Get More Followers on Instagram

For small business owners, a high Instagram follower count is much more than a mere status symbol. Having more followers leads to more people talking about — and purchasing — all the amazing things you’re sharing with the world.

Boost your following, boost your business

So, your business is all set up on Instagram. You’re posting great content regularly and getting a fair amount of likes. But, you know in your heart of hearts that you could be doing more to boost your Instagram following.

As a savvy Instagrammer, you know that more followers means more likes, and more likes means spreading more word-of-mouth about your business. You also know that spreading the word about your business, especially on Instagram, is a great way to get new customers in your door. But first, you have to boost your Instagram following.

Here are the tips you need to do just that In Go Daddy’s FREE eBook, you’ll learn how to:

• Make your Instagram bio stand out.
• Infuse your Instagram with personality.
• Add effective hashtags to attract new followers.
• Use Instagram Stories for digital storytelling.

Download the FREE ebook here.

October 24, 2020October 24, 2020

11 Steps to Create a Marketing Plan for your Business

Many entrepreneurs know they need to create a marketing plan, but they are either intimidated by the thought of it, or they don’t put the time into it soon enough.

You can hear the voices of protest (and excuses) now…

“But I’m not going to be doing any advertising anyway.”
“I just want to grow through word-of-mouth.”
“I’ve got to get my business up-and-running first and then I’ll figure out the marketing.”
“I’m not a marketing person!”

If you’ve secretly thought of any of these things, you’re not alone.

But the reality is that writing a good new business marketing plan is extremely important and not very difficult.

It’s just outlining decisions about what your business is, who your customers will be, and how you will reach them — and committing those ideas to paper in an orderly format.

A good marketing plan answers questions like “Who are our target buyers?” and “Where will we spend money to attract them?” With these kinds of questions resolved, you’ll be setting your business up for success right from the start.

So stop procrastinating and learn how to make a marketing plan.

Where to begin?

Well, let’s start at the beginning.

What is a marketing plan?

A marketing plan is a document that outlines a brand’s plan to attract and retain customers and promote its brand, products, and services.

It includes research, information, and past marketing performance history, and it outlines a plan for creating future marketing and advertising strategies.

Marketing plans are often a section of a larger business plan. But they can also stand on their own.

Why do you need a marketing plan?

A marketing plan helps you put all of your research, ideas and plans in one place. When you go through the process, you can:

Define your core messaging and positioning to create a cohesive brand voice, vision, and style.
Set a budget that matches your goals and agenda.
Deliver a stronger return on investment as you will create tracking processes to measure and optimize campaigns.
Develop better future plans as you can clearly see what’s working and what’s not.
Organize and centralize your marketing plans so your entire team is on the same page.

Without an official marketing plan, it’s likely that your business will have a lot of ideas, opinions and plans floating around without much cohesion.

A marketing plan helps you get focused and organized so you can be more coordinated, productive and successful.

When’s the best time to make a marketing plan?

There’s no bad time to create a marketing plan. But the best time to make a marketing plan is:

At the beginning/end of the year so you can plan out plans for the year ahead.
When launching a new business so you have a new business marketing plan to help you grow and scale your business.
When launching a new product, service or category in your business so you know how to capture a new market.
The moment you realize you don’t have one because it’s never too late to start to reap the benefits of having an existing or new business marketing plan.

If your business fits into any of these scenarios, it’s time to create a marketing plan.

Before you begin

If you have an established business, but this is the first time you’re creating a marketing plan, start by reviewing your history.

You’ve probably had marketing plans in the past even if they weren’t laid out in a formal document. Reflect back on those campaigns and strategies to help create your new plan.

Open up a spreadsheet to start recording an inventory of everything you’ve tried so far to market your business. Note any action you’ve taken (cost, time investment, dates, duration), and categorize everything.

Think about each of these efforts.

Be honest about what did and didn’t work, and what is and isn’t working.

List it all out so you can use it to inform and guide your future marketing plans.

Now, let’s get into how to make a marketing plan for your new or existing business.

How to create a marketing plan in 11 steps

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed as you start to think about creating your marketing plan. But, all you really need to do is follow a simple outline and go through the following marketing plan steps.

