Setting up and maintaining the online presence of a brick-and-mortar business has become incredibly simple thanks to modern technology. Still, it might come off as a challenge especially if you are running to stay on top of every interaction on your social media, blog, pay per click advertising, and even an online store. With numerous things to monitor, one of the most basic and critical aspects of Internet marketing is often neglected: your company’s online local listings.

You Risk Losing Potential Customers

According to a recent survey, inaccurate local business information can harm the trust of customers. Around 73 percent of the respondents stated that they expect less from a brand with incorrect online information. Meanwhile, 67 percent say that they completely lose trust in the business if they get lost walking or driving to their location just because of a wrong given address.

Businesses that fail to ensure the accuracy of search engine location data will not only miss out on potential customers but can jeopardize their relationship with existing clients as well. Even when directories like Yellow Pages and Yelp provide the incorrect information, nearly a third of consumers say they would still blame the brand.

How To Clean Up Your Bad Internet Listings

It is not enough to Google your business occasionally. When you poke around at various mapping websites, social media platforms, search engines, and online business directories, you’ll be surprised to uncover that not all of them reflect your correct business info. You may find missing details, old phone numbers, and addresses, or bad links. What’s worse is that they can even get your business name mistaken.

Once you start to correct these, you will learn how much work it requires and how long it should take. Almost every site will require you to verify your ownership of the business. You can do this via snail mail or a quick phone call. Meanwhile, you have to be mindful of sites that allow just anyone to edit listings as they can put erroneous content that may hurt your business. Consider these tips to clean up those bad listings once and for all:

Select The Proper Categories

One way to secure your spot is to select the right category. The categories might differ from one website to another, but try to be consistent with your choice. A golden rule is to not overreach to categories you don’t specialize in because this will only confuse your viewers and it can even lead to more incorrect entries.

Be Consistent

After establishing the right name, phone numbers, and address of your business, you have to stick with them. Make sure they are formatted and spelled exactly the same for all pages on the web.

Be meticulous when it comes to every entry and make corrections even on the tiniest details, such as word spacing and capitalization. It’s important to note that most of the time, it won’t be a human reading that listing, but rather a search engine bot. Any inconsistency can be seen as completely two different businesses.

Document Your Listings

Your business could end up on literally thousands of places online. While it’s virtually impossible to repair every single one of them, having a record of listings you fixed can help you from making any unnecessary work.

Have a spreadsheet for all the updated entries and include a link to the site. If your business happens to add a new service or move to a new location, you’ll know which sites to edit with a simple click of a mouse. Also, do not forget to take note of directories that feature reviews and ratings so you can go back and check them often.

Add Relevant Content Where Needed

Take advantage of sites that let you add a description for your business. This is your chance to make your brand shine. Use keywords and words that accurately reflect the nature of your business.

You don’t have to overdo it – just try to be concise and clear. If there’s a spot for a video or photo, by all means, upload your best one. The added content will help attract customers to check out your business.

Go Big, Then Go Local

Before correcting local listings, check for the biggest sites first where most of the traffic comes. Start with Google Maps, Google+, and Facebook. Next, hit major search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Fix inconsistencies as they come up.

Your next visit has to do with online magazines, local newspapers, and events in which your business sponsored or participated. Look up news that could possibly mention your brand and leave no stone unturned. Remember that one bad address spread onto many other websites.

Don’t Shell Out Cash

So you want to correct your listing, but the site admin wants you to pay for access to your information – don’t believe it. You should never have to shell out money for this matter. People will not trust websites with inaccurate information, so it’s in everyone’s best interest to let the business correct their listing. Be patient in looking for the link to verify your ownership and don’t fall victim to the gimmick that they would only let you update your info for a price.

Check Reviews and Ratings

As you sift through your several online listings, you may stumble upon sites with reviews and ratings of your business. If you see a dissatisfied customer, follow up in a courteous and professional manner.

One bad review can impair your brand and prevent people from further checking your products and services. Actually trying to address the issue and showing concern for your customer’s feelings and experience, on the other hand, can do wonders for your business’s name.

Appreciate what potential clients have to go through to look for your business. From their initiative to search you online to driving to your location, it will be a huge disappointment for them to be directed to the wrong place.

If you need help with spotting incorrect listings and connecting with your customers online, PrimeView can provide you with a very effective strategy and solution. We can manage your brand’s reputation and tailor the best experience for your clients. Talk to us at 480-970-4688 and we will be delighted to assist you!

According to a HubSpot Research, “54% of consumers want to see videos from brands they support in comparison to email newsletters (46%) or social image (41%) based content. We also found that video content was the most memorable (43%) in comparison to text (18%) and images (36%).”

There is no question that the role of video has significantly grown in the last decade. Several blog sites have dedicated pages to the growing trend, and although there are hundreds and thousands of video creation tips online, many continue to struggle from unsuccessful attempts at video marketing.

