Standing out can be a real challenge when competing in the digital space. This is where digital marketing becomes an essential tool to get noticed online. So, what exactly is digital marketing, and how does it work? In this blog, we will cover everything you need to know about digital marketing, from its different types […]
Digital marketing is one of the most effective ways to reach and engage your target audience. But like any other form of marketing, it can be undermined by the wrong mistakes. In this blog post, we’ll discuss five common SEO mistakes that businesses make and how to avoid them. By understanding these mistakes and avoiding […]
Real-Time data analytics is a data science discipline that deals with real-time data analysis. It is a data-driven decision-making process that seeks to deliver actionable insights and decision-making support in real-time. It aims to use data analytics tools to streamline business processes and optimize decision-making. Real-time data analytics is growing significantly as companies increasingly seek […]
Digital marketing has revolutionized the way businesses connect with their customers. With the rise of digital channels such as social media, email, search engines, and mobile devices, companies can reach their target audience in previously impossible ways. Digital marketing strategies can range from search engine optimization to content marketing and social media advertising, offering businesses […]
As a business owner, you know the importance of online presence in today’s digital age. With so many consumers turning to the internet to research products and services, it’s crucial to have a website that accurately reflects your brand and provides a positive user experience. But just having a website is not enough. It’s important […]
Tired of investing time and money into your website’s SEO without seeing results? It can be a fairly typical experience in today’s digital world – but how long does it really take to reap the rewards of your hard work? If you’re looking for ways to get your website higher up on the search engine […]
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is an essential element of any digital marketing plan. Still, with so many choices out there it can be hard to determine if investing in an SEO company is worth the cost. This article will help you uncover if investing in an SEO company is the right option for your […]
Are you tired of the guessing game when it comes to SEO? If you’ve ever asked yourself if Google really adores or hates search engine optimization, rest assured that you are not alone. In this article, we will explore and examine the tricky relationship between Google and SEO in more detail. Google’s relationship with SEO […]
With technology and consumer behavior ever-evolving, one can’t help but ask: Will SEO remain relevant in the next five years? The answer is a definitive yes! Having a robust digital presence has become indispensable for businesses wishing to achieve success – with Search Engine Optimization forming the core. In this age of intense competition, organizations […]
Content marketing is a crucial component of modern digital marketing strategies. By creating valuable, relevant, consistent content, businesses can attract and retain a clearly-defined target audience, ultimately driving profitable customer action. However, developing a successful content marketing plan can be challenging, especially for those new to the field. This blog post will outline the essential […]
Are you looking to boost your online presence, yet worried about how much money you need to pay for SEO services? In today’s fast-paced digital world, businesses must stay at the forefront to remain competitive. Investing in effective and reliable SEO strategies will give you an edge over your competition. It can be difficult to […]
Digital marketing is one of the most important aspects of any business today. It helps drive traffic to your website and converts those visitors into customers. That’s why it’s important to find the best digital marketing agency to help you reach your goals. This article will discuss key factors to consider when choosing a digital […]
There are several important factors to consider when it comes to digital marketing. But often, people get caught up in the details and make mistakes. That’s why it’s essential to have a plan – and to ensure that the plan is well executed. In this post, we’ll look at the five most common mistakes when […]
As a small business owner, you know that having a website is critical to your success. But what platform should you use? WordPress is the best choice for several reasons: WordPress is free. You can download WordPress and use it for your website without paying a single penny. This is a huge advantage for small […]
Online reputation management is the practice of monitoring, managing, and protecting the reputation of an individual or organization on the Internet. It has become an essential part of business and personal life in the digital age. To be successful, it is necessary to have an excellent online reputation. There are a few key ways to […]
One of the primary benefits of using an inbound marketing agency is that it can help to increase traffic to your website. Inbound marketing is a type of marketing that focuses on creating and distributing content that is relevant to your target audience. Creating engaging and valuable content can attract more visitors to your website, leading to more sales and conversions. In addition, an inbound marketing agency can help you create a more effective marketing strategy, improving your overall ROI.
Some other benefits of working with an inbound marketing agency include tracking and measuring results, access to expert knowledge and resources, and a team of experienced professionals who can help you achieve your marketing goals. If you are looking for a way to improve your online presence and increase traffic to your website, an inbound marketing agency may be the right solution for you.
Another benefit of using an inbound marketing agency is that it can help to improve your website’s SEO. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing your website for search engines. The better your SEO, the higher your website will rank in the search results, which means more people will see and visit your site. Inbound marketing can help to improve your website’s SEO by providing quality content, backlinks, and social media engagement.
An inbound marketing agency can also help to create and implement an effective marketing strategy. A good marketing strategy will include a mix of online and offline marketing tactics. Offline marketing tactics may include print ads, direct mail, and television commercials. Online marketing tactics may include pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, and social media marketing. A good marketing strategy will use these tactics to reach the broadest possible audience. Inbound marketing can also help to improve your brand’s reputation. Your brand is the face of your business, and it is essential to ensure that your brand is seen positively. An inbound marketing agency can help you create and implement a branding strategy to improve how people perceive your business. Inbound marketing can also help to build trust between you and your customers. Customers who feel like they can trust you are more likely to do business with you.
Inbound marketing can also help you to generate more leads. A lead is someone who has shown interest in your product or service by providing their contact information. Creating compelling content can encourage more people to offer their knowledge, which can be used for sales and marketing purposes. By creating shareable content that promotes your brand, you can reach a larger audience and get your name out there. This can ultimately lead to more sales and customers.
If you are not already using inbound marketing, now is the start. It is an effective way to reach more people, generate leads, and create brand awareness. Implementing an inbound marketing strategy can help you to achieve your business goals. If you need help getting started with inbound marketing, contact a marketing agency specializing in this type. They can help you develop a strategy and get started with creating content. Inbound marketing is a powerful tool that can help you to reach your target audience and achieve your business goals. Get started today and see the results for yourself.
Another benefit of using an inbound marketing agency is that it can help to improve your conversion rate. The conversion rate is the percentage of people who take the desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. The higher your conversion rate, the more successful your business will be. An inbound marketing agency can help you increase your conversion rate by providing high-quality content relevant to your target audience. This content will help persuade people to take the desired action, ultimately leading to more sales and customers.
Inbound marketing agencies can also help you to improve your search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of optimizing your website so that it appears higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). This will help you attract more website visitors, leading to more sales and customers. An inbound marketing agency can help you improve your SEO by providing high-quality content relevant to your target audience. This content will help persuade people to click on your website, leading to more traffic and customers.
Inbound marketing is also generally less expensive than other types of marketing, such as traditional advertising or pay-per-click advertising. This is because you are not paying for ad space or clicks; instead, you are investing time and resources into creating quality content that organically attracts visitors to your site.
Inbound marketing can help you attract visitors to your site who are already interested in what you have to offer. This means that they are more likely to convert into leads or customers, saving you money in the long run. Overall, inbound marketing is a more efficient and effective way to market your business online. You can save money and generate more leads and customers by creating quality content and attracting visitors organically.
