In the world of web optimization, there has been only one rule that every Upstate copywriter and SEO professional has abided by- “Content is King.” Experts have consistently shown that no truer phrase has ever been spoken, yet almost every single Spartanburg web developer completely ignores this advice on a daily basis. That’s because their only real goal is to sell you a website, and there’s nothing else for them to gain once you make that purchase.
At the same time, however, ignoring the rules set forth by the search directories like Google and Bing is no longer an option in 2014. For any business to have a solid web presence, things like keyword research, great content and proper page layouts can make all the difference in the world. In fact, this very website is only about two weeks old…yet we already outrank 3/4ths of the Upstate web developers who have been in business for decades. It’s definitely not a coincidence and we’d love to teach you to have similar results.
How can you rank better on the search engines? We’re glad you asked! Here are a few tips to get you started-
Hire an Upstate Copywriter that Knows SEO
Honestly, any great wordsmith will help your site’s overall popularity in the search engines, but it is always better to have someone on your side that understands things like keyword density, optimizing images and knowing how to get the most out of a webpage. The phrase “Content is King” not only refers to the quality of your website’s writing though; it also points to the frequency that you post new articles, tutorials and regular page content for your visitors to read.
For example, if you saw the exact same content every time you visited the Spartanburg Chamber of Commerce website, there would be zero reason for you to ever return. The same goes for any business that doesn’t have an eCommerce site with daily sales in cyberspace; both Google and your consumers want to see frequent changes to show that it’s a vibrant, growing business. That’s the same reason we change window displays in storefronts or print a variety of flyers and coupons- it helps attract attention.
So how often should you update your site with new content? Well, that entirely depends on how much your business is using their online presence here in the Upstate to generate new customers. If there’s a steady flow of traffic, or you hope to one day achieve that, then several posts per week is the bare minimum.
Create Content that Delivers Knowledge
One of our favorite tactics at Upstate Synergy is to tell local businesses to completely forget about “marketing their products” on the Internet. At first, they are completely taken aback by the concept- why on Earth would they spend time on a website and not talk about selling something? Then they realize, however, that the whole point of an online presence is to communicate with potential customers.
People search for things online because they want information, and they use that information to make smart purchase decisions. If someone is looking for an engagement ring, for example, they are probably seeking info about diamond clarity, carat weight or what types of settings/metals are popular right now. Since they can bounce in and out of about twenty different sites in a matter of minutes, they will likely keep looking until they get the answers that they are looking for.
Here’s the beautiful thing about consumers though- if you provide them with the exact information that they are looking for AND they’re ready to make a purchase, there is a 92% chance that they make the purchase from you. Even when they don’t plan on buying for several days or weeks, however, they are very likely to bookmark your site and return to that information when they’re ready. So by considering their actual needs over forcing a sale, your chance of success increases exponentially.
Writing Winning Emails & Sales Copy
Likewise, online marketing has its own sets of rules about what works and what doesn’t. While the average Upstate copywriter may be able to increase your conversion rates by 5-15%, one with a digital marketing background can often double to triple those results. That’s because we balance out the copy on the page with your customer’s daily lifestyle, and we make the messaging geared to be digested in the digital age.
Now, that’s not to say that email marketing has to be used to sell, just like we explained in the previous section. If nothing else, you should be sending out email blasts to inform your customers whenever new content is posted, when you’re launching a new social media campaign and whenever you’re having an event/sale. Because the Web Synergy that we keep talking about involves tying all of these concepts together in a seamless marketing system that both sells and creates brand loyalty.
For more information on Upstate search optimization or writing winning copy, feel free to contact us and put our employees to the test. Part of our free consultation process is always performing an on-site interview to learn about your needs and to teach you about web optimization, so please don’t hesitate to reach out and take advantage of us.
Far too often, Upstate business owners place far too much emphasis on website design instead of what the site actually does for them. Because just like every other aspect of your company, a website is a powerful tool that can either drive in new business or drive it away. Don’t get us wrong, a good looking website is very important to impress new customers, but ultimately they care far more about its functionality and the available information. Here are a few more tips to keep in mind-
Fast Loading Times
Three seconds. That’s how long you have to grab the average consumer’s attention from the very instant that they click on your link. If your website is hosted on a slow server that takes a few seconds to load, then you’d better have the Holy Grail of homepages to convince them to stay. Google, the king of all search engines, recognizes this trend as well and they reward websites that load quickly. Optimizing a website for all of today’s digital devices is a win/win scenario.
Complete Search Optimization
If you think SEO stands for “Southeastern Oregon” or anything other than “Search Engine Optimization”, then your website is probably in trouble. From proper page formatting to building backlinks to adhering to the dozens of other requests made by Google and Bing, this is the only way for new customers to find you online without paid results. For now, we’ll spare you the technical details, but know that these are steps that have to be taken if you have a realistic expectation of a good return on your investment.
Lots of Fresh Content
Since recent studies have shown that upwards of 82% of all Americans price-check from their smartphones before visiting a retail store, having a search optimized website is absolutely crucial for your success. While we won’t go too much into technical detail, every successful website has to have a steady stream of content talking about their business to achieve proper search results. In fact, even sponsored campaigns are now taking your site’s optimization levels into consideration, so there is simply no substitute for frequent updates.
Other Reasons to Get Involved
Then again, a successful website has a lot more than just words on a page- it gives consumers a reason to stick around and/or visit more often. That’s why so many sites these days have social media contests, news clips, games and hundreds of other unique features…they want you to stick around. Not only does it help their site optimization efforts, but it also creates a company sub-culture that your customers become a part of.
