While blogging is immensely popular in larger cities around the nation, there doesn’t seem to be too many professional bloggers here in Spartanburg or throughout the Upstate. I have a feeling that once the word gets out on how ridiculously awesome blogging can be, it will become a commonplace for professional copywriters and freelancers alike.
What the Heck is a Blogger?
A blogger is nothing more than a writer that talks about a specialty on the Internet- like online marketing, professional football or collecting classic cars. This person usually starts out as an amateur writer with no formal training, but they have a passion for what they write about and eventually other people take notice. Before long, their website starts to get some traffic and a hobby suddenly becomes a business opportunity.
How the Heck Can Bloggers Make Money?
Here’s the sweet thing about blogging- you can write about absolutely anything on God’s green Earth and produce some income by doing it. That’s because no matter what you decide to talk about, there are businesses that have products and services that your audience would be extremely interested in. If our blogger is a Carolina Panthers football fan, for example, then he could create an affiliate account with the NFL or any sporting goods store to sell jerseys, ball caps and numerous other items through his website.
Why Do Businesses Hire Bloggers?
Like the example above points out, bloggers build a very personal bond with their readers and they usually have a very strong influence over their purchasing decisions. Let’s say our Spartanburg-based blogger told his followers, “I just had a Chili Cheese a Plenty at the Beacon and it was awesome!” Something like that makes others say, “Darn, I could go for a burger at the Beacon too!” It may be the most powerful targeted advertising there is in the world today.
Should Businesses Have their Own Blog?
Absolutely! If they live here in the Upstate and they want to bring the Spartanburg culture into their businesses, a blog gives multiple ways to do that. I tell businesses to talk about everything from local gossip to upcoming promotions to humor and seasonal activities. Tutorials on things related to your business are also great ways to gain exposure. Because what it does is make “XYZ Corporation” a living, breathing entity that’s associated with dozens of fun things around the Upstate. It is a very powerful marketing tool.
Do Blogs Help Businesses in Other Ways?
It just so happens that blogging is also the most powerful way to increase your exposure in the search engines and rake in new customers. Blogs are social by nature, so they are great to share on social media like Facebook and Google+ to build up plenty of likes and shares. Since people in the Upstate are friends with hundreds of other locals, it gives massive visibility while making your brand look good. It’s a huge win/win scenario.
Can I Use Other Upstate Bloggers to Advertise?
Believe it or not, Upstate blog writers make a good portion of their income talking about local Spartanburg businesses. They usually work in one of two formats- either by accepting guest posts (which you would write) or having them write a review of your business. It is extremely cheap advertising too; there are several Spartanburg bloggers who have 10,000+ local followers and they’d charge less than $50-100 to brag about your products and/or services.
How Do I Start a Blog for My Company?
Contact your local web developer (or me…preferably me) and ask them to add a blog to your website. In most cases, they will be able to install WordPress or a similar platform right on top of your existing site, and then all that’s left for you to do is to start typing away. Even better, the formatting will be very similar to Microsoft Word so there are very few learning curves involved.
How do I Find Inspiration to Write a Daily Blog?
My small team usually gets together one a month and says, “What would our customers like to read about?” Then we throw around a bunch of bad ideas, and then a few good ones, and eventually something that sounds like pure gold. Once we have 4 or 5 themes we want to run with, then we get behind our keyboards and go to work. Just make sure that you find a way to work some of your business’s main keywords into each article so it serves the dual purpose that we talked about earlier.
Can Web Synergy Teach Us to Write a Great Blog?
Definitely. Just give me a call or reach out through the “Contact Us” page and we will help you do a little brainstorming. My staff and I can also teach you all the search optimization basics to keep Google happy, plus show you about how to incorporate contests and giveaways to boost your readership quickly. If you’re not feeling inspired, then you can also have your web content written by a world-class blogger and copywriter (that’s me)…since that’s sort of my specialty. Just let us know what we can do to help.
From the Better Business Bureau to almost every Spartanburg website developer around, people claim to be legitimate SEO professionals that can drastically improve your site’s overall rankings.
