Key Components of the Digital Marketing Landscape

“Digital marketing” refers to how brands promote themselves and interact with their audiences online. This concept encompasses several marketing disciplines, including search engine optimization, social media, content, email, and pay-per-click.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the tactics and strategies businesses can use to improve their website’s visibility in Google searches. These tactics include understanding relevant keywords, optimizing website structure for mobile use, creating high-quality online content, and considering user experience. Strategically implementing these tactics can help businesses increase the search terms their site ranks for and improve their ranking on the search engine results page (SERP).

SEO is important because it brings in organic traffic and increases online visibility. Studies show that organic search is the top traffic source for all websites. Over time, this strategy can create sustainable online success.

Social Media Marketing

Over 60% of the world’s population has at least one social media account, though most have multiple accounts on different platforms. This popularity has driven brands to seek ways to meet their consumers on these platforms. From Facebook to LinkedIn to TikTok, marketing on these social media platforms can help businesses directly connect with their audiences and deliver relevant, high-quality content.

Businesses conducting a social media campaign need to be strategic about the platforms they use and the types of content they post. It is essential to consider where your audience is and how to leverage user-generated content and paid advertising. 

Content Marketing

As the landscape of digital marketing evolves, content remains king. Content marketing refers to crafting various types of digital content, like blog posts, videos, podcasts, and infographics, that resonate with the target audience. The quality your business publishes creates a story about your brand, defining its purpose, value, and mission. An effective content marketing strategy should incorporate relevant keywords and topical trends that interest your audience.

Email Marketing

Email marketing involves sending targeted, personalized emails to the target audience. This is an excellent strategy for nurturing and building customer relationships. Email automation systems can personalize emails, increasing the likelihood of conversion and building trust with your band.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

PPC advertising gives businesses targeted access to their target audience; Google and social media ads are examples of PPC platforms. Companies can select keyword searches on the platforms they want to rank. Every time a user clicks on these advertisements, the business pays a predetermined rate. This kind of digital marketing can be effective for high-volume keywords. However, it can get expensive quickly.

What Works?: Building a Digital Marketing Strategy

Strategically leveraging these digital marketing tenants is crucial to improving online visibility and connecting with your target audience digitally. These tactics can be effective when implemented into a comprehensive digital marketing plan that aligns with your business goals and target audience. Here are some steps to follow when crafting a focused, strategic digital marketing plan:

1. Define your Business Goals

When bringing in more website traffic, boosting conversions, or generating leads, create specific, measurable, and time-based goals to use as the foundation for your strategy. These goals can also be used as key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your plan.

2. Understand your Audience

Research your audience, including demographics, online behaviors, and preferences. This research will help you choose marketing channels and create relevant content for your audience.

3. Select Digital Marketing Tactics

An effective marketing plan includes a strategic mix of SEO, social media marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and PPC. Each channel serves a unique purpose and caters to different states of the customer journey.

4. Craft Engaging Content

Create relevant, engaging content for your marketing channels. Content like blog posts, videos, infographics, and more can address the needs of your audience at different stages of the customer journey.

5. Monitor Data and Make Improvements

Using analytics tools, monitor your digital marketing efforts and identify improvement areas. These insights can help you refine your strategy and stay current with consumer trends.

Effect Web Agency Can Help!

Remember that an effective digital marketing strategy is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring, optimization, and adaptation. Keeping up with the constant changes in the digital marketing landscape can be challenging. Effect Web Agency is here to help your business flourish online. Reach out today to learn more about their web services!

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Key Criteria for Business Growth

Before investing time and money into social media strategies, businesses must understand the various criteria that impact online business growth. Understanding the demographics and behaviors of the target audience is fundamental to enhancing online engagement and ensuring that promotional efforts reach the right audience. Most social media platforms offer analytics tools that provide insight into user behaviors and demographics. Businesses can use these tools to tailor their digital and social media marketing strategies accordingly.

User engagement is another critical criterion for business growth. Follower counts mean nothing if those users are not engaging with a business’s content. Engagement comes in several forms, including likes, shares, comments, and saves. High rates of engagement indicate that content is resonating with the right audience. Social media also allows businesses to establish two-way communication with users. Responding to comments, running interactive campaigns, and utilizing user-generated content are effective strategies for strengthening consumer relationships.

Understanding these critical criteria allows businesses to set the basis for a successful social media strategy.

Comparison of Leading Social Platforms

Let’s look at the strengths and weaknesses of the most popular social media platforms for business growth.

Facebook

Facebook is the most popular social media channel, with over 3 billion users. This platform is used by individuals across demographics and offers businesses extensive advertising options. However, organic reach has become more challenging as the platform has grown and garnered popularity with advertisers.

