by Courtney Dobson | May 16, 2019
Consumers are turning to the Internet more often than ever before when seeking out information. Google, specifically, is where the majority of those searches take place. In fact, Google receives over 63,000 searches per second on any given day.
When a user conducts a search for a specific keyword or phrase, Google utilizes machine learning technology to populate results that are most closely related to the user’s intent. Your ranking in these search engine results pages (SERPs) is determined by a number of factors. Things like keywords, meta descriptions and backlinks play a large role in where your website falls after a user conducts a search.
It’s important to constantly seek out ways to improve your Google rankings by adapting your website to follow any new trends or best practices taking place in the search world. Here are three ways that you can help improve your ranking.
Improve Your Website’s User Experience
There’s no shortage of websites available on the Internet. So, when a user lands on yours after a search is conducted, you need to be sure that your site is one that is easy to navigate and has good structure. Your site’s structure is a roadmap for search engines and helps them understand what your website is about. Based on this structure, Google will determine which pages hold the most value.
A well-structured website has a logical and simple hierarchy (below). Beginning with your homepage, your website should extend out to relevant categories. For example, if you owned a restaurant, your categories might include “Menu,” “Location,” or “Our Story.” The subcategories would then fall below those, like “Dinner Menu,” “Drink Menu,” or “Brunch Menu.”
A study by SEMrush revealed that the top four ranking factors for appearing in SERPs are website visits, time on site, pages per session and bounce rate. You want your site to be organized in a manner that users can easily find what they are looking for. This will subsequently have a positive impact on these factors.
Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search usage has grown substantially over the last few years, and consumers are utilizing it frequently when seeking out information on a local business. Research shows that 58% of consumers have used voice search to find local business information within the last year, and 46% of voice search users look for a local business daily.
That’s a lot of searches. And to better ensure that your small business website shows up in such searches, it’s critical to optimize for voice search. Voice searches vary significantly from text ones, as they are more conversational and lengthier in nature. For example, a user seeking out salon information might type “salons in the Detroit area,” but using voice search they might ask, “What salons offer coloring services near me?”
You want to adapt your content to match such questions. Think about your customers and what they might search for when looking for information about your business. Having an FAQ page on your site can help build out some of these commonly asked queries and prove beneficial in improving your SEO. You can also create tutorial-based content that shows a user how to do something, like “how to detangle hair,” or “how to create the perfect beach wave.”
Focus on Your Links
There are two main types of links that have a great impact on your SEO. Inbound links, which are links on outside websites that link back to your site, and outbound links that direct users to a website away from yours.
When inserting outbound links into various pages on your website, you want to make sure that you are linking to credible, relevant sites. Google sees this as a positive, which helps increase the credibility of your site. However, be careful not to include too many links as this will be a red flag for Google. Add relevant links to pages that really fit the content and support the message you’re trying to get across, like a statistic or study that supports your position.
Inbound links, or backlinks, can tremendously improve your SEO, although the links are only valuable if they are from high authority sites. Look for websites that might find a link to a resource on your site valuable.
By doing a simple search, you may even find websites that mention your business’s name, but don’t provide a backlink. Reach out to them and see if they wouldn’t mind inserting a link back to your website. If you’re unsure of where to begin, there are plenty of resources available that explain best practices for obtaining backlinks.
In addition to your inbound and outbound links, you also want to be sure that your site is rid of any broken links. There’s nothing more off putting than clicking on a link and receiving an error message. And because it would be very time consuming to go through each link individually, there are sites available where you can go and enter a URL from your website to be analyzed. This type of tool will then find any broken links on that specific page, so that you can go in and correct them.
by Courtney Dobson | May 10, 2019
Below is the roundup of some of this week’s MarketingBitz articles and blogs. MarketingBitz publishes digital marketing articles, videos and slideshows written to address the needs of small businesses.
How Can New Technologies Help Small Business Owners Get Back to Business? (May, 2019)
MarketingBitz: “The tasks involved with being a small business owner have shifted radically over time. Small business owners are now often forced to take on many different roles when operating their businesses, and their duties extend far beyond just interacting with customers.”
Part 2: Local SEO is About Much More Than Just Your Website (May 8, 2019)
MarketingBitz: “In Part I of Hibu’s Local SEO series, you saw some of the many parts that make up modern (or local) SEO – what it takes to optimize your website for both your customers and search engine crawlers, and why SEO isn’t just about optimizing your site anymore. Now let’s take a look at your other online properties that contribute to the bigger picture of Local SEO.”
What’s the Better Investment – Paid Search or SEO? (May 9, 2019)
Business 2 Community: “ Working with limited marketing resources often means prioritizing your initiatives based on the overall impact they can have on your goals. One of the main considerations in this pursuit is whether your time is better invested in paid search or in search engine optimization (SEO). This can be a tricky decision.”
Facebook Launches New Small Business Marketing Tools (May 8, 2019)
Small Business Trends: “Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) launched a new small business product bundle this week. It’s designed to help the 90 million small businesses using it. The new products integrate on both Facebook and Instagram.”
5 Tips to Improve Your Under-Performing Content (May 7, 2019)
Search Engine Journal: “People remove content when it stops adding to company goals. They fix content when it’s broken by redirecting content or repurposing it as new opportunities arise.”
by Courtney Dobson | May 9, 2019
The tasks involved with being a small business owner have shifted radically over time. Small business owners are now often forced to take on many different roles when operating their businesses, and their duties extend far beyond just interacting with customers.
