The Best Long Term Digital Marketing Strategy for Local Businesses
At the dawn of the Internet age, […]
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The EyeQuest Digital comprehensive list of best practices companies can employ to market their business in the digital arena. Very few businesses can use all elements. All industries differ in marketing dynamics and return varying results from each action on this list. A professional consultant is vital to determine which facets you need to prioritize for your business so you invest in the areas that will give you the highest return for your efforts.
The “About Us” page is usually treated as an afterthought on most websites. After looking at the analytic of so many sites, you would be surprised how many site visitors view the “About Us” page. Google also looks at this page in manual reviews.
Ideally you need a unique page for each product service that you provide. Each of these
pages serves as a landing page for paid search and also has a better chance of showing up in
the organic (free) search. Additionally, it allows you to make your sales pitch for that specific topic and the content will be a more relevant to whoever reads it.
Every website needs one.
Google’s manual website rater guidelines state that a job/careers page is a sign of a “real” company.
Show visitors what you have done for others, then they will more readily believe you can do it for them.
Frequently on the footer on every page.
Each geographic area you want to service should have its own page with content, address, phone number and directions.
Always a great way to convey your companies message.
Piece of Content that shows expertise in field – no competitors have, good enough to gain external links
Most visitors instinctively go to the top right of a web page to find a phone number to call a business. Why make them search if they have committed their minds to contact you?
Don’t leave this off. Some internet users simply like to use electronic communication. Maybe they aren’t able to talk on the phone at the time or can’t speak very well.
Instant chatting has emerged as a great way to initiate contact with your potential customers. Many people like it because it is less personal than a phone call, quicker than a phone call or they are not available to speak on the phone.
Email marketing continues to thrive. A request to subscribe needs to entice, promise discounts, specials, new product notifications, new website content updates.
Give visitors as many indications as possible that they can do business with you.
Make sure visitors know they can speak to you with no obligation if that is, in fact, the case.
A great way to show visitors you are active on social media and convey fresh, less formal information about your company.
If you have a great piece of content, make it easy for visitors to share.
Draw visitors to view your Linkedin page to gain credibility.
Make it easy for visitors to share your content on their Linkedin page by adding automated buttons.
Draw visitors to view your Twitter page to gain credibility.
Make it easy for visitors to share your content on their Twitter page by adding automated buttons.
Draw visitors to view your Instagram page to gain credibility.
Make it easy for visitors to share your content on their Instagram page by adding automated buttons.
Draw visitors to view your YouTube page to gain credibility.
Make it easy for visitors to get driving directions to your business. It is thought that Google uses the frequency of driving directions requests to determine the popularity of a business.
It is one thing to have a page that explains your product and services, but it is another to frame them in a way that convinces the visitor they should buy from you using persuasive content and emotions.
The need for social proof drives referral business and gives celebrities the power to demand millions just to say they use a product. It can substantially increase conversions on your website if done properly.
These could from paper forms your company gives customers.
These could be recodings from customer phone calls.
Displayed on a website using a plugin like reviewsonmysite.com
Displayed on a website using a plugin like reviewsonmysite.com
Can be displayed on your website using an iframe which inserts your BBB profile page onto a part of your website so visitors can scroll down to check out your BBB reviews.
These can be displayed on your website with a widget from Yelp or using reviewsonmywebsite.com
These can be displayed on your website with a widget from Angie’s List
Various industry-specific websites can also be displayed on the customer corner page.
Make sure visitors know about your customer corner page by displaying a few of them, logos of the review site, and a button to click and visit the page.
Every industry has designations that make a company “official”. Even though most would assume a plumber maintains its license, don’t make visitors guess, reinforce it with a logo and link to the official documents. Some examples
Especially great for contractors like plumbers or electricians, showing pictures of and bios about the servicemen who the visitor will invite into their home could go a long way toward earning a phone call. When you can build any connection or relationship with the visitor, you are much farther ahead than your competitor. Include a first name, picture, and a short bio about their experience, education, certifications, and interests.
This is the little logo that shows up on the browser and bookmarks.
Although somewhat inexact and expensive to pay for, visitors still love an accreditation and A+ from the BBB.
Have a page on your site where customers can go to pick their favorite website to easily leave a review.
Make sure you make the link to get to this page easily accessible from the menu or footer.
Using schema markup for first-party review (that company solicits and gathers on their own), review star ranking can show up on search results.
The static header is almost a standard feature in the recently developed site. As the visitor scrolls down, the main menu remains static at the top so navigation is always readily available.
Google now considers website usability in one or another when ranking websites. One major factor is the size of the font. Larger font makes it easier for visitors to read your content which increases your site dwell time. One benchmark is for the capital letters in the text to be at least 16 pixels.
Websites are just like store entrances in that they need to comply with regulations that make them accessible to the entire population, even those with handicaps. Alt image text that explains an image for the blind is an example of this. It is not out of the question that Google would use this measurement as a ranking factor.
Google specifically states that site speed is a ranking factor. Also, If visitors have to wait for your site to load, they don’t’ convert into customers.
Mobile speed is usually different than desktop speed so it needs to be considered as a separate entity.