An inbound marketing agency can also help increase your business’s brand awareness. Brand awareness refers to how familiar people are with your brand and what they think when they see it. You can raise brand awareness and build trust with potential customers by creating high-quality content and getting it in front of as many people as possible.
An inbound marketing agency can also help you to create a sales funnel. A sales funnel is the potential process customers go through when considering buying a product or service. By creating compelling content and making it easy for people to find, you can increase the likelihood that they will make a purchase.
Welcome to Oregon Web Solutions. We are a full-service marketing agency based in Oregon. We offer a wide range of services to help businesses grow and succeed online. We specialize in SEO, PPC, social media, web design, and more. Our team of experts will work with you to create a customized plan that fits your needs and budget. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can help you take your business to the next level!
If you’re an Oregon business, it’s essential to ensure your website is optimized for Google. According to recent studies, Google has a commanding lead in the search engine market. 79% of online searchers use Google as their primary search engine. So if you’re not optimizing your site for Google, you’re losing out on many potential […]
Are you dreaming of growing your small business in Portland? Are you storming the internet for marketing strategies that will help make this dream into reality? Well you have found the right article, because we have the best option for you….We can sum it up in 3 simple words: Pay-per-click (PPC).
PPC is one of the best business tools you can use to advertise your business.
You would not want to spend too much money on something you are unsure of and PPC is an advertising strategy where you pay for every ad clicked. It is like investing $5 on an ad with the possibility of making $500 from it (depending on your niche and lifetime customer value).
With PPC, choosing the right keywords and which landing pages your campaign will direct visitors to is essential. Here are of 7 of the best PPC networks that you can utilize for your business suc.
With Facebook advertising, your ads are presented in two different formats, it can be in the form of a video ad or a photo ad. These ads/promotions have more exposure, because it is inserted seamlessly on the user’s feed, and is a lot harder to block. On top of that, you can target your audience through their interests which is harder on other social media platform ads. With over 2.6 billion users, you don’t want to miss out on the potential of getting in front of your audience using social media advertising with Facebook Ads.
Facebook will also help you optimize your ads to fit both website formats and mobile app formatting.
Instagram works the same as Facebook (or close to it). Utilizing Instagram can reach more users and bring an increase in clicks and potential targeted leads to your local business. On instagram, your ads will show up in the user’s feed, but they also offer an option for Stories Ads. Instagram stories are becoming more popular these days. Stories typically are either photos and videos you take throughout the day that last only 24 hours. Your ads are inserted in the middle of the stories of people you follow. If viewers watch the whole ad, they then have the option to swipe up to take them to your website or landing page. Stories Ads are just one of six ad forms that you can choose from on Instagram to help grow your business.
With 200 million monthly active users, Pinterest is another network to seriously consider. Pinterest ads are a little different in how they look. Pinterest ads are shown as ‘pins’ on potential customers feeds, so it looks like it blends in. Ads are then placed on their websites and mobile applications.
Keep in mind that most Pinterest users are mainly composed of women. Some of these women have up to a hundred thousand dollar worth of household earnings. This is great news if this fits your business niche and even better news if your business specifically caters to women. Search queries on Pinterest are much more general than other social media platforms. This will require you to take a little more time in researching keywords so you can specifically target the right client. Sharing and saving of the pin’s that you advertise will help you get that audience you are going for, and thus likely turn into profit.
On Twitter, you have a much wider audience, but you can filter your potential audience based on their interest, gender, device, and network. Ad formats on Twitter are in the form of tweets that may contain images, videos, GIFS, or just simply plain text. One thing to note is that Twitter literally has little to no downtime. There are posts and hashtags 24/7 around the clock and it has roughly 300 million monthly active users. If you have a very clear target audience and you are great with hashtags, consider Twitter a posible option for your social media marketing campaign.
If Twitter and Facebook didn’t fit the bill, Linkedin could be another option. On Linkedin, you can filter potential customers and clients by job title, industry, and location. Linkedin ads are usually offered through content and in direct messages. With approximately 630 million adults, professionals, and business owners, Linkedin is ideal if you are looking to target on a B2B level (business to business). This can be a great option for local marketing.
Bing is the network behind both Bing and Yahoo search engines. What this means is that Bing can give you a wide audience to reach. Bing’s search engine (although way smaller than Google) still gets millions of searches every day. Because it is smaller than Google, you can take advantage of offers and great deals when it comes to buying advertisements. A Bing ad might only cost you $.01 per click. This can give you a lot of room for testing and getting a good ROI on your ad spend.
Google Ads paid search, holds its reputation for being the king of PPC. This is the most used network for business owners across all platforms when it come to PPC. These ads will appear at the top of searches on Google based on what keywords you chose. Google Ads also offers third party website advertising. Third-party websites are sites or apps from other companies that are a part of the google Adsense networks. These website essentially offer this because when they get the clicks on their website, they get a little piece of the revenue.
Since Google is the king of PPC, there is a continuous escalation in their prices/costs. Compared to the networks mentioned above, Google Ads typically cost more, but it truly serves and delivers its purpose.
As a small business, if you mix Google Ads with amazing onsite search engine optimization, you will get an amazing one-two punch which is what we like to use as a successful business strategy for a lot of our clients.
Whatever business strategy you decide on, pay-per-click ads will help give you an added boost to both your brand & online presence.
If you are not sure who your audience is & what they are really searching online, reach out to us & we can help put together a list of keywords that work best for your niche. Once you know what people are searching for, you can then choose the best platform that will give you the highest ROI for your online advertising campaign.
For more information on local marketing, you might want to read our article on local advertising ideas for small businesses.
For more information on Search Engine Optimization, please visit our Portland SEO Company Page.
From the moment that idea pops up in your mind to the opening of your doors to the public, you must know that running a plumbing business is not an easy task.
A good marketing strategy is essential to make your name stand out from the rest of the crowd. Luckily, the digital age has blessed the industry with an abundance of ideas that you can use for your own business. Getting your name out there doesn’t have to be rocket science, you just need the right tools and a comprehensive plan to make it on top.
And we are here to help you.
This article is dedicated to providing you with handy marketing ideas that will generate more leads and sales for your business. Let’s dive into it!
Perhaps everything boils down to this.
Everyone has a phone they can easily use if the situation asks for it. When someone suddenly finds out that they have a burst pipe, they can just grab their phone and search for the nearest plumbing business that will immediately resolve their problem. When that happens, you have to be on the first page of the search results. You have to be visible as much as possible to put your name at the forefront of your potential customers’ minds.
We listed tried and tested ways so you can beef up your online reputation. Let’s start with the most obvious one:
1. Create a Functional Website
Don’t get us wrong, we think that the aesthetics of your website is still important. But the priority has to be on the functionality. It should load fast, you don’t want to keep your customers waiting. The website should contain accurate information and details about your business, you don’t want your customers to call a competitor. Make it easy for them to request your services. It’s all about the user experience that you provide for them. See, you can have a simple website, but when it’s able to give what your customers are looking for, then it’s safe to say that they will consider doing business with you.
