Bullseye Marketing: How to Pinpoint the Perfect PPC Target Demographic

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Your target demographic refers to the pool of people whom you want to buy your product or services. This is an important part of any marketing campaign as it lets you know the specific people to target.

When you focus your resources on targeting a specific demographic instead of all the people you can bother, you can create an effective marketing strategy without wasting your time, energy, and money.

To find this out, you have to do a target market analysis. Here, we’ll attempt to find out why, what, when, where, why, and how people will buy your product or service. Let’s dig deeper and find out how you can find your target market.

1. Look at Each of Your Products or Services

First, let’s start with all the features of the product or service you’re offering. List down all the features and then write the benefits of each one. The goal is to find the person who will need your services and their benefits.

For example, you’re offering SEO services, which then feature link building efforts. What benefits do you think this will provide the consumers? In this case, some benefits of link building include brand authority, increased visibility, referral traffic, and more.

What do those benefits mean for the customer? Those benefits all boil down to gaining more visitors and increasing online sales.

However, not everyone would benefit from these. Find out first the ones who need those benefits.

It’s okay to start with a broad demographic – let’s say website owners. Those who don’t own or manage a website won’t be needing your services, after all.

Website owners are still too general, but it’s a good start. From there, you can get more specific with your target customer base, which brings us to the next tip.

2. Describe the Person That Will Pay You

Next, we’ll see what kind of person is willing to pay for the benefits of your products and services. You’ll have to create a complete description of one persona. This person would then be the main focus of all your business decisions.

Find Out the Demographic Profile of Your Target

When creating your target person, consider things like age, gender, status, and such. For example, you’re selling makeups – who do you think will buy your products?

Let’s name the person Alex and then proceed to identify the age, gender, and status for starters. These would then depend on your product.

Will it be more appropriate for young adults or more mature people? Is she single or is she married?

You’ll have to consider the occupation as well. If she’s a career woman, a person working their way through college, and whatnots.

Following that is the income, is your makeup line great for those with a low income or is it a premium product? The ethnic background is crucial as well, especially in this case where makeup can look different on different ethnicities.

To highlight the importance of studying the right demographics, take the history of Pizza Patrón as an example. It came to be when Antonio Swad moved from Ohio to Dallas and aimed to open a pizzeria. He is of Italian and Lebanese descent, but his store’s area is full of Hispanic consumers.

His buyers would be these consumers, so he formulated a business model to cater to them. He changed the store’s name to Pizza Patrón, hired bilingual employees to interact with customers, and accepted payments in peso. Because of this attention to detail, the store now grew to more than 100 locations.

The shift in focus allowed the store to speak to its customers. It created a target demographic. Then, it implemented businesses strategies with that demographic in mind.

Find Out the Psychographic Profile of Your Target

Now you know Alex’s age, income, gender, and status, let’s further describe her and complete her persona. Consider the psychographics, which refers to the personal characteristics of the person. This could include Alex’s personality, values, interests, hobbies, and such.

This is important because you’ll have to find out how your product will fit into your target’s lifestyle. How do you think will she use your product? Is Alex going to use your product for work every day or for special nights?

Then, you’ll also know what features of your product will appeal most to Alex. If she’s outgoing and likes exercising, why do you think will she like your product?

Another important consideration is how your target market gets their information. If she uses social media, you can consider marketing through Facebook or Instagram. If your target audience is someone else who reads newspapers, use that as a way to reach out to them.

Identify That Person’s Motivations

By this stage, your ideal customer profile is almost complete. This should give you a good idea if what’s going on inside their head.

You’ll likely be able to identify their motivations behind buying their product. When you know why they’ll want to buy your product, you can better help them achieve their goals.

In Alex’s case, the motivation could be something as simple as looking presentable when they go to work. However, she doesn’t want to overdo it as if she were going to a party.

If that’s the goal, think of how you could market or offer your product in order to fulfill that. You can offer subtle shades of your blush, or you could launch a foundation with minimal coverage. If Alex wants to use your makeup to look glittery on a night out, what can you offer that will fulfill that?

Identifying the motivations will help you identify the opportunities to meet those goals. This would then help you with your own goal to get Alex as a customer and to increase your sales.

3. Analyze Your Current Customer Base

If you already have a customer base, get to know who’s buying your products and why. Find out their age, location, and the other demographic and psychographic profiles.

When you see who’s buying and why they’re buying, you’ll know whom to target next time. People like them will likely have a need for your product. This makes them good targets for your PPC and other marketing campaigns.

Knowing their habits and motivations will also help you with launching new products or services. Knowing what they like will allow you to launch products that are more suited to them, making them buy more.

Use Google Analytics to Get to Know Your Website Visitors

Even if they’re not customers yet, it’s worth finding out who’s visiting your website. This will allow you to find out who’s interested in your products and services.

Google Analytics is a great tool for monitoring your website’s traffic. It records stuff like age, gender, location, and such. With this tool, you’ll also see what device they’re using when they visited your page. All these are invaluable data when you’re creating a PPC campaign.

4. Check out the Competitors

Another great way to find out your target demographic is to look at the competitors’ targets. This tip is helpful if you don’t have a website yet from which you can get data.

If you’re selling the same thing, your target markets should be the same more or less. You can also check their websites’ visitors.

One way to do this is to use the handy tool, Alexa. It lets you know some basic details about a website, like its ranking and where its visitors are coming from. It also has information about a website’s search traffic, top keywords from search engines, and upstream sites.

These details are already helpful, but you’d want to know more about their audience. Some advanced features of Alexa will let you know the demographics of a website’s traffic.

5. Use the Keywords You Want to Target

For this tip, we’re recommending yet another helpful tool. A huge part of any PPC campaign is keyword research. After all, PPC is all about bidding on the right keywords to target specific customers.

If you already know the keywords you’re targeting, using Google AdWords will help you find out the kinds of people searching for those keywords. You only need to enter the keyword and the tool will let you know the demographics of all the people who search for it.

After you’ve found out the demographic to target, you can then use AdWords’ Detailed Demographics feature. This allows you to target audiences beyond their age, gender, and location. It will also let you target consumers based on their education, marital status, parental status, and even home ownership.

Get Help Finding the Right Target Demographic

Earlier, we’ve highlighted the importance of finding out the right target demographic. This is why you should spend a considerable amount of time and effort on this task. If you need some help, though, consult an expert to help you with your PPC campaign.

Contact us now and let’s discuss how you can launch an effective PPC campaign with the right target market.

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Why You Need Social Media Management – Learn From These Social Media Crisis!

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Thinking of using social media to boost your company’s exposure? You may want to think twice and plan carefully before leaping forward.

Companies end up losing as much as $4.3 million in sales globally due to social media mistakes.

A social media crisis is possible to avoid and prevent with a proper social media strategy. With a dedicated social media manager, you can gain the benefits of business growth while avoiding these kinds of blunders.

The following details are tips on why you should hire a social media manager and how they can help you prevent a social media mistake.

1. Building Brand Recognition

A reason why you should have a dedicated social media manager for your company is that they can help you in building up your brand. Customers using the brand for both its quality and established relationship can forge brand loyalty the more they partake of your product or service.

With a social media manager, you can have new customers drawn in while you maintain brand loyalty for long-time consumers. You can also have a means to gauge how satisfied your customers are with it, and their feedback on how you can improve.

Social media managers make it a point that the brand gets recognized through all possible platforms, and have them promoted by influencers (personalities known through social media).

2. Social Media is Not Only Numbers

One thing that you should know is that in order to avoid any social media crisis, remember that the social media is not merely numbers. It is a wide network of individuals and personalities that continually interact.

A social media manager can help engage potential consumers and maintain an open communication with them. With certain trends and issues continually changing as time goes by. As it goes with advertising and marketing, you can use these trends to draw in more customers.

