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Choosing keywords for your website optimizations

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The first thing about choosing strong keywords for your websites search engine optimization (SEO) is to know what your potential client or customer is searching for that you can offer them. When a person comes to your site based on a particular keyword, will they find the items, goods or services they are seeking?  If not, you are leading them down a path that will come to a disappointing end for everyone. What are you offering that’s unique to your business?  How can you get people to come to your site for something very specific that they will be delighted to know you offer?

 

How do you do it?

 

Start by experimenting with search terms you think are your strongest possibilities.  When you enter them, what comes up? Are there lots of ads for that search term and what is the competition you have regarding those terms?

Ex: If you are a dentist, try Googling the search term dental care followed by your zip code. Location based key phrases are best with most brick and mortar businesses. If a lot of other dentists come up in that search, you are competing with those businesses for a piece of the pie using that term.  This can be costly if you are using a service like Google Ad Words as you will be competing with some of the bigger businesses for that piece of the pie.  If you have a specialty and can use search terms that are more specific to what you specialize in, you might be able to get great traction using terms about that specific service. Ex. Best tooth whitening in Orlando might be a little more targeted than best dentist in Orlando.

It’s not just about key words, it’s about key phrases.

 

What are the best tools to use and do I have to pay for them?

 

You can hire a professional SEO service, but be cautious. There are many companies that are great at this but many that are not as experienced as they profess.  Get references.

Google offers a few free tools that can be helpful. Google Key Word Planner, Google Trends and Key Word Tool io, are free and can give you some good information.

There are tools you can pay for that can be more in depth but costly.

Term Explorer and Moz Keyword Difficulty Tool are excellent products but can run as little as $35 a month to nearly $500 a month depending on what you choose.

 

How do you know when the keywords has too few clicks to not choose it?

 

It can simply be trial and error. Keep a watchful eye on it and if a key word or phrase is not bringing clicks to your site and more importantly conversions to sales, ditch it.

Remember that the sole purpose of key words is to bring people to see what you have to offer and get them to buy something, be it goods or services.

 

SEO, so what?

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Why does this work matter and what happens if you don’t do it?

SEO means: Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), if you pause to think for a second it very quickly sinks in that SEO is a very sensible thing to do. Why wouldn’t you want your site to appear at the top of a search engine’s list of returned sites?

So, before we get into how SEO works it is going to be helpful to know how a search engine finds results. Search engines are answer machines: ask a question and it searches its index to find the most relevant answers. The search engine has compiled this index using a “web crawler”, a program that visits each page on the web and all of its links, which stores a copy of the page and its URL in the search engine’s index. If you can find the page listed on a search engine then a crawler has visited it. Now, the part where SEO comes in: a search engine uses an algorithm to rank results in order of relevance to your search. These algorithms look at different elements to decide which sites come at the top of the returned list. SEO ensures that your site contains all the elements that a search engine algorithm is looking for and gets ranked highly. For example:

Title Tags (or Title Elements): are the highlighted titles that a search engine result page (SERP) displays (on Google they are highlighted blue). These tags tell Google, other search engine the main description of your site or document. They are very important and optimizing them is often one of the first SEO tasks.
Meta Descriptions: appearing under the highlighted Title Tag on a SERP. Although Google’s algorithms do not take Meta descriptions into account, since 2009, to determine a sites relevance they are essential to encourage users to click on your link, rather than a competitors.
H1 Tags: stands for Heading One and is the first thing a search engine like Google will look at to establish the relevance of your site after the title tag. With an H1 tag you are essentially telling search engines that this text, or heading is the most crucial.
Image Alt Tags: labels for any images on your site or document and Google, and others, use Image Alt tags to determine what the image is but also if the surrounding information is relevant an useful. Clear tags are very important for SEO.
Internal Linking: when a Google crawler finds your site it will also have a look at any links to see their relevance. If the link structure is unclear then it is possible the crawler may not even know the links exist. Many experts believe internal linking has a strong impact on Google’s algorithm and a clear pyramid shaped internal linking structure is key.

By using SEO your site will immediately have gained an advantage over any non-optimised sites on the web; people are inherently lazy and are most likely to click on one of the top five results, rather than any others. More people than ever are using search engines and SEO is becoming more and more common and is essential if you want to generate traffic on your site. Without SEO you run the risk of your site being buried deep in the search engine’s index and rarely read.

Why Your Business Needs to Focus on Google Reviews

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While Google+ has decided to say adios to their inbuilt review system, the standard ‘Google Reviews’ are here to stay. Most business owners can identify the importance of this review system but often fail in their attempts to get customers to leave reviews. In this post we will discuss what Google Reviews are for those of you who haven’t been acquainted yet, why they are so vital for your business and most importantly how you can get your customers to give you the glowing review you deserve.

What are Google Reviews?