If you don’t know where or how to start, there are platforms such as WordPress that allows you to build your website without breaking the bank. Set up your website and see for yourself the difference it makes.
2. Use Customers’ Reviews To Your Advantage
This might scare some businesses. Why? Well, it’s not always rainbows and butterflies when it comes to the customers’ feedback. So the big question is this, how can you benefit from customers’ reviews?
One thing to do is to accept reality. People will always have negative things to say. Your response to the situation is what matters. When someone leaves a positive review, be professional, and thank them for it. When a negative review shows up, stretch your arms and back because it’s time to show your customer service skills. Handle the situation properly by asking them to reach out to you for further assistance. The next time a prospect sees your response to poor reviews, it will give them the impression that you genuinely care for your customers and they will have more confidence in your business. After all, you have to go inside people’s houses to do your job. Trust is very important.
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This is a no-brainer.
If you want to increase your visibility and relevance to other people, then this is a sure way to do it. People are more likely to learn about new businesses through online research. Your goal is to be on that first page for as long as possible and excellent SEO allows you to do that. Invest in your SEO; learn the basics, ask the experts, and make it a habit to constantly improve it. Driving more organic traffic to your website will give your business more chances of turning visitors to returning customers.
4. Share Your Expertise Through Blog Posts
Creating helpful content to potential customers will greatly help your SEO. How? Let’s say you posted an article about solutions on plumbing problems and you included the right keywords, this allows you to rank high on search results. Search engines look for new and fresh content. If you are consistent with posting the latest content, then the favor will always be on your side. Another big plus, you get to showcase your knowledge on plumbing and add credibility to your business. A win-win situation.
5. Pay Per Click Advertising
Some will say that when a customer sees that “ad” word, it automatically throws them off. While we cannot deny that this is somehow true, it’s good to know that there’s always the other side. When a customer needs immediate assistance over their clogged sink or faulty water heater, discovering your plumbing business through advertisements won’t matter to them. Advertising remains an effective strategy of reaching out to potential customers and attracting them to choose your business. This is how this works: you bid on keywords and phrases and when someone searches for them, your website is guaranteed to appear on the results. You get charged for every click that your ad receives. A well-thought plan on how you will use this kind of advertising will help your business to receive good results.
When launching an online advertising campaign, you should not forget the audience that Social media holds. Facebook allows you to customize your advertisements in so many ways. If you want to be specific in terms of age, location, and even behavior of the audience you want to target, then Facebook got you covered on that. This allows your advertisement to pique the interest of the right people and when that happens, convincing them to convert will be second nature to your business.
7. Google My Business Listing
Don’t overlook this powerful tool. Don’t make the mistake of other businesses. As soon as you start your operations, take the effort to set up your Google My Business listing. It doesn’t even take too much of your time – you just need to provide a company name, location, and necessary contact information. When you already have your listing, then your business will be more visible to potential customers near you. When a person has a problem, they will look for a solution. And they want it fast. It’s the same thing to plumbing businesses. You want to be there when customers look for quick solutions to their problems. A strong Google my business listing is your best bet. Oh, and did we say the best part? It’s free. Another reason to claim that listing. Go for it.
You can do it.
We know that the plumbing market can be too crowded and it can be overwhelming. But this is why we made this list of marketing ideas for your business. You just have to know where to start and you will eventually know how the industry works. Of course, you have to couple your digital marketing with excellent service. But we know that you already have that. Don’t wait for your success to sink. Or go down the drain. We know that you make a living by fixing the broken, but you don’t have to wait for your business to “break” before you take any action. Make a great marketing strategy from these ideas, serve your customers well, and take hold of success.
If you would like us to look at your business and put together a personalized plan for you, just follow the button below for a free website review:
Small Business Marketing It’s imperative for small business owners to market their product and brand so they can consistently stay top of mind to potential consumers! Too many small businesses wither away silently because they were unsuccessful in their marketing skills. Consumers can’t buy what they don’t know exists! In addition to the lack of […]
Have you thought about joining the marketing industry? Look to any business and you will see direct evidence of their marketing efforts. Their signage? Marketing. Their website? Marketing. Their radio/paper/online ad? Marketing. It’s hard to get away from it. In the digital age, it can feel like everything and everyone is marketing themselves all over […]
Wedding videography is a great way for video creators to get top dollar for their work. Unlike other video production niches, wedding videos involve creativity which means your price you can charge per job is higher. In fact, good wedding videographers can make $10,000 or more per video. In this article, we are going to give you tips and tactics for landing high-ticket wedding videography clients. Wedding video production is a great niche for new filmmakers because the barriers to entry are very low. Most newly engaged couples have low expectations for their wedding video and it’s a great way to get your foot in the door. Just about everyone knows someone getting married and by offering to do the video for free you can begin building your videography portfolio.
This may seem obvious to most, but this is a great place to start looking for clients. Unlike photography, a large portion of couples see their wedding video as optional so in most cases, they don’t mind taking a risk and giving you a shot. The important thing to remember is that if you’re going to charge a fee to film someone’s big day, it’s critical that you get it right. You only have one chance to capture the big moment so don’t screw it up. The best way to ensure that you get it right is to do a lot of planning ahead of time. It’s always important to be prepared, but when your filming weddings this is even more important. Make sure you get to the venue earlier and scout the train. Brides are almost always on the left side so it’s important for you to be positioned on the right side. At the end of the day, the bride is more important than the groom so make sure you portion yourself to film her. If you have multiple camera angles then position your primary angle on the right and secondary angles centered or not he left side. Ideally, you would have at least three camera angles so you can capture the magic moment from multiple angles. Another tip is to go to the rehearsal and make sure that you understand what will be taking place during the ceremony. In some cases, the crowd will be asked to stand up which can block your entire shot. If you can’t go to the rehearsal then make sure you communicate with the pastor or wedding planner to find out exactly what’s going on. Finally, always make sure you have extra batteries in case the worst case happens during the ceremony.
Another great strategy for finding wedding video clients is to create a website and optimize it for search engine optimization. In most cases, the bridge will be searching for the wedding videographer and if she doesn’t already have someone selected, she will search online for someone. The idea here is to position your business in front of your potential client when they come looking for your service. This is best accomplished by having a high-quality WordPress website and a Google My Business Listing set up. If you’ve decided to make wedding videos your primary niche, then it helps to have wedding related keywords in your name. This will make appearing at the top of Google Search much quicker and easier. Make sure you use a variety of wedding-related keywords throughout your website and copy to ensure maximum chance of being found. These means don’t just focus on “Wedding Videographer + City” but instead have a variety of different versions of those keywords. If your website is set up properly it’s time to work on your Google My Business Listing. Remember, GMB’s are focused on a local area so setup your GMB in the primary area you want to serve. In most cases, wedding video creators will not have an office or physical location so you will need to set up a service location.