However, that is not the only thing that you should be aware of. There are other issues and trends that may require you to tread lightly, as it can be a disaster waiting to happen. A wrong move or a faux pas can cause disastrous results, resulting in the loss of customers.

There are various situations where this occurred, causing outrage from various people, which we will note in full detail later on.

3. Increased Traffic

This already includes the right optimization for your website. Making use of trends, or even starting one with a creative content strategy, can even make your product viral.

Social media has an interesting way of making things popular through the Internet. Being present in all possible social media platforms, and endorsed by influencers. Various brands recognized in new ways. This form of engagement increases traffic towards your site.

4. Familiarity with Metrics and Other Statistics

Another thing to note that aside from increased traffic, hiring a social media manager can ensure that you have a means to interpret statistics and metrics on your site. This includes insights, which hold the number of views, shares, likes, and retweets.

These metrics can tell you the number of people engaged. Without a social media manager, this can be hard to work with unless you have experience in handling the website. You might even end up groping in the dark. The advantage of having one is that you have a means to interpret the data and make use of them for your next social media campaign.

5. Having an Edge over the Competition

There are businesses that have no idea how to make use of social media. This can prove as an edge for you as you can reach out to more people. Though, this also becomes apparent that there are others possibly in the same business also making use of social media.

In this case, having a social media manager can ensure that you know how to prepare for such instances. Knowing what your competitors are going for can give you an edge in standing out and offering something better.

Not having a social media manager can prove difficult as you end up being overtaken by the competition. With a social media manager, you can work together to build up your online presence.

Do note that this presence also includes a good reputation as this draws in more people. A negative impression and publicity would do more harm to your company than good.

6. Having Someone Curating Content for Your Business

A social media manager has to be as dedicated as you, especially when it comes to curating content for your website. This means creating fresh content regularly to engage customers, ensuring that it gets circulated through various social media channels, and maintaining communication with customers.

This kind of work requires focus and dedication. Not having a dedicated team may cause your online presence to suffer, leaving you far behind with the competition. With a social media management team, you can also come up with social media campaigns that will wow your customers.

Social media management agencies are capable of coming up with ideas that you can bounce off with, helping you come up with interesting concepts that you can run. They also ensure that they are at their best edge when looking for trends that they can utilize for promoting your business.

7. Saves Cost and Draws Income

One more reason why you should get a social media manager is that it allows you to gain access to the capabilities of a whole team for the price of one. This also becomes an investment as they continue to ensure that they are at the top of their game with the trends and techniques they use.

Examples of PR Blunders You Can Avoid!

There are certain scenarios and cases where you can avoid getting caught in a PR blunder. Avoiding them and preventing social media crisis would be tantamount. Have your PR team, and your social media manager know how to avoid this.

Here are some examples.

1. Pepsi PR Crisis

This Pepsi ad involving Kendall Jenner was one that would have been easily avoided if the PR team had looked deeper into the current issues with utter clarity. Volatile issues like the current ones shown in the news with the Women’s March, Black Lives Matter, and other things are rather sensitive. What should have been a Pepsi PR genius became a Pepsi PR blunder.

What also caused the internet to come together in outrage was Kendall Jenner’s involvement and how it was badly executed. Also, it conveyed a message that was rather contrary to the intent that Pepsi was trying to put across. It went from uniting the generation into “if I hand the officer a can of Pepsi while the rally goes on, I won’t get arrested.”

Within 48 hours, the internet raged on and the video had more downvotes on YouTube. An advice to this is to make sure the message conveyed does not give off any double meanings. It also helps that you take note of possible repercussions to the whole idea.

As of this day, not even Pepsi would choose to defend the commercial, choosing to apologize for the advertising faux pas.

2. Cinnabon Princess Leia Tweet Mishap

Another one to look at as an example is this tweet from Cinnabon after the death of the late Carrie Fisher, known for her role in Star Wars as Princess Leia. Cinnabon posted this tweet with a form of a sketch depicting Princess Leia while promoting one of their signature pastries.

Of course, several people rose up to the occasion as they called out the move as being disrespectful and rather tasteless. Within a few hours after the tweet, Cinnabon issued an apology. The original tweet was then deleted soon after. In the time between, the denouncement over the issue was swift and sharp.

There are lessons to pick up from this particular mishap. One is to not ride on a renowned personality’s tragedy or death. While the intent was to sympathize, it may backfire and cause a huge backlash that can cost both reputation and possible losses in income.

3. Kenneth Cole’s Twitter Blunder

One more to note is this tweet from Kenneth Cole that also had a rather insensitive joke about the revolution in Egypt. While humor can be a great tool in marketing, discretion is best observed. As you would note with this situation, there is a thin line between jokes and insults, this being evident with the reactions on Cole’s statement.

The tweet was since then deleted and Cole apologized. During the time between, he and his brand got lambasted by the Internet.

Avoid These Blunders by Hiring a Social Media Manager Today!

While the adage “bad publicity is still publicity” may be true as how your business becomes known to many people, it does more harm than good due to the ill reputation that you carry. This doesn’t help you in growing your business, which shows that it still pays to have a good reputation.

To avoid a social media crisis, consider hiring a social media manager to spread the good word about your business and the quality of both your products, services, and customer service.

Did you find this topic useful? We have a variety of posts to help your site flourish and grow your business online. Check out our posts for more, like this one about the best practices with social media.

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7 Risks of DIY Websites and How to Avoid Total Disaster

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Are you thinking of making your own website to boost your business?

Making your own website has never been easier these days thanks to the help of online tools such as WordPress, one of the best DIY websites out there. And with enough practice, you can become proficient in making any kind of website that you need.

There are, however, certain risks questions that come along with DIY websites. If you’re a big company relying on your website for your business, how can you be certain that your website is interactive and won’t crash?

And some more questions too, like, with more and more people using accessing the internet through mobile devices, how can you be sure that your website is mobile-compatible?

Here is a list of some risks that come when you’re making your own website.

What are DIY Websites?

First off, let’s get you up to speed on what DIY websites are.

The term refers to making a site on your own, without the help of a professional designer. Many DIY sites utilize templates to get started since these require little to no coding. Most of the brick-and-mortar websites available on the internet are free, utilizing a CMS like WordPress as a launching pad.

Sites like these are easy to use and provide you with readymade designs for your web pages.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the risks that come along when you use one of these web builders.

1. Amateur Aesthetics

Making your own website with the tools online can be simple, they can also appear simplistic.

The first thing customers will notice when they visit your website is the overall design of the front page. If the page looks boring, dull, and have poor design, your visitors will most likely not bother to explore your web page.

A well-designed website needs to have a good combination of color. It needs the proper design elements to represent what you are selling. Also, having one or more photos or videos that are relevant to your website and products will help out a lot.

With the trends and tastes changing every now and then, changing the designs of your website to keep up will take up a lot of your time.

2. Lack of Functionality

Functionality is on a direct link with aesthetics in the sense that having a good, functioning website will have a lot of displays such as moving visuals for your customers.

Building a website on your own will prove tricky when you plan on having multiple tabs and small intricacies on it. This will require you to have knowledge of programming for them to prove effective.

If you make your own website, things will not go well when you preview it for the first time. Some plugins will not work right, widgets will not appear in the proper order, etc.

Sometimes, your entire website will malfunction, or some links will appear broken. You can spend your time trying to fix them all, but that will use up much of your precious time.

3. Low Security

Having low security in DIY websites strike the unaware hard and fast. Most people do not realize that keeping your website secure means that you have to be up to date in software.

This means that you’re going to be on the constant lookout for the newest updates, else you have to deal with people hacking your website.

With all that time spent on the lookout for updates and fixing your website’s security, you will get to spend less time on your business. This will take away time you could have spent earning money for yourself online.

4. No Professional SEO

While there are a lot of things on the list of the pros and cons of WordPress, one of the biggest cons it has is its lack of built-in SEO.

