SEO for Bloggers
WRECKING BALL MARKETING
Pop culture is great way to look at various marketing tools and trends that you can analyze and apply to your own personal brand and product.
It's about becoming relevant and popular in what seems to be a short matter of time. What most people in the general public don't realize that these pop phenomenas take strategic months/years of planning along with a good PR team to develop. I'll take this time to go over the "love it or hate it" Miley #teamtwerk craze and show you how a good marketing plan can help your business get more attention and success. The best part is, you don't even have to be dancing around in an oversized teddy bear costume with a foam finger!!!
Now you might think because Miley was pretty well known before this complete 180 degree turn-a-round in persona, that her marketing route won't work for you but that's where you're wrong! It's about doing your research, creating a strategic buzz or hype around your company, a full fledged launch, and gaining even more attention by saving some surprises for later on. Miley, before the release of her first single off of her latest album was releasing what seemed to be random but fun viral videos of her dancing or twerking in funny costumes. She planned on releasing a more urban geared album and needed to gain the attention of that audience who normally wouldn't be drawn to her, that's where the viral videos came into play! This is part of your initial research before launching your company. Learning who your audience is and what their habits are. Reaching out and interacting with them in their own social environments is a must! This means checking out or taking part in events, conferences, conventions, online blogs/websites, and expos where you can meet and network with potential clients or buyers of your product. Take your time in this phase. The more people "discover" you the greater the chance they may take an interest in your company and potentially start telling other people about what you're doing. It's obvious that the more people know about you the more potential business you may have only if you're targeting the right people. This must be done at the same time you're finishing or polishing up your main business whether it be a website, store, or album.
Once you notice people are getting excited about who you are and what your product is, it's time for a soft launch! Your first single can be phase 1 of your website where you have everything working just right but know that there may be a need for improvements depending on the feedback and traffic you are receiving. Here is where you do even more promoting of your business, but more quickly. Create your own events or become sponsors of popular events where a good amount of your audience will be plus other new demographic audiences. You will start to see people outside of your target audience getting interested in your product. Stay open to feedback and plan for adjustments to keep everything running smoothly.
You have their attention so now it's time to come at them LIKE A WRECKING BALL!!! This will be more of a grand opening or full launch of your company. Come at them with a complete error free website and full service catalogue or clear and concise call to action. By this time you'll feel more confident in your product because of the success you were seeing in the previous phases. You have their attention and it's your time to deliver on the excitement you've created!!! It's more than having a good end product and just putting it out to the public. You know the old saying of "if you build it they will come", well "they" may not find you because they may not know you exist! You first have to take the time to do your research, create an awareness of your brand, launch your company, then promote, and fine tune it as you go. Once you're at the top, it's up to you to hold on to that status by investing in on-going marketing for company. It was long journey getting up there, why would you even want to start to slack off now?
CLICK HERE to enjoy this WRECKING BALL OFFICE DOLL we created for you to have as daily reminder of what it takes to twerk your way to the top!
Web Design Tips: 5 Ways to Beat Writer’s Block
Here are 5 Techniques for Overcoming Writer’s Block:
Creativity is necessary for some much of what we do every day. When we’re “in the zone” our newest web design, web development concept or client presentation seems to flow out of us and all the dots connect seamlessly. But we’ve also experienced the other extreme. The clock ticks incessantly on an impending deadline, the more you try and force your focus the more distracted you become, until you feel incapable of stepping up to the task at hand. You’ve smashed into that impassible wall known as writer’s block. The good news is you’re not alone. Every one of us has encountered this obstacle, threatening to obstruct our path to productivity and success. And the better news is, there are ways you can climb right over the wall and continue on your way to completing your project.
1. Get the blood pumping and oxygen circulating.
Take a walk. It sounds too easy to be true, but it is an exceptional way to clear your head. It is even more effective if you make an effort to be “in the moment” by paying attention to your surroundings on your walk instead of visualizing your deadline as an anvil about to drop on your head and bust it wide open like a watermelon at the hands of Gallagher (http://gallaghersmash.com/). A walk also packs the added punch of getting your blood pumping, which increases blood circulation and oxygen, and this is vital to achieving peak brain function. Sedentary lifestyle habits, like sitting at your desk all day, inhibits effective blood circulation and can have the same stifling effect on your creativity. Many times a momentary change of scenery, coupled with some physical activity and movement, is all you need to reinvigorate your creative mojo.