Instagram

Instagram is a social media platform emphasizing visual content, like images and short videos. This focus allows businesses to showcase their brand and products captivatingly. Instagram offers features like regular feed posts, Stories, IGTV, and shopping. Additionally, influencer collaborations are popular on this platform. Instagram appeals to a younger generation, like millennials and Gen Z.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional networking site that allows businesses to connect with other companies and establish thought leadership by participating in relevant industry discussions. This platform enables businesses to create content that establishes their authority and trustworthiness.

X

X, formerly known as Twitter, allows businesses to share instant updates and engage in the current trends. This platform encourages concise messaging with its character limits. Hashtags are also popular on this platform, allowing brands to tap into the latest trends and conversations.

As businesses weigh their options when choosing a social platform, it is essential to consider factors like target audience and content strategy. 

Tools for Maximizing Business Growth on Social Platforms

Using social media for business growth requires a comprehensive and strategic approach. Here are some tools for making the most of your business’s social pages:

Developing a Cohesive Social Media Strategy

Before diving into social media marketing, it is crucial that you clearly define your goals for business growth. This could range from increasing brand awareness to bringing in more leads to increasing conversions. Defining your goals will allow you to choose a social platform and create content that aligns with your objectives. During this stage, it is also crucial to understand your audience’s engagement style, including their online preferences, behaviors, and pain points. This ensures your content is relevant to your audience while meeting your overall goals.

Consistent Brand Representation and Messaging

It is vital to maintain brand consistency across all digital media channels. This means that when users interact with your business on different platforms, like your website or LinkedIn page, they see the same visuals and receive the same messaging. This creates a cohesive and consistent consumer experience, fostering brand recognition and trust.

Engaging in Community Building

One of the most significant benefits of using social media for business growth is the ability to communicate directly with your audience. Be active in relevant online discussions by responding to comments, sharing content, or creating content that responds to the latest trends. This positions your brand as a thought leader and builds trust with your audience.

Utilizing Analytics for Performance Improvement

All social media platforms offer analytic tools, allowing you to track the performance of your social media marketing strategy. These metrics can identify what content your audience is interacting with and how they interact with it. Analyzing these metrics, you can gain valuable insights and optimize your overall strategy.

By using these tips in your social media marketing strategy, your business can experience higher levels of online engagement, resulting in greater brand recognition and business growth.

Which Platform is Best?

Ultimately, no “best” social platform for business growth exists. Instead, each social media platform appeals to different audiences and possesses different strengths. Different audiences use different social media platforms, so businesses must consider this when forming their digital marketing strategy. For example, a B2B company may be better served by interacting with its audience on LinkedIn, while a company targeting Gen-Z may be better off using TikTok. 

Call Effect Web Agency for More Marketing Help!

Optimizing your social media strategy for business growth can be challenging. However, with the help of digital experts like Effect Web Agency, you can see increased engagement, brand loyalty, and business growth. Contact Effect Web Agency today to learn more about our digital marketing services!

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The Importance of Digital Marketing in the Age of AI

Even with AI technology, digital marketing remains a top priority for businesses seeking to expand their reach, connect with audiences, and increase conversions. AI excels at data analysis and automation, making many repetitive tasks more manageable. However, AI lacks a human marketer’s innate creative and strategic thinking abilities. 

A compelling digital marketing strategy requires marketers to craft engaging narratives, design visually appealing content, and develop strategies that appeal to human emotions and logic. AI, though technologically complex, cannot fully understand the complexity of human emotions and context, making it difficult for these systems to craft content and marketing plans that resonate with audiences on a personal level. AI systems cannot replace the personal touch of a human content creator and marketer.

Additionally, digital marketing constantly evolves with trends, consumer behaviors, and search engine updates. A human marketer is better equipped to adapt to these changes, whereas AI requires instruction before carrying out tasks. Digital marketers can leverage their ability to think quickly and make real-time decisions as trends change. AI is also designed to operate within predictable environments. However, the internet and social media landscape are often changing and unpredictable. Human marketers can navigate complex scenarios and decide when data is unclear or unavailable.

Ultimately, AI cannot replace the finesse and touch of a human marketer. These individuals possess creativity, emotional intelligence, and strategic thinking that allow them to craft marketing campaigns that pull at the heartstrings of their audiences. However, AI can be a powerful tool for data analysis, automation, and optimization within a digital marketing plan. By combining the effort of AI technology and a human touch, marketers can craft compelling, data-driven marketing messages that meet consumers’ expectations.

Integrating AI Capabilities with Digital Marketing

AI can be used in various ways to improve a digital marketing strategy.

Personalization and Customer Experience

Personalization is growing to be one of the most important digital marketing strategies. Studies show that personalization in a website can boost revenue by 15%. Consumers are growing to appreciate tailored content, experiences, and recommendations that meet their preferences. Digital marketing strategies employing AI algorithms can analyze user behavior, like page and purchase history, to create personalized content, recommendations, and promotional offers. 

