No BS SEO ( Search Engine Optimization )

With more than 5+ years of experience helping small to medium size companies improve their websites. I find some folks believe they understand SEO but don’t realistically know what their SEO staff can or should accomplish.

Because most of you are a small to medium size company and might only offer niche or highly specific products and services, you will NEVER see the kinds of traffic Amazon gets. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

SEO is not hard–but you can’t rank well without consistent work.

Leaving a site untouched for months is a killer for rankings. SEO takes consistent effort from a staff member to update and review site weekly, year after year, to make sure it provides your visitors with a good experience.

Realistically, a new site or updated site, without using black hat tricks, can see a reasonable increase in the # of visitors in 6 months to a year, yet most likely it will take longer.

Lots of SEO firms insist you need to do a million adjustments to your site to rank well. Believe me I am here to tell you don’t do it. I have tried them all for clients looking to improve ranking–but what I have learned the really, really hard way— you can do all of these minor technical issues and spend lots of $$$$—— a not get results.

The reality is that most of these activities will increase your domain authority score and rankings only slightly.

It is not worth the money you will have to spend to fix everything on a site.

So don’t be fooled by anyone telling you need a full site analysis for $5,000- $10,000 and then more $$$ to fix the site. Today, after running SEO reports on 100’s of website, I can find out what is really wrong in about an hour or two. Costing you only couple hundred dollars.

Here are some SEO activities I found that will matter for rankings.

There are three main areas of focus to ensure success of your website and rankings:  Technical, On Page and External Links

Technical:

Again, there is a long list of items you can worry about.

The one goal for the tech side is to make sure the site operates efficiently and is live 24/7.

First pick a good server host for your site. We have switched a lot of clients over to AWS (Amazon Web Services) because their site was down often due to their current provider or in-house server failing. AWS is reliable (rarely goes down), and can more secure compared some other options, without needing a expert on board.

The website must be secure–HTTPS–if not visitors could get the page of death.

This site is not secure we recommend not visiting.

There is no way anyone wants the IT department breathing down their necks because they visited an un-secure site.

All URL’s need to work–no 404 errors

Limit the amount of redirects, this helps improve website speed.

On Page: Content/Content

The main goal is to keep people on your site longer and not bounce.

Good content on each page is a must- No Fluff! You need to make regular updates by posting at least 2-3 items per month—blog posts, images, or updates to product/services sections.

Make sure all Page URLs and IMAGES include relevant descriptions. Good descriptions makes it easier for the search engines to know what the page is about.

For example: www.TTToys.com/kids/trucks/green/10dollars.

Regularly add good videos and other interesting graphics. No budget for these. Just use your phone camera/video.

External:

This is the hardest to do and takes a lot of effort— earning high quality backlinks.

You can realistically add least 6-9 really good links per month with effort every week. The links can be from a vendor site, high quality directory and publishers, Social Media (Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter), influencer pages, trade shows you exhibit, and everywhere else on the worldwide web that make sense.

Again, please don’t be conned by SEO firms wanting big $$$ for fixes. The bottom line–offer a site that operates smoothly, with good content your current and potential client want and can be found on other credible websites.

Contact me to learn how I can help you with your SEO program: nanette@nsg.consulting

Your Company Blog Is Still Just as (or More) Powerful Than Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook

Today, it can be easy to disregard something like blogging as un-sexy and outdated in terms of being a viable channel to market your business. Plus, with a new social media platform arising virtually every year, neglecting blogging is easier now than ever before.

Despite this, having an active, curated company blog is just as important today as it was 10 years ago (if not more important).

In this article, you will discover a handful of reasons why you should still blog even if you’re killing it on much newer, hipper social media platforms. You’ll also learn four strategies on how to maximize blog traffic and the influence of your blog.

Why You Should Still Write a Blog

1. Longer Lifespan of Content

For the most part, Instagram and Snapchat content doesn’t show up in Google’s search results. On top of that, the lifespan of a Snap is a mere 24 hours. On Instagram, posts are lucky to stay relevant longer than 13 hours.

The short life cycle of this social media content is certainly a double-edged sword: the fact platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are so real-time means they facilitate the fluid exchange of ideas and information. All this makes them timely and relevant, thus powerful tools.