In a previous article, we discussed the factors that contribute to an unsuccessful video marketing campaign. Today, we will further explore the elements that negatively impact the conversion-driving power of online business videos.

1. Are you producing top-notch quality?

Please tell us that you didn’t use a mobile device’s camera to record your business video. Although everyone with a smartphone has access to decent-quality video recording and editing technology, it simply does not measure up to high-grade equipment.

Sometimes, simply “doing your best” will not be good enough to execute what should be a professional promotion of a brand. It’s important to remember that just because you have a camera does not mean you know how to use it to your marketing advantage. If your video marketing strategy stands on frail foundation, you can bet that it won’t stand tall for long. Even the most original and outstanding video content ideas require quality execution to connect with an audience.

The Fix: The best solution is to work with people who understand video marketing and have track records of success. Do not hesitate to hire a video marketing agency that dedicates their time and resources to creating stand-out video campaigns. Also, ensure that your team works closely with the agency to produce niche videos that maximize your budget and effectively reaches target audiences.

2. Did you promote your video online?

Once you publish your video, the work is only 50% done. Video distribution is only half the battle (if not more). Statistically speaking, only a small percentage of video campaigns ever go viral. Some never get past a certain number of views just because the content is bad. But some high-quality and compelling videos fail to exceed expectations because they lack in one thing — promotion.

The Fix: The purpose of videos is to draw as many views as possible. To attract viewers, you need to refine your online social skills. Get more views by promoting your video on social media, by sending it to influencers and asking them to post or talk about it on their platforms, and of course, encouraging every person you know to share it with everyone they know.

If you have the budget, hiring an outside firm that specializes in social media and online video promotion can be highly beneficial. If not, be prepared and freshen up your social media presence. Remember that social networks are your most powerful marketing channels.

3. Did you remember to include transcripts?

Video transcription is the process of translating a video’s audio into visual text. This is done either done by human transcriptionists or by automatic speech recognition technology (and sometimes a combination of the two for double-checking purposes).

So, did you miss including a transcript of your video? Transcripts are great for improving your SEO efforts. In fact, it could be the reason why your video was unable to reach your audience on other platforms. Without an accompanying transcript, search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing have no way of understanding the context of your video. Thus, your video will not show up on search engines.

The Fix: The solution is as simple and as straightforward as making your video more search engine-friendly by adding transcripts. Most interns are given the responsibility of translating audio into text. But you may also use online services like GMR Transcription to get captions for every video you upload.

4. Did you optimize your video for SEO?

Like most forms of content marketing, video has become oversaturated. If up until today, you are not using SEO to help your videos stand out, you are likely to miss out on gathering more views.

Metadata is an underlying definition or description. It summarizes necessary information about data, which makes finding and working with particular instances of data easier. Having the ability to filter through that metadata makes it so much easier for a search engine user to locate a specific document or footage online.

Metadata matters, but not everyone who launches a video marketing campaign knows just how crucial it is and how it works. Metadata includes the titles, tags, and descriptions of your video. Those are the key components that allow people to find your videos when they are searching on Google, YouTube, and other search engines.

The Fix: Use handy online tools such as the YouTube Keyword Suggestion Tool to find appropriate and relevant keyword suggestions. You may also use a tool like TubeBuddy to optimize your videos.

5. Are you working with the right video marketing agency?

Most marketing agencies can support you across a wide variety of different marketing strategies and tactics. But the truth is, some agencies that claim to be the best at video content tend to specialize in only a handful of video marketing tactics.

The Fix: As one of the more recent additions to the marketing mix, video marketing is not something that many marketing agencies provide or fully support. That said, if you are looking for a team that provides excellent video marketing services in the state of Arizona, PrimeView is the company for the job. We will take charge of conceptualizing content ideas, planning strategies, drafting scripts, editing, and even submitting your video to the best video search engines and sharing sites. Your video will then be indexed for optimum search engine optimization to reach your desired target markets. Call PrimeView today at 480-970-4688 to request a free proposal.

Conclusion

Avoiding these mistakes will significantly help you improve the odds of creating videos with tremendous potential. Follow these pro tips, and your video might accomplish your marketing and conversion goals.

Social media marketing (SMM) is defined as “a form of Internet marketing that utilizes social networking websites as a marketing tool. The goal of SMM is to produce content that users will share with their social network to help a company increase brand exposure and broaden customer reach,” according to Tech Target.

Over time, however, the term was used to denote several other things, some of them not even under the scope of SMM. In this blog, we’re going to walk you through the common practices under SMM and briefly discuss each pillar.

Social Media Optimization

Social media optimization (SMO), often confused with search engine optimization (SEO), is “a strategy for drawing new and unique visitors to a website,” according to the same source as above. This is performed in a number of ways, such as through social networking, social bookmarking, blogging, press releases, and video distribution, among others.

