Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO: Looking Beyond the Rankings

July 1, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

With several algorithm changes in the past years, the definition and primary focus of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has changed immensely. These changes have caused confusion amongst many business owners. Although many businesses understand the importance of SEO and have benefited from it, few are aware of the process that goes into it. Most believe that SEO is all about rankings. Yes, SEO will increase your rankings in the search engines, but that’s a byproduct of the process, not the end goal.

What is SEO?

Wikipedia defines SEO as, “the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page.” While this is true, it is far less descriptive than it should be. SEO refers to the consistent development of a business’s online presence to increase reach and visibility to a target audience. The development process is based on search engine algorithms that are regularly updated and modified. That being said, there has always been one factor in these algorithms that has stayed true and consistent: Good content. The algorithm updates ultimately work towards determining how well a site meets the needs of the user. With fresh industry related content, users will likely visit more pages, stay on your site longer, interact (comment, like, download, etc), and convert on sales. All of these metrics are reflected positively by search engines and are reflected in the rankings.

Several business owners tend to get tied up in the thought of keywords and rankings. While keywords are important, they don’t mean anything without the right content containing those keywords. Sure, you could rank well for certain areas of interest, but if your web page does not follow SEO best practices and does not have updated relevant content, it will actually have a negative impact on your online presence. Websites with poor or no SEO will have a high bounce rate, when visitors leave after viewing only one page, which will drastically decrease a Business’s positioning in search engines. More importantly, that means a loss of visitors and sales. This means businesses should put less focus in stuffing your website full of keywords and more focus on maximizing the user experience.

The purpose of SEO is to increase visitors to your site and their retention level, increase brand awareness, and most of all increase sales and leads. With effective SEO, all of these will be accomplished which in turn will lead to an increase in rankings.

What can SEO do for my Business?

It’s 2015, business is no longer just walk-in sales. Businesses are seeing a huge percentage if not their majority of visitors and sales via online. Evermerchant reports that e-commerce sales generate more than $1.2 Million every 30 seconds! Without an effective SEO campaign, your business will miss out on a great financial opportunity.

With that being said, more visitors to your site does not directly correlate to an increase in sales or leads. An effective SEO campaign enables your business to target relevant consumers with relevant content or products/services. Good SEO speeds up the process of generating traffic to your webpage and makes it much easier for consumers to find just what they are looking for. Search engines distinguish the most relevant content to match a user’s search query, so the way you create, maintain, and position your website’s content is vital to your business’s success.

A properly optimized site should answer 9/10 questions a visitor has regarding the topic they searched for. This means that the page they land on should have up to date useful content as well as easy to follow navigation that points visitors in the right direction. Let’s say for example you’re searching for a new cell phone. After adding your specifications to your search, you click on a cellphone distributor. If this site has been modified effectively, you would hope to see a list of relative cell phones, content about them, and even comparisons amongst them. The page should also have links to other internal or external pages that provide more information. That is what a site with good SEO looks like. The goal is to help the customer as much as possible and provide them with enough information so they are comfortable enough make a purchase or to interest them enough to generate a lead.

Rankings aren't Everything

“If you ain’t first, you’re last” is the common misconception regarding SEO and search engine rankings. While it is true that ranking higher in search engines leads to more visitors, it does not mean these visitors are the ones you’re targeting. Having an effective SEO campaign is all about quality over quantity.

Years ago the rankings within search engines were a decent method of evaluating a sites performance and relevancy but those days are no more due to several algorithm changes. Now search results are much more personalized with the user’s experience as the top priority. Google, for instance, takes search history, geographic location, social media, as well as the device being used to search all into consideration when a search is conducted. All of these factors take less control out of the website owner’s hands with regards to rankings.

Let’s say for example you own a small plumbing company and you are interested in improving your business’s SEO. You, as many businesses owners do, search Google for “plumbing” or “plumbing services” to evaluate your site’s performance. The problem with this method is that what you see is not what everyone else sees. Google’s search results will adjust its ranking order based upon what sites you have visited already with regards to plumbing. This will more than likely boost your site assuming that you visit it more than other sites. It will also show you local listings of plumbing companies in your area near the top of your results. These local listings are not only tied to your business’ website but also to your business’ profile on Google My Business and other local directories, which do indeed increase relative traffic. Google will also include sites that your Google+ friends or associates have either followed or interacted with.