Let’s walk through each step.

1. Define your offerings

Before you can create a marketing plan, you need to be clear about what it is that you’re selling.

Create a list of your products and services and outline:

The features of each offer/product
How each feature benefits customers
What makes each offering different from other similar offerings
The price for each offering

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2. Define your brand mission

Now that you know exactly what you’re selling, it’s time to explain why you’re selling it.

Outline your brand mission by answering questions like:

What is it that you would like your brand to accomplish?
Why do you want to help your customers?
Why are your products or services important?
Why should customers look to do business with you instead of your competitors?

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3. Define your target audience

Once you know what you’re selling and why you’re selling it, it’s time to outline who you will sell to.

Define your target audience by creating buyer personas that describe your ideal customers and audiences. Outline their:

Demographics (age, gender, income, education, location, etc.)
Professional details (industry, job title, company, etc.)
Psychographics (personality traits, beliefs, attitudes, etc.)
Goals (what they what to achieve)
Challenges (pain points, what they’re afraid of or in need of, etc.)
Influences (favorite media outlets, thought leaders, etc.)

Need help defining your target audience? Check out this guide on What information should you include in your buyer persona customer profile?

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4. Conduct a market analysis

A market analysis describes the total marketing environment in which your company competes.

When you create a marketing plan, this analysis is an essential section as it answers questions that help you navigate your competitive market’s landscape.

How many businesses offer similar offerings?
How many businesses will your brand be in direct competition with?
How large is the market?
What are the trends in the market (growing, decreasing, etc.)?
How much are customers already paying for similar offerings?
How much are customers willing to pay for similar offerings?
What does the sales cycle in your market look like?

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5. Conduct a competitor analysis

The market analysis should help you come up with the names of a few of your direct competitors.

Now, look closely at those competitors to see how you can differentiate your brand and drive customers to choose you over others.

Who are your competitors?
What is their market share?
What are their strengths, weaknesses and unique selling propositions?
How can you differentiate your brand from competitors?

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6. Define your brand positioning

By this step in the process to create a marketing plan, you’ve done a lot of research, and you’ve outlined what you know about your brand, market, and competitors.

Use this information to decide how you will position your brand in the market.

Outline your unique selling propositions.
Define what market differentiators you will highlight.
Specify what market segment you will target.
Define your brand voice and tone.

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7. Outline your goals

The goals section is just that — defining your short- and long-term goals. Think about where you’re starting from, and where you want the business to be in three, five and 10 years.

Some examples of marketing goals might be to:

Attract customers
Retain customers
Increase website traffic
Increase social media following
Increase online sales
Increase in-store sales
Generate more leads
Improve online conversions

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8. Outline your marketing strategy

Your marketing strategy should then outline your approach to reaching your goals.

Look at your goals and figure out what type of marketing tactics will help you get closer to your target objectives.

They might include (but aren’t limited to) the following.

Online advertising. Pay-per-click advertising, banner ads, text ads on partner sites.
Email marketing. Sending electronic newsletters, adding subscription tools to your site to grow your email list.
Print advertising. Newspaper or magazine ads, business cards, direct mail postcards, brochures or flyers.
Social networking. Maintaining your business profile and engaging with customers and prospects on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Blogging. Writing your own blog, responding to or submitting articles or features to other people’s blogs, RSS feeds, etc.
Online directories. Your business listing on both global (i.e. Google, Yelp and YP.com) and local (i.e. Chamber of Commerce) listings sites.
Live networking. Handing out business cards, professional memberships, public speaking.
Search engine optimization (SEO). Tweaking website content to attract organic traffic.
Trade shows. Sending your team to attend or present at industry conferences and events.
Public relations. Getting mentions and features about your brand in the news.

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9. Set a budget

There are a lot of factors that go into setting a marketing budget. But at this point, you should have some good information to help direct your budgeting.

Ask yourself:

What is your current revenue?
What percent of your revenue have you allocated for marketing?
What set marketing costs do you have (for software, team members, etc.)?
How much money will you need to reach your goals?
What are your competitors are spending on their marketing?

Once you start running strategic and goal-focused marketing campaigns, it will become easier to set marketing budgets. You will be able to use past campaigns to measure costs and your return on investment (ROI) — such as cost per lead, cost per customer, etc.