SMM is very important to businesses since it enables them to receive direct feedback from potential and existing customers. With the click of a button, customers can reach out and connect with the brand to discuss their issues, concerns, and questions. In turn, these concerns are easily remedied by the brand in a more effective and efficient manner. Aside from this, SMO also enables the company to make its brand more relatable, bolstering its presence and online reputation in a wide array of the digital communities.

When an SMM campaign is executed properly, companies can experience a stronger brand presence and visibility, as well as an improved brand retention among their target demographics. What’s more, it also increases the company’s trust rating as the brand is thereby recommended not only by paid endorsers but also previous customers.

Think of it this way: SEO puts your company on top of search engine results pages. SMO transforms your brand into a top-of-mind solution for your products, particularly when your target demographics are scouring social media for a solution.

How to have a successful SMO campaign

Unfortunately, SMO is not something that can fit a cookie-cutter method. It usually requires trial and testing, paying special attention to the company’s strengths and weaknesses. Essentially, the weaknesses are strengthened, and the strengths are displayed on social media for all to see.

Yet a seemingly common narrative among SMO experts is that companies should learn how to engage their audiences, particularly in prominent social networking sites. They should also learn how to curate relevant and timely industry news so that they would be considered as authorities for their industries.

Components of an SMO campaign

There are a number of things you can attach to an SMO campaign, but for the sake of this blog, we are going to talk about three: social networking, social bookmarking, and blogging. These five are among the most effective way of boosting a company’s brand. 

1. Social Networking – social networking is defined as “the practice of expanding the number of one’s business and/or social contacts by making connections through individuals,” according to Tech Target. This includes managing the brand’s social networking sites, such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google+.

A social networking campaign can do wonders for a company depending on its demographics. For instance, a company that is heavy on images can take advantage of Instagram and post enticing images that would captivate its target audience. Companies can also take advantage of community management, one of the facets of handling their social media presence.

Community management is the act of interacting with potential and existing clients on social networking platforms, from social networking sites to blogs. This involves the easy way social media users can reach out to the brands and air out their inquiries and concerns. This way, the concerns are addressed in a more efficient and engaging manner.

2. Social Bookmarking – Lifewire defines this practice as “simply tagging a web page with a web-based tool so you can easily access it later.” Social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Connotea enable users to save their bookmarks online so they can access them wherever they are. They can also send these social bookmarks to their friends and see what other people find interesting. By using social bookmarking, companies would be to spread the links to their website and other pertinent online collaterals, while at the same time keeping an eye on what their demographics are finding as important and relevant.

3. Blogging – A few years ago, content changed the way search engines rank pages. Search engines used to rank web pages based on their authority and how SEO-friendly they were. Today, a lot of those techniques are still being used, but search engines now consider the relevancy of the content and how it would add value to the user.

That being said, blogging is the process of posting news pieces or an article on a blogging site or on the company’s webpage. The goal of this is to become an industry authority so that those who are interested in the industry would follow the blog. To rank effectively, companies would have to ensure that their blog articles are unique and are newsworthy, in the sense that it would enhance user experience rather than just clutter the Internet.

Each company has its own set of rules for what accounts as newsworthy or what should be shared on the Internet. Some even make the use of video blogs (vblogs) which also taps into the power of video distribution sites. Whatever the case, the goal of blogs is to humanize the brand to make it more appealing and relevant to the consumer. This means the customer would be able to understand the intricacies of the industries from a trusted subject matter expert.

These are just some of the more detailed aspects of social media marketing. It is worth pointing out that there are other components that make a social media marketing campaign successful. In a next blog, we will discuss other techniques, such as press releases and video distribution, as well as talk about the difference of community management and social media management. 

Click here to read part two of The Pillars of Social Media Marketing.

Attract more social media views today

Social media either generates massive amounts of revenue or be a complete waste of time and money — unless you entrust social media marketing tasks to the right team. Be well on your way to social media success by letting PrimeView implement these pillars to your brand. Call us at 480-970-4688 to request a free proposal.

eBooks are one of the most powerful lead generation strategies there is. They help attract potential customers and persuade them to register to a mailing list, making eBooks an extremely useful lead generation resource.

What exactly are eBooks?

eBooks are long-form pieces of content, a digital book per say, that goes into detail about a specific topic. They are accessible through desktops, tablets or smartphones, so the ideal format is a PDF, slideshow, or app.

The structure of an eBook is inherently like a book. However, it’s much shorter and visually appealing with images, graphs, diagrams, lists, and so on. Though shorter in length, the content is still as in-depth and extensive as a 500-word hardbound. But as we have short attention spans, the design and layout are prioritized just as much as the actual content since it helps readers absorb the content with ease.

