It is the magic of search engines that get your website in front of your prospective customers. When a subject is typed for search, nearly instantly, the program will sift through the many pages it's indexed and present you with ones that match your topic. The searched matches also are ranked in the order that the most relevant ones come first. Remember that a prospective customer will probably only check out the top 2-3 listings within the search results. So, it does matter where your website appears within the program ranking. There are several search engines that get used on a daily basis. The best known and most used is of course Google. Then you have YouTube, Bing, and Yahoo, not to mention industry-specific search engines and these search engines attract more visitors to websites than anything. So, it all depends on which search engines your potential purchasers use and the way those search engines rank your site. It is the Keywords that play a crucial role over any expensive online or offline advertising of your website. Popular surveys have stated that when customers want to seek out an internet site for information or for a way to shop for a product or service, they find these websites using one of these ways: The first option is that they find a particular website using the most effective technique, their favorite search engine. Secondly, they find a website by clicking on a link from another website or page that relates to the subject during which they are interested. Occasionally, they find a site by hearing about it from friends or on Social Media or coming across a link in an article or like this, in a blog. So the most obvious method of locating a website for the majority of the public is by using their favorite search engine. In fact, these searches represent over 90% of online users. In other words, only 10% of the people trying to find an internet site will use methods aside from search engines. All search engines employ a ranking algorithm and one of the most important rules in a ranking algorithm is to locate, identify and rank the keywords on an internet page. Don’t forget that these algorithms also give credit for the amount of backlinks, or external links you may have linking to your website. When performed by a professional webmaster, SEO or Search Engine Optimization will work to increase your relevancy and with the help of your Webmaster, will optimize your website for both On-Page and Off-Page SEO. The best websites have amazing Organic SEO that pushes their websites to the top of search engine rankings. If your website has poor organic SEO you can also pay your webmaster to work on your On-Page and Off-Page SEO to improve the website and help it rank higher. Without search engines, it would be impossible for people to find your website, and we would be back using telephone directories to find what we are looking for.

Search Engines are responsible for getting your website in front of prospective clients. Knowing that is half the battle to win the war on getting your information in front of prospective buyers before your competition does. The other half of the battle is knowing how these Search Engines work, what makes them tick, and what makes them generate the results they do. Search Engines can be broken down into two categories, the primary is a bot or a spider, appropriately named as they crawl your website. The second is a human-controlled web directory. Search Engines use spiders to index websites. once you submit your website pages to a search engine by completing their required submission page, the program spider will index your entire site. A ‘spider’ is an automatic program that's pass by the program system. A spider visits an online site, reads the content on the actual site, the site's Meta tags, and also follows the links that the situation connects. Then after amassing this information, the spider then formulates all this information in readable files in a central depository, where it is then deciphered and indexed. During this time the spider will also every link you have on your websites, good-bad, dead or alive, and then index those too. Some spiders will only index a selected number of pages on your site, so don’t create a site with 500 pages! The spider will periodically return to the sites to ascertain any information that has changed. The frequency with which this happens is set by the moderators of the program. A spider is almost sort of a book where it contains the table of contents, the actual content, and thus the links and references for all the websites it finds during its search, and it's getting to index up to 1,000,000 pages every day. Example: Excite, Lycos, AltaVista, and Google. When you ask a search engine to locate information, it's actually searching through the index which it's created and not actually searching the web. Different programs produce different rankings because not every program uses the same algorithm to see through the indices. One of the items that an inquiry engine algorithm scans for is that the frequency and site of keywords on a web page, but it also can detect artificial keyword stuffing or spamdexing. Then the algorithms analyze the way that page links to other pages online. By checking how pages link to each other, an engine can both determine what a page is about if the keywords of the linked pages are almost just like the keywords on the first page.

