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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/digital-marketing-stock-market/

A Digital Marketing Wake-up Call From The Stock Market

If you’re a digital marketer, you know it can be a challenge sometimes to convince business owners that a web-centric marketing strategy is the only way forward.

Believe it or not, many businesses are still “dipping their toes” in digital.  Their strategy is to randomly try tactics- which is no strategy at all.

We talk to hundreds of local business owners every year and find that many people already know – and are getting increasingly frustrated – that traditional outbound marketing and advertising tactics don’t work like they used to.

    In the “old days”, when a business needed more leads and clients, they would buy Yellow Pages ads, do some print advertising, go to a trade show, or do some television or radio advertising, and these marketing activities would yield a predictable amount of new sales.

TRUTH BOMB:  Traditional marketing and advertising can still be very effective in creating demand, but if your company does not have an effective web presence, then it can’t capture this demand as it filters back through the Internet.

You see, NOBODY makes a phone call directly from a television ad anymore!  They don’t go from the TV to a phone call…they go from the TV to the Internet to a phone call.

And if you don’t have a solid web strategy, all of your random marketing and advertising drives business into the arms of your competitors – the ones that have a great website, social media and online reputation….and are taking digital marketing seriously.

  Getting Clues From the Stock Market

I am not classically trained as a web designer, web developer or even as an SEO consultant.   I have a degree in Finance and an MBA.  I came into digital marketing as an outsider and self-taught my way into this industry.   But I believe my roots in business and finance give me a unique perspective, and I still like to look at digital marketing from outside-the-box for insight.

I’m also always looking for ways to explain SEO, web design and digital marketing in a way that business owners will understand.   At some point, all businesses will “get it” because inbound marketing is the only way forward.

In recent weeks, we’ve been showing business owners something that really puts the new rules of marketing into perspective. In fact, it’s pretty mind blowing.

Take a look at the MOST VALUABLE  companies (by market capitalization) :

  Data from 7/30/17 from Dogs of The Dow

If you have any question where you should be spending your marketing dollars, the above list of the world’s most valuable companies should remove all doubt.

  How Does This Information Apply to Digital Marketing?

As a web designer and search engine optimization consultant, I believe the stock market is screaming at old school marketing hold-outs.  If this information doesn’t make the light bulb go off, and compel your company to commit to a long term digital marketing strategy, I’m not sure what will.

Here’s what the stock marketing is telling you about your digital marketing strategy:

#1 Apple

Apple represents your website.   This company manufactures the devices and provides the operating systems that enable businesses and consumers to view website content.  The only way to get to consumers that use Apple devices is through the Internet.  If you don’t have a professional website or don’t have a website presence that can be easily found through the Internet, then you have no way to reach the consumers that have made Apple the world’s most valuable company.

#2 Google

Google, or Alphabet as the parent company is now called, represents your content.  A website cannot be found unless there is substantial optimized content on a optimized website.  And these days, Google is digging deeper into your online presence and looks for information around the Internet to determine if your business is trustworthy and credible.  Google is a monopoly and is part of the modern day process.  If you don’t have a Google strategy, you will lose market share over time.

#3 Microsoft

Similar to Apple, Microsoft also represents your website as this company provide the devices and operating systems that we use to access website content on computers and mobile phones.  Apple, Google and Microsoft’s market caps should be the ultimate wake-up call and all the proof you need to stop thinking of your website as a static brochure, and start thinking of it as a marketing platform and the linchpin to a success marketing strategy.

#4 Amazon

Amazon represents many aspects of the modern purchase process.    For many business, Amazon represents your eCommerce strategy, because giving people an easy way to buy your products and services is becoming mandatory.  But the most important lesson in the context of this blog post is your online reputation.  We all buy from Amazon and we all research customer reviews before making a purchase decision.  Pound for pound, online reviews are the most important part of any digital marketing strategy.

#5 Facebook

Facebook represents your social media presence.  Facebook, and the other major social networks, is where people hang out.  Social media is where people find out about new places, products and services.  Further, having an active social media presence makes your business more trustworthy and provides consumers with a level of social proof they need to make a purchase decision.

  Conclusion

We are still very much in the golden age of inbound marketing.  In 2016, an astonishing half of small businesses did not have a website.   The majority of business that do have websites  have “digital brochure” websites that do not have an integrated approached to digital marketing.  On the other hand, there is a growing group of small business owners that have embraced SEO and inbound marketing, and they are crushing it.   There is still time to catch this wave and great place to start is with a new website, or fixing the website you have.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/how-to-start-an-seo-business/

How I Started My First SEO Business

I was recently interview by Ali Salman of Xoomly on the “Escape 9 to 5” Podcast.

This is the transcript of the interview:

**************

Good morning Growth Nation! Thank you so much for tuning in today. I’m your host Ali Salman.  Ditch your “dollars for hours” mindset, leave your corporate job, screw the morning commute and skip the nine to five grind.

We’re calling out to the people who don’t want to live on autopilot, who don’t want to settle, live in an average house or work at a good enough job because we have been told a story millions of times. We spend twenty minutes every day with successful entrepreneur; in this podcast a successful entrepreneur will share their story and idea on how to achieve business success.

I also deconstruct the reasons behind their successes, habits and rituals.

Today my guest is Phil Singleton; he’s joining us all the way from Kansas City. Phil is a website designer, an SEO expert and an award winning author

Since 2005, Phil has owned and operated a digital agency based in Kansas City. In 2016 Phil and John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing co-wrote SEO for Growth: The Ultimate Guide for Marketers, Web Designers & Entrepreneurs. SEO for Growth is an Amazon best seller and has been rated as top marketing book by Mashable, Oracle and The Huffington Post.  It’s been also been featured on MSNBC, Entrepreneur and Search Engine Journal and many other leading industry publications.

Phil and John are currently entering the next phase of the partnership by offering SEO training and SEO certification programs to marketers and web designers and creating a national network of certified SEO consultants.

Phil are you ready to take us on your success journey today?

Phil Singleton: I’m ready to rock.

INTERVIEWER: So really before 2005 what the hell were you doing? You said you know what “I don’t want to do it anymore” and SEO is a thing that I was going to dabble into.

Phil Singleton:   Yes, it actually started even before I got out of school in the 1990’s. I went to school and I got a B.S. in Finance. So I was up in Connecticut actually on the East Coast of the US and I got this job in an insurance company as a bond surety underwriter and I kind of rode that out for three years. I was in a cubicle, I was looking around the office and I saw people that were twenty, thirty, forty, years older than me that had been there their entire career and I really felt at that time like “OK this is over”.

Over the course of that first year, then the second and third years, I was kind of of like “geez” my career path is really kind of being defined about how the opportunities are falling in front of me and I was felt like I was kind of being trapped and I just didn’t want to be trapped in a skill set.  You stay in the job for a certain time and that’s how people define you and also now you’re going down a career path that you really never chose.  It might have just been whoever hired you out of school or what opportunity came in front of you; so I really after that third year, the guys drop me a nice bonus to me, I think it was like four or five thousand dollars. I was like “holy cow I’m rich” but I still felt like I was like I can’t do this [for a career choice].  I have to make a major change in order to change the trajectory of my own career path.

I want to take control of my own life, rather than let life happen to me….

So in that case you know my father had worked for AMC theatres almost all of his whole life which is a movie theater company here in the US (and they had been expanding internationally at that time) and I had a buddy of mine in college that was doing a lot overseas. His twin brother actually, I guess been living and working in Japan for some reason Asia was always really, really, interesting to me. So at some of that when I picked up my bags did a little research and I moved to Taiwan of all places right.

INTERVIEWER: And when was that Phil?

Phil Singleton:  That was the mid 1990’s to late 1990’s.

INTERVIEWER:  So you were trying to make that big life change already back then?

Phil Singleton:   Pretty much that is how it all started, I went for a big change, like a major life change…my parents were like “has this this kid has lost his mind” or something?  But, I went there, I studied Mandarin of all things. I lived in Asia for three years came back then ended up getting my M.B.A at Thunderbird which is a business school here in Arizona and right after that I picked up a job there in the middle of the “dot com era” that was really trying to help US companies get Venture Capital funding in Asia. So I got the job in Arizona fresh out of graduate school, and they moved me straight back to Taiwan and I ended up staying there for another seven years or so all through the dot com era. Of course, that bubble burst, busted this really kind of changed my whole life and set me on my current path.  It was basically a venture capital company and that kind of stuff suddenly dried up.  Then,  a company out of St Louis called the 321Studios; they did (how many of you remember this product?), but back in the day there was a there was a DVD copying program called DVD X Copy and it was similar to Napset but for movies,…remember Napster back in the day?

So after Napster, there was this digital video version where people had this consumer software product called the DVD X Copy and it was sold in the US and all the major retail stores.  But they were copying consumer DVD movies, but the Hollywood studios basically came after them and ended up winning a court battle and ultimately shut them down.   To make a long story short, I was already in Taiwan this opportunity fell in my lap.  Keep in mind,  “fair use” DVD  copying stuff was still legal in a lot of other parts of the world meaning you could buy a movie and make a personal backup copy.