How do eBooks work as a lead generator?

Think of your last trip to the grocery store; you will always come across stands that offer product samples to try, huge discounts, or bundled goodies. Little do you know that those are marketing tactics intended to persuade customers into making a purchase.

Taste tests and lower prices are ways to gain customer trust. By offering products at a discounted rate, brands convey that they have valuable goods to offer and are willing to give freebies and slash off prices just to prove it. Whether you’re selling products or services, you can use the same strategy by utilizing eBooks as a sample of your wares, or as a gateway entry into what you really have to offer.

How do eBooks help your business?

Not only can businesses control the information shared in their eBooks, but they can also define the tone. People are overwhelmed by online advertisements these days, and the traditional lead generation resources seem to be delivering less return on investment. Customers resist hard selling, especially when they feel like it’s too prowling. eBooks offer perceptive marketing that essentially allows clients to find you, instead of you finding them.

How eBooks generate leads

You spend weeks and possibly months creating an eBook. You slaved over the copy and gave the design your all. You upload it to your website, yet no one downloads it. What gives?

If you’re using eBooks to generate leads, here is how you can see results:

1. Identify your audience

You would be surprised to know as to how many businesses have a seemingly clear vision of their brand without determining their target audience. If you don’t know who your target audience is, then how did write an entire book for them? The solution is to create a buyer persona. Your buyer persona will list everything there is to know about your ideal market, and it will typically include demographics, goals and challenges, hobbies and interests, objectives, and keywords.

2. Promote, promote, promote

Failing to promote your eBook is the biggest mistake you can make. If you expect people to just stumble upon your eBook without giving it the promotion it needs, then you may as well scratch your eBook and look for other lead generation tactics.

Like the developing process, you need to exert the same or double the amount of effort into promoting your eBook. Most people immediately think of social media, emailing, blogging, and paid amplification, but after you’ve exhausted your usual promotional strategies, what do you do for further, more effective promotions? The solution is to do outreach for your eBook.

An efficient outreach strategy is the next step towards maximizing your eBook’s online visibility. Outreach is focused on utilizing different channels and working with influencers within your industry to help you give your content the push it needs. This can include:

• Publishing on an eBook marketing platform
• Sending out a press release
• Writing guest posts for high-traffic bloggers
• Working with influencers who write about similar subjects to share the eBook

It’s crucial that you only target influencers who have the same audience as you. Platforms such as BuzzSumo are effective in helping you search, analyze, and connect with the right influencers who can help you promote your eBook.

3. Ensure that your landing page is easy to find

The landing page is the vital gateway to your eBook and the reason why you’re generating leads in the first place. So you need to make sure that (1) people can find it, (2) it’s enticing enough for people to fill out their details.

Optimizing your landing page is an essential step in making sure that you have everything prepared for a guaranteed download. Following these critical tips are some of the surefire ways to make it easier to optimize your eBook’s landing page:

• Use the keywords of your eBook in the headline, meta description, URL, and in the intro copy.
• Write a brief summary of the contents of your eBook.
• Attach an image or two of your eBook.
• Add bullets and lists to highlight your eBook’s benefits.
• Avoid using too many links and remove the navigation bar.
• Avoid asking for more contact information than you actually need in the form.

Once you’ve properly optimized your landing page, your audience can omit the need to search high and low to find what they need. And by highlighting all of the benefits, readers are given a compelling feeling to download your eBook.

While other companies are wasting money on spam-laden marketing schemes, your business can get ahead by providing an informational product that, if correctly used to one’s advantage, guarantees leads. Customers are bound to have more faith in your expertise, and your competitors will be busy trying to revive their exhausted tactics.

Generate more leads today

Leads mean more revenue, and revenue means more profit. If you need help generating leads to your business, let PrimeView provide the necessary internet marketing services you need to expand your reach. Call us at 480-970-4688 to request a free quote.

Even if some SEO techniques are obsolete, some people are still practicing them. Others are simply not aware of how Google’s current algorithm works, while others are still hoping that those traditional strategies will still work today. That’s why we decided to shed light on the subject and created a list of techniques that have been effective in the past, but are no longer beneficial today.

ON-PAGE

Keyword stuffing

Keyword stuffing is the practice of putting the same set of keywords on the page title, meta title, meta description, alt text of images, and in the body of the content. Back in the day, SEO specialists do this technique to help their website rank on the first page of Google’s search results for their target keyword. Unfortunately, that’s not the case today. Because Google is constantly updating their Panda algorithm, filling your content with keywords will not cut it if you want your website to rank. True enough, manipulative SEO will not fly in Google’s environment today. If keyword stuffing is still part of your strategy, you better start scratching it off your plan.