Google and other search engines are businesses and search results are their product. They want their product to be of the highest quality it can possibly be, so search engines have shifted the focus towards improving the user experience. So what does that mean for your business? It means to worry less about rankings, and more about developing and updating all platforms in use, as well as evaluating your current data to identify your strengths and weaknesses. If your website is seeing an increase in activity but is not necessarily ranking high, do not sound the alarms. You can’t always control your ranking, but you are in control of improving your visitor’s experience. Put your efforts towards providing up to date industry related content and watch the numbers speak for themselves.

Conclusion:

As a business owner, understanding and utilizing SEO is vital for both financial growth and brand awareness. Years ago, evaluating rankings were a clear depiction of how well your SEO campaign has been but not any longer. Now business owners should look past the misleading rankings and focus more of their attention on the analytics. The process of SEO is not a sprint, it’s an ongoing marathon. If you’re seeing a steady increase in traffic, mentions, leads and sales, keep doing what you’re doing and let the rankings take care of themselves.

By: David McDowell

4 Questions for Your Business Organic Search Audit

April 22, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

There’s not a business on the planet that doesn’t want more leads and sales. In today’s marketing environment, it starts with search rankings or does it? SEO is about keyword relevancy and intent so SEO crosses over into other marketing tactics.

How does an SEO audit impact your business goals?

The purpose of a website or SEO audit is to evaluate the existing position of your website as it relates to search engine performance. Sometimes it’s not the keywords or rich snippets that are impacting SEO, it’s your website. The audit will provide you with information to prioritize your need to grow your business, improve your search engine results, and generate more leads. You can draw some parallels from being a GM in the NFL. You have to evaluate your team, staff, facilities, etc. The evaluation provides you with a plan and a course of action to achieve the ultimate prize of an NFL Championship.

Do You have the Resources to Act on SEO Evaluation?

There are a number of SEO audit tools out there on the web. They range from free to paid solutions but never ask any questions about your resources (webmaster, programmers, tools, seo consultants, etc.) to fix the problems. Someone may have done some type of SEO work but what was or was not included in the SEO project. The bottom line is if you don’t have the resources or know how to make any changes, what’s the point of the SEO evaluation? It’s the equivalent of a team having the number 1 pick in the NFL Draft without the money to pay, coaches to prepare, and facilities to train or the ability to keep him.

Are you looking at SEO trending (#mobile)?

The SEO landscape continues to change for mobile, (Mobilegeddon) desktop and tablet. In addition, you need to take into consideration your specific business and the competitive landscape. In general, website audits software does not account for this. Again using the football analogy, the entire league is turning into a pass happy league, so the question is do you have a plan to account for the trending. If not, what’s the game plan for the future and the competitive landscape (talent, scheme, etc)?

Are you realistic with your SEO expectations?

I have clients or prospects call the office all the time with this statement that I want to be number one in the search engine results. It’s ok to have this expectation if you’re fairly well positioned within the search engine results but if your website is a structural or content nightmare, let’s get real! It’s like the equivalent of Raiders talking about winning the championship when they haven’t made it to the playoffs in almost a decade. So, please set realistic expectations and not dreams!

When you decide to run an SEO audit for your business I recommend settings goals and evaluating whether or not you’re going to be able to do anything with the information provided. Consider the resource that you may have to actually fix the problem/s. Take a look at your industry trends to prepare for your business future and the competitive landscape. Be realistic with your expectations after your analysis and plan the next steps.

Mark your Calendars: Google’s New Algorithm is Coming

April 8, 2015 by Dabrian Marketing Group Leave a Comment

Google’s “Mobilegeddon” will begin on April 21st. This means that Google is no longer just recommending mobile friendly sites, they are requiring it. A study from Adobe found that 45% of businesses don’t have a mobile-optimized site or a mobile app. This means nearly half the businesses with an online presence will be penalized and see a significant drop in traffic. If your site is not mobile friendly, what are you waiting for?

Listed below are 5 mistakes to avoid while creating your mobile site in order for it to excel.

Not Considering Mobile First Design

According to Seoclarity, mobile search currently makes up about 30% of total traffic, regardless of the industry, and will only continue to grow. When designing your website, consider making your mobile site first. Create a simple, yet effective page with the user’s experience in mind. A study by MediaPost shows that 48% of mobile shoppers said that “ease of use” is their most important quality they look for in a mobile site. So just remember the old acronym K.I.S.S (Keep, it, simple, stupid).

After that, use your mobile site as a core basis of developing your desktop view. There is nothing you can put on a mobile site that can’t be loaded on a desktop. Progressively enhance your page with extra information and a more extensive navigation (as long as it’s relevant).