So this company kind of fell on my lap and we ended up having roughly 25  employees running this business in Taiwan. We’re doing sales internationally, but what I noticed (and this is kind of what led me to here to where I am today) was I noticed that half of our sales or half of our revenues were going to affiliate marketers.  For our big affiliates, they were basically running their own blogs and forums and online communities, we ended up writing very large affiliate commission checks every month for guys that were working maybe one hour, two hours, five hours a week….and here we are getting fifty percent of that sale. BUT I had twenty five employees, investors, product development and support costs, etc; our piece of that pie shrunk down to crumbs.

So at that time I was like “holy crap” most of this is being driven by Google; and keep in mind this is like fifteen years ago right. People are searching for stuff and I was like “aha!” this how is this happening.

So I started really trying to get my head around how Google ranks web page. aka Search Engine Optimization, and what things we could do to maybe become our own affiliate marketers.

Shortly after that, Hollywood took its battle against fair use rights around the rest of the world, and basically applied this law internationally.  I moved back to Kansas City 2005. It was a nice run and a great pay day, but not something that we could retire on.

So we moved back into Kansas City after staying in Asia for about ten years or so, and I just kind of hung around for 2005 for a year trying to figure out what to do next; I bought a house and my wife and I want to start a family.  My agency today all started with one website.  I bought a sports car just as kind of fun as a project, went into an auto detail shop, and the guy didn’t have a website or whatever and I said “I want to build a website for you”.  I said: We’re going to build a website for you, get it ranked on Google so people can find you; it changed this whole guy’s life. He started to getting his own retail customers directly and at much higher margins than the referral jobs he was getting from auto dealers.  This one site I did on a whim kind of rolled into more websites, and now kind of a full scale agency where we are today in Kansas City.

INTERVIEWER: Wow! Amazing journey, so like 2005 you started right the agency and 2016 now, like the eleven years into the business, what does the numbers look like behind the business?

Phil Singleton:   Well I started honestly in the very beginning, I mean you just kind of beg, borrow, and steal as I looked at it to just trying to get a good portfolio and references.  It’s hard to sell anything when you don’t have a track record.  So that first deal that I did I actually did as a barter, and added a few other ones after that, that were either barter or on a revenue sharing basis, but the main idea at that point was really just to try and get some what I would consider “screamers” or client’s that will swear you are the best thing ever.

So that’s when I went to work trying to build up a portfolio.   I could actually point a prospective client to a reference who would say “hey give this guy a call”   My client would answer the phone and would say: this team is awesome; they’ve actually changed my life, my revenues are growing two or three times, etc.  These initial clients helped me close the other new clients, so that’s kind of how I started – bootstrapping literally by kind of investing in myself and not really trying to worry about close enough three thousand or five thousand dollar websites, or higher dollar monthly SEO engagements.

So it kind of just started off in the first year, not too much, again I was kind of living off the success of the previous venture before that was kind of sold. It ended up being more of a lifestyle gig for me, so I ended up having kids in 2009, so I actually treated the business a little bit more as a lifestyle gig for the first few years.

INTERVIEWER: So money wasn’t your first priority for you at first?

Phil Singleton: Well,  yes,  I had kids.  My dad worked a lot in an office job, and I wanted to be at home and be with my kids as much as possible .  So my goal was to work when I wnated to, and try to build up a reputation.  But it didn’t take long to start working my way into the six digits.

Then when my kids turned six years old, they started going to school full-time.

Once that happened, I took the gloves off and I said I’m going to dedicate myself to this business, invest in office space and build a team – and stop turning away work.   So then you’re talking about going from maybe two to three hundred thousand dollars a year up into the seven digit range, the game changes a lot.

Now I’m really trying to focus in on building a scalable business, and trying to take what we’ve done here in Kansas City in a play and teach other folks how to do in other parts of the country through through licensing agreements that we have with SEO for Growth.

INTERVIEWER:   Yes So that’s an end of the interesting thing you’re working with the share of share what listeners should that that they get what’s going on because you can clearly see that you said you know you have the next phase basically what you’re working on is to training and certification program.

Phil Singleton: Well so yes so what I’ve had here in the last say ten years, although I think really more so in the last three years as the business has taken off, and that directly correlates to when my kids went to school full time. We’ve really built I think something pretty special and unique in Kansas City where if you search for any type of web design, SEO,  PPC,  marketing consulting, etc, our websites rank well pretty much across the board, and that’s really helped us to get a ton of business.  We average 3 to 5 calls a day, and yesterday we had 12.

What we have tried to do is take a close look at web design and and how business in this space work around the country.  It’s kind of like legal services in that you don’t really see like any national franchises, it’s very fragmented because a lot of this is “talent based”.  You’ve got a lot of these agencies that are the do their thing, kind of in their own metro area, but you don’t see a lot of McDonald’s style recognizable brands that are executing at the local level.

The same goes for  personal injury lawyers –  it’s not one national firm – you find and go to one in your city.  I think a lot of web design agencies in America are similar, again it’s a talent based service.

So what we’ve tried to do is figure out how to take the success that I’ve had with my own agency in a way that we can try maybe teach and others.

I’ve kind of skipped over and important part – Duct Tape Marketing –  because John Jantsch has been been really instrumental in helping me take my business to the next level.

He wrote Duct Tape Marketing and is a Wall Street Journal best selling author. He’s a pretty famous small business marketing expert, probably one of the most famous ones out there today, and I actually became a Duct Tape Marketing Certified Consultant three years ago.

This really to opened my eyes to the broader landscape of marketing in that I kind of had my SEO and web design blinders on, and John helped me get a clearer picture of the overall marketing landscape.  So  Duct Tape Marketing really helped me do that.  I became a Duct Tape Marketing Certified consultant, and that enabled me to develop a personal relationship with John who is a global influencer in this niche.  I showed him what we’ve done here in Kansas City and I  think he became comfortable with the kind of things that we’ve done, and then we eventually partnered on the book – SEO for Growth.

The second phase of our book project was to  develop a package to instruct marketers and even them get leads in other parts of the country in the way we’ve done it here in Kansas City.  So writing a book together John, which basically outlines the entire process that I’ve used to build my own  business, and what tactics and strategies go alongside with it.

We use the books as a basis to introduce and  instruct people, then offer a way to certify them as well as provide a brand to help people help people to generate leads.  We had two beta websites, one in St Louis and one in Atlanta, so if you do a Google search for St Louis SEO or Altanta SEO,  or St Louis SEO, you’re going to see these SEO for Growth sites coming up on the first page, and in some cases the top three, for our licensees.

We now have ten more people that have are signed up this month to go into their cities.  That’s really kind of how I try to take my you know kind of all started from one of the telling website rolling into a rolling into an agency in a midsize market. Try to take that formula and then spread it out but by going to develop in the certifier.

INTERVIEWER:  Got it OK to make sense because now you can scale a bit more too.  There you go growth nation lake you know it’s an amazing journey that they can fit into a take he vent and started a business just purely on lifestyle and that’s what I say they can do you designed a business to be you want to design it and that’s the beauty of doing something online or the Internet is and then they get the time benefits said hey you know what I want to scale this I would actually get more aggressive after his his kids were in school that was the second step right he took and takes you know now to basically going from they can let’s say one person free lancing kind of an operation to P.C.T. a scaly but agency doing seven that’s figures right that’s sort of a good example of they can grow they can all. Taking it slowly but in a more manageable way but they can a you all at the same day you want to have a lifestyle that you want to live right so Phil. That’s a good go on the business site the shared with the listeners like how does your routines look like and how you achieving your goals.

Phil Singleton:  Your podcast’s name ‘Escape 9 to 5″is great. When I first saw then name,  it really resonated with how I felt coming out of school my job – I felt trapped like I was miserable watching the clock.  But now I feel like it’s not really “escape” 9 to 5 it’s more like “live” 5 to 9 – that’s kind of how I live my life now.  I wake up really early I try and do as much as I can.

From five o’clock to maybe eight or nine o’clock in the morning,  I get a jump start on the day.  I feel like I’m working kind of all day long but I’ve got the kind of job now that I take time out an hour to go put my kids or go fishing or whatever I want.

You know what,  I’m really passionate about what I do and that is the key to all of this. When you’re passionate about something,  it’s not work anymore.   I like working with clients and I don’t even care so much about collecting the fees as I do about earning it.   I want them to believe in me and think about me as being part of their business,  rather than just trying to figure out are they going to pay me next month.

So can you try to make sense so. They can building up on that question as they can of what has to be one of you pushed and habits which you say that you think that has directly quote you predict which will continue success I mean since two thousand and five you were running this agency have been successful and now you’re scaling it right so what would you want you would one of the push that habits I think for me waking up early of course I’m a morning person so.

But I do feel like it’s an advantage to get up right out of bed at 5am or earlier, and get a jump start on the day, doing more than a lot of people may get done by 9 am or 10am. I feel like a get a full day’s work by mod morning, and I’m still working throughout the rest of the day.  I am not sure if you would consider this, waking up early, a habit?

INTERVIEWER:   Yes it is. We did a study across hundreds of episodes recently and consistently over some 1,994 entrepreneurs over 90% of them wake up between 4 am and 5 am.  Most of them also had some sort of a meditation a workout routine.