In fact, a Salesforce survey revealed that two-thirds of owners are personally responsible for a minimum of three additional areas of their business, including operations, finance, sales, marketing (digital and traditional) and more.
It’s unreasonable to expect any one person to be an expert in all of these different areas, so it’s important for owners to have a way to streamline these processes. The good news is, as responsibilities have increased, technology has advanced, and it’s paving the way for business owners to get back to business and continue doing what they love.
More and more technologies are readily available that help small businesses at every phase of their journey, whether it’s marketing, payroll, HR, customer service or something else.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Millennial business owners — who’ve been at the forefront of the technology shift with the popularization of social media and the Internet — are generally more eager to implement such technologies into their businesses than other generations. Chase’s “Small Business Leaders Outlook 2018” survey showed that 78% of Millennial business owners are always looking for a new technology to help manage their businesses, compared to 63% of all small business leaders.
Despite the fact that these technologies can without a doubt help business owners get back to where they want to be, the Salesforce survey from above revealed that only 17% of small businesses spend over 25% of their annual budget on technology.
This begs the question, why? According to the survey, budget constraints (53%) is the biggest challenge small businesses face in adopting new technology. Others included not enough usage to justify expense (49%), difficulty in customizing new technology to meet our business needs (48%), inflexible technology that doesn’t adapt as the business grows (44%).
At the LSA’s upcoming MarketingBitz Bootcamp on June 3 in Washington, D.C., we will hear from speakers designed to help business owners gain even more hands-on and practical technology knowledge that can apply in the day-to-day operation of their businesses. Learn more here: https://marketingbitz.com/bootcamp/washingtondc-2019/.
by Courtney Dobson | May 3, 2019
Below is the roundup of some of this week’s MarketingBitz articles and blogs. MarketingBitz publishes digital marketing articles, videos and slideshows written to address the needs of small businesses.
How to Add SEO to Your Website for Maximum Impact (May 3, 2019)
MarketingBitz: “Many people think of SEO as content to improve rankings and, more specifically, the keywords you add to this content. This is only partially correct. Whereas content and keywords are a major part of SEO, there is much more to optimization. For the best results, you need to infuse SEO into your entire site.”
Does Your Local Business Need a Customer Experience (CX) Strategy? (April 30, 2019)
MarketingBitz: “If you could do one thing to increase your revenue, stop losing customers, lower marketing costs, improve your business’ reputation, skyrocket your referrals, lower employee turnover and increase satisfaction ratings, would you do it?”
3 Hacks to Never Stress About Your Business’s Social Media Content Ever Again (May 2, 2019)
Business 2 Community: “What’s posted on a business’ Instagram account is usually very different than what’s posted on their LinkedIn. It can feel like a headache. Figuring out what to post on each platform is time-consuming and – let’s face it – confusing (we all know how quickly social media algorithms change).”
A 6-Step Workflow to Create Video for Multiple Platforms (May 1, 2019)
Social Media Examiner: “You’ve heard the news: Video is king on social media. Unfortunately, picking up the crown to rule your own video kingdom isn’t as simple as hitting Record on your camera. Here’s why the social video landscape is more complicated and challenging than ever:”
Facebook is Introducing New Business Tools for Messenger (April 30, 2019)
Search Engine Journal: “Facebook is making Messenger even more useful for businesses with tools designed to generate leads and book appointments. A series of Messenger-related announcements came out of Facebook’s F8 conference on Tuesday with new features coming for businesses and everyday users.”
by Courtney Dobson | Apr 26, 2019
Below is the roundup of some of this week’s MarketingBitz articles and blogs. MarketingBitz publishes digital marketing articles, videos and slideshows written to address the needs of small businesses.
Here’s 5 Reasons Why You Need to Add More Content to Your Small Business Website (April 25, 2019)
MarketingBitz: “Before the Internet, small businesses were basically local. They did not compete with the “big boys” who had warehouses and distribution centers all over the country. And they advertised locally – fliers in the mail, possibly some radio and TV if their budgets would allow.”
Facebook Vs. Google Local Search: What Your Business Should Focus on (April 23, 2019)
MarketingBitz: “Most of us know Google as the head honcho of the online search. So much so, that we’ve just started using the word “Google” as a verb to describe looking something up on the internet. It seems as if nothing and no one could compete with them.”
Instagram Introduces Quiz Stickers (April 24, 2019)
Search Engine Journal: “Instagram has officially launched quiz stickers which allow users to create multiple-choice questions for their followers to answer. Quiz stickers are designed for use in stories and function similarly to other interactive stickers, such as the poll sticker and emoji slider.”
Thinking about Updating Your Business Website? Here are 5 Reasons You Should (April 23, 2019)
Small Business Trends: “There are at least a dozen reasons why any business, regardless of industry, needs a website. For starters, your customers are online. According to Internet Live Stats, there are (at least) 3.5 billion Google searches made every day.”
5 Proven & Easy SEO Tactics That Deliver Big Wins (April 22, 2019)
Search Engine Journal: “Search engine optimization, when done correctly, can take a lot of work. This is why so many people are so eager to take shortcuts. Fortunately, there are some tasks that don’t require as much effort, compared to tasks like link building, yet still yield significant gains.”