But, in the beginning, you will need to try a few campaigns to see what works and delivers the best ROI.

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10. Outline offers and marketing campaigns

Now, it’s time to turn your ideas into concrete marketing promotions and campaigns.

Decide what type of offers you can make. What can you offer as a special or deal? A free consultation? Special pricing for new customers or for referrals? Rewards? Samples?

Whatever you do, be consistent with your goals.

It doesn’t make sense to offer early bird specials if your target audience is college students grabbing late-night burgers.

Then, consider your marketing strategy, goals, offers and budget to lay out a few concrete campaigns. Outline the cost, time and tactics for each campaign.

Examples of marketing campaigns

Increase awareness with business cards

Cost: Less than $20 to print custom business cards with a service like Vistaprint
Time: 10 minutes to two hours per week
Tactic: Carry business cards with you at all times. Share them with anyone you meet who shows an interest in your business, whether you’re at a client meeting, your Rotary Club, or a party where the topic of what you do for a living comes up in conversation. Give each person multiple cards, one for them and another one or two to share with someone they know who might also be interested in your services.

Drive traffic to your website with a banner ad

Cost: About $200/month (costs will vary from $0 to thousands, depending on where you choose to place your ad)
Time: 3 hours
Tactic: Banner ads are those rectangular ads you see in the margins of just about every website. When someone clicks on a banner ad, they’re typically taken to the advertiser’s website, where they can redeem the offer or shop for whatever is advertised in the banner.

Promote your business with email

Cost: Starting at about $10/month for an online email marketing tool
Time: One to five hours per month
Tactic: This assumes you have a list of email addresses to start with. If so, subscribe to an email builder and customize one of the email templates. Start by sending one information-filled email every 10 days to two weeks (“Check out our latest offerings.” “SAVE 10% now through Thursday!”, etc.). Track customer responses. Resend emails that work and stop sending those that don’t.

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11. Define metrics and KPIs

The final step as you create a marketing plan is to decide what metrics you will use to evaluate your campaigns.

Better-known measurement options like surveys can be useful, but you’ll also want to understand things like the cost of customer acquisition (for every new customer you get, how many marketing dollars do you have to spend?) or market share (out of the universe of your potential customers, what percentage do you have, and is that growing?).

Look at your marketing campaigns and decide what metrics will be best for showing results tied to your goals.

As mentioned earlier, having the right set of metrics will allow you to make more informed decisions about your budget as well as make adjustments to strategies as you go.

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Check your new business marketing plan, iterate and improve

Now, you know how to make a marketing plan, but your work doesn’t stop here.

Use the framework to go through the marketing plan steps and start writing your plan. Then, review your finished marketing plan with fresh eyes and make plans to continue to update and improve your outline.

1. Ask questions of others to check your thinking.

It’s easy to get in your own head and substitute your judgment for your customers’ because you’re passionate about your business.

You might think “I’d prefer receiving a coupon rather than a sample; a coupon would make me more likely to buy.” Run that by some people who fit the profile of your target market before you decide which way to go. You might be surprised.

2. Don’t try to think of everything yourself.

Look at your competitors and learn from what they do well. But don’t forget to look at other industries, too.

There’s no reason you can’t steal a trick from a different kind of company facing the same issue. It will save you time, in the long run, to test tried-and-true methods in addition to your own brilliant, unique ideas.

3. Stick to the plan — and keep changing it.

I know this sounds contradictory but do both. Being true to the decisions you’ve made in your marketing plan is key to remaining focused.

If your business is growing faster than expected, if your customers give you feedback you didn’t have before, if your competition changes, then these are all good reasons to make adjustments.

Don’t be afraid to tweak your marketing plan or even make substantial revisions.

Remember, you’re never really finished writing a marketing plan.

The document should evolve along with your business. Don’t just put your marketing plan in a filing cabinet never to see the light of day. Use it. Share it with your team.

A marketing plan, like any tool, is good only if it’s used. And when it is, it’s a powerful guide for running and growing your business, from startup to wherever you’re headed.

Bring your marketing plan to life

You now know what a marketing plan is, why you need one and how to create a marketing plan in 11 simple steps. You’re ready to start outlining the path you will take to launch, market and grow your business.

