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How Marketing Companies in Springfield MO Help Grow Your Business

Lot’s of business owners are nervous about the economy. Fortunately, marketing companies in Springfield MO can help business owners survive, compete, and even grow their business.

With the evolution of modern technologies, small and medium-sized businesses can no longer rely only on offline marketing to keep up with their competitors.

More and more businesses are changing their business model and updating their existing marketing strategies with digital marketing strategies to capture the growing online marketplace. Even if you have an online presence and get tons of traffic, it would not mean anything if you are unable to convert them to sales.

Here are some of the top ways how businesses can benefit from the services of a digital marketing company.

Geographical Expansion & Wider Reach

If you are considering expanding your business to a new geographical location, traditional marketing methods might not be enough to reach out to today’s new customers. Using suitable digital marketing strategies, you will be able to rank your business website at the top of Google search.

Plus, you can expand your business to new locations without the traditional marketing hurdles. Marketing companies can help set up your campaigns quickly and give you the flexibility to target your potential customers.

Create Brand Awareness

Irrespective of your business’s size, digital marketing can help you create a consistent and reliable branding image. Competitive marketing companies in Springfield MO can help you create a unique website, logo, and professional tagline for your business that will allow you to portray yourself as a strong brand.

And when you deliver to your customers with the service you promise, you will create a brand reputation in your market. Furthermore, positive experiences from your customers will open up new markets and newer arenas for your business.

Target Potential Audiences

It is a waste of resources for businesses to target and market to a wide audience who are not at all interested in their products or services. Digital marketing strategies are a boon to businesses looking to target a certain audience in terms of age, sex, geographical barriers, interests, etc. Businesses can customize their message to reach out to people who would be interested in their offerings leading to higher quality leads and more sales.

Maintain a Social Media Presence

Millions of people spend more of their time on social media than any other form of media. It is unimaginable to think that a business does not have a social media account to interact with its customers online. Updating your social media accounts on a daily basis is critical for the growth of your business. Marketing companies can help you leverage social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, and others to attract new customers and maintain a healthy relationship with your existing ones.

Get the Best ROI for your Marketing Budget

The internet is a powerful tool and provides endless opportunities for businesses. But, not all business owners have the time, energy, and capability to utilize their strengths. Advanced tools and techniques used by the best marketing companies can help your business attract quality traffic, boost conversion rate and increase profits, regardless of your business size and marketing budget.

Ozark Web Design is one of the leading marketing companies in Springfield MO that specializes in SEO and Content Marketing to bring more traffic to their websites. These techniques help small businesses grow and stand out from their competitors and offer the best long-term ROI in digital marketing.

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ozarkwebdesign · 4 years ago

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5 Ways Effective SEO Will Make and Save You Money

SEO has gotten a bad name over the years.

And understandably so.

Once upon a time, it was pretty easy. Stuff keywords, spam links and see your rankings and profits soar.

The problem is that SEOs stopped adapting to improvements and changes in Google’s algorithm, but they kept selling the same old services. The end result was thousands of small business owners throughout the world being burned by SEO agencies who were either uninformed or straight up dishonest.

But the problem wasn’t SEO, it was ineffective SEO.

While a good portion of the business world gave up on SEO, plenty of companies continued to use it as a means to grow their client base by using the tactics that actually work. So if you’ve been skeptical about whether or not search engine optimization is worth the investment for your business, here are 5 ways that effective SEO will make and save you money.

#1 - Effective SEO Brings New Leads

Perhaps first and foremost on every business owner’s mind: when you do SEO the right way, it should be a regular source of hot leads with a high conversion rate. This is truly the ultimate goal of any SEO campaign.

If you aren’t clear on exactly how SEO works, here’s a quick rundown to show you why it’s going to be an excellent source of leads.

An SEO campaign aims to rank you high on search engines like Google for terms related to your business. So, if you’re a plumber in Chicago, you’ll be trying to rank for terms like “Chicago drain cleaning” and “water heater repair Chicago”.

When people type those into Google, if you’ve done your SEO right, they’ll find your website. And the more people who find your website, the more people will be ringing your phones or filling out your contact form.

#2 - Effective SEO Captures the Ideal Customer

Some people hear the buzz around social media marketing and wonder why they should invest in SEO when they could just advertise on Facebook.

There’s nothing wrong with social media marketing. In fact, it can be a great way to build your fan base and engage your audience. But one reason that SEO is a better way to get started marketing online is that it is laser-focused.

You see, when people search for something on Google, they are showing a high intent to buy. Someone who types in “emergency electrician near me” is probably ready to hire immediately. SEO lets you capture those customers at the ideal moment: when they are actively looking for your services.

Compared to social media, in which users are just trying to relax and look at funny cat videos, traffic from SEO is much more likely to convert into a real customer.

#3 - Effective SEO Boosts Your Brand’s Reputation

What do you want people to see when they Google your brand or company name?

I know what you don’t want them to see: your competitor’s website, or worse, negative reviews of you online.

Every time a potential customer finds a negative review, that’s money you are probably leaving on the table. SEO is about controlling the search engine results to favor your brand. If you do it right, you can bury that handful of bad reviews that spoil the hundreds of positive ones that truly represent your business.

In short, SEO helps ensure that your brand story is being told the right way in the search engine results.

#4 - Effective SEO Has Ridiculously Good ROI

While paid advertising has its place, SEO is a long-term strategy with a long-term return on investment.

The problem with paying for ads on Google or other search engines is that as soon as you stop paying for the ad, the phones stop ringing and the customers stop knocking on your door. Just like a billboard or newspaper ad.

Organic rankings from SEO are long-term. Once you establish yourself on the first page for a keyword, it’s going to take a lot to knock you down. And every new search term you tackle means more traffic and more leads.

Additionally, people tend to skip over paid ads. Organic search engine results are about 8 times more likely to be chosen by users. And, in the end, SEO provides almost 6 times the return on investment of pay-per-click advertising.

#5 - Effective SEO Establishes You As an Authority in the Industry

The goal of any marketing campaign is to dominate your industry. You want to be the company that people think of when it comes to anything related to the services you offer.

You don’t want to just be a wedding photographer, for example. You want to be the wedding photographer.

SEO helps you achieve this dominance by getting you to rank for anything and everything that customers may be searching for in Google. For instance, if you’re a home remodeler, you don’t just want to rank for “kitchen remodel Missouri” and “finished basement Missouri”.

You are going to target informational keywords too, like “How do I know when it’s time to replace my roof?” and “modern kitchen design best practices”.

The more customers find you as they search for this sort of information, the more you will be recognized as an authority in your niche. The go-to company for services in your industry.

But What is Effective SEO?

So, you know that SEO when done the wrong way is a waste of money. And that SEO done right can be a regular source of new customers.

But how do you know if you’re doing SEO the right way?

Well, there’s no quick or easy answer to that question.

If you are going to be handling SEO yourself, be prepared to invest months of learning and testing to find out what works best. An SEO campaign looks a little bit different for every industry, so the primary thing to avoid is one-size-fits-all solutions. As well as any tactics that promise fast, easy results (or anything else that seems too good to be true).

If you are going to hire a professional agency to manage your SEO for you, find someone who knows what they are doing. At Ozark Web Design, for example, we stay up to date on the latest Google algorithm changes and best practices in search engine optimization. And we’ll give you examples of our clients who are dominating their marketing niche.

Our efforts focus on long-term strategies rather than quick tricks that attempt to game the system. Most importantly, we define our success by your success. Avoid agencies that promise to “rank 50 keywords”, and instead find someone who measures their value in the return on investment they can provide.

After all, SEO is only worth it if it’s making you money in the end. Are you ready to make more money? Contact us today!

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Guest Blogging for SEO: How to Do It Better!

Whether you’re new to blogging or a professional digital marketer, you probably already know or have an idea about guest blogging and its benefits. It is one of the most effective link-building techniques and helps networking with fellow bloggers and influencers, boosts recognition in the said market, and drives targeted traffic back to the guest blogger’s website. Guest blogging for SEO is one of the smartest methods to build authority in a niche when done patiently and consistently.

Guest Blogging Time-lapse

However, guest blogging for SEO is not what it used to be when the practice first hit the digital marketing sphere. Previously, low-quality and non-relevant content were often published on unrelated niche sites to gain spammy links. This kind of link population on the web did work once upon a time, but not anymore. In recent times, the increasing misuse of guest blogging for links has attracted scrutiny from Google, leading to major shifts in how SEO guest blogging should be approached.

It is a well-known fact that Google’s primary focus is improving users’ experience, and misuse of guest blogging methods interferes with it when done unethically. How? By pulling up websites on top that aren’t worth it or burying authority sites below the spammy, non-relevant websites. It is why Matt Cutts, the then head of Google’s Webspam team, announced in January 2014 that bloggers and marketers practicing guest blogging should refrain from doing it.

However, what he actually meant was to stop misusing it. So, if you’re engaging in guest blogging for SEO juice only without offering value to the host or the end-users or just focusing on quantity over quality, you would be greatly disappointed with the results in the long term.

Guest Posting Etiquette

This article will discuss guest posting etiquette to help you stay in Google and other search engines’ good books without losing relevance. These tips for guest bloggers can help you stay focused on what’s important and not get attracted to the guest blogging opportunities that look juicy but aren’t actually.

For example, one link from a guest post on Forbes, Huffington Post, or any other website with similar authority is more powerful than a hundred links from low-quality or irrelevant blogs.

Let’s delve deeper into some of the most important guest blogging tips you can’t afford to ignore.

1. Provide Value, Connect with The Audience

One of the common mistakes many guest bloggers do is to rewrite the first article they come across for their primary focus keyword and submit. So, if you’re offering services about weight loss, personal training, fat loss, and so on, don’t expect to rank when you submit a bland article with the title “5 Tips for Weight Loss.”

Be creative and do your homework as to what the readers are looking for. Look for questions they’re asking, and make an effort to answer those questions through your blog post. If you’re not offering value to the end-users when you create your content, you can’t get them to click on that hyperlink you think you smartly integrated with the content. Your content is your salesperson, so if it’s not going to impress, appeal, and engage, forget about getting traffic, leave alone leads or sales.

2. Maintain the Standards of Host's Blog

If your post doesn’t bring value to the end-users or the host, it only attracts negative publicity for you and the host. Your content should be meaningful and relevant to the host’s niche so that it blends well with the theme of the host’s blog. Don’t submit a post about digital marketing to a blog about kitten food.

In guest blogging for SEO, it is the thumb rule to submit your post to sites with the same or similar niche. It is also necessary to ensure the quality of the content, the value it offers, and the overall standard of the content is in tune with other articles on the host’s blog. Take a look around to get an idea, and ensure the post you submit is at par, if not better.

3. Promote, But Don't Overdo It!

Everyone is trying to sell something, and everyone is trying to make money. It is no secret, and modern consumers are well aware of it. When it comes to guest blogging for SEO, it is okay to promote a legitimate product or service that aligns with the host’s niche, but don’t overdo it.

If your post comes across as a sales pitch rather than a genuine appeal to check or try something out because of the value it offers, the target audience won’t be impressed and won’t engage in your call-to-action. In simple words, the content should be written to benefit users and not only you.

4. Formatting a Guest Blog Post

Formatting a post can be compared to packaging in the manufacturing industry or the operating system on your phone. It has to be pleasing to the eyes while being user-friendly. When it comes to guest posts, formatting is important as a reader would turn away from a block of content with no structure. Guest bloggers should take time to review the published posts on the host’s blog and see how they are formatted and structured.

If the formatting is done poorly, the guest post may be rejected by the host. The blog should be easy to navigate and must have a flow with a proper structure, including a catchy title, introduction, sub-headings, bulleted points (if necessary), and conclusion or summary. It helps readers find what they’re looking for without wandering around. It helps the host please the audience while the guest blogger benefits from generating traffic from it. So, don’t just write good content; present it well, too.

5. Propose a Tempting Idea

One of the most effective methods to get the blog hosts to approve your guest blogs is to propose your content idea first. Write a summary about the topic you want to write content on. It would be even better if you can send them a well-researched outline of the content, pick a topic that’s not covered by the host’s blog before, and blend well with the host’s niche while being relevant to your business.

6. Guest Post in Similar Niche Sites

As mentioned earlier, it can be called the thumb rule of guest posting. If you’re submitting a guest post about “how to learn guitar” on a website about “goat fencing,” the target audience won’t care to read your blog, and they won’t bother to click on your link. People on a website about goat fencing aren’t there to learn guitar, which is pretty much common sense.

You may get a few clicks here and there out of curiosity, but it doesn’t help the guest blogger or the host blog much. So, guest post in sites related to your niche, and you’ll get positive results sooner than later.

7. Offer a Freebie

Who doesn’t like a freebie? When you offer a freebie in your post, which can be a checklist, a free e-book, downloadable printouts, or anything else, all the stakeholders in the equation are benefitted. The readers get a freebie, the host is happy that the blog is offering value to the audience, and the guest blogger can generate leads through opt-in while bringing targeted traffic back to the money site. It’s a win-win situation for all!