There can be little doubt that social media has a big role to play in digital marketing. But is there really a ‘best’ platform to use in your campaigns? The rise of the internet was so swiftly followed by the emergence of social media that it is difficult for anyone not to bracket them together. This is even more true for the Millennial generation, which has grown up with both. Having started out as a means of staying in touch, social media’s purpose has widened. While it has included some less savory elements, it has also been a means of creating public debate and raising awareness. Alongside this, there has also been a growth in its commercial usage. As the web has provided ever more opportunities for digital advertising and the development of content marketing, so social media has provided parallel opportunities alongside it. Indeed, a great many digital marketing strategies now involve combining the two – and with good reason. By being able to supplement the content on your website with social media, you can reach more people and also reach the same potential market in more ways. What are your options? Having established that social media has a big role to play in marketing, the question of what the best channels to use may arise. The simplest answer to this query is that there is no single right answer. This is for several reasons: Different products and services may be marketed more effectively on one social media platform than another, but it won’t always be the same one. Your buyer persona may be more likely to use one social media platform than another, so much depends on your target market. The most effective marketing campaigns can use more than one platform. The differences between platforms and why they matter With all this in mind, it’s important to consider the different options and what each of them can offer you. Facebook and YouTube are the most heavily-used platforms in the UK, with over 40 million users each. This means they are the best options if your priority is to reach as many people as possible. Facebook and YouTube are also two of the most viable options for video. Facebook can combine this with other content, while YouTube has the advantage of being able to host longer videos and will attract people specifically browsing for this form of content. Instagram is very effective for a mix of still pictures and video, with the former taking priority. Text is less important, so this is useful when the focus is on the visual aspect of a product. While Facebook and YouTube have diverse user bases, Instagram is more skewed to a younger and female audience, which makes this an ideal target if this matches your campaign’s buyer persona – and a poor option for targeted older male customers. LinkedIn is geared at the professional services sector and, as such, is a more specialised form of social media that can be used for marketing professional services. Twitter has a diverse user base and is best suited to short, snappy text content, although the inclusion of links can connect tweets with other content. These differences provide good examples of how a marketing campaign can use different social media at the same time to highlight different aspects of the goods or services you offer – or present them in different ways. For example, suppose you want to reach a market that may sometimes have time on its hands, but may not do so all the time. Clearly, anyone watching a lengthy video on YouTube will have enough time free to do so, whereas those with just a few minutes to spare might check Twitter instead. If your target market is someone in full time employment, this combination of different media could work well. For example, they might have time to watch a video while on their commute to and from work, but just a few minutes to look at Twitter in their mid-morning break. Using PPC It is not just through the use of different kinds of content that you can reach people via social media. Pay-per-click advertising is also available on different platforms. Once again, there is no single answer to what the best option is. But a few factors are worth taking into account. For example: Facebook has the largest potential audience, costs little to use and offers microtargeting. LinkedIn is likely to have the most relevant audience because of the narrower demographic and it is possible to target high-value audiences with great precision. Twitter ads are interactive and can be retweeted. At the same time, these different options also have their downsides. For example: Facebook ads will only be seen if people are paying for it, so your organic reach is reduced. LinkedIn is very good for reaching people, but it comes at a higher cost than other PPC options, and ad readers matching your buyer persona will not be interested in your services as they are using the site for job hunting. Twitter Ads are constrained in the same way any Tweet is by the 140-character limit and sometimes targeting is a bit hit-and-miss. With these different factors to take into account, it is important to think carefully before deciding what PPC option is best. You should also keep close tabs on progress and discontinue a PPC campaign if it is not working through a particular platform. Be prepared to be flexible Just as you may change your social media strategy if it is not working well, you may change which platforms you use. But, as mentioned above, you are likely to find the most effective campaigns use the different means of connecting with potential clients offered by each platform. Also using few of the top social media tools for scheduling your posts or designing them will save your time. Therefore, being flexible in this case can simply mean changing the marketing mix; doing a bit more of one thing on one side and less of another thing on a different platform. For example, a new product launch may be best served by more visual media and less written content. How can we help? At URATED INTERACTIVE, we have extensive experience in using social media in marketing. We can help you find the most effective way of integrating it into a wider digital marketing strategy in the way best suited to helping your firm gain leads and new customers by finding the best social media platform for you.