Phil Singleton:  OK, so I have a couple other of those “habits”  – I block out Mondays for any type of meetings and really just trying to catch up to stuff so that’s and I generally only trying take business development meetings in the afternoon, so I’m focusing on more technical stuff and strategy, and really more on my own business to make sure we succeed and continue growing.   Again, I am not sure if you consider this a habit,  or just kind some kind of structure, but I would structure in compartmentalizing your D.S. property for more productivity security right which would make sense so feel like you don’t.

INTERVIEWER:  Let’s Talk about the business side.  OK,  so let’s say I mean you are actually working with companies and helping them get certified but if you were to start your business to day, what would do it differently.

Phil Singleton:  Wow. Well I think one of the things that has made a big difference is is really trying to figure out as early as you can how to establish your own personal brand and authority and that kind of stuff.  I can say first hand that my book with John Jantsch has taken my business and career to a whole new level.   But I have another (earlier)  book called Local Lead Generation, that I co-wrote with five other authors. Going through that process and having some kind of a physical thing that helps us establish yourself as an authority in a big differentiator.  It’s  and that kind of stuff I really wish I would done much earlier one because when people think about writing books they think about the old way writing books.   And it was just hard back then because you had to have a formal publisher and maybe put a bunch of money down.  But, it’s so easy to self publish and reach millions of people (via Amazon) without having any middleman gatekeepers.  Today, writing books is not really about making money from book sales, it’s about establishing authority.

Once you’ve published a book you’ve got something to differentiate yourself, but really handing a book to somebody also shows that you can execute a complex project. So, this is something I wish I would have done a lot earlier in my career.

The other thing I think that with the it is the bit of advice or something I probably would wish I would have learned or tried earlier is just trying to build a website by myself and figure out all the keys, the processes and the right approach.  I wish I would have spent more time on that part because you look at it from my side, a lot of people look at me as a web designer but in some ways I’m really an imposter.   I’m a business person and a finance guy.  I just followed the path to website design through Google, because that’s where the return on investment is.  I am an industry outsider, so I had to learn from the outside in.

Most people in this business today started out as a programmer or as a graphic designer.  So I wish if I would have gotten in a little bit earlier maybe and got my head around that process and tried to put together a website by myself rather than totally trying to lean on other people to do it.  I think that would have helped because if you think about what it takes to build a website today, in terms of managing and executing your own project (I don’t care what business you’re in) if you understand the way a website set up and how the rest of the Internet relates back to to it then you really understand a lot about just business and modern business in general.

I was attracted to finance because I’m an introvert, and so with SEO I was also attracted to being able to make money without ever having to put myself “out there”.  I never had my face on my website or on social media channels with any personal information.  But then Google then changed and updated or added news algorithms that now favor content, trust and authority, and now you see me out there writing books, writing guest blog posts, getting interviewed on podcasts and really trying to put my name face and name out there.   This is a bit of a struggle for an introvert, right?  But that’s something that you’ve got to do to break out on your own.  If you live your life from my perspective, try to get yourself out there sooner than later because that’s kind of how you can attract leads and get more clients and business and revenues.

I think self publishing or writing a book is key.  I also think every person should kind of have their own personal blog or something website that would carry with them if they choose change companies or career paths, so that they have some way to establish and document their experience and track record.

One of the most important things on the Internet today, no matter what your business is, is having a living case study about yourself.  You want to make sure that you try to impress folks as you work with them,  and follow up with them when you’ve done work for them. Document this work on your personal website and on Linked via recommendations.  If you have a website, showcase those testimonials.  Collect all of that information over the years, so that when somebody wants to consider you or your company as a service, the social proof is there.  This is how we buy and hire these days.  If you go to Amazon or whatever, we’re all looking for social proof and reviews and that kind of stuff and I think that’s something that people should be working on for their own businesses and personal brand.

Book writing fits right into this.   When the book you write gets, published you inevitably get reviews.   Third party validation is key.  If you write in your own LinkedIn profile or resume and you say how awesome you are, that’s worth about one penny.  Yet,  when an army of other people say how awesome you are it’s worth thousands of times more.  It doesn’t matter if you’re in the web design business, or trying to sell yourself into another job, you’ve to have a referral source for your best work.

Recommendations and reviews are things that all people and businesses should focus on ASAP.

INTERVIEWER: Are you ready for growth nation rapid fire round I believe? So what is your favorite book?

Phil Singleton: The Millionaire Next Door

INTERVIEWER: What is your favorite online tool?

Phil Singleton:  I would have to say a AHrefs.com because that’s the one tool I think I could still run my SEO business if I had to give up all others.  SEMRush would be a close second.

INTERVIEWER: Wow Pretty impressive. I like SEMRush a lot, yeah we have that on too.   What about your favorite online resource.

Phil Singleton:  The one I would need to run my business is probably Search Engine Roundtable because those guys basically scour the internet for all the SEO chatter. We hear stuff and can see stuff on that site first, before it’s reported anywhere else.  That’s the once site I  check every day you.

INTERVIEWER: An individual you’re inspired by.

Phil Singleton:  Gosh I got to Dad on this one.  He went from being a Vietnam vet  to being an assistant manager at a movie theater and worked there for thirty two years.  He retired and retired as the president and COO.  He had no you know no silver spoon or anything.  He came back to the US after the war with people basically spitting on him, yet ended up becaming the president of what was the largest movie chain in the U.S.

Next  I’d have to say John Jantsch.  I mean I am basically trying to do everything he does.  I’m trying to emulate all of it, all the way down to trying to get myself out there on a great podcasts like this one!

INTERVIEWER:   I haven’t read Duct Tape Marketing yet, but I heard about it and heard it referenced a lot of times, it’s definitely going on my reading list for sure.

Phil Singleton:  I had not read it it, but then I had it recommended to me so many times I was basically “forced” to read it [laughter].

INTERVIEWER:  What is your advice for people looking to escape 9 to 5?

Phil Singleton: Gosh I think now is the best time to try, because fifteen or twenty years ago we didn’t have all these places for people to go to outsource via gigs and side hustling.  What a great time it is to be in a position where you feel maybe like you’re stuck or you’re trying to earn a paycheck, but can go out test the waters via side hustling.

In terms of advice, I think that something is –  if you haven’t done this already –  set aside some money and make your own website through some outsourcing partnerships.  This may sound funny, but I think you need to manage a website project and figure out how to execute a project like this this on five hundred or thousand dollar budget.  Find out how to how to source someone for design, and someone for coding, and content, and learn first hand how to put all the pieces together.   This exercise can help people open their eyes up to digital marketing – and it’s easier than you think it is – if you’ve got a “hustle” mentality.

I think everything that you learn in this process is transferable to anything you want to get in to,  or even even advancing yourself in a position where you’ve got a corporate job you love.  Knowing how to do this kind of stuff can really help you open your eyes up and maybe be able to add more value to your current job.

INTERVIEWER: Growth Nation, Phil just nailed! I mean digital marketing is not just a service, it is a skill.  You can have a blog, a software business, A SaaS service, be CPA or an advertising firm – the bottom line is that Internet marketing and digital marketing is a skill .  If you can learn it, especially by doing it, it’s probably one of the best skills to have right now.

Phil Singleton: I am in total, total agreement.

INTERVIEWER: So Phil,  if people want to get in touch with you and if  they want to follow you online,  how they can do that?

Phil Singleton

Of course we’d love to have people check out as SEO for Growth.

INTERVIEWER:  I was just going over the site and checking out all of the testimonials from people like Chris Brogan, Jeff Bullas, and and other leading industry guys. So I would highly highly recommend you go and check it out.  Joining us from Kansas City today and taking us on his success journey, Phil Singleton – thank you Phil.

[kcseopro-blog]

New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/discipline-is-the-key-to-seo/

Discipline is the Key to SEO

There are a number of catch phrases and old sayings that apply to SEO.  Some are appropriate and others are not. For example, the saying ‘the devil’s in the details’ definitely applies to SEO.

However, ‘set it and forget it’ definitely does not – and will never – apply to SEO.

In order to achieve long-term SEO success, constant effort must be put into your digital marketing plan.

In other words, once you hit the first page, your work has just begun.  You cannot stop or get lazy with SEO.

This is a sure-fire way to lose your rankings, or to never achieve any meaningful rankings at all.

The fact is, every business has the perfect opportunity to benefit from internet marketing. However, even the best designed website with cool features and easy navigation are worth absolutely nothing if no one is coming to them.

Effective SEO has one of the best ROI’s in the history of capitalism.

There is no true SEO “silver bullet”.   But the one thing that is virtually guaranteed to bring you results over time?  Discipline.

The Ever-Changing Face of Internet Marketing

While getting to the top of search engine results takes work, this will provide you with the best chance to be found by potential customers. However, in order to remain at the top, consistent updates, content creation, and ongoing website tweaks are necessary.

Once you get on the SEO treadmill, you have to stay on it.

It is much like anything else in life, when you reach the top, there is always going to be someone trying to get ahead. This means their efforts may eventually overtake yours – especially if you stop trying altogether.

You need to develop an SEO mindset – always thinking about how your online and offline activities can benefit your website and search engine visibility.