8. Include a Bio & Call-To-Action

Another feature of good guest posting etiquette is to include a bio in your guest post submission. The bio must also contain a link to your call-to-action or freebie, as mentioned above. The placement of call-to-action plays an important role, and one link must be embedded in the content body while the other is added to the bio. It reminds the readers to get the freebie when concluding the article and enhances the click-through rate.

9. Promote the Guest Post on Social Media

While the host will do whatever he has to do with the guest post in terms of promotion, you must treat your guest post as you do your own blog posts. Promote it on various social media platforms, send the link to your email lists, and help the guest post gain some traction. Sometimes, all it takes is one simple share on social media for the post to go viral.

10. Be Responsive to Comments on Your Guest Post

As the guest post starts attracting traffic, readers sometimes leave comments. While the host may or may not answer all of them, the onus is on you to seize the opportunity and engage with the audience. Answer their questions, request their feedback, be polite towards criticism, and grateful for the appreciation you receive.

All it takes is just one big client to change your life, and you must treat every single comment as if it is from that client. Be responsive to comments to leave a lasting impression on the audience, boost audience engagement, and encourage social sharing. In the process, you’re building and adding to your own audience.

In Conclusion

These are the few guest blogging tips to remember when you write or submit a guest post. Guest blogging for SEO is integral to link-building, and when you remember the above-mentioned guest posting etiquettes, you don’t leave much room for error. Take time to create content that readers would love, the host blog would benefit from, and compels the audience to search for its author – You!

If you would like to find blogs for guest posting, Ozark Web Design offers guest blogging opportunities with some unique additional features.

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ozarkwebdesign · 4 years ago

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4 Advanced SEO Strategies for 2021

If your business relies on web content, then it relies on Google. Whether you love or hate them, Google’s tech colossus supplies the de facto infrastructure by which the majority of people access web content. Because Google’s consumer-friendly framework is always evolving, marketers and advertisers should always be on their toes and ready to adapt to new standards, new practices, and new technologies, lest they fall behind in search rankings and lose out on potential consumer engagement. These 4 advanced SEO strategies will give you a head start in your approach to strengthening your internet reach in 2021.

1. Bounce Rate and SEO

Imagine you run a brick-and-mortar storefront, but nobody can seem to figure out how to open your front door; when they finally make it inside, there are no prices on your merchandise, and your employees are too uninformed to answer their questions. Would you be surprised if your sales aren’t up to quota? You might be pleased to see a high number of unique visitors, but you shouldn’t let this satisfy you. Unless there is visitor engagement, these numbers are less meaningful than they seem. We define bounce rate as a percentage of visitors who leave a website without making any engagement, like completing a purchase or simply navigating to another section of your website. As your various pages suffer a lack of engagement, your bounce rate will rise, and your Google search ranking will suffer in turn.

If you want to shrink your bounce rate, take a look at your high-bounce webpages and see where visitors may be put off, confused, or frustrated. Does a Google search link to a specific page redirect to your homepage, repelling impatient customers? Is the graphic layout of your homepage disorganized, unintuitive, or overloaded with a daunting amount of information? Do you have any broken links or code errors that might be directing visitors to 404 screens or blank pages, when all they want to do is find out how much it costs to ship your product? Retaining visitors is paramount to maintaining a productive website. For example, GoPromotional, a promotional products wholesaler, as a case study was able to decrease their bounce rate by redesigning their category pages to have smaller top-level banners and higher quality images.

2. Optimize for Voice Search

If you’re like me, you don’t usually make use of voice commands, but there’s no denying it’s a popular technology that’s here to stay. 55% of smartphone owners use the feature, and with Google constantly working to refine it into “an ultimate mobile assistant that helps you with your daily life so that you can focus on the things that matter,” it’s a good idea to understand how voice command can help your website and add it to your advanced SEO strategies toolbox.

Increasingly, search queries both written and spoken are phrased in conversational language. Whereas good search results once relied on thoughtful and efficient syntax, modern search technology means this is no longer necessary, and those using voice command are especially likely to phrase their searches as questions or requests. For a smartphone user on the younger side, “Thai food open now” is a less likely search query than “hey Alexa, where can I get Thai food right now”.

Your written content should be formatted to reflect the growing trend of casual language in web searches, acknowledging interrogative keywords such as why, when, how, or what, as well as conjunctions like if, and, or to. If you have prior correspondence with web visitors, you may have received some Frequently Asked Questions; treat these as building material for an F.A.Q. page which will very likely include words and phrases used in a typical spoken search query, increasing your search ranking.

3. YouTube

When you search a topic on Google, what’s usually perched at the top of your results? Since their acquisition of YouTube, Google has positioned the monolithic video-sharing website as an invaluable and ever-present accessory to their search engine. YouTube’s own search engine is the second largest in the world, with the website hosting content relevant to any search query you can imagine. As such, you need to include YouTube videos in your advanced SEO strategy anytime it’s feasible.

If you want to make the most of the Google-YouTube power couple, not only should you make and publish YouTube videos for onsite embedding, but you should also take some simple steps to make your videos more appealing to a search engine. Your video title should be SEO-friendly. Wordiness can help, but vagueness won’t. Compare Dr. Jacobs Demos the Meanest Strings Under the Sun with 12 Best Thick Gauge Guitar String Brands for Heavy Metal Shredders. Which do you think will turn up first in a search for “what are the best guitar strings for playing metal”?

The same rules apply to video descriptions, which should contain ample keywords for search accessibility while effectively describing your content. Consider transcribing the content of your video for inclusion in the description; doubling that content in written form may reduce the number of complete views your video receives, but it will only increase page visits, which may be more beneficial if you are prioritizing visits over in-video ad revenue.

4. Tech SEO

Technical failures and compatibility issues will negatively impact your SEO, so your website should always be up-to-date with technical trends to ensure maximum reach and compatibility with search engines and consumer technology. The fact that most internet access is now made via smartphones necessitates the use of AMP, a framework that streamlines webpages for better display and functionality on mobile devices. Mobile users are more willing to invest time in a website that won’t require them to pinch-zoom and tap hyperlinks with absolute precision.

Similarly, people are less comfortable visiting a website when prompted with a security warning, and some browsers even make it difficult to willingly visit such websites. This can be avoided by using HTTPS, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, the successor to HTTP. You may recognize these initialisms as appearing at the beginning of a URL, but many are unaware of the significant security advantage of HTTPS. If your website is still using the now outdated HTTP standard, switch to HTTPS as soon as possible to avoid low rankings and high bounce.

If you’re relying on Google to provide a pathway for visitors, it’s only advantageous to get a glimpse of what Google sees. In the same way that Google and other search engines make use of web crawlers to bolster the accuracy of their engine, website administrators can and should make use of web crawlers to gain valuable insights into the search performance of their site, as well as internal performance stats. Some internal issues to prioritize are 404 links, or dead links, which should be repaired sooner than later, and poor information organization; the latter can be as simple as reformatting headings and subsections with smarter HTML tags, increasing the ease at which visitors can find the information they’re looking for.

We hope that this article will help you with some practical ideas to implement as you plan your advanced SEO strategies for 2021.

Contributing Writer: Richard Larson

Author Bio: Richard Larson is the marketing manager for GoPromotional, for over 12 years, the UK’s leading Award-Winning distributor of promotional merchandise. They specialize in helping small to big businesses promote and improve their brand online and offline by creating innovative and highly competitive promotional products.

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Digital Marketing Services: Take Advantage Now As Online Sales Soar

To get the best out of your digital marketing, hiring professional online marketing services is always an option. What’s more, is that it couldn’t be easier to set up!

All you need to do is choose your budget, and work with us so together we can select the online sales channel(s) that will bring success to your marketing project. Your business will boost its online presence, and most importantly, gain a return on investment!

Using digital marketing Springfield MO services will help your business save valuable man-hours learning and implementing digital marketing strategies in-house, while we also save you the time and effort involved with hiring a marketing specialist on a salary. Plus, your brand gains access to our team of marketing experts, each one a specialist in their own field!

No matter which niches your business operates, we can help because online marketing works in all industries, and to top it all off, we will have a service that will suit your budget thanks to the diverse array of online sales channels available!

Multiple Online Sales Channels to Suit Your Budget

The great thing about online marketing is that there are multiple sales channels to choose from. This makes digital marketing the ultimate awareness and sales tool.

You can choose to target one online sales channel, target multiple sales channels, or resell marketing services via our internet marketing Springfield MO services.

Here is a sample of some of the options available:

Option 1: If you have a large budget, you can go all out to build awareness and make sales across social media channels, search engines, marketplaces, business directories, and through website advertising space. Within each of these areas, your business can also choose to set up a marketing campaign across multiple platforms.

Option 2: Target multiple sales channels using one strategy. For example, if you choose to set up a social media marketing campaign, your business can create a campaign across Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and more. Or if your business chooses to set up an SEO campaign, then you can use PPC and SEO across Bing, Yahoo, and Google for both keyword search optimization and local SEO.

Option 3: For companies with a low marketing budget or those looking for expertise on a single platform, you can choose to target one sales channel. For example, maybe your business only needs to improve its SEO search results. Or your business may only be interested in improving or setting up a Pinterest campaign. On single marketing projects, budgets are also extremely flexible.

Option 4: Your business may require an expert to come in and teach your in-house marketing team to set-up various sales online sales channels. This could be implemented as a turnkey operation where we help set up the initial campaigns, configure them, and then hand the marketing management over to your employees to handle while our team can be on standby working in a consulting capacity.

Option 5: Graphic design, video, and content support services for existing marketing projects is also highly in demand. Some companies already have marketing campaigns set up but need the creativity of designers and content writers. This can also include web design and branding services.

Turnkey marketing

Social media marketing

SEO – search engine marketing

Pay-per-click marketing

Website marketing (design/graphics)

Online Marketing Services Work in all Industries

Whether you are looking to showcase properties on your real estate website, get people to download your mobile app, make people aware of your dental clinic, show off your restaurant’s menu and prime location, or sell manufacturing/construction services, the World Wide Web is a mecca for people looking for services or goods your business offers.

What is it you are looking for?

Online sales via an eComm store…

More visitors to your blog…

Sales leads so your sales team can close…

Build brand awareness…

Location searches for a high street business…

You can let us help you decide the best way to bring your business an ROI from online marketing services, we can work together to decide what is best, or if you already know what will make your business tick online, then you can bring your ideas to our flexible team ready to listen to your needs. The options are out there, and the internet is booming, so please feel free to contact us at online marketing Springfield MO if you require more information!

Call Today!

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Inbound Marketing Springfield MO: 7 Reasons Why You Need It

Through inbound marketing, our Springfield, Missouri, and Lake of the Ozarks businesses have experienced impressive online growth and success over the past few years. This proven approach to digital marketing provides an inexpensive opportunity for the successful promotion of your business, even in difficult market settings like we’re currently confronting. And, in this environment of ever-evolving marketing platforms and technologies, you need a reliable, cost-effective edge.

With an inbound marketing strategy, a company develops a well-targeted reach among potential customers. When done well, this helps in cutting down the expenses that are linked with advertising and it offers the best long-term ROI. Moreover, it gives you a perfect platform for your company’s growth, whether you’re an established business or a new startup that is bootstrapping in order to survive.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Our inbound marketing definition is, “a method for attracting customers to your products and services by providing helpful content that is designed with them in mind.”

A version of internet marketing (or, digital marketing), it focuses intently on highly-targeted content design and promotion. This is also widely known as Content Marketing. Inbound marketing examples can include blogging, social media promotion, search engine optimization, published PDFs and ebooks, webinars, videos, and other popular branding techniques.

The effective use of social media is an important part of inbound marketing. Not only can you present a wide range of your marketing content, but you can also engage individuals or an entire audience, allowing them important glimpses into your business values, personality, and ethics. This is referred to as developing your brand voice as you engage audiences on social media.

Due to the quality of successful long-term results our clients have experienced over the years, we intentionally focus more on inbound marketing strategy rather than outbound marketing. This emphasis has positioned our clients extremely well in their market niches.

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

So, what is outbound marketing? The term, “outbound marketing” denotes marketing practices where a company reaches out to an audience with its message. These practices are sometimes viewed as interruptive and invasive and they have largely fallen out of favor in recent years.

Rather than interrupting your audience with solicitations or content that they don’t necessarily want, inbound marketing promotes connections that customers are looking for and helps them with problems they are experiencing.

Examples of outbound marketing tactics can range from traditional media such as radio and TV commercials, newspaper and magazine ads, direct mail, flyers, etc. to the more aggressive forms of door-to-door sales, cold calls on the phone, and spamming people with email.

So, outbound marketing is the complete inverse of inbound marketing, which helps customers to find and come to you when they want your products or services.

The Benefits of Good Inbound Marketing

We encourage business owners and new startups to bear in mind the following 7 benefits that can be realized from smart and effective inbound marketing.

1. It is easy to identify potential customers.

This is one of the most important benefits that you get from inbound marketing. If the customers get to know about your products and services, they will definitely look for ways to secure and make use of them. As a result, the company does not have to spend as much on promotion, direct mail, or other traditional forms of advertising.