Go through the marketing plan steps outlined in this post and then, make it easy to execute your plan with GoDaddy’s Websites + Marketing service. It supports your plan by helping you build a professional website and market your business everywhere online.

This article includes content originally published on the GoDaddy blog by the following authors: Andrea Rowland and Jennifer Friedman.

Most recent article by Raubi Marie Perilli

September 29, 2020October 23, 2020

Helping Your Business Survive 2020

If you are like most businesses, 2020 has turned your world upside down or at the very least sideways. You may find yourself having to change the way you do things to accommodate a slack in revenue such as your marketing strategies.

Marketing During COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives including the way we do business. In order to adapt and keep our business thriving during these times, your best friend is a revised marketing strategy. Here are a few tips:

Your customers are your business’s #1 fans. Without them, you wouldn’t be the successful business you are today. In a time with so much uncertainty, you need to reassure your customers that you’re there for them and that your business isn’t going anywhere. So, how do you tie in reassuring your customers into your marketing tactics? So happy you asked! To inform your customers about how you’re responding to the coronavirus and let them know you’re there for them when they need you, you can:

Send out email updates
Post regularly on social media
Add information in customer accounts (e.g., on the dashboard)

Be creative with your marketing tactics. When it comes to marketing your business during coronavirus, the more creative you are, the better. Having a unique way to market your products or services makes you stand out from your competition. Not to mention, spicing up your marketing can help draw in new customers and keep business booming during the coronavirus. What are some creative ideas for marketing strategies?

Promote unique offerings like virtual options (e.g. online classes, meetings, and showcases).
Take your strategies to social. The truth is, this coronavirus age is prime time to promote your business offerings online. To market your business on social, be active, and present.

Building relationships virtually is one of those things that can be easier said than done, especially when you’re trying to build them online versus in-person.

Keep open, honest, and considerate communication going. If you currently don’t have a regular cadence of communication with your customers, now’s the time to start (think email marketing campaigns).
When communicating and connecting with customers during the coronavirus, be empathic, genuine, and thoughtful. The more you connect with your customers and get a feel for who they are, the better you can market to them in the future.

A strong online presence can help you build your brand and gain credibility to attract new customers. Plus, it makes your business more readily accessible to customers so they can find out more information about what your business has to offer.

Optimize your business website for mobile
Create valuable content
Do some SEO research
Incorporate keywords on your website pages
Engage in online communities and forums
Improve user experience

Source: Forbes.com

September 15, 2019October 15, 2019

Protect Yourself Against Cybercrime

Cybercrime is an ongoing threat.

You might think that the only form of cybercrime to worry about is cybercriminals stealing your financial information. But it may not be so simple. There are far more concerns than just basic financial ones. Cybercrime continues to evolve, with new threats surfacing.

My niece works for a large firm in Atlanta whose employer was victim to a cybercrime where they hijacked all of their computer data demanding a ransom. It virtually shut their business down. They could not access any of their data. This went on for weeks as the authorities got involved. It had a happy ending, but it crippled their production.

Stories like this may make people and businesses leery of using the Internet. Instead of letting the cybercriminal deter your ability to operate, it’s a better idea to know how to recognize cyberthreats in the first place. This is the first step to helping protect yourself and your data. Taking some basic precautions and knowing who to contact when you see others engaged in criminal activities online are also important steps.

You might want to learn how to prevent cyberthreats, but here’s the thing: You can’t. You can, however, take precautions to help protect against it.

What is cybercrime?

Cybercrime is any crime that takes place online or primarily online. Cybercriminals often commit crimes by targeting computer networks or devices. Cybercrime can range from security breaches to personal information theft.

Other cybercrimes include things like “revenge porn,” cyber-stalking, harassment, bullying, and child sexual exploitation. Terrorists can also collaborate on the internet, moving terrorist activities and crimes into cyberspace.

How to protect yourself against cyberthreats.

Anyone using the internet should exercise some basic precautions. Here are 8 tips you can use to help protect yourself against cyberthreats out there.

1. Use a full-service internet security suite
For instance, Norton Security provides real-time protection against existing and emerging malware including ransomware and viruses, and helps protect your private and financial information when you go online.

