Why Does SEO Matter So Much, Anyway?!

Lytron 1 1

Small businesses with an online presence have to think about SEO all the time. Why?

 

It’s because Search Engine Optimization, techniques that boost your business website’s online profile, are how most consumers find your business today. Without constant vigilance on SEO, those customers are going to go to competitors.

 

Rising to the Top

 

SEO techniques include things like insert keywords into your web content, posting photos and videos that attract more click-throughs and generally doing everything you can to make your web pages more appealing.

 

Appealing to who? Customers, but also search engines like Google, Bing!, Yahoo, and others. These are the primary tools that people use today to find the products, services, and businesses they want.

 

The Evolution of  SEO 

 

Forty years ago, people used the phone book to look for things like plumbers, car mechanics, florists, and more. But beginning about 20 years ago, people started using computers in their home.

 

Soon, these were replaced with laptops. Then came smartphones. Then tablets.

 

Today, most people use all of these devices to not only search for but also to buy things they want and need. That makes SEO an essential factor for any business that wants to attract customers online. In other words, any business!

 

Getting the Help You Need

 

By this point, most business owners understand the importance of their online profile and web reputation. It’s hard to think of a business that doesn’t benefit from trying to attract customers via their portable devices. It’s simply how business is done today.

 

But not every business owner understands the importance of getting help with their SEO. Managing your online reputation is too complicated to try and do on your own. Instead, you need the help of professional SEO experts, such as “Lytron Lead Generation“.

 

We can help you boost your business’s SEO and attract more customers both online and in the real world. Web-based SEO marketing is simply a fact of life in today’s business environment. Get on board with “Lytron Lead Generation”.

 

Split Testing Measures Success of SEO Efforts

handsome businessman pointing at white blackboard J92ZW6D Easy Resize.com

Split testing is a technique used by online marketers to measure the effectiveness of specific changes to such things as SEO keywords, marketing campaigns, and even the images used on websites.

 

In essence, split testing is based on the approach scientists use to test a theory by using clinical trials. An experiment is set up into two groups: One control group and one test group.

 

For example, pharmaceutical researchers might give one group a new drug they are testing and a second group a placebo. The use of this “control group” structure allows them to keep everything else the same to see the precise effects of the drug they want to test.

 

Split Testing Measures Success of SEO Efforts – Measurable Results

 

Website designers, online marketers, and internet-based businesses often use the same approach. But instead of using human test subjects, they split testing to measure the effects of small changes to their web content.

 

For example, a business with an established website might want to see how well a new marketing campaign works. So they could use split testing to see if it encourages customers to spend more or less than they spend using the business’s existing marketing effort.

 

Two versions of the business’s website are set up: One with then new marketing program and one with the existing campaign. Some customers are directed to one page while others are sent to the other.

 

Split Testing Measures Success of SEO Efforts – Achieving Results Faster

 

Then the business measures the average amount spent per customer for each of the two pages. If the new marketing campaign earns the business more money, it can replace the old program. But if it earns less, it’s back to the drawing board.

 

Split testing can be used to measure the effects of any type of change to a website. It can be something as big as a new marketing campaign to something as small as the wording on a headline or which of two pictures gets a better response.

 

By using split testing, web page designers can optimize the content of pages in order to achieve the results they want faster.

Blogging Keeps Customers and Clients Engaged with Your Business

coworking and corporate colleagues working in offi NG4JZKD Easy Resize.com

Blogs are short, informative articles that usually are distributed through social media to a targeted audience, such as to a mailing list of customers.

 

Blogging is a relatively new and highly effective marketing platform that helps build loyalty bonds between businesses and their customers. It both informs and engages people simultaneously by providing value to the business-customer relationship.

 

Creating Relevant Content

 

There are essentially two types of blogs. The first is original content that is either created by somebody within the business itself or by somebody hired by the business to provide informative articles for their clients.

 

The second is blogs that are composed of articles, links, and other content that originally was created elsewhere, such as on another website, in a magazine or newspaper, or a video that was posted online.