2. It causes the customer to reach out for your product.

When you apply the inbound digital marketing methodology, you allow your existing or potential new customers to make a connection with your products. This gives an opportunity to engage with your online market audience on a closer level.

3. It allows you to provide what your customers need instantly.

A company that uses inbound marketing to its benefit stands a better chance of selling its products quickly. Since there has already been a connection made, whether through social media, email or by phone, you can reach out to your audience en masse without spending a great deal of time. You can do so by means of blogging, through various social media channels or social networking, video marketing, and many more.

4. It offers high-quality content on the internet.

To utilize inbound marketing effectively requires that you offer high-quality content for your website or social media visitors. This content should be always rich in keywords and have quality information.

Today’s shoppers are very savvy. Poorly written copy and flooding social media with lots of “we’re the best so you should buy from us” techniques will turn people off. And rightfully so. Endeavor to be helpful and to provide a good experience. The same diligence used in cultivating and presenting quality website content should extend to your social media sites, as well.

5. It increases your brand recognition.

Content marketing allows you to show off your brand in an amazing variety of new ways. Along with a website that’s designed for marketing, social media offers a terrific platform for you to engage new audiences with your brand. Doing so results in the creation of brand awareness and the establishment of a good impression. This is what every company wants from inbound marketing strategies, as it allows you to capture traffic from potential customers and improve your brand image in more effective ways.

6. It helps you to attract highly qualified traffic.

You don’t just need more traffic to your website; you need more and better traffic. The inbound marketing strategy is geared towards bringing the right audience to you. This is done by targeting those who are more likely to become your potential customers.

Through this process, you can increase your brand recognition and improve the conversions from “lookers” to “buyers”. The audience that you choose to target should be the right fit for your business. Your products and services need to be relevant to the audience you are targeting. You don’t want to be trying to sell grass-fed beef to vegetarians.

7. It can reduce a high bounce rate.

The bounce rate is the percentage of potential customers who leave your site within a few seconds of their visit. If you want to increase your conversions, your website should not have a high bounce rate.

High bounce rates tend to reduce your overall conversion rate. A bounce rate that is too high is either a sign that you’re probably not hitting the right target audience, or the quality of the customers’ experience on your website is poor.

Use Inbound Marketing to Grow and Amplify

It’s important to keep in mind that in the same way that producing great content is helpful for you, inferior and shoddy content marketing can backfire on you.

If your website or social media audience finds mediocre or suboptimal content, they will likely “bounce” (leave), and not return again. Your inbound content marketing is a direct reflection of who you are as a business. Today, sophisticated consumers are acclimated to quality information and experiences. And, they have come to expect it of those with whom they do business. As a rule, they won’t accept less.

Inbound marketing for Springfield, Missouri, and Lake of the Ozarks businesses is about building an authoritative online marketing strategy that grows and accelerates over time.

When your online audience discovers excellence and value, then shares it with others, it will attract more interest to your business. This develops into a self-sustaining amplification loop that accelerates growth and momentum over time.

Get Started Today

If you want your online business to have a growing and commanding online presence, Ozark Web Design has a proven track record of success. Email us or call today to learn how we can help at easily affordable rates.

We provide successful inbound marketing for Springfield, MO, and Lake of the Ozarks businesses, consistently positioning our clients at the top of internet searches for their products and services. Want to be on the front page of Google searches? We’re the choice for you.

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What is SEO Marketing: 7 Reasons Your Business Needs SEO

Today, more companies realize the importance of website traffic. With close to 50% of the global population now online, it takes a well-designed website to harness the power of online business.

This is why SEO marketing is essential to every business.

But what is SEO marketing? It’s a complex subject that leaves many people wondering what SEO marketing really entails. With more and more businesses depending on the “bricks and clicks” model, SEO marketing has become an integral part of doing business.

So, in this article, we answer the question, “what is SEO marketing?” We also reflect on the benefits of SEO marketing for your Springfield, MO, or Lake of the Ozarks business.

What Is SEO Marketing?

To understand SEO marketing, let’s start with the acronym. SEO, or search engine optimization, refers to the process of improving the quality of a website’s performance in searches while also increasing the quantity of website traffic.

What distinguishes search engine optimization from other forms of marketing is that it focuses on unpaid traffic instead of paid or direct traffic from ads.

So, with that little glimpse of what SEO marketing is, we want to help you understand a little more of what goes into this process.

Quality

If your website’s quality is low, there’s a chance that you’ll perform poorly at attracting the right audience for your products and services. Most times, it’s this quality that determines the amount of traffic that converts into actual sales.

The quality we speak of isn’t just how your website looks. It also relates to the metadata in the coding of your site and several important on-page features that search engines evaluate, including the quality of user experience. These factors, among others, attract a higher quality of traffic to your site. Therefore, the first thing SEO helps you with is the improvement of traffic quality.

Quantity

Another critical component in SEO is the quantity of traffic. As your business grows, it can become challenging to manage the quantity of traffic it receives. While more traffic is better, poor management of such traffic can lead to a low conversion rate.

Optimizing your search engine results means ensuring that the content, images, and any other media meet the threshold for indexing. Every search engine has crawlers that gather information for a specific search and return the results within milliseconds. As you can see, to ensure that your website ranks high for a specific search, you will need to work on your search engine optimization strategy.

Reasons Your Business Needs SEO Marketing

If your business has yet to take advantage of search engine optimization, you are most likely missing out on a great deal of traffic and market share. Here’s why your business needs SEO marketing.

1. SEO Drives Traffic

In the aforementioned bricks and clicks model, search is the number one driver of traffic, beating even social media. Most online users ignore paid search returns like Google ads but instead focus on organic search results.

"Most online users ignore paid search returns like Google ads but instead focus on organic search results."

This is one of the big reasons why you can’t overlook SEO marketing and its ability to drive your online traffic. For example, in the recent pandemic, online sales spiked dramatically. As a result, businesses whose websites underperformed in searches lost out on a great deal of income. Now imagine a world where half of the population has access to the internet. Finding ways to harness high traffic can help you scale up sales.

In order to succeed in SEO marketing, keyword strategy is the first approach to consider. Search engine optimization helps you develop strong keywords that can attract targeted customers to your market niche. With SEO, you can focus the power of these keywords in your on-site optimization, which makes you a prime pick for the search engines.

Add to that some effective off-site optimization techniques and you can dramatically elevate your online business performance. Have you been looking for a strategy that can help you drive traffic to your website? Then, try SEO marketing, and you won’t regret it. All you need is a reliable digital marketing team by your side to help you drive traffic and achieve higher sales revenues.

2. SEO Ensures Better User Experience

Most business owners ask, “What is SEO marketing, and how can it improve my business?” Well, to begin with, SEO marketing accomplishes more than just driving traffic. This unique approach to marketing further helps improve your user’s experience.

The modern customer is highly conscious of what they want. If your website design fails to meet the requisite threshold of user experience, you may not convert customers as well as you would wish.

So you’ll need your website to achieve a customization level that ensures a smooth and enjoyable experience for your visitors. Think of your webpage is the equivalent of your physical reception and welcome area. The experience your visitors have when using your website defines their perception of your business.

Search engine optimization ensures that your customers interact with a friendly and easy to use website. Consequently, you want your website to be educative, engaging, and have that unique “wow” element.

Today, Google processes more than 5.6 billion searches in a day.

If your business website underperforms in the Google index test, then you stand to lose a great deal in returns from online traffic. One of the necessary elements to ensure that your webpage ranks high on Google indexing is to improve user experience. Our experts can help optimize your website in a way that will enhance the user experience.

One way to ensure a better user experience is to focus on content that adds value to your clients. We are always looking for opportunities to enhance the user experience by tailoring and updating content to add value while promoting your portfolio.

3. SEO Helps You Take Advantage of Growing Mobile Phone Usage

At least 81% of Americans own smartphones. Mobile searches have grown commensurate with smartphone ownership. This trend will continue to grow over the next few years as more people embrace the use of mobile phones. As mobile phone usage grows, the trend of more people searching for products on their phones before visiting physical stores will only grow.

Some businesses that own a website don’t realize this, and their homepages aren’t mobile-friendly. If a company’s images, text, and other media are inaccessible using a mobile phone, you will miss opportunities from this growing trend in mobile phone usage.

It is now imperative that you ensure that your products, goods, and services reach a broader audience by focusing on a mobile-friendly site. Most search engines are now paying more attention to how mobile-friendly a site is when indexing.

Page load speed is a big deal.

We can help you make your website’s loading speed faster to ensure a quick response for mobile users. Search engine optimization involves making your site’s button sizes large enough for mobile phone users. Many business websites lack that all-important feature of moderately-sized fonts to help enhance access to your content.

Our work is to design, develop, and optimize your site to allow for ease of use by the growing millions of mobile phone owners. So, if your question was about SEO marketing and how it can help your business, hopefully now you know more. With us involved in your digital marketing in Springfield, MO, or at the Lake of the Ozarks, you’ll be able to better reach out to mobile phone users.

4. The Buying Experience Now Starts with a Search Online

In the past, foot-traffic was the ultimate win for any business. Even then, at least 50% of walk-ins were from window-shoppers. Today, this shift is moving more towards online window-shopping.

"Today, close to 93% of the online experience begins on a search engine."

This means that more potential buyers will now check out your merchandise online before proceeding to make a purchase. What happens if the first time impressions fail you? Today, close to 93% of the online experience begins on a search engine.

Businesses that have understood this reality are now keener on enhancing the overall customer experience. The modern client is hard to impress. This is more so given that they have multiple sources of information about the goods they want.

What you must focus on are the first impressions. The good thing is that search engine optimization helps solve this challenge for you. With a well-structured search engine optimization marketing strategy, you can capitalize on the fact that most searches for products now start online. Add to that some great images, descriptions, videos, customer reviews, some good calls to action, and you’re well on your way to capturing more sales.

5. SEO Helps You Capitalize on the Right Kind of Leads

“You don't want to end up reaching out to the wrong audience, which is akin to selling pork in Mecca.”

The internet has opened up incredible new opportunities for businesses to grow and thrive. Even so, the amorphous nature of the online audience can limit your site’s ability to capture the right kind of leads. Determining the right target audience for your products and services is a seriously important task.

You need to identify the right kinds of leads that can help you achieve sales. You don’t want to end up reaching out to the wrong audience, which is akin to selling pork in Mecca. The best way around this is to implement effective SEO marketing.

SEO marketing involves finding the right audience to sell and push your products to in the broad online market. Other common approaches to marketing, such as cold-calling and direct marketing can be effective.

The problem with these approaches is that they target a broad, uncategorized audience. However, with search engine optimization, you understand who you are targeting and focus on their interests and preferences. Do you want great ROI? Nothing helps achieve more sales returns than having a team to push your search engine optimization and content marketing strategy.

Our professionals understand the importance of building a website with segmentation, targeting, and positioning as core elements when pushing a brand. This is why we treat SEO marketing as integral to finding the right leads. With a well-structured and powerful SEO strategy, you don’t have to worry about lead conversion.

6. SEO Marketing Is Cost-Effective

When pushing your brand, one of the most critical considerations should be the ROI. You don’t want to end up pushing a marketing campaign that will be financially unsustainable. How does SEO marketing help your business ROI?

Search engine optimization helps you save on marketing costs. You don’t have to rob a bank to sustain your digital marketing campaign. Imagine a marketing strategy that helps you achieve more at relatively low costs.

By coupling SEO with a dynamic content marketing strategy, you can now scale the path towards better lead conversion without incurring much cost. You only need to work with a reliable company, which guarantees quality work at competitively low prices. The best thing about SEO marketing when looking at costs is that this option is measurable.

A digital marketing approach that’s measurable gives you a chance to keep track of your traffic and conversion rates. This means that you can assess your ROI over time. A quantifiable marketing approach is cost-effective because you know the metrics to use.

7. SEO Marketing Minimizes Your Marketing Work Load

When compared to traditional marketing, SEO marketing has made things easier. The tiresome process of preparing weekly adverts, billboards, and other ads is no longer a concern.

With SEO, things are more streamlined and efficient. You only need to outsource a company to handle your digital marketing needs as you focus on your core business.

What more would you want if you can reach your entire marketing audience with a single click? Our SEO marketing company takes off your shoulder the traditional burden of marketing and the time and effort involved. You now only need to have a well-designed website and we can grow your brand without any pressure on you.

You Can't Overlook the Need for SEO Marketing

Companies think that having a nice looking website is enough to push sales. However, just the same as you may need to revamp your physical office to meet changing demands, your website also needs periodic updates to stay abreast of new marketing technologies.

The best solution is to have an active SEO marketing strategy. Perhaps you are among those who have wondered, “What is SEO marketing?” You’re not alone. Most business owners grapple with understanding how it works.

Hopefully, this article has given you a nice overview. By clarifying a few of the benefits of SEO marketing to your business we trust you’ll consider finding the right digital marketing company for your Springfield, Missouri or Lake of the Ozarks business.