Your best source for wedding video clients is to create relationships with wedding photographers. If they are good, they will have a constant stream of new clients and this is a great resource to tap into. Compared to other client acquisition strategies, referrals are a great source of clients because the sales process is much easier. In other words, instead of a cold lead, referrals are what is called a warm lead and there will already be a certain amount of trust form the client. If the wedding photographer is referring you then it usually means you have been pre-vetted and are going to do a good job. Now, this may or may not be the case, but in sales perception is reality. When looking to develop a relationship with a photographer it can be challenging to find more than one person to referring clients to you. The reason for this is because in most cases they will expect you to send them leads in return. This begins to get complicated when you’re working with more than one person. The best strategy here is to build a relationship with one really good, and busy, wedding photographer. That way you can just focus on building one good relationship instead of multiple.
This is my favorite tactic for getting consistent wedding videography clients. Essentially, this strategy involves using a highlight reel or wedding video you’ve done previously to directly target brides or grooms that have just got engaged. This works well because Facebook has very advanced targeting systems that allow you to conserve advertising spend and just focus your efforts on your potential customers. Once they see the video it’s wise to set up a landing page that directly speaks to their want and desire to have a high-quality wedding video. If you do this correctly you can easily get a steady stream of new clients. Like all other marketing strategies, this tactic works best when you have a great highlight reel or wedding video that shows you are a good videographer. Plus, if you can tap into the emotion of their special day, you can easily set up a system where you will have unlimited new wedding clients coming to you. If you’d like more information on how to set up this entire system then check out our training below. We go through step by step our exact strategy for creating the wedding video advertisement, landing page, how to invoke emotion, and of course how to close the client with ease. If your new to wedding videography and are looking to get started this is a very simple and efficient way to land your first few clients. If you’re a seasoned professional this is a great way to keep a consistent flow of clients coming so you can get top dollar for your work.
If you’d like more information on the 5-Days To Unlimited Weddings System then click on the link below:
https://www.sethmorrisey.com/wedding-course
In conclusion, wedding videography is a great niche for videographers looking to get top dollar for their work. If you want to charge more per job or hour, you need to focus on niches that allow for creativity and you need to master them. That will allow you to stand out from the crowd and begin to build a name for yourself. Video creators that focus on wedding videography for any length of time usually find those wedding clients are easy to land and their price per wedding job will continue to rise.
Despite the logic behind search engine optimization there are still naysayers speaking against SEO and the effectiveness behind it.
Despite the fact that trillions of people are still Googling things every year, these naysayers still speak of the death, or non-existence- of SEO.
Despite the naysayers, the haters, and the non-believers, we know that SEO is alive and well.
And while algorithms have changed, the way we optimize has changed, and other various things have changed, SEO and the principals behind it have stayed the same.
Even though the idea that SEO is dead is generally false, we can agree that some SEO practices have become obsolete or fizzled out. Any SEO or web expert knows that this is due to the ever changing and top-secret nature of search engine algorithms – specifically Googles.
Peoples opinions are just that – opinions. Typically used to stir up buzz and media. The truth of SEO is this, as long as there are search engines, it is always relevant and needed. Search engines run on algorithms and this means that they are looking for certain things, but what they are looking for can change as often as weekly. Search engine optimization helps the bots and crawlers find the things search engines are looking for in top-rated and trustworthy websites. Google and other search engines only want to serve users the most relevant content – algorithms and SEO practices are how they do that.
While Googles ever-changing algorithm doesnt always favor the most current SEO practices, it is proven that an optimized website ranks far better than those that arent. Websites listed on the first page of results see 91.5% of the traffic share. This means if your page is on the 3rd, 4th or even 2nd page of results a lot of web browsers may not even see your listing.
People are free to think SEO is dead. While you are thinking that, your competition is passing you by at a fast pace.
Making money as an independent videographer can be tough. This is why we are putting together a full comprehensive course on how to do just that. It is 10x easier and faster with a roadmap and a mentor to do anything in life.
We just launched a course for Videographers looking to get wedding clients. We literally got 8 quality leads in 7 days. If you are curious how, you can find out here: https://www.smartfilmmakers.com
If you are interested and would like to get notified when it comes out, email us at: contact@oregonwebsolutions.net
While pictures and video have been used to commemorate moments, and as an advertising mechanism for years, it is undeniable that the last decade has brought a huge surge of the want and need for quality digital content. Take a look at Instagram, or Facebook for example – the most popular content is generally high-quality photos or videos. With huge advancements in technology and the mass number of skilled photographers, and videographers, quality content is no longer as hard to come by as it once was. As an aspiring videographer you likely know that there are dozens, if not more, people in your area just like you and simply being good at what you do isn’t always enough to get clients. With that being said, if you’ve got the skill and passion to pursue video production, you are in a market full of work to be done as clients for video work will never run out – there is almost always be a need for quality video content. Whether it is for marketing purposes, weddings, businesses, etc. you can guarantee there is someone out there looking for your services. But, how do you find your clients? Keep reading for our best tips on how to secure your next video production client, and continue to grow your video production business for years to come.
While there is no shortage of people needing video production, it does not hurt to visualize your ideal client. What is your preferred style of shooting? What would you consider your area of expertise? What is your past experience, and how does that play a role in your future as a videographer? These are all good questions when trying to identify your ideal client to work with. If you would consider yourself good at what you are most interested in (for example, shooting aerial shots with a drone) consider niching down and pursuing clients specifically interested in that type of videography.
While it is a given that a photographer would have photos available to showcase their skill set, it’s not as simple for videographers. Make yourself a digital portfolio, or consider creating a highlight reel of your past work to help attract new clients, or showcase your work to potential clients. With that being said, you don’t need to have full versions of every job you’ve ever done available, but you should have something to represent yourself and the type of work that you do. Consider posting this (or clips of/from it) on your website, and social profiles so it is readily available to those just browsing – you never know who may need a job done.
Remember – when content marketing via social networks like Facebook and Instagram simply posting good content isn’t enough to make your posts visible. In order to beat the algorithm and create organic reach, you will need to post with the intent to engage with your followers. Accompany your picture with a caption willing viewers to comment by leaving a reply, or tagging someone else. Also make sure you are engaging with those that engage on your posts, like their comments, reply back to them and give their page a look. Consider following and liking/commenting on other content that is similar to yours. Build a network of online “friends” and mutually use your engagements with each other to help boost your posts and help it show up on people’s news feeds. While there is a multitude of ways you can attract new video production clients, we would suggest starting out with these few easy tips. Being a successful videographer in today’s market is harder than ever, but is by no means impossible. Put in the work, and produce quality content and you are already on your way to success and more clients. Good luck, and happy filming!
The world has never been the same since the Internet was introduced. With the advent of the digital revolution, amazing things that we once thought were impossible were made available to us. It made the world a smaller but a better place especially for selling your products, services, brand, and business as a whole.
With the development in the business world comes the evolution of marketing terms, jargons, and acronyms. Almost all marketers are guilty of using different kinds of terms that at times confuse the clients. The truth is even marketers are sometimes confused about the terms and acronyms that they use.
One perfect example is the acronyms, SEO and SEM. In the online marketing world, these terms are most often used interchangeably. Some even pull the terms from thin air without clearly knowing the distinction between the two terms.
