How To Improve Search Rankings

Written by Nia S. Pearson

Improving search engine rankings is a marathon that requires consistency and strategy to work well.

Important Considerations:

• WordPress website, recommended.
• SEO is a long-term strategy: It takes time and effort to see results from your SEO efforts.
• SEO is an ongoing process: This is not a one and done strategy, consistency really matters here.
• Focus on user experience: Ultimately, the goal of SEO is to improve user experiences on your website.
• Use competitive intelligence to identify top competitors online ranking.
• Avoid using any unethical or spammy SEO companies, this can harm your website’s rankings in the long run.
• Employ additional marketing tactics simultaneously, while working on SEO efforts.

How To Get Started with Search Engine Optimization

From all the services that we offer, SEO is by far the most demanded. In most scenarios we combine an SEO campaign with a  social media campaign to maximize marketing efforts and boost revenue potential.

Over the years we have helped many small business owners to build and sustain a viable online presence with a focus on search engine optimization as a key digital marketing technique. We always approach the first step selecting budgets, keywords, key word phrases and top competitors.

How To Use Keywords Strategically:

This is an important step in building an SEO campaign and one of the reasons we start building websites for our clients to ensure the backend/html coding has the right keywords and content, including page titles, headings, meta descriptions, and body text.

One of the misconceptions that many people have about SEO is to stuff keywords, which is incorrect instead the focus should be on readability.  This is your chance to ensure the content added to your website and in your marketing flyers, brochures etc. has value to the audience you are targeting.

Following this simple step, can lead to an effective marketing strategy that will strengthen your online presence. Key points to keep in mind is very specific content targeted to a niche audience.

SEO or Advertising Which Is Better

By now we all know that ranking online has become very competitive. Throughout this blog we will share why an SEO campaign done right, can be an effective marketing strategy and more cost effective than advertising. If done right and with the same amount of money spent on a year of pay per click ads.  SEO is a smarter path to business growth than an advertising budget.

General rule of thumb for advertising on Google or Paid Social, Facebook ads, which require an advertising budget for the ad spend and management fee.  $1,000 per month $12,000 per year. You can target a specific customer.

The key difference is the minute that you stop running ads, you’re gone completely and you have not built an online presence. You will have zero residual, although you spent the money.

With SEO, even if you stop short term, you will still rank online. You don’t disappear immediately because you’re ranking is organic.  Google isn’t going to drop you off just because you stopped blogging for one or two months. If your content is relevant it will continue to rank online.

The alternative to this is, if you run ads, you may get more immediate results, although you’re not building any residual. It’s almost like an interest on a loan, you’re just paying, paying, paying, paying, without really gaining any equity.

Understanding How SEO Supports Business Growth

Building your online footprint using an SEO strategy may take a little longer to rank and that is why we recommend that you do a combination of different marketing strategies short term to build up your ranking. After a minimum of 90 days you can modify your marketing strategy based on insights from the new business by asking each prospect, “How You Heard About Us”.

The success of your SEO marketing campaign will also depend on the specific target market that you’re after, if you’re after homeowners, they don’t really care whether they click on an ad or not although a property management company will look for the organic ranking business. If you’re goal is to get more business from homeowners, then we recommend a focus on SEO and some other form of marketing maybe direct mail, hosting and event or running a Google advertising campaign.

So if you have the patience and the budget and understand that you’re going to reap the benefits, SEO is a great way to capture leads and expand your online presence. You’re basically investing until, once you start showing up, on the first page of Google search for your services. Keep in mind that even if you stop paying for SEO work, you’re still going to rank online for days, weeks and months.

The worst thing that can happen is you might slip down a notch or two if your competitors get really aggressive with their SEO efforts. Unlike advertising, when you stop, you’re gone completely, with zero residual.

Marketing 4 Real Results – SEO Program Options

Since we work with companies from all levels, we offer three different SEO options to grow your business.

All SEO campaigns include setup & strategy includes the following:

• Keyword & competitor research to determine the top 10-12 key keywords and phrases to use for your SEO campaign;
• An benchmark report;
• An optimization report of 5-10 existing pages on the site;
• Setup on Google Business Profile, Yahoo and Bing Places;

Monthly Packages

Our SEO monthly package options primarily have the same inclusions with the difference being “content” whether it is included or not/ the quantity of the content to be added to the site.

SEO  VIP 

• Includes a 2500-word Ultimate SEO Content Page each month;
• Backlink building for the content page;
• Additional optimization work each month based on data/reporting;
• Ranking and traffic report;
• Directory submission/ syncing of your Google Business Profile to over 20 of the most important online directories;
• A microsite;
• Lead capture page with downloadable content;

SEO  Premier 

• Everything from VIP except that the content page is reduced to a 1000-word article with less graphics/ visuals;

SEO  Starter

• Does not include any content articles, backlinking, additional optimization, or ranking/ traffic reports;
• Highly recommended, to supplement this package with an a la carte version of the content page used in Premier above.

If you are not getting the results you want from your marketing, it’s time to try something different.   Contact us for a consultation.

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