SEO (search engine optimization) is now an absolute necessity when it comes to having an online business. Having SEO means that your website has better visibility in online search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Most do it yourself websites don’t come with the tools and features to optimize search results.

Without SEO, it will become less likely that people will even see your website on the first few pages of Google. This will mean that your competition will get ahead of you in sales.

Taking into account that Google, the most used search engine in the world, changes its algorithms in a regular basis, keeping up with the changes and trying to fit them onto your website on your own will take up a lot of your time and decrease your store’s productivity.

That said, WordPress does have plugins that boost SEO but most DIY templates don’t come with these. Only professional designers who purchased the licenses to use these tools will provide them to you.

4. Decreased Productivity

As you might have seen above, all the other risks point to having your productivity go down. That’s because this is one if not the biggest risk when you decide to make a website on your own.

Making your own website means that you will have to be the one to do everything on your own. Including, designing your web pages, choosing among the myriad of layouts, adding and removing certain content, and test the functionality of your site.

Having your productive time taken away by things like tweaking your security or updating your designs means that your store will have less uptime online. Thus, you will have fewer customers overall.

Unless you’re a person who’s quick to pick up on mistakes and quicker to learn how to fix them, making your own website carries a lot of risks with it. All that said, there is a simple solution to all that, hiring a professional website designer.

Web designers provide you with a lot of services that can make your life simpler and help you manage your time better. While hiring one can cost you a bit more money, web designers can boost your web page and your website’s aesthetic, online visibility, and security.

Here are some of the things web designers can do for and provide you if you decide to outsource to them.

5. Use of Premium Tools

Professional web designers will often have access to premium tools, such as Divi on WordPress, as their job will depend on their equipment. This means that they have the tools necessary to give out a better functioning website than most free users.

Not only will they have the tools to build a better website, they will often have the tools to make them look better and more informative, too. Tools like Illustrio, or The iSpot will give your web pages more images or graphics to make it more appealing to the eyes.

They also have premium tools like TrackDuck, and Red Pen, that make it easier for you to gain feedback from your clients or to help you collaborate with others who have ideas for your business.

6. Regular Maintenance

Web designers will offer to perform frequent maintenance on any website they’re working on, checking if things are in order, links are working, security is up to date, etc. Allowing you to have more time to spend on your business.

They will also make an effort to provide you with the best service there is, as their reputation depends on it. So, you can be sure that when you hire a professional programmer, you can rest easy knowing that your web pages are in safe hands.

Professionals also have a hand in dealing with hackers. So, rest assured, even if your website gets hacked, help from a professional web builder will solve the problem and return your site to normal.

7. Experience and Skill

While regular maintenance and having access to premium tools are great benefits when you hire a professional web designer. The biggest contribution they can provide you is their experience and skill.

You don’t have to spend resources to train yourself or other people; a web designing company already has experienced and trained employees to focus on this task while you and your business can focus on what you should be doing: selling products.

Professional web designers will know what your website needs with one look. Whether it’s a simple brochure site, an e-commerce site for financial and/or business transactions, or a business site.

A professional web designer has experience that can prove useful to you, like knowing the differences between a web page vs website, how to use plugins and widgets and the best ones to use for your web pages.

Professionals also have more skill when it comes to the technical aspects of web designing. They can help you with your SEO, even find ways for you to set up a local one for even more visibility online. And they can make sure that your device can be mobile- compatible, too.

Know and Understand the Risks of DIY Websites

While making your own web page is easier with the help of DIY websites, there is no 100% sure way to eliminate the risks involved in making one on your own.

And with the global internet usage expected to rise even further in coming years, it’s time for you to make sure that your site stays relevant by hiring a professional web designer. After all, no online web tool can substitute experience and skill.

If you’re looking for more help with online technicalities, don’t hesitate to contact us now.

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How do SEO and PPC Work Together?

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Organic traffic or paid traffic, SEO vs PPC, the never-ending debate between which is better than the other. Ok, it’s possible there is no great debate and instead, people just don’t realize the two don’t have to be mutually exclusive of one another.

The truth is many people regard SEO and PPC as being separate marketing strategies and should be treated as such. But, what is there was a way for SEO and PPC to work together so your business could get both organic and paid traffic. Leads would increase and so would conversion rates.

Keep reading to find out how you can benefit from these two powerhouse marketing strategies working together to increase your leads, conversion rates, inbound traffic, and revenue.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Through the strategic placement of keywords naturally into website content (web pages, blog articles, landing pages) the website will become optimized for ranking on search engine results pages (SERP). Essentially the more Google’s algorithm likes a webpage or blog article, the higher it will rank when a user searches using the associated keywords.

Keywords are really important to SEO. They help to determine how best to rank web content. Think of it this way, it doesn’t make sense for a plumber’s blog articles to be ranked against an electrician’s landing page. Neither have anything to do with each other. Also, a customer who searches for a plumber would be confused on why they were being shown a landing page for an electrician as the number one result.

Instead, keywords help to determine how the web content is ranked, what content it will be ranked against, and to entirely ignore those websites that appear to be spammy.

The better the keywords used and the better they flow throughout the content, the better the chance of ranking high on a SERP. And ranking high on a SERP will help to increase traffic, customer leads, and conversion rates.

What is PPC?

PPC stands for pay-per-click. Meaning a business sets up a Google Adwords account and runs an ad campaign. The ad will run until the budget you placed is gone. However, you will only be charged for each click of the link. Hence, pay-per-click.

PPC does not rely on keywords the same way SEO does. PPC is trying to increase the amount of organic traffic to the website. Instead, PPC uses keywords to ensure visibility by users looking for similar products or services. However, the link on the SERP will not be listed among the organic results.

PPC is the ads you see at the top of the results page that aren’t numbered and usually say “ad” or “advertisement.” Those are the PPC ad campaigns businesses have created. PPC allows businesses the opportunity to buy traffic, essentially.

However, the more the increase in traffic and link clicks through the ad the more money the business will have to pay. Either until they end the campaign, or they hit their established budget which is met and the ad is taken down. However, that may require launching a new ad to capitalize on the increases.

SEO and PPC Working Together?

Since both deal with internet traffic in an effort to increase leads, conversions, and market exposure, it’s not too far of a stretch to believe they could work well together. But would it be worth investing in both? What’s the benefit?

There are a few ways that combining SEO and PPC could benefit your overall marketing strategy.

Shared Keyword Data

One of the many benefits worth mentioning at the top of the list is the shared keyword data between both SEO and PPC marketing campaigns. With both campaigns running simultaneously you’ll get double the data to analyze, ultimately determining which keywords have higher conversion rates and where and incorporate this information into your overall strategy.

When it comes to determining which campaigns or keywords are successful and which are not monitoring the data is key, and there is no such thing as too much data. With the shared keyword data benefit, you’ll be able to paint a better picture of how successful your campaigns are and how best to modify your overall marketing strategy if needed.

PPC Can Be Used to Inform SEO Strategy

Using your PPC campaign to test keywords, titles, and meta-data is a great way to gain insight into your SEO strategy. Unlike SEO, which can take quite a lengthy amount of time to see results, PPC will yield results almost immediately.

The information gathered from the PPC campaign can be used to guide and enhance your SEO strategy. Typically when you want to try out a keyword it could be months before you’ll see enough organic data to determine if it is successful or not. However, with PPC the results are immediate.

You’ll be able to test a new keyword, title, or meta-description, -title, or -data in your PPC campaign determine which one is a success and use that in your SEO campaign to help increase your organic ranking results and organic traffic.

Control Negative Reviews and Publicity

With their powers combines SEO and PPC can even polish up your image should a customer leave a bad review or bad press begins to circle around your business and its name.

In this case, you’re not so much using keywords and ad campaigns to drive more customers to buy a product or service. Instead, you’re using keywords and ad campaigns to drive customers to where they can hear your side of the story. SEO and PCC together can be used to tell your story.