 

Generally, the content of these “secondary blogs” is somehow related to what the company does or the types of products it offers. For example, customers of a local car showroom might receive both original blogs as well as blogs that contain promotional videos from the major car makers.

 

Business – Why Customers Want Blogs

 

People are typically highly open to receiving and reading your business’s blog posts because they perceive it as receiving something of high value for nothing. Customers don’t pay for blogs. They are simply something they receive if they opt-in by giving their email address, cell phone number, or other contact information.

 

While the customer’s investment is minimal, the return from the business is high. Blog postings can often provide helpful and useful information they can use immediately in their everyday lives.

 

Business – Low-Cost, High Value

 

And the benefit to businesses also is high. Blogs not only make customers more loyal to the business, but they also can occasionally include promotional offers and information that can lead to short-term future sales and a longer term relationship with the customer.

 

If your business doesn’t already provide its customers with regular blog postings, it’s something you absolutely should consider.

Capture More Traffic with Geo-Specific Keywords

online shopping spending marketing internet concep PHNXSVH Easy Resize.com

Keywords are what search engines use to rank websites. They are specific words and phrases that best describe what a particular website is all about.

 

For example, if your website promotes your dry cleaning business, you want to include keywords such as “dry cleaning”, “clothes cleaning”, “one-hour dry cleaning”, and others.

 

Search engines such as Yahoo!, Bing, and most importantly Google will scan your website, using sophisticated algorithms to determine what keywords within the content of your site best describe what it is all about, and then rank your web page.

 

Then, when users of that particular search engine use it to look for business websites using those specific keywords, your page will show up on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) for those specific keywords.

 

Capture More Traffic with Geo-Specific Keywords – Getting  Ranked Higher

 

But think about how this works for a moment: Not many people are probably going to use their smartphone, tablet, or laptop to find a dry cleaner by typing in the keywords “dry cleaner”. That would probably give them results from all over the world!

 

Instead, they are much more likely to type in geo-specific keywords such as “Miami Dry Cleaner” or “Fort Lauderdale dry cleaner.” Or they would type in search words like “dry cleaners near me”.

 

Capture More Traffic with Geo-Specific Keywords – Make Your Content Geo-Specific

 

That’s why you want to be as geographically specific as possible in your website content. Rather than making your keywords “dry cleaner”, you want to include the state, city, or even neighborhood in which your business is located.

 

Including geo-specific keywords will help your web page show up on the SERP of prospective customers in your specific area.

 

And that makes perfect sense. After all, you don’t need to market to customers in another city or state. You want customers who are nearby right now.

Cross-Marketing on Your Website Can Boost Sales, Reputation

LYTRON Mizner Mockup

The objective of most business websites is to promote the product and services that the company offers, as well as reinforcing the brand the organization wants to establish.

 

But should you consider promoting other people’s businesses or other organizations on your website? Maybe.

 

Cross-Marketing on Your Website Can Boost Sales – Reciprocal Marketing

 

Reciprocal marketing is when you promote another person’s business or products on your website in exchange for their promoting yours on their web pages.

 

It simply requires entering into an agreement with another business in order to promote both businesses for the benefit of each other.

 

Obviously, you probably wouldn’t enter into an agreement with a direct competitor. But there may be products or services that complement yours that could be a perfect fit for reciprocal marketing.

 

For example, if you own a health spa you might enter a reciprocal agreement with a company that offers relaxing lotions or aromatic candles. That company would then promote your spa on their website.

 

Both businesses benefit because consumers who are interested in one type of product probably also would be interested in the other.

 

Cross-Marketing on Your Website Can Boost Sales – Community Outreach

 

Another related type of cross promotion on your website is community outreach. This is when you use your website to pledge your support for a local charity or cause you are passionate about.

 

For example, if your website promotes your local business, you might include a badge that supports a local charity such as the Ronald McDonald House. Or you could include a pink ribbon that signifies breast cancer awareness.

 

Community outreach has the dual benefit of supporting an important cause or charity while affiliating your business with doing good in your community.