AI technologies, like machine learning, can learn customer preferences and behaviors, signaling to marketers what content and messages will resonate with specific customers. Chatbots and virtual assistants offer personalized interactions, giving customers 24/7 access to information that can lead them to a purchase decision.

Automation and Efficiency

AI tools and platforms can automate repetitive tasks and processes, allowing digital marketers to focus on activities that require creativity and strategic thinking. Social media scheduling is one area where automation can enhance efficiency, leaving more time for core content production. 

The Role of Data in Digital Marketing

AI is also effective at pulling data and data analysis. Critical analysis of relevant data is essential for crafting an effective marketing strategy. Trends in data can reveal to digital marketers what consumers are looking for, how they interact with content, and what types of content are not resonating with audiences. AI-driven data analytics provides marketers with unprecedented amounts of consumer data, allowing them to understand better how consumers behave online. Marketers can then interpret this data, creating actionable insights to improve their digital marketing strategies. Additionally, machine learning algorithms can identify trends and patterns in big data, helping marketers better understand their consumers. Predictive analytics can then forecast future trends in audience behavior, allowing marketers to prepare and stay ahead of the competition.

In conclusion, AI does not replace the strategies and human touch involved with digital marketing. Instead, AI technology can enhance digital marketing strategies, improving efficiency and understanding consumer behavior.

Need Help Marketing? We Can Help!

Effect Web Agency provides web design and marketing services for local, regional, national, and international clients. Contact us to learn how you can improve your online visibility.

The post Why Digital Marketing Still Matters in an Age of AI appeared first on Effect Web Agency.

Mobile Marketing

In 2023, mobile marketing has transitioned from a mere option to a necessity for businesses aiming to succeed in the digital landscape. The surge in mobile device usage, including smartphones and tablets, has fundamentally transformed how consumers engage with brands and access online content.

Mobile devices are more prevalent than ever, with many internet users relying solely on their smartphones for browsing. Marketing strategies must be optimized for mobile consumption to effectively reach and engage the target audience.

Mobile-optimized websites and apps provide a seamless and user-friendly experience. With responsive design and fast-loading pages, businesses can ensure visitors interact positively, leading to more extended site visits and reduced bounce rates.

Mobile devices enable location-based targeting, allowing businesses to deliver hyper-relevant content and promotions to users based on their physical location. This precision in targeting can significantly enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Mobile e-commerce’s rise means consumers increasingly purchase through their mobile devices. Businesses that offer a smooth and secure mobile purchasing experience are better positioned to convert leads into customers.

Search engines, like Google, prioritize mobile-first indexing, meaning they consider the mobile version of a website as the primary source for ranking and indexing. Having a mobile-optimized site is crucial for search engine visibility and rankings.

Mobile apps provide a direct and personalized channel for engaging with loyal customers. Push notifications, in-app messages, and customized recommendations can increase engagement and retention rates.

Social media platforms are predominantly accessed through mobile devices. To effectively connect with your audience on social media, your content and ads must be optimized for mobile viewing.

Influencer Marketing

In 2023, influencer marketing has evolved from an option to a necessity for businesses aiming to excel in the digital realm. Collaborating with influencers who resonate with your brand values and target audience can yield remarkable outcomes. Influencers offer authentic connections with audiences, fostering trust and credibility for your brand. Partnering with relevant influencers ensures your message reaches the right demographic, enhancing campaign effectiveness. 

Their engaging content resonates with followers, elevating your brand’s visibility and appeal.

Peer recommendations from influencers can sway purchasing decisions, translating into higher conversions. Influencers operate across various platforms, allowing you to tap into the preferred spaces of your audience. Analytics enable precise measurement of an influencer campaign’s ROI, aiding strategy refinement. Building lasting relationships with influencers can yield sustained brand advocacy and impact. Adaptable strategies can be tailored to specific goals, from brand awareness to product launches.

Overall, leveraging influencers’ power fosters stronger connections with your audience, translating to loyalty. In summary, influencer marketing in 2023 is a vital avenue. It can amplify brand exposure, boost website traffic, and enhance conversion rates in the competitive digital landscape. Embrace influencer collaborations to strategically elevate your web marketing efforts and achieve remarkable online success.

Chatbot Marketing

In the dynamic digital marketing landscape, chatbot marketing has emerged as a transformative strategy, offering businesses an avenue to enhance customer engagement and streamline interactions. As enterprises seek innovative ways to connect with their audience, integrating AI-powered chatbots has become essential for achieving online success in 2023.

Chatbots provide personalized interactions by offering tailored responses and assistance, creating a more engaging and satisfying user experience. With the ability to analyze user data, chatbots can understand individual preferences and behaviors, leading to more relevant and effective interactions. This personal touch fosters stronger customer relationships and drives higher website traffic and conversions.

