Gauging interest With such unprecedented circumstances and everyone adapting to the new normal in real-time, getting a sense of how every single member of our team were feeling was essential. On top of the multitude of day-to-day initiatives the team created to keep in regular communication, we ran regular surveys to get first-hand feedback on […]
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Builtvisible’s validation framework There are numerous approaches to validating ideas in the industry with various acronyms flying around. While I’m not saying Builtvisible’s approach is the definitive one, we find it works for us. Our approach allows us to stick to our core values, and in case it’s helpful to you, I’ve shared the set […]
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1. Reflect on your mission and values There’s a reason companies and brands have values, they exist to steer strategy, streamline decision making and inform how we react to factors beyond our control. When circumstances change to the extent we’ve seen recently, these values will certainly be put through their paces. But stick with it, […]
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Step 1: defining your consent groups Now, before we start thinking about implementation, the first thing you want to tackle is sorting all first- and third-party cookies on your site into consent groups. These classifications are essentially a list of categories that the site’s cookies can be sorted into, and each group should be as […]
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What about idea validation? James Brockbank recently reminded the digital PR community of a critical point – ideation is an incredibly important, if not the most important, part of digital PR. While I think every step of digital PR is as crucial as each other, I do believe ideation – and, specifically, the validation of […]
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Have you ever wondered what exactly is SEO Marketing? As a Maui business owner in 2020, you must be curious about the various aspects of digital marketing that affect your business. One of the primary goals of every business, especially the new ones, would be to reach their audience in a creative, appealing, and consistent … Continue reading “What is SEO Marketing”
What is SEO Marketing See more on: https://nickponte.com/
Four steps to delivering great customer serviceIt
LOL, this is made us laugh….
Creating and optimizing a Google Ads account is both an art and a science. Each marketer has their own style and techniques when it comes to setting up, managing and optimizing their account. However, there are a few fundamental components of a Google Ads account that if you get them wrong, will result in failure and a wasted marketing budget. Think of these as the ABCs of a Google Ad account.Google Ads MistakesThe ABCs are so fundamental that they are easy for anyone to understand and verify, regardless of your level of experience with Google Ads. At the same time,
Web Developer Web Developer is a chrome extension developed by Chris Pederick that allows you to make changes to your viewport to impact what you’re seeing on the webpage. This one is pretty essential for all SEOs as it allows you to do two key things: Find the cause of some technical issues by progressively […]
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Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines. -Robert Schuller via : https://bit.ly/37Ecoye
OMG! That’s hilarious! Have you ever had your food stolen?
Create a safe workplace for staff and customersThe Government has started to lift the coronavirus lockdown. Workers who cannot work from home have been encouraged to return to work where it is safe to do so.From 1 June 2020, subject to meeting the Government
Haven’t we all been there? Share your most embarassing speaker stories!
The Marketplace used to only be a C2C platform but now there is a major B2C opportunity for US retailers.Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.
A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. Christopher Reeve via :
Keeping your customers close even from a distanceYour doors may be closed due to the coronavirus pandemic but your customers are still out there and they would love to support you. If you
Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today. Thich Nhat Hanh via : https://bit.ly/2zIHV5q
Habits are an integral part of life. They build personality and help you prosper in your life. Habits of successful people are the most crucial…Read more The post Top 10 Habits Of…
Social media gives an amazing asset to outreach: Companies can share stories, talk about occasions or offers, or examine solutions or services with intrigued clients or potential customers. While only one out of every odd private company has put aside the time and money to set up an online technique or presence.Private businesses or new companies can procure immense benefits by simply improving their social media presence. They need to keep up a protocol where they should fill in as a team. Filling in as a team will bring fortune. Tolerance is important to get results. Just if, your team
News agenda The news agenda often has an impact on future content trends and is therefore great for spotting upcoming themes. If we take recent times, for example, a health pandemic perpetuating the news has led to an increase in knock-on effect topics such as mental health, working remotely and home exercising. Using these insights, […]
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Professionals who use search engine optimization (SEO) and Google Ads say both approaches are effective; but, if forced to pick only one, most would choose Google Ads, according to recent research from BestSEOCompanies.com. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice. Bob Marley via :
Finding affordable SEO services for small businesses isn’t an easy task for sure. With SEO being such a complex field, it’s hard to know what services do you need or whether a company’s gonna do a good job or not.
