You’ve probably heard it mentioned plenty of times by now, but the question never gets old it seems: What happens when an SEO company “promises” certain results for its clients but then the outcome is less than what was originally expected? Does the client walk away satisfied? Probably not. Do people end up getting sued? It’s a question that seems to be growing and will more than likely continue to be a cause for concern as increasing numbers of businesses and professionals are switching to the Internet as a form of marketing their presence.

So, what to do? Do we continue on in the pattern of thinking that “the customer is always right”? When you hire a professional to fix the plumbing in your house, you expect that at the end of the day, you will get the intended results that you want: ie. the toilet will work again. Therefore, it sort of makes sense that when you hire an SEO professional: ie. an Internet marketing company, you’ll get the intended results that you were guaranteed at the end of a certain amount of time. So, for instance, if you were told that you were going to have n amount of visitors to your site and that your rankings in Google would go up by a certain number, is it then unreasonable to expect results? Are the circumstances different? Some would argue that they are.

Flushing a Toilet is Easy; Flushing your Business Down With it is Not…

Flushing your toilet and flushing your business down with it both have one major difference: one stinks and the other one doesn’t. So, when things don’t work out as planned with your SEO company of choice- if you still haven’t moved up the ranks in Google- if you still haven’t received any leads from all of the marketing ploys- is it then ok to demand your money back? Take the poll below to find out what others think about the issue.

Delve into the mind of a blogger with me for a second. Why do people blog?
Well, for most of us, it’s to put

useful information out there and hopefully

make a connection with readers. In my mind, if I can read a blog or an
article that someone’s written and get something useful out of it-even if it’s
nothing more than a smile- then that person has done his/her job.

Blogging is meant to elicit a response from readers. Whether this means that
they will find out something that they didn’t know before, purchase a product or
service, or leave a comment saying that they disagree entirely, it is a way to
connect with others and create a buzz about something.

Keep it Short. Keep it Simple.

One of my pet peeves with blogging is what I refer to as “empty blog posts”.
These are the blogs you come across that are long (usually more than 400 words)
and don’t really capture your attention; they’re boring. If you’re going to
write a blog post (especially one that is lengthy), make sure that you have
something to say that will keep your readers captivated; otherwise, you’re just
wasting your time and theirs.

In my experience, I have found that most people who read blogs tend to prefer
ones that are shorter versus ones that are longer. If you know that you have a
lot of valuable information that you want to get out, why not break it
up? Split your post into a Part 1 and Part 2 and post them on different days. If
the content is well written and thought provoking, readers will want to
come back for the next in the series. This is preferable versus trying to shove
a ton of text/information down someone’s throat in one sitting. Even if you
break up your post with pictures, it’s not going to break up the fact that your
word count is creeping up to near 800 + words as your number of subscribed
readers is going down.

David and I were recently kicking around some numbers about what it would cost for a company to hire all of the people needed to bring an SEO team in house. Wow. Even we were a bit surprised at what we found. Because SEO is comprised of so many different moving parts that must each be powered by a different type of professional, it’s no wonder that the majority of SEO is outsouced!

To bring SEO in-house and accomplish the job successfully, a company would need at the minimum a team that includes:

• Project manager
• Web programmer
• Copywriter
• Link building specialist
• Graphic designer
• AdWords/PPC Specialist

Add to the cost of all of these people’s salaries and benefits the fact that you’ve got to keep the team educated; SEO is a constantly changing business. For us in the industry, education means thousands of dollars worth of conferences each year, (an average SEO conference costs about $2,000- and that’s just the attendance fee), meeting with other SEO consultants, and a great deal of time spent on research.

Outsourcing means that companies have access to a whole group of expert professionals at a slice of the cost. Our team alone consists of

• 3 SEO Industry Expert Trainers & Consultants
• 3 Degreed Copywriters and/or Ad Agency Executives
• 1 Web Developer
• 1 Web Designer
• 1 Link Building Expert
• 1 Pay Per Click Expert
• And a handful of other professionals that we routinely count on

That’s a lot of knowledge! I know David has worked for year to build his team up to where it is now and it took a lot of trial and error along the way. With the exception of perhaps small companies with very limited budgets and very large companies with a heavy full-time workload, SEO is one of those things that just makes more sense to outsource than it does to try and build in-house.

I’m sure most of you have heard of the book “Multiple Streams of Income”. The author points out that you should not rely on only one stream of income because if that one goes away you are left with nothing. The same holds true for clicks to your website. You want to have multiple ways people are finding your website.