We don’t need to tell you that 2020 was not an easy year for many small and medium enterprises. The COVID-19 pandemic compromised the safety of our employees and customers; the lack of funding meant that a few organizations had to close up shop for good, and changes in consumer behavior meant that pivoting your business became costly and risky for some. So, 2020 was enough to send any business owner running for the hills; and, unfortunately, every issue company owners faced last year is not going to disappearing any time soon. To combat these issues the best we can, here are a few ways you can plan for a more prosperous and forward-moving business this year. Update your website This post here gives you some insight into what changes you could make to your website post-COVID-19. It’s all about making sure your users are informed and receive a sense of authority from your site. Every website should be adding a COVID-19 statement to the homepage, header, or footer of their website, regardless of if they have been affected by the pandemic. If you’re an e-commerce site or have a physical store location, now is the time to spend some time building up your online inventory, updating images, and creating tantalizing product descriptions. Level up your social media Social media profiles can sometimes fall by the wayside when you’re a busy independent business owner and updating them may feel like a chore. However, putting aside some time to ensure that your social accounts are up to date, eye-catching, and have a decent amount of content scheduled, will be vital in the coming months. Optimize your profiles, so that they can appear on search results and attempt to drive traffic to your site at every possible opportunity. If you need help with developing a content strategy for your social media accounts. Reviews and testimonials Building up a positive online presence is much easier when your business is receiving regular reviews and testimonials. Ask your clients and customers to rate their experience online, either on Google or another business site, like Yelp. You must respond to every comment in a friendly and professional manner, regardless of whether the review is positive, or negative. Add a testimonials page to your website to encourage users to build trust with you and, ultimately, convert. Collaborate It’s not just about beating your competition. Small and medium-sized enterprises always benefit from collaboration, so forming strong alliances with others in your industry is be a great way to move your business to the next level. Now, we will forgive you for thinking that collaborations are merely a social media giveaway or an online competition; they are so much more than that. Top tip: giveaways do not work, so do not waste your time. Contact some of the other organizations within your niche and get together to hold an online event or collaborative sale. It pays off to get into the mind of your ideal audiences and target demographic, understand what they need, and the rest will follow. For example, if you are a local wine retailer, think about collaborating with a local cheesemaker, or a butcher. You could go from being a company that sells wine to a company that provides the experience of a fabulous night in. Integrate Google Analytics Google Analytics is the reporting tool to end all reporting tools for business owners. It is simple, easy to use, and gives you statistics that you did not even know were possible to track. To install Google Analytics within your website, create yourself a Google account, input all of your business information, then add the code to your HTML. If you are not super tech-savvy, have no fear, we can get this all set up for you, track your data and even put together comprehensive reports with detailed action points of what these numbers mean and how to improve. Google Analytics gives you the ability to track how many people visit your website, how long they are there for, what they do there, and if they convert. Not to mention tracking who came from where, your e-commerce transaction rate, and which visitors viewed products, added to their basket, but did not check out. I could sit here all day singing the praises of Google Analytics and why it is so incredibly vital to the running of your online business activities, however, it may just be easier for you to get on with installing it. Keep your ear to the ground Our final tip is to make sure you stay on top of the industry news within your sector. Your business needs to keep an eye on the big players in your area, paying attention to who your current customers are and why they are buying from you. Consumer trends have taken unprecedented turns in the past 12 months, with hand sanitizer manufacturers and toilet roll producers rubbing their hands… not just to keep them clean. Small businesses who jumped on the home delivery and click-and-collect bandwagons first have maximized their profits in this respect. Keep your business practices flexible enough to pivot when necessary and you could end up beating the competition to the punch in 2021. The past year has not been a walk in the park for independent businesses. Even if you have seen an increase in revenue, hopped on an emerging trend, or seen a rise in customer satisfaction, the chances are that you may still have found it difficult to adjust.

These benefits have led many companies to keep their employees working from home longer than originally anticipated. With so many people spending the majority of their time at home and avoiding physical interaction, service businesses need to adapt to how they reach current and new customers by getting their digital affairs in order. Traditional businesses have moved to remote operations Traditional businesses that always had physical interactions with customers have seen their operations move to remote situations. This includes law firms and many other consultative service providers. Prior to the global crisis, it would have seemed a bit odd to hold a meeting with your attorney to draft a will using Zoom or another video conferencing tool. But, ever since March, attorneys have moved their operations completely remote. This includes onboarding new clients, holding appointments, drafting wills, revising legal documents and much more. There are hundreds of examples where businesses are going online and closing down brick-and-mortar locations. More than 6,300 stores are closing in 2021 as traditional businesses are seeing less walk-in customers. Service businesses are doing well, but it’s time to get ahead of the changes in consumer behavior and create a purchasing process that limits friction. Update your company website The first thing you should do is conduct an audit of your website and make the necessary changes to speed, loading times and user experience. Make sure your website allows visitors to purchase your products or services without having to interact with you, and make sure that your site has visibility online with SEO. The future brings with it a lot of unknowns, but be prepared to make a lot of sales without interacting with your customers — and make that process easier for them. Engage current customers online You should engage with your current customer base online often. Whether you do so via email marketing, newsletters or social media accounts, engaging with your current customers online is quite easy and can build a lasting relationship. Encourage customers to comment, share and bookmark the content you distribute online. Share customer testimonials. Include frequently asked questions on your website so the customer doesn’t have to pick up the phone. Include video tutorials, how-to guides, listicles and any other type of content that positions your company is an expert in its field. Get social with new landing pages Creating an engaging social strategy that’s backed up by paid engagement to a landing page with purchase options can be huge. People are still buying. The world hasn’t stopped, but it is happening more remotely than it was before. Having an easy online conversion is a huge step above the competition. The bottom line There’s no way around it; we are going to continue to move further into a remote-based, online society. Make a solid effort to streamline how your company communicates with and sells to customers as soon as possible so you can capitalize on the new normal and grow with the times.