That’s why it’s important to have at least an idea of what SEO services are important, which practices are useful and which are harmful.
Many times, SEO companies offer their services in the form of a monthly SEO package. While it’s easy for search engine marketers to manage their work this way, and a lot easier for you to understand what you get for the buck, it’s also a big indication of automatization, which stands, generally, at the base of SEO penalties.
This article will not be a list of companies to pick from, but a guide on which services you should be looking for and how to choose the right company.
So, read this guide till the end to get the insights you need.
If you’re a small business looking for affordable SEO services, you’ve probably just started out as an entrepreneur.
But why choose SEO as a marketing channel?
The main reason why small businesses should consider SEO as a marketing channel is that you can either invest time or money into it.
That gives you some liberty, in case you don’t have one or the other.
While other channels, such as PPC, can offer faster results, SEO is a long-term game, but can bring in the greatest ROI.
The key here is to start it as early as possible, so you can benefit off it for as long as possible. Postponing it will only allow your competition to get ahead, making your job harder.
If you’re interested in the pros and cons of these two marketing channels, take a look at this article about SEO vs PPC.
But again, if PPC seems like a more viable option for you now, you should still start investing in SEO as soon as possible.
It’s hard to say what SEO services a business needs because it differs from business to business.
Do you have a local store? Or an online one? Are you a blogger or an affiliate or do you offer services, be them physically, such as plumbing, or online, such as consulting?
In general, small businesses lack quality content and promotion.
Quality websites are easy to build these days using templates and content management systems, but quality content isn’t easy to write.
Also, once the website is live and even with quality content on it, it’s still not enough. You need to know how to promote it to show Google that it’s valuable.
We’ll go through multiple categories so that you can have a better idea what affordable seo services for small business you might need, depending on your case.
In the end, you’ll need a bit of everything, so consider this list as a set of priorities.
The truth about technical SEO is that it is, in general, a one-time fix. While you have to change things from time to time as the internet evolves, if you set things right from the beginning, they will last.
Here are the top Technical SEO issues that small businesses should focus on in their online marketing strategy:
Here are some tools that can help you ensure you won’t be spending much on Technical SEO issues:
WordPress:
The best affordable SEO service for Technical SEO when it comes to small businesses is WordPress.
You need an optimized, mobile friendly website over which you have control and can maximize potential without spending too much.
Web Designers are quite expensive, so WordPress is the way to go. You can find a variety of templates for a nice web design, many even for free.
Sure, there are other SaaS website builders there such as Wix or Squarespace (you’ve probably seen the ads by now), but they are very limited in terms of what you can do for your business’s SEO.
If you want to go with PPC only, SaaS website builders might be a good option, but for search engine optimization, even renowned SEO companies will have a hard time.
Even WordPress has its own SaaS packages, so make sure you compare both the open source version and the SaaS one.
In the open source one, you’ll need your own hosting, while the SaaS one will cover it.
In the long run, if you want to get the most out of it, the open source version is the best option, but it will be more difficult to manage.
GT Metrix:
GT-Metrix is a great service that will tell you about a variety of technical SEO issues your site is facing.
The most important things you want to make sure you fix are large images and caching.
While all these tips are useful, what you should be focusing on is the load speed of the website, in seconds.
PageSpeed Insights:
Just like GT Metrix, Google offers a similar tool, called PageSpeed Insights.
You can view a variety of technical issues which Google considers you should fix.
The most important one, again, is the speed at which your website loads (First Contentful Paing and Time to interactive)
Xenu Link Sleuth:
Xenu Lunk Sleuth is a free tool you can use to crawl your website and identify missing title tags or 404 errors.
You can also use this to quickly map titles to URLs if you’re in the process of rewriting your titles in order to improve OnPage SEO.
In the tool itself you can also visualize where a pages is linked from internally within your site.
CognitiveSEO Toolset:
The CognitiveSEO Toolset is an affordable seo services for small business that can help you with more complex issues like website structure. Instead of analyzing everything on a page by page basis like other tools, our tool lets you take advantage of APIs to analyze your entire site at once.