2. Use strong passwords
Don’t repeat your passwords on different sites and change your passwords regularly and always create strong passwords using a combination of at least 10 letters, numbers, and symbols.

3. Keep your software updated
This is especially important with your operating systems and internet security software. Cybercriminals frequently use known exploits, or flaws, in your software to gain access to your system. Patching those exploits and flaws can make it less likely that you’ll become a cyberthreat target.

4. Manage your social media settings
Keep your personal and private information secure on social media. Cybercriminals can often get your personal information with just a few data points, so the less you share publicly, the better. For instance, if you post your pet’s name or reveal your mother’s maiden name, you might expose the answers to two common security questions.

5. Strengthen your security on Wi-Fi
It’s a good idea to start with a strong encryption password as well as a virtual private network when using public Wi-Fi. A VPN (short for virtual private network) will encrypt all traffic leaving your devices until it arrives at its destination. If cybercriminals do manage to hack your communication line, they won’t intercept anything but encrypted data. It’s a good idea to use a VPN whenever you a public Wi-Fi network, whether it’s in a library, café, hotel, or airport.

6. Have ongoing dialogue with your children
You can teach your kids about acceptable use of the internet without shutting down communication channels. Make sure they know that they can come to you if they’re experiencing any kind of online harassment, stalking, or bullying.

7. Keep up to date on major security breaches
If you do business with an online retailer or have an account on a website that’s been impacted by a security breach, find out what information the cybercriminals accessed and change your password immediately.

8. Take measures to help protect yourself against personal information theft
Personal information theft can occur when someone wrongfully obtains your personal data in a way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. How? You might be tricked into giving personal information over the internet, for instance, or a cybercriminal might steal your post to access account information mailed to you. That’s why it’s important to guard your personal data by using a reputable security suite to help protect your sensitive information

In a way, fighting cybercrime is everybody’s business. Think of it as an obligation to do your part in the fight against cybercrime. For most people, that means following a few simple, common-sense steps to help keep yourself and your family safer. Be aware and be vigilant.

July 23, 2019July 23, 2019

Small Business Marketing Tips

Have you noticed that your marketing efforts have plateaued and growth hasn’t been where you hoped? It’s not that you’re doing anything wrong. It’s just that tactics you’ve relied on may no longer resonate with your audience. So why not spice it up a bit? Here are eight fresh and exciting marketing tactics perfect for small businesses.

1. Offer rewards for referrals.

Did you know that 82 percent of Americans seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase? For those between the ages of 18 and 34, that figure jumps to 92 percent.

Simply put, word-of-mouth recommendations can greatly influence purchases. But how can you encourage referrals and recommendations?

One of the easiest ways is to simply offer discounts and deals to current customers who refer your business to friends and family.

2. Experiment with different social channels.

Chances are you’re at least using Facebook, but why not experiment with some other social channels like LinkedIn and Twitter? Instagram and Pinterest are ideal for sharing visual content. This may not work for every business, but they could be used to share images of your products, behind-the-scenes pictures, or even for user-generated content where you ask your audience to share pics of them enjoying your product or service. And there’s Snapchat. It’s extremely popular with millennials, and brands like Taco Bell have figured out how to tap into that popularity.

There’s also the microblogging platform Tumblr that comes with multimedia functionality. Want to learn more about how Tumblr can help your business?

Before committing to a new social channel, weigh the pros and cons to make sure it’s a good fit with your business and audience. I’ve found that most clients do best with one or a combination of social channels. You just need to figure out what works best for your company.

3. Combine email and social.

Email marketing remains your most powerful tool for gaining and retaining customers. Because social media platforms make algorithm tweaks that can limit the visibility of your content, email marketing gives you the chance to reach your customers directly.

Combining your email marketing and social media activities using simple social sharing tools can help you find new customers as you reach out to existing ones.

For starters, you can include a simple “share” button in your email content so your subscribers can post your message on social media. You can also convert your social media followers into email subscribers just by sharing a link to your email sign–up form on your various social media channels.

