give us a call at 336-684-6505 or check out the services we provide at printandwebdesigner.com
by Myra Stacey | Feb 9, 2017 | Search Engine Optimization
44% – That is the number of people that start their online shopping experience by using a search engine. The question is – How do you get the search engines to show your website when someone is looking for what you have?
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization or SEO is the process of improving your website so that it attracts more visitors from search engines.
The problem for small businesses when it comes to optimizing their website for the search engines is that there is just too much information to wade through and much of it is so technical that most people don’t understand it. This leaves them afraid and not knowing what to do.
Today I am going to provide you with some basic knowledge about how people are finding you on the web and the role search engines play in that
Understanding Search Engine Optimization
To understand SEO, let’s think about how people find information today. Let’s say someone moves into an old house and needs to replace all the electrical outlets themselves.
What would they do to figure this out on their own?
Odds are they’re probably going to go online and enter their question into a search engine. And they will be specific in that search. They may type in “how to install a 3-prong electrical outlet?”
Google Searches
Google gets over 3 billion searches every day from people who have questions and problems that they’re looking to solve.
Here Come the Spiders
So, search engines need to find the most relevant, useful, and trustworthy answers. In order to find those answers ,they send what are known as “spiders” to crawl through the web searching for that content.
Those spiders try to figure out what each web page is about. From that data, they create a list of results that are relevant and useful to searches. Then they rank those results based on the popularity and authority of those websites.
This ranking is what you see when you look at a search engine results page.
The first few results and the ones listed on the side are ads. Websites that have paid to show up at the top but below that, you are looking at the top 1-10 unpaid or organic results that contain the most popular relevant answers.
As business owners, your goal is to be listed in the top organic results. Because let’s be honest, most searchers only click on the first few results they see. In fact, 60% of all organic clicks go the organic top 3 results.
So, how do you get up in the Rankings?
That’s where SEO comes in. You need to figure out what your prospects are searching for so that you can make sure that they find your website.
There are many factors that search engines take into account when crawling your pages and trying to understand them.
The Importance of Keywords
The top factor and the number one element to focus on is your use of keywords. Keywords are the words typed into search engines. Basically, they’re the topics that searchers are trying to learn more about.
Like “How to install a 3-prong electrical outlet” would be an example of a keyword
In order to attract those strangers to your content, you need to do research to figure out which keywords relate to your business and your industry. Here is an article on Using Keywords to Increase Website Traffic that you may find useful and another article 5 Modern Keyword Research Methods to Uncover Hidden Gems on how to actually do the research itself.