Let’s start this with a statistic that should by itself be enough to have any small business owner invest in digital marketing. According to RetailDive, 87% of buyers start searching for products to buy online. Eighty-seven. It’s a massive market size to not be a part of, and definitely, the biggest reason why you should invest in digital marketing. Nevertheless, here are 7 more reasons along with tips on how exactly to do it. 1. Digital marketing helps small businesses build lasting customer relationships Over 1,190 US-based small business respondents told Keep that their third biggest challenge in 2019 was retaining and re-engaging customers. It’s safe to assume that most of them are online and using the internet on a daily basis, so increasing digital marketing efforts in 2021 will definitely help. There are over half a million new businesses started every month in the US, so “losing” customers is a lot easier today than it might have been 20 or 30 years ago. But, if you know your target customers well, and your product even better, digital marketing is a fantastic tool to keep them coming for more and push your competition away. Unlike many in-store buying experiences, digital marketing doesn’t stop at checkout. It goes beyond to ensure a buying customer becomes the brand’s ambassador. Some ways digital marketing improves the “traditional” methods of keeping loyal customers are: Using digital testimonials from happy customers instead of the old “word of mouth”. These testimonials should be posted on your website and used in social media campaigns as well. Automated but personalized thank you and follow up email campaigns instead of the physical letters or pamphlets. You can reach larger audiences for a lot less money, and send an email at the right moment to the right people. Engaging customers on social media once they leave your store or buy your product online, to keep your product on their minds and have them come back next time. Remarketing and retargeting to have them try out “this other product” that compliments what they already bought. 2. You’ll learn more about your customers’ needs so you can profitably fulfill them Another challenge for small businesses (also seen on the graphic above) has been to attract, capture, and convert leads into customers. To successfully do that, a small business needs to identify what its target customer needs so it can fulfill those demands. Effective digital marketing helps small businesses learn the online habits of customers so they can better target ideal customers. It relies on solid market research to inform the next course of action. Smart small businesses do not make assumptions. They use digital tools to learn what their target customers search for and need. Digital tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, SEMRush, and SurveyMonkey can help you identify what your ideal customers’ interests are, what keeps them up at night, and how you can approach them with a highly-personalized, warm proposal and, eventually, convert them into buying customers. Don’t forget to also use social media and your existing audience there to see what they like, what kind of posts do they react to the most and what questions they had in the past. Once you do the research, the best you can do next is to create one or several customer personas. They will allow you to create personalized and very targeted marketing campaigns for specific types of people and, eventually, turn them into buying customers. 3. Digital marketing offers a multichannel approach to boost conversions Your potential customers could be anywhere online. Picture this: 41% of U.S. buyers search and buy on Amazon while 28% search on Google then buy on Amazon, so small business SEO is still crucial 3.2 billion people or 42% of the world population uses social media today Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and LinkedIn are the market leaders. LinkedIn offers 80% of social media B2B leads, for example On average, these people spend 2 hours and 22 minutes on social media networks per day, 80% of the time is on mobile 54% of consumers browse social media for product research purposes 73% of marketers believe their social media marketing efforts are somewhat working for their business 83% of marketers used video marketing in 2020 and 87% said the video was earning them “a good ROI” Delaying a customer response by even 10 minutes can decrease the chance of a sale by 400%, so consider using chatbots to boost your digital customer service Email marketing. Facebook and Google ads. Social media marketing. SEO. And so on. There are many digital marketing channels a small business can use to reach their audience and, in the end, get them to buy their product or service. Each of the channels asks for a different approach, of course, but once a strategy is created and preparations are made in general, it’s easy to adjust the messages to different audiences and boost conversions. Some potential customers are more receptive to personalized email marketing campaigns while others prefer blogs and a combination of targeted ads to feel engaged enough to convert to buying customers. Using digital marketing’s multichannel approach can help you find and engage potential customers wherever they are online and using whichever favorite platform they prefer. 4. With digital marketing, small businesses can compete competitively with large businesses—and actually win Digital marketing doesn’t demand that small businesses have an arsenal of expensive tools and huge budgets to get noticed, make sales, and grow. Sure, some tools will be needed but a lot of the things depend on the knowledge and experience of the owners. Knowing your target audience and your product “in-depth” usually means more than any fancy tools – especially with the help of digital marketing. Ann Smarty, one of the biggest names in digital marketing, said this in her article for Digital Marketer: “The great thing about digital marketing is that ingenuity and creativity can always win over big marketing budgets.” ..and there’s no bigger truth than that. Sometimes even the fact that you are a “small business” can do more for your campaigns than investing millions of dollars into video production. Example? A viral Christmas ad done by a small hardware store in Wales, which was filmed by the owner and a recent one stars his son. It gathered over 2 million views on YouTube, and many of the comments were in the same tone – “I want to buy from this small business after seeing this ad.” 5. Digital marketing is more affordable than traditional marketing Many small businesses can’t afford a radio, TV or billboard ad campaign. But many can afford digital marketing techniques to reach out and engage with ideal audiences. How affordable is digital marketing compared to traditional marketing methods? Take email and social media marketing as examples. In 2015, the email only asked you to invest $1 to gain back $38. In 2019, email marketing’s average Cost Per Lead (CPL) was $53. That’s only second to online retargeting ($31). Compare that to events/tradeshows ($811) and TV/radio advertising ($611) and it’s a no-brainer. Moving forward – free, organic search still dominates web traffic, ahead of traffic driven by paid campaigns. Take claiming and optimizing a free Google My Business Profile, for example. That’ll: Boost your local SEO search visibility Increase foot traffic if you are a local business, especially from smartphone users Positive GMB reviews help improve a business’ online reputation free-of-charge And yes, that’s free (well, for now) – all you need is internet access and a computer or smartphone. Facebook ads, on the other hand, are a bit more “dangerous” field to play in because it’s very easy to lose track of how much you’re spending. But, you can start with just $1 per day, and build from there. 