As they say in boxing, however, “Talk is cheap”, and any search optimization specialist worth his salt should have a steady stream of results to prove their self-worth…starting with their own website. After all, if they can’t get their own business to rank in Google’s top slot for a term like “upstate search optimization,” then they definitely won’t be much use to you either.
As we’ve pointed out in on other pages, search engine optimization is an extensive subject that a lot of businesses misrepresent…and that’s putting it politely. So before you hire an expert, there are five all-important questions that you have to ask.
1) Show Me 25 Keyphrases you Have Ranked on the First Page of Major Search Engines.
This one question alone will separate the pretenders from the SEO professionals that actually have some skills, because there are fewer and fewer ways to bluff Google nowadays. So just flat out ask for proven results on domains that are owned by the Upstate web developer or another local business, because getting their Facebook or any 3rd party website profile ranking high doesn’t count. For non-competitive key phrases, people literally do that by accident all of the time.
2) Tell me exactly how you will get my website to rank well on Google.
The response you get to this question is equally important because you want to make sure that the SEO professional is using strictly “White Hat” tactics. The only legitimate answer to this question is –
Great page optimization (meta data, titles, etc.)
A thorough keyword analysis
Site-wide content optimization
Building quality backlinks
Posting blogs and fresh content
Guest posting on other sites
Lots of new, legitimate traffic
Also, avoid any SEO professional that mentions automation software, buying backlinks, posting comments on forums or other methods that sound shady. Getting a site to rank well is hard work and there are not any shortcuts that will provide long-term results.
3) What was the last Google Panda/Penguin update about?
The search engines constantly change their algorhythms to better spot sites that are breaking the rules, so every Upstate SEO expert should be able to tell you about all the changes that have taken place over the past few years. If they can’t, then they are not keeping up with the latest trends and there is absolutely no way that they will be able to help you.
4) What software do you use to track SEO campaigns?
This one is sort of a trick question because there are at least a half-dozen acceptable answers. A real search optimization professional will almost always start by saying, “Google Analytics” though and then add in a software suite like Moz, SEO Powersuite or Web CEO. Even though you probably won’t know what these programs are, be sure to ask what each of them does and how it helps the SEO professional make sound decisions. If they struggle to answer, then they’re not the one for you.
5) Show me a few writing samples so I can know what to expect.
If you take away one thing from this SEO tutorial, then understand that well-written content is Google’s primary concern. Because at the end of the day, that’s what will make your customers return to your site, visit additional pages and eventually visit you in the real world. So even if the Upstate SEO specialist aces every other question on this list, he can’t do a thing for you if he’s not a great writer that understands how to connect to your consumers.
At Upstate Synergy, our staff has over 25 combined years of writing search optimized copy for local Spartanburg, SC websites. We also have the long-term results to prove our expertise as well, and we will be happy to educate you and your staff about anything SEO-related. So if you have any questions, then feel free to call or email us, because we definitely have the answers.
Have you ever pulled up a website from your tablet or smartphone and growled in frustration when you couldn’t seem to click on those teeny, tiny buttons? Or how about those domains that would look great on a 27 inch PC monitor, but on your digital device it’s just a sea of never-ending background color. Yeah, those sites suck for us living in the 21st century.
That’s where responsive website design comes into play. It is the new standard of HTML (known as HTML5) that allows web developers to develop platforms for a number of different devices simultaneously within the same code. In English, that means that no matter what size your viewing screen is, the layout is optimized for you to interact with the website.
How does Responsive Web Design Work
So how does it work? Without getting too technical, HTML5 checks the device that it’s being displayed on before generating an image, and then it scales the content down for the best possible resolution. As you can see in the example provided above, the actual content areas will shrink, stretch or appear in a completely different area in order to present the best possible layout on any device, which benefits you, the end-user, and anyone else who may access this webpage.
When is Responsive Design a Bad Idea?
Then again, there’s no sense in changing something that isn’t broken in the first place. So whenever a potential customer asks about the drawbacks of responsive website design, we tell them that if their site is already converting well, then they should leave it alone. Responsive design is slower than a traditional web layout, and it can become significantly slower on a busy domain like eBay or any big company with lots of users. In these situations, it would probably be better to have a mobile website designed instead, which is a stripped-down version of your regular site that’s optimized for smartphones.
