64% of consumers use Google My Business to find out details about a company. As a business owner, it’s clear to see that local SEO is a must if you want to reach the right audiences. Because of this, many businesses are asking, “how much does SEO cost?” If you are…
Over 50% of all website traffic derives from an organic search. In fact, over 70% of activity online begins on a search engine, too. With search engine optimization (SEO), your business can appear as consumers search for your offerings. Developing an effective SEO strategy to improve your Google ranking can take…
Did you know that nearly 20% of businesses fail within the first two years? The good news, however, is that there are steps you can take to prevent this from happening. One of the most important responsibilities entrepreneurs have is properly managing their advertising strategy. This is especially true when it comes…
Only about 2/3 of small businesses had websites in 2021 so if you have one, you’re already ahead of some of your competition. As a service business owner, you must stay ahead of all the ways to get more clients and grow your business. You might have heard about using Google Search…
If you don’t know the importance of social media, you’re missing out on major business opportunities. If you’re wondering what the social media hype is all about, you might be surprised to learn that social media is more than just a source of entertainment. It’s also a way to grow…
Digital marketing has many components and channels. There are websites, social media, and Google Ads to name a few. Each of these platforms requires different techniques to get your business noticed. Combined together they are beneficial in enticing users to give your business a try. So what other ways can…
Social media is easily one of the most effective marketing strategies available to businesses today. In 2016 the demographics proved almost everyone was on social media with the reported social media presence of: 86% of people between the ages of 18-29 80% of people between the ages 30-49 64% of people between…
Did you know 88% of people trust online reviews as much as they would the recommendation from a friend or family member? That’s pretty astonishing, given that most reviews are written by complete strangers. This fact might also be somewhat alarming, if you’re not doing anything to promote positive reviews…
Do you know just how powerful online reviews can be? 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they would a recommendation from a friend. If you’re familiar with the power of word-of-mouth recommendations, you’ll immediately realize that you can massively grow your business using online reviews. After all, 92% of us believe…
Trying to figure out how to make your website “work” can feel overwhelming and often times it can leave you frustrated with a lack of clarity about how to adjust so you can make a real impact. For most service businesses, a website that is “working” means it’s getting a…
Your company’s website offers an incredible opportunity to engage with potential customers. In fact, it’s often your first point-of-contact with them. That’s why it’s so critical that your website is designed to turn traffic into phone calls, appointments and, ultimately, sales. But how can you turn your website into a…
When you run an search engine marketing agency for small businesses like I do, you focus a lot of time on content marketing, specifically blog marketing. In this post, I want to share with you my list of 8 deadly blog marketing sins to avoid at all times when posting…
#1. You have no goal to your video. Just creating a video without a purpose is not worth creating. Every video your business creates should have a specific purpose like driving targeted traffic to your website, or to provide helpful information and expertise about a topic for your target audience,…
#1. Not creating social media pages for your company. Be sure to claim and create social media pages for your business on the major social media websites on the Internet. I’m specifically referring to creating a Facebook Business Page, a LinkedIn Company Page, a Google+ Brand Page, a Twitter Business…
SEO is one of the most talked about marketing strategies. Yet, so many people get it wrong. To help, here is a list of the most common and painful search engine optimization (aka ‘SEO’) mistakes people make trying to get leads from Google, Bing and Yahoo. #1. No proper keyword…
[fusion_text]There are countless businesses out there literally throwing money away due to website neglect. Set-it-and-forget-it is a nice idea, but it will absolutely cripple your business. Either you, your in-house marketing department or your outsourced digital marketing solution should be tracking and measuring the performance of your business website so…
The Google Adwords advertising platform is not the easiest to work with and if you’re new to Google AdWords PPC (and even if you aren’t), it would be a smart decision to read the following list of Google Adwords Pay Per Click Profit Tips to help you maximize online lead…
Its’ true, Google has introduced a new product. I know it can feel like a never ending road trying to keep up, but Google’s goal with the latest update is to help businesses streamline their online marketing when it comes to managing Google-based properties. The tech giants who pretty much…
Panda, Penguin, Hummingbird…you have to wonder if Google’s headquarters isn’t actually located deep in the heart of the Mountain View zoo. Google has such cute names for algorithms that can drive your business to the next level or send it to the bottom of the digital dustbin. How are you…
How seriously do you take online local business reviews? If you consider business “B-2-C” or business to consumer focused you are probably very concerned about the volume and star ranking of the reviews for your business because you know the impact they can have on your sales. However, if you…
Google has some great products that are extremely helpful if you’re serious about marketing your business online. Some of these google products are websites that you want to list your business on, some Google tools provide information you need to tweak your marketing message, correct site performance problems and drive…
Do you really know who your customers are and what makes them tick? If you want to get the biggest bang out of your marketing program you need to know what motivates them, where they hang out and what they respond to best. In short you have to develop a…
Is your business pricing strategy still to win on price? Are you following the strategy of the big box stores, grocery stores, drugstores and other high volume retailers that match their price to the competition? Are you trying to win apples to apples comparisons? There’s a better way.