On the flip side, it also makes content on the same platforms fleeting, causing it to be difficult for businesses to keep up with the “digital Joneses” when it comes to social media. It is in the best interest of these social media platforms to ask for more content. It is in the best interest of Google to ask for the best content.

By having a company blog, customers could potentially be reeled in years down the road, all with a single piece of high quality content.

2. Impact on SEO

Image Credit: VerticalResponse.com

Despite the amount of media attention given to Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook and company, you shouldn’t forget that there are approximately 3.5 billion Google searches conducted every single day.

Comparatively, Facebook sees an estimated 2 billion searches per day, and Pinterest approximately 2 billion searches per month. Instagram’s total monthly user count just recently reached one-fifth of Google’s number of daily searches, and Snapchat is even further behind.

It’s clear Google is still the world’s top search engine. In order to get the most out of Google, you should be taking SEO (search engine optimization) into close consideration. When it comes to SEO, writing quality blog posts is a terrific way for your company to climb up the search rankings.

The higher your SEO, the higher your probability of landing a client who stumbles across your work through Google in the future.

3. Ownership

Time and again, history has proven that the relevance of social media networks is a hard thing to predict. Just remember, Myspace was king from 2005 to 2008, Tumblr was popular from 2007 to 2013, and Vine was hottest from 2013 to 2015.

Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and the rest are all terrific platforms to use in order to garner the attention of your audience and to grow an audience, but using them as your company’s “home base” could prove unwise.

Blogs are much different. They are yours and only yours. No one else can take them away from you…well, except GoDaddy or Google Domains, but you get the point.

Successful Blogging Strategies

Now that you know a handful of reasons why blogging is still an indispensable marketing strategy, the real work begins. To help you, here are some tips and best practices to use to make sure your blog is getting the maximum exposure it deserves.

Leverage Platforms Like the One You’re Reading on Right Now — Medium ;)

It’s no surprise that today’s online landscape is saturated, and the blogosphere is no different. That’s why fresh platforms like Medium are such a valuable asset to have to increase the traffic and influence of your company blog.

Medium provides the perfect venue to showcase your own blog because it is (more or less) a blog in itself. It is a channel designed specifically for written content.

Additionally, Medium provides users with something they can’t automatically get from a standalone blog: a built-in audience of more than 30 million monthly users. Medium gives users the scale that would otherwise take years to build and nurture with a standalone blog.

Ready to get started? Here are some pointers:

1. Read Quincy Larson’s article, which analyzes the best practices of the top 252 Medium articles in 2016.
2. Use tools like Rabbut and Upscribe to seamlessly capture your reader’s emails, preferably after offering them a freebie (ebook, video course, etc.) in exchange for their email address.
3. Use Medium to republish content from your company blog, and be sure to include a link to the original post so readers can stay in touch with you.
4. Try your very best to get published on a large, relevant publication. To do this, reach out to the respective editor (via email or Twitter) with a link to your 100% completed article. Include a quick pitch going over why your content would be a great fit for the publication.

Don’t Be Afraid to Pay

Don’t be too shy to pay to promote your blog in the form of social media advertising (via Facebook ads, LinkedIn ads, and Twitter ad, etc.).

Social media moguls like Gary Vaynerchuk think Facebook advertising is single most valuable commodity in the online marketing world today, so it could definitely be worth your while to put some dollars behind the medium.

To get started, watch this short tutorial video covering how to create and manage Facebook Ads.

Use Quora

Neil Patel, digital marketing expert and founder of four multi-million dollar companies, preaches to his audience to search on Quora to discover which questions are being asked most often in your niche. You can find these questions in the Top FAQ section of the website.

After you find a question you like, write an answer to it in the form of a blog post. This will increase the likelihood others will search for and see the post, find it valuable, and come back for more.

Network

You never can go wrong with networking, and tools like Meetup.com, Facebook Groups, and LinkedIn Groups make meeting like minded people easier now than ever before. Set aside an hour to search for groups and meetups in your niche.

If you enjoyed reading this post, please recommend and share it to help others find it!