One of the critical advantages of chatbot marketing is its efficiency and scalability. Unlike human agents, chatbots can handle multiple conversations simultaneously, ensuring timely responses to customer inquiries and needs. This round-the-clock availability improves customer satisfaction and enables businesses to manage high volumes of queries without compromising quality. Chatbots’ streamlined interactions also translate into cost savings, reducing the need for extensive human resources in customer support.

Beyond their immediate benefits, chatbots play a pivotal role in data collection and insights. By gathering information on customer preferences, behaviors, and pain points, chatbots provide valuable insights that can inform future web marketing strategies. This data-driven approach allows businesses to refine their offerings, create more targeted campaigns, and make informed decisions based on real-time customer feedback. As a result, chatbot marketing enhances customer engagement and empowers businesses to make strategic advancements in their web marketing endeavors.

Voice Search

Recently, voice search has emerged as a game-changing trend that demands attention in 2023. As consumers increasingly rely on voice-activated devices and virtual assistants to search for information, businesses must adapt their strategies to harness the potential of voice search for enhanced visibility and engagement.

Voice search alters how people search online using conversational, natural language queries. This shift requires businesses to optimize their content for long-tail keywords and phrases that mirror spoken language. Additionally, voice searches often have a local intent, making local SEO optimization crucial for businesses to appear in relevant results. As voice search continues to shape how users interact with the digital landscape, companies that strategically embrace this trend can position themselves for tremendous online success by delivering user-centric, informative, and locally relevant content that aligns with the evolving search behaviors of today’s consumers.

We Can Help! 

Effect Web Agency provides web design and marketing services for local, regional, national, and international clients. Contact us to learn how you can improve your online visibility and web marketing strategies.

The post Successful Web Marketing Strategies for 2023 appeared first on Effect Web Agency.

Getting Ready for the WebsiteLaunch

1. Test and Retest functionality and visuals – This is all about making sure you get a quality website. 
2. Browser Testing – Website should be looking good and working great on all important browsers – mobile included.
3. Proofread – Our proofreader checks all the text on the website that has not already been proofread.
4. Non-developer Review – Our tester who is not a web developer reviews the website with fresh eyes to spot remaining issues.
5. 301 Redirects in place – Redirects are important in helping Google find the new versions of your old pages if the URLs changed.
6. 404 Page Ready – When people do enter the wrong URL, the 404 page is there to help them find what they are looking for.
7. Tracking Code Installed – If we’re using Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, or other tracking codes, we install it before the site is live.
8. Remove all Test Content – The site is cleared of any temporary content so it’s ready to go live.
9. Update Contact Form Settings – The website will start using your real email addresses for the contact forms. We’ll test the forms and ask you to confirm that they are working correctly for you.

Final Steps Before Launch

1. Security Enhancements – We make sure the site is loading under HTTPS and test any secured pages that were created.
2. Search Engine Optimization – SEO Titles and meta descriptions are written, and keywords inserted to help your site rank higher and encourage clicks to your website.
3. Printer-Friendliness – We check that your printer-friendly pages work correctly. 
4. Website Handbook – We give you the Website Handbook. It includes how-to videos, step by step tutorials and other important information. This will help you run your website after the launch.
5. Confirm Deliverables Have Been Met – Review the proposal WITH the developer to verify that everything is covered. Review the entire website and test functionality.
6. Launch Steps Defined – Before we launch, we get the necessary DNS information and schedule the launch.
7. Schedule Post-Launch Followup Meeting
8. Backup the Current Website – We download a complete backup of the currently live website.

After Website Launch

1. You are In-the-Know – We will keep you informed during the launch with expected time frames, any important happenings and we’ll confirm once the launch is totally complete.
2. Verify Secure Areas – Check that password-protected areas are actually asking for passwords.
3. Verify that Google Can Still Read Your Website – We make sure that the robots.txt file is allowing Google to index the website.
4. Speed Optimization – Besides the website being built with speed in mind, we can configure speed tools for caching and cutting load time further so that you meet the 5-second page loading speed recommendations put forth by Google.
5. Check for Broken Links – When a site goes live, it’s URL changes. We check for broken links and correct any we find.
6. Download Backup – We store a full backup of the website and confirm that the automatic backup begins to handle future backups.
7. Test Auto-Publishing to Social Media – If your website should auto-post updates to Facebook and Twitter, we verify it’s working by making your first new post after launch.
8. Check Google Webmaster – We’ll check for 404 errors in Google Webmaster tools. If we find some, we’ll put redirects in place for any important pages that don’t redirect properly. We’ll also verify that Google Analytics is tracking visitors properly.
9. Post-Launch Followup Meeting – We’ll meet to confirm all tasks are complete, make sure everything is working properly and answer all questions.

To ensure that your website launch goes smoothly, work with a web agency that knows what they’re doing. Effect Web Agency has partnered with businesses across the United States for over 15 years. We don’t just build beautiful websites that are mobile-friendly. We offer ongoing support in the form of digital marketing, metrics, and business coaching. Call today and find out how you can have a more strategic web design.

