How to Build an Effective Local SEO Strategy

Instead of selecting a broad SEO marketing plan, choosing to pursue local SEO may be even more satisfying. If a business is one that depends on local customers and reaching local customers online, pursuing local SEO is one of the more effective tools one may employ to accomplish these goals.

 

For companies struggling to rank effectively in their localized marketplace, local search engine optimization can help rank one higher in Google Maps listings, location-related keyword searches, and more.

 

Local SEO is search engine optimization specifically targeting location-based searching. In building short- and long-tail keywords, including a location can help take an SEO plan further in reaching customers.

 

To learn how to do search engine optimization successfully, local SEO results ultimately come down to three factors. The first is relevance. Search engines like to build results based off the most qualified, high quality web pages possible. Therefore, you need to provide them with relevant, high quality content. Then, there’s proximity. Though not every search result will contain a location, Google attempts to determine location based on the user. The third and final factor is the reputation that a website carries online, such as in reviews and ratings. The higher that your business ranks locally is dependent on these three things, among many other aspects of search engine optimization that play into it.

 

The process of building location-specific SEO begins by optimizing title tags and headers first. Include your location in the title tags and headers. This lets search engines identify a specific location which means a higher likelihood that your site will appear to individuals searching in that region. The same approach should be taken on the main headers of a page. If you find that it’s getting in the way of delivering quality content though, use them sparingly.

 

Next, you want to make the name of your business, address, and phone number clear on your site as well as in the Google My Business listing. Name, address, and phone number should be included regularly in any business listings you maintain online. Including business hours is also an excellent idea. You may choose to do these things on a separate ‘Contact’ page. If so, embed a Google map on your Contact page for any users in need of directions or who want a better idea of where your location is. Another way to heighten your Contact page is by including reviews and testimonials. All of this is designed to help establish trustworthiness and authority.

 

The last thing that bears mentioning when discussing how to build an effective local SEO strategy is to ensure your page is mobile responsive. More than 60 percent of searches are now done on mobile devices, most of these equipped with location. For anyone searching on their smartphone while they are out on the go, location plays a big role in what results come up. Also, more users are turning to Google Maps for their mobile searches, putting even more emphasis on location. Here exists a great opportunity to pull in some walk-in traffic, sometimes already ready buy.

 

There are only a few key differences between local SEO and more generalized SEO however these strategies are important. Local search results are a challenging beast and if you don’t know where to start, we hope that this talk helped to shed some light. By pursuing these tips and tricks, you can rank higher in local search results and reach customers you may not have even known were there.

How to Build an Effective Small Business Website

Building a smart, effective small business website begins with investing the time to know what to do and what not to do. There are a multitude of different areas where companies make common mistakes, including inserting too much text, a bad visual design, poor or no CTAs included, and a lack of keyword targeting. Every site is going to go through growing pains, yes, however you can save yourself time and money by getting to know the basics.

 

#1 – To Hire a Web Designer or to Do it Yourself

The first step to building a small business website is to decide whether this is something you want to attempt on your own or if you choose to hire someone else. Cost is a big consideration, as web design expenses can add up quickly if one does not where to spend. The unfortunate reality is that most of the business owners who try to do it themselves end up not producing the results they have the potential of having. Be it a simple site or something more complex, hiring someone ensures you get experience and knowledge on your side. Also – and this is a biggie for many business owners – it saves time. Keep your focus on running the business and oversee the larger decisions when it comes to your website, letting someone else do the heavy lifting for you.

 

#2 – It’s Way more Work than you probably think

Even with the most experienced of web designers, there’s always something unexpected that will eventually rear its head resulting in more time and effort having to be dedicated to a website. By having outside help on hand, you can literally save hours of your time trying to work some of these issues out. Even better, by hiring a web design company or a single web designer, they should be able to point you towards analytical tools that help in seeing where your site is succeeding and where improvements are required. The nature of having a website is one where continued improvement is a necessity.

 

#3 – Defining what you Need

Depending on your category of business, some elements may be more appropriate than others to include. For example, enticing, interactive graphics are not really needed for a contractor business. For a news site, including a comments section is recommended and a share bar. For an ecommerce site, product descriptions are going to be important in addition to potentially a lot of back-end work to ensure everything is running smoothly. By consulting with a professional web designer, you get their input in what is best to input into a site design.