As an example, a business that sells frozen meats has been mentioned in the media lately as being connected to a salmonella epidemic. The company could run ad campaigns and SEO campaigns to drive people who search for ‘salmonella epidemic” to a page on the company’s website that explains what the company is doing to prevent this from happening again and to help those already affected.

The company was able to tell their side of the story because they controlled where people would be directed to first by combining SEO and PCC together.

SERP Rankings

This benefit should be obvious but just in case, SEO and PPC working together can help to increase exposure on SERPs. Typically when one campaign becomes successful people will tend to lessen efforts on the other. However, by combining the two you double your exposure and chances at increasing traffic.

When both SEO and PPC campaigns rank high on SERPS, PPC is able to pick up the clicks that SEO missed. However, this does not occur in the reverse. In fact, when PPC ads are paused, a staggering 89% of the missed traffic from the paused ad will not be picked up by organic rankings. Even if you’re site ranks #1 organically.

Creating the Perfect SEO and PPC Combination

Today SERP rankings and having an online image a presence is crucial if a business wishes to succeed, grow, expand, and last a long time. This is why understanding digital marketing and more importantly how to use SEO to increase organic traffic and PPC to increase paid traffic.

However, the current line of thought being the two are mutually exclusive of one another and therefore can and should only act independently is holding back your business. And many more like it.

As shown above, combining SEO and PPC into one overall marketing strategy is a great way to increase traffic and conversion rates. With PPC picking up what SEO missed in terms of link clicks, and PPC providing instant results as to which keywords, titles, meta-titles, and content works, the chances of a more successful SEO campaign increase.

This in turn, of course, lends itself to ranking higher on SERPs and therefore increasing your exposure to the online community. Which SEO and PPC can also help with in terms of your online image.

Separately there is not much that either can do to change or remove tarnish or a blemish on your online image. However, together SEO and PPC create the perfect combination to control the narrative in your favor and allow you to tell your story or side of it.

Grow Your Business to the Next Level

When it comes to deciding between either or, definitely choose both and combine your SEO and PPC efforts to maximize your digital marketing strategy and get the most out of your online presence. Contact us today for more information on how you can take your digital marketing campaign to the next level. Get ready to open those floodgates!

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The 2,000-Word Long Form Content Guide for SEO and Branding

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Why should you invest in long-form content? You should use longer content if you want to increase website engagement. Long form content generates twice the engagement time of short form content.

You should also invest in long-form copy if you want to boost your SEO and branding strategies. In-depth content provides a chance to establish authority. It also allows an opportunity to address relevant questions from your leads and customers.

To get the most out of your content though, you want to implement a method and structure. You want the information to add value, not just try to throw more words out in the world. For structured content, you need a guide to lead you through the process.

What is Long-Form Content?

Long form content involves content that goes more in-depth on your industry topics. This usually involves articles beginning around 1,200 to 2,000 words. The best results on search engines include articles around 1,900 words.

You shouldn’t rely on word count to determine your long form strategy though. Your focus involves value not the number of words. Your content should provide a clear breakdown of the information provided.

This means finding subjects that speak to the needs of your audience. It also means providing detailed information about your subject. Long form articles should revolve around subjects that require more detail to get the point across.

Long Form SEO Content Guide

Based on the popularity of 1,900-word articles, it’s clear that long-form copy and SEO go hand-in-hand. Google looks for articles that answer the questions asked, and base their rankings on the articles that seem most valuable in answering these questions.

To make the most of your ranking, you need to combine your industry knowledge with customer queries. Remember, you want to use long-form articles to educate and generate trust, not to sell.

Find Your Pillar Content Niche

Pillar content involves subjects that you can break down into multiple article ideas. This involves the industry niche you want to focus your content around. Your niche is your area of expertise within your industry.

You want a niche that allows plenty of room to write comprehensive articles. You also want a niche that will stand the test of time. Your long-form content can act as evergreen content.

Evergreen content means content that remains valuable. You want to pick subjects that continue to trend over the years so your content will remain relevant over time.

Do Your Keyword Research

Keyword research plays two parts in your long form strategy. Your research provides valuable information about the subjects you can use in your content. It also provides terms and phrases you can use to increase your SEO.

Keywords for Subject Generation

The first step in keyword research involves determining what people search for regarding your industry. This helps you make decisions on the questions and subjects you want to touch on in your content.

To make the most of this research, you want to understand the reasons behind the search topics. You want to answer real questions regarding the information people seek.

Your keyword choices for subjects should reflect your brand and establish your authority in your industry. Your keywords should provide multiple article options on narrow, detailed topics.

Keywords for SEO

As you create your list of keywords, you want to locate terms with a good search volume but low competition among your competitors. This ensures you can rank for these terms. It also ensures you fill in the gaps of information.

As you search these keywords, you should also take a look at the types of content most popular for these terms. You want to stick to what works for these topics. For instance, some subjects work best with a how-to article or a list.

You can get creative though.

If you see an opportunity to branch out from what’s available, don’t be afraid to take a chance to stand out. For instance, you can branch out from a how-to article to go into why you should or shouldn’t take action.

Competition Research

Once you have a list of subject ideas and an idea of the types of content that works, you should take a look at what’s already written on the subject. This research provides two opportunities.

You can find out what information already saturates the internet regarding your niche. If there’s already plenty of competition on a topic, you’ll find difficulty ranking for that point.

You can also find out where gaps in information exist. This gives you the opportunity to fill a gap and get on top of the rankings for that topic.

Audit Your Current Content

Don’t forget the content you’ve already created when conducting topic research. Just because you’ve touched on a subject, doesn’t mean you’ve said everything you have to say.

Look at your shorter articles and look for areas you can expand the topic. Look for broad articles and see if you can break these down into multiple subjects.

You should also look for topics that have lost their relevancy. Determine if you can update these articles. Also, look for ways to expand on the ideas presented.

Find Link-Building Opportunities

Link building works in two ways. First, you want to build links to credible outside sources. Second, you want to build up your links to your own content. Both of these link-building strategies increase your authority and rankings.

If you can show credible data to back up your ideas, you increase trust in the data you share. If you can show you have more info on your own site regarding a subject, you show your knowledge. Both ideas show credibility to search engine crawlers so you rank higher in searches.

External Links

You want to find relevant sources of data to back up the info you provide. This increases the credibility of your article. This external data comes in many forms.

  • Statistics
  • Research
  • Definitions
  • Background info

With real data to back up what you say in your article, you show an understanding of the topic. Stats and research offer real numbers to make your point. Background info shows your expounding on ideas already established.

Internal Links

You use content to attract and keep people on your website. Relevant internal links keep your audience moving through the information you provide, increasing your opportunity to touch on the questions they have. This will keep them coming back to you for answers.

Find articles or videos that go more in-depth on a topic you touch on in the article to provide more authority. Make sure the links relate to the current topic but don’t use articles too similar.

Creating an Article Outline

When writing long-form content, you want to keep everything organized and easy to navigate. This means you need an outline to keep everything in order. The outline also lends to your relevance on the topic.

Your outline will touch on the data points you compile during your research. It also ensures that you’re not jumping around so that people can follow your points.

Plus, an outline provides an easy table of contents to add to your article. A table of contents proves valuable when it comes to search engine crawlers ranking your content.

Your Headline

You want to provide a catchy headline that explains your topic. Keep your headline simple, easy to understand, and eye-catching.

Your headline makes use of your broader subject keywords. It makes clear the question you plan to answer. You don’t want to use too many words in the headline, but you want to get your point across.

Subheadings

Your subheadings provide a detailed breakdown of the main topic. You want to answer specific questions with these sections.

You can find good subheadings by looking at the related search terms when researching your main keywords for article subjects. These related terms provide the sub-questions people often ask related to the terms.