Not a Responsive Site

So you’re interested in mobile, but the thought of having two separate sites sounds difficult and time consuming. Well the good news is you don’t have to, nor should you. A responsive design, using the same site for both mobile and desktop, is the best option. In fact, Google actually recommends this approach. A responsive site is more efficient for Google to scan and review, making it more likely that your content will show in the search results. It also eliminates the possibility of being penalized for duplicate content as you most likely would for having two separate sites.

Consistent web design is also important because multiple device screening is becoming extremely prevalent. In fact, Google reports that 67% of online shoppers use multiple devices during their process. Users will look at products on mobile and revisit later on a desktop (or vice versa) hoping their history, preferences, and shopping cart is synced. The longer the conversion (sale or lead generation) process takes, the more likely the user will not complete it.

No Mobile Search Strategy

Since you’re using a responsive site, you can use the same search strategy, right? Not necessarily. Typically mobile users have different interest and intent than those on desktops. To develop theses strategies, use Google Webmaster’s tools and apply a mobile filter to your search query information. Compare the similarities and differences among mobile and desktop and begin to develop a list of keywords from that. Then do mobile competitive analysis using tools such as SEMrush, SearchMetrics, Sistrix or SimilarWeb, to develop a masters list. If your competitors do not have mobile sites, this is the perfect opportunity to get a leg up.

Not Assessing Mobile

Just because you have a mobile site does not mean it is mobile friendly. It is in an owners best interest to test the functionality of their site, among different devices and operating systems. Also they should check for any crawling issues or error reports (especially 404’s). Besides the technical aspect, ask yourself, “are SEO best practices still being followed?” Relevant and unique content, tags, titles, meta descriptions, site speed, etc should all be accounted for.

Evaluate the performance of your mobile page. This will show you the intent of these users. Which pages are receiving the most visits, have the longest view duration, and have the highest conversions? Make sure these pages are easy to get to by placing them in the navigation bar. Also asses which pages have a higher bounce rate on mobile. This could be an indicator of an error, or that the page is just not relevant to mobile users.

Still not sure where your stand? Google offers a free tool to test your sites mobile friendliness.

Not considering the impact on local search

According to Think With Google, 94% of Americans with smartphones search for local information on mobile. If that’s not enough to grab your attention, Google also polled mobile users searching for local businesses and discovered that half of them visited the business that day. This means your mobile strategy should be geared locally. To guarantee you are maximizing your reach and visibility, make sure your address, phone number, email, and any other business information is accurate and consistent. This information should not only be a resource, but provide as a simple and efficient channel for the consumer to further connect with your business as well. Consider adding a click-to-call button, syncing your location to Google maps, and making sure all email addresses are linked. This not only generates more traffic, but also will lead to more leads and sales.

Google’s “Mobilegeddon” on April 21st is the biggest update concerning mobile thus far,but it most likely is only the first of many more to come. If you are not mobile friendly by the time it is released, your visibility will certainly decrease and expect a substantial drop in traffic.

Do not wait for your site to be penalized, call DaBrian Marketing (610.743.5602) and create a mobile site now!

By: David McDowell

2015 Guide to Kickstart Your SEO Strategy

January 7, 2015 by Daniel Laws Leave a Comment

The office holiday parties are over, the gifts have been opened, and the New Year’s ball has dropped! 2015 is officially underway and so it’s time to move you and your clients’ SEO strategy into this year and beyond. If one thing is certain, it’s that big changes to the organic search algorithm are on the way. With that being said, here’s your guide to the big ticket items that will impact your 2015 SEO strategy.

Improve Organic Search with Mobile Devices for a Successful 2015 SEO Strategy

According to the November 2013 Google/Nielsen Mobile Path to Purchase study, search is the most common starting point for mobile research. Mobile organic search and smartphone usage continues to increase and makes information accessible in real-time. This trend undoubtedly will continue in 2015. But it won’t just be about finding your products or services; it will be the entire mobile user experience across multiple devices (tablet and smartphones) and operating systems. Focus on having customers find you, navigate seamlessly, and discover relevant content based on their search terms.

Use Different Content Types with Intent in Mind

There are “different strokes” for your different audiences, so it’s important to use different content types for search platforms (images, videos, text) as well as considering demographics, interests and a user’s intent. For example, are customers looking for product instructions, directions to a storefront, or comparison shopping? I would recommend that your content represent the brand voice and follow brand guidelines for consistency. Regardless of the different content types, organic search does not exclude branded search terms and your brand can and will appear in different forms. By diversifying your content, you’ll have more opportunities to achieve the goals of your SEO strategy.