2. Take a mental break to switch gears and recalibrate your focus.
Occasionally, you hit a wall and all you need to get over it is to step back from the project for 10 minutes and let your focus recalibrate. The key to not getting mindlessly sidetracked is to limit your breaks to a specific amount of time, not exceeding 10 or 15 minutes. It is best if your break involves reading or writing. Perhaps you indulge your guilty pleasures, that celebrity gossip website or check the scores on ESPN.com or go on your social networks and check out what your friends and family are up to. But again, be disciplined or this won’t work and could become just another way to procrastinate.
3. De-clutter your environment to reduce distractions.
Whether you believe that your surroundings can physically block energy, as in Feng Shui, or you just subscribe to the general principle that a messy work space is a needless distraction, it seems to improve clarity of focus when there is not “stuff” scattered haphazardly where you are working. Keep disorder to a minimum and it will enhance the process of organizing of your thoughts. A scattered work area can easily lead to scattered thoughts.
4. Limit outside interruptions.
This goes beyond your physical setting to include outside distractions such as phone calls, emails, social media and messaging notifications, television, interruptions from family, friends and co-workers, to the alluring temptations of the world wide web. Whether it’s eBay, Facebook, Zappos or cat videos on YouTube that entice you to drift, you have to empower yourself to just say no when you need to buckle down and produce a finished, quality project. Turn the phone on silent, adjust your settings to off, let those around you know you’re “off limits” for the next hour, or three, and close your internet browser. The world will not cease to turn if you go “underground” for a few hours.
5. Two minds can be better than one.
Get a second opinion. Collaboration can be a rewarding way to push through your writer's block. If you are writing an article, you can call an expert on the subject for a short interview. You reap the benefit of a relevant quote that improves your work, while expanding your perspective and, hopefully, making a new valuable connection. If the project is a presentation, try asking a colleague, friend or spouse to listen to your pitch and offer feedback. It will be helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off as well as give an insight or perspective that takes your concept to another level or in a different direction that you would not have thought of on your own.
The important elements of web development, web design, SEO, graphic design, or any creative development work, all require a high level of creativity and focus. It’s vital to have strategies to deal effectively with blocks when they occur. We would enjoy hearing what strategies get you past writer’s block and back on the path to productivity. What practices help you get into your creative flow?
Web Design Tips: 5 Ways to Make Your Social Media Matter
To harness the full power of social networks and leverage the exponential reach available through social networking, here are 5 best practices.
Social media is a powerful tool for generating brand awareness and building trust. An effective social media strategy integrates seamlessly with your web design so that your online presence represents your company with professionalism and your SEO is boosted. If you do social media the right way you can build relationships with fans and followers that will build long-term relationships by creating content that engages and brings value your audience. Your web development strategy should always include a social element so your social networks are easily visible and your content is easily shared by those interested in your brand and content.
1. Use your social networks to listen, not just talk.
The social interaction between people is what brings the “social” element to social media. People interested in your brand will fan you on Facebook, follow you on twitter and subscribe to you on YouTube to interact with the person behind the company. They aren't always finding you on social channels to hear a one-way message that talks at them. Rather, thanks to social media, marketing and advertising is now a conversation and consumers will demand that you talk with them in a conversation. This is an exciting evolution that allows you to develop genuine connections with your audience that were not available before.
2. Your content should create value for your audience.
Only if you entertain, inform, or in some way provide value, with your social posts and updates will your fans and followers like your posts, share your blog content and videos and retweet your tweets. How can those interested in your brand join the conversation if you are not initiating one? No one wants to be sold to all the time, not in person and not on the net. If you consistently provide content that is of educational, social, or useful value you will build a following that is loyal, engaged and enthusiastic about your brand.