Tablets are often caught in the middle of using a desktop site or mobile site, especially on “Responsive” sites that adjust as the size of the screen adjusts. The home page should render so that tablet visitors can easily see and navigate the site.
Oftentimes the home page can look good, but internal pages get lost in the shuffle. These need to be checked also.
It is widely thought that registering your domain for extended periods sends a signal to Google that there are long term plans for this domain, therefore it is not spammy. Many feel this is not the case, but at $15.00 per year, register for a long time, make sure it doesn’t expire, and take advantage of this policy if it exists.
Every website has essentially two addresses, www.mysite.com and mysite.com. Choose one and redirect all pages from the other to chosen one. If you fail to do this, you may end up with duplicate content and confusion.
Most websites have switched from Http to https security certificate URLs over the past few years. All the internal links in the code of the site must also switch to this format to maintain continuity.
Even though it doesn’t show up on the page itself, the title tag might be the most important 70 characters on it. It needs to tell Google what the page is about, indicate the keywords for which the page should rank, and sell the click since it shows up as the first line in the search results that searchers see.
Similar to the Title tag, the description is another part of a page’s code. It is not displayed anywhere on the page but often shows up as the second and third line of the search result. This should be unique to each page, summarize the page, be written in a fluid manner and entice searchers to click onto your site. It should be between 100 and 160 characters long.
The names of Images in your web pages should be descriptive and contain keywords.
The function of the alternate text is to assist those who can’t see by describing the picture in words. It can also serve to further indicate to search engines what the picture is about. Appropriate use of keywords helps, but don’t overdo it.
The image size should be the smallest size necessary to render a quality visual to minimize the time to load.
Nothing could be more important for search engine optimization. If search engines get an indication that your content gives searchers the information they want in any number of ways including click through rates, time on site, non-return to search results or links to that page from other websites, they will rank it high for searches related to that page.
The H1 is the headline of a webpage, each page should only have one. The headline has tags in the code indicate its “headline” status <‘H1> to search engines. Ideally it is unique contains keywords that relate specifically to the page it is on.
Ideally, the url after the home.com/ contains keywords relating to the content of the page.
Look at the Google Index – Its list of pages it has in its memory to use in the search results. Are there any that are not true pages? These can hurt the ranking of your real pages.
Particularly important for local businesses, your official name, address phone number and other basic contact information should be displayed somewhere on every page. This further defines the information for search engines and gives potential customers easy access to become customers. The address also has to be marked up using the schema.org tags, defining the information for search engines.
This markup indicates to search engines (within the page’s Html code) the official business information such as address, type of business, city, state, and phone number. It is a way of telling search engines this information instead of relying on them to figure it out.
Tell search engines your company’s hours
Tell search engines your Company’s Business type.
Give search engines your logo image url.
Give search engines images to use for your business.
Tell search engines the links to your Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
Tell search engines about your events.
Make it easy for search engines to structure your recipes.
Mostly for developing a new site with different url structure.
For a larger site especially, create one page for users with all your page links displayed in an organized manner.
The xml sitemap is created in a format specifically to submit to search engines. It is the site’s way of telling them which pages you want them to put in their memory to show in search results. It increases the chances search engines find all your pages (once again, especially for larger sites) and the result could be higher rankings and more free traffic.
If yours or another website links to a page on your site that does not exist, it will become a broken link. You could be losing potential traffic and link power. Redirect the broken page to the closest existing page.
The best way to make sure visitors can find what they’re looking for on your site is to give them a search option. The easiest way to do that is through Google’s custom search engines;this way, you’ll also be able to track what people search for on your site through Google Analytics, identify trends, and perhaps include some direct links to the pages they are looking for.
Links within your site, Internal link building has several advantages as it helps build page authority, usability, connections between your own web pages, user experience, and potentially your rankings.
A blog is a fantastic way to continually add fresh content to your website, keep your customers informed about industry trends, establish your expertise in the industry, gain links, and improve your performance in search engines.
A featured image is the picture or illustration that corresponds to each individual post. It can show up in a variety of places to help promote the blog post.
Excerpts are short descriptions for each blog post. They are meant to describe and entice visitors to click to read the whole post.
If excerpts are unique content, not just the first few lines from the blog post, they can create unique content for category pages, another chance to rank in search engines. If they are not unique, we need to tell search engines not to index (count) category pages to avoid duplicate content.
Tag pages will most likely need to be “No-Indexed.” Tell Google not to count them to avoid duplicate content.
Visitors can help your visibility and ranking on search engines by sharing your content on their pages. Make it easy for them to do so by having buttons to do it automatically.
Google also wants you to clearly state who is creating the content and what their credentials are.
Over 60% of searches are now done on mobile phones. Google has gone to a “mobile-first” indexing, meaning mobile is the priority. A business must have a website that adjusts to screen size (responsive) to be readable and navigatable on phones.
Sometimes a dedicated mobile phone website works best because it allows for a completely independent format, not simply rearranging the desktop site vertically.
If a company uses a mobile dedicated site, the redirect must work properly on all pages.
Mobile sites, especially responsive sites, sometimes push the tagline and calls to action so far down