Do Businesses Need a Responsive Website?
As we mentioned earlier, that can sometimes be a tough question to answer. For big business, a mobile site is almost always a better answer, although responsive layouts are probably better for lead generation sites with mostly static pages. In any case, businesses need to market where their customers are and almost 90% of the US population is now accessing the web from a smartphone at least six times per day.
Think about it this way. If a consumer performs a web search from their smartphone for something like, “BBQ in Greenville” or “Web Design Spartanburg, SC”, they are not looking for general information. These are people that are 70-80% of the way through making a purchase decision and they are using the Internet to make a commitment. If your main competitor’s website is responsive (or mobile) and yours is not, then there’s a good chance that we all know where that shopper is going to end up.
At Upstate Synergy, we build beautiful responsive websites for Spartanburg businesses because it is a great way to keep our local area consumers happy. For more information on having a responsive website built or to learn how to vault to the top of Google, please feel free to contact us at your earliest convenience. While few things in life are ever free, we are always happy to educate our potential clients in how they can generate more revenue.
Whenever we mention the idea of starting a blog to one of our clients here in the Upstate, their first reaction is never very positive. Well, that may be putting it a little bit too nicely. Most people hate the idea- they despise it. After all, who has time to sit back and write a bunch of meaningless stuff about their business, right?
Me personally, I was born to be a writer, and I absolutely love to write. Most people do not share my enthusiasm, however, because it feels far too much like a chore. It’s tedious for them, and I can certainly understand that. We all have our passions in life and few people strive to become a copywriter, a journalist or an email marketing expert. I completely get that.
Here’s something to think about though; what if I told you that 88% of your customer base wants to hear what you have to say? In a 2014 survey by Bright Local, they found that almost 9 out of 10 consumers will research a local Upstate retailer online before visiting their actual store. The same study showed that of the 2,000+ participants, 72% said that they would not shop at a store if they can’t find good information online.
Let’s put customers aside for a moment though. In fact, let’s pretend that you write one blog post per week for the next five years, and not a single person ever bothers to read it. Nobody. Then writing blogs would be a waste of time, right? Not by a longshot.
Let me tell you a little secret about how the Internet works, and every Upstate web developer that knows anything about SEO will tell you the exact same thing. The search engines do not understand a single syllable of the English language, and they have no idea what your website is designed to represent. They figure this out by playing a word-association game, and a virtual spider crawls through your website often to analyze every word.
Here’s what it does- let’s say that the three main words that the spider finds on your homepage is clothing, boutique and designer. It will look at every other site across the web that uses those very same words, and it eventually comes to the conclusion that you’re a designer clothing boutique. And that’s great, because it can properly place your site in the search engines for that category.
This also presents a problem though; because what if our imaginary boutique also sells luxury handbags, designer footwear and…let’s throw in a wild card here…pastrami sandwiches. While it may see those words now and then on your site, it doesn’t deem them very important because they’re not mentioned very often. So you never rank for these equally important phrases, and there’s a decent chance that potential customers go to another retailer for their needs instead.
If there was only a way to talk about just pastrami sandwiches without messing up your main content pages- oh wait, there is. We write blogs and talk about our businesses.
Take this very article, for example, and what I am trying to do here. If you scan the page for some of my biggest keywords like Upstate web development or search optimization, they’ve been sprinkled in a few times to let Google know what I’m all about. Now, I don’t have to use those words as frequently as on my core pages, because this article is merely letting the web-crawlers know that there are other things that they should rank me for besides building websites. In fact, the more blog pages a website has, the more visible they are for all of their main key-phrases, because each page is judged individually and as a part of the overall site.
Don’t think that the actual web content is not important though, because the search providers also look at things like time on site, the number of pages visited, and the amount of comments left on each page. For example, did you watch all the funny movie clips that had absolutely nothing to do with blogs and copy writing? If you did, then Google thinks this page is absolutely amazing, all because I kept you here a little bit longer.