Furthermore, you’ll be able to view the entire structured in an easy to understand manner, inside the dashboard.
Here are some services and tools which you can use to find keywords and develop a better content strategy.
Google Autosuggest & Keyword Planner:
The Google Autosuggest tool can be really helpful in finding out what people are searching for on the web in real time.
Just start typing in a seed keyword and Google will fill you in on the details.
Moreover, at the bottom of any results page you’ll see a list of related keywords which you can use.
Furthermore, if you’re already using Google Adwords, why not use the keywords you’ve found there for organic search as well?
Reddit:
Reddit is a great source for finding new hot topics in your domain. You just have to look at subreddits relevant to your niche.
Sometimes, it might not be easy to find them but try to think outside the box. Once you’re close, start following that thread.
Don’t just rush on adding links to your website, or you’ll get banned quick enough. First, you’ll have to build your profile by answering threads and even starting popular ones.
If you’re a consultant, you can start by answering threads to some extent, then offering individuals to help them further in Private Messages.
There you can determine if you’re a good fit and offer your services.
Eventually, once you’ve gained enough karma, you can start answering people partially and adding a link to your blog where you expand on the topic, for those interested in finding out more.
CognitiveSEO:
The CognitiveSEO Content Assistant is a great tool that can help you quickly improve Google rankings, only by changing your content a little bit.
You can try it for free here.
First, type in what keyword you want to optimize for, then go to the Content Assistant section and the tool will provide you with a list of keywords you should use in your content to improve your site’s rank in Google.
It’s that simple!
Of course, take it with a grain of salt. You don’t have to force a keyword in if it doesn’t fit. You can change it a little so that it makes sense. Think of the important keywords there as topics of subjects you need to address in your page.
Link building is probably the hardest thing to do these days. Everyone is aware of it, nobody wants to link to you (without money) and even Google is on it, penalizing you for it.
Use the Link Reclamation Tool
Building white-hat links of high value and in accordance with Google’s guidelines have been a pain point for years now.
The broken pages and link reclamation technique might be familiar to you as they are quite old school strategies.
We documented this technique a lot, so find out way more about the link reclamation technique, when and how to use it to deliver maximum results.
Analyze Your Competitor’s Links
More often than not, your competitors, especially the ones ranking high in search results, are doing some things very well.
Why not use what they are doing to improve your own SEO rankings?
The CognitiveSEO Backlink Analysis tool can identify what backlinks your competitors are using to rank high. Even more than that, you can use the Unnatural Link detection to filter bad links and focus only on the best ones.
You can also use it for competitive analysis, to see where you are positioned compared to your competitors. This can help you identify websites ranking to multiple competitors, indicating that it might be easier to obtain.
Blog Commenting:
Many SEO experts consider this to be a spammy method, but in fact, it isn’t. It can be. However, I’m not recommending spam in any way.
I’m talking about identifying websites and blogs talking about related topics to your small business and engaging with them, just as you would do on Social Media.
You’ll often see companies offer services such as blog commenting in their ‘affordable’ SEO packages, but be wary, as more often than not, it’s spam.
The goal here is to build connections with other websites or bloggers in the field. Then maybe you can land a deal with them to promote your website.
Guest Posting:
By engaging with relevant bloggers through blog commenting, you might get to know a blogger well enough to ask them for a guest post.
Guest Posting is when you write an article for another website, under your name. Usually, you’ll be able to link back to your website.
Expanding this is now considered a dangerous practice, but doing it in moderation won’t affect your site in any way.
Outreach:
Guest posts or simply links can also be obtained through direct outreach.
However, you have to build some sort of connection first. Being genuine is the best way and I’ve had the most success with it.
Always start by giving something and not expecting something in return. Once you’ve got a reply, you can push a request, but don’t be demanding.
Many people sell links on their websites for hundreds of dollars. So when they give you one for free, you should really appreciate it.
Check out these outreach examples to boost your response rate.
Blogging (with a twist):
Last but not least, content marketing can be really useful for search engine optimization in the long run. However, it won’t be enough to write articles in order to get links.
You’ll have to write articles that people want to share and that’s not easy.