You can also use question forums to find subheadings. Go through a forum such as Quora to find the questions trending regarding your subject.

Introduction and Conclusion

You use the introduction to draw people in. This means you want to explain exactly what they can expect from the article. This also means you want to catch their interest immediately.

Don’t use fluff in your introduction, or people will move on. Provide data or other eye-catching material that will make them want to keep reading.

Your conclusion should tell them what you want them to do with the information you provide. This should condense what you said and move them to the next step in their journey on your website.

Formatting Your Article

When you move into writing the article, you want to use a conversational tone. If you go too formal, people will lose interest. If you use jargon or complicated sentences, people won’t want to try to decipher your content.

Use simple terms and simple sentence structures. Try to stick to an eighth grade or lower reading level to ensure people can understand what they read.

Writing Blocks

With long-form articles, you’re asking people to give you their attention for a longer stretch of time. You’re also asking them to decipher your point while reading online. This can cause strain on their eyes and brains.

To cut down on this issue, you want to break your article into blocks. This starts with your headings and subheadings. By creating breaks wherever you can, you make it easier to read.

You also want to keep your paragraphs short. Try to keep paragraphs down to no more than three sentences. Also, avoid complex sentences where possible.

You can break up writing with numbered lists or bullet points throughout. This has the added benefit of allowing for simpler points throughout.

Other Reading Breaks

Ease of reading goes beyond creating writing blocks. You also want to provide breaks throughout the article to ease the strain of reading online.

You can break large blocks of writing with relevant graphics or videos. Provide pictures and infographics to make certain points easier to find. Use related videos between points.

You can also provide shareable quotes between headings. This has the added benefit of making your article easier to share on social media sites.

Make Your Article Shareable

Long form articles get more social shares than short-form content in general. You still want to take steps to make it easy to share your content.

Shareable content starts with valuable content. You can make it easier by providing share buttons with the article. Encourage people to pass the information along by making it as easy as possible.

Provide a Call to Action

You want people to continue coming back to your website. You can do this by providing a call to action that tells people exactly how they can get more value from you.

One way to do this includes incorporating a sign-up form in the article. You can provide a button for them to sign-up for your newsletter, or a sign-up for a presentation. This allows you to collect their contact info and shows you have more to offer.

You can also provide a clear call to action at the end of the article. This will tell them the next step to take based on the information you provide.

Remember, with long-form content, you’re establishing trust and authority. Your call to action should involve a way to find more information.

Edit, Edit, Edit

Once you have your article completed, it’s time to edit. Grammatical errors can lose you the trust and authority you’re trying to establish.

Don’t rely on yourself for the editing process. Find a good editing app you can run your article through to catch the mistakes you’re bound to miss. Check for readability, spelling, grammar, and issues of plagiarism.

You want to make sure the article remains fully your work. Make sure you don’t inadvertently use someone else’s work. Even when hitting on topics already discussed, you can still tweak the information to make it your own.

Your Overall SEO Strategy

Long form content provides one tool to boost your SEO and create brand authority. SEO practices require many steps to get your website noticed in the digital world.

Are you looking for more SEO practices to implement? Check out what’s involved in the overall SEO strategy.

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12 Tips for Boosting Your Local SEO

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Local SEO can be a challenge.

The world wide web isn’t getting any smaller. In fact, the internet has exploded–in both users and content–over the past few years.

All that growth makes SEO tough for websites trying to reach a local audience and beyond.

If you’re trying to reach a broader audience in your neck of the woods, take heart, there are things you can start doing right now to increase your rankings and get your brand in front of more customers.

Let’s take an in-depth look at 12 ways you can start boosting your local SEO today.

Why Local SEO?

Depending on the level of competition in your area, you might be asking: why do I even need to do SEO locally? If my business is in the area, shouldn’t it just show up in the right Google searches?

The answer is yes. It *should* show up. But, you’ve got to take the right steps to make your site appear on top, and simply being in the area isn’t enough.

SEO works the same way locally as it does on a broader scale. Your site needs to be populated with the right kinds of content to show up in local searches.

The good news is … you’ve got just as much potential to show up on the top of page one as every other player in your industry. You just have to put in the work.

1. Check Out Your Google Business Profile

One of the easiest things you can do to give your local SEO a boost is to claim and optimize your business’s profile with Google.

If you’ve ever searched for a business in Google, you’ve probably noticed the handy profiles that appear in both Google searches and Google Maps.

If you don’t have one already, you can get in touch with Google to set one up or claim your existing profile.

You need to have a physical location in order to set up a profile with Google, a PO Box won’t work. But, once you have one set up, these profiles can really give your visibility a boost.

Keep your contact information up to date, post photos, reply to reviews, and more.

2. Get Your Name Out There–Locally

Another way to start establishing your website’s authority is to get your name out there with local news outlets and publications.

Any links you can pick up from other websites to yours will help establish your site’s authority with Google and the other search engines. In fact, quality backlinks are a major ranking factor.

Many reporters and news outlets are desperate for stories, even seemingly mundane ones. Try reaching out to newspapers or TV channels in your area for some added exposure.

3. Content Is Your Friend

Content makes the world wide web go ’round.

In order to rank well in your area and your industry, your business’s website needs plenty of content. Sites with more content tend to rank higher in search engine results than those with less.

All content is not created equal though. The words on your website must be both relevant and useful to visitors in order to improve your search engine rankings.

Good content gives your website both structure and context and can make or break your SEO efforts.

4. Focus On Local Keywords

Keyword research is an important part of search optimization. It helps to do a little research and get an understanding of the search terms people might actually use to find businesses like yours.

As a local business, you’ll also want to hone in on local terms that might include the city you’re located in or even the part of town where your business resides.

5. Ratings and Reviews

Many searchers rely on ratings and reviews when choosing products or services. What people are saying about your business is just as important as what you do and how you market it.

Encourage customers to leave reviews on sites like Yelp and Google. Reviews of all kinds will help potential customers get a better feel for your service and give your local search rankings a boost in the long run.

6. Keep It Real

In the twenty-first century, authenticity is key to effective marketing. Puffed up, inauthentic claims simply aren’t going to get you anywhere.

For increased relevancy with your customer base, focus on being authentic and transparent with customers.

One great way to do this on your website is through the use of customer testimonials. Add a section to your homepage, or even a dedicated page to customer reviews.

Don’t have any reviews you can post? Start collecting some from current and former customers. Or, pull from review sites like Yelp until you collect a few of your own.

7. Make It Mobile-Friendly

If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re missing out–big time.

Now that a majority of internet searches on done from mobile devices, it’s important that your site looks its best on smaller screens.

Search engines have also been using mobile-friendly design as a major ranking factor for some time now. So, if your site isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s not going to make it to the top of the local search rankings pile.

Work with a developer to ensure that your website looks just as good on a four-inch screen as it does on a 21-inch monitor.

8. Sweat The Small Stuff

The big stuff is easy to focus on. Building lots of content, a thriving social media presence, and a great website design are all great things to work on.

But, what about the meta descriptions for your pages? Or the alt text for your images?

Sometimes, it’s the little things that make all the difference. While your website and content should definitely be created for people, the little things often help the search engines serve up the best content to those people.

If you’re not as familiar with the details of search optimization, try working with an SEO pro that can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

9. Create and Optimize Your Local and Social Media Profiles

As important as your website and organic search rankings are, many people will find your business through social media or local review sites like Yelp.

Each of your social media profiles or presence on other platforms act as a landing page that can direct potential customers to your services.

To get people active and engaged with your brand, make sure you’re active on the social platforms that are right for you. Not all will be effective for your company, but there’s sure to be a few that really matter.

Social media and review platforms are a vital component to local SEO that can drive a lot of business to your location.

10. Let Locals Know You’re There

Whether you’re located in a massive urban area or a small town, it’s often most effective to associate your organization with a particular area.