Instead of using the same keywords, you can use different variations of them or other synonymous terms. Let’s say you want a page to rank for the keyword “Laundromats in Phoenix, AZ”. You can still achieve your goal without having to mention the same keywords to the point that it affects the clarity of your content. What you can do to is use related keywords such as “self-service laundry in Phoenix, Arizona”, “dry cleaners in Phoenix”, or “Laundromat in Phoenix”.

Use free keyword tools to know related terms and phrases to your target keyword such as Google Keyword Planner. Meanwhile, you can simply search for your target keyword and see what’s listed on the Related Searches section at the bottom of the search results page.

Thin Low-Quality Content

Are you still publishing blog posts that are low in word count and depth just so you can say that you’re “updating your site regularly”? If so, consider creating longer, more interesting, and more comprehensive content, typically 800+ words long.

When you have engaging content, readers will tend to stay on your site and read your posts until the end. As a result, your website’s bounce rate will definitely decrease, which means that you have greater chances of getting a higher placement on Google search results page (SERPS). More so, high quality content is more likely to be share-worthy. Who knows? Maybe that 1000-word article you lost sleep over will be viral in the coming weeks.

Additional tip: High-quality content will all be for nothing if it only reaches a small audience. That’s why you need to promote it to other platforms like social media sites. You can also ask bloggers who are in the same niche to feature your content in their future posts.

Irrelevant or Illogical links within a page

Are you still using irrelevant terms when linking from an internal blog post or web page to your landing pages? If so, you need to stop doing that now.

Always remember that each time you publish an article or blog post, your goal should be to improve your website’s user experience and increase engagement. It would be confusing for visitors if they click on a hyperlinked anchor text in the body of your article only to be directed to an irrelevant page.

Use internal linking in a strategic way if you want visitors to stay longer on your website. You can add click to action links within the body of the content to offer additional and relevant information to your readers.

OFF-PAGE:

Spammy blog comments

A blog comment is spammy if:

• It has a keyword or key phrase that is hyperlinked going to one of your website’s pages.
• It doesn’t add value to the page or conversation. Example: “Thanks for sharing this post! (link)”
• It is placed in a heavily spammed page.
• The commenter’s identity is shady, or appears like he or she is not a real person.

Example:“I am having a hard time getting links for my website. This is the reason why I always comment on other blog posts to promote my website. Here is my website [URL]”

On the other hand, a blog comment will not be considered spam if:

• You interact with the author of the content through sharing your views about the topic. Dropping links are still possible. Just make sure that it doesn’t sound too promotional and make sure that it’s relevant to where you’re placing your comment.
• It is placed on high-quality and relevant content. Check the link profile of the site using the Spam Scoring System of Open Site Explorer to make sure that it is safe to link from that particular page.
• The name of a person who’s representing your website was used. This will help establish online reputation and build brand awareness for the website you’re promoting. Don’t just comment once just to increase the number of root domains linking to your site. Continue interacting with them on future posts so that you can build relationships with content authors. More than that, this can also help you gain citations from their future publications and other websites in the same niche.
• Keywords are not placed on the field designated for the name of the commenter. That field is for the name of a person, and that’s what you need to put in that section. More so, if there’s a provided field for your website, use it to link back to your site.

Forum signature with spammy anchor text links

Don’t even bother putting keywords on your forum signature and linking it going to your website. This technique is a thing of the past and it wouldn’t work today. It would be more acceptable if you use the name of the owner of the website or the authorized person representing it.

Participating in forums is an effective tactic if you know how to do it right. Make sure that you only join high-quality and relevant forums, and see to it that you provide useful and helpful information to the community. Forums related to your target niche can drive highly-targeted traffic to your website.

Social bookmarking

Because a lot of social bookmarking sites are heavily spammed, links coming from them may have little to no worth at all. Most of the time, it’s the latter. However, this can still work if you promote content on high-quality sites like Reddit. Just don’t rely on this strategy too much and use it at a minimal level.

Link directory submission

When you submit your sites to free directories that easily approve submissions, you are screwed. Directories that are low in value and don’t filter user submissions can cause danger to your site. But this doesn’t mean that link directory submission should be avoided. Just make sure to get your site listed on human-curated directories like DMOZ.com.

Article submission

In this video, Matt Cutts mentioned that you shouldn’t use article directories to build links, because this tactic has been abused and is continually being exploited. As a result, Google no longer puts value on links coming from them. Instead of this, you can do guest blogging as long as you can comply with quality guidelines.

Sitewide Links

The worth of a web page is not determined by the number of total links, but on the volume of root domains linking to it. That’s why, you’d rather have 100 domains linking back to you, rather than 1000 links coming from one just one domain.

Google is continuously improving their algorithm, and this means that you should learn how to adjust and comply with their rules so that you can stay off their radar. Prioritizing human users is the key. So just keep on striving hard, because if you keep on doing things right, all your efforts will eventually pay off.