3. Social is not about selling, it’s about building relationships.
You get out of social what you put in. If you use it as a platform to always be selling, making it all about you, visitors will be less motivated to come back to your sites. But the good news is that building relationships is actually more powerful than sales! If you’re a dentist you’re not trying to use your blog to sell one pair of braces. If you blog on interesting subjects related to your business, such as how to ask for a second opinion or, for those that are terrified of the dentist, a 5 minute mediation to put you at ease before you enter the dentist chair, you will begin to build trust with your audience. This trust is the first step to building a lasting relationship. You will become a trusted resource that can develop into a client bond that will outlast a one-time procedure and continue for 5, 10, or 20 years or longer.
4. Use social networks to build relationships with industry leaders, colleagues and mentors.
Social is not only about reaching out to potential consumers, it's also about participating in the conversation among your peers and industry thought leaders. Follow those agencies and individuals that are driving innovation in your field or who have influence with many people. These people have much to teach and they give away valuable information and insights through social media. Are you listening or are you missing out? LinkedIn is optimal for engaging with industry giants and experts. You can join LinkedIn groups representing your field to keep up on the latest news, updates and industry trends. Be a part of the conversation so you too can establish yourself as a leading voice in your market.
5. Track your metrics to develop and fine tune your strategy.
In order to know what you are doing right, and which strategies are not benefiting you, you need to track your performance. There are many tools, both paid and free, that will generate reports which let you know when your content resonates with your audience and when it falls flat and fails to generate interest and engagement. By playing to your strengths and understanding your weaknesses, you can develop a winning social media plan that will increase your presence, raise your SEO ranking and establish your business as a leader in your market.
We have been in the Las Vegas web design and web development industry for years and we have experienced the power of social media to make connections and create partnerships and clients in our community. It’s not rocket science, all it takes is knowledge, a passion for engaging with your audience, and a consistent dedication to the effort and consistency required to create value and build genuine long-term connections.
How to Measure and Monitor your SEO for FREE
8 tips on how to keep track of your SEO for FREE
You can offer the best services or goods in your marketplace, but if those who are searching for what you sell find your competitor online instead of you, you will likely not earn their business. The research shows most consumers first look online when they are interested in making a purchase. The statistics are clear; over 80% of consumers will do their own search online well before they pull out their wallet to spend their money.
In order to know where you stand in regards to your competitors, it’s crucial you measure your SEO (search engine optimization) to establish your position, and to monitor it on an on-going basis. If you have the budget, SEO is one of the most dominant factors in your online marketing campaign and allocating the funds to have it professionally managed, will be some of the most valuable money you spend towards driving traffic to your site and bringing potential clients directly in touch with your brand. However, if you are not yet in a position to afford expert assistance with your SEO marketing, all is not lost. With some time and effort, you can use the following free tools to identify your ranking and monitor your position. For 6 free techniques you can put into practice today to power your SEO upwards, you can read our article 6 Simple SEO Habits to Increase Website Rankings & Traffic.
1. Google Analytics
You can sign up in minutes to begin taking advantage of this powerful, free tool. Google Analytics offers daily traffic statistics which you can sort and organize: per keywords, per visitor, per location, per referring website, per search engine, and by any time scale. Packed with useful features, it is a must have for anyone interested in measuring and tracking their website traffic and SEO progress.
2. Google Adwords' Keyword Tool
This powerful and free online resource allows you to see the number of searches that Google receives nationally, and internationally, for any specific keyword phrases. We recommend checking off the box that says "Exact" searches, not broad or matching, for the most accurate and relevant statistics. What this means to you is that now you can confidently know which keywords your target audience is searching for the most when they're looking for brands or businesses like yours online. We use this to help decide which keywords would be most profitable to target in our SEO campaigns for ourselves and our clients.
3. Understand the Power of Search Results Ranking.
On any Google search page in organic results: #1 gets 33% of clicks, #2 gets 22%, #3 gets 11%, #4 gets 7%, on down until #10 gets 1-3% share of link traffic. This shows how skewed the numbers are toward the top of the first page of Google. Because traffic is so heavily funneled to the first few listings, its easy to see how companies can become forgotten when they are not actively managing their SEO and staying on top of their ability to be found. Keep in mind that these numbers vary widely based on the industry you're in and how likely it is that people searching will be satisfied with the first search results versus continuing down the search results page looking for something the other results aren't providing.