You can do it the tricky way, by identifying an influencer and writing about something you know they’ll share, or following another strategy such as writing case studies or funny things.
Either way, even if blogging and content marketing won’t help you get links in the end, it’s still a good way of consolidating and optimizing your website’s structure.
Measuring an SEO strategy is crucial for determining the success of an SEO campaign. Whether you work with an SEO firm or not, it’s a good idea to monitor the results on your own.
Here are some methods you can use to effectively track your rankings and results:
Google itself: The oldest method in the basket. Just open Google and type your keyword. Make sure you do it in Incognito mode, to get rid of personalized search results.
Google Search Console: The Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google which will monitor where your site’s getting traffic from, as well as the average positions for the keywords that brought the traffic.
CognitiveSEO Rank Tracker: If you’re looking for something a little bit more advanced, take a look at our rank tracker. Not only will it show your SEO rankings, but it can also notify you of drops and will provide a graph for each particular keyword. Using our tool you’ll also be able to monitor your competitor’s rankings, if that interests you.
When it comes to local SEO, you can actually completely dominate the entire page of Google with multiple positions.
Here are the most affordable things you can focus on to improve rankings:
Google MyBusiness:
Google MyBusiness is the most important SEO service you should focus on as a small local business.
Setting up a GMB listing isn’t particularly difficult. Just make sure you use your keywords in the name and description and fill in all the information correctly.
However, ranking Google MyBusiness listings high isn’t as easy, but it can be achieved by implementing a set of practices in your company, such as asking for reviews or getting in the local newspaper.
Social Media Accounts & Posting:
In local search results, Facebook pages can actually rank pretty high for particular keywords.
Make sure you use that to your advantage by optimizing the title and description on Facebook to also include the keyword you’re trying to target.
Also, posting regularly on Facebook can help you bring some traffic to your website. Just remember the 80 20 rule, in which you only try to sell them 20% of the time.
If your posts are only promotional, people won’t engage with them and the reach of all your posts will be reduced over time. You have to attract engagement and also engage with your audience yourself.
You might think that small local businesses can’t go viral, but the The White Moose Café would prove you wrong.
Citations & Accurate NAP:
Citations are like backlinks, but they only mention your brand’s name and don’t necessarily contain a link back to your site.
NAP stands for Name, Address and Phone and you want to make sure these are consistent across the web.
Therefore, using a different phone or address or different opening hours across different platforms such as Google and Facebook might look confusing to Google, just as it would to your clients.
In a way, you’re bringing all these channels and platforms together to form a stronger union that will rank better overall.
You can also purchase advertising in local media, if they are affordable. If you’re in a small town, that works, but in big cities such as New York… though luck!
Local Adjacent Niches Partnerships:
A great way of getting some traction with local SEO is to partner up with other local businesses in your proximity.
The businesses can promote each other locally in their own store, as well as online on their websites.
They don’t have to be competitors, but at least somehow related or relevant to your niche.
So if you sell hunting rifles, it’s probably not a good idea to try to partner up with a vegan restaurant.
For example, if you sell luxury watches, why not partner up with the luxury suits store across the road? Everybody wins!
Video SEO can help you grow your business. More and more people prefer video content over traditional, written one.
It’s hard to pinpoint an affordable seo services for small business for video, as you can’t really optimize videos the same way you optimize blog posts. Once you’ve published it… it’s done.
Sure, you can still change titles and descriptions to better optimize them but, as a whole, you have to get things right from the start.
Here are a few tips you can follow to rank better with video or complement your content marketing strategy with a video SEO as well.
eCommerce SEO services are the hardest to find at affordable prices. If you have a small eCommerce SEO business, consider spending your own time in learning SEO, as services might be expensive and the cheap ones will most probably not be very effective.
Site Structure: Structure is the most important thing for eCommerce websites, because of filters and faceted navigation. So make sure you get it right from the beginning. It might be expensive for big sites, but it’s very effective and it will save you a lot of time and money in the future.
You can use the CognitiveSEO Site Audit Tool to analyze your site and ensure a proper structure. From URLs, 301 redirects and canonicals to internal linking, the tool has everything covered.
Well optimized titles: Very often, people ignore the basics. They focus on ‘secret’ strategies and completely forget that their titles aren’t optimized. Of course, this assuming that you’ve done your keyword research already.