While nobody in the web community looks forward to Google updating their search engine algorithms, it is certainly a necessary evil on today’s web with millions of spammy sites still finding ways to hold on to their undeserved rankings. The latest update by Google, unofficially nicknamed “Pigeon”, sought to bring additional justice to cyberspace by updating the way local websites rank, plus returning to some of their prior core practices in site optimization.
How will this affect our Upstate businesses though? The major changes are listed below-
A Focus on Local Searches
We’ve all known for some time now that Google is trying to localize the entire world, and the Pigeon update is making it much harder to sneak into its local rankings just off reviews and site traffic. The new algorithm focuses more on traditional ranking models such as page authority, keyword usage, and relevant backlinks. In layman terms, this means that it will be much harder for a poorly optimized website to rank well in local searches.
Google’s Rule of 3 & 7
Google has also announced that a large majority of their local results will be slimmed down to just three listings instead of the traditional seven. While some businesses haven’t seen any change as of yet (restaurants, gas stations, etc.), less competitive markets are already up in arms about the new three-listing format. If your company didn’t make the cut, don’t panic just yet, because this part of the algorithm is still a work in progress.
Less Focus on Review Sites
Additionally, Google has decided that review sites like Yelp and Angie’s List were given a little too much authority how the local searches were classified. While they are still taken into consideration, the overall goal here was to bring them more in line with more natural indicators- like a website’s natural traffic or the time spent on-site. We are still advising our clients to keep a close eye on their reputation across cyberspace, however, because reviews impact a lot more than just search engines.
Social Media Boosts
Another factor of the latest Google update is the impact that social media has on both local and regular search results; the web giant has clearly stressed that these accounts are crucial for natural growth. In fact, Google + now gives do follow-links to encourage completing as many social media profiles as possible, which is a tactic that we’ve always stressed to our customers anyway. Still, if you’ve been holding off creating business accounts on Pinterest, Foursquare or other secondary sites, now is the time to do it.
Overall Thoughts
Compared to some of the more recent Google updates in 2012 and 2013, there was very little to surprise the SEO community this time around. The message to be learned here for Upstate businesses is that your local results are as important as ever, and this trend will only continue to grow moving into 2015 and beyond. So if you haven’t paid enough attention to your local listings in recent years, contact us as soon as possible so we can optimize your local presence.
While most small-business owners know that social media can be an excellent marketing tool, very few understand what it takes to turn a simple Facebook “like” into a long term customer. That’s because we’ve all been ledto believe that businesses have to brag about their products and services in every last breath. That was 20th century thinking though, and nothing drives off today’s consumers on social media faster than heavy self-promotion
State Bicycle Company’s Facebook Campaign
We can all take a cue from State Bicycle Company. This small business was in dire need of a larger online presence and with its marketing expenditures at an all-time high, Facebook seemed like it could be the answer. Mehdi Farsi, the State Bicycle co-founder, decided to use social media to open up new dialogues, talk about upcoming releases and create engaging contests and promotions. Rather than focus solely on the number of “likes” his company acquired, or even how much it was selling, he aimed to use Facebook to build meaningful relationships.
Within the first year alone, the company increased its sales by $500,000 through Facebook, added ten times as many followers and reduced its marketing budget by 80 percent. Here’s how they did it-
Get to Know Your Ideal Demographic
Even though there are over 829 million Facebook users online daily, a large portion of these consumers will have absolutely no interest in your business. That’s what State Bicycle Company realized as it sought to identify its ideal customer. The company tried everything from music giveaways to local events to measure the overall response, and the employees even studied their competitors to see what types of people were following them.
The lesson to be learned here is that mass marketing is not always the best concept on social media sites. Users turn to Facebook to interact and build connections with others they can relate to, and that certainly applies to your company’s brand. The more a business knows about its ideal consumer, the stronger its marketing efforts will become.
Develop Relationships with Customers
That’s why a Facebook campaign’s goal should never be to just boost sales. Farsi had that in mind when he started the social media marketing campaign, and the vast majority of the company’s posts were designed to start conversations with potential customers. For example, instead of simply posting about an upcoming trail ride, it asked Facebook fans who would be interested in attending and how the company could make the event even better. Another clever campaign was asking users to post pictures of their ugliest bicycle, with the fan-proclaimed winner receiving a brand-new premium ride.
“Facebook has been critical,” says Farsi. “(It) has allowed State Bicycle Co. to have an open dialogue with our customers and potential customers.”
It’s also a good idea to take into account Facebook’s latest algorithm change, which ranks each user’s post based on popularity. That means for content to appear toward the top of a person’s news feed, the posting account has to have plenty of accumulated “likes” and comments over time. Facebook then compares all of a user’s followed people/pages to see which one is the most popular at the time. That’s how the algorithm determines the order in which posts are displayed, so each like and comment is crucial for any business to boost its ranking.
Experiencing the Domino Effect
At the same time, State Bicycle Company also realized that by being social, it gained a much wider audience than they ever had before. The average user on Facebook has 350 friends, and a single “like” can potentially give your business exposure to of all of them. That’s why building solid relationships with customers can drive in more profit than any other marketing method on the planet.
At Upstate Synergy, we can help you design smart, consumer-focused campaigns that will keep your readers talking about your business. By integrating Spartanburg County residents into your brand and showing that you value their input, it creates a lot more than additional sales- it creates actual relationships. Let us show you how to get started today; the first step is filling out our contact form and meeting for a free one-on-one consultation.
In the world of web optimization, there has been only one rule that every Upstate copywriter and SEO professional has abided by- “Content is King.” Experts have consistently shown that no truer phrase has ever been spoken, yet almost every single Spartanburg web developer completely ignores this advice on a daily basis. That’s because their only real goal is to sell you a website, and there’s nothing else for them to gain once you make that purchase.