The post 26 Point Checklist for Your Website Launch appeared first on Effect Web Agency.

Should Your Business Use Twitter?

Here are some situations where Twitter may not be a good tool for your business.

• You don’t have time to tweet daily: All social media tools require regular updating, but with this social media platform, in particular, you need to have the time available to engage on a DAILY basis with your audience. Not updating or responding to your followers in a timely way is the fastest way to fail.
• You aren’t interested in what others have to say: The key to being successful with Twitter is the ability to use it to build relationships. If you are simply tweeting links to your website or promoting yourself, no one will listen.
• It’s a numbers thing: If you think that measuring your success amounts to how many followers you have, Twitter may not be the right tool for you. Quality followers who care about what you have to say are much more important than the number of people following you.
• You envision Twitter as ultimate marketing solution: Sorry, that’s just not going to happen. Twitter is a tactic or tool, it is not a strategy. It needs to work in conjunction with other social media tools and your overall marketing strategy.
• You plan to put Twitter on autopilot: A ton of tools exist that promise they can put your Twitter growth on autopilot and help you grow followers. They are all a bad idea for one main reason: they lack the engagement and interaction that is vital to Twitter.

For the most part, this channel works best for public figures and B2C clients. B2B companies might find it beneficial to keep in touch with clients and employees if they have time-sensitive information.

Making the Most of Twitter

Now if you plan to use Twitter for all of the right reasons there are three questions to ask yourself before getting started.

1. What do I want to achieve with Twitter? Define your goals and what steps are you willing to take to get there.
2. What is the message I want to convey? In other words, what are the core of my tweets going to be about? For example, are you a pet bakery who is going to tweet about the pet nutrition along with interacting with pet owners? You must find your niche and what you are going to focus your tweets around.
3. Who is going to be doing the tweeting? Figure out who in your business is going to be your voice on Twitter. It’s often CEO’s, Presidents, and other upper-level management doing the tweeting but there is nothing to say that you cannot have multiple people within your organization tweeting. Just make sure that everyone is in sync with what, where, when, and why they are doing it.

The post Is Twitter Right for My Business? appeared first on Effect Web Agency.

What is the Client Lifecycle?

As the owner of Effect, I want to make sure we have clear communication between our company and yours. Our goal is to build a long-term relationship, so we take steps to ensure that your web design delivers the maximum return on your investment.

Identify the Right Results

We illustrate our client lifecycle with a tree. The “roots” are the discovery questions that pinpoint how the website will contribute to your organization.  We ask questions such as, “What is the desired outcome? Who is the target audience? What is the end goal?” Before our tree can begin growing, we must pinpoint our objective and develop our strategy for reaching that objective. This extends beyond the website and tells us how we’re going to measure improvement.

Clarify and Articulate Your Unique Value Proposition

Before you can begin marketing to customers, you must determine what makes you unique. We are moving beyond the initial discovery questions, so this is the trunk in our diagram. We help you ask questions such as, “Why should a customer choose me over another company? What sets me apart?” This provides the ability to articulate clearly and effectively to a customer why you are the best fit for them.

Design and Build

Now that we have our roots and our trunk, our branches are free to grow. This is where we begin designing and building your website. We ask more questions: “What does the customer want to know? What is most important to them? In what order do we present material?” We build content and information into your site based on the needs of your customer. This aids us in the final step.

Convert and Attract

Customer attraction is the leaves of our tree. This is the key point of the client lifecycle where, now that we have our marketing plan and content, we get it out to people. After all, if you have a beautiful website, perfectly tailored to your clients, yet no one ever sees it, what is the point? The role of Effect is to develop the reach of your website. We make it Google-friendly, monitor customer traffic, and pinpoint areas that might be causing a holdup in traffic.

As a tree grows, so does your web marketing plan. Carefully tended, you should see strong growth and lots of fruit.

We summarize our niche with these words: “Strategic websites and web marketing for the right results.” Our goal at Effect Web Agency is to empower others to succeed. Take a look at our Website Toolkit for further information on how you can build a profitable site.

The post What Is the Client Lifecycle for a Website Redesign? appeared first on Effect Web Agency.

“Ranking doesn’t matter if you are not being seen by the right people at the right time. You must target the decision makers who are ready to commit.” – Kim Schmutzler, Director SEO & Content Marketing, Effect Web Agency

“Great,” you say, “How do I do that”? Don’t worry. We’ve detailed some specific steps for cleaning up your SEO. This strategic SEO plan for reaching qualified leads WILL work. Be diligent and give it time and you should see more of the right kind of traffic coming to your site.

SEO-Map-and-Plan-Effect-Web-Agency

How to Create a Strategic SEO Plan

You will never reach your destination if you don’t know where you are going! The first step in creating your SEO plan is to set both stretch goals and SMART goals for your website.

Use this calculator to set a monthly goal for search engine visitors.