And thanks to Facebook’s Custom Audience, you can target customers via their email addresses. This allows you to stay engaged with customers who have abandoned old email addresses. For example, you can retarget customers with ads for the products that they either viewed on your site or left in their shopping cart.

4. Interact with other businesses online or build friendly rivalries.

This can get tricky, but when done correctly, it’s definitely a unique and effective marketing idea. For instance Old Spice. The brand’s sassy tweets have engaged brands like Oreo. It’s not vicious, nor does it cross any lines. It’s lighthearted and amusing banter that keeps their audiences engaged.

For small businesses, engaging in friendly rivalry may not work in close-knit communities. But giving them a shout-out on social media or linking their pages is an excellent way to build a mutual and beneficial online relationship. Eventually, you may even decide to team up together for contests and deals.

5. Run contests.

Contests are an easy way to encourage your audience to engage with your brand.

For example, you could organize a photo contest or raffle for which customers could win a prize. Just make sure the prize is something your audience actually cares about or is somewhat relevant to your brand.

Remember, too, that you’ll need to have a clearly defined goal that benefits your business on top of that awesome prize you’ve put up for grabs. This goal could be anything from getting more visitors to your websites to building your email list or increasing your social media followers.

And don’t forget to announce your contest or raffle on your social media channels and send out an email blast as well.

6. Participate in small business sites and forums.

Participating in small business sites is a learning experience, as well as a viable marketing strategy. Sites like Startup Nation and /r/Entrepreneur subs can be used for business owners and marketers to discuss and exchange ideas on marketing strategies and campaigns.

For instance, you can create a case study for one of your business projects or marketing campaigns. Because entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for tips and tactics they can use for their business, it’s an easy way to generate some buzz for your business.

As an added bonus, you can include some links to previous blog or social posts that are relevant to the discussion to gain some traffic back to your site. That will probably help optimize your site for SEO too.

7. Publish other content besides blog posts.

Publishing blog posts that contain valuable content for your audience is always a smart move — as long as it’s consistent and provides your audience with value.

However, you can’t just rely on blog posts.

Most of us are visual learners. That’s why content like inspiring pictures, infographics, or videos are so effective. They’re easy to digest and can be shared online with just a click of a button. Other content, such as case studies or white papers, prove that you’re an authority figure, while podcasts and webinars give your audience a chance to become part of the discussion.

8. Share your community and social efforts.

Customers are now paying attention to the social, economic, and environmental impact that businesses have. And it’s a prevalent mindset among the largest age demographic: millennials.

One study found that “81% of millennials expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship.” Another discovered that “more than nine in 10 millennials would switch brands to one associated with a cause (91% vs. 85% U.S. average).”

But don’t give back just for a photo op. Giving back needs to be integrated into your brand’s identity.

You can give back to your community by:

Leading a fundraising mission for a local nonprofit.
Hosting a community volunteer day.
Sponsoring a Little League or high school sports program.
Donating unsold items. For example, if you run a bakery, you could give food products to a local food bank.
Hosting an informational service around your products or services. For instance, if you were an accountant, you could provide free tax preparation for seniors or your fellow small business owners.

October 28, 2018October 28, 2018

Secrets to a Successful SEO Program

Many clients ask me exactly what are the secrets to a successful SEO program. My answer is always the same. There is no magical methodology and most SEO consultants employ the same tactics. What is key in obtaining good online visibility is staying on top of the ever changing Google search engine ranking criteria.

I don’t know about you, but anytime we need something in our home or business life, we Google it. If I need a residential plumber, I Google “best plumber” in my city. If my business needs a new heavy duty iCloud storage, we Google “best iCloud storage”.

Rule #1 is without at least some presence on Google, your business is unlikely to survive.

Rule #2 is if your business isn’t taking advantage of using SEO strategies then you are likely losing out to your competition. You need SEO on your website and social media pages in order to rank your business in internet searches. SEO is one of the most effective ways to ensure your business is found when customers are searching for someone like you.

Rule #3 You must constantly pay attention to the Google algorithm update history and adapt to each new Google algorithm. If you are avid about doing this, you can keep your page at the top and ensure success in all your digital marketing endeavors.

As simple as SEO can be to deploy, it is a constantly evolving technique. You need a good understanding and a knowledge base of what is new or on the horizon for ranking schemes.