6. Digital marketing offers measurable ROI Unlike traditional marketing techniques, digital marketing is not only targeted, but it also offers credible ways to measure what’s working, what’s not, and how so. That means a small business can easily invest small in online marketing, and see results first, before going all-out and becoming more invested. Having trouble associating your digital marketing spend to revenue? TrackMaven found many SMBs are. Start with setting up a dedicated landing page. The goal is to capture a specific campaign’s inbound traffic. From there, monitor how many people are landing on the landing page. You can also see how many bounced (and at which point on the page), how many engaged with the entire page, and see how many converted to buyers – all of these are ROI metrics that can be tracked in Google Analytics. You can also use A/B tests to identify the most converting online marketing techniques, copy, calls-to-action, and page layouts based on real, customer interactions online. The tests can help you understand if you need to be more targeted. Or if it’s better to shorten your landing page content to get more conversions. Or whether adding more above-fold call-to-action buttons can help boost conversions. 7. Your competition is already using digital marketing to spur ahead About half of the small business owners that responded to the already mentioned survey said they were planning to use online marketing strategies to win more business in 2020 and beyond – many already are. A logical conclusion would be that most of your competitors are as well. How to make sure what kind of digital marketing strategies are they using? Start simply by checking their website and social media. Do they have regularly updated blog on their site? Do they publish updates on Facebook or share images on Instagram? Facebook also allows you to see what kind of (if any) ads are your competitors running. Simply click on page info and check their ad library. After that, do a Google search for their brand name and see if they are mentioned on other sites or if they are linking to them. You can also use tools like Ahrefs site explorer to see which sites link to your competitors. Using another tool, SimilarWeb, you can see the sources of traffic towards your competitors and if they are using paid search ads (and on which keywords). Find more on the ads tracking and which tools you can use here. The key thing to remember here is to write all your findings down, from the number of social media followers to keywords you find they are targeting. All that data will be useful in any type of digital marketing campaign you start – SEO, paid search, social media ads, all up to creating content and email outreach. There are different templates and tools out there for competitor research, but most of the time good old Excel sheets will do the best job. So, what are you waiting for? 2021 is probably the last digital marketing train you can catch. Luckily, these days there are thousands of tools available either for free or for affordable prices for any small business. A small fraction of the traditional advertising budget, some free time, and a lot of will for learning is all you need to start seeing some positive results.

Bing and Yahoo might count as competition, but Google’s domination of the worldwide search engine market isn’t likely going to change anytime soon. With Google by far the leading company in the desktop search space with an estimated 86.86% global market share, if your business isn’t making the most of their extensive services, it’s going to be even harder to reach your potential. Part of what makes Google so pivotal to businesses is how it’s so much more than just a search engine. Featuring a myriad of useful services that range from search, advertising, and maps to shopping, smartphones, and digital storage, many of these products offer in-depth integration with each other. In turn, this streamlined approach helps your business capture your target markets’ attention in a variety of ways when it matters most. If you’ve ignored Google’s advantages for too long, it’s time to prepare your business for a tech-focused future. Here, we’ll delve into some of Google’s products and highlight why missing out isn’t an option. The Importance of Google My Business Every business wants to stand out on the SERP, but it’s a constant challenge to make it happen. However, a vital service known as Google My Business (GMB) can significantly increase your chances of overcoming the competition. As Google’s number one priority is displaying accurate information to its users, they are naturally reluctant to promote businesses that haven’t been verified. With a detailed GMB page, you can legitimize your business in the eyes of Google and ensure the algorithms advocate your company to customers conducting relevant searches. There are a host of benefits to completing this process. When you provide Google with the most essential details about your business, including your business name, address, and phone number (NAP), you may also receive a detailed sidebar space that appears when someone searches for your company. Known as the Google Knowledge Graph, this prime real estate on the SERP has a clean, prominent location that naturally attracts the eyes of potential customers. With Google striving to display information that’s correct, relevant, and validated, it’s incredibly important to keep your business page regularly updated. This applies not only to your GMB page but also to other citations and review websites spread across the internet. By failing to keep your NAP data consistent wherever it appears, Google cannot determine which address or phone number is correct. This could lead to your business being displayed less prominently. Google Reviews Generate Growth