The Process for Setting Website Goals

Use Google Analytics to see how much traffic you’ve had monthly for the past year. Is it cyclical? Has it dropped recently? Climbed?

Traffic is good, but only if those visitors stay and engage. That’s why you also want to consider your bounce rate. Are they coming, not finding what they need, and leaving? If your bounce rates are high, you should try to determine which of these three things are causing your issues:

1. Visitors can’t navigate the site.
2. The wrong people are clicking through.
3. Your message doesn’t resonate with your visitors.

Once you have a grasp of your historicals, you can set specific goals for your SEO campaign.

• “I want to double the number of visitors to the site.”
• “I want to improve rankings for these five niche markets.”
• “Our company wants to rank in these three local markets.”

Most companies will set short-term goals and long-term goals. Just make sure they are specific and measurable.

How To Reach Your Goals with SEO

The first step to reaching your goals is to identify your markets and your primary clients. Then you need to decide on which keywords best resonate with those clients. Consider their needs and what they are searching for.

1. Brainstorm a list of 5-20 highly-specific, relevant keywords.
2. Search for those terms online. Who shows up in the results? Are they related to what you do?
3. Use a keyword planning tool like Google Keyword Planner to find related terms and get more ideas. You can also look at the related search terms at the bottom of the search engine results.
4. Decide which web pages you want each keyword to rank for. (Up to 3 keywords/page)
5. Review The Comprehensive SEO No-No’s List.

Once you know what you would like to achieve with your website and the keywords you need to engage with your prospects, then it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

The SEO Process

First of all, you need to know if Google is ranking the desktop version of your site or if you have been moved to the Mobile-First Index. This will affect which type of content you modify and where you make your technical SEO changes.

There are four types of search engine optimization that will help you rank better on Google.

1. Technical SEO

If your website does not function properly, Google won’t rank it and even if people find it they will leave.

Imagine going to a 5-star restaurant and getting a lousy waiter. It won’t matter how good the food is if the service ruins the experience.

• Do you have encryption?
• Check Google Search Console for Mobile Usability and Crawl Errors
• Make sure your site has been indexed (also available on Google Search Console)
• Run a speed test using this tool:  Website Grader
• Conduct a site audit using the free version of Screaming Frog
• Access your site using both desktop and mobile devices. Objectively rate your experience.
• Review Google Webmaster Tools monthly or quarterly and address any “Not found” entries under “Crawl Errors.” These are broken links. Setup 301 Redirects for any important broken link.

Once your site runs smoothly and you’ve verified that Google is happy with the backend, then you can On-Page SEO.

2. On-Page SEO

If you have a WordPress site, you can make this step easier by installing the Yoast plugin. The process is the same for all types of sites, but Yoast will prompt you so you don’t miss anything important.

1. Title your page or post appropriately – use your primary keyword and make sure the length of the title is less than 65 characters.
2. Write a helpful meta description that convinces people to click on your listing. Make sure to include your keyword.
3. Properly place keywords on the landing page or within an article so Google can categorize your content. Typically, your keyword is in the title, introductory paragraph, a heading, the body of your text, and in the conclusion.
4. Give images an ALT tag that describes them and uses one or more keywords. Do NOT stuff the alt text with too many keywords or use phrases that don’t make sense.
5. Make the URL of new pages descriptive. Example: /industrial-ceiling-fans.
6. Link pages together with hyperlinks. These links help Google understand the nature of your content.

Now that you’ve done your “housekeeping” so to speak, you can begin to actively market your business using a strategic SEO Plan.

3. Content Marketing

The trick is to publish regular content in the form of new landing pages or blog posts. This encourages Google to crawl your site regularly. It also gives your visitors a reason to come back.

Publish a minimum of two new pieces of content each month that your audience will find valuable and shareable. Make sure it is quality content. You should always offer in-depth, original material that is relevant to one of your keywords. Link the content to the landing page on your site that is most relevant to that topic.

For example, we would link this article on search engine optimization back to our SEO services page.

Promote your new content on all your marketing channels:  newsletter, email campaigns, social media, and even direct mail.

If you struggle to find topics, consider your FAQs. What are people asking on the phone or through email? Can you provide an in-depth answer on your site? You can also check Google Trends for current topics of discussion in your industry.

To improve SEO on your blog posts, use schema markup on your articles. If you have a WordPress site, there are several plugins that will make that easy for you.

Content Marketing involves many things and are the most time-consuming of your SEO strategies. A good content marketer will know how to integrate your online content with social media and off-line marketing.

It’s not just about ranking… let’s repeat that… it’s not just about ranking!

You must rank so people read your content, but you also have to deliver the right message at the right time if you want conversions.

4. Off-Page SEO

I’ve left Off-Page SEO to last, not because it’s the least important, but because it only matters if you’ve done the other types of SEO. Off-Page SEO involves setting your company as an industry expert.