Helpful Tip: If you are trying to get ahead yourself, take some time to research what your competitors are doing in terms of SEO. This can provide you with insight regarding what is effective and what isn’t.

Climbing the Ranking Ladder

To get – and stay – at the top of search engine results pages, you must:

Blog regularly (at least once weekly, possibly more)

Invest in strategic guest blogging

Participate on social media

Manage and keep up with your site’s/business’s reputation

Engage in high quality link building

Keep up with the various algorithm updates released by Google

Update the content management system regularly

Create new content

ALWAYS be working on your online reputation (ie getting customer testimonials & reviews)

There is no fast or quick way to make it to the top of Google (or any other search engine’s) search results. In order to get to the top you have to be committed to constantly updating your website and ensuring that the keywords and other aspects meet the requirements set by search engines.

If you commit to SEO long term, and work on it week in and week out, you will achieve high search engine rankings over the course of months and years.

Most small businesses don’t have the long term view on SEO or any marketing for that matter.  This is an enormous opportunity for your business.

To Learn more about search engine optimization in our book, SEO for Growth, or by getting a free SEO website report for your businessl

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/what-is-guest-blogging/

What is Guest Blogging & How Does It Help SEO?

There is only one constant with Google – it is constantly changing. Any website that wants to continue seeing results for their website needs to implement all these changes – and quickly – to avoid serious penalties from Google.

Guest blogging has been a controversial topic in the past – some claiming that it was essential for building links, while others following the Google released statement regarding how this practice was fading in effectiveness.

So, who is right?

In this situation, the answer may be both and neither.

Understanding more about guest blogging is one of the best ways to determine if it is a practice that will help, or hurt your website.

What is Guest Blogging?

Guest posting represents a great and effective way to drive traffic, increase your sales and even grow your brand. However, you have to avoid the ‘spammyness’ that is accompanying many guest posts being published today.

This means that there are certain companies who are emailing every blogger they can find, requesting a guest post. Most of these people are just seeking the backlink and have no ability to offer or provide value.

Guest posting is no longer effective like it was in the past because there are far too many companies attempting to post irrelevant blogs. The content isn’t very high quality, either. Essentially, they are just trying to post the absolute minimum in order to get the coveted backlink.

How Guest Posting can be Beneficial

However, if someone is willing to put in the time and effort to create a great post, it can be beneficial for SEO ranking. Qualities that make a great guest post include:

View the author rank to determine if they are a high quality source

Reward social signals with blogs getting more attention being rewarded

It is important to keep in mind, if you are attempting to use guest posting to rank for a specific head term, it will likely not prove to be a strong, long-term strategy. However, if you are using it to build your brand, grow referral traffic and increase sales, it is going to continue to be a strong and effective strategy.

Guest Blog Posting Best Practices

You have to provide benefits for readers. While links will help and improve your site authority, it is still essential to follow a few ‘good practices’ when creating guest blogs:

Only create posts that are relevant to what you offer or know about

Avoid the use of rich anchor text

Be willing to link to sites that will benefit readers the most – not just your own

Remember that co-citations are extremely valuable

When trying to increase your rankings in the search engines with guest posts, you may be spinning your wheels. While it may work now, it won’t forever. However, if you are using it to increase your branding efforts, referral traffic and overall sales, then guest posting can be gold. This will also be beneficial in terms of increasing your site authority.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/https-google-update-ssl-is-an-seo-ranking-signal/

HTTPS Google Update: SSL Is An SEO Ranking Signal

Most people are familiar with the ‘http’ appearing before most web addresses, but may not know what those letters stand for, or their significance. This can be dangerous and even costing you in the rankings if you don’t take the time to learn a bit more about what this means.

What was the HTTPS Google Update & Why is SSL Important for SEO?

Hyper Test Transfer Protocol is what the letters HTTP stand for. But, what about, HTTPS? Does that one, seemingly small letter really matter?

The answer to this is a resounding YES – it turns the traditional meaning of HTTP and adds ‘secure’ at the end. This means that all of the communications between your browser and the website you have accessed are encrypted. HTTPS is commonly used for protecting confidential online transactions, including online shipping and online banking.

When visitors come to your website and see ‘https’ instead of the usual ‘http,’ they will have peace of mind that their data is being protected.

How does HTTPS Secure Data?

There are two primary ways that HTTPS protects and encrypts communications:

SSL – Secure Sockets Layer

TSL – Transport Layer Security

Both SSL and TLS use what is referred to as ‘asymmetric’ Public Key Infrastructure. This uses dual keys for encrypting communications, but a public and private key. Anything that is encrypted with the private key can be decrypted by the public one and vice-versa.

HTTPS – SSL and Web Ranking

Now that you know this SSL protection provides peace of mind for website visitors, did you know that providing this security for consumers may also help boost your ranking.

Google has stated that it provides websites with a small ranking advantage when they have this level of protection present. While this factor carries much less weight than the other signals, such as quality content, it may be strengthened at any time to encourage all website owners to make the move from HTTP to HTTPS. This is a move that would protect everyone’s security while online.

Helpful Tip: When deciding to make the move to HTTPS you need to keep in mind that Google offers step by step instructions to help you do this. Since it benefits users, there is a good chance this will be weighted more heavily in the future in terms of search engine results.

Getting an HTTPS Site

When you decide that you want to move your website from an HTTP to HTTPS address, you will need to decide what type of certificate you will need. There are three basic options: wildcard, multi-domain or single. You also need to ensure that you do not block the HTTPS from using robots.txt. The pages need to be allowed to be indexed by the search engines when possible and avoid using the noindex robots meta tag.

The fact is, SSL encryption protects you, as well as your website visitors. Taking the time to change to this option will provide your visitors with peace of mind and may even help to boost your SERP rankings.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/how-to-create-a-page-layout-that-gets-seo-results/

How to Create a Page Layout that Gets SEO Results

Chances are you have landed on one of those websites before – you know the type, with tons of ads up top, or a huge slider with eye-catching, yet somewhat distracting images, that cause slow loading times making it difficult or nearly impossible to find the information you are looking for.

If you really think about it, you may be guilty of this, too on your own website.

It can be quite appealing to sell that prime real-estate on your website to the highest bidder, our use it for flashy graphics, but without a bit of strategic planning,  in the long run it may wind up frustrating potential customers and may even drive them to your competitors. Even worse, this ad-heavy layout may actually cause your website to be penalized by Google.

What is Considered Too Much?

Now the big question is how do you know if you have too many ads or graphics above-the-fold?

This is not a numbers game. There is no set number of ads or graphics that are acceptable and unacceptable. Instead, webmasters need to use the Google Browser Size tool, or something similar, in order to determine how much of their page’s content, as opposed to the ads or graphics, is visible when first looked at under different screen resolutions.

It is smart to find a ratio that reflects an 80/20 split, with 80 percent of the page being composed of content.

Helpful Tip: Consider using one of the many slider plugins that will allow for layered dynamic text. This will allow you to highlight your images, video, etc. without pushing text completely below the fold.

So, how far down the page is considered too far?

This is left to the discretion of the publisher. According to the update made by Google, sites will not be penalized that use a normal number of ads, but only the ones that do this excessively. Excessive in this regard means when the content on the page is difficult to find due to the large number of ads, or if the page loads extremely slowly.

Also, while you may not see penalties due to large graphics at the top of the page, it may discourage visitors to continue down the page to find what they are looking for.

Helpful Tip: Be sure to include your call to action and contact information above the fold. These are the most sought after and conversion encouraging elements of any page.

According to those most familiar with this change, the websites that are being penalized are only the ones where there is a minimal amount of content visible above the fold, or the relevant content being persistently pushed down the page due to large ad blocks.

Is Eliminating Ads Altogether the Answer?

The fact is that ads help websites monetize their pages, which can help to create an additional stream of income for their business. No one wants to lose this. Instead of eliminating the use of ads completely, use more strategic placement, such as in the sidebars or below the fold for important ads.

There is Hope!

Even if your website is already being penalized due to too many ads above the fold, it is not the end of the world. Just like with all the other new algorithms that are released, Google is regularly re-crawling websites to see what changes have been made. This means you can regain your former position in the SERPs.

Key Takeaways

While you may want to take the suggestions of ad selling companies and devote all the prime, top-of the page real-estate to potentially money-making ads, this is not a good move. There are several reasons:

It will slow you page load time

It will make the actual important content difficult to find and see frustrating potential customers

You run the risk of being penalized by Google

Don’t drive customers away, lose your ranking or have any of these other adverse effects. Keep the most important, vital information at the top of your page and see how popular you can become.

However, keep in mind, it is not only ads that are posing an issue. Large and excessive graphics above the fold can also take away from the user experience. Try to keep a happy balance in order to create a page layout that provides quality information for visitors that is easy to find.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/domain-age-seo-ranking-factor/

Is Domain Age Important For SEO?

When it comes to search engine optimization (SEO) there are a number of questions that business owner ask.

One that comes up quite a bit is how much the age of a domain really matters.  And by “domain” we mean the website address or URL of your website.

In other words, if you can buy a website address that has been around since 2000, does it carry slightly more ranking weight than a URL that has never been registered?

Business owners want to know if an older domain has any benefit for organic SEO rankings – and if so, should they consider buying an aged domain if a suitable or attractive one becomes available.