Although most business owners recognize the importance of generating reviews, many don’t quite grasp just how remarkably influential they are. With recent research revealing that 76% of people trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family, this dramatic statistic is compounded by the fact that the average consumer reads up to 10 reviews before trusting a business. These figures mean it’s absolutely necessary to generate positive outcomes for your customers and ensure they share them with the world. However, Google Reviews have other advantages that go beyond just how people feel about your products and customer service. They can also provide vital insight into the current strengths and weaknesses of your business, ensuring you can take steps to overcome issues and improve the long-term success of your brand. Meanwhile, if you do receive a negative review, these can be used as opportunities to publicly address concerns and demonstrate how you’ll go the extra mile to make up for a mistake. On a related note, approximately 63% of customers will use negative reviews to judge the legitimacy of your positive ones – so don’t be tempted to fake them. Google Reviews are also important for brand visibility reasons. If you manage to keep your star rating near a perfect score, you’re no doubt going to attract more attention as one of the best in your industry. With your business proving popular amongst people searching in your area, Google will recognize this increased level of engagement and promote your business further on the SERP. Advertise Your Business Effectively In terms of ad platforms, Google is still the undisputed king. Although thriving social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn have managed to make some inroads, Google still has an unrivaled reach for businesses looking to spread the word about their products and services. With the Google Display Network able to reach an estimated 90% of people using the internet, a paid media campaign that captures even a fraction of this audience is bound to deliver outstanding results. With every kind of business striving to reach the first page of Google, you don’t necessarily have to have a massive advertising budget to make it happen. If you manage to lead an effective SEO campaign, it’s possible to use GMB to dramatically boost your brand’s credibility and rankings within relevant searches. With a verified and optimized listing, you’ll be able to attract highly relevant customers and provide them with vital business information for no cost at all. By encouraging your customers to post reviews and having a detailed approach to optimization, you can achieve a top position on the SERP. Don’t Ignore Google Any Longer As more businesses set up e-commerce stores and look to grow their reach online, ensuring your brand is making the most of Google’s remarkably effective services is one of the best ways to keep up with the competition. Whether you’re looking to boost your position on the SERP, develop an extensive paid media campaign or ensure customers receive the latest information about your business, Google’s products are essential for growing your company in the modern world.

As you look for new ways to market your business, you may hear people tell you about the importance of digital marketing. Digital Marketing is a valuable asset to your business’s growth and helps you establish an authoritative online presence. In fact, 89 percent of marketers say methods, like search engine optimization(SEO), are successful. Additionally, methods like pay-per click (PPC) increase brand awareness as much as 80 percent. 1. You reach people where they spend their time With the growth of the Internet, more people are spending their time online. Over 7.7 billion people use the Internet across the globe. It’s become an integral part of everyday life to conduct searches, check social media, and purchase products online. Your customers are online, which highlights the importance of digital marketing. They’re browsing the web looking for your products or services. If they can’t find them because you don’t have an online presence, you risk losing those leads to your competitors. To drive the best results for your business, you need to build your online presence. You will reach more leads that want your products or services. 2. Your competitors are already doing it If you’re wondering why digital marketing is important, the answer is that your competitors are already using it. Many of your competitors have already taken advantage of all digital marketing has to offer. They’ve created social profiles, adapted their website for SEO, and run paid advertisements to reach new leads. This reason in itself is one of the reasons why you should use digital marketing. If you want your business to compete with others, you have to do what your competitors are doing and more. By neglecting digital marketing, you’re already falling behind your competition. Your competitors are gaining traffic that could be yours because you’re not investing in digital marketing. They won’t know that your business is an option and will automatically choose a competitor. You must invest in digital marketing to put your hat in the ring and get leads to consider your business as an option. To keep up with your competitors, you must invest in digital marketing. 3. You can compete with larger corporations Competition is the hardest part of running a business. When you’re in a market with bigger corporations, like Walmart, Target, and Amazon, it’s hard to compete with them. They have a big name for themselves, which automatically draws people to trust those corporations. You have a fighting chance against bigger corporations, which is why digital marketing is important to your business. Your business can reach interested leads with the same methods as a larger corporation. Methods like SEO and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising level the playing field. With SEO, your site ranks in the search results based on relevancy. A corporation can’t buy their way to the top of the ranks. They have to optimize their pages just the same as a small mom-and-pop shop. When you use PPC, Google ranks ads based on relevancy, too. Even if a corporation bids twice as much as you per click for the same keyword as your business, it doesn’t guarantee them the top spot. They can’t buy a top-ranking ad spot because, again, the rank is based on the relevancy of your ad. This creates the opportunity for smaller to mid-size businesses to compete with bigger corporations. If you can create content that is more relevant to the selected keywords than your corporate competitors, no amount of money will enable them to outrank you. Digital marketing is a great opportunity for your business to compete with bigger companies to obtain more relevant leads.