Are you still wondering if SEO marketing is worth it? Or are you looking for a reliable SEO marketing team in Springfield, Missouri to help you improve your site? We are at your service. Contact us today.

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86% of senior marketers claim creating a cohesive customer journey is critical. By knowing what your customers want and need, you can create a personalized experience for each customer. For that, you need to get inside their heads a little.

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Marketing vs Advertising: Which is Better for Your Small Business?

Did you know that there are over 30 million small businesses in the United States? And while you may be wanting to start your own small business, there are a lot of factors to consider in order to remain afloat.

Let’s take promoting, for example. One of the best and easiest ways to get new customers into your business is through promotion. But how do you know which promotional plan would be effective for your small business?

Want to learn the difference between marketing vs. advertising? Here’s how to choose what’s better for you.

Marketing vs. Advertising Defined

When it comes to the battle between marketing vs. advertising, it’s important to understand what marketing is. Marketing is the day-by-day procedure by which you plan or promote your business’s products or services.

The term advertising is often used interchangeably with marketing. But advertising is specifically geared toward generating more sales through promotional content. While marketing is a more general term that learns your customer demographic and product placement.

Which is Best for Your Company?

Let’s face it. It’s silly to think that you can do one effectively without the other.

Whether you’re starting a small business or running a large corporation, one of your first steps should consist of coming up with a marketing strategy. This will undeniably be the core of your business.

Effective marketing should help you sift out who your target audience. This is when promotional advertising should come in.

Different kinds of Advertising

There are so many ways you can advertising that can help your business generate a new customer.

The most standard way to advertise? Grassroots, of course. Since the beginning of time, word of mouth has always been the most effective way to market your business. And now that marketing has developed, businesses hire PR professionals for advertising purposes.

Fortunately, the battle isn’t PR vs. advertising vs. marketing. But rather, each of these components is needed in order to make your business flourish.

The most effective way to advertise? Digitally, of course! Over 3 billion people across the globe are currently active on social media. So putting out purposeful digital content and optimizing your SEO are key to winning over customers that never heard of your business.

Putting off digital advertising is one of the worst mistakes you can do for your business. Because media marketing has an expansive reach, you can prohibit your business from reaching your target customers if you continue to postpone digital marketing.

Helping You Choose Between Marketing vs. Advertising and More!

Whether you’re trying to choose between marketing vs. advertising or are simply looking to take your marketing efforts to the next level, we’re here to help. We know how important it is to market your business well. This is why we’ve dedicated our company to helping small businesses, like yours, thrive.

Looking to hire a professional web design company in the future? We’ve love to help. Feel free to contact us so we can set up a professional consultation.

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What to Expect With a Website Development Project

So if you are considering a new website or an upgrade to an existing web property, it’s important to find a web developer who will be a partner in your success. Your website should be a representation of your brand and value proposition.

In this article, we’ll look at what to expect from a successful web developer.

Plan and Discover

Before the first line of code is written, your web developer should hold a planning and discovery meeting. This is the most crucial step in the web design process.

During this meeting, the website developers will learn about your specific needs, your customers, your budget, and how you measure success.

This is also when you will discuss your brand and how you want to present it online. The planning and discovery process will help make sure your web design project stays on track.

Wireframe and Design

Web developers usually prepare a set of wireframes to help you determine your new website function and structure. Wireframes are simple black and white layouts that lay the foundation of your design.

Once everyone agrees on the wireframes and your website’s structure is determined, it’s time to create the design. This is where the information from the discovery meeting will be necessary.

Your web designers will create a design (and sometimes revisions) that reflect your brand, your products, and your industry.

Content Development

When the overall functionality and design of the website is approved, the website developers will begin coding. Usually, a web designer will post their work on a temporary site so you can see progress. This is the stage when content is developed.

Depending on your web designer and your agreement’s terms, you may be responsible for some or all of the content. Content includes the words on each page, the photos you want to use, and any other media that is part of your website.

If content development is not part of your skill set, most website development firms can help you create content for your new site.

Testing and Deployment

Now that everything is in place, there is one more step before launching your website to the world: testing.

Your website developer will usually have a testing checklist they use to make sure everything works as expected. They will probably have one for you to use, too.

Once everything has been tested, it’s time to deploy your website and make it part of your digital marketing strategy!

Choosing a Website Development Partner

If you’re looking for website development in Springfield, Missouri, we would love to talk with you about your web design and digital marketing needs. We work with local companies and help them grow. From creating a dynamic web presence that tells your story, to helping people find your website in search engines, Ozark Web Design is a complete web development partner.

Contact us to learn how we can help tell your story, connect with your customers, and achieve results through targeted web marketing.

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Rank on Google Locally: What Is Local SEO?

You need to figure out how to get the customers in your general vicinity to come to you instead of your small business competitors or those major corporations. You can do this by mastering the art of hometown SEO.

What is local SEO? Don’t worry, it’s not that complicated once you know the basics.

Read on to learn how to use SEO to rank locally in search engines like Google and reach your local audience.

So, what is Hometown SEO?

First, let’s break down the first question you probably have. What is hometown SEO anyway?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is how web pages can be specially written and formulated in order to rank highly in the algorithm of a specific search engine. Typically speaking, the search engine that you’re going to optimize for the most is Google as it’s the most popular. Different search engines may have slightly different requirements for optimization.

Now, Hometown SEO is a specialized service offered by Ozark Web Design based around these same ideas. However, you’re going to start with the principles of local SEO. And then, of course, there are some secret techniques in the process, too.

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Local SEO? What's That?

Local SEO ensures that you’re going to be showing up in the search engines of people who are in your area. If someone in Osage Beach, MO is searching for “where to buy ice cream” and you run an ice cream shop, your shop might come up before, say, results for Ben & Jerry’s.

Local SEO employs a series of sophisticated strategies to rank you high on Google for your hometown neighbors to see.

If you have good Google reviews and ratings, that contributes to your local SEO. And, if you’re utilizing local locations in the writing on your web pages, you’re contributing to your local SEO. Then, in addition, if you’re using local images that can be geotagged, you’re using local SEO.

This also means that your business in Osage Beach, Missouri, won’t show up for users that are searching in Orlando, Florida. You’re making your reach smaller and more focused, but that small reach and tight focus help you target the customers that matter the most to you.

How is Hometown SEO Different?

Hometown SEO takes the primary principles of local SEO and improves upon them and adding many more techniques, optimizing them for your business and your area. Have you noticed that even with the best local SEO tactics, it can feel impossible to get to the front page of google even for your small area and niche business?

Hometown SEO is there to help with that problem. It wants to use all of the strengths that local SEO has to offer and combine them. It’s backed by data and research and each campaign is made specifically for the business that is being worked on at the time. There are no wide brushstrokes with hometown SEO; it’s fully custom.

How Does it Work?

The customized process starts with a full audit of your local SEO citations and those of your competitors. Whether there are errors or just inconsistencies, this is something that can damage your ranking on Google whether you realize it or not.

Having a full audit done can show you and your agency exactly where your local SEO needs to be improved and where you already have a lot of strengths. This is important when moving forward and trying to target new audiences without losing those that you already have.

You’re then given a choice of directories for your listing campaign. Remember, this is customized for you, so you get to pick what suits you best.

Then, any images or videos (depending on your choice of package, again, customizable!) are optimized for your local SEO. Infographics, photos, and informational videos can all be optimized with geotags and local SEO information in order to boost you up the rankings on Google.

The videos can be submitted to popular video hosting sites, creating a great way to get the high-authority links and citations that you need to boost your SEO.

Perhaps most importantly in 2020, hometown SEO includes social citations. Those photos and videos that have already been optimized for your local SEO are now being used on popular social channels, furthering your local SEO ranking. Furthermore, all these are interwoven and overlaid with Google My Business and Google Maps strategies.

Okay, But How Does it Help?

If all of that sounds a little bit complicated, don’t worry. All you need to know is that the local SEO work that you’ve been doing before can be further optimized to really hone in on your audience and expand your reach.

This will help you get more eyes on your business that otherwise would never have found you, and as a small business owner, that’s crucial. Your neighbors and community are the backbones of your business, and ranking high in local SEO is one of the best ways to effectively reach them.

Is Hometown SEO for Your Business?

Optimizing your local SEO is essential for any business owner trying to reach a dedicated local audience. So, what is hometown SEO? It’s a way to improve upon the tactics that you’re already using and reach new heights with your optimization.

If you know that you’re not reaching the people that you need to reach, Hometown SEO might be the solution that you’re looking for. SEO is the way to get your business on the map (and Google Maps, literally!) so optimizing correctly and deeply is important.

If you think that you’re ready to take your local SEO to the next level with Hometown SEO, visit our site for more information or to request a digital marketing consultation.

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7 Tips for Masterminding Local SEO for Small Business

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The post Rank on Google Locally: What Is Local SEO? appeared first on Ozark Web Design.

from Ozark Web Design https://ozarkwebdesign.com/rank-on-google-locally-what-is-local-seo/

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ozarkwebdesign · 5 years ago

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7 Tips for Masterminding Local SEO for Small Business

Does your company take advantage of local SEO? If not, it’s better to get started sooner or later. The longer you wait, the more competition you’ll have later down the road.

But how does local SEO for small businesses differ from generic SEO practices? While some practices are similar, local SEO often requires a more thoughtful approach. Get started with these 7 local SEO strategies.

Table of Contents

1. Verify on Google My Business

As the king of all local SEO tools, Google My Business lays the foundation of most local optimization strategies. It’s even more important than social media. By claiming your business through this program, you’ll be able to take control of your online presence.

What does this mean, exactly? Your business will appear across other Google services, such as Google maps. If you verify your business, Google may also display the listing on the sidebar of its SERPs.

Go beyond signing up for Google My Business. Once you have the basics down, do your best to include relevant branding wherever possible. Something as simple as incorporating photos can result in 42% more direction requests and 35% more website click-throughs.

2. Curate Positive Reviews

Now that you have control of your business on the Google hub, it’s time to further optimize your online presence. You’ll want to encourage your customers to leave a review on your Google My Business page.

Great reviews can convince potential customers to take the plunge, but they also inform search engines to improve your SERP rankings. According to Google, regularly responding to comments is another simple way to give your business profile a tidy SEO boost.

Remember that it’s not all about Google, though. Yelp! is another relevant business directory worth your attention. Just keep in mind that Yelp! doesn’t allow business owners to ask directly for reviews.

3. Create Localized Landing Pages

“Local” is a vague, subjective term that differs from person to person. For that reason, it’s important to determine which areas your business will target with guided SEO.

It could be a city, a county, a state, or even all three. Once you’ve decided on the areas in need of optimization, it’s time to get started.

And the best way to start is through the creation of localized landing pages.

Notice that we said pages. You’ll want a landing page tailored with relevant keywords appropriate for each locale. Don’t copy information from one page to the next, as search engine algorithms crawl your content they will immediately de-rank duplicate pages.

4. Earn Local Backlinks

Local link building is more specialized and complicated than general SEO. That’s because you’ll have to gain the attention of the few authority websites in your area.

First, do some research and locate local domains with a high authority ranking and good traffic. You could reach out to them directly and offer to write a guest blog if it’s relevant to their industry. But this usually isn’t an option when it comes to local SEO.

Instead, you’ll have to do something that gets their attention. This could mean hosting a local event or becoming a partner of something larger. When high-authority websites report on the event, that’s an opportunity to score a valuable backlink.

5. Go Mobile

An optimized mobile website is a major SEO ranking factor that can bring more traffic to your site and more visitors to your storefront. And when it comes to local optimization, a mobile-friendly website is absolutely essential. When people search for directions or reviews for a great place to eat, they’re typically out on the town with their mobile devices.

These are the potential customers you’re looking for.

Your mobile site should take advantage of different keywords. For example, mobile users keep things simple and tend to avoid long-tail keywords. Some mobile users rely on voice search, which means it’s a viable tactic to target keywords with a conversational tone.

6. Keep the NAP Consistent

Your NAP citation consists of your business’ name, address, and phone number. When you claim your business page on directories such as Google My Business and Yelp!, it’s imperative that the NAP information is accurate. Even a difference in abbreviations can be a big problem when it comes to local SEO.

What’s the big deal? A consistent NAP is a primary ranking factor. It tells search engines that your business is trustworthy since the information always adds up.

It’s a good idea to regularly search for your NAP citation online, as other websites may include this information without your knowledge. If the information is incorrect or in the wrong format, reach out to the website owners and request a change.

In the competitive and cutthroat world of digital SEO, opting for local optimization can help your business stand out over the rest.

~ Mike Knapp, Ozark Web Design & SEO Tweet

7. Optimize Your Website

Sometimes the best local SEO solutions are the most obvious. An optimized website is one of the most potent ranking factors when it comes to your position on the SERPs. You’ll want to include all the basics: relevant keywords, concise metadata, and great title tags.

But you need to take things a step further for local SEO. This includes the addition of a map, such as through a Google maps plug-in, as well as reviews and testimonials.

Local SEO for Small Business

In the competitive and cutthroat world of digital SEO, opting for local optimization can help your business stand out over the rest. Claiming your online profiles, optimizing your website, and earning local backlinks are all excellent ways to get started.