So hopefully you laughed a little bit and learned something at the same time, because providing fresh content is the life-blood of any good website. It helps your customers learn about your brand, it appeases the search engines, and it is the only way to give your domain long-term, lasting results in the Upstate and worldwide. There are thousands of things that you can talk about as well, such as-
– Local events and gatherings
– Company promotions and discounts
– Community outreach projects
– Major business accomplishments
– “How-to” articles to inspire your readers
– Seasonal messaging, gift ideas and more
If you need any help getting a blog on your website started, then please contact us and our team will be happy to get you started. We also have the Upstate’s best bloggers and copy writers on staff to assist with any of your business writing needs as well.
Not too long ago, we were doing a routine internet search to learn about a potential client, and we stumbled onto something pretty surprising regarding his online reputation. On YellowPages.com, this company had only one review and it was set to the lowest possible rating. More importantly, it accused the one of the business’s employees of selling drugs to another customer, along with several other slanderous accusations that almost couldn’t be true. In fact, it was easily one of the harshest, most damaging comments that we’ve ever seen…and we’ve been doing this for quite some time.
While we’d love to let you read this particular review, it is no longer anywhere on the Internet thanks to the Yellow Page’s staff. Since it grossly violated their Terms of Service, they agreed to remove the comment immediately and it is no longer an issue for that business owner. Or is it? Let’s find out below-
How an Unfair Reputation Can Quickly Build
After doing a little bit more research, we learned that the particular review was posted in 2012 and that page had been visited well over 1,500 times since it was posted. So it’s entirely possible to assume that over 1,500 local Upstate residents believed that the business in question sold drugs, and this was further proven once we checked the backlinks feeding into that page. There were three social media posts with over 60 total comments bad-mouthing that business on Facebook and Twitter, with every one of the responses revolved around illegal drugs.
So here’s what we did, just to show the math for future clients-
Of those 48+ social media comments that various people shared about this Yellow Pages listing, it was viewable by over 14,000 people on friends’ lists.
Of the 12 Twitter comments, there were an additional 3,400 that could have seen this messaging.
Since the comments were frequently talked about, “liked” and shared, it is more likely than not that these pages were ranking towards the top of Facebook’s news stream. This conversation lasted for over a week as well on two different occasions.
In total, over 21,000 potential customers to this business were exposed to these comments, and there is absolutely no telling how many others heard about it secondhand.
The Biggest Mistake in Reputation Monitoring
For the sake of argument, let’s say that this particular business owner happened to see this comment within 24 hours of it being posted. He probably would have contacted the website where it was posted on, and a few minutes later this nightmare would have ended. Even if the site wouldn’t take it down though, there were still a number of options available-
The business owner could have replied to the comment.
The business owner could have contacted the site and asked for the poster’s contact information.
The business owner could have started a campaign to get additional reviews on that site, which would limit the damage of the particularly bad review.
The problem here is that the business owner did nothing at all, because he didn’t know that a problem existed in the first place. Remember, online reviews rank for your business name just like your website does, so they are extremely visible over time.
How to Monitor Online Reputation
There are actually several ways to check up on your reputation online, and the easiest way is to perform a Google search for “<business name> review”. While it may not return every single mention that’s ever been made about a particular business, it will show the ones that potential customers would likely find…and those are the ones that are the most important. Additionally, there are several reputation monitoring tools available online that can meet any sized business’s needs, and they range from completely free to thousands of dollars for enterprise solutions.
Upstate Synergy is the only Spartanburg web design firm that has helped out clients keep up with their online reputation for a number of years now, and we know every trick in the book when it comes to defending your good name. If you’d like to learn more about reputation management, feel free to contact us for a more thorough explanation. We will happily train one of your staff members to do this on your company’s behalf, or we can completely monitor your reputation for you.
While blogging is immensely popular in larger cities around the nation, there doesn’t seem to be too many professional bloggers here in Spartanburg or throughout the Upstate. I have a feeling that once the word gets out on how ridiculously awesome blogging can be, it will become a commonplace for professional copywriters and freelancers alike.