 

#4 – Creating something Amazing

By constantly improving on your site’s design and conversion capability, over time, you should be seeing increases in site traffic and revenues. In today’s landscape of marketing and advertising, even in local markets, having a website and social media marketing plan is key to a business’ long-term success. No matter what category of service you are in, tap into a whole new set of customers by setting up a website and accompanying marketing plan.

 

In the end, creating something amazing does not happen overnight. It requires time, effort, financial investment, intelligence, and luck. In the long run though, you will be thankful you invested everything you did to get set up

What no one tells you about Building Effective Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization has been a key focal point among online marketing experts, for over a decade. Achieving big results in digital marketing depends heavily on a site’s ability to succeed in its SEO strategies.

For sites not able to navigate the waters of search engines, they get left behind fast. Those that do succeed, however have the opportunity to see big jumps in web traffic, increased quality of leads, and higher conversion rates overall. Whether you’ve already involved with search engine optimization or are just getting started, here’s what no one tells you about building effective SEO.

Investing the right amount of money into SEO can see high ROI

There’s no way around it, to succeed using search engine optimization strategies, you need to spend money. Figure these into your company’s marketing campaign budget. Though the price may be high, compare it to traditional means of offline advertising. SEO is cost-effective and does not require a significant amount of money to work. Though it will take an investment, spreading out financial resources smartly over time can see some big return-on-investment (ROI).

SEO is not a destination – it’s a journey

Search engine optimization is ongoing. It’s not the process of executing a strategy, achieving a result, and then, keeping that result indefinitely. Search engine rankings change daily and what a campaign may have achieved six months ago, it requires fine-tuning over time to stay competitive. Consequences of SEO – such as increased online presence – should generate the income required to maintain ongoing SEO work. Be sure to evaluate online visibility monthly to ensure your website still ranks where it needs to be.

If the content is not relevant and high quality, you won’t get anywhere

SEO is not about stuffing a bunch of keywords and optimized code into a site, assuming that is what’s best. Any SEO expert knows that providing high quality, relevant content is at the centre of it all. Be it social media posts, blogs, general articles, press releases, images, video, or other forms of content, the relevancy and usefulness of the information must be high. Remember, it is quality over quantity.

Your competitors are likely using a lot of the same strategies

Marketing via SEO comes with some basic tenants that most sites use. Needless to say, your competitors are likely doing a lot of the same things you are doing SEO-wise. This is both, good and bad. The good is that you can see what your competitors are doing with their SEO strategies, determining what’s working and what isn’t. The bad is that, though pursuing SEO might elevate your website beyond all the sites who are not actively involved in search engine optimization, it may be difficult to beat out some competitors who have been doing it longer and/or more smartly.

SEO actually improves the user experience

SEO challenges a website owner to get incredibly involved in their site. In the end, this makes a higher quality website and a more user-friendly experience. The common ways SEO affects the user experience is by encouraging regular updates on content, publishing and sharing of high quality content, faster load speed and load times, images with alt-text optimized, keywords in strategic places alongside CTAs, streamlining site structure, keeping navigation simple, and having mobile responsiveness embedded into the design, ensuring consumers are able to reach the site from any device.

Contact us if you need help with your website search engine optimization.

Successful Customer Offboarding is to know the Right Way to End a Relationship with a User

Customer onboarding, within the context of online marketing, is the experience a customer has when they first encounter your website. As important as it is to entice, qualify interest, and provide CTAs in the onboarding process, what is equally important is how a customer’s interaction with your business comes to an end. For that, we look to the term ‘customer offboarding’.

There is an art to bringing customer interactions to a conclusion. Even if you don’t close a product or service sale, if a consumer leaves your website happy, they are more likely to share their positive experience with others and potentially growing your business. If a customer has a negative experience and leaves your business disappointed or upset, this does not reflect well.

There are some businesses who believe customer offboarding to mean doing everything one possibly can to retain the client. That is, make them exclusive promotional offers, provide discounts, and/or do whatever needs to be done to keep their business. At some point though, one needs to recognize when they’re simply not going to reach the customer.