But it’s certainly not easy.

When it comes to local SEO for small business, you should rely on the professionals at Ozark Web Design. From competitor research to professional blog content, we handle every aspect of the local SEO process.

Request a free consultation and take your business to the next level.

How Geofencing and Geotargeting Drive Conversions

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Why is Google My Business more important than Social Media?

January 12, 2020 No Comments

Over the past decades, social networks have become an increasingly integral part of people’s lives, and it isn’t difficult to see, especially since there are over 2.77 billion users across the globe. While Google’s attempt at its blend of social

Lake of the Ozarks Web Design: 9 Site Mistakes That Make You Fail

December 14, 2019 No Comments

In 2020, having an effective digital strategy can be the difference between your best year yet and total failure. If you want to dominate this market, Web Design at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri is a task that cannot

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ozarkwebdesign · 6 years ago

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Lake of the Ozarks Web Design: 9 Site Mistakes That Make You Fail

Making a website requires creativity and can be loads of fun! It can also be very complicated and easily messed up.

Having a website and having a website that gets real targeted visitors that turn into customers are not the same thing. Successful modern websites have thousands of technical specifications that need to be done correctly.

A great website can make or break your branding at Lake of the Ozarks.

In order to help our community members improve their business websites, our team of website experts made this list of important web design mistakes to avoid.

Table of Contents:

Not SEO Optimized

No SSL Certificate

Slow Page Loading Time

No Video On The Website

Large Sized Images

Not Mobile Friendly

Inadequate Contact Info

Too Many Ads

Dead or Broken Links

1. Not SEO Optimized (The #1 problem in Web Design, Lake of the Ozarks)

SEO optimization will help you get more traffic and better performance from your website.

There is something Ad agencies at Lake of the Ozarks don’t want you to know. SEO traffic is the most valuable website traffic on the internet. This is because people searching through search engines have “live intent.”

I know this should be obvious, but this means they are SEARCHING for something specific (as opposed to browsing and being served an ad.)

Every second, 63,000 searches happen on Google. That is a lot of opportunities for your website to be found by your potential customers.

Your target market IS searching on Google, the only question is whether or not your website is findable. SEO is about a lot more than just optimization. Google SEO specific web design now plays a huge role in the success of a website in 2020.

SEO encompasses over 200 Google algorithm ranking factors that are constantly being updated. These “ranking factors” correlate to metrics that essentially represent the overall health of your website.

Getting these metrics right can be a point of frustration for business owners since most valuable leads online come from Google.

Over the past 20 years, the field of SEO has become immensely complicated. In 2020, “do-it-yourself” SEO is no longer practical for companies without a large in-house marketing team.

SEO at Lake of the Ozarks is very competitive in many of our popular niches, but still doable with the right approach. Contact us today to learn more about how we can rank your website #1 on Google.

2. No SSL Certificate

The SSL Lock displayed by the URL shows that a website is safe.

Do you know what an SSL certificate is? Look up in the navigation bar of the browser you’re using. To the left of the website address, there should either be a lock icon or it will say something like “NOT SECURE.”

If there is a lock icon, then the website you are visiting has an SSL certificate. If it says something like “NOT SECURE,” then the website does not have an SSL certificate.

A website that doesn’t have an SSL certificate is, in the most basic sense, may be unsafe for your visitors.

Sites with no SSL certificates are easier to hack and therefore can’t keep customer information like credit cards or contact info safe.

What’s more is that many consumers actually know this now and if they see that “NOT SECURE” indicator in red in their browser’s navigation bar, there is a good chance they will be leaving your website.

Any serious website in 2020 should be hosted with an SSL certificate.

3. Slow Page Loading Time

Did you know that for every second that it takes for your page to load, visitors leave? People just simply can’t stand slow loading websites.

In fact, big internet companies like Amazon can lose millions of dollars every time their website slows down. What a huge factor website speed is to the success of your business!

There are literally hundreds of things that can slow down a website.

In order to avoid this, basic things you can do to have a fast loading website are to use a sophisticated Content Management System like WordPress and to also use VPS hosting instead of shared hosting.

4. No Video On The Website

Video is quickly becoming a top digital marketing tool.

Video is officially everyone’s favorite way to consume content. Why shouldn’t it be? All you have to do is stare, there is only minimal reading and brain activity involved.

What’s more, video increases the average amount of time a user spends on a page which has become a big deal for SEO. To put the cherry on top, Google now owns YouTube.

This means websites with YouTube videos on them likely get preferential treatment from Google in 2020.

That being said, your website needs to have plenty of high-quality videos on it in order to be competitive nowadays.

5. Large Sized Images

One of the most basic mistakes that can make a website fail is having images with large file sizes on it.

Not only do these take forever to load, but they slow down the website. Large-sized photos can also distort the way a page displays, especially on mobile devices.

This is why it is essential that you optimize all the images on your website with a tool like Adobe Photoshop.

6. Not Mobile Friendly

In 2018, Google announced that they would consider the mobile versions of websites to be the primary version of a site. This went into effect on January 1, 2019.

This was in response to widespread mobile internet adoption. People just started using their phones more.

The original way to solve this was to create a mobile site in addition to your desktop site. Nowadays, websites need to follow a type of design called “responsive design.”

Responsive design is when all of the site elements are coded in such a way that when the web page is displayed on different screen sizes it adjusts accordingly.

Lack of mobile functionality is a major problem we still see often in local Web design at Lake of the Ozarks.

7. Inadequate or No Contact Info

Yes, I am dead serious. You don’t know how many clients have come to us who have the same problem. They have a website, they have some traffic, but they don’t get any leads through it.

You would be surprised at the number of times I have checked such a site and found they have little to no contact information. No phone number, no email, no contact form.

This is so basic, but sometimes people get all caught up in the process of making a website but forget the fundamentals of why they are actually making the website. So here’s a reminder…It’s to get customers! Why else would you be doing digital marketing at Lake of the Ozarks?

Remember, always have a way for your website visitors to turn into your customers!

8. Too Many Ads

Do you have ads on your website? Are they blocking the content? Should you even have any ads on your website in the first place?

If advertising is not one of the primary revenues of your business, then I would recommend that you remove the ads from your website.

This is because you have a website for a specific goal. Usually, that’s to get customers. It is very hard to optimize for that specific goal if you also have multiple small goals in addition to the main goal. For example, getting site visitors to click on ads rather than filling out your contact form is a diversion away from your goal.

9. Dead or Broken Links

Do all of the links on your site work? Do they all go somewhere? To the right place? Have you tested them all?

Dead links on your website can really confuse your customers. In addition, Google considers dead links as part of bad user experience and will, in turn, devalue your site.

This is why it is important to do constant maintenance on your website.

Web Design Company Near Me?

We understand that building websites can be confusing. We also understand the frustrations behind actually achieving growth with SEO. At our Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri web design company, these are challenges we embrace. We work on the tedious code and implement the newest website and SEO trends for you.

This way, you don’t need to spend your time trying to learn and fiddle with website code and templates. You can do what you do best, run your business.

If you are ready to take your business’s Lake of the Ozarks marketing to the next level with a new or revamped modern SEO website, contact us today.

Web Designers Near Me: How to Avoid Getting Scammed

November 19, 2019 No Comments

Scams are everywhere. Just today, I received a message from someone overseas claiming to be a roofer in Springfield, MO, asking me to build him an expensive website. He assured me that he would gladly pay with his credit card.

Web Designers Near Me: Reasons to Hire Locally

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The post Lake of the Ozarks Web Design: 9 Site Mistakes That Make You Fail appeared first on Ozark Web Design.

from Ozark Web Design https://ozarkwebdesign.com/lake-of-the-ozarks-web-design-9-site-mistakes-that-make-you-fail/

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ozarkwebdesign · 6 years ago

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Web Designers Near Me: How to Avoid Getting Scammed

Scams are everywhere.

Just today, I received a message from someone overseas claiming to be a roofer in Springfield, MO, asking me to build him an expensive website. He assured me that he would gladly pay with his credit card. Ah, but I know that he would later dispute the charges after he had already sold his newly designed website to some other chump. Fortunately, I know how to check IP addresses.

In our most recent article, we talked about the positive reasons that motivate so many businesses to turn to local web design companies or freelancers for their online needs. We want to carry that thought one step further as we discuss what may be the best reason of all to hire locally.

Advancing technology creates opportunity for good and bad operators alike.

As technology continues to advance, the more impact it has on how business is conducted across industries and the more websites continue to gain importance. Every successful modern business now pegs much of its success on how effectively their website performs in their market space. Websites now provide a primary avenue through which companies promote themselves and interact with clients. The return on investment that owning a good website has to a business is quite high, and that has caused a craze in demand for web design services.

This high demand for new and better websites has consequently led to an increased number of web designers. This is a good thing overall, but it also presents its own set of dangers. For the individual or company wanting to get a new website, it has become more affordable since there is a larger number of people offering this service. But, unfortunately, it has also increased the number of website design scams, and one can easily fall victim. So, we want to help you to be alert to potential scams. It’s sad to say that you can even encounter these pitfalls when you’re searching “web design companies near me.”

Table of Contents:

How Web Designers Scam People

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

Our Final Take

How Web Designers Scam People

As a website design company with high ethics, we thought that we should help enlighten consumers on some of the more popular web design scams and how you can protect yourself from them. They include:

1. Website Hijackers

You can more easily fall prey to this type of scam if you already own a site and you’re looking for someone to make it better. Website hijacking occurs when you are locked out of your website by someone that you gave access to your site. The hijacker can then decide to infect files on your site with malware, to delete pages or to corrupt your content. How much worse the damages to your website will be just depends on the malicious intent of the scammer.

However, you can easily regain access to your website through the intervention of your host service provider. Your host can also help with the disinfection of the site and restoring a backup to a time when it was still in a good state.

2. Disappearing Web Designers

Ethics in web designing requires one to be continually available and to keep in touch with their clients throughout the web designing process. This allows both parties to discuss how the project is proceeding so that the result will be satisfying for both of them. However, some web design scammers will practice the opposite of this. Once you make your deposit for the work, they disappear into thin air. Usually, the deposit requested is substantial so that they make off with a large amount. Other scammers will complete your site and request the final payment before handing you the site. Then, once you pay up, you never hear from them again nor receive the final project from them.

That is why it is always advisable to avoid direct payments to bank accounts. Instead, use payment processors like PayPal or Stripe. This makes it possible for you to recover your money through a dispute if you fall victim to this type of scam.

3. Undelivered Promises

In this type of scam, the web designer fails to do as you had agreed but still delivers the final project to you. They may promise to use specific design elements, such as themes, plugins, special fonts or images at a fee, but in the end, they don’t follow through. You can always contact the designer to redesign the site applying all the features you had agreed on. But if they ask for more pay, then know that you have been scammed.

4. Price Inflation and Hidden Costs

Make sure you understand the value your website will bring when you’re assessing investment costs.

Some web designers will deliver good work, but at double the price you would have paid with another designer. They can overcharge you for the themes, plugins, fonts, and graphics that they use. That is why you should carry out market research on the prices of web design services and the cost of acquiring additional features like plugins. Better yet, purchase the themes and other essentials on your own.

Always be sure to ask for the final total cost of your completed site. It’s also a good idea to ask for a price guarantee. As a point of reference, our company guarantees our estimates, bids, and price agreements. We know that our customers want to know how much a website costs. So look for simplicity and clarity in pricing.

How to Avoid Getting Scammed

Now that you are aware of how you can be scammed; it is equally essential for you to gain knowledge on how you can protect yourself from such scams.

1. Avoid making full payments for incomplete projects.

You do not want to end up spending thousands of dollars on a site that has not been done. Ensure that your web designer has completed the project before you pay. Another alternative is for you to set up a milestone payment, which will encourage the designer to work on every bit of the project to receive your payment after hitting the milestone.

A good practice which our company uses is 50% down with 50% due upon completion once the site is live online and you are satisfied with it. This way both parties are invested. We use this model because there are also those who take advantage of web companies or who won’t pay upon delivery.

2. Get it in writing.

If you do not want to fall victim to undelivered promises, ensure that you get a legitimate estimate, an email with design and price intent, or a signed contract with your website designer. The correspondence or contract should indicate all the specifications of the project, themes paid for, fonts, graphics, time under which the project should be completed, and how the payment will be made. With this in place, your web designer will be legally bound to serve you well, and if they breach it, you can take legal action against them.

3. Do your homework.

Most people get scammed by website designers because they go for the first option that they meet in the market. No matter where you are, we can pretty much guarantee that there is a fairly high number of web designers near you! That’s precisely why you need to take your time before settling on one. Verify their past projects with other clients by checking if the websites they claim to have designed are real and how good they are.

You can also set up a meeting with them and discuss your site. By doing so with more than one web developer, you will be better able to determine the best option for your needs and you’ll lower your chances of getting scammed.

4. Work with a quality CMS that you are familiar with.

One of the ways that web designers can scam you is by designing your website using a sophisticated CMS (content management system). Without the knowledge of how that CMS works, you will be easy to dupe. It is advisable to decide on a designer that uses a standard open-source CMS like WordPress.