The broader the search terms you’re trying to rank for are, the more difficult it is to rank for them. Instead, pick an area of town and associate yourself.

Make a real effort with your content to appear in searches for your product or service in that area.

11. Stay Speedy

Page speeds are another major ranking factor with Google and the other search engines. The pages of your websites need to move reasonably quickly in order to appear high in the search rankings.

Page speeds can be improved in a number of ways including optimizing image sizes, minifying code where you can, using a faster hosting service, or adding a CDN.

Want to know how fast (or slow) your pages are moving? Take a look at Google’s Page Speed Insights for a clear picture of how your pages are performing.

12. One Of The Most Important Local SEO Tips: Get The Details Right

One of the most important things you can do for better performance in local search results is to optimize your site for local contact information.

Clearly displaying your business’s address, phone number, and other information on your website is a clear indicator to Google that you are indeed a local business that ought to appear in local results.

Plug these details into the header and footer of all your pages and on your contact page for a quick indicator that you’re located in a particular area. Without being spammy, it’s best to work this information into as many places as possible.

Putting It All Together

Improving your search performance isn’t impossible, though sometimes it can certainly feel that way.

Get started with these local SEO tips and be patient. With so much content out there, it just takes time for your site to make its way up the rankings ladder.

Need help hiring a local SEO company to the next level? Contact us today for help making your way to the top in your industry.

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How to Manage Your PPC Campaign Like A Pro

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Running a successful digital marketing campaign in Tampa, FL does not need to be an uphill battle. A great way to begin harnessing the power of online advertising is to run a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Big and small companies alike should understand the massive source of revenue provided by PPC campaigns.

In 2017, about 7 million advertisers invested more than $10 billion in PPC campaigns worldwide. Even with a small budget, an expert pay-per-click campaign generates more website hits and a greater return on investment (ROI) than non-paid advertising alone.

Read on to learn how to manage your paid advertising campaign like a PPC professional.

How to Start an Expert Pay Per Click Campaign in 9 Steps

Follow these nine simple steps to craft a profitable PPC campaign.

#1. Establish Your Goals

Prior to designing your PPC campaign, you need to establish what you hope to achieve through the campaign. Do you want to increase your subscribers? How about boost sales? Or do you simply want to raise awareness about your brand?

The structure of your PPC strategy will heavily depend upon your end goal. Be sure to determine what you want to accomplish before you start and avoid wasting time and money going in the wrong direction.

#2. Know Your Target Audience

You must also know your target audience before crafting a paid marketing campaign like a PPC expert. Creating a consumer persona can help you visualize your ideal customer. You do this by learning about the people who like and use your products or services.

Conduct keyword research. Use analytics to find out what pages users access the most and where they look on those pages with heat maps. Review customer surveys and feedback or independent market research to learn more about their likes and habits. All this data will help you find your target audience.

#3. Determine the Best Keywords

While conducting keyword research to reveal your target audience, keep track of the words or phrases that appear most. Use a keyword tool to determine the best keywords of the bunch.

Remember that the more competition for a particular keyword, the higher the cost per click. Test out a variety of low and high competition keywords to see what works best for your campaign.

#4. Set a Budget and Work Backwards

Once you better understand your keywords and the hits they produce, you can set up a PPC campaign budget. Narrow down your keywords to the ones that generate the most clicks and focus on those. You can also do some research into the average cost per click (CPC) within your specific industry if you cannot pull from a large pool of data.

You can apply a general formula to determine the max profitability per click for a keyword. Use analytics data to fill in the following formula:

[profit per customer] x [1 – profit margin] x [website conversion rate] = Max CPC

Be sure to target keywords with a lower estimated CPC than your max CPC otherwise you will end up losing money.

#5. Write Compelling Copy

No matter the size of your digital marketing campaign, you must always write compelling copy. This is especially true when you need to capture a potential customer’s attention with only a few written lines.

Aim to craft headline and description copy that gets inside a consumer’s head. Make personalized ads that highlight the value of your service or product. Personalization does not mean serving up dynamic ads that feature a customer’s name. It means knowing why your target customer would need to your goods or services and including a focused call to action based on that knowledge.

#6. Include a Powerful Call to Action

Your ad’s call to action will determine whether you succeed as a PPC expert or fail like a beginner. Ask the potential customer to do something with powerful words proven to encourage them to click like:

  • You
  • Get
  • Buy
  • Shipping
  • Best
  • Save
  • Free
  • Your

#7. Consider Including Ad Extensions

Ad extensions do not increase the cost of your PPC ad campaign despite the benefits they provide. Both Bing and Google offer ad extensions through their PPC programs. These extensions allow searchers to take certain actions without leaving the search engine results page.

There are many different kinds of extensions, but here are just a few examples. A call extension adds a clickable phone number. A review extension shows top reviews for your product. A callout extension lists other pages on your website that take the searcher directly to the page when clicked. All these extensions make it easier for searchers to find what they need with fewer clicks.

#8. Create a Welcoming and Relevant Landing Page

Once you go to all this trouble to craft an intriguing PPC advert, do not just send users to your homepage. Creating a specific landing page to funnel through potential customers will result in a much higher ROI.

A PPC professional ad should send traffic to whatever page relates most to the ad and the promise made to the user in the ad. If your ad states the user will be able to enter a drawing for a new pair of shoes, they better arrive on a page with a registration form. A welcoming landing page should always include similar keywords and load very quickly to keep the user’s attention.

#9. Monitor Your Results

Once you set your PPC strategy in motion, have a plan to continually monitor it. Monitoring your analytics saves you money by revealing when to eliminate poor performing adverts. Keep an eye out for how certain keywords perform and adjust bidding to focus on the words with the most ROI.

Strategies for Ads on Google, Facebook, and Bing from Top PPC Professionals

Already comfortable running a basic PPC campaign? Check out these expert pay-per-click strategies that will improve your ROI and boost your conversion rates.

Google

Most marketers and small business owners looking to run their own PPC campaigns begin with Google AdWords. Once you familiarize yourself with the platform, you can delve deeper into its more complicated features.

Add Reviews

Consumers love online reviews. Research shows that 88% of consumers consider online reviews as trustworthy as a personal recommendation. Adding reviews to your PPC advertisements earns you a potential customer’s trust immediately. They do not need to click onto another page first.

Google AdWords allows you to include reviews as long as the product or service has at least 30 unique customer reviews. It requires an extension and Google only charges if someone clicks on the ad. They do not charge you if the user only looks at the review.

Enable Accelerated Delivery

Accelerated delivery is very advanced and only true PPC professionals with a larger budget should enable it. In the standard ad delivery method, Google uses algorithms to predict how often people search for your keyword. These algorithms also determine how often to show your ad based on your budget and similar prior campaigns.

The standard ad delivery method spreads the ads throughout the whole day. This may leave you with unspent budget money if more people click in the morning and less in the afternoon.

Alternatively, accelerated delivery allows Google to show your ads whenever people seem to click the most. It will submit your ad into the ad auction until your budget reaches its limit. You hit your budget limit sooner, but get access to the better clicks.

Bing

A PPC professional marketer leaves no potential source of clicks untapped, so consider running ads on Bing if you do not already. Bing accounts for the highest number of desktop hits with 77% taking place through its search engine. Here are a few techniques to positively impact your Bing PPC campaign.

Ad Scheduling

Bing’s ad scheduling feature works even better than the one in Google AdWords. In AdWords, you must schedule each post in every individual time zone. Bing lets you schedule a post in your time zone between 8 am and 9 am in EST and it does the same thing in any other time zone you select.

Location Targeting

Any expert PPC campaign will take into account location targeting and Bing makes this easy. Their ad tool allows you to target specific locations with different ads depending on what works best. Google AdWords does not offer this same laser-focused location targeting.