For example, when a client walks into their bank to close accounts and move their finances over to a competitor, this is not the time to be throwing down offers. Be it cancelling an account or service, returning a product purchased, or whatever it may be, consumers need to feel heard and accommodated for. If it takes a consumer too much time and effort to close their business with your company, the act of trying to retain the consumer is going to backfire.

We have all been in that position where a company makes it difficult to offboard. It’s endlessly frustrating having to jump through hoops just in order to leave a product or service behind. The key to businesses who know the advantages of customer offboarding strategies is to make canceling or opting out easy. Designing a good offboarding experience will, at best, potentially lead to a consumer returning down the line or, at worst, leave them with a positive or neutral feeling towards your business going forward.

Therefore, keep customer offboarding simple. Don’t set up a ton of barriers for someone to opt-out. Above all else, do not knowingly create design patterns of visually confusing design or difficult to interpret copywriting as a way to retain the customer. It won’t work and at the end of the day, it will make you look like you are trying to trick the user into doing something they just plain don’t want. Consumers are not dumb. They will catch on to any guilt-tripping, unnecessary processes, or misleading design patterns.

For a strong, healthy customer offboarding experience, firstly, identify reasons consumers may want to leave your website or company. Perhaps there are areas to improve company processes by knowing where you are losing consumers. Secondly, empathize with the user and consider what they might want to gain from leaving you company. Thirdly, don’t draw it out. Keep the offboarding experience simple and don’t waste anyone’s time. Lastly, no one likes a website begging for ales, attention, or that needlessly upsells. Recognize the value in a fast, to-the-point customer offboarding experience.

These are the strategies we employ in our belief of the right way to end a company-customer relationship. The customer ultimately calls the shots. When they want to opt-out, unsubscribe, or leave, a quality offboarding experience is something that they’ll appreciate.

Contact us if you need help with your internet marketing

Is My Website Design Trendy or Dated – A Look into the Future of Design

The type of web design that made the cut even a decade ago is significantly different from the way web pages are built today. Some business websites are quickly falling behind the curb, especially as trends in web design continue to change. So is your business website design trendy or date – let’s find out.

 

The future of web design is being slowly pulled towards pageless design. When we say ‘pageless design’, we mean a design where all of the content on a website is published on one long page. This is the opposite of what would be considered multi-page design, which is how the majority of business sites are built today. Though the future might be pageless, does that mean that, if your site is not pageless, it is somehow out of touch with the times – not necessarily.

 

Most of the philosophies surrounding contemporary web design involve building pages that are user-friendly, interactive, embedded with clear CTAs, and that use conversion rates as predominant measures of success. In order for each of these components to work successfully, they must be clear in the information they communicate. Websites are essential tools for businesses to communicate information about their products and services, using CTAs in the process. The multipage web design succeeds because it neatly structures information according to consumer interests, often times being divided among different service pages, different location pages, and allowing brands to embed entirely different pages and CTAs into one all-encompassing website.

 

Therefore, any business site that accurately and appropriately communicates its message should make for a successful design – in theory, anyways. In reality, businesses are working with consumer perspectives which establish clear lines between what is considered trendy, credible, authoritative, and appropriate, and what isn’t. Though a web design does not have to be highly experimental and reinvent the form, it should prove effective in its communications by capitalizing on important trends.

 

Think about all the other websites you are competing with for attention. There may not only be local competitors, but provincial/state competition, larger corporate conglomerates, and sites from all over the world. They’re all battling for the same space. Every second, new sites are being launched around the world – some with exquisitely beautiful design and most that are not. Pageless design is the future of web design and is something that slowly more businesses are going to be switching to because it’s the design theory that appeals to the current consumer base.

 

Pageless web design is the chosen choice for trendy websites because of its high level of responsiveness among mobile users. As impressive as a multi-page design might appear on a desktop or laptop computer, the same design applied on a mobile device wreaks havoc on user navigation. Currently, web design companies create responsive multi-page designs which are adapted to suit mobile screens, be it on a smartphone or tablet. A pageless web design however would be more advantageous, providing all information on a single page built for the mobile experience.