●    Over-Optimizing a Website With Keywords
●    Not Publishing Enough Content
●    Website Has Duplicate Content
●    Using Unnatural Link Building Techniques
●    Not Creating a Social Media Account for the Business

As discussed in our previous post, it is highly necessary to steer clear from any of the aforementioned practices because they do more harm than good. An outstanding SEO campaign does not include any of these practices, and business owners who are using these “strategies” are only asking for a Google penalty, which means a lower ranking and a bad reputation.

If you are an entrepreneur with a company website, it would be wise to take note of the following SEO mistakes and ensure that these are not utilized by you or the SEO company you have enlisted to optimize your website.

6. Ignoring Local Search Trends – If there is one thing every business owner should pay attention to on top of basic white hat techniques for their SEO campaign, it is to keep up-to-date on local search trends. Small, independent business owners would be able to reach out to their target market residing within their area if they are ranking locally.As much as 30 percent of Google searches are focused on a specific location, so if your businesses operates within Scottsdale, then it would make sense to rank for geotargeted keywords with Scottsdale as the location, instead of a broader area such as Arizona, unless of course your business serves the whole state. Many business owners tend to focus on state or national search results, which are extremely competitive, when they can get more profit by focusing on local SEO.

7. Not Taking the Time to Seek Customer Reviews – One of the best ways to secure your ranking and reputation online is through business reviews made by clients. As the owner of your business, you need to find ways to encourage your customers to create reviews.Google+ pages and other local listing sites offer a way for clients to share their thoughts and opinions on a certain product or service, or the company in general, so take time to capitalize on that.

8. Not Utilizing Competitive Analysis Tools – The best way to keep track of your website’s status and performance is by performing a competitive analysis. You can also take time to pull out competitor backlinks to compareresults. Study the top five competitors in your industry and see which keywords they are targeting and what kinds of backlinks you need to help your website rank for them.

9. Overlooking the Importance of Image Titles – There are still a significant number of business owners that have not yet realized the importance of images and the impact they have on your website. File names and alt text for each image should be relevant to the page content. Use keywords that you have assigned to the page and include the location in both the file name and alt text.

10. Not Optimizing Site Navigation – People expect your website to be easily navigated and search engines reward it. If you do not have a clear hierarchy on your website; how will Google know what is most important on your site? If users can’t find out what services you offer, they are going to leave and look elsewhere. This is going to increase your bounce rate, lower conversions, and let Google know your site is not the best result when people quickly return to the search results and visit another site.

11. No Contact Information on Your Webpages – Many websites only have contact information on the contact page. If you want people to call or message you, make it easy for them. Including your local address and phone number on each page of your site will help with lead generation and provide better local rankings. Remember to have your NAP data appear the same as it does in local directories and citations.

12. Your Website is Not Mobile-Ready – This is 2014 and there is no reason to not be mobile ready. Over 50 percent of searches are done from mobile devices. If your site is not compatible, you can kiss traffic and rankings goodbye. If you are on a tight budget, you can switch to a CMS like WordPress and make use of a cheap mobile-ready template.

13. Not Making Use of Videos – There are several search terms that trigger videos above fold. Simply upload your video to YouTube and include your keyword in the title. Build some links to the video page and voila, express ticket to the front page of Google. You may also get traffic from YouTube directly since it is the second largest search engine. Here is an example of videos appearing for localized terms that did not trigger local results. If local results were triggered, you would see videos in the first-third or fifth result or lower.

Managing a website, along with a business, is time-consuming. With the added responsibility of keeping up with changes in the SEO industry, it’s difficult for business owners to have a clear idea of what to do when it comes to implementing an SEO campaign. It’s easy to understand why business owners commit these mistakes, considering the amount of bad information floating around the Internet. Hopefully this article sheds some light on what things not to do, as well as what tactics will be beneficial.

There is a sea of competitors in the web that are targeting the same people. Without any definitive strategy, businesses are bound to stay unnoticed, even if they have an outstanding website. One of the best ways businesses can stay one step ahead of the competition is through search engine optimization.

Ask any  SEO company in Arizona and they would tell you just how important SEO is, that optimizing a website is not a luxury anymore but an absolute necessity. Although many website owners know this already, there are people who, in the eagerness to compete with other businesses in their industry, use aggressive online marketing strategies that are actually common SEO mistakes.

Here is a list of these common blunders and how they are going to negatively affect a website’s ranking:

1.    Over-Optimizing Your Website With Keywords – While keyword research and usage is crucial to ranking for search engines, too much can affect your site’s credibility. Also known as “keyword stuffing,” over-optimization is one of the practices that search engines like Google are discouraging business owners to use.

Stuffing your websites with the keywords you want to rank for your website is no longer an acceptable method and could backfire if Google and other search engines find the insertions to be unnatural.