4. MicroSiteMasters.com
This extremely valuable service provides Search Engine Results Page (SERP) rank reporting and tracking keywords in Google, Bing, and Yahoo, and their service is free for first 10 keywords. 10 keywords are more than sufficient to get started measuring the progress of your SEO efforts, and if you're not using a tool like this, you need to start now so you can begin understanding where you rank and how your rank changes over time.
5. HubSpot's Website Grader
In less than 30 seconds, HubSpot issues a report that analyzes all of your online marketing efforts, not just on your website, and gives you a Marketing Grade on a 1-100 scale. It doesn’t stop there; it recommends the next steps, in order of priority that you should take to improve your strategy. By assessing over 30 factors, HubSpot offers a comprehensive assessment and then provides a plan of action, complete with online resources to help put their recommendations into practice.
6. MajesticSEO.com
This website offers a free tool to track and analyze off-site backlink health of any website online, by total history or by recent growth. Use the power of MajesticSEO’s enormous link intelligence database to compare your backlink power to that of your competitors.
7. Google's "Site:" search
I use this tool everyday, even when just browsing because it's so powerful. Just try typing “site:examplesite.com" into the Google search bar, adding in a website use regularly, and then look at total search results for the number of pages indexed by Google. This normally tells you, with a fair amount of accuracy the total number of pages on any website, which can be used as a rough indicator of their on-site SEO credibility in Google. The total number of pages a website has can also roughly approximate how well established and trusted your website is according to Google search engine’s algorithm, this is because the longer a website has existed and the more valuable content they have online, the more it lends to the idea that they know what they're talking about, assuming that the content is relevant, unique, and that there's a decent amount of it on every page.
For even more fun, try adding search terms with a space just before where the "site:" appears, and you'll be amazed at how useful it is to be doing a Google search of pages ONLY on the website listed in the example. ("site:example.com")
8. Use "Page Source" / "View Source"
This is a simple, fast way to determine which keywords your webpages, and your competitors' webpages, are targeting. This is the basic information you need to assess where your current SEO is focused and vital to your understanding of what type of traffic you are attracting—or failing to attract. "Page Source" or "View Source" is a browser tool option which you can access in most browsers by doing right-click on the webpage on PCs or Option-click on Macs; it also appears in the browser's menu. Select this option and you will see the HTML code for the page. In the code, near the top of most webpages you should be able to see or find using CTRL+F the following text meta tags; look for <title>, <meta description >, <meta keywords > tags.
Pay attention to the first words that appear in these meta tags. These keywords can be used to analyze your competition and see what keywords they are telling Google to target for each of their webpages. The most important is the title tag, but the description tag is also very important to Google, because this is the text that appears in Google search results. Conversely, be sure your meta tags are telling search engines the right story about who you are and what content or keywords each webpage is primarily relevant to.
Based in Nevada, our Las Vegas web design team would be happy to answer any questions you may have about SEO. For more resources and helpful tips sign up for our newsletter or send us a message telling us what topics you'd like to see covered here. For now, don’t hesitate to get started with these useful resources that you can access free of charge anytime. We recommend always getting professional feedback and direction at the start of any SEO campaign, no matter how small, to ensure that you're not making any mistakes that could be costing you valuable traffic. We offer free consultations and are happy to educate our customers on the value of a well designed SEO campaign.
8 SEO Blogging Tips for Better Search Engine Rankings
Blog with Purpose for Success You Can Measure!
Blogging is something that's easy for anyone to do, if writing comes easy for you it can be as easy as typing an email message and clicking "Post"! But unless you're blogging with with a specific SEO related purpose or goal in mind and using easy to remember SEO (Search Engine Optimization) techniques in your blog posts, you might just be completely missing several huge opportunities to rank your website high in search engines for the popular search terms your audience is using and thus losing valuable traffic and business.