If you are nodding your head in agreement while reading this, then you are not alone. The terms search engine optimization and search engine marketing can be very confusing. While they are related, they are individually different.
Let’s take a look at both terms deeper and expand on each one as we go along. SEO is increasing the number of website visitors by enabling the site to show high on the results when you search a particular term or sentence using a search engine. SEM, on the other hand, is an internet marketing process that increases the visibility of the site through advertising and organic search engine results. SEO is just a part of one of the strategies of SEM.
SEO or search engine optimization is a strategy of turning a website into a user-friendly site for search engines to pick up. It involves several technical components like utilizing clean code, fast load times, and high-quality content. This could be in the form of visitor statistics, content, backlinks, multimedia, as well as social media sharing.
The search engine giant Google is believed to be using more than 200 criteria before finally deciding which site tops Google’s search results for any given keyword. SEO is just one of the numerous components that make up SEM. Its major function is to enhance the exposure of the site in the search engine results page. As a result, it aids in raking in free and organic traffic to the website.
The focus of search engine optimization is to make high-quality and valuable contents that relate to the business itself. Additionally, the content is deemed relevant to the searchers by the search engine. It is important to note that the search algorithm of the search engine giant is incessantly modifying and altering.
It is very important that you understand and track these changes. In addition, SEO strategies do not work overnight or give you results immediately. The normal SEO campaign typically takes anywhere from 6 month to 12 months for good results. When executed properly, it could pull in heavy traffic to your website that will set off a positive domino effect on the business as a whole. Normally it’s important to have a good strategy which involves link building too. Find more info on this kind of SEO strategy on OutreachMama blog.
Search engine optimization is composed of two unique pillars. These are the on-site and off-site pillars. The term on-site refers to everything within your own website. Some basic tasks in on-site or on-page SEO include the following:
Off-Page or off-site SEO includes the following:
Search Engine Marketing is a type of Internet marketing that promotes websites by making them very visible in various SERPs because of advertising and optimization. SEM uses advertisements and paid search listings. Unlike its components SEO, SEM delivers quick results by providing fast and substantial exposure to a particular site or the page.
Aside from search engine optimization, SEM involves using a paid search like pay per click listings as well as advertisements. Most often search engine marketing includes pay per click activities and campaigns. However, if you utilize paid search and SEO, then it should be recognized as an effort under SEM.
There is a list of prevalent practices for optimizing your money within a paid search campaign. This includes the following:
PPC campaigns are highly focused. You should finish thorough keyword research before consider this option or buying. When you have finally selected the keywords that are most pertinent to your brand or business, you can buy the ads on the SERPs where those keywords will be found. In this type of campaign, advertisers pay every time an ad is clicked or its link is opened. Some of the examples of this kind of campaign include Google AdsWords, Yahoo Search Ads, and Bing Ads.
This strategy includes providing exact ads or content to a site user depending on their geographical location. This process is designed to focus on local customers making it a perfect strategy for small businesses.
This is the primary component of search engine marketing since these are what users key in on the search box of the search engines to learn about something. Before you invest your money in this method, it is important that you do some research about the keyword. This way, you will determine what the users would like to know about your brand, business, product, or service. If you are not sure where to begin, you can find various keyword tools online.
Until now, there is a debate among advocates of either side regarding which strategy is better than the other. For an inbound marketer, the best approach would be the organic search engine optimization. However, if you look at the big picture, you will realize that genuine search engine marketing will not and could not succeed without the help of organic search engine optimization.
In addition, there are a number of instances where pay per click campaigns are more useful than search engine optimization. For instance, if you want to achieve immediate visibility when you launch your site, the best approach is to create a pay per click campaign since it works faster than SEO and gives instant results.
However, it is foolish and impractical to work solely on PPC without touching on SEO. While it is true that organic search engine optimization takes time to yield results, in the long run, organic SEO becomes less expensive and sticks around. In addition, your site will create a search reputation or credibility that you will not achieve using pay per click campaigns.
The debate about which strategy is better than the other is not going to end. However, it is more constructive if we put an end to the battle for supremacy between the two. Instead, change your perspective and treat high-quality search engine optimization as a requirement for a highly-effective and high-quality search engine marketing.
Search engine optimization is the crucial stepping stone for highly-optimized content that customers and prospects of the search engine marketing find useful. Without blog content, landing pages and web pages that are optimized for search, your efforts in search engine marketing will be in vain because of low quality. As a result, there is little to zero chance that your page will be visible to the SERPs.
In the long run, organic search engine optimization will establish your website’s credibility given that you maintain the quality of your content as well as your social media usage. Organic SEO then becomes less expensive. So, going back to the question, which is the best tactic, the answer is it depends on your specific needs and what you would like to achieve. The key here is fully knowing the difference between the two and maintaining the consistency of your efforts.
At Oregon Web Solutions, we also offer the following services:
We hope you enjoyed our article on SEO vs SEM. If you are considering looking into SEM and SEO or any of our other services and would like a free consultation, simply fill out the form below and we will get back to you right away:
SEO vs SEM
If there is one thing that the 20th century is known for is its quick rise to the digital world. The last couple of years brought about several innovations pertaining to artificial intelligence, 3D printing, virtual reality, drones, and plenty more. All of these are relevant and crucial in the business operations within the different industries.
In fact, there are those who have completely integrated their strategies into the digital marketing world. Indeed, communication has become much more efficient and marketers have found new ways to reach a new audience and expand their customer base. With that in mind, this article will explain the importance of digital marketing and why it is important to find digital marketing companies to do the work for you.
The difference in the construction industry is that its procedures and projects have become much more complex and larger. If you are in the construction business, you will know that sustainability is one of the many crucial factors. This is needed to operate and manufacture the projects. Also, the number of workers with the right skills in their field has become limited.
For each industry to survive this technological era, there is a need to adapt to the changes. Oregon Web Solutions knows this as we use digital marketing for General Contractors as a means to grow and scale construction businesses.
Here are some of the reasons why a construction company should consider using digital marketing to grow their business:
As communication becomes much more efficient, companies are using the internet to reach a wider audience. The internet is a vast place where people store and retrieve data every day. Companies are using this to develop an online presence that will boost brand awareness. With the help of Oregon Web Solutions’ products and services, you can harness the true power of search engine ranking. You’ll be able to create a consistent flow of traffic to your website which will result in new leads and customers for your business.
The beauty of the digital marketing world is that you can reach a new audience right from your home location (no traveling needed). With the online presence, you will establish, you will have the power to communicate with your customers from anywhere in the world. In addition, you can ask them for testimonials to be posted on your website. Remember, word-of-mouth recommendations are one of the most effective forms of marketing strategy. Those who have provided great testimonials can serve as references for potential consumers.
Another benefit you get from hiring an online marketing expert is that you get a chance to learn more about your customers. With this knowledge, you can focus on what they love and what they don’t love about your services. The comments and feedback from your customers are a great basis for re-establishing your operations to ensure that you provide high-quality service. Also, you get to learn more about your competitors as well. Depending on how you acquire these customer insights, you get a glimpse as to which of your competitors does your target audience love. By learning the gaps in your services, you are provided with an opportunity to become better.