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Call to Action

If you really enjoyed this article and want to receive the shortened, PDF version of The 7 Mindset Shifts Needed for Successful Social Media Marketing, then click here to receive it now!

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This article was originally published on Inc.com.

https://themission.co/your-company-blog-is-still-just-as-or-more-powerful-than-snapchat-instagram-and-facebook-2caa4a60a316

Why your competitors are beating you online

Photo credit: 

Milca Mulders

Are you lost because your website is not showing up on search engines as the Number 1 result?

There are lots of discussions and articles on how to fix websites. But let’s make it easy by narrowing it down to the few key measurements that search engines consider to be the most important this year.

Before looking at your site---- it is important to look at your competitor’s site that is now on top and ask yourself :

Does it load quickly?

Do you trust the company/website/person based on a landing page?

Can you find the competitor’s website link on another trusted site?

Are they running online ads?

Now go to your website:

Does it load as quickly?  

If not, you can test your site on Google’s speed test that provides suggestions on what needs to be fix: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

If you’re not sure what the Google test results mean, then your site probably has some backend technical issues that need to be address.

Now try to find something on your site that you customer might really need to know--- For example how to return an item?

Can you find it quickly or is it buried somewhere on the site?

If it is buried--- make plans with your web team to put it on the first page with a link to find more info.

Next-- Do you believe the text that describes your company, your mission, and products or are the words fluffy?

(An example of fluffy—“Our mission is to be the best and truly serve our customers.”)

This is lazy text that needs to be improved to build trust, because how much time did you really spend on that mission statement?

If your site is full of  fluffy content, find someone to help you rewrite the text and eliminate the fluff with real examples of what you can really do for your customer --- such as –-- “We will reply to your email request within an hour.”

Can you find your website link on other trusted sites?

If not, you really need to find ways to get them on other sites as quickly as possible. Any industry or association site that list companies that offer your services is a great place to start. Then move on to vendors/partners, other blogs or ecommerce sites.

Are you running ads?

If not, you should explore some options to help generate visits to your site.

If yes, re-evaluate the ads and revamp your efforts.

If you fix these few issues you should see improvement in your website search engine rankings fairly quickly. If you still experience trouble with your rankings, there are deeper issues and you should turn to a local search engine optimization expert to help fix them.

For more assistance visit our website: www.nsgconsultinginc.com

Why your competitors are beating you online

Photo credit: 

Milca Mulders

Are you lost because your website is not showing up on search engines as the Number 1 result?

There are lots of discussions and articles on how to fix websites. But let’s make it easy by narrowing it down to the few key measurements that search engines consider to be the most important this year.

Before looking at your site---- it is important to look at your competitor’s site that is now on top and ask yourself :

Does it load quickly?

Do you trust the company/website/person based on a landing page?

Can you find the competitor’s website link on another trusted site?

Are they running online ads?

Now go to your website:

Does it load as quickly?  

If not, you can test your site on Google’s speed test that provides suggestions on what needs to be fix: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

If you’re not sure what the Google test results mean, then your site probably has some backend technical issues that need to be address.

Now try to find something on your site that you customer might really need to know--- For example how to return an item?

Can you find it quickly or is it buried somewhere on the site?

If it is buried--- make plans with your web team to put it on the first page with a link to find more info.

Next-- Do you believe the text that describes your company, your mission, and products or are the words fluffy?

(An example of fluffy—“Our mission is to be the best and truly serve our customers.”)

This is lazy text that needs to be improved to build trust, because how much time did you really spend on that mission statement?

If your site is full of  fluffy content, find someone to help you rewrite the text and eliminate the fluff with real examples of what you can really do for your customer --- such as –-- “We will reply to your email request within an hour.”

Can you find your website link on other trusted sites?

If not, you really need to find ways to get them on other sites as quickly as possible. Any industry or association site that list companies that offer your services is a great place to start. Then move on to vendors/partners, other blogs or ecommerce sites.

Are you running ads?

If not, you should explore some options to help generate visits to your site.

If yes, re-evaluate the ads and revamp your efforts.

If you fix these few issues you should see improvement in your website search engine rankings fairly quickly. If you still experience trouble with your rankings, there are deeper issues and you should turn to a local search engine optimization expert to help fix them.