2.    Not Publishing Enough Content – Recent Google algorithm updates all have one thing they favor, and that is unique, high-quality content. Content is surely king, as SEO is practically useless without website content. Search engine spiders crawl webpages and analyze the content. Search engines usually look at a page and mark those with little or without any content as a low quality page, which affects its ranking and makes it less visible to web searchers.

So what can you do instead? Write relevant, informative, and original content. Publish frequent articles that have high quality images, videos, and infographics that encourages higher engagement with readers. Google favors content that people love, and they give it a high ranking. The goal is to be consistent and to write often. Keep an active blog and update the contents of your website.

3.    You are Guilty of Duplicate Content – While content is undoubtedly important for many businesses, duplicate content is one of the grave SEO mistakes that a website owner can commit. Content has always been king, and it still is today. A good Arizona SEO campaign would be paralyzed without outstanding content. Not only does it help boost a site’s ranking, it has a plethora of benefits to businesses, from increasing customers to building the brand name.

Duplicate content should, at any costs, be avoided. An experienced Arizona SEO company would tell you that even the most interesting blog posts mean nothing to search engines if they are copied from another website. Copying content is not only unethical, but also downright illegal. It is, after all, the intellectual property of that particular website. Even if they are royalty-free, any content that has been published in another website is not for you to use. Stick to writing unique, informative content that readers will love and hopefully, share.

4.    Using Unnatural Link Building Techniques – Never, ever buy links. Contrary to what you hear from other business owners, buying links would not boost your ranking in search engine results. Remember that Google, Yahoo!, and Bing consider both the quantity and quality of inbound links, but if you are using unnatural links to help your website, think again. You will get penalized.

Stick to natural guest blogging, participating in forums, or taking advantage of your existing blogs and promoting them through social media. Also make sure you create link-worthy content, something that readers can positively react to and other bloggers can link back to.

5.    You Still Don’t Have a Social Media Account – Some would consider it a crime for businesses to not have social media accounts for their businesses, as consumers go to their social media accounts for information when they are not relying on search engines. Almost everyone has their Facebook account, so if your business is non-existent in Facebook universe, then you are missing out on a big opportunity to connect to potential customers.

Once you have established your presence on social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, it would make sense to have these accounts link back to your website. This can be done either by placing your URL in the About section or promoting it through a post. You can even do both just to be sure. Also do not forget to link or promote these social media accounts on your website.

Stay tuned for the continuation of this list of SEO mistakes in the next article. Meanwhile, try to avoid committing these blunders to achieve a high ranking website.

Face #3: Local Search

According to LocalU, when you view Local Search from the perspective of a business owner, it’s all about having their company found whenever people in their area are looking online either specifically for them or for the goods and services they offer.

On the other hand, when web companies talk about local search marketing, they’re mostly referring to getting businesses to rank in the listings that appear in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) accompanied by Map pins. Usually, a map appears on the page, too. These results are displayed with the address and phone number of the company, along with a link to directions to the location, if appropriate, and a link to any reviews Google may have about it.

Research Online, Buy Offline

Another explanation of Local Search is that people are researching online before buying offline. Sometimes referred to with the acronym ROBO, this behavior is exactly how searchers are using the internet to facilitate interactions with local businesses.

First, they discover their choices for buying products and services from those nearby them via the internet. Then, they use reviews and ratings to help them decide which businesses to consider and, finally, they make phone calls or visit stores to solidify their buying decisions before actually making a purchase.

Correlation to Yellow Pages

Another way that helps many people to comprehend Local Search is that just about anything that you would think of as being listed in the nearly-obsolete, printed Yellow Pages phone books is now found online via Local Search.

The Search Engines and Local Search

From Google’s point of view, Local Search is all about the map and only entities that have a physical presence in a real place belong on Google Maps. Bing and Yahoo tend to follow Google’s model this. Online-only businesses and those that market nationally or globally cannot usually get a Google, Bing or Yahoo local listing to rank in the SERPs except in the city(s) where they actually have a physical location.

This concept has tended to favor enterprises with offices and storefronts. But businesses that go to the customer, rather than having the customer come to their location (also known as service area businesses) are now gaining parity in the Local Search results. Examples of service area businesses are carpet cleaners, plumbers, roofers and mobile veterinarians.

Other Local Searches

Not all local searches are performed at the big 3 Search Engines – Google, Bing and Yahoo. Sometimes people are looking on digital maps, GPS systems and in-car navigation systems for local businesses. Sometimes they are looking for business information in online Yellow Page-type directories or on social sites like Yelp, Angie’s List or Facebook. Nearly every industry also has a set of directories that list that particular type of company. Examples of this are BedandBreakfast.com, Findlaw.com and GunDogBreeders.com.