Those who are involved in the construction industry are and should be focused on improvement and operations for their business. With this said, there is a high chance that they do not know some of the basics of marketing their products and services in the digital world. With OWS’s effective SEO strategies, you can ensure that your company will begin to reach the top search engine results pages or SERPs. This will guarantee a consistent flow of traffic and clients which is what we all want and how you found this article.
With proper consultation from our construction company digital marketing experts, we will formulate strategies that will ultimately increase your traffic and conversion rate. You will also learn a lot more about your current presence and how to improve it on your own. You’ll also learn the importance of local listings and having them properly optimized. Most are shocked as to how many people are searching for what you have in your own neighborhood and they will never find you if you don’t know how to place yourself in front of them properly.
Another effective digital marketing strategy offered by OWS is Paid Advertising. With this, you can gain quick exposure to the online community as well as build a loyal customer base. Online advertising or paid channel marketing can also be referred to as pay-per-click or PPC campaigns. These can do wonders when properly used for your website.
Hundreds of millions of people surf the web each day. Of these millions, many are using the web for the purpose of shopping. When it comes to finding specific items, one of the best means you can use to narrow down your focus is a search engine. In fact, a recent study has revealed that over 80 percent of people surfing the web find the sites they are looking for through search engines.
What this means for your business is that it is absolutely mandatory for you to have a presence on the web. It’s no good having the best quality goods for sale at unbeatable prices if no one knows you exist. Without an official website and subsidiary social media pages, you’re going to go unnoticed all the way to an early bankruptcy.
In order to avoid coming and going in the blink of an eye, you’ve got to get your business noticed by a sufficient number of people. There are several means that you can use to achieve this goal. One of the most efficient ways to do so is to make use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO is the art of maximizing the content on your website for search engines. This means that when people search for a certain phrase – for example, winter coats – they should be able to zero in on the content that you have on your website regarding this item. The idea is for your winter coat content to be as close as possible to the first search result that comes up when they punch in this phrase on Google.
But, of course, Google and other major search engines won’t make it quite so simple and straightforward for you. Their reputation for state of the art customer service demands that they propel only top quality content to the top of their search results. If the content on your site isn’t up to their standards – which change continually at a rate that they aren’t making public to business owners – you’re going to find your content at the bottom, rather than the top or even middle, of the results.
There is a method that has been hailed as an effective shortcut to getting maximum exposure on the web without having to observe the normal rules of SEO. This method is called Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. PPC basically comes down to the act of buying a series of ads complete with sponsored links that are tailored to show up in search results.
PPC ads can be loaded with high-value SEO keywords and phrases. The more you pay per keyword, the higher your chances of getting your PPC ad on the first page of a major search engine result. Every time someone clicks on your ad, you pay a certain amount -hence, “pay per click.”
The main advantage that comes from using a PPC strategy is the speed with which multiple ads – each specially laced with multiple high-value keywords – can appear on search engines. Results can sometimes be measured within minutes. It’s important to note that the higher the value of the keyword you are using, the more you will pay. Some PPC ads cost a penny per click, while others can cost as much as a dollar or more.
It’s up to each individual business owner to decide if the PPC approach is the best one to adopt. If your current conventional SEO campaign isn’t quite getting you the results you need, you may be tempted to mount a high dollar PPC campaign just to bring in some needed traffic. However, the cost of doing so needs to be calibrated against the ability of your budget to withstand such a potentially heavy blow.
Meanwhile, running a conventional SEO campaign may take longer to produce results but will definitely cost less in the long run. As a matter of fact, a recent industry study has shown that a conventional SEO campaign routine occupies 11 percent of the average business owner’s advertising budget. Compare this with 87 percent that is devoted to PPC advertising. The difference is tangible and instructive.
Perhaps the most important lesson to take away here is that an SEO campaign may be the “slow and steady” approach but will put less of a strain on your budget. A PPC campaign is flashy, noisy, and effective in the short term. However, the results it produces are necessarily temporary. For this reason, experienced business owners tend to use it sparingly in addition to, rather than in place of, a conventional long-term SEO campaign.
When it comes to deciding whether to mount an “organic” SEO campaign or go the PPC route, there is one important factor to keep in mind. Making use of the conventional SEO methods will give your business a much-needed dose of long-term credibility. This is because your content will continue to be seen on a regular basis by web shoppers who prefer to do their own searching rather than being dazzled with a flashy PPC ad.
Many people simply don’t want to click the PPC ads that appear on the right-hand corner of their screen. They find these ads distracting and annoying. In addition, most people don’t like a PPC ad of the pop-up variety that suddenly appears and covers up the content on their page. The only kind of response you’ll get from this kind of person is a click away from your content.
An organic SEO campaign will give you credibility with the kind of web shopper that prefers to find content at their own pace. This will help you build a positive public reputation that will give you top marks with people who prefer to shop long term in the same few locations. These are the kinds of customers whose loyalty will prove to be a major asset.
It is true that PPC ads are certainly more noticeable than organic SEO. By definition, they can’t help but be. And you will get a huge number of people that will gladly click through to your website. But, as noted above, the results are temporary. A PPC ad will only last for as long as you continue to fund it. If you are currently in the early stages of your career, the length of a PPC campaign will be limited by the size of your budget.
Meanwhile, organic SEO lasts longer, costs less, and brings in the kind of people who prefer its slow and steady pace. You may not be able to get to the top of the search results page overnight. But if you keep at it long enough, you will eventually be in a position to reach the coveted pole position.
So what you think? Is SEO worth it?
If you would like to find out how much SEO for your website would be, fill out the form below and we will send you a free SEO video evaluation at no charge.
Whether you believe it or not, 1 out of 8 searches online still are done with Yahoo search. Even though this is a much smaller search tool than Google, you will still want to get your local business in front of these searches. Even though Yahoo has made a lot of confusing changes as of late, you are still able to claim a free local business listing with them. Let’s get into how this is done below…
In the last few years, Yahoo made an announcement that it was filtering off its small business division to a different company called Aabaco. They made mention that the previous local business services Yahoo offered would be branded by Luminate. If that wasn’t complicated enough, Yahoo then announced the outsourcing of its local business listings to Yext.
Luminate is now gone. Yahoo Small Business is now Aabaco Small Business, and Aabaco outsources everything to Yext. Yext then manages all the local business listings using a completely separate product called Localworks.
What a confusing mess right?!
No need to worry about any of this. Only one thing is truly important here and that is that you are still able to get a free local business listing on Yahoo.
That all of it! Now have free listing on Yahoo that is fully claimed and you can manage at any time.
Great question, it is highly recommended that you also have a local listing set up through a GMB. This will help you get found in search engines at a much higher rate in your local search results.
All you have to do is submit your information to Google and they will verify your listing through sending you a post card in the mail.
Any directories and local citations you can get your Company in will help you get found online. It will also help your online reputation by giving you more assets to control for your brand.