Blogging: eCommerce sites lack quality content. Most products have short descriptions and the structure itself is only built as a silo between categories and products. However, you can consolidate that structure with interesting articles. They will also ease your job into bringing natural backlinks to your website.
Copywriting: Many eCommerce store owners ignore copywriting. However, each product page is, in fact, a landing page. And landing pages need copy. You need copy to sell. Most copywriters are also good at writing for SEO as well, which will also benefit your site.
Structured Data: While structured data is the last thing you should think about (keywords, titles, content, speed are more important), it’s very relevant for eCommerce websites, as they can help enhance Google results for products.
If it was to draw the line at the most important ones, in general, for all types of websites and businesses, it would be this:
However, in some cases, many better others apply. The best thing you can do is get in touch with an independent SEO consultant to get some tips.
If you’re looking for affordable SEO services, that’s an indication you’re already looking to invest money, so you’re probably looking for an SEO firm.
While I can’t provide a list of companies (there are too many factors to take into consideration, such as language, location, type of website and others) I can provide some tips on how to how to find a good one.
To be honest, the secret here isn’t finding the best service at the lowest price, but to avoid bad/destructive cheap services.
Here are some questions you can ask SEO companies to avoid being tricked.
Cheapness and quality is a rare combination, so if you’re on the hunt for it, you have to be very well prepared with knowledge.
There are many reasons cheap services can be bad: spinned content, cheap links or PBNs, for example.
If an SEO company offers affordable SEO packages on a monthly basis, be suspicious.
It’s not that companies that offer packages aren’t good, but it’s a good indication they are automating everything, which leads to patterns, which can lead to penalties.
You should talk to one of the SEO experts in the company before signing.
If you just purchase the package and receive the “SEO audit” via e-mail a few days later, be sure that it was automated.
They should be asking questions about your business. How else would they know how to properly promote you if they don’t know anything about you?
First, ask them if their strategies are what most search engine marketers would call ‘white hat’ or safe.
If the answer is no… I think you know what to do.
If the answer is yes, then you should also follow up with these important questions:
If the answers to those questions are yes, you might want to avoid the company. Some automation tools, such as ones for e-mail newsletters or for scheduling posts are fine, but others such as scraping content or spinning it are not.
Additionally, you should ask the SEO firm:
If you get a competent and clear answer to these questions, it’s a good indication that who you’ll work with knows what they’re doing and are well-intended.
Ultimately, it’s up to you who you sign with but, hopefully, by now you have a better understanding of how to choose good affordable SEO services for your small business.
What affordable SEO services for small business do you think are the best? Let us know in the comments section.
The post Affordable SEO Services for Small Business – The Mandatory List appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.
Strength comes from struggle. When you learn to see your struggles as opportunities to become stronger, better, wiser, then your thinking shifts from ‘I can’t do this’ to 'I must do this.’ via :
Its a growing dilemma for many US small businesses as states ease coronavirus measures but theres no clear answerCoronavirus latest updatesCongratulations! Youve made it to the next phase. Business was going great and then the you-know-what hit the fan. The coronavirus shut you down. You sent everyone home. Some employees were able to work remotely, some werent. You gathered up your savings, maybe got a little help from the government, and hunkered down. For months. Now, things are starting to turn around. Finally, life can get back to normal.But its not normal of course. Theres still a very
The brief was simple. Ish. The long and the short of it is that we are a very different business from five years ago physically, structurally, and culturally – and have grown up a fair amount in that time. Our look and feel need to do this group of people justice as specialists at the […]
The post Lockdown gave us time to reflect and prepare for the future. Introducing Builtvisible’s new brand. appeared first on Builtvisible.
I want to get paid per click too! :D
Hiring a marketing consultant on Maui can give your business the fresh perspective it needs to stay ahead of the competition. A seasoned marketing consultant can permeate your business with fresh ideas, strategic insights, and provide the required marketing solutions you need to take your business to a whole new level.If youre generating leads and not closing any deal or if youre having a hard time generating leads or making sales, perhaps its time to look beyond your in-house team to work with professional marketing consultants on an as-needed basis. If youre yet to work with one before, below are