Invest in Video as Part of Your SEO Strategy

Based on a recent eMarketer study, watching videos is on the rise, so have you given thought to communicating with your customers with video content? More than 77% of all tablet users will watch video programming on their devices at least monthly, and that penetration rate will grow to 87% by 2018, totaling 149 million tablet video viewers. My recommendation is to start brainstorming, create relevant content, optimize your videos, and leverage video platforms that connect prospective customers to your brand. Consider transcribing your videos into text to improve visibility and additional link earning as well. And remember, YouTube isn’t the only video platform on the planet! Find the best fit for your brand’s message and pursue it.

Build Relationships to Strengthen Your Organic Search Strategy

In my opinion, brand relationships will be critical to driving SEO strategies in 2015. I use the word “relationships” because it’s about the people and the relevant content that’s associated with them (what brand advocates like vs. what your prospective audience likes). By building relationships, you will increase visibility for your brand, create linking opportunities, and engage with influencers that resonate with you as well as your brand. Think about ways to develop an effective outreach program and reconnect with bloggers, journalist, reporters, etc. to get you started.

Develop Your 2015 SEO Strategy with Metrics and Milestones

Take a look at your mobile organic search traffic, assess your existing mobile design and organic search from mobile devices (smartphones and tablets). Identify opportunities to help customers find you, navigate seamlessly via mobile and get to your most relevant content. Test new ways to diversify your content with customer intent in mind. Find opportunities to build relationships via social media, but don’t be afraid to pick up the telephone (they’re people too)! I would recommend re-evaluating metrics/KPIs, establishing benchmarks associated with your organic search strategy’s past performance, setting targets or milestones, and connecting periodically within internal contributors to gauge progress.

Ready to ring in the New Year with an updated SEO strategy? Share your story in the comments!

3 Reasons to Fire Your Local SEO Service Provider

November 26, 2014 by Dabrian Marketing Group 6 Comments

Clicking the send button for the third time, you’re starting to wonder if your Internet is down. Or if you spelled your account rep’s email wrong. Or if a sinkhole opened up beneath the city where your local SEO agency is located.

In any case, this lack of communication is the straw that’s about to break the camel’s back. And that’s not even the half of it. It’s time to cut ties with your local SEO service provider. Open up your company letterhead and start that strongly-worded termination notice, because…

1. They’ve been trying to game the system

It’s no secret that there are companies out there that disguise unethical tricks and aggressive techniques as “premier local SEO services.” The bottom line? They might be able to provide temporary boosts in rankings, but you shouldn’t expect those incremental shifts to stay for very long. In fact, if you haven’t seen your organic search performance take a nosedive as a result of your local SEO agency’s work, you should consider yourself lucky.

What else should throw a red flag? If you notice any of the following:

Inaccurate or non-specific local listing information
Too many Google reviews you don’t recognize
Multiple listings for your single business location

It’s very likely that the agency providing your local SEO services is more concerned with compensation than actually helping your business’s local visibility. And if you haven’t heard from them in a while, it’s probably because…

2. They’ve Left the the “O” out of “Local SEO”

Because the local SEO space changes so often, whether from the perspective of user search trends, algorithms, or the platforms themselves, it’s in a local SEO service provider’s best interest to stay up-to-date. And really, that’s what it’s all about. It’s called “Optimization” for a reason; it’s a process that must change and adapt as the search engines do. No business can hope to succeed if their agency is taking a “set-it-and-forget-it” approach. If you suspect your vendor is guilty of this, here’s a great way to evaluate their approach:

Simply ask: “What does your roadmap for local SEO services look like for the next 3 months?”

If your agency rep either A) has no idea what you’re asking them, or B) makes no mention of a specific change made by Google, Yahoo, or Bing, your Spidey senses were spot-on. And while you have your agency on the line, it might be worth asking about why…

3. They’re not measuring progress in a meaningful way

If you can remember the last time you got an SEO report from your agency, you’re off to a good start. The better question is, “When was the last time you took that report and actually did something with it?”. In reality, local SEO services shouldn’t stop at the services themselves. Without a transparent culture where the client is fully aware of the progress of a local SEO campaign as it relates to your business as a whole, there’s an immediate disconnect. A disconnect not only between what your local SEO agency has promised and the results you should be seeing, but also between your marketing budget and what led to a measurable return on investment. A professional local SEO report should contain:

Key measures of success that you’ve seen before and/or approved
A comprehensive data set without any big gaps or inconsistencies
Action items and/or a timeline of next steps that they will take on your behalf

A good way to determine whether it’s really time to pull the plug on this agency of yours? Do some research on your own and challenge them to see if they’ve done theirs. If they don’t have data to back up what they’re doing or a culture of measurement to prove that what they are doing is effective, it’s time to show them the door. That is, as soon as they answer one of the emails you’ve been sending.