 

Think about where the majority of your customers are coming from. If it’s from mobile sources – as it for most websites – discussing the possibility of switching to a pageless design might be right for your site. Do away with the traditions, outdated conventions, and multi-page designs that are failing to gain significant traction on mobile screens. Instead, choose pageless designs to maximize the potential of the mobile audience and create a more satisfying, user-centric consumer experience.

Contact us if you need help with making a pageless website

 

 

 

Inside Local SEO Strategies and how any Company can Surpass its Competition

Mobile users are a captive audience that if you’re not already tapping into, you should be. Mobile users and mobile search have surpassed desktop use and searches. Approximately 30 percent of all mobile searches related to location, including those performed in Google Maps. To ensure that your website is getting the most visibility it can with location-based and location-related searches, it involves first filling out all citations and business information in any local listings and directories. Be consistent across all listings, including Google Maps, where your business name, contact information, and website link should be placed.

 

After filling out local business directories and listings, ensure you claim your Google My Business Page and Bing Places for Business. These are two 100% necessary directories, required for local SEO success. This way, anyone who puts in a search on mobile or desktop platforms in your location using the relevant keywords, they should see your site name come up in the results.

 

The next component to local SEO strategies involves evaluating and improving online ratings and reviews. Even leaving local SEO marketing out of it, this is just good business. If someone has left a negative review of a product, service, or your business in general, be responsive. Seek ways to ameliorate the situation, resolve the dispute, and/or address the comment. Even if you cannot get a negative review pulled, by going the extra mile to ensure the customer is heard, this has the potential to have positive consequences down the line.

 

Above all else, relevant local content and ranking with location-based long-tail keywords are the central reasons why some companies surpass others in their local region. Title, meta description tags, and site body content should all be embedded with locations. For example, let’s say you are a local marketing firm in Toronto. You would want the title, meta data, and body of a page include keywords such as ‘marketing firm Toronto’, ‘marketing Toronto’, and ‘marketing services Toronto’, among other possible options. The insertion of location into keywords can help Google index your page according to location. Also, inserting the geographic area as close as you can to the beginning of a tag, title, or paragraph also helps to communicate to search engines the importance of it as a keyword or term.

 

The deeper we delve into local SEO strategies, the more likely the question is to be asked, “If I am marketing my business to different locations, how do I create effective local SEO strategies?” If the goal is to service different regions, a website designer must create what we call ‘location pages’ which uses location-specific keywords unique to each page. These pages can then be used as landing pages for each geographic region. For example, a Canadian marketing company targeting locations across eastern Canada may include individual pages for ‘marketing firm Toronto’, ‘marketing firm Ottawa’, ‘marketing firm Montreal’, and ‘marketing firm Halifax’.

 

For small businesses marketing to a specific geographic area, localized search engine optimization oftentimes is what will make the most impact and will help to surpass competitors in the local marketplace.

Contact us if you need help with your local seo marketing.

How to Build a Smart Small Business Website with Strong CTAs

Building a small business website is a necessary part to growing a company in this day and age. Websites act as a 24-7 sales resource, attracting new customers and closing sales without the business owner having to lift a finger. That said, so many small businesses across Canada and the United States don’t have websites, which limits their customer base and reduces their revenue potential.

According to a recent report, only approximately half of all small businesses have an updated website. That’s difficult to hear, especially when more than 62 percent of consumers say that they won’t consider purchasing from a small business if they can’t find information about them online.

Don’t make the mistake that other small business owners have made. Even if the products and services you sell have nothing to do with the online world, a small business website reaches customers in ways that offline marketing can’t.

Building a smart small business website begins with structuring web design around call-to-actions, otherwise known as CTAs. Aspects of web design such as navigation, text, images, video, animations, and others should work to qualify interest of the consumer and point them towards a CTA. By having strong CTAs, it more easily converts visitors into customers. With weak CTAs, a website is going to have limits to what it can accomplish.

CTAs can come in many different formats, including graphic buttons, text links, and more. It’s important not to populate an entire page with multiple CTAs. It’s also important to qualify interest from the consumer. For example, text-based content and images should be relevant to what the user is searching for. If a visitor has been brought to your website from a search engine, the keyword they initially searched for should lead to quality information from your site. Everything you do on a website should be done to get the user to click on a CTA and convert them to a customer.