    Some of the assumptions around website domain age include:

A well-established website has an older domain name, and therefore more trustworthy

Spammers register and then drop domains fairly quickly, which means that SEO web spammers often use new domains, and therefore new domains are inherently less trustworthy

New companies have new websites and domains, and a new company is less trustworthy than one with a digital history

While many SEO consultants and webmasters feel that the domain age is a powerful ranking factor, there are some varying opinions and some of the beliefs that are held in regard to domain age include:

It plays no role at all

It only affects SEO in a minor way

It helps quite a bit

The Origins of Domain Age Importance for SEO

In 1995, Google filed a patent application, which was eventually granted in 2008 and titled ‘Information retrieval based on historical data.’ This patent discusses about how to score a document based on the inception date, which could be found in quite a few ways.

The patent is straightforward and the fact is that domain age is a factor that is often misinterpreted and overestimated. The domain registration date in and of itself is not going to speak for the trustworthiness or quality of a website because:

A domain can be registered and left unused or parked for long periods of time

New domains can be used for established companies

Domain names can be used for a number of illegitimate purposes for several years and then sold to another person using it properly without any registration date change

So, now the question is, what really matters?

Website age and the age of the backlink profile is what needs to be considered. Domain age plays a small part in determining if it is a quality website. An older domain will carry additional weight because of its past history – assuming it has not incurred any Google penalties.

A domain with a solid SEO history that is relevant to your niche may help you website to to achieve a better rank in search engines.

What’s the Answer?

Domain age  likely has some ranking benefit, although in the SEO community, this debate continues to rage on.

If you have a established website, it is a good idea to focus on SEO and content marketing, not making a domain change to try and gain some minor ranking points.

If you need a new domain for a new business or website, it might be a good idea to check to see what is available in the domain after-market.  But don’t let the domain age sway your decision – and if you do buy an aged domain, make sure you audit the backlink profile to make sure it doesn’t have any obvious penalty risks.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/what-is-the-page-meta-title-why-is-it-important-for-seo/

What Is The Page Meta Title & Why Is It Important for SEO?

Ensuring your webpage ranks in SERPs is much more than just optimizing a single element of the page. The Page Title Tag – or the HTML Title Element – is still considered the most important factor of on-page SEO to address on any website. When keywords are placed in the page titles, they can help the pages achieve a higher rank in the Google results pages – or the SERPs. The page title is also commonly used by Google as the title of the search snippet link that is displayed in SERPs.

The Ideal Format and Lengths for Title Tag

The preferred format for title tags is:

Primary keyword – Secondary keyword | Brand Name

Once you have the format down, you need to ensure the title tag is not too long, or too short. Google will usually display between 50 and 60 characters, anything over will be show by ellipses. Or the number of characters that will fit within the 512-pixel display area. If you are able to keep the titles under the 55 character mark, then you can realistically expect for about 95 percent of the titles you create to display the right way. Remember, that search engines can decide to display titles that are different than your HTML. This is because they are rewritten so that they match the brand, user query or some other consideration.  A great way to manage your page titles is by using the Yoast SEO WordPress plugin.

The Importance of Title Tags in SEO

The title tag is considered the primary test that will describe your online document. The elements of the title have always been considered important for on-page SEO success – with the content being the biggest factor, and are present in three primary areas: external websites, SERPs and browsers.

The Browser: The title tags are typically going to show up at the very top of a browser’s chrome, as well as in the tabs.

The SERPs: When you actually place keywords in your title tag, then search engines can display them in the results when a user has entered a query that includes the keywords. This provides the user better visibility and in most cases will result in a higher CTR.

External websites: There are a number of external websites, such as various social media websites, which use the title tag for your web page as the anchor text link.

How to Optimize Your Title Tags

Since the title tag is so important in regard to SEO, implementing a few best practices will ensure the best results are achieved. Some recommendations for doing this are found here:

Be aware of the length: 50 to 60 characters or 512 pixels wide is ideal. This will prevent the ellipsis that indicated the title tag has been cut off.

Put the most important keywords near the front of the title tag.

Leverage branding: This means putting the brand name at the end of the title tag.

Consider the readability and the emotional impact: When you create a title tag that is compelling it will increase visits from the actual search results.

You cannot ignore the title tags. Doing so is essentially saying that you don’t care about your rank – and this will result in second or even third page ranking in the SERPs. Take your time to create title tags that are targeted at your customers and what they are searching for to achieve the best results.

For more helpful SEO tips, please go to this page and fill out the form, a free copy of our Amazon bestselling Local SEO will be emailed to you instantly.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/how-many-words-should-a-blog-post-be/

How Many Words Should Blog Posts and Web Pages Have for SEO?

While you know by now content is king, what you may not know is what is considered enough content? Is there a point when it gets to be too much? What length of content is right for blogs, articles, press releases, etc.?

There could be a number of reasons you are interested in learning about content length, for example, you may have been penalized due to a Google update or simply want to avoid constant link building efforts. You may just be new to writing and have no idea how long posts and content should be.

Regardless of the reason you are interested, there is one fact: the longer the post, the better.

However, just because you are writing more, it does not mean the post or article can be stuffed with “fluff” words that add no value. The entire piece needs to be full of interesting, valuable information and targeted keywords. This is when positive SEO results will be seen.

Helpful Tip: Try to create a content schedule. Plan on several shorter pieces each month or week, along with one or two longer ones. This combination will help achieve the SEO results you desire.

Is Your Site Up to Par?

When the Google Panda update hit, many sites found they were being penalized for publishing farm derived content that had little to no value. Essentially, if this content was on your site, you were fading fast from search results.

But, do you know if your content is valuable? There are certain considerations you can make to determine if you have published content that is SEO friendly:

Is it error free?

Does the content seem to come from an expert?

Is the length sufficient to really teach or tell someone something?

Consider this – the average newspaper article is between 600 and 1500 words, with magazine articles being between 1500 and 3500 words. Detailed research papers or reports usually range between 4000 and 5000 words. These higher word counts allow the full picture to be created, giving readers the entire story.

Google also clearly loves Wikipedia. While the information found here may have to be taken in with a grain of salt, you have to consider the word counts. If you search a general term, such as “online poker” the Wikipedia page for this is going to be on the first page of results, near the top and this is one of the most competitive phrases online. The 500 word length of this page is longer than what is found on most affiliate sites. You have to consider, is it really a coincidence the longer page is ranking better?

Longer Posts are Simply Better

In regard to any metric you may choose to measure, longer posts and articles simply do better. There are two primary reasons longer posts receive more traffic:

The rank higher in Google search results.

With more words on the page, there is a higher likelihood for keyword phrase matches.

How many words should your website content be?  You website should have 200 to 2500 words or more depending on the type of website page.  Generally speaking the following word counts should be used for web content, blogs and articles:

Home page content �� 200 to 300 words of static content

Inner pages – 300 to 500 words (this needs to be updated regularly to keep it fresh and increase rankings when more competition emerges)

Blog posts – Minimum of 500 words per post with some posts being 1000 to 2500 words or more

Take the time to create quality content that offers value is essential. Keep in mind, if you have nothing of value to say, wait to create an article or blog post until you do. If you simply ramble or publish low-quality content, chances are the SEO efforts will not be what you hoped for.

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/ultimate-local-seo-audit-website-checklist/

The Ultimate Local SEO Audit Website Checklist

An SEO audit is probably the first thing a business owner needs to consider when starting a web re-design or new SEO campaign.

To gain an understanding of the effectiveness of a previous SEO campaign and to identify what is working and what is not, a full on-page local SEO audit should be performed.

Thanks to Google algorithm updates such as Google Pigeon and the Google Venice Update, searches are becoming more and more localized, which makes local SEO audit much more important today.

What I mean with this is that you can search generic terms like “Web Designers” and still find all the companies focusing on web development and design in your area, even if the user does not include a geo-specific identifier in the search query.

On top of that, Ad network Chitika reports of about 43% of Google search queries to carry a local intent, which also makes SEO strategies look more promising.

Local SEO audits help to identify areas on the website that needs improvement and to create a roadmap for addressing those problems.

Second, a professional SEO audit process will help you to incorporate the latest trends in the internet marketing world, resulting in more visibility and improved rankings over time.

What exactly is an SEO audit?

Just like any other audit process, an local SEO audit is a way to uncover bad practices, errors, and most often, missed opportunities.

More specifically, a major goal of an SEO audit for local business is to identify weak links in the existing campaign, which not only hurts the website’s performance but also creates a poor user-experience.

An SEO audit will provide you with a list of actions that needs to be taken in order to fix the existing problems, boost user engagement and performs better on SERPs (search engine results pages).

When to do an SEO audit?

If it’s the first time you are hiring a web design agency or an Internet marketing company, you’ll want to complete an search engine optimization audit as the first step.

Most reputable agencies will perform a comprehensive SEO audit before starting a new campaign.

Furthermore, SEO audit is not a one time thing.  Once to twice a year is what most experts and agencies recommend for small business websites.

Make sure you follow this extensive full-page SEO checklist for your local business so that you do not miss out on the most important ones.

Start With Google My Business

The first order of business is to get a sense local rankings. You can tell a lot about your ability to rank based on your Google My Business set-up.