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Making the right decision when choosing your next SEO firm has major consequences for your business and your bank account. The difference between a boom in organic traffic and a decrease in Google rankings comes down to choosing between good and bad SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, specialist. But with the right SEO partnership, businesses in any sector can increase sales and decrease their advertising budget — all while improving user experience. Before locking into a contract with a new SEO firm, here are 5 tips every entrepreneur should consider. 1. SEO is not magic so avoid anyone who talks about it abstractly. SEO, the process of optimizing your website to drive organic traffic, is difficult, which also means that it’s often misunderstood. People who maintain that they have special insight into Google’s algorithms, or who play up the mystique surrounding SEO, are, usually, lying. Rather, good SEO requires a deep understanding of how search engines work, attention to detail, and constant modifications since Google’s algorithms change almost weekly. Additionally, shortcuts like buying links, keyword stuffing, and cloaking can lead search engines to demote your website. These techniques are called Black Hat SEO because they violate search engines’ rules. Once Google’s bots discover that you’re using these tools, they’ll demote your site in their rankings, which will decrease organic traffic. SEO specialists who claim to have special knowledge could be using Black Hat SEO practices, for which you will ultimately pay a high price. 2. Be specific about your goals and find a firm that can meet them. Whatever you do, do not hire an SEO firm with the vague goal of “increasing organic traffic.’’ For starters, there are many different kinds of organic traffic, meaning that increasing traffic does not automatically translate to increased revenue. Ranking first on Google for Italian men’s shoes does not do your CBD business any good, for instance. To avoid ambiguity, you and your team should outline exactly what you’re hoping to accomplish with SEO. Are you looking to boost product sales by ranking for certain keywords? Are you struggling to reduce your website’s bounce rate or increase your conversion rate? If you’re looking to increase ad revenue, would you prefer to have a wide audience or a smaller audience that spends more time, on average, on your site? Are you looking for help building a social media following, creating sponsored content, or other services that go beyond SEO? No matter which SEO firm you choose, make sure you’re clear on the type of results you’re looking for and what services you’ll require. 3. Don’t just go by a Google search for ‘best SEO’ lists. Instead, go by word of mouth. Why shouldn’t you choose a Search Engine Optimization company based on how well they rank on search engines? The best SEO specialists are too busy optimizing websites for their customers to waste time on their own websites. The best firms typically have a lot of long-term customers who have referred members of their professional circle to the same service. Only companies that need new clients will bother to rank for “best SEO company in Austin,” for example. This applies to other keywords, too, like “Best SEO services” and “best SEO tools.” Furthermore, do not assume that any listicle is impartial. Generally, the companies on that list have paid a premium for their spot on it. Good SEO companies already have too much business to bother paying for a spot on a “bestseocompanies.com” or “topseos.com” list. This does not mean that there are no reputable lists out there, just that you should trust a “best SEO company” list as much as you would another for “best restaurants in New York.” This means that the best way to find a qualified SEO firm is the old-fashioned way: word-of-mouth advertising. Instead of using Google, ask people in your professional circle — but not direct competitors — whom they would recommend. It can also be helpful to ask other businesses within your industry because the services they’ll recommend will already have experience in your field. 4. Find an SEO firm with metrics that work for you Once you’ve outlined your goals and narrowed down your options to a few companies, it’s time to make sure that you and the company that you choose to work with have a clear method of charting your progress once you get started. In other words, what is the end goal of ranking for specific keywords? Before you choose your next SEO firm, it’s crucial that you and your consultant are on the same page when it comes to Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. KPIs are metrics that can apply to virtually any aspect of a business and can mean a host of different things within SEO itself. For example, a company with a new product will have different objectives than an older company with an established clientele. But KPIs go way beyond that. In other words, we have access to so much data that it’s easy to get lost in it or track the wrong KPIs. This also means that you need an SEO firm that understands which metrics are the most important to your business and can condense that information into something that you can digest. Here are a few of the most important KPIs to consider: Organic sessions: How many people visit your website through an organic search? This is often considered the most basic, and most important, KPI in SEO. Beyond that, you can look at other factors like the average number of page views, duration per visit, number of unique visitors, and bounce rate. Conversion rate: What percentage of visitors buy your product, sign up for your newsletter or engage with your content? Keyword rankings: Which keywords do you rank for and, overall, have your keyword rankings increased since you hired your SEO firm? Google crawling mistakes: Google crawling is the process by which a Google bot systematically indexes your website’s content. If Google struggles to read your website, it cannot index it in a way that shows up in search, which negatively impacts organic traffic. Page load time: The time it takes for a page to load directly correlates to how quickly people leave your site. According to Think with Google, the bounce rate, meaning how quickly people exit your website, increases by 90 percent when page loading time increases from one to five seconds. 