Is your local SEO agency helping or hurting you? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Your Guide to Measuring SEO in 2015

November 5, 2014 by Daniel Laws 4 Comments

Danny Laws, Principal Owner and resident “Sharp Dressed Man” here at DMG takes to our big whiteboard wall to cover the top considerations for measuring SEO in 2015.

Learn the tactics and metrics your team should look to measure, what’s coming down the pipeline, and what you can leave at the door.

Read Transcript

Hi, I’m Danny Laws, Principal owner of DaBrian Marketing Group, a full service digital marketing agency in Reading, PA. I wanted to talk to you a little bit today about measuring SEO in 2015 and some of the things that I believe are going to come down the pipeline and have a little bit more of an emphasis.

What we have here is our digital analytics framework: Strategy, Implement, Measure, Optimize. With that being said, when we talk about measurement of anything, we talk about the goals and objectives, the execution of the measurement plan as it pertains to the measurement of all things related to your business, but in the case of this particular scenario, we’re talking about the measurement of SEO. We want to gauge progress, and we want to make improvements as it relates to organic search traffic coming to your site.

Now, in the past we’ve talked about the “ABCs” of measurement, of digital analytics, of web analytics, however you want to define it, and we’ve talked about the Acquisition, Behavior, and Conversions. In my opinion, in 2015 when it comes to measuring SEO, we’re going to have a little bit more of a focus on the measurement of the Audience, the SEO-related Audience. From a measurement of the SEO-related Audience, we want to talk about the demographics, the interest information. We also want to talk about the location, the localization of keywords and phrases. Is that the same audience we’re talking about within this strategy, that we’ve identified with KPIs, that we’re concerned with? You want to keep that in consideration.

Also when talking about the measurement of SEO, of organic search traffic, you want to tie this back to Acquisition. When we talk about Acquisition, we’re talking about the search engines (Google vs. the Yahoo/Bing Network). Typically, we see roughly 90% of that traffic within the US coming from those areas. Is that trend holding true? Are we looking at those components consistently? At the same time, we’re talking about the Acquisition via keywords, phrases, themes of keywords. Are we getting users and visitors coming from organic search traffic when we measure Acquisition via SEO? Are we getting what we need or what we thought we were going to get from those keywords and phrases, as well as the appropriate search engines?

The next component when we start talking about the measurement of SEO in 2015 is the Behavior component. For us, we do a lot of creating of content, whether it be video, whether it be infographs, whether it be blog content, those types of components. Is the information, those URLs that we look to do some link earning with, are we seeing traffic coming to those specific URLs that we’ve targeted for people, that we’ve leveraged our relationships for? Are we seeing what we expected to happen from a link targeting, link bait, link earning, however you define it, in this particular area? At the same time, when we’re talking about measurement of SEO, where is SEO in the events that are coming from SEO? Are we seeing a difference there, and what kind of user behavior is happening on the site from a pageview perspective, from a depth of visit, from returning visits, those types of behaviors as well, looking at that information. And my favorite part here within the behavior, is looking at it from a testing perspective. So, when we run tests, have we sliced and diced the data to look at how SEO or organic-related traffic is being impacted from a behavioral perspective here.

The last piece of this is Conversions. When we talk about the micro/macro conversions, measuring conversions from SEO, we want to specifically look at the measurement of keywords, phrases, themed keywords, a group or cluster of keywords specifically, are we seeing organic search conversions coming from that particular area?

What I would recommend at this point when you’re talking about measuring SEO in 2015 is making sure we revisit the strategy to account for the appropriate KPIs associated with SEO in itself. We want to update the implementation, i.e. the configuration, making sure that the configuration is appropriate to capture this audience-related information because of the updates that have happened, a number of systems around collecting audience information. Also the privacy policies, don’t forget about this particular component when we talk about the audience.

The other piece here is to validate that the data as it pertains to SEO, as well as the overarching goals and objectives, is being collected according to what you’re trying to capture within the KPIs in general. And then, you want to create hypotheses around SEO. Whether it be checking out themed approaches, keywords, different landing pages, those types of things. Content ideas. Create hypotheses, test these components. Within the framework of measuring SEO in 2015, I wish you the best of luck in taking these items into consideration. The audience, the acquisition, the behavior, and the conversions.