If you want to see if you are ranking for local search, use the Google AdWords Preview tool. (It’s part of AdWords and let’s you set the city to see ads, but also shows local snack pack.)

Make sure your:

Business listing is claimed and verified.

No duplicate listing are in place.

Business is listed in the right category.

NAP (name-address-phone number is correct).

You have a company description of 100 words or more with link back to your website exists.

Cover and product images are not mismatched.

Customer reviews are being responded to.

Google+ Business Page is up-to-date (with photos, post updates and videos).

On-page Optimization Audit Basics

An on-page SEO audit is the first thing you need to perform on your website to maximize SEO potential.

Start with your home page. If you have problems here, chances are that these errors exist site-wide and hurts the site’s overall performance.

Meta Data information: Meta data information like alt tags, title tags, heading and alt texts are what defines details about your site to search engines.

Title tag: Does the page(s) include the City, ST? Is the business name at the end of the title tag? Remember the title should be less than 60 characters.

Meta Description: Does your meta description end up being more than 155 characters? Do they have related keywords that define your business. Do they include details about the geolocation?

H1 Heading: Is there an H1 heading on the page? Does it include City, ST?

Alt Text: Do the image embeds include alt text? Does the alt text include City, ST?

NAP: Is the NAP (name, address, phone number) present on the page? Does the NAP have schema markup? Is the phone number a local number?

A few other point to consider:

Site security: Is your site affected by malware? Run malware scan at https://sitecheck.sucuri.net/

Does site-wide schema and page schema exist? Or,are the data inside your website structured? Test here: https://search.google.com/structured-data/testing-tool

Have you considered using https?

Are Google Analytics and Google Search Console in place?

Are there any duplicate content issues? Use CopyScape or Siteliner to find if they exist.

Site Speed: Does your website load up quick? Check it on Pingdom or GTMetrix.

Content

Does your site have localized content?

Does the site have enough content? Does it include the local city and state in the content? Does it include NAP (name, address, phone number) in the content?

Do you have blog posts or pages related to events, suburbs, local client cases studies, etc.

Are your categories and tags placed right?

Off-Page Optimization Audit Basics

Brand marketing, backlinking and your presence off your site plays a major role in making your business listing stand out. Here are a few things you should not miss out on:

Google+ Business verification: Is your site listed on Google verified? Search for “allintext:examplesite.com site:plus.google.com” to perform the check.

Inbound profile: Check if your DA/PA/TF/CF are above par. You can use tools by Moz and Majestic to get the details.

Backlinks: Is your business cited by other sources? Find a list of all of those through your Google Search Console or use Ahrefs to assess the details.

Google Penalty: Is your business over-optimized for the same anchor text? Are your anchor texts mostly branded?

Reputation/Review check

Make an assessment of their review activity. Google reviews are important but don’t ignore Yelp as they rank well in Google and Apple is using Yelp for it’s map tool

Check out Yelp profile

Check out Google+ reviews

Is there a relevant industry review site? ie: Houzz, Trip Advisor, etc.

Do you re-publish reviews to your website?

Social Media Optimization Basics

Leveraging social signals for brand mentions plays an important role in the overall SEO for any local business.

Though acquiring links from social media are nofollow, and that they do not affect rankings directly, your search presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or any other network will make you visible to your customers and add more mentions, comments and reviews, thereby making it more effective.

On top of that, you also get the opportunity to reach out to people requesting links, especially to those who cited you as a useful resource.

Run through the top three social sites and audit their presence and activity

Facebook

Does your profile have strong branding?

Does your profile have detailed description?

Is there a link to your website?

Is there a link from your website?

How many fans do you have for your Company page?

How many fans do you have for your website?

How often are you posting?

Are you getting engagement from your Facebook audience?

LinkedIn

Do you have an effective personal profile?

Do you have an effective Company profile?

Do you have a good profile picture?

Is there a link to your website?

Is there a link from your website?

How active are you on LinkedIn?

Twitter

Does your profile have strong branding?

Does your profile have good description?

Is there a link to your website?

Is there a link from your website?

How many followers do you have?

How often are your posting?

Is there any engagement from your followers?

Start Your Local SEO Audit Now

You can churn out many of these Local SEO updates in minutes.

Though this list only scratches the surface of technical SEO, it is surely a good start to have a good overview and assess the current stage of your site’s performance.

Building a thriving local business is seriously difficult and you need to give local SEO more value to add enormous potential to your search engine visibility and rankings, thereby improving your overall performance online.

Get a free SEO audit of your website right now:  Local SEO Audit

…and go to this page and request a copy of our best-selling eBook: Local SEO: Proven Strategies & Tips for Better Google Rankings

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New Post has been published on Kansas City SEO

New Post has been published on http://kcseopro.com/this-is-how-adwords-helps-your-organic-seo/

This Is How AdWords Helps Your Organic SEO

With well over a million businesses relying on Google AdWords, there has to be a reason why virtually all market leaders use it. After all, these online advertisements cost money and if they didn’t provide results, Google would not be the mega-success that it is today.

Google swears up and down that AdWords does not directly affect the organic rankings of a website. Yet many many small businesses owners report that their organic rankings “seem to improve” when they use AdWords, and fall back when they stop using them.  We tend to believe Google when they say their is no direct benefit to a website’s SEO from AdWords.

    There is no penalty if you don’t use AdWords, but there are quite a few in-direct SEO benefits if you do:

Getting The Best Keyword Data

One of the biggest challenges for many website owners is finding and targeting the right keywords. The Google AdWords Keyword Planner will provide detailed information on keywords for your particular audience or industry.  AdWords will provide you with information and the average monthly volume of searches for a given term or phrase, the competition level for each term, and an indication of the pay-per-click market rate for each term.

The process to discover these keywords is fairly simple:

Access the free Google AdWords Keyword Tool

Enter your site URL or your a list of keywords

Receive your targeted keywords

Helpful Tip: It may be tempting to target all of the generated keywords, but it is best to focus on just a few and adjust your website and content marketing strategy accordingly.

Refining Your Keyword List

Organic rankings take time. When targeting a certain keyword (especially one with a high level of competition) professional SEO services can take six month to a year to see any results. Even when results are achieved, they may not be as significant as you imagined.

However, if you run a small AdWords campaign to test the keywords that are selected; you may be able to save quite a bit of time. You will easily be able to see the conversion rate of the keyword, as well as the bounce rate. This will let you know what keywords are worth targeting to increase your organic search results.

Increasing Click Through Rates For Current Rankings

AdWords can also help increase the Click Through Rate (CTR) with current rankings. This is beneficial if you are ranking well for a specific keyword, getting adequate traffic but unable to monetize due to a low CTR. In most cases, changing up the title and description can enhance the CTR.

While its impossible to test your meta description in organic search, you can easily test ad copy in AdWords, then modify your web page meta descriptions based on your AdWords testing.

Helpful Tip: Changing the title and description often will let you see what combinations work, and what doesn’t work. While you may cost a little bit of money to fund this type of AdWords testing, it will be well-worth it in the long run to know what will achieve the highest number of organic conversions.

Improving Geo-Targeting

Another way to use AdWords is to bid on traffic from a number of different geographic locations. This, in combination with Google Analytics, will allow you to compare the way that various locations covert. There can be significant discrepancies in conversions for the exact same keywords in different locations.

Helpful Tip: Invest in the locations that provide the best conversions. Geo-specific keywords can provide exceptional conversion rates.

Enhancing your Social Presence

Since AdWords will bring targeted traffic to your site, this can help to generate additional social signals on the existing content you have published. Since social likes, shares, etc. are a factor in organic search rankings, having more people access your website will naturally lead to more social sharing.  This will increase website engagement, and engagement is the next big thing in SEO.

Helpful Tip: Make sure social buttons are clearly visible on all pages of a website. This will make it easier for those visiting the page to share with their own social networks.

Lowering Bounce Rates

While this has not been confirmed by Google, it is thought that a high bounce rate – especially when that bounce results in a click to a competing site –  will negatively affect a website’s ranking. However, when targeted traffic is led to your site via AdWords, especially to a certain page with quality information, it can help to increase their time on your site, while minimizing the bounce rate, potentially impacting your site’s rankings in a positive manner.

There is no way you will ever rank for every single keyword that is related to your industry or website. However, with PPC you can fill in these gaps, for a relatively small cost, and enjoy the other in-direct SEO benefits that these ads have to offer.

  Want more advice and tips on AdWords?

Get a free copy of our eBook, Google AdWords: Proven Strategies & Tips For Better Pay Per Click Advertising

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What is Google Search Console?

Formerly known as Google Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor and maintain your site’s presence in Google Search results. You don’t have to sign up for Search Console for your site to be included in Google’s search results, but doing so can help you understand how Google views your site and optimize its performance in search results.

Why Do You Need Google Search Console (GCS) For Your Website?

GSC is designed in a way to help you fully understand the way Google crawls websites, indexes and analyzes your website and makes decisions regarding search engine ranking. It is also an invaluable tool in regard to finding issues that can impact your rankings or user experience.

This is essentially a collection of resources and tools that assist website owners, web marketers, webmasters and SEO experts monitor the performance of a website in Google’s search index.