Here at our company, Ozark Web Design, we have switched over to using WordPress exclusively for precisely this reason. Often a customer desires a site they can edit themselves. WordPress is the largest and most respected CMS in the world, with easy and intuitive user interfaces available. This way, the customer can easily find another company or freelancer to take over their site should they ever wish to do so.

WordPress is by far the most popular CMS in the world because of its ease and powerful features. It powers approximately 1/3 of all the world's websites.

Final Take

No one is completely immune to fraud, and scams have morphed into an ever-present, global pain in the butt. So being equipped with the right information is the first step toward protecting yourself. As a local business owner myself, I much prefer doing business locally as much as possible. Not only for the sake of the community, but I like the idea of being able to go see a person face-to-face if they try to bilk me out of money! Plus, if you are locally connected, you can likely help prevent others from using the local business of someone who is less than scrupulous.

So finally, don’t compromise on the cost of getting a good website because, in most cases, “cheap” should raise a red flag. If you want a good website, you will need to spend a reasonable sum of money because a good site will deliver money and value to your business. But if you choose to go cheap and get scammed, it will cost you even more money.

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from Ozark Web Design https://ozarkwebdesign.com/web-designers-near-me-how-to-avoid-getting-scammed/

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ozarkwebdesign · 6 years ago

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Web Designers Near Me: Reasons to Hire Locally

Thinking of getting a website, or even moving your services online for your customers to access them more easily? Well, that’s a solid business step that you should take. The proliferation of mobile devices and the continual move to integrating computers for daily needs means that more people are using the internet to purchase more items. This trend is expected to continue and it’s a huge opportunity for you.

With a website, you can take your business online and have many, many more customers access your products and services. A well-built website is the first step to jump-start your startup. In many cases, businesses operate entirely off their website.

For this to happen though, you need a website that is in excellent health. It needs to have SEO (Search Engine Optimization) criteria in order as well as having excellent UX and UI (user-experience and user-interface). Think of a website like it’s a piece of real estate. If you were to visit a hospital and find that the lawns are overgrown, the staff are rude and there are no markings directing you to where you need to go, you’d walk out and look for a better option.

Similarly, a website is the face of a business online, basically a piece of virtual real estate. It needs to be both well-built and well-run. For this to materialize, you need to have the best people build it. But who to choose?

"A website is the face of a business online, basically a piece of virtual real estate."

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The internet, again, offers you options as the work can be done remotely. However, there are definite pitfalls that come with making such a choice. The better (and more popular) option is to engage a website design company where you can meet the designer(s) in person.

Table of Contents:

You need ease of communication with your website company.

They must understand your online business needs.

Support for your website is crucial.

Local reputation for web design companies is a BIG DEAL.

Conclusion

Here are several reasons why hiring a local web design company is beneficial to you and your business.

1. You need ease of communication with your website company.

You should be able to communicate easily and effectively with your website designer.

There are thousands of web designers offering their services online. Their services are offered through individual websites and on crowdsourcing websites that offer a wide variety of designers from all over the world. You can have your pick but consider this, will they really understand the audience you are seeking to reach? The fact is that many of them don’t even speak English very well. Such language barriers may lead to misunderstanding with regard to expectations, as well as results.

The easiest way to solve miscommunication is by speaking with someone who completely understands the context and nuances of your local culture. Walk with me for a moment down Example Street. I live in the Ozarks. Okay, don’t judge me! And even though the popular TV show, Ozark, was recently released, those people and the people watching it from around the country don’t really understand the culture here. They may visit, or see and read about it from third-party story-tellers, but the reality is far from the portrayed or perceived image. I moved here from Kansas after working here for several months. And even I didn’t understand the culture until after I had lived here for a while. So I daresay that our local companies will know how to relate and speak to the local culture more effectively than someone living in San Francisco, or New York, or Pakistan.

And so, local companies like ours will usually, though not always, be a better and simpler option for most business owners who are conducting local searches like, “web design Springfield, MO”, or say, “digital marketing Lake of the Ozarks”. Plus, you won’t have to spend hours and hours trying to decide which remote developer to use. You can simply contact your local web design agency, meet up, and get started.

Don’t let communication become an obstacle.

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You speak the same language, you share similar backgrounds and you can communicate in real-time rather than across worldwide time zones. What better way to kick-start your website and watch changes happen as soon as you ask? Also, nothing is quite as effective as meeting a person, shaking their hand, looking them in the eye, and talking business. So don’t let communication become an obstacle.

2. They must understand your online business needs.

Your web designer needs to understand your audience in order to effectively build your online presence.

Aside from communicating what you want, there are other factors that determine how your online business model will work and what you need to target.

A local web designer understands the behavior of your local audience. They will be acquainted with the challenges that are unique to running a business in the region you choose to operate in. This is knowledge that just cannot be easily communicated over the internet. At our company, we know by experience that what works well for a roofer in Jefferson City or Springfield, Missouri simply does not work as well at Lake of the Ozarks! There is a different set of local challenges.

Furthermore, a local company may be privy to information that could prove to be crucial to your business and website. They may also have relationships, resources and connections that you just could not get from people in the next state. And how much more so of someone that is two continents away? Qualified local designers are going to naturally market your services in a style that is more relevant to your local demographic.

3. Support for your website is crucial.

You want to have convenient and fast customer support. You see the need for this everywhere.

If your phone breaks down soon after you buy it, you take it back to the carrier who will either repair it or give you a new one. The same happens with your cable service provider. Your decoder starts messing up, or a raccoon decides to make your satellite dish cables into a midnight snack, so you call the local company and they restore everything back to good working order.

After-sales Service

This is referred to as after-sales service. Websites don’t always work forever. No, a website is constructed from different technologies and formats. Sometimes technologies undergo updates, they interfere with each other and they get bugs. Or in other cases, the business owner may have overlooked a feature that would have been a game-changer for their online business. They now need to include it on their website and start benefiting from it. So looking at either scenario, you will occasionally need support.

Quicker Response Time

A local design agency is usually pretty readily available in case of an emergency. You can just pick up the phone and call them or send them a text or email. And because they are in the same time zone as you, you can rely on a quick response. They may be just a few blocks or a few miles away, and if necessary, you could simply go to their offices. The convenience a local website design company offers is unparalleled.

4. Local reputation for web design companies is a BIG DEAL.

One final factor to consider, and this one is powerful, is that the legitimate local providers you discover when you search “web design companies near me” are going to want to maintain their good reputation in the community. You will get better communication, more attentiveness, and better support from someone who is working to create and uphold a good name for themselves locally. A freelancer or company across the country or on the other side of the world isn’t going to depend on your satisfaction and recommendation nearly so much as someone in your own community.

Conclusion

It is inevitable that the world is moving away from fixed working locations and that telecommuting is on the rise. The flexibility and advantages of this arrangement are a great help for many. However, there are some situations where someone who is far away just cannot be as effective. That being said, sometimes distance doesn’t matter, particularly when seeking to reach a national or international audience.

Either way, a local problem solver is still a valuable resource to have in your tool bag. In this case, it is a local web design company. Your website isn’t a one-off, done and dusted deal. It will require maintenance and upgrading every once in a while. Who better to handle it for you than someone you can shake hands with and speak with in person if you want to?

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The post Web Designers Near Me: Reasons to Hire Locally appeared first on Ozark Web Design.

from Ozark Web Design https://ozarkwebdesign.com/web-designers-near-me-reasons-to-hire-locally/

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ozarkwebdesign · 6 years ago

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7 Tips to Find the Best Web Design Company for Your Needs

A great looking website can help your business. But a great performing website can make a world of a difference to your business. Whether you sell products online or provide services, your company’s online presence is often your client’s first impression of your business. That’s why it is imperative to hire a web design company that has a proven track record of producing sites with creative and professional designs that also perform well in searches and lead generation.

While there are many companies offering web design services, there are a couple of things you’ll want to look at when hiring a website company. The tips we discuss below should help you find the best company for your needs. That said, you shouldn’t limit your approach to the tips discussed in this article. Always do your due diligence before hiring a web design company since it is a key part of your branding, marketing, and overall sales effort.

Table of Contents:

The website design company should have a strong portfolio.

They should provide excellent customer service.

Does this website company work with prominent businesses?

Does the web design company offer a realistic ETA for the site?

How much will your web design cost?

Ask about website updates!

Do they offer guarantees?

Tip #1: The website design company should have a strong portfolio.

The web design company you hire should have a strong portfolio of professional websites, and some of those need to be comparable to what you want. For instance, if you need an e-commerce website designed, then our company not the company for you. Oh, we can do it, but that’s not where we specialize. If you are needing an e-Commerce business site, then the company you should hire will have a portfolio featuring several great looking and high-performing e-commerce websites. Some web design companies may specialize in a particular type of design and function. Those companies are typically better since they don’t try to design everything under the sun.

You will also want to make sure that the web service you choose has plenty of experience. So, if the company does not have experience with the type of website design you require, then they may not be the best fit for your business.

Tip #2: They should provide excellent customer service.

Many people don’t often think of this as a top priority, but you will probably be depending on the website company, not just while they build a website for you, but for ongoing services. So you really want to hire a web design company that has great customer service because you’re beginning (hopefully) a long-term business relationship. And the better a company’s customer service, the easier it will be for you to communicate with them. Not to mention, you’re less likely to experience tension or stress when working with them.

One way to gauge this quality is to consider their responsiveness to your initial contact. Quite often, the way an individual or representative responds to you as a prospective client can offer fair clues as to how respondent they would be once you were in a working relationship. By far, the number one complaint we hear while doing web design at Lake of the Ozarks is how contractors and businesses alike fail to return their phone calls or messages. As a business owner myself, I can’t comprehend this. But it’s common and a growing phenomenon, not just in Missouri, but in many places across the U.S. So if you don’t hear back from a private contractor, freelancer, or any business in a reasonable amount of time, then they don’t value your business. In all fairness, there are sometimes extenuating circumstances that can come into play. So, it’s only fair to be open to hear them out and try to understand if they do contact you at a later date.

So ideally, the customer service should be so good that they make a very good impression on you and also bond well with your staff. This matters, so that the work on your business web design and function goes smoothly. Furthermore, communication skills matter…a lot. The easier it is to interact with them, the more productive the whole process and outcome will be. Good communication skills are also helpful because your designer will be more apt to understand what you want, and that translates to less time in educating and providing instructions.

Tip #3: Does this website company work with prominent & successful businesses?

For example, our local Lake of the Ozarks web design company branch has a list of established clients in our own community, and across the country. On that list, there are names that are significant in their industry locally, regionally, and even nationally. Having important clients on their list means that your potential web company has proven themselves worthy of those contracts in the industry, especially if they are long-term clients.

It will also be easier for you to contact those reputable clients to find out about the website company you’re considering. Contacting clients is essential because that will help you determine whether the agency is actually good to work with or if they have just kept those names on their website to make a good impression. This happens more than one might think. That’s why it’s a very good idea to check references.

A rule of thumb is that if clients they worked for recommend their services highly, then you are in good hands. However, ideally, that recommendation should come from more than one company.

Tip #4: Does the web design company offer a realistic ETA for the design?

Most web design services try to work as quickly and efficiently as they can, but there are those who are slow simply because they don’t have enough resources available to them. To creatively craft an attractive and effective web design can be a significant undertaking. It often demands considerable time, research, and creative energy. That’s why good website companies will work out a strategy in advance in order to manage your project.

So if you have a very short timeline for getting your website launched, then that might rule out some web designers from being able to take your project. You should be aware that this may also diminish the number of truly qualified designers available to you. That being said, when you’re trying to find a website design company near you, if they won’t be ready for your project for several months then you may need to continue your search.

Ideally, once begun, a small business project can take anywhere from 10 days to 2 – 3 months, give or take, depending on the size and scope of the project. This includes revisions and other factors that can affect the process. But we all know that sooner is better(!), so long as the quality is not being compromised.

So plan to ask for an ETA from the company you are considering and compare it against others. Also, when a professional website design company knows exactly how much time they have to deliver, they are less likely to postpone it while they work on other projects.

Tip #5: How much will your web design cost?

As you determine your budget for your website, you’ll want to keep in mind that this will be your business portal to the community and the world around you. And when it comes to your online presence, perception is everything. As the central hub for all your online marketing, this is an important investment, indeed. And as such, It should be accorded a budget in line with its significance.

Reputable website design companies will be able to give you a cost estimate based on their understanding of what you need. However, it is your job to make sure that they understand everything clearly. So make certain that all costs are explained up front.

Double-check to make sure that there are no surprises or hidden costs like charges for revisions beyond a certain point. And you shouldn’t necessarily choose the cheapest website design service, because that may mean that you’re compromising on the quality of your final product. But rather, choose a service that you believe will provide you with the best design in relation to what they charge.

Tip #6: Ask about website updates!

This will go one of two ways. Either the design company will keep all updates and future work in-house, or they will set you up with a CMS (Content Management System) so that you can make changes directly to your website yourself. Many web companies will not allow clients access to the website because they want to keep everything properly updated, operating smoothly, and hardened against new security threats that arise.