For small business owners who attempt to build a site on their own, there are many mistakes that can be made when creating a small business website. Failing to embed the proper keywords, not knowing how to appropriately point to CTAs, overloading a site with images or text, and not including mobile responsiveness are some of the key mistakes business owners make. To avoid this, it is possible with a little research.

There is admittedly a lot to consider when starting a small business website and the best advice we can give, especially to anyone who doesn’t know where to begin with web design, is to find a web design company or web designer who knows their stuff. An expert web designer will be able to advise on the different aspects of building a website and what is most appropriate for your venture. Depending on the category of business you are in, some design strategies may be more appropriate than others and the same can be said about finding the most effective CTAs.

Customers value small businesses with websites. Small business owners who forego creating an online presence with quality web design are missing a big opportunity. Hiring a web design company to assist helps to make the most of a company’s time and effort. Consider a small business website today and see the rewards of tapping into a new marketing channel. Please contact us if you need a professional yet affordable website which performs and brings the result.

A Sneak Peak into 2018’s Biggest Trends in Ecommerce Web Design

Top ecommerce web design companies are already capitalizing on some of this year’s biggest trends. The trends we’ve included on our list of 2018’s biggest tap into the creative minds of savvy web designers and passionate ecommerce developers. For better conversion rates, adapt any of these tips and strategies to your ecommerce website.

Why Free Stock Photos are not a Terrible Idea, and other Controversial Cost-Effective Solutions to online marketing

Web design is a costly business, especially when one has to factor in marketing campaigns, social media development, and search engine optimization. Any opportunity to lower costs across a website, most site owners will take. Among the areas where costs can sometimes be slashed down next to nothing is in photos. Though professional photographers, graphic designers, and online artists may not share the same opinion, using free stock photos to fill out a website can be a cost-effective strategy to entice visitors and communicate professionalism.

Now there are certain aspects of site images that one will have to pay for, such as logo, company-branded graphic work, and similarly personalized images. That said, finding high quality stock images is virtually a practice that almost every content-heavy site uses. Be it a single page brochure  site or a content-driven news site, stock images occupy a high amount of space across the board. Though most companies in these spaces may pay for their stock imagery, there are numerous sites able to provide them for free. Among the sites worth taking a spin through, there’s Negative Space, LibreStock, StockSnap, Gratisography, Picography, and ISO Republic, alongside plenty of others.

When selecting free stock photos, it’s important to select the most relevant images for your site. The right images will convey the right messages. There are literally hundreds of thousands of different options. What we’ve found is starting a folder on your desktop to accumulate free stock photos in is a healthy place to start. Search out high-resolution free stock photos that match the colors and brand of your business. The sites we mentioned earlier are where we consider the best free stock photos to be on the internet, however, there are plenty of other sites that can be used. Continue searching until you have the quality and amount you think is appropriate to move forward.

Needless to say, this advice is for sites who don’t have the budget to hire a photographer and/or to purchase the stock photograph. If you do have the budget, we recommend pursuing to engage with professional video and photographer. Also, if you are a journalist and/or your company is in a news-based category of work, the use of free stock images may be frowned upon. While we highly encourage hiring a visual artist, we recognize that not everyone has the budget to do so. For smaller companies who may not be profitable yet, free stock images are a great way to go.

Just imagine what any website would look like without images. In all likelihood, no one would stay on a page that did not have photos and graphics embedded into it. Even posts through social media tend to highlight the image more than the text.

Create more user-friendly content through the use of free stock photos. They can help add spice to a dull background, help break up a blog article, and can help keep pages friendly and visual. The wide variety of image-hosting sites that sell images on the cheap, in addition to those offering free stock photos, continues to grow. Be sure to search out photo sites in your category of business and be amazed at the quality of photographs that can be found for no charge. Even if you don’t have a budget to put towards supplying your website with images today, free stock photos make it easy.

What is the Right length for my Video Marketing?

Take a browse through some of your favourite YouTube clips and you might see a range of different lengths, some videos as short as fifteen seconds and others longer than twenty minutes. Yes, human beings have short attention spans however to this point, there are videos, TV shows, and films longer