If you don’t mind paying the money, you can always set things up through Yext powerlistings, but that will coast about $45 a month.
We Hope you enjoyed our article on setting up a Yahoo local listing and found it helpful. If you have any question, please feel free to reach out and ask us below:
If you’ re not gaining visibility and customers from local search, then you and I are gonna solve that problem right now with a jam-packed local SEO tutorial.
Hi, my name is Seth from Oregon Web Solutions. I’ve got quite a complete tutorial for you on how to do local SEO, so even if you’re just starting out, this article should simplify the process for you quite nicely and help you gain visibility in local search. Let’s dive right in…
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. For example, if I type in the best Mexican restaurant Toronto, you’ll see that the top of the search results are dominated by a box of local listings on Google Maps, which is called the “Snack Pack”. Below that are your typical organic search results. It’s super important that you can gain a position in the “Snack Pack” because they generate 33% of clicks on the search results page. But it’s equally important to rank in the organic search results since they attract 40% of clicks. So bottom line, It pays to rank in both spots, which is where local SEO comes in.
Now, Google has an estimated 87% market share, in the US, which means that most people are using Google to search for local businesses. So in this tutorial, we’ll be focusing on local SEO in Google only.
Now, let’s get on the same page and draw out an example scenario. Let’s say that I’m opening up a new coffee shop in downtown Toronto for cool, hard-working people like SEOs and entrepreneurs. We’ll be open 24/7 because our target audience tends to work around the clock. And of course, there will be fiber internet because there’s nothing more frustrating than slow public WiFi. To differentiate ourselves from other coffee shops and build some nice recurring revenue, we’ll be offering virtual office services for a set monthly fee, which includes bottomless coffee, your own private cubicle, and incoming mail service. I’ve invested in this concept, I’ve dropped a lot of coin, but no one knows about my business because they’re finding other coffee shops like this in Google search.
Alright, so we’re going to start with step zero, and it’s something all local businesses need to do. And that’s to ensure your website is optimized for mobile. According to Bright Local’s study, 61% of mobile users are more likely to contact a local business if they have a mobile site. You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Just enter in your domain or URL and shortly after, Google will tell you whether your page is mobile friendly, or if it’s not.
On to step one, and that’s to claim and optimize your Google my business listing. This is arguably the most important part of local SEO. And it’s actually quite easy to do. Just go to google. com/business, sign into your Google account, and the first thing you’ll need to do is enter in your NAP, which stands for name, address, and phone number. If you have a business with multiple locations or you purchased a franchise, then you can start typing in the business name, and you’ll see a list of businesses that are already registered in Google’s database.
My business is called Oregon Web Solutions, so that’s all I’ll write and click next. It’s important to note that your business name is not meant for keyword stuffing. So I wouldn’t write something like “Oregon Web Solutions Portland Oregon 24/7 – Oregon Web Solutions”. It’s not going to help you rank, so don’t bother.
Next, we’ll enter our address. Now, since we are an SEO Company, we’ll obviously have a physical location, but if you’re an independent service provider like a photographer or a work-from-home consultant then your typical client meetings might happen in their office, or in a coffee shop. If that’s the case, then you can enter in your home address, select the “I deliver goods and services to my customers,” then choose to hide your address since it’s not a store. Now, when your business shows up in Google search, it’ll just show the city and province/state where you work.
Since that doesn’t apply to our business, let’s move on to the next step, which is to pin the marker on the map. Google’s pretty good with this, but you’ll want to examine the map and make sure it’s in the exact position where your store is located. Just drag and drop it and click next when you’re done. As Google recommends, don’t add multiple categories to list all of your products and services. Instead, you should focus on this statement: “My business is a blank. “Rather than “My business has blank” So in the case of Oregon Web Solutions, our business is an Internet Marketing Company, even though it has virtual office space. Just start typing in a description and select the most appropriate one from the drop-down.
Let’s go to the next step, which is to enter in your phone number and website, which is pretty straightforward. This step is optional, but I recommend including both. Now, we’ll need to finish off the process and verify the website, which can be done by phone or mail. You just need to follow the instructions from Google and your my business listing should be active in no time. Before you continue, you should add a few more optimizations to your listing. You can click on the info menu in the sidebar. Then you can click on the pen icon to edit different parts of your listing. So you can add more relevant categories, for example.
Other things you should do is to set your hours of operation, add specific URLs to important pages, add a description of your business, and photos of your actual location.
Now that we have the foundation set up for local SEO, let’s move onto step 2, which is to do some keyword research. There are some obvious terms you’d want to rank for like “Portland SEO”, “Search Engine Optimization Portland“, “Portland Marketing Agency”, and “Portland SEO Company”. With these kinds of local search queries, Google pulls the information from the Google MyBusiness listing. For example, if I type in “what time does Starbucks close”, Google will pull up the Starbucks in my vicinity and show the hours of operations for all locations on the map. And if I specify a location or use a single location business, then you’ll see a quick answer box like this, which is pulled directly from Google My Business. So rather than going deeper into the “Snack Pack,” or Google Maps listings we’ll be talking about keyword research for the organic search results. First, we need to brainstorm your SIL’s, which stands for “service in locations”. As a Marketing Agency, I’d want to rank for queries like these:”SEO Companion In Portland” “Internet marketing company in Portland” and and so on. We’d also want to rank for synonymous variations like “company in Portland”. A photographer, on the other hand, might want to rank for “photographer in Toronto” or “photographer in a nearby city.”
Here are a few ways you can generate solid keyword ideas. First is to use Google’s autocomplete. Just type in the main query you want to rank for, and you’ll see a few good suggestions here like “open late”, “financial district”, and “Portland Oregon”, which may likely come from tourists or travelers. If you’re in the services industry, then you can look at local classified sites like Craigslist. So I can search in their services category and use a seed keyword like “photographer”,and you’ll see some cool ideas here like “experienced”, “freelance”, “engagement shoot” and more. But in my opinion, the absolute best place is to find the keywords that your competitors are already ranking for. And the reason why this is so effective is because this is basically telling you which keywords that you can also rank for. You can use a tool like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, and enter in the domain of one of your search competitors. Next, go to the organic keywords report. And this report will show you all of the search queries that the domain is ranking for.
You’ll see that they’re ranking for a lot of branded queries, so you can use the exclude box, and type in the brand name, which will give you a nice list of relevant keywords to target. And just from a quick scan of this list, there are a couple of keywords that I would have never thought of like “Portland SEO Experts” and “search engine optimization Portland Oregon”.
You should have a solid list of keyword ideas now, so it’s time to move onto some on-page SEO. If you’re familiar with SEO, then you’ll find that a lot of the typical on-page SEO best practices apply here. For example, it can be advantageous to include your keyword in your H3 tag, add your target keyword in the title tag, set the URL slug to your keyword, and use short URLs.
But there are a few other things you should specifically do for local SEO. Now, these optimizations will vary depending on if you have a single location versus multiple locations. So I’ll cover both.