As a Las Vegas SEO company we've talked to many large and small companies about how to add value to their websites to improve rankings, and you'd be surprised at how little the vast majority of brands know about optimizing their blogs and content to rank high in search.
Here are 8 easy to remember SEO tips and blogging strategies that will be guaranteed to improve your website's traffic and rankings in the searches your customers are performing every day.
1. Know your top 10 keywords.
Make sure you know what your top 10 keyword phrases are and know where you rank for them. Don’t forget that including a city name, using a different word order, or adding an “s” or “ing” after a word makes it a completely new keyword in Google’s eyes. To Google, “Las Vegas SEO”, “Vegas SEO”, and “LV SEO” are three completely different keywords. If you have no idea what interested users type into search engines when looking for information on companies in your industry, then you’re unable to target these keywords and make sure you show up when they are searching for you. For example, if you are a plumber and you are coming up when people search “clogged pipes”, but only 10% of users use that search, then well over half of your potential leads are finding your competitor, instead of you.
2. Target 1-2 keywords per post.
When Google is deciding what webpage to show for a given search term, it usually won’t focus on webpages that cover a broad range of topics. Google is trying to give visitors the most relevant and focused content that relates to the keyword phrase that was searched. Keep the majority of your pages and blog posts focused on just 1 or 2 keywords at most when developing your content. Feel free to mention relevant topics but keep your message and content focused, visitors and search engines will thank and reward you for it.
3. Match content to keywords.
When it comes to looking credible, there’s nothing better than saying you’re going to do something and then following through and doing just that. Google will use the same logic when analyzing your use of keywords in your headers and meta tags in comparison your actual text content. If your page title says “Las Vegas Web Design” but the text content on the page never uses that keyword phrase, it will seem like something is not in alignment and all of your other SEO efforts will not be as effective.
4. Use 400+ words per page.
The length of a post is one of the factors search engines use in determining how valuable your content is and how high to rank it. There are several reasons why this will help make your blog post more legitimate and credible in the eyes of search engines, but all you need to understand to be able to use it to your advantage is that writing between at least 400 and 600 words will give your post a significant boost.
5. Blog weekly.
If your website does not currently have a blog, you are missing out on a principal opportunity to boost your SEO and establish yourself as a trusted authority in your industry. Blogging has many positive impacts on the usefulness of your website, but it also is great for your SEO. It adds fresh new content to your website, gives you the opportunity to target many new keywords, and also adds to the overall volume of relevant and high value content on your site. The more you blog the better, but setting a once a week goal is an easier habit to set and stick with than over doing it and getting discouraged and not doing anything. Set a realistic goal for creating content on a regular basis and you'll see your rankings climb.
6. Only use unique text content.
Text content is the life blood of SEO, and you will need a lot of it if you’re going to rank well in Google. However, you must never copy content from other websites to fill in the content areas of your site. Doing so will mark you as a copy-cat in Google’s eyes and the text will retain no value. Google rewards websites that present new valuable information to visitors. If you must use quotes or excerpts from other website, do so very sparingly and understand that it adds nothing to your SEO value.
7. Use Social profiles.
At a bare minimum, if you don’t have a basic social media profile established on major social sites, it’s going to be hard to convince search engines that your company is professional and up to date. However you feel about social networking, you need to be on social sites for 2 reasons: 1. your consumers are there (and if they don’t find you, they will find your competitor) and 2. SMO (social media optimization) is playing an ever increasing role in SEO (search engine optimization) and doesn’t show any sign of stopping.
8. Users comes first.
In other words, make your SEO adapt to your preferred user experience, not the other way around. Your website and blog content should never sound like an advertisement or key word bulletin. Your content should present your services and expertise in an engaging way that gives your visitors new value and makes them want to tell others about you. Adding keywords and links should be done in a natural way that blends in with or enhances your content and message.
In fact, consumers shouldn't even notice your techniques at all. Users should come away from interacting with your content with the sense that they have learned something valuable, been entertained, or both; not with the feeling they were overtly marketed to in a way that's pushy or promotional. They want to gather information and take value from your site, not be “talked at” or “sold to”. That's why they're on your web site in the first place, instead of going directly to your order page or into your brick and mortar store.