5. Choose an SEO firm that communicates effectively. Though you should have access to the tools they’re using to measure your KPIs — SEMRush, Google Search Console, Google Analytics– most likely, you don’t have time to spend the time to analyze all that data. For this reason, you need an SEO specialist team that works for you in terms of communication and fostering trust. Keep in mind that SEO is a process so you could be working with this firm for years to come. Even if you only plan on working with an outside company temporarily, meeting your organic website traffic goals takes time, patience, and a constructive working relationship. Today, approximately 90 percent of users only look at results on Google’s first page. This means that finding an SEO firm that works for you has the potential to transform your business. But finding the right company can be harder than it would seem. Many make promises that they cannot keep, or violate Google’s rules through bad SEO, ultimately hurting your business. So instead of turning to Google or “best of” lists, consult friends and business associates to find a qualified SEO firm. Once you’ve narrowed down your search, make sure that you and your firm are clear on your goals. Then, establish KPIs to measure those objectives. It’s also important to choose a firm that communicates effectively so that you can foster a long and successful working relationship. But most importantly, do not mistake SEO for a buzzword. Search Engine Optimization is a process that can help you build a successful brand — if you find the right SEO firm. Call URated Digital Marketing today and see what we can do for you +1 (800) 210-0953.

The term “Social Media” is everywhere these days, and in 2004, you might have been somewhat uncertain about what it really is… the infamous phrase “I will know it when I see it” comes immediately to my head!. I went searching on the Internet for a brief, simple to understand definition and discovered this analogy: Consider routine media as one-way roads where you can read a paper or listen to a report on tv, but you’ve a limited capacity to talk about your ideas on a situation. Social media, on the other hand, is an energetic two-way road that provides you the capability to communicate and react. As the web evolves and develops, the different Social Media websites are also changing and growing. Many decades ago, Myspace was the place to be but it’s currently, generally, believed to be on the wane. Similarly, on Myspace, 33% of its customers are aged 17 or younger. Ravalry is a comparatively new, big community located around knitting with over 1,200,000 registered users. As you would expect, its membership is mainly female and the average member age isn’t offered. As you can see, every Social Media website appeals to and contains a different user base than any other website. Among those strong concerns about using a Social Media web site is the simple fact that most of these offer a level playing field in regards to small business owners versus the large boys. As an example, you can construct a Facebook Fan page to your own offline business and so can a significant automobile manufacturer. In those Facebook Fan webpages, both you and also the multi-billion dollar automobile maker have exactly the very same resources and tools. On Twitter, as yet another example, both you and the large organizations are limited to 140 characters per tweet. They cannot purchase more personalities and blast you from this contest. When contemplating which Social Media website to utilize Social Media Marketing, you need to think about the website’s membership however, you also need to appraise its culture and the way the members interact. It’s necessary that any Social Media website have a people whose interests are in accordance with your goals and, too, that it’s a structure and routine of interaction that can be used with your own objectives. Additionally, you must remember that things change the web, sometimes at breakneck speed. For example, between March 2011 and May 2011, Facebook implemented several significant changes which altered the entire landscape of utilizing it for company. Unexpectedly, controlling the articles onto a company Facebook fan page and utilizing product pictures to construct a new became match changers… if you understood how to get it done! Though a specific Social Media website may be a good match today, Be mindful that it might not always be a thriving marketing and advertising vehicle for you! Monitor the effectiveness of any Social Media website you’re using AND keep a look out for the upcoming big thing.

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We’re Here To Help Small Businesses Challenge If this COVID-19 virus has shown us anything, it’s that digital business and marketing is still an essential venue to put your product in the hands of your customers. The challenge is that the COVID-19 virus affects more than just people, it affects the economy as well. Money’s tight. We get that and we can help. Solution Quality Website Design and Marketing costs money and money are tight. We have an army of designers and marketing experts at your disposal. We can get you up and running and it won’t cost you a thing for 90 days and then we can arrange payment options to keep you going. Services We Offer Design Website Design Website Redesign Services Web Host Website Speed Optimization Website Maintenance Website Security Website Malware Removal Marketing Social Media Marketing Reputation management Pay-Per-Click Email Campaigns Blog Posting