You’ve probably heard of Pinterest but do you really know what it is or considered if it’s a place your business should have a presence? Pinterest is another social media network but the best way to describe it is as a really cool shareable bookmark system. Remember when your mom…
If you are a business owner then you probably already know what SlideShare is. How do we know that? We know that because Comscore says that business executives are 5 times more likely to visit SlideShare than any other social media site. Wrap your brain around these numbers. SlideShare receives…
Bad things can happen to anyone at any time and they don’t have to be big time media events to have a negative effect on your business. Something as simple as a bad customer service experience to more serious events like defective merchandise or services can quickly reshape what people…
If you are a small brick and mortar local business don’t get so tied up trying to rank for particular keyword phrases on Google search that you miss out on other opportunities to promote your business. Search traffic is great but it isn’t the end all be all solution to…
Do you have a comprehensive understanding of Google Analytics tracking? If you do then you probably have too much time on your hands. Most small business owners are too busy running their businesses to learn all of the ins and outs of Google’s incredibly detailed traffic evaluation tool much less…
Are good SEO companies worth their fees? Before we dive into that question, answer this one. Do you do your own taxes? Have you ever missed out on a deduction because you didn’t know it existed or worse, have you taken a deduction that wasn’t allowed and ended up paying…
Your website should be your online marketing workhorse. With the exception of the Budweiser Clydesdales, workhorses are rarely “pretty” but they are reliable, capable and reasonably easy to maintain. Three critical characteristics that should apply when you’re building a business website and running it over time. The reason that we…
Is there any doubt in your mind that the world is going mobile? Depending on which study you believe over half of Americans over the age of 18 own and use smartphones and tablets. Next year, 2014, the internet will be accessed more frequently by wireless devices than PCs. If…
After reading that title you might be asking yourself how can social media be costly given that all of the basic platforms are free. Good question but don’t think in terms of conventional marketing expenses, think in terms of risk to brand and reputation. If your approach is done poorly,…
Guess what. September 27, 2013 marked Google’s 15th birthday as a business. How did they celebrate? They announced the biggest update in their algorithm in 12 years…a little gem they are calling Hummingbird. Actually Google’s new “Hummingbird” algorithm change was a little slow to hit the news press as they…
Video marketing is huge. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and unquestionably the first choice for searchers who like to consume information visually. Want to get a feel for how just large it is? Go to YouTube and enter a keyword phrase you are targeting in…
If your website isn’t cranking out the new business that you expected it would and you’re looking to boost your website’s effectiveness, consider this. Does each and every page on your site have a purpose that contributes to the overall effectiveness of the business? For example does your “About Us”…
If you’ve had a small business website up for a couple of years you may have seen a dramatic drop in traffic once Google brought out the animals (Panda and Penguin) to play. Google’s intent was to improve the relevance of returns for searchers but in the process knocked down…
Without question inbound marketing is far more effective than outbound but traditionally it will take both to make sure there are enough sales in the pipeline. Outbound marketing starts with prospecting, a function that is the bane of many sales people. If you think about it, the traditional sales process…
Small business owners are arguably the busiest people in any industry. They have to be. They are small businesses and everyone has to multitask simply because there isn’t enough business to warrant full time staff for a specific function. For example your “bookkeeper” is also the accounts payable, accounts receivable,…
Usually when people don’t know and have to ask “What is a call to action” or a “CTA” they are in a conversation about business marketing materials or a company website. The goals associated with marketing materials and websites should be to better educate your target market, share how you…
Most business owners are familiar with Google Analytics and you understand that the information collected through this tool can be used to enhance the performance of your website. But what about those videos you have on YouTube? Have you checked out how well they are doing? Unlike your website you…
Is there any doubt in your mind that getting targeted traffic to visit your business website from Google will result in more qualified leads than say running an ad in your local paper or Yellow Page listing? Being visible to your target market on Google search is a great source…
Ten years ago two guys released a free, open source blogging tool and content management system (CMS) based on PHP and MySQL. They called it WordPress. Today, according to Alexa, nearly 15% of the top 1 million sites on the planet are WordPress and the platform powers over 60 million…
It’s time to get your Facebook ducks in a row. With over a billion users, Facebook has become a social media platform that any business would be willing to commit marketing resources to. Also, remember that your target market likely have an interest to see what you’re up to on…
A personal move is always a pain, but thanks to the United States Post Office you can quickly and easily change your mailing address so you don’t miss any important snail mail. The change in address available from the USPO is good for up to 12 months giving you plenty…
What’s Black and White and Does a Happy Dance When It Crushes Spam? That would be Google Penguin 2.0 the latest version of Google’s never ending fight to rid its search engine of black hat cheaters and the websites that are foolish enough to use these tactics to gain traction on…
There is an enormous amount of attention given to Facebook and with over 1 billion users it deserves it. Facebook is the premiere social media platform and there’s potential to get your message out to huge numbers of “fans.” But Facebook is a “social” network in the same sense that…
Typically the first question is, “What the heck is bounce rate and what do you mean it can hurt my website ranking in the search engines?” Sometimes search engine optimization can seem like witchcraft particularly when people start tossing around terms that you don’t recognize much less understand. “Bounce rate” is…
YouTube gets over 4 billion (yes billion with a “b”) video views each day. Do you think your customers and prospects might be in there somewhere? What started as a platform to share goofy user content has morphed into a viable social network and the planet’s second largest search engine.…
In your business, how important is a referral? What’s the “close rate” on a prospect that has been sent to you by a customer? Would you say that it’s easier to land a new project with a prospect that has been referred to you than a new lead? Our guess…
There’s one resource that both you and your biggest competitor have the same amount of. You both have been allocated 24 hours per day…no more, no less. How you use that time to lead your business makes all the difference in who comes out on top and that’s particularly true…
Is your target market college students, women between the ages of 30 and 50 or seniors? Are you trying to reach fitness lovers, pet lovers or foodies? What demographics was your product or service created for? Also known as niche marketing, understanding – and reaching out to – your best…