2018 is no different from any other year. There are many SEO trends that can help your organization achieve a top result in a Google search, giving your business an edge over your competition.

So what are the best practices for SEO right now?

Secure Links (SSL)

A couple of years ago, Google announced that secured website certificates (SSL) were starting to impact the ranking of websites. Recently, we noticed that browsers such as Chrome are flagging sites that don’t begin with HTTPS as being potentially unsafe. Adding an SSL certificate to your website is one of the least expensive and easiest ways to boost SEO ranking in 2018. If you don’t have an SSL, it’s likely that your page rankings will begin to drop.

Link-worthy User-driven Content

Creating link-worthy, user-driven content that answers relevant questions and provides useful information to prospects is key. Using a blog and frequent posting with cross links to your social media is a great way to stay in the forefront of searches.

Schema is another area that will continue to be a focal point in achieving measurable results within organic search online. This new form of optimization is one of the most powerful, but least-utilized forms of SEO available today. Once you grasp the concept and method of schema markup, you can boost your website in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

The schema markup tells the search engine what that content means. For example, let’s say the word “Kristi Eakin Design” appears on one of my blog articles. The search engine sees this, and produces a SERP entry with “Kristi Eakin Design.” However, if I put the right schema markup around the name “Kristi Eakin Design,” I’ve just told that search engine that “Kristi Eakin Design” is the author of the article and perhaps details about the article. The search engine then provides results that display better information for the user who was searching for “Kristi Eakin Design.”

You don’t need to learn any special coding skills to utilize schema. You will simply add bits of schema.org vocabulary to HTML Microdata.

Content and markups may sound like the same old, same old, but the better you match your keywords, titles, and metadata to user intent, the better you will perform. The central goal of Google’s core algorithm update is to make results more closely match users’ intentions. So you might ask yourself, “If I were a customer of my business, what would I search for on the Internet to find my business.” versus words related to your business as we’ve done in the past.

Searcher Intent

Google’s focus on matching search results to the unique intent of a searcher’s query will impact SEO this year. We now must look beyond keywords and traditional ranking factors to understand the types of content the search engines deem relevant for priority terms.

In order to build brand awareness, SEO is key in connecting customers to your business. Consider what issues your potential customers are likely to be struggling with and write content aimed at resolving those issues. Use keywords and metadata that call attention to your ability to do that. And remember if your online activity is stagnant, so will your online visibility become.

If you are looking for an SEO consultant to manage your SEO strategies, contact us today at 214-769-5461 for an affordable month-to-month program that can be short-term or long-term. You can use our expertise as long as you need to get your SEO boosted.

May 12, 2017May 12, 2017

Transparency in Marketing Is Key

Why Transparency in Marketing Is Key

Say goodbye to gotcha marketing
One of my long-time dentist clients recently received an email from what appeared to be a staff member of a dental practice in another state. The email gave him props on his blog articles and offered to let him use a dental health-related infographic that their practice had developed. He forwarded this offer to me to check out, and while the English looked a bit odd (smacking of a possible SPAM email), there was no doubt that the attached infographic was informative about gum disease. I reached out to the author of the email offer, “Victoria”, to let her know we were writing a blog that Friday and would like to take her up on the offer to use the infographic. When I received her reply the next day, again it was written awkwardly as though maybe it was coming from another country and not the actual dentist’s office. Oh and there was an embed code to add with the graphic pointing to the dental practice who supposedly developed the graphic. As a routine part of our vetting process, I called the dental practice shown in “Victoria’s” email domain since there was no actual contact information in her email, another indicator we should probably validate the offer. When I called the practice, the front desk had never heard of “Victoria” nor the infographic.

The story goes on straight down a spiraling rabbit hole. The front desk asked me to forward Victoria’s email to them. Then start the psychotic emails from “Victoria” asking why we accused her of all sorts of crimes against humanity. Turns out that “Victoria” is just a fictitious name used by a third party marketing firm hired by the dental practice. Also turns out that in fact “Victoria” is European and while the dentist nor his office knew the tactics this third party marketing service was employing, they seemed to be okay with it once we spilled the beans.