1. Guest blog or publish an article each month on another highly-respected website that is relevant. In your article, include a link to your website homepage or one of your pages.
2. Monitor backlinks and develop relationships with credible sites so you can gain new ones.
3. Visit forums and answer questions about your industry. Establish yourself as an “expert” in your field.
4. Create videos and add them to your posts or start a YouTube channel to reach new prospects.

This takes time and unfortunately, many businesses never make it further than On-Page SEO. However, every time you interact with a potential client in their space increases the chance that they will visit yours.

Also, keep in mind that your Off-Page SEO strategies will work for other search engines as well. Bing SEO can benefit from all your Google efforts.

How to Measure the Success of Your SEO Plan

You can check on your SEO progress daily, but it’s best to step back and look at it monthly. Search engine optimization is NOT a “get traffic quick” scheme, but it’s a solid investment of resources. Here’s how you can evaluate your website success.

• Review Google Analytics each month or quarterly and see the growth of “Organic” traffic under Acquisition > Channels.
• Check your ranking for your target keywords monthly. Open an incognito window and manually search for your listing or better yet, have Effect Web Agency run ranking reports for you.
• Evaluate your results compared to your original objectives each quarterly. Some people will see changes in their ranking in the first few months (usually due to the initial on-site optimization) and others with plenty of competition will see slow growth over several years.

SEO is not…

• A project: SEO is a process with results being achieved slowly over time. You can’t do it once and then forget about it. It’s an ongoing thing.
• An end-all solution: SEO is only one piece of the marketing puzzle.
• Free: in most cases, it’s suggested that you seek the help of an SEO consultant who knows how to get you the results you want to achieve, as quickly as possible. Even if you decide to tackle it yourself, it takes time and manpower resources.
• An after-thought: If possible, implement an SEO campaign before you launch a new website.  Also, don’t wait until it’s too late and your competitors have gobbled up the search results. Be proactive.

“A reputable SEO expert who is on top of current trends and technologies can get your ranked much quicker than someone who is doing it in-house, on a part-time basis.” – Steve Schmidt, Owner, Effect Web Agency

Search engine optimization is a bit of work, but the paybacks are high. Done right, an SEO plan can improve your rankings and reach the right people for more qualified leads. If you need help with search engine optimization or developing a strategic marketing plan, Effect Web Agency has experts that can help you grow your business. We build beautiful sites that perform and then support our clients by guiding them in their marketing efforts.

There are many good writers, marketers, designers, and programmers, but employing a team like Effect Web Agency, where specialists in each of those areas work together towards a common goal, can lead a company to the forefront of their industry.
Kim Schmutzler, Director of SEO & Content Marketing, kim@nostalgic-borg.138-197-69-193.plesk.page

The post A Strategic SEO Plan for Reaching Qualified Leads appeared first on Effect Web Agency.

Common Social Media Questions

Almost without fail, these three questions come up in some form during a marketing consultation.

• Should our business post on social media? (Is it worth it?)
• What is the ROI? (How much will it cost?)
• What do I need to do?  (Can you do it for me?)

The answers to these questions depend on a number of factors, but the bottom line is that social media marketing won’t be profitable if you don’t understand your customers and how they shop.

Scenario A –  Your Local Business NEEDS a Social Media Strategy

Social usually equates to fun, and if your product or service is pleasure-centric, then you really should market on one or more social media channels.

• Restaurants
• Theme Parks
• Women’s Clothing Boutiques
• Museums
• Theaters
• Spas

After all, 3.2 billion people use social media regularly (Emarsys, 2019) and 90.4% of all Millennials actively use social media (Emarketer, 2019). According to GlobalWebIndex, 54% of social browsers use social media to research products.

That’s a lot of exposure!

How Often Should You Post?

The amount of “work” you will need to do to create a following and reach new people depends on the loyalty of your customers (and reviews). People will expect you to post frequently and to offer them incentives for sharing and participating.

Knowing which platform to use and how often to post depends on your customers and their buying habits. There are multitudes of stats that show the best times to post and what type of content to share for the best engagement.

For instance, Instagram and Pinterest are great for visual appeal, and FaceBook offers low-cost advertising that can be targeted by demographics.  Twitter helps with brand identity and personalities and LinkedIn can foster business relationships. Most companies will focus their social media efforts on two or three platforms for the best results.

Scenario B – Experimental – Finding the Right Social Media Platform

OK… we’ve shown how social media can benefit local retail businesses, but what if your company is not pleasure-centric (e.g. a septic pumping company) or you are a B2B company?

If so, then social media may still be an appropriate marketing channel, but you must make sure you move forward with a strategic social marketing plan.

B2B social media channels are NOT the same as B2C.

What do we mean?

Honestly, the local serviceman won’t need to Tweet every hour, and there is probably no need for pest control companies to spend a lot of effort on Pinterest. What these companies do need to do is make sure their Google Business Listings are up-to-date and actively solicit reviews for both Google and Yelp.