 

Both cross promotion and community outreach don’t cost you anything more to do, but can bring additional sales and more customers to your business, as well as enhancing its reputation within the community.

SEO Basics That You Need to Know

preparing average sales report PA9MK86 Easy Resize.com

Now that digital marketing has been around for more than a decade, most people are familiar with the term “search engine optimization”, or SEO. Even if they don’t fully understand what it means.

 

SEO is critical to the success of your business website. Without SEO, it’s practically impossible to get your web pages ranked high on the most popular search engines.

 

And if your customers can’t find you, they can’t spend their money on the products and services you offer.

 

On-Page and Off-Page

 

Here’s something you probably didn’t know about SEO: There are actually two different types, on-page and off-page SEO.

 

On-page SEO includes the things you do within the content of your web page to improve its rankings. It includes things like including keywords in the optimal places.

 

Off-page SEO means doing things on other people’s sites to attract visitors to your pages. This includes things like participating in forums and promoting your web pages on social media.

 

SEO Basics – Page Titles Are Primary

 

If you do nothing else to promote your page, make sure your page title includes the optimal keywords that best describe the content you offer.

 

Search engines will look at all of your content when assigning a page ranking. But the element they look at first and give the most weight to is your page title.

 

The page title can be found at the very top of your browser on the tab. It’s also what pops up on  Google when people search for sites like yours.

 

SEO Basics – Keep Meta Descriptions to 155 Characters

 

Like Twitter postings, meta descriptions for your web pages need to be limited to a certain number of characters, in this instance 155, including spaces.

 

Meta descriptions also need to be persuasive and compelling because these are what appear under your link on Google and other search engine results pages.

 

Use these SEO secrets to improve your page rankings and you should see an immediate improvement in your traffic flow.

Customer Recognition Programs Pay Huge Dividends

laptop with blank screen in office VSU3NE2 Easy Resize.com

Have you ever had the experience of walking into a local store and having the proprietor come out and greet you by name? If so, it’s probably something you haven’t forgotten.

 

It’s also a huge motivator for you to return to that business again and again. Why? Because people have a natural desire to be recognized. It makes people feel special and is one of the simplest, fastest, and most affordable ways to build loyalty bond between your customers and your business, brand, and products.

 

Digitally Recognizing Your Customers

 

Every online business is constantly seeking new and innovative ways to capture a larger and larger market share. One of the best ways for your business to do this is to launch recognition programs for your existing customers.

 

While you may not be able to physically replicate the experience you had when you were recognized by the owner of a local business, there are many steps you can take to build those same kinds of positive emotions within your online customers.

 

For example, one simple way to do this is to remember the preferences of your customers who visited your business online. With just a few lines of code, you can capture your website visitor’s preferences and remind them of what they looked at the last time they visited your online store.

 

Customer Recognition Programs Pay Huge Dividends – we recommend customizations

 

Another effective way to interact with customers so that they feel recognized by your online business is to make personalized recommendations of products you think they might want.

 

Streaming video services such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu already provide this service this for their subscribers, recommending TV shows and movies they think they might like based on what they watched in the past.

 

This type of affordable software is widely available for online businesses as well. By making recommendations to your customers about products or services you think they might enjoy, you can reinforce the loyalty bonds that are the key to repeat business.

Use the Web to Attract Customers to Your Florida Business

41 FLORIDA HEALTH AGENCY MOCKUP

While the internet connects people worldwide, many local businesses are still very much dependent on local customers.

 

Attracting people in your area to your local business requires a technique called “Local SEO”. Basically, local SEO involves using specific geographically specific keywords to send traffic to your business website.

 

How to Use Local SEO on Your Website

 

Basically, local SEO works like this: If somebody goes online searching for a business like yours, they probably are going to use specific keywords.

 

 

For example, let’s say you own a dry cleaning business in Tampa. People looking for a local dry cleaning business who type in the keywords “dry cleaners” into their search engine probably would get results that include dry cleaning businesses all over the US, or even the world..