Some of the features you will find include information about:

Technical status updates

Search traffic

Search appearance

Crawl data

Other educational resources

Helpful Tip: Even if you have never used Google Search Console in the past, it is not too late. The tools and resources can be implemented at any point and provide invaluable information about websites.

Verifying Your Website Ownership

Prior to accessing all the features of Google Search Console it is essential to verify that you own the domain that is being analyzed. There are a number of different verification methods that can be used, which include:

Add the HTML tag to the <head> of the website

Since in to the actual domain provider

Use Google Analytics

Utilize the Google Tag Manager

Upload the HTML file

If you verify with more than one option, it will help to make your ownership much more resilient.

Helpful Tip: According to the Google Webmaster Help Forum It is a good idea to verify the www and the non-www version of the website’s URL. When you link as many of the versions as you can, it will guarantee that you see the issues. Once the website is linked, Google can crawl and create a report for it.

Google Search Appearance

Just as the name implies, the Search Appearance givers you information on how your website is actually seen in the search results. The appearance can be influenced by several factors and this can have an influence on your click-through rate.

There are endless features and tools offered here, which include the following:

Structured data: Graph created showing the markup errors and other elements.

Data highlighter: Point and click tool for implementing structured data.

HTML improvements: Collects all the errors related to non-indexable content, titles and meta-descriptions.

Sitelinks: Used for help with navigating the site.

Search Traffic

There is no question that knowing where your visitors are coming from can be quite valuable. What domains are linking to your website and what does your internal link structure actually look like? You can find answers to these questions in the Search Traffic Section. Some of the tools and reports provided here include:

Search analytics

Links to your site

Internal links

Manual actions (ie website penalties)

International targeting

Mobile usability

Essentially, Google re-branded their Webmaster Tools in order to reflect the change that is occurring in regard to website development. The tools that are now available in the ‘Search Console’ are actually quite simple, but very useful when you are setting up a website that has recently been launched. Even after the website is established on the internet, using Search Console will help to optimize its performance in the search engines.

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What is Google AMP?

Google AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages.

That cryptic definition begs the question: what are Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Some of the best information about Google AMP and its implications on search engine optimization comes from SEO experts.

  What Will Be The Impact Of Google’s AMP?

One such person is Kenny Chung and in an October 2015 on Search Engine Watch, he discussed AMP in this post: Google’s AMP Project: What Will Be The Impact On Publishers?

So that’s a great post check out, but here are some key points about Google’s AMP:

AMP-associated content will load faster on mobile devices

AMP-associated content will get a ranking boost from Google

AMP-associated content will get caching infrastructure from Google to further speed content delivery

Those are big deals, and for many websites those types of improvements could mean a boost in rankings, traffic and conversions.

  AMP and WordPress

Martin Beck gave some pretty good insight in a Marketing Land post in October 2015 called WordPress Launches Plugin To Support Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages.

In that post, he quotes WordPress about AMP and accelerating the web:

“We believe that open source is one of the most powerful ideas of our generation. We strongly and actively support a free, open internet. We’re very happy to support an open source initiative like AMP, which brings publishers and technology companies together to make a better mobile experience for everyone.”

One of the most powerful ideas of our generation.  Wow.  Pretty bold statement when it comes to SEO and SEO-friendly WordPress web design.

  When Will Google Rollout Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Google AMP is supposed to launch sometime early this year, though no one is really sure when.

Considering we just had a major core ranking algorithm update confirmed on January 8 2016  (and possibly another Google update on January 16th 2016) it could be rolling out already.

The whole point of Google AMP is to increase your site’s speed while also keeping users on the larger Google platform.

This is probably due to the pressures from social channels like Facebook, which are putting forth programs the ensure users get all the information they need on that network.

That’s bad for Google, because it means people have less need to go to the search engine when they can get breaking news, make purchases, and keep up to date with contacts all on that network.

  Will AMP Improve The Mobile Search Experience?

In terms of site speed, yes.

We know that a typical user will only wait about 3 seconds before clicking the ‘back’ button on a slow-loading site. In fact, 40% of users will leave a site if the content doesn’t appear in 3 seconds.

Google AMP will significantly improve content delivery by simplifying the cumbersome HTML, CSS and Javascript elements, resulting in a stripped down page that only includes the most vital content.

We also know that surfing the net on mobile can be a slow and tiring experience. A big cause of this problem are all the external scripts that publishers are putting on their sites.

For vital content, we’re talking about your text, video, images, and advertising.

Why is this important?

Because when you do those changes you could increase your site’s speed by 85%.

Now, what about the problem of users not finding you…perhaps because they spend all their time on Facebook?

With Google AMP, the search giant is trying to bump certain results up the rankings.

Surprise, surprise – those results are going to lean heavily toward AMP-associated sites.

Expect to see more AMP content above the fold and pushing up against paid posts. For those using AdWords, this could be problematic, though probably not as problematic as it’ll be for non-Google advertisers.

Mainly, Google is using its existing infrastructure to try and peel away more traffic from the strong social networks and from the search challengers like Yahoo and Bing.

Sites that implement AMP specific changes will do better in the long run, both in global and more localized searches. For content with general term keywords, AMP will treat you even better because you don’t have as much competition from advertising.

  How Do You Implement Google AMP On Your Website?

Check back for any update on this as we will explain in detail and feel free to sign up for our newsletter so that you can get detailed instructions on how to make sure you get a Google AMP compliant website.

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Google AdWords: 10 Pro Tips For Boosting ROI

Every week, we work with new clients and help them save hundreds, if not thousands of dollars just by enabling some useful features in Google AdWords. This typically helps businesses of all sizes save money, increase ROI, or (and most often) both.

Why do so many companies overspend on AdWords?

It’s so frustrating!

Every single new AdWords account audit we conduct highlights the same problem: too many junk clicks and an unnecessarily low ROI.

Why do business owners, marketing teams and PPC agencies keep making the same mistakes over and over again?

First of all, AdWords is really hard for most companies to optimize. Google makes it easy for you to setup an account, and even easier to overspend because the default settings are heavily slanted in their favor (imagine that!).  Business owners quickly get in over their heads with DIY AdWords programs because they are overwhelmed with the back-end.  Or they get started with Google AdWords Express and miss out on many of the advanced features available in the standard version.

Secondly, when companies seek outside help, PPC and Internet marketing agencies usually get paid as a percentage of your spend, and that ranges from 10% to 20% and higher. In other words, they get paid more when you spend more – not exactly an alignment of interests.   Further, it’s to their advantage for you to have unnecessarily complex campaigns….so messy and complicated, in fact, that you fear leaving and end up getting locked into a low ROI relationship.

Finally, Google AdWords offers you phone support (which is great), but you have to understand that asking Google how much you should spend is like asking a casino how much you should gamble.  Just like PPC agencies, their incentive is to make sure they max out your spend.  Google AdWords expert Perry Marshall likens Googe AdWords support akin to “letting a German Shepherd guard the ham sandwiches.”

  Here are ten Google AdWords tactics I use every week to save companies money immediately:

  1. AdWords Location Settings:

In your campaign settings, make sure you are targeting people in your targeted location vs people that show interest in your targeted location. Many business owners pay for clicks from people in other states of even other countries that have shown an “interest in your area” by including the city name or zip code in their search. Unless you have other business reasons for doing so, most local businesses should only pay for click from people that are physically located in their market area.

    2. Check AdWords Dimension Tab – View by: Search Terms

This is my favorite data feature in AdWords.  The Dimensions tab is where our prospective clients experience the “holy crap” moment, and usually start turning red-in-the-face once they see how many crummy clicks they have been paying for…

Be sure to check the Dimensions tab in your campaign and view the actual keywords that were typed, when they were click, how many impressions it revenues, and what you paid per click.

  3. Use AdWords Website Tracking Code:

Use the website tracking code feature in your AdWords campaign to track conversions. You can put some AdWords code in your contact for confirmation page and that will enable you to track AdWords clicks, or on the html purchase confirmation page for your eCommerce site:

    TIP: I recently created a WordPress plugin that makes it SUPER EASY to add AdWords tracking code to your site, both sitewide, or page by page. Check it out here:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/adwords-conversion-tracking-code/

      4.  Use AdWords Website Call Conversion Tracking

This is my personal favorite Google AdWords feature. Website call conversion code dynamically inserts a Google forwarding number on your website that measures the calls made by these customers. Whether they click-to-call from the number on your website or dial it directly on their phone, you will be able to pinpoint these AdWords driven calls back to keywords that generated the clicks.

Install the dynamic phone tracking conversion feature for all your ads. When an person visits your site through an AdWords click, you can setup this code to dynamically insert a Google forwarding number that will track phone calls that originate from an AdWords click.

  5. Use Exact Match or Phrase Match Keywords Over Broad Match Keywords

An exact match keyword looks like this [keyword1 keyword2] with brackets and will only show your AdWords ad if that word or phrase is searched.

A phrase match looks like this “keyword1 keyword2” is quotes, and will only show if a search includes the keyword or keyword phrase in the search.

Broad match is defaultl ike this   keyword1 keyword2  and will show in any search no matter what if the keyword is anywhere in the phrase.  This default setting gets business owners into trouble because it is WAY TOO BROAD.  You end paying for lots of clicks with no commercial value.