So whichever way you choose to manage updates to your website, you will need to discuss options with your site designer. Whether you or your staff have the time and ability to implement the required changes, or if you prefer to entrust that work to the website design company you hire, just be sure that this is communicated clearly. And don’t forget to ask about the costs associated with future updates.

This really comes down to your preference and personal style of business management. If you are one who delegates and you know that your time is better spent working on the bigger picture, then hire the design company to manage your website. Or if you prefer to manage it yourself and keep the work in-house, then request a CMS and the necessary training required to manage it.

Tip #7: Do they offer guarantees?

What guarantees does the website company provide? Do they guarantee their pricing bids, on-time delivery, a truly mobile-first responsive design, or your satisfaction? Companies that provide guarantees are confident about the service they are offering. You certainly don’t want to hire a company that shrugs their shoulders and refuses to help if you are having a problem with the website a few weeks or months later. So, the guarantees they offer should assure you that this is truly a quality web design company that has your back.

How to Choose the Best Website Design Company For You

While this is certainly not an exhaustive list, it can still provide a helpful guide to finding a good fit for building your online presence. Look at their website. Look at a few of their client’s websites.

Check out some Yelp or Google reviews and their Better Business Bureau standing. After doing your research, talk to the company and then trust your judgment. You can get a pretty good intuitive feel for someone by talking on the phone, and even more so by meeting them in person. Then, if you need more, complete the process by checking in with some of their other clients.

And if you’re ready to find the best website company for your needs, then give us a try!

How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively

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ozarkwebdesign · 6 years ago

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How to Make Memes for Your Business and Use Them Effectively

I mean, really, who doesn’t love a good meme? After all, most people use social media for entertainment. B2C marketers (business-to-customer) and business owners will do well to remember this and use their social media channels accordingly. And to that end, a good meme definitely offers fun and laughs. In fact, memes are one of the most likely forms of social media elements (along with funny videos) to go viral. And why not? They integrate and lend themselves extremely well to just about every social media platform. And the concise nature of expressive pictures associated with brief text makes them ideal for the incredibly fast-feeding frenzy that is social media today.

They are a big part of the fun on social media, and we all like to participate. Therefore, any digital marketing company worth its salt will always be asking how to generate viral memes to help engage people and drive more traffic.

So if you’re wanting a fun and creative way to engage and connect with people then maybe you should explore how to create and leverage memes for your social media marketing. And this guide will provide you with several practical tips on how to use memes more effectively.

Table of Contents:

How to Use Memes Effectively

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

Inspiration for Memes

Re-Purpose an Existing Meme

What about Copyright Infringement?

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

How to Make a Meme

Branding Your Memes

Memes Can Dramatically Improve Social Signals for Your Brand

The Key Takeaway

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How to Use Memes Effectively

Memes should reflect the voice and tone of your business.

Let’s start with this. As a business, it’s best not to overuse memes. For some of my customers, I’ll use one per week. Others will use less, depending on the tone and voice of the business itself. Of course, you do realize that your business creates its own voice and tone, right? For example, my tendency is to try to offer insight and some humor. And that’s based upon who I am as a person and what my career has looked like. I’ve been a presenter and instructor through most of my adult life and I value humor, so I intentionally shape my social media and blogging around those traits. Some will like it, some will not. The same goes for you. Your voice and personality should resonate throughout your social channels and your blog. Anyway, on to our subject!

Your humor and your values should resonate in your memes. Some memes offer content that is inappropriate for a business–any business! Others may not be inappropriate from a social or ethical perspective, but they may not fit your business. It’s best to find those that are best suited for your voice and values.

Curate Memes for Your Keywords

I curate the vast majority of my memes. I simply run a Google search on the keyword for which I want to find a meme, then I add a qualifier like “meme”, “jokes”, or “humor”. So the search may look like this, “social media marketing memes” or “blogging jokes”. Occasionally this turns up other sources that may inspire me to create my own meme. More on that in a moment.

On some social media business accounts that I manage, I will occasionally just tell a joke that my search turns up and see if people respond. In fact, a joke told with no picture attached, often gets some of the best interactions on a page. And on Facebook, this is pure gold. So don’t be afraid to tell a joke or share a funny story, and sometimes without a picture. This may seem counterintuitive since everything in social media is so picture and video-based. And you will undoubtedly read some writers who say you should always use graphics. However, I have found that the occasional simple post with no graphics, written in a personal way, garners some of the best results on a page. Just remember to use this practice in moderation, simply because social media is image and video-centric.

Inspiration for Memes

If you have ever wondered how to make niche memes, here’s an example. As mentioned above, sometimes I find inspiration for a meme while curating or reading jokes. Just this morning, inspiration came another way. (DISCLAIMER: In the following example I am not advocating any political position on gun legislation. It is simply an instance of inspiration, so please do not take offense.) I was reading through my Facebook feed and one of my friends, a military veteran, wrote a post about guns and how he doesn’t believe guns are good or bad. When I read that, I heard in my mind for some creative and bizarre reason (since that’s what my mind is like) the words of the old song by Dave Mason, “We Just Disagree.” This is what ran through my mind: “There ain’t no good guns. There ain’t no bad guns. There’s only you and me and we just disagree.” Boom, baby! That’s meme fodder, right there. And that’s how inspiration works. So when you get, just go with it. At the end of your creative process, try to evaluate honestly whether it’s good or not-so-much.

This is an example of creating a niche meme that will get a lot of shares.

So what did I do next? What’s the process? Well, first I thought of who might best represent this sentiment in a meme? I thought of the military (like my friend). Nope. Not quite right. Perhaps someone older who would fit the age of the song reference. Yes, good idea. Maybe a gunslinger hero? Bingo. Tough guy? Definitely. Maybe a likable cowboy? Hmm…Sam Elliott? Touchdown! There have been lots of memes created with actor Sam Elliott in them. So I looked for a meme template by searching,“Sam Elliott blank memes”. I found the following pic and added the words, and I now have an original meme with a hot topic that will be very shareable.

And even though it doesn’t really fit my brand well, I will still use it just because it does have the potential to get shared. In fact, I’ve already decided how I’ll use it in a way that fits my business type. I will use it in a series of posts about creating memes that link back to this article. So you see, even though a meme may not exactly fit your brand, you can sometimes use them in a creative way and get some good social signals from it. (More about social signals later in the post…)

Re-purpose an Existing Meme

This funny pic was one that I came across in my Facebook feed. I had recently watched a video about clarity in marketing and it occurred to me that the picture in this was perfect for that theme. And as an added bonus, there was no copyright displayed, plus, there was plenty of negative space at the bottom so I was able to simply add the phrase, “Be clear in your marketing”.

This example is from a very common meme that I have seen quite a bit. However, I now have a roofer whose social media I manage, so I saw this from a different perspective. I recently wrote a blog article about soffit and fascia for him, so when I saw this meme, guess what caught my attention? Right. Browsing through all those roofing images and pictures of fascia suddenly paid off in a different way.

So you can sometimes see a meme or funny picture from a different perspective and re-purpose and reframe it to that new point of view. And it this case, the different perspective is what actually creates the humor. BTW, it’s also good to include the new keywords in the title. The title and description of this image use the words “fascia board” and “meme”.

Share it on the right social media channel, but put your own spin on it.

Another good practice is to simply share existing memes and put your own spin on it in your comments. The massively popular grumpy cat meme has offered me several such opportunities. The one that says, “Had fun once. Hated it.” has given me a lot to work with. For example, add a comment like, “Warning: This is my mode every Monday” or “every morning before coffee.” These things personalize the existing meme and add your voice to it. This is why it is a very good practice to comment on nearly anything you share, even if it’s only a simple “LOL” or “So true” comment. And if you can’t come up with a salient comment to add, just use something simple and then add an emoji or gif.

Another note of importance here is that every meme you use may not fit every social media channel. For example, what works well on Facebook sometimes won’t work nearly as well on LinkedIn due to the vast difference in those two channels. So consider the SM channel and whether the meme fits in with the ambiance.

But what about copyright infringement?

Great question! Strictly speaking, you can assume that any meme that is popular has been copyrighted. So if you don’t find it in a Creative Commons search or website, or if it isn’t public domain, then you had better realize that you don’t own the right to freely share it. But, that being said, with literally millions of memes being created and shared on a daily basis, sharing on social media is a bit of a different critter. If you stick with the most popular memes, licensed meme generating software sites, or simply sharing and commenting, the preponderance of anecdotal evidence (millions of memes created and shared daily) tells us that we really need not worry. Here is a helpful article from Northeastern University that explores the legalities and disposition in which courts view memes.

Inspirational and Motivational Memes

Brainy Quote offers a good source of intelligent inspirational and motivational quotes. This pic was from their Top Ten list. (Click the image to visit the website.)

Both of these genres can be helpful in your social media content curation and planning. Some of the businesses I work with will specifically request more motivational or inspirational posts, while others lean more toward current events or humor. I personally advocate a blend of all of these. Here are a good experiment and analysis. Simply observe your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram feed for two or three days and take note of the memes that gain the most traction and popularity among your friends. Rule out any that come from pages that you follow, and simply observe what your friends (or followers) share. This will give you an anecdotal sampling of what is resonating with what kinds of people.

Now consider, what demographics are you targeting in your social media? If you don’t have many that fit this avatar in your personal Facebook feed, then join a group where these folks hang out. You will be able to observe them there. This can help you determine what mix or style of meme content you want to post on your social media. And remember, just because you may like your memes funny, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that is what appeals best to everyone else. Be open to using motivational or inspirational memes since they are very popular. And conversely, if you tend to gravitate toward the more serious memes, don’t be afraid to lighten it up and use some joke memes. I guarantee that some of your readers will appreciate it.

How to Make a Meme

An example of a meme to provoke conversation on social media.

Perhaps the easiest way to make your own memes is to use an online meme generator such as imgflip.com or makeameme.org. There are free versions of various sites where you can browse the images and create your text very simply. These will typically be watermarked or branded by the software. To create versions of these without watermarks, which I recommend, you can usually get a paid “pro” version of the more popular meme generators which is very inexpensive. I just paid $2.95 for one month in imageflip and made this meme. Plus, if you’re concerned about copyrights, this may be the best avenue for you.

For those who are more DIYers, rather than using an online meme maker you may prefer to use your own editing software (I highly recommend Affinity Photo) or online graphics sites like Canva.com are the usual choices.

Branding Your Memes

It’s a good practice to brand a meme that you have created so long as you intend to use it as a promotional feature. It’s akin to wearing a tee-shirt with your company name or sporting a window cling with your business name in your car. I do it on business-relevant memes or on memes that I create that I think may have a chance of going viral. Even so, I don’t brand most of the existing popular memes I use, mainly because everyone knows that’s a “rip-off” and in my humble opinion it cheapens the feel of your brand and has a bit of a greasy uber-salesman vibe to it.

When you do brand, the standard practice is to place your logo and/or name (I personally prefer the printed name version of my logo) somewhere on the meme with some transparency so it is not glaring and detracting from the overall effect. It has become more common of late to place your brand somewhere inside the image rather than at the extreme bottom. This way, it’s not as easy for others to rip-off…um, excuse me…borrow your meme and replace your logo with theirs.

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Memes can dramatically improve Social Signals for your brand.

Many people who aren’t involved with SEO tactics are unfamiliar with social signals. In short, they are all the interactions and link follows you get from social channels. These all eventually drip out to all the various search engines as signals that your brand and your website have popularity and relevance. This means that every share, like, pin, view, and vote matters. In fact, they matter a great deal.

You see, search engines interpret your social signals as legitimate evidence that your brand is being seen and shared by consumers. This, then, translates into an improvement in your website or social channel’s SERP (Search Engine Page Rank). And that’s because social signals you’re receiving are interpreted as trusted recommendations for your brand from consumers. You should not underestimate the significant importance of social signals for your brand marketing. And just think, memes, when used effectively, can help with that!

The Key Takeaway

Due to the transient and fickle nature of social mood, popular and relevant themes will ebb and flow. Still, we believe that memes are now a permanent part of social sharing. These little jewels are simple to make and even easier for people to share, so from a marketing perspective, the ROI is great considering their explosive potential of going viral.

That being said, you must still give due diligence to your keywords, meme content, your target demographic and how it integrates with your brand. But wow, when the stars align for you, your meme could expand your brand like never before!

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ozarkwebdesign · 6 years ago

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Why SEO Marketing is So Effective for Local Small Businesses

First, we suggest that you stop for a moment and just think about the huge marketplace of potential customers that are online. No matter how small or how new your business is, you really don’t want to miss out on tapping into this vast marketplace. And finding a reputable company offering quality SEO services is a great way to get started.

The Benefits of Online Marketing

As stated above, the pool of potential customers that you can reach online is an immensely larger number than you are probably going to reach and attract locally. With digital marketing, you have the potential to attract an extremely large audience by means that are effective as well as cost-effective.

Digital marketing is one of the most cost-effective forms of long-term advertising.