Here is a list of some of the ways people could be finding you:

1. Natural search engine rankings
2. Search engine ad programs (AdWords in Google)
3. Articles (some you have written, some other people have written)
4. Forums (give good advice to a tough question and people will find you)
5. Paid ads on other sites
6. E-Books (write one with links to your site and then give it away)
7. Blogs (yours and other people’s)
8. Social Networking sites like Digg, MyBlogLog, FastPitch, StumbleUpon
9. Press Releases (that you distribute or have someone distribute for you)
10. Printed Books (write one and put your website address in it)
11. News Stories (make it easy for the press to find information about you on your site)
12. News Letters (electronic)
13. News Letters (printed)
14. Your e-mail signature
15. Your business card
16. Magnetic sign on your car
17. News Papers (printed, run an ad with your website address in it)
18. Radio (make sure your url is easy to say and spell)
19. TV ad or news
20. Fliers
21. Posters
22. Shirts
23. Hats
24. Coffee cups
25. Pens
26. Podcasts
27. Link exchange
28. Link bait links
29. Friends and family (make sure they know who might be interested in your site)
30. Tattoo (not for the meek or weak and no I don’t have mine…yet)

You might not be able to afford all of these streams at the same time and it would be a very tough job keeping track of all of it at once, but, pick a few and go for it. Several of them only cost the time it takes you to put it together.

What the heck is a “trackback”? That’s the million dollar question I kept
asking myself as I watched

Traffic Secrets 2.0 by John Reese. For a nice little definition, I turn to
Wikipedia:

A Trackback is one of three types of

Linkbacks, methods for

Web authors to request notification when somebody

links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of
who is linking, and so referring, to their articles. Some

weblog software programs, such as

WordPress,

Movable Type,

Typo and

Community Server, support automatic

pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be

pinged when the article is published. The term is used colloquially for
any kind of Linkback.

Understand Now? Trackbacks are often overlooked by bloggers who focus more on
looking at the number of people who are actually commenting on their blog. But
what about the people who are reading the blogs and then posting their own blogs
in response to something that someone else wrote? This is where trackbacks are
most useful.

How Trackbacks Work

If you are out reading someone’s blog post and you really like it
and want to mention it in your own blog, click on the title of
the individual blog post. You will then see the page refresh with nothing else
but that blog post on it. Go to the top of the page, highlight the URL
and copy the link (aka: permalink). You will then want to go back to
your own blog and paste the link into whatever it is you’re writing. So, for
example,

The other day, I was reading this really funny post from my friend

Sean Fallon of Gizmodo…

In the wonderful world of blogging, whenever you end up “publishing” your
blog post with the link in it, it will automatically send a “ping” so whoever
you linked to to leave her a message that you did a trackback to them. Some
blogging software doesn’t do the trackbacks right away. You may have to read the
directions and/or contact the blog author to set it up.

If you are using WordPress and are linking to other bloggers who are using
WordPress as well,

trackbacks are sent out automatically in the form of

pingbacks.

Each blog is different, so make sure you read all of the directions for how
to set up and use trackbacks. They can be a great tool for increasing search
optimization for websites and blogs!

So you have a website, and your site is doing well regarding conversion rate. However, you are not too happy. It’s not difficult to understand why. Conversion rate comes from a minuscule percentage of your target audience. About 2% of your visitors are buying stuff from you. Maybe you have worked hard, and now the numbers are up to 10%. Even then, this is a tiny fraction.

If you think, you will be optimizing your website only for that 2% you will be in trouble. This is because conversion rates aren’t actionable. We aren’t saying they aren’t significant. We are saying they are not omnipotent. If you are currently thinking of devising new ways to optimize your site for only the buyers, your high conversion rate is bound to backfire.

It’s quite ridiculous –

Think of it this way – you are asking your development and marketing team to focus on your buyers only. As a result, you are focusing 100% of your resources and time on only 2%-10% of your website visitors. Does that seem like a balanced distribution to you? We can understand why conversion rate is crucial to you. Even a professional SEO company focuses on its conversion rates from time to time, but we also understand that it is the end of the sales funnel. Not the beginning.

By focusing your resources at the very end of the sales funnel, you are just neglecting the majority who are bouncing off at the top. Instead of obsessing over the end of the task, you should focus on the rate of task completion. You need to understand what attracts people to your website primarily. It can be a blog they found online, a micro-blog from Twitter, pictures share on Instagram or posts about offers on Facebook. The reasons can be plenty. People are on your site either to find more of what they already liked or to find something new.

Why are your visitors attracted to you?

You must remember, most internet users have unlimited power of Google search at their disposal. They can always search and find what they are looking for. If they have ended up at your doorstep, there must be something significant they are looking for. The rate of task completion necessarily means going on a quest to find out if people are finding what they were looking for.