Conclusion

These three faces can help any business dominate its competition on the web, using the right marketing plan. They all provide a sizeable and contribution to website ranking and visibility on the web, despite being distinctly different from one another.

1. Use keywords with geographic location.
If you use broad keywords like “home renovation service” in your content, it will be difficult for your website to rank higher in search engine results pages. This is because you are competing against bigger firms that invest in broader search terms. Additionally, it is likely that the ones who stumble across your site are not your local audience. Whereas if you use geographically-specific keywords like “home renovation service in Chandler AZ”, you can be sure that the users who find your website are actually searching for companies like you; hence, they are your prospect clients.

2. Look for the best SEO firm in Arizona to design your local SEO strategies.
You need the expertise of an SEO company in order to plan your local SEO strategies. You may have the brain to easily understand all about local SEO and create methods to implement but you do not have sufficient time and experience to become successful. Hire an SEO firm because it is still better to spend for something that will offer you positive results.

3. Sign up for local business directories.
Users who are actually looking for products to buy or services to hire perform local search. This is why you have to maximize your reach to possible local clients. One way to do this is to register your business in local directories. This is easy but you need to spend a great amount of time to accomplish this. So as not to waste much of your or someone’s time, just choose the most popular local business listings. Additionally, do not forget to sign up your business in Google+ and LinkedIn. They may be wide-ranging but they also offer good search engine ranking to businesses that listed their profiles.

4. Be consistent when listing your name, address and phone number.
Be sure that you use only one business name, contact person, address and phone number in all your business listings. See to it that the contact person is accessible to answer all inquiries any time. Make it certain that the phone number is working. If you are asked to give the names of the products you sell or services you provide, write them consistently – and correctly – as well. Bear in mind that the people’s decision to call your office depends on what they need and what they see in your profile.

5. Gather and publish reviews.
Ask your loyal customers to give feedback about your product or service and publish it in your site. The more positive reviews you get, the higher your credibility rating will be.

These are only five; there are still a lot more to take into consideration. Hire the best SEO firm in Arizona to do your Local Search Campaign for you – so you can focus more on running your business.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is undoubtedly the most powerful strategy for advertising over the internet today. Simply put, PPC allows businesses to compete for the most visible spots on Search Engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing via an auction format. It’s the easiest way to generate traffic to your site, fastest way to reach your customers on the services you offer or even getting an instant sale on your products and retain your profits. PPC is the most targeted advertising in history, as your ad only shows to the potential customers that have shown a specific interest in your service or product.

Why PPC advertising is a must for every business, small or large, local or web based?

Internet has become the primary source of consumer information and shopping. Consumers are turning to the internet first when looking for a product or service. It’s also no secret that first page organic or natural search engine position is very difficult and very expensive to achieve, especially for small businesses.PPC allows you to get your ads become visible on the first page and in front of consumers who searched for the product or service that you offer. Another thing is it allows you to get matched up with the consumers already looking for your business. You, being the advertiser, set the max price in auction style that you are willing to pay per click, daily/monthly budget, where you want your ads to run geographically, and what hours you want your ads to run.

I am not able to decide between SEO and PPC. Which one of these should I choose and why?

SEO and PPC have their own advantages and features. Both have different methods that aim to place or show your website at the first page of the search engine results to drive traffic to your website. What makes pay per click different from search engine optimization? PPC advertising takes only minutes to setup while SEO takes months or even a year to complete its process and give you best results.

What ad position will my PPC ads appear on?

You can make your ad appear on any desired rank if you are willing to match the bid. For the majority of pay per click search engines, the highest bid wins the top spot, the next highest, the second spot, and so on.

However, having the highest rank does not necessarily guarantee a higher click through rate (CTR) because it is prone to accidental clicks. A lot of times ads appearing on rank 2 and 3 have a higher CTR.

How many ads would you be creating for my PPC campaign?

We recommend 2 or 3 ads to run on its 45~60 day’s period, so that we can determine which ads are effective by gaining most clicks. The ineffective ads would be paused, deleted or can also be replaced with a new format of ads. One good example of effective ads is by putting special offers which will help to attract or call the attention of consumers that will click on your ads.

How many keywords would you research on?

There is no limit to the number of keywords that we research into. We will dig up as many keyword combinations as possible for your site; this method will give you the best combination of highly relevant, cheaper and a group of keywords that were unexplored by your competitors.

How long do PPC search engines take to calibrate rankings?

It is instantly based on the bid rates and other metrics like click through rates by all the popular PPC search engines. There are search engines took 8~24hrs to review and approve the ad copy and then reflect PPC rankings.

Targeting the Ads: Local or Global

Pay-Per Click advertising allows you to show your ads by targeting specific countries, states, regions, cities, and by radius. This method is very useful especially for small or local business that will help you to target consumers within the range of your service area.