Partner Targeting

Again, unlike Google, Bing offers a more focused partner-targeting tool for their PPC ads. Choose to show ads based on demographics and the device used for search along with the time of day and specific locations. Bing’s tool also provides data about which search partners send traffic to your website.

Facebook

Facebook might not be a search engine in the traditional sense. However, a survey done by the analytics company Aimia revealed that of the users making purchases through social media 19% make direct purchases through Facebook. Here are a few strategies for tapping into that PPC market.

Retargeting

Have you noticed that when you log onto Facebook not long after visiting certain websites you will suddenly see ads for that same website? This is a PPC marketing strategy called retargeting. It reminds potential customers of their interest in your products or services.

Facebook allows you to customize your target audience based on a variety of factors. Choose to target people who viewed a particular page on your site or the website as a whole. You can even target potential customers based on how long ago they last visited your site. Enable retargeting in your Facebook ad settings.

Life Events

Since Facebook has access to so much personal data, you can gear your ads towards consumers based on the current happenings in their life. Choose life events based on your industry for the best results.

For example, if you sell wedding supplies, you only have a small window of time to advertise to the bride and groom. Targeting recently engaged people during the several months leading up to their wedding gets you more clicks than if your ad appeared on a single person’s dashboard.

Leave it to the PPC Experts

Not sure you have the time or knowledge to run your own successful PPC campaign?

Leave it to our expert PPC professionals in Tampa, FL!

Call us today to start earning more from your paid advertising campaign as soon as possible!

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Why You Should Outsource Your Business’ SEO Needs

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Are you ready to launch a successful Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaign?

SEO helps every business owner take advantage of the billions of Google searches performed every day.

The right campaign can draw more organic traffic to your website. More organic traffic boosts your conversion rates and establishes your reputation.

Effective SEO can be an essential component of every business. That’s why you need to hire a SEO Agency. 

If you’re keen to tackle SEO, you may be wondering if you should do it yourself or turn to experts. This distinction comes down to more than mere cost and scale.

In this post, we’ll discuss the reasons why you need SEO outsourcing to get ahead. Read on for insight!

1. Many Factors Influence Google Rankings

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing online content for keywords ideal customers are likely to enter into Google.

A standard user will search for a phrase or word that best approximates their desire.

Search results appear according to Google’s own assessment of the “best match.” In general, the closest matches appear at the top of the first page of search results. Lower rankings indicate poorer matches.

With SEO, websites can increase their chances of a higher Google ranking.

Keywords

A DIY Search Engine Optimization campaign may thus involve some intensive keyword research and content optimization. However, SEO is about more than merely sprinkling your content with trending keywords.

It is definitely possible to thoroughly research phrases that your ideal clients are likely to enter into search engines. It’s equally possible to optimize your content well with these keywords.

Nonetheless, there’s much more to SEO than keywords!

Domain and Page Authority

Google ranks sites according to specific “signals” or authority factors. It has to do this in order to fairly distribute results.

Google does pay attention to how well you optimize your content with popular keywords. It will certainly prioritize a site that seamlessly integrates searchable phrases and words than one that arbitrarily crams its content with these terms.

Yet it also considers domain authority, an indicator of how well referenced your site is on the web. You can build domain authority by acquiring backlinks, links from other sites that send visitors to your pages.

Website Technicalities

Google also inspects bounce rates, the rate of visitors who come by your site and immediately leave. Page loading speeds and content quality can influence SEO rankings as well.

These are just a few of the many factors that can impact your visibility on search engines.

For some business owners, this complexity and challenge of SEO may seem perfectly viable. For others, however, there are simply too many factors to take into consideration.

SEO outsourcing entrusts your optimization efforts into expert hands well-versed in all that influences SEO performance. The right SEO consultants will ensure that your campaign hinges on more than solid keywords (although these will be high-value terms).

When you outsource SEO services, you invest in a holistic optimization campaign that considers every single factor that can influence results.

2. Google’s Algorithms Keep Changing

SEO is a constantly changing industry. Keywords that are popular one week may not be so popular the next. Consumers’ preferences shift and adapt to changes in technology and culture.

Most importantly, Google itself keeps changing its algorithms, the tools it uses to assign rankings to individual sites.

This is not malicious on the search engine giant’s part at all; in fact, it’s an indicator of how keen Google is to rank content fairly and weed out sites attempting to “cheat” the system.

It can be tough to keep up with these algorithmic and industry changes if you aren’t already fluent in all things SEO. In fact, wrapping your mind around algorithms themselves–and finding out when they change–may feel impossible.

Nonetheless, keeping up with the changes in SEO and Google’s guidelines is essential to maintaining high rankings. Failure to stay in line with the trajectory of optimization can mean less digital visibility.

SEO outsourcing is valuable insurance against falling behind the SEO times. A professional SEO agency or service will be sure to implement a campaign that aligns with the most recent trends.

3. Effective SEO Isn’t Just SEO

We’ve already discussed the multiple factors that influence SEO performance. It’s also important to note that true SEO isn’t just SEO.

Optimization can be a critical component of your business’s bid for greater visibility, both online and offline.

However, SEO is often linked to other, more comprehensive digital marketing aims. Its performance can also hinge on additional online advertising measures designed to develop a powerful web presence.

For example, an SEO campaign may depend on solid content marketing. Google emphasizes in its guidelines to a Google-friendly site the value of relevant content. In fact, high-quality content is at the core of its SEO priorities.

If you don’t already have rich content in place, you may find yourself reaching out to a content marketer before taking up SEO.

What’s more, you may also recognize that your site’s current design isn’t where it should be when it comes to creating user-driven content. Enter the web designer.

The most powerful SEO campaigns fit snugly inside of a larger digital marketing strategy, which may involve other marketing efforts. Most commonly, an optimization campaign will be linked to web design, social media campaigns, and content marketing.

Many SEO professionals recognize how much goes into a solid SEO campaign. The most effective consultants will therefore be digital marketers, ready to link your optimization efforts to a comprehensive strategy.

Most importantly, hiring SEO experts means that you don’t have to dream up all of these other digital marketing solutions. At the very least, you’ll receive high-quality, industry-informed advice that can direct you to the digital advertising efforts you need to implement to achieve SEO results.

4. Monitoring an SEO Campaign Requires Dedication

Because the world of SEO is always changing, a well-crafted campaign has to be a well-monitored one. We tell all business owners who wish to tackle SEO on their own that optimization is not a “single set-up” strategy.

True, it does require extensive research before implementation. Optimizing content may take an afternoon or a week.

Nonetheless, simply inputting keywords, launching a social media campaign, and changing your web design may not generate the results you are seeking. This is because it’s essential to track your keyword and SEO performance.

Most website owners can easily assess the viability and performance of certain keywords by using a tool like Google Analytics or Keyword Explorer on Ahrefs. Google Analytics can also provide insight into bounce rates, page loading times, and organic traffic sources.

It’s critical to monitor this data on a daily basis and to change keywords and content accordingly. In many cases, SEO campaign management requires assessment of competitors’ keywords and rankings. This knowledge can help you hone your campaign so that your content can eventually take the lead.

All of this requires a lot of SEO savvy, time, and effort. As a business owner, you simply may not have the time or the technology to invest in SEO campaign management. But you guessed it–an SEO agency will. It’s what we’re made for!

Save valuable time and money by handing over your SEO vision to professionals.

5. It’s Easier to Acquire a Google Penalty Than You May Assume

Remember what we just said about the factors that influence Google rankings and SEO performance? It’s tough to keep up with all of these guidelines if you’re handling SEO yourself.

If you miss a rule, this could lead to a Google penalty. A penalty occurs when a web crawler identifies a violation of its guidelines in your online content and presence. Penalties can tank your current rankings and discourage more traffic from viewing your site.

Unfortunately, it’s easier to acquire a penalty than most assume. We simply don’t want you to experience a penalty, no matter how earnest your SEO efforts!