 

But if these same prospective customers type in the keywords “dry cleaners in Tampa”, they will get results that include only local dry cleaning businesses in Tampa, Florida.

 

Optimizing with Local SEO

 

How does that happen? Google, Bing, and the other big search engines scan and rank websites for specific keywords. When they find a web page for a local Tampa dry cleaners, they will include this in their rankings for those specific keywords.

 

But search engines will rank near the top of the search results those sites with the exact keywords “Tampa dry cleaners” in their headlines, subheads, first 100 words of the text, last 100 words of the text, photo descriptions, and other places.

 

That’s what local SEO means. By including geographically specific keywords in specific places in your web pages, you can get your web page ranked at or near the top of the list anybody gets when they type those keywords into the most popular search engines.

 

And given the fact that most people use their mobile devices to search for local businesses, local SEO is only going to become more important as time goes on.

Think Locally But Market Globally

flatlay business background 38BFGMF Easy Resize.com

The transition from traditional marketing to digital marketing isn’t just a shift from newspapers, TV, and radio to the internet and social media. It’s also a shift from local to global.

 

When you promote your business online, people from anywhere in the world can view your web pages, social media posts, digital advertising, and other online marketing. And that literally opens up a whole new world for your business.

 

Think Locally But Market Globally – Unintended Consequences

Owners who don’t think their business appeals to prospective customers outside their local market are often mistaken. With the internet, you never know who is going to land on your website, view your social media posts, or come across your advertisements.

 

For example, let’s say you own a cupcake shop on South Beach. You might think your only customers are those in your immediate area, most of whom are probably walking by and coming into your store on impulse.

 

But if you have an optimized website, your business is likely to be found by cupcake enthusiasts worldwide — especially those who are planning to visit Miami in the near future and who may make it a point to put a visit to your business on their trip’s itinerary.

 

Think Locally But Market Globally – Thinking Big

 

That’s why it’s always a good idea to think globally when designing your online marketing and promotions. The likelihood that people from other states — and other countries — are going to find your business using specific search keywords (“South Beach cupcake shops”, for example) is high.

 

Even if you don’t do mail order, the global reach of the internet allows your business to be found by people anywhere, and at anytime.

 

So don’t limit your business’s potential by playing by the old-fashioned rules that applied to outdated traditional marketing. Today’s business owners need to act locally, but think globally when it comes to their digital marketing.

3 Types of Online Marketing You Need to Be Using Right Now

computer connection internet networking digital co PAW3PA5 Easy Resize.com

Most business owners today understand that many of their customers have migrated to the Internet and use their smartphones and tablets to do most of their shopping.

 

Yet many continue to pour cash into traditional marketing platforms that yield lesser and lesser results. These include buying ads in newspapers, TV commercials, billboards, and other 20th Century platforms that don’t attract 21st Century consumers.

 

If you aren’t using online marketing to promote your business and products, you definitely should be. Here are three types of online marketing you need to know about — and invest in — right now.

 

Marketing  – SEO

 

Search engine optimization describes techniques used to boost your websites ranking on search engines like Google and all the others. One of the biggest benefits of SEO is that most of it is free to do, yet can yield you enormous results.

 

When the link to your website is listed at the top of the search results for the keywords that describe your business or products, you can expect an avalanche of new web-based customers.

 

Pay-per-Click

 

Pay-per-Click (PPC) are those little ads that appear in the margins of the websites and pages you visit online. The biggest benefit of this type of online marketing is that you only have to pay when somebody clicks through from the ad to your website.

 

That means you are already likely to make a sale which can help pay for the PPC ad: Win/win!

 

Marketing – Blogging 

 

Blogging isn’t marketing. It’s writing, right? Yes and no.

 

Posting blogs can help promote your business directly. But it also can help retain existing customers longer by providing them with useful content. People will come back to your blog over and over again if you keep them entertained and informed, building customer loyalty at the same time.

 

If you aren’t using these three types of online marketing — as well as others like social media, contextual marketing, and others — you should consider starting right away.