  6. Use Negative Keywords To Weed Out Junk Clicks

Use the negative keywords feature! Many businesses pay for junk clicks because they do not exclude words in their campaigns that are clearly not buy words. Some people complain that AdWords attracts lower quality leads…but if you eliminate price-shopper keywords, then you can focus your budget on ideal clients that want to buy from you because of your unique selling position.  For example, words like free, cheap, affordable, jobs, employment, etc. do not show commercial intent, but you could end up paying a premium for these words unless otherwise excluded from your campaign.

As an example, we do not want clicks from people that seek low-end, graphic-driven, digital brochure websites or cheap SEO services.  Our clients understand that a website is the hub of a modern marketing machine and the key for a high ROI marketing strategy.  In other words, they do not shop for digital services as if they were an expense (ie vendor relationship), but rather view websites and SEO as a true investment (ie partner relationship).   Thus, we take extra care to remove companies that want low cost web solutions or cheap marketing services:

    7. Use A Dynamic Bid Adjustment Strategy

You can selectively increase your bid amount per key by device and location.

By device: You can choose to increase your bid amount by an additional percentage for certain devices. For example, you can bid on a set of words for $5/word for example, and boost that bid by 20% on mobile devices, so that when does a mobile phone search for that word, you can rank higher for that device.   Bidding higher on mobile searches is a great strategy because more than 50% of all searches now are made on mobile devices.  Further, with a much less screen space available, the mobile ads dominate the top of mobile searches.

By location: You can also do the same for a location – so if you have a metro scope campaign, you can choose to increase the bid amount by a percentage for a particular county within that campaign.  For example, you could bid $10 for Kansas City metro searches, and boost that bid by 25% for clicks originating from Johnson county.

  8. Use Ad Extensions

There are additional feature that result in more information displayed for Ads in the top three positions.

Sitelink extensions

Call extensions

Callout extensions

Review extensions

9. Using Day And Time Scheduling

Set your ads to run during targeted hours or days. You can select what days of the week you campaigns run, and what hours of the day as well.

Bonus Tip: you can also set a bid adjustment and dynamically / automatically set AdWords to bid higher during a certain time period just like in tip #7 above.

10.  Connect Your AdWords & Google My Business Accounts

In addition to the AdWords extensions listed in #8 above, there is a another great extension for your AdWords ads – the location extension.  In order for this option to be available in your account, you have to connect your Google My Business account with your AdWords account.

    Did you like these AdWords Tips and Tactics?

This 1,500 word blog post contains some great tips, but it really only scratches the surface.  There are many more great features and tactics such as AdWords remarketing (you know, those stalker ads that seem to follow you around the Internet) and other PPC tactics such as dynamic keyword insertion, advanced geo-targeting, and much more.

I have recently co-written a 40+ page eBook  on Google AdWords that not only covers the basics, but also includes more tips and tactics for getting the best possible return on investment from your PPC campaigns.

My next eBook, Google Adwords: Proven Strategies & Tips for Better Pay-Per-Click Advertising, is part of our Marketing Guides series being published through John Jantschs’ Duct Tape Publishing.

You can find more book and eBooks I have published on my Amazon author page.

We also have more info on our Kansas City AdWords consulting service page.

Do you have any other pro tips or advice to share on AdWords?  Share with us below:

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WordPress Embedded Posts

Very Cool WordPress Update.

Its kind of like turning your site into a storify site.

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/franchise-seo/

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How To Create A Google My Business Page Review Link

Last month, Google sent shock waves throughout the local search engine optimization industry when they separated out Google My Business data from Google+ company page data.

What does this mean for small business owners and local search marketers? The practical implication is that there is no longer an easy, one-click way to send happy customers from a web page directly to a Google My Business page where those clients can post a review.  As of last month, a company’s Google+ page no longer includes an About tab with a “write a review” link.

You may be scouring the Internet right now for a solution to this problem and have stumbled on this blog post.  Congrats!  We have a way that works (for now anyway) – and you can get back to your online customer review and reputation management campaigns without missing a beat.

    Let’s get started.

How do you generate a one-click link to your Google maps page?

Run a search for your business name or a targeted keyword search on Google Search until you can find your business listing in a 3-pack listing (see screenshot in #1 below)

Click through to your listing on the Google maps results page

Get the maps CID code from the Google url in the browser bar or via the alternate Google CID extraction method below

Insert the ID at the end of this link: https://maps.google.com/?cid=

Test the link and see if it redirects to your maps page. Boom.

Here is an example:

OK, I am going to do an example using Duct Tape Marketing, and be sure to read how Duct Tape Marketing has helped my digital agency grow.

  1. Run a Google search on your business name or a targeted keyword phrase.   Find your business listing in a 3-pack like this:

  2. Click through to your listing on the Google maps page view:

      3. Get the maps CID code from the Google url in the browser bar:

      4. Copy the CID Code and add it to this url structure: https://maps.google.com/?cid=

https://maps.google.com/?cid=11200367961685677579

  5. Test the link and see if it redirects to your maps page. If it get to your maps listing page (even if it redirects), it works.

https://maps.google.com/?cid=11200367961685677579

  6. Scroll down to the bottom left side of the page (in desktop vied) and you will see the familiar “WRITE A REVIEW” in the bottom left hand corner.

    The Link Test Didn’t Work?

Some people may have trouble getting to a 3-pack result that shows their business listing, thus cannot get to the maps view page needed to the CID code.

If the above method doesn’t work, you probably have the wrong CID code, and there are so many numeric code strings in various Google urls that its easy to pull wrong code if you can’t get to the right page.  There are several different Google Maps page views, but you need to get to the one above to be able to pull the CID directly from the url.

There is a sure fire way to get your CID every time, but it takes a teensy weensy bit of technical skills to get it, but really its pretty easy:

  Alternate Google CID Code Extraction Method

Here is quick summary of how to get a Google CID number, with a live example below:

Run a search for the company name in Google Maps search

Get to the single view listing in Google Maps

View the source code of the page like this:  replace http:// with view-source: in the browser bar (see example below)

On the source code view, run a find on page search for “ludocid”

Get to the string that starts with “ludocide\\”

Copy the CID code and then use the method above

Example For How To Get The Google CID For A Business On Google Maps

  1. Run a search for the company name in Google Maps search 2. Get to the single view listing in Google Maps like this:

  3. View the source code:

  4. Do a page search for “ludocid“, then get the number after the the uoo3 and before the #lrd.

    For more of our best local search engine optimization tip and tactics, download our eBook: Local SEO.

  Do you have a better way to get a direct link or have comments on Google My Business related to this post?  Let us know.

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Why is Google My Business So Important for SEO?

Despite what you may have seen or read about in terms of the changing face of Google Plus, Google My Business is more important than ever.

Understanding the algorithm and ranking factors for Google My Business (formerly Google+ Local and Google Places) is every bit as challenging as try to get your head around the core Google Search algorithm.  The small business community’s fixation on this platform is understandable, since Google My Business is so important to local search results. In fact, 69% of searches involve a specific location.

When a search is preformed that has a local focus, the local search listings are the ones that dominate local SERPs. In most cases, these local listings will be accompanied by balloon markers for the lucky few, along with their addresses and phone numbers. Google also displays a map that points to each business highlighted in the actual search list.

Google My Business – Owned by Google

While this may be a bit of a no-brainer, the fact is Google My Business is a property owned by Google – this means they pay attention to what businesses are taking advantage of it.

When you establish a presence on Google My Business you have the ideal platform for gathering customer reviews and ranking higher in Google SERPS – all organically. The more positive customer reviews your business receives, the better your company’s SEO rankings get and the more visibility your business will gain.

Helpful Tip: While you may think it is difficult to get reviews, chances are many of your customers are willing to leave one if you simply ask. You may need to get creative about motivating past and future clients to leave you an online review – but be sure to stay within Google’s guidelines.

Optimizing Google My Business

Much like the content on your website and blog, the information you use for Google My Business can be optimized. By keeping the information consistent across this page, as well as one other third party directory listings, your site will be recognized as an even more reputable business, which will pay off in terms of traffic and search engine rankings.

Once you have optimized your Google My Business listing, you can take advantage of the tracking data (provided for free by Google) to see the number of page impressions,  clicks,  click-to-calls and other user insights. All of this can be used to further improve your SEO efforts.

You Can Still Leverage Google+

Why Google+ and My Business we once joined at the hip, Google has been trending towards separating these two platforms.  That being said, you can still leverage G+ for your local SEO efforts.  And all local SEO ties back into Google My Business.

With Google+, you can build and create communities.  When you do this you can distribute your posts, links to your articles or blogs and videos and pictures. This content can be +1’d by your followers and shared, getting your brand and website more visible than ever before.  G+ has always been underestimated as a way to generate engagement for your content.

Google & SEO Are More Important Than Ever.

Don’t ignore the power of Google My Business.

While you may be killing it in terms of search engine results, there is always room for improvement. Be sure local customers are finding you by taking advantage of this hugely effective tool.   And don’t listen to SEO and social media pundits that claim Google+ and Google My Business are dead.  GMB is more important than ever, especially for local businesses.