The basic aim of this is to offer your visitors a better user experience. The UX should drive the morale of your website designing team and not just conversion rate. Although a small increase in the latter feels significantly more rewarding. The speed of task completion gives you more actionable elements. You can change them, fix them and keep track of the effects of the same.

What are your micro-conversions?

The most actionable are the user flow or the journey of the average user down your website all the way through to conversion. Conversion can be a reservation, purchase or subscription – this will depend upon the purpose of your site. Optimization of user flow is a big step in CRO development. You will need the help of a good website development company for this one. You can also take help of Google Analytics for the various types of user flows.

What role does SEO play in increasing UX?

Each page has a crucial role in micro-conversions. This is where the role of a good SEO company becomes vital. Each micro-conversion is dependent on several elements including customer reviews, positive ratings, backlinks, offers and other similar features. A good search engine optimization company can curate all these items from different corners of the internet. The best places for fetching these micro-conversion drivers are business review websites, business listing directories, and social media mentions. We have our specialized tools to listen in on all the internet gossip and news that mention your company name. We can collect all the data that you will need to impress your visitors.

Micro-conversions are actionable as well. We use tools and plug-ins to measure them in real-time for your website. For example – we have seen, the inclusion of an introductory video can increase a site conversion by 80%. However, an e-commerce site will not benefit from the same factors as a non-profit website. We need to keep these small but imperative factors in mind while designing optimization and marketing strategies for our clients.

We lay emphasis on funnel reports and micro conversions since they arm us with actionable information that can explain why your sales were down last month and what you can do to make the numbers shine. We can analyze each factor for you and find out exactly what your website team should work on to improve sales next month.

What’s our take on micro-conversions?

Just to give you an idea, we will let you in on our micro-conversions list that we use to measure our website performance –

1. Download rate: we have plenty of PDFs and white papers that our clients can download from us. We consider them as a significant micro conversion because we can track it by “virtual pageviews.” Every downloader is a potential customer.
2. Mailing list: When someone joins our mailing list, they automatically make it to our potential customer list as well. When a person offers their email address, they are automatically qualified as a potential client.

• Forum account creators: this is rare but not impossible. We get visitors who create forum accounts on our website. Sometimes they do it for interesting discussions and sometimes for useful advice. However, they are still a step closer to the purchase procedure.

1. Wishlist: this is a powerful instrument that influences people. Once you keep reminding them what they have stored in their wishlist, they are bound to come back and at least take another look. Anyone with a wishlist on your website is a strong candidate for a customer position.

This is a brief glimpse of our company micro conversion list that we use to understand our website performance. Conversion rates have never been our primary target; they have always been our outcome. We serve to optimize websites and extract the best results from the same.

In a world where millions of people make internet purchases on a daily basis, online advertising is no longer optional for business owners who want to remain competitive. Rather, developing a strong ecommerce presence is mandatory. If you’re ready to start moving your online presence forward so you can optimize conversion rates and attain more industry authority, now is the time to begin. Below you’ll find a brief outline of some of the digital marketing services you should use to get things started:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

One of the digital marketing services you should consider purchasing is SEO. SEO is an immensely important component of the online marketing process because it heightens your brand’s level of visibility. Companies such as BlueHat Marketing are pleased to provide clients with a wide range of SEO services that can keep their organizations growing and glowing online. Some of the primary services a digital marketing organization might offer include:

• local SEO
• keyword analysis
• target market research

2. Social Media Optimization (SMO).

In addition to utilizing top notch search engine optimization (SEO) services, savvy business owners should focus on attaining social media optimization (SMO) services. These services are empowering because they enable you to interface with your target audience through key social channels like:

• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Pinterest

3. Content Marketing.

Another online advertising service that business owners should attain in order to optimize their ecommerce presence is content marketing. Content marketing is immensely important because it functions as one of the primary forces through which business owners share brand-related information and updates with their target audience. Luckily, digital marketing experts are pleased to deploy a wide range of content marketing strategies to ensure that the client’s videos, articles, and blog posts are information-rich, entertaining, innovative, etc. For example, content writers may add visually engaging elements to blog posts in order to catch the audience’s attention and keep them interested in the subject at hand. One type of visual that can be used to engender this outcome is infographics.

4. Email Marketing.

The fourth digital advertising technique that can be used to optimize a company’s online marketing efforts is email marketing. Email marketing is important because it provides business owners with a means through which to constantly communicate with members of their target audience. Also note that email marketing enables business owners to communicate with people immediately. This means that if there is an urgent update that needs to be communicated to the audience instantly, the process of sending out an email will ensure that it happens. Email marketing can be used for numerous other purposes, including providing people with promotional offers.