I know… you probably don’t think of your Google Business Listing as “social media.”

However,  your business now has the ability to publish posts on your Google Listing. You can promote specials, link back to your site, and add photos. Your customers can ask questions, leave reviews, and even chat with you in real-time.  Anymore, your Google Business Listing is “social,” and it’s also one of the more likely places that people will find your local service business.

How Does It Work?

We know of a local painting company that offers a 4% discount for any review left for them on one of five different sites (Yelp, Facebook, Google, Bing, or Home Advisor).

This has resulted in more reviews than any other company in their local area. They still have to perform well in order to get GOOD reviews, but most people need some motivation to take the time to leave positive remarks.

When you consider that social media is the modern-day “word-of-mouth” referral system, you can see that reviews are extremely important for service businesses if they want to generate new business.

There are several good services available for generating reviews, and your web developer can integrate one of those services with your social media platforms and your website.

Scenario C – Social Media Marketing May Have a Lower ROI than Other Efforts

Don’t chase rainbows if there is no pot of gold sitting at the end! Social media is NOT always the best option for your business, especially if you have limited resources available.

Don’t prioritize social media if your organization:

• Doesn’t have goals that social media can help meet now or in the near future
• Doesn’t have the time or resources to do a whole-hearted social media effort
• Finds that the costs outweigh the expected benefits

The truth is that social media is just one more tool for promoting your business. That doesn’t mean it’s necessary for your local business to succeed. If you have limited resources, consider whether an SEO strategy will provide greater returns.

The Bottom Line Is the ROI

This seems obvious but any marketing strategy must provide good returns or it’s a failure. Whether or not social media will benefit your company depends on your goals.

• What will your company gain by being social this year, 5 years, and 10 years down the road?
• When does it make sense for your company to become social and with which audiences?
• How can you make it enjoyable for your audiences?

The first step in determining the ROI is to establish a baseline, or internal audit, of where your organization stands. You need to take an inventory of a variety of business variables (both financial and non-financial) that you can use to determine social media’s impact on the bottom line.

It is best to establish the baseline before implementing your social media strategy. However, if you are already engaging in social media it is still important to establish a baseline of where you stand right now. That way you can identify future successes and opportunities for improvement.

Although ROI doesn’t equal analytics, variables such as Twitter followers and web traffic are important to measure. For example, it would be important to analyze how the number of Twitter followers affects web traffic and how increases in web traffic lead to increased sales.

Establishing Your Social Media Baseline

Consider these variables when you establish your baseline.

• Average monthly sales
• Average dollar amount per transaction
• Blog comments per month
• Cost to acquire a new customer
• Current YTD sales
• Customer conversion ratio
• Facebook friends
• Keywords ranked for on the first page
• LinkedIn connections
• Number of new customers per month
• Monthly transactions
• Monthly unique visitors
• Number of links from social bookmarking sites
• Press mentions per month
• Previous yearly sales
• RSS subscribers
• Social mentions per month
• Twitter followers
• YouTube channel subscribers
• Google Business Listing Metrics

After creating your baseline, monitor your metrics each month and notate changes.

2 Musts for all Local Businesses Regarding Social Media

Because local listings and credibility are important, there are two things all businesses should do when it comes to social media. You should do these two things even if they don’t think social media will benefit your company.

• Claim your Google Business Listing and update the information monthly. This is especially important if you are a local business.
• Your company needs a Facebook Page. Anymore, almost all businesses have some sort of presence on Facebook. Update it about once or twice a month, unless it is one of your primary marketing channels.

Apart from that, do what makes sense for your business regarding social media. Integrate it, as much as possible, with your other marketing strategies, such as SEO and PPC, and keep re-evaluating its importance. You may find that down the road a social media strategy begins to make more sense for your company.

Should You Hire a Social Media Marketing Company?

If your business fits Scenario A, consider hiring a social media marketing agency or an in-house social media expert. Essentially, this person or group will function as your sales department. They will handle the day-to-day postings, social media ad campaigns, and social engagement with your clients. Look for someone who can write and knows graphic design, in addition to marketing experience.

For other companies, you might want to designate an employee to work with a hired social media consultant. The consultant can analyze your campaign results and traffic and offer suggestions for a better social media strategy. Your in-house person can do day-to-day postings and handle client interactions. Consider hiring a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO, content marketing, and social media since all three work together.

Effect Web Agency partners with businesses around the globe to help them get more from their digital marketing efforts. If you are considering whether or not social media marketing is right for your business, contact Effect for a free consultation.

A comprehensive web strategy plays an essential role in the overall marketing plan. Not only does Effect create the online experience, we empower companies with tools to track results and measure ROI across all of their media mix.

Steve Schmidt, CEO

steve@nostalgic-borg.138-197-69-193.plesk.page

The post When Should a Local Business Invest in a Social Media Strategy? appeared first on Effect Web Agency.