But in addition to these benefits, you can also:

discover exactly what potential customers are searching for

interact directly with prospective customers or clients

create and grow your business brand quickly

attract more customers at lower costs than traditional marketing tactics

create long-lasting “evergreen” content that can attract customers for a very long time

Remember, your future customers are online and searching for products and services every day. If they can’t find your business online (and this includes in social media), they may well decide that your company or business isn’t legit and they’ll end up choosing a business that they can explore online. So if you want them to find you, you need to take advantage of all the benefits afforded you through digital marketing.

The SEO Marketing Umbrella

You’re probably somewhat familiar with the term “Digital Marketing” by now. I really like this definition by Wikipedia: “Digital marketing channels are systems based on the internet that can create, accelerate, and transmit product value from producer to…consumer by digital networks.” I think the part that I particularly like in that definition is the word “accelerate”, and we are finding that to be quite true as digital marketing evolves. It’s unfortunate that so many are still missing out on this accelerated form of advertising.

By now many small business owners recognize that the phrase is simply a broad catch-all term that includes all forms of marketing on the internet. It is a synonym that is also known as online marketing, internet marketing, and even mobile marketing. These all refer to popular digital strategies for promoting your business services and products.

And all these terms taken together actually describe what is sometimes referred to as SEO Marketing, more commonly referred to now as “SEM”, or “Search Engine Marketing.” I know–it can get confusing if you’re not an everyday part of that world! So let’s define these terms before we dive more deeply into our subject.

What is SEM?

SEM (Search Engine Marketing) is a significant part of all forms of effective digital marketing. It is based on the utilization of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short. All forms of your website, social media, and ad content needs to be optimized for online searches that potential clients and customers will be using. So creating content around these search words and phrases is what makes SEM work so well. And at the heart of having good SEO and SEM on your website and all forms of content is the effective use of SEO Keywords.

What are SEO keywords?

Your content and all descriptions of your business services and products are based on words or phrases–Keywords–which capture the ideas and topics about which you are writing.

So regarding SEO, these are the phrases or individual words that users type into search engines (like Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) in order to find what they’re looking for. These primary keyword searches, or search queries, are what you want to pinpoint and predict so you can sprinkle them throughout your written content and ads. The more relevant your keywords and key phrases (aka “long tail keywords”) are to customer searches, the higher your chances are to having your content be seen in search result pages (SERPs).

How Professional SEO Services can Help Your Business SEM

Professional SEO services maximize marketing ROI.

Okay, so remember that search engine optimization is what helps you refine and perfect your website so that your search engine ranking improves organically in search results. SEM (Search Engine Marketing) actually goes beyond SEO in this process. It will include additional marketing strategies to help you capture more website traffic. When most marketers think of SEM they are primarily thinking about paid advertising such as PPC, or Pay-Per-Click. PPC ads, funnels, and email marketing and content marketing also use SEO tactics to drive traffic to your website. Still, for many, they only think of SEM in terms of paid search advertising. However, in its purest form, SEO marketing includes both paid ads and content marketing.

While PPC advertising can produce faster search results for you, we find that organic SEO is the better marketing tactic for strategically producing long-lasting results from evergreen content. Once a strong growth trajectory has begun, many companies rely much more on content marketing as their primary form of digital marketing.

Local SEO companies can be very useful in helping you choose which tactics are best for your current and long-term marketing needs. A good online strategy will typically include a combination of PPC and email marketing, along with SEO marketing in all your written forms of content. Sometimes we have clients who say, “I need my phone to ring now.” Others have a longer-term view of getting in front of potential customer searches to create a long and steady growth trajectory for their business. An experienced specialist can help both of these customers to realize their goals through the following practices.

1. Start with a comprehensive SEO Audit.

An SEO audit is where a specialist analyses your website against current best website practices and against the top competing websites to determine what foundational issues may be affecting your organic search results performance. Your website will be checked for technical SEO or website structure problems, on-page SEO implementation, problems in your off-site SEO and any UX (user-experience) problems. A good SEO audit is a must for you to compete well for online market share.

2. Perform a Competitive Gap Analysis

Next, your website will be analyzed in relation to those of your top competitors. In this process, any deficiencies or gaps in relation to competitors’ keyword rankings are discovered. You can learn what SEO keywords they are ranking for and the value of those search words.

3. Pinpoint and prioritize the best SEO keywords to use.

Analyzing the position and value of the keywords discovered in the competitive gap analysis, you can now determine which words you can best utilize to attack the search position of your competitors. This process may require you to tactically use search words that you may not be expecting to use in order to improve your local or national web presence. The key here is to prioritize and maximize the best keywords and phrases in order to exploit the weaknesses of your competition.

SEO marketing companies will create content that is organized around your most important keywords.

To consistently create content is an arduous task. If you cannot afford to hire someone on staff to handle your content creation, utilizing local SEO services can help you choose and create the best content for your market niche. This will include the keywords pinpointed throughout the previous analyses as well as the primary keywords which your business must utilize often in order to be relevant. The beauty of this aspect of the process is that you have so many possible avenues for creating content that you can build out great authority for your web presence through consistent content management.

Blogging

Blogging is undoubtedly one of the most powerhouse potentials available to businesses. And yet, it is also one of the most under-utilized strategies by most small business owners. I often hear customers remark on how they don’t understand why a plumber or an electrician needs to blog about their businesses. Interestingly, these people are also quite reluctant to employ it, even after I explain how blogging helps small businesses.

Social Media

Unlike blogging, almost all small businesses now use some sort of social media, and we find that it’s usually Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, or YouTube. We are currently encouraging more clients to consider using Pinterest to help grow their business. However, we still find that if the owner hasn’t personally had much success with their social media that they can be resistant to professional assistance. Nonetheless, we find that these platforms typically perform significantly better for businesses when under professional social media management.

Video Marketing

Though it is catching on more and more, video marketing is still woefully underutilized by small businesses. And you can place your keywords in the description of your video. So please remember that social media platforms are working hard to promote video above other forms of content. And since Google owns YouTube, a good video that’s optimized correctly performs quite well on YouTube and in Google searches, too. You can also upload your video to video sharing sites to further help improve your off-site SEO.

Image Tagging & Optimization

The use of SEO keywords in images can help your website in searches as well as allowing individual images to perform well on their own. The practice of optimizing images and geotagging them for use on your website, then placing them on image sharing websites can provide a nice SEO boost. And not only do they show up in image searches, but your images can also appear in regular Google search results.

Paid Ads & PPC

Paid ads on social media and PPC can be extremely effective when good SEO is applied. And because the content is so concentrated, the use and placement of keywords are of paramount importance. And not only will you need good SEO, but a professional can also help determine optimum targeting for your ads.

Podcasts, Slideshows, and PDFs

There are other forms of content placement that are less utilized but are still very effective for SEO. What’s even better is that you can convert your existing content to these media quite easily. For example, you can simply record yourself reading your blog content, or groupings of similar blog posts, and upload them as podcasts to iTunes or other podcast sharing sites. The same applies to slideshows and PDFs. Simply convert your existing content to these types of media and upload it to sharing sites such as slideshare.com or even to your Google drive, setting them for public viewing.

Whitepapers, Press Releases, Off-site properties, and More

While there are more places and means for sharing content such as press releases, white papers, eBooks, second-tier websites and blogs, guest-posting, and many more, suffice it to say that the possibilities for content marketing are vast. And what’s even better is that many of these properties will be around and still viewable for a long, long time.

Is SEO too complicated or too much to add to your workload? That’s exactly where we can help.

Professional SEO services will drive more traffic to your website.

Increased web traffic means more leads and sales.

At the end of the day, driving traffic to your website which can be converted into leads and ultimately sales, is the sole reason that you even have a website. Your website is, after all, your online business. It’s important that business owners shift their thinking about their website to this view. And once they do, they realize that how they approach the use of their website is just as important as how they approach the presentation of their business in person, on the radio, or in any other non-digital advertising. It’s not just about your business: it’s an integral part of your business.

As such, our goal becomes to get as much traffic to our websites as we can. And more specifically, we want to drive targeted traffic that is more likely to buy or to tell others about our products or services. This is where SEO services can be of major help. Through the process of identifying competitive keywords that make other websites so prominent, we can focus our attention to fill those gaps so that our websites appear in those same searches. And by implementing the right structure and metadata behind that content, and using the optimum percentage of our keywords in the best on-site and off-site locations and properties, we can see amazing results and measurable improvement and growth in our web traffic. And we can then measure our ROI for our various content uses.

Expert SEO services will improve your search engine ranking.

People ask me all the time, “So, how do I improve my Google search ranking?” If you want to increase your visibility on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines there are lots of factors involved, including all we’ve already mentioned so far in this article. Here are a few more you’ll need the following:

Your website absolutely must be mobile-friendly.

And this includes loading speed. It must look good, have an easy interface, and load quickly on mobile as well as on a desktop computer.

An optimized Google My Business listing is a must-have.

This will help your placement on Google Maps as well as providing greater validity and authority for your website. This is the home for your Google reviews that will help provide trust for prospective buyers.

In addition to these, you will need a comprehensive link-building strategy, particularly if you are in a competitive market niche.

This will include lots of different kinds of valid, high-quality links that point back to your website (aka backlinks) from a wide variety of sources, including social signals, branded foundation links, profile links, guest-posts, and many more. Link-building is one part of SEO which you should never entrust to an amateur, as they can severely damage your online performance, and may even get your website blacklisted. And on the positive side, when done properly, link-building can help propel your website higher in the SERPs.

To help summarize the process for improving search engine ranking, we find that it is all really interconnected through three primary categories: Relevance, Trust Flow, and Domain Authority.

1. Relevance and Popularity

There is a metric used and trademarked by Majestic called Citation Flow. This metric is a form of measuring the popularity of a link on a website, but it doesn’t measure or consider the quality of those links. So by itself, it’s not enough to tell us about the health of our website’s link profile. There are also several metrics in Google Analytics that are applicable to measuring the real-world relevance of your website via the traffic that your site receives. Relevance and popularity are somewhat observable by considering a matrix between (1) the quality of your products and services, (2) the effectiveness of the presentation and promotion of those products and services, and (3) the response of people to that presentation as found in searches and social channels.

This is how SEO Citations work!

2. Trust Flow

This is also a metric applied and trademarked by Majestic that basically analyses and determines the trustworthiness of a website by assessing its quality via the links that are pointing back to it. This is an extremely important metric in today’s digital world, as it helps owners of high-quality websites using a qualitative linking strategy to outperform low-quality websites. Many SEO services employ cheap and easy, link-building by using low-quality websites to create links that have little to no value. They can show site owners that they have created large numbers of links for their website, but the owner doesn’t know that these links may actually damage their site’s reputation in the eyes of the search engines.

Trust flow is one of the most important metrics for your website.

Furthermore, many SEO services employ “black-hat” techniques which may show a quick boost in ranking a website, but will later be detrimental to the website’s standings. This is because the tactics are based on techniques that violate the terms of service established by the search engines. The website is subsequently punished by the search algorithms once the black-hat techniques are discovered.

3. Domain Authority

This is a ranking score system that was developed by Moz. Its purpose is to help predict whether or not a website will rank well on search engine result pages (SERPs). As a metric known as DA, it can be useful for evaluating over time the “ranking strength” to which a website attains and/or maintains. DA is not, however, a metric that Google or any other search engine uses to determine search ranking. It is strictly for use by SEO specialists to help track and measure the overall performance of a website in comparison to its peers and competitors. As a personal observation, I find it interesting (and probably significant) that the AI software I use for my clients also measures and tracks the domain authority for their sites, offering steps for improving their authority relative to that of their competitors.

Domain authority is a measurement of your site's overall ranking potential.

SEO and Content Marketing are really where it’s at in digital marketing for small businesses.

SEO marketing is, in reality, a terminology that helps to focus your planning and thinking as you create your content marketing. In fact, while many articles may try to separate search engine optimization and content market into different entities, they are in fact integrally and inextricably linked together when it comes to marketing. And while they are technically different, still, you cannot have one without the other. You can’t have effective website content without good SEO, and in turn, you cannot have good SEO without content!

So try not to get too confused about which of these you need. In our experience, all forms of SEO marketing come together and are merged as one as various forms of Content Marketing. Even in PPC ads, the content and search optimization are intensely compacted together into the most powerful micro-content possible. And it incorporates all the best of SEO tactics as well as content research and marketing. Just remember to allow time for your online marketing to work, as it normally has a trajectory requiring about 8 to 10 weeks to reach full effect.

Use a comprehensive approach to your marketing.

Some business owners concentrate all their focus and marketing money on traditional forms of advertising such as radio, printed ads and mailers, billboards, etc. Others make the mistake of abandoning proven and effective traditional advertising in favor of digital marketing. Marketing works best when you cover all the bases and strive for market saturation.

So what’s our recommendation? Don’t put all your eggs in one basket! Seek balance, experiment and track what’s working as best you can, find whats working best, and capitalize on what’s hot and brings in the business.

Stop losing potential customers to your competitors. Be seen. Get found. Start your digital marketing campaign today.

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