The first thing you’ll want to do is optimize your homepage. In general, most single location businesses should optimize their homepage around their primary location. So as a Portland-based marketing company, I would probably target keywords like “SEO Portland Oregon,” rather than SEO.
Here’s why: If you look at the organic keywords report for your competition, you’ll see that nearly all of the keyword rankings tend to revolve around their homepage and you can see where they rank in the “Snack Pack” for that keyword phrase.
So here are a few on-page optimization tips for your homepage. First, show NAP information, which again is name, address and phone number on the homepage. In fact, you can add this to the footer of your entire website if you operate from a single location as you can see in this example here. And it’s absolutely critical that your name, address, and phone number match exactly or as close as possible to what you’ve submitted to Google My Business. You can also add testimonials or reviews of your business here and use Schema markup, which we’re going to attack right now.
Schema markup is code that you add to your website to improve the way search engines read and represent your page in the search engine results. You can use Google’s structured data markup helper to eliminate a whole mess of complicated coding. Just select a data type, so in this case, we’d choose local businesses, then enter in the URL of the page you want to markup and click the “start tagging” button.
Next, just click on the elements that you want to tag. So if I click on the logo, I can set it to the name. Then I’ll scroll down to the footer of the page and add a few more markup elements.
The last thing I’ll add is the address. You would need to select all of the different parts of the address and choose the correct field. Also, you’ll see that they include their address here, but left their postal code out, so in this case, if I were this business, I would include that in the footer too. Once you’re done, you can click on this button, and a piece of code will come up which you can add to your website.
Now, if you’re a business that has multiple locations, then you’re exempt from the rule of optimizing your homepage around your primary location. And by multiple locations, I’m not referring to a couple brick and mortar shops 10 miles from each other, but bigger companies like hotels or car rentals where they might have hundreds or even thousands of locations. Instead of the home page, you would want to optimize local landing pages by including key elements like the location’s NAP, operating hours and sprinkle in related keywords targeted at that location.
The next step is to build local citations. And citations are online mentions of your business. There are two main types of citations. They are structured and unstructured. Structured citations are mentions that include your NAP information and it’s usually presented in a visually-structured manner. So this would include places like business directories and social profiles. Unstructured citations are mentions of your business that don’t follow a structure. So this might be in blog posts, preferred vendors pages or on other websites. And building local citations is super important. According to a 2017 study done by Moz, citation signals were one of the top local ranking factors, which was true for both Google’s “Snack Pack” results and regular organic search results. And this is likely due to having consistent NAP information from all over the web, which verifies that the data Google has in their My Business listing is accurate. On the other hand, inconsistent NAP information can confuse or mislead both Google and potential customers.
So your job is two-fold: First, you need to make sure that your existing citations are correct and consistent. And second, you need to build more relevant citations.
So to handle the first part, you need to perform a citation audit. More often than not, some of your citations will be incorrect and/or incomplete. And you can run a quick search using Moz’s local search tool. Just enter in the name of your business, and choose one from the auto select options from the best results. From here, you can see a breakdown of the complete, incomplete, inconsistent, and duplicate citations, which you can then manually fix. You can also do a manual audit using Google search operators, which I won’t get into now, but you can check out our local SEO blog post. The link’s in the description. After you’ve completed your audit, you’ll want to build more citations.
Now, if you’re a new business, I would start with a list of core structured citations. Whitespark.ca has a great resource on places to build these structured citations, whichI’ll leave a link to in the description. Just choose a country, and you’ll see a list of places to add your mark. You can then branch out to other relevant local directories like your local chamber of commerce, other local business associations and then expand to niche specific websites like TripAdvisor, HomeAdvisor, Findlaw and more.
Another great place to find citation opportunities is to let your competitors do the work for you. So using Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, look up the homepage URL of one of your competitors since most citations will lead to the homepage. Next, go to the anchors report. In here, you can use the search box to look for any of these keywords: These are common anchor texts that you’ll find in directories, which make them easy citation opportunities. So if I search for “website,” then I’m gonna click on “details” and “referring domains,” then you’ll see a bunch of places where we can build both structured and unstructured citations.
Another hyper-effective tactic you can do is to use the Link Intersect tool. In the top section, enter in the name of a few of your organic search competitors. With these citation hunting methods, it should be enough to keep you busy for a while. But we can’t stop here because we still need to build quality editorial links.
According to Moz’s 2017 survey, link signals were the most important ranking factor for local organic results. For the local “Snack Pack,” links were the second most important factor. Rather than focusing on a full-out link building tutorial, I want to leave you with two tried and true tactics that work.
The first is to create and promote a useful resource. In this case, a local resource related to your niche would be ideal. I know I say it all the time, but people are more willing to link to helpful articles over salesy content like product and services pages. So a couple ideas would be to create local “best of” guides or content that would appeal to your target audience.
So for example, we could create content on how to rank your business in Portland, where we can plug our own products. We could also create content targeted at small business solo preneurs on the best and affordable local places for office space, since we offer virtual office services.
The second tactic would be to guest blog. Even though guest posts normally come with a link back to your site, I want you to look at this as an opportunity to build yourself up as an industry expert. This is particularly important for people in the services industry. People want to hire professionals they can trust and know will do a good job. And often times, they’re willing to pay a premium to have the peace of mind that the job’s gonna get done right the first time. And you can look for local blogs that accept guest posts by googling any of these queries.
So looking at the search results for “Portland” “write for us”, you’ll see some very relevant local websites that are seeking writers. You can also do this in Content Explorer to expand your list of potential guest posting prospects. Just type in a topic related to your niche. So I’ll type in “coffee beans” and I’ll also set the search to a title search for more relevant results. Next, click on the “one article per domain,” filter, since we don’t need to contact the same website multiple times. Scrolling down a bit, you’ll see this post on The 12 Best Coffee Beans to Buy. From here, you could easily pitch yourself as a pro barista that runs a cafe in Toronto and share some actionable or interesting insights on something like roasting beans.
The last and final step is to take care of ongoing activities. Even though you’ve set up your Google My Business and built a bunch of citations, these are all things that you want to have well-documented. In business, things change. That might be you moving to a new location, changing your phone number, or even changing your business name, in which case, you would need to update all of your citations. So the first thing you need to do is ensure that you keep your Google My Business account active.
I recommend all local businesses play around with this feature and stay active with Google Posts. It doesn’t take any more time than a tweet and there’s a ton of potential to garner attention from Google searchers.
Is your head spinning yet? SEO is no joke and we’ve covered a lot here. Ultimately the takeaway is how important SEO is to you, and your local businesses success. Without online visibility, you risk missing an entire demographic of people that may otherwise seek out your products or services. Don’t waste your time or hard earned money on PPC ads that will yield little results. Instead, invest that time and money into proven practices to boost your business today.
If you’re wondering how to take the next step, and put these tactics into action, we recommend checking out some of our other SEO articles, which will dig deeper into some of the topics we’ve talked about like link building, SEO for blogs, and on-page SEO techniques. If you are interested in learning more about SEO, and how it can help you and your business, click here and contact us today.