5. Web Design And Development.

One final strategy that you can deploy to move your business forward is attaining great web design and development services. These services are incredibly empowering because they ensure that the business owner’s website is innovative, aesthetically appealing, and engaging. Site development professionals can offer a wide range of dynamic services to keep the business owner’s website in tip top condition. One particularly beneficial service is responsive web design. This technique ensures that people who use electronic devices can easily access the website when they’re ready to make a purchase, speak with a customer service representative, or simply learn more about the brand.

Start Using These Digital Marketing Services Now!

Company leaders who are passionate about maintaining a cutting edge image that entails amazing conversion rates should know that there are many digital marketing strategies they can use to do so. Some of them include search engine optimization, social media optimization, content marketing, email marketing, and web design and development. By finding a top notch digital advertising company who can offer most or all of these ecommerce services, you can keep your business on the road to attaining the excellent bottom line that you need and deserve.

For business owners to succeed, it’s important that their websites are mobile-optimized and mobile-friendly. The majority of Google searches are now conducted on mobile devices, and webmasters can’t afford to lose out on the smartphone audience. And depending on your business, mobile optimization can be even more important in your industry than others.

Fortunately, you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to deliver the best mobile experience. There are many strategies, tools, and tactics to help you with this endeavor– particularly if you have a digital marketing agency behind you. The following are tips on how to improve SEO without spending a fortune:

Get A Responsive Design

Responsive web  design is one of the best ways to enhance the user experience, and therefore enhance SEO. It formats your website for prime viewing across any and every device, allowing seamless browsing on your website. Sites that aren’t optimized will affect the appearance of the layout, menu, and content on the different screens, which will only increase the bounce rate.

According to Adobe, 38% of visitors will stop engaging with a site if content, layout, or imagery is unattractive. And because Google cares so much about the user experience, they understand when your website isn’t proving very useful.

Several case studies have proven the effectiveness of responsive web design. Plusnet, a broadband and phone service provider, saw online sales via mobile grow tenfold year-over-year after they implemented a mobile design response strategy. Traffic also doubled. This proves that when customers can easily view and navigate a mobile site, they are more likely to make a purchase and get engaged.

Have APPC Plan

Creating a PPC for ecommerce plan can help you capitalize on clicks, both on desktop and mobile. Some PPC campaigns are device-specific, but it’s up to you to determine whether a device-centered strategy would work best for your products. Either way, a PPC campaign can do wonders for your bottom line. With PPC, you can attract the customers that are most likely to make purchase from you, which helps with brand building. Think of it as an autopilot marketing machine.

Mobile SEO Best Practices

There are a few things you can do to ensure you’re in the best possible position on mobile. First of all, it’s important to think like a mobile searcher. The type of queries consumers type on mobile Google are different than desktop. They rely more on Google’s autocomplete feature, and typically search locally. With this in mind, your keyword search should implement the practices and habits of potential customers searching from smart devices.

Another helpful tip is to add a “Click to Call” button. This makes it easy for customers to reach your customer service agents and get the help they need. Otherwise, they may feel it’s too much work to attempt to locate the number and type it into the keypad. Furthermore, they’ve been proven to increase conversions.

You should also limit your pop-up use, and instead try tools like HelloBar as a replacement option. Avoid using Flash, because it’s not available on every phone and could hurt the user experience for those that don’t have it. Opt for HTML5 instead. Lastly, be sure to use Schema.org to add rich snippets of text to SERPs that tell potential site visitors important details about your business.

Use The Right Tools

In addition to the various tactics and strategies employed to better mobile SEO, there are a variety of tools that webmasters will find useful. However, a large number of these tools go unused by users because they don’t realize they’re available, and instead focus on the more common SEO tools for practices like split testing and keyword optimization.

Google’s Mobile Website Speed Testing was formerly PageSpeed Insights, and it’s as helpful as ever. Their landing page features a cell phone image where users can type in their URL for results on how fast their mobile sites are. You’ll then receive a scorecard of your mobile site performance across three categories: mobile-friendliness, mobile speed score, and desktop speed. At the end of the test, you can request a detailed report to your inbox, which will provide recommendations for any issues you have.

Users can also see how GoogleBot Mobile is checking your site — even if you’ve used other tools to determine that your site is, in fact, mobile-friendly. With this feature, you can view your mobile site through the eyes of Google. You can do this directly through your Search Console by clicking “Crawl,” “Fetch as Google,” and selecting the “Smartphone” option.

PureOxygen’s Mobile SEO Page Analyzer is also very helpful for optimizing mobile SEO. Once you submit your report, it will provide information and different action points related to mobile usage. If you’re not a technical person, you may want to have someone else check out this report, as it does involve having some sort of awareness for page and server signals.