This is trick marketing. The SEO marketer who came up with this marketing strategy knows this. While their defense was “no webmaster would return their emails if they thought they were dealing with a third-party marketing firm versus the actual dental practice”, it’s still deceptive.

Today customers have more choices than ever, and customers choose to do business with companies that are honest and transparent. We’ll pay more to do business with companies who refrain from gotcha-marketing. No one likes to feel like they’ve been bamboozled–whether that’s not being upfront about the actual person sending the offer, offering marketing tactics that don’t deliver any value, or sending out offers that make a customer look bad.

The marketer is faced with two roads. One road is paved with gimmicks and tricks that confuse customers into clicking or taking action. The other road is lined with a value-added service. We would have used that infographic and given a backlink and credit to the other dental practice had the marketer been transparent.

Moral to the story—when selecting a marketing firm, ensure they are upfront and transparent because after all, they represent YOU.

December 17, 2014January 17, 2015

Quality Content Helps SEO

We have heard a lot of buzz recently such as, “you should be blogging or you should be posting on social media to get your search rankings high,” as if it’s some sort of magical thing that makes all of Google suddenly adore your website. Even though it’s not “magical”, it is useful information, and here’s why:

Blogging alone won’t help with SEO

The only difference between a blog and every other page on your website is that a blog tends to be published in the form of individual posts in reverse chronological order with the option for users to leave comments on each post. And when most people talk about blogging, they’re usually just talking about adding content to a website on a regular basis. Most low budget SEO providers say, “You have to have a blog and you have to write x number of posts per month.” You hire them and they pump out barely researched content that is loosely related to your industry. Please beware because this won’t help much with your SEO effort.

Quality content will help with SEO

After the changes Google’s made over the past few years, creating quality content and publishing it on your website is the only way to get ranked for anything worthwhile. Whether you publish that content on an existing page of your website or on a blog does not matter a hill of beans. Just as long as you’re creating quality content and doing it rather frequently.

What is quality content you may ask?

It depends on your goals of course–the type of content you write, and the type that constitutes “quality content” will vary dramatically depending on your goals. I’m going to make a big assumption that since you are reading this article, your goal is to drive more qualified organic search traffic with the intent of converting that traffic into customers. So if the goal is driving organic search traffic, then quality content is content that matches the searcher’s intent as closely as possible, and does so better than your competition.

Searcher’s intent

What I mean by “searcher’s intent is the ultimate goal of the searcher when he or she types something into the search engine.

To give you an example, SEO is one of the major things we do. But when someone types, “SEO”, they might be looking for an SEO firm, or they might want an explanation of the term, or they might want to get a job in SEO, or about a hundred other possibilities. Sometimes it may be too difficult to determine the intent of a search query, so you can start more specific. “SEO jobs” for example.

When it comes to creating quality content, there’s a happy medium in there where you get specific enough to understand the searcher’s intent, but not so specific that your content doesn’t bring in any traffic.

Better than the competition

To recap, quality content is content that matches the searcher’s intent as closely as possible, and does it better than the competition. In the end, we’re competing against everyone else for traffic in the search engines. In order to do better than your competition you need to create better content.

Pick a search query you want to rank for, then search it on Google. Does the ranking competition seem to understand the true intent behind that particular search query? Does their content match that intent? Could you do it better? If so, you may just be able to make some headway on that keyword.

The bottom line is that blogging alone won’t help you with SEO. But spending time to figure out the keywords your prospective customers use to find you, the true intent behind those keywords, and how well the competition is matching that intent will help you determine what kind of content you should create and whether it will have a chance of driving quality organic traffic to your website.

If you then create that content, and you do it well, then your SEO will improve.

February 16, 2010December 16, 2012

Google Analytics

Google Analytics not only lets you measure sales and conversions, but also gives you fresh insights into how visitors use your site, how they arrived on your site, and how you can keep them coming back. Google wants you to attract more of the traffic you are looking for, and help you turn more visitors into customers. Google Analytics lets you measure your advertising ROI as well as track your Flash, video, and social networking sites and applications. Every site should take advantage of their free analytics. Yes, I said FREE. Just click the image below to sign up for your free account and start tracking your website statistics. They offer a tutorial which is very user-friendly for someone with little or no technical knowledge.