Google Reviews is the app Google implemented into the popular search engine for customers to review a business or place. When someone Google searches your business name, the first thing they may notice is how many stars you have. They are eye-catching and give a pretty good indication whether your business is one they want to deal with. The reviews present the reader the only information they need before committing to continue to your website. See for yourself with this local example:

montville mountain inn Google Search

Why They Are Important

It doesn’t matter if you have hundreds of reviews on Facebook or other review sites in your industry, if you don’t have Google reviews you have no way to impress your potential customers this visibly. It’s almost like you don’t have any reviews at all if they aren’t on Google, which is arguably the most likely way for these prospects to find you. Your competitors also will have it one up on you in terms of outranking you, regardless of whether their reviews are favourable.

How To Give A Review

You need to understand how to give a review before you start asking customers for them just in case they ask you how. Luckily, it’s really easy to leave a review for a business. You just need to be logged into your Google account (Gmail, Google+ or Youtube). See below some handy screenshots:

1. Search for a business

2. On the card that appears below the search box, click ‘Write a review’.

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3. In the window that appears, click the stars to score the place. If you want, you can also write a review (try and keep the review constructive).

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4. Hit ‘Post’.

5. That’s it!

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How to ask your Customers for a Google Review

So now you understand what they are why they are important, how on earth do you get them? It’s pretty simple and sometimes you can overthink this step. The easiest way to get a Google Review is to simply ask for one. People are busy, so although they may have had an amazing experience with your business they may forget to give you praise. With this being said customers who have had a negative experience are more likely to leave a review, so it is really important you chase the feedback from the good interactions.

How you ask for customer feedback really depends on your industry but here are few straightforward ways to reach out:

  • Ask in person at the conclusion of your service.
  • Send a follow up email to your customer asking for their help. You can make it really easy for them if you include a couple of print screens.
  • Post a social media update requesting help. This is less personal, but you can reach more people this way.
  • Ask family and friends to give you a hand to establish your business reviews.

 

Creative Incentives for Your Customers

You’d be surprised at how many people will just be happy to help you, especially if they’ve had a positive experience with your business. If you are after a little more motivation for your customers though, a little incentive never hurt anyone. Again, it does depend on what your business does, but here a few suggestions to get your brain juices flowing:

  • Your humble gratitude. This is by far the cheapest option, being authentic is powerful.
  • Discount their next purchase (either a % off or a $ off gift voucher).
  • Monthly draws for a prize for one lucky ‘Google Reviewer’.
  • A thank-you gift. It doesn’t have to be physical, think about digital gifts like desktop wallpapers, downloadable guides or e-books and other types of useful downloadables relevant to your business offering.
  • Create a special ‘Club’ that receive access to specials and news before the general public.

 

There are lots of ways to approach your customers and get them to leave you a precious Google Review. Do try to keep it relevant to your business and keep it low key and not come across too ‘salesy’. With all types of reviews it is important to keep your eye on them and try to respond to them. Even the negative reviews can be turned around if you reach out and try to remedy the situation. Google is a powerhouse for your business so you need to utilise their tools if you want your business to have maximum exposure to your prospective customers.

Your Google marketing plans, what now, what next?

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Once upon a time a big advertisement in the phone book was the new business investment that kept giving all year. Everyone used the phone book, at home, school, work and 20 years ago it was a good as being on the front page of Google.

Then 10 years ago this search tool called Google meant that you could ask any question, from any computer and get a list of results that were ranked by how relevant they were to what you had searched for. The opportunity to solve life problems with a few clicks, and get business the same way was an insanely powerful idea.

Implementing successful SEO strategies for customers even just 5 years ago required skill and strategy but most importantly it was financially viable for companies of all shapes, sizes and industries. Results were relatively immediate in comparison to today.

Then a few things changed in the SEO landscape in the last few years:

  • The sheer number of companies competing for the front page increase significantly
  • Google invested heavily in changing their search algorithms according to the  mechanics of how a website works, not just the content in the site
  • Everyone started using their mobiles for search, not just their desktops or laptops

 

The net result is that it takes more hours, more site tweaks and a larger investment than in past. It is still a great long term marketing strategy but in place of SEO as a single marketing strategy has come the targeted marketing on in places that make the most sense for your business.

If you need final confirmation on why you should be on social media, its because its where you can cost-effectively reach your customers. We don’t advocate a scatter gun approach, we think you should get on the platform that gives you the best opportunity to reach your target market.

Facebook – over a billion users, it is a fantastic place to reach the end consumer where they are, at the times that they will be thinking about buying your products

LinkedIn – More than 250 million business professionals, this is where you connect to the people you already know, so that you can connect to the people they know. There is no better place to get an introduction to a company by networking with one of their employees.

You Tube – The power of this personal video streaming platform should not be underestimated. We all use it and we are happy to view an ad for the sake of it being free so why not consider this opportunity to pull in customers.

These platforms don’t just allow you to create your own targeted ads, they allow you to sponsor content you have put together so the sales approach can be softer where it needs to be.

As a final summary point, Google SEO and PPC (paid advertising) are still incredibly powerful marketing strategies. But investing in advertising on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and others allows you to cost-effectively apply your marketing strategy and get quick answers on what works best and then refine and repeat.