SEO professionals will be extremely familiar with Google’s guidelines. With their assistance, you can rest assured that your content will never be penalized by Google. In fact, it will be entirely within the scope of Google’s rules.

6. Outpace Your Local Competition

At the end of the day, SEO can be your magic wand for outpacing competitors, especially if you implement local SEO. The more powerful your online reputation, the greater your odds are of earning customer preference over other companies.

Implementing SEO with the purpose of outranking competitors can be an intimidating prospect. While it’s possible to surpass your peers with your own SEO campaign, turning to the experts can dramatically boost your odds of coming out on top.

This is particularly the case when it comes to SEO services with proven track records of bringing clients the traffic and results they desire.

Final Thoughts: The Value of SEO Outsourcing

SEO is a valuable digital marketing tool that can transform your digital visibility and reputation.

While it may be tempting to take your optimization into your own hands for financial reasons, SEO outsourcing can be the difference between an ineffective campaign and a powerful one.

For one thing, SEO depends on more than just keywords. Other digital marketing efforts and Google’s own ranking factors can influence campaign results.

An effective campaign is time-intensive, requiring knowledge and dedication most business owners simply do not have.

All in all, SEO outsourcing can bring you the expertise and results you require when it comes to truly surpassing your competition.

At Digital Neighbor, we love turning our clients’ SEO campaigns into results. Learn more about the SEO services we offer here!

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7 Performance-Based Marketing Strategies to Boost Your Success

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Advancement in technology over the years has had a big impact on the way businesses market themselves to their customers. If you haven’t yet given some thought to your marketing strategy for 2019, it’s not too late to do so.

One way to grow your business is to have a good performance based marketing strategy for 2019. But what are some of the trends to watch out for in 2019?

Here are seven things you can do to succeed in business in 2019.

1. Tailor Your Search Engine Optimization to Voice Search

Are you aware that voice search will dominate SEO in 2019? This is why you must tailor your SEO to voice search. Voice search is different from the typical mobile or desktop search.

When you type in your search query on your Google browser, it is possible to see tens of pages of search results. It isn’t that difficult for your brand to be one of them.

But when you do a voice search, you may not end up as many results.

If your company’s website appears as part of the top voice search results, you’ll enjoy a high Click-Through Rate.

When internet users opt for voice search, they’re essentially hoping to complete an action such as buying a service or product-or obtain specific info on a subject. Once you’ve tailored your SEO to voice search, you need to improve your voice search ranking.

One way to achieve this is by ensuring your website loads fast. Your website must be mobile-friendly. Second, the images must be optimized. Third, your files need to be compressed.

Put all factors that enhance the speed of a traditional website into consideration.

Don’t Forget to Optimize Your Content

Speak normally, that is, the way you would speak to another person. For instance, you may say “who are the best digital marketing companies?” to find out what the top digital marketing businesses are.

Develop featured snippet, also referred to as position zero or quick answer. This a summary answer from your website page. On Google search, these snippets appear before the usual search listings but after paid ads.

Also, localize your voice search since many voice search queries look for geographical-based content. Try adding phrases like “near me”.

2. Use Artificial Intelligence to Take Requests and Provide System-Generated Answers

Artificial intelligence is a performance based strategy that your business can’t afford to miss out 2019. The most common form of AI used in marketing is chatbots. Chatbots help businesses to improve the customer experience while keeping track on budgets.

Chatbots are quicker compared to humans in taking requests and generating any data related answers. They have personalities and humor and offer a personalized experience.

Chatbots can be integrated with social media, websites, and also applications. The user information gathered by chatbots is later used to tailor marketing strategies.

AI helps marketers to efficiently target audience. It also reduces customer acquisition costs. The marketer is able to deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right time and place. It goes past foreseeing who might engage with an ad.

3. Define Your Market Segment

Once you define your market segment, the more specific your target audience becomes.

A smaller segment means a more specific ad that the target audience can easily relate to. Find out what kinds of consumers may be close to the bottom of the consumption funnel. Then, proceed with an ad that precisely meets their needs.

One strategy you might choose to embrace is creating a list of potential leads. For instance, this could include subscribers to your company’s newsletter.

Besides meeting the needs of your target audience, this marketing strategy also helps to reduce the chances of market failure. Your company will be in a position to make accurate decisions about the when, why, where and how of marketing.

Assuming your business has limited resources to spend on marketing, the size of your segment will determine the response and revenue collected.

Also, similar values, wants, and needs can be defined across segments to offer an overriding consistency to messaging and branding. By utilizing the similarities and differences depicted, your business should be in position to discover things that influence purchase decisions.

Once your segment is well defined, your business should come up with a detailed product positioning report that frames the whole marketing messaging and strategy.

Such a positioning should be aligned with specific wants and needs that make the service or product as desirable as possible to that your target market.

4. Create Your Single Keyword Ad Groups

SKAG will help you come up with ad groups that are specific as possible so that you refine your advertisement. The first step in creating your SKAG is to identify root and variations.

Root keywords refer to the shortest keyword you prepared to bid on. Then, place the root keyword into an ad group with three match types: exact, phrase, and broad modified.

The broad modified keywords created should attract different variations of keywords. This will help to draw traffic to your site.

5. Focus on Micro Moments

Every day, consumers come across loads of advertisement packaged as offers, push notification, ads, and emails among other things. The consumer has reached a point where they can no longer process further information.

A typical American consumer has a concentration span of about eight seconds.

Brands and marketers are working so hard to ensure they capture consumer’s attention during these few seconds. This struggle has introduced a new performance strategy known as micro-moments.

Micro-moments describes the new type of consumer behavior when customers reflexively turn on their gadgets to get to know something, learn something, or even buy something.

There are different types of micro-moments. Some of those moments include: I-want-to-go moment, I-want-to-buy moment, and I want-to-do-moment.

A micro-moment is described as fleeting times when the consumer is likely to make an instant decision on what to buy, what to do, and where to go.

As a business, you only have eight seconds to convince them to spend. The only way to focus on micro-moment is by providing right information at that very moment.

Ultimately, the entire consumer decision journey is a blend of these micro-moments across different channels and devices. Apart from content, timing is also important in micro-moments. For instance, a consumer who sees your content at noon may be more influenced to click than another consumer who sees the same advertisement at midnight.

6. Go Beyond Social Media into Visual Search

Your company is advertising on social media and Google for the same reason every other business is. These are popular advertising platforms where all small to medium-sized businesses are camping.

Mark this, dominating social media and Google SEO isn’t enough anymore. This calls for a need to distribute your content to different platforms. Venture into new marketing terrain such as visual search.

Visual search is a type of text query that uses your phone’s camera to capture the image then obtain text-based information.

For instance, an image of a bed run on visual search would suggest a list of shops with a similar or identical bed to that captured on camera.

This technology is still limited in its use but is a key performance based marketing that should not be ignored. Visuals are a key deciding factor in influencing the purchasing decision.

The visual search engine is revolutionizing the digital marketing industry in a big way.

7. Write Catchy Headlines

This is one strategy you can’t go wrong with when writing a blog, article, or ad.

Online users have few seconds to decide to click on the article or disregard. This decision will be majorly influenced by the headline of the article. The headline should provide a reason to click.

Don’t be afraid to take risks when writing your headlines. But, put into consideration your target market. SEO optimize your headline and include a focus keyword so that the article gets discovered in search in search engines.

Also, your headline should leave the audience wanting more. You must create a knowledge gap.

Create Success Metrics for Your Performance Based Marketing Strategies

You must establish success metrics for your performance based marketing strategies to find out if what you are doing is working or not. Success is attained through finding the appropriate marketing mix and recognizing the right partners to the mix.

Some of the success metrics that can be used include increased brand awareness, a target number of sales, consumer response, increased social media interaction and more.

Not sure if your company is doing the right thing when it comes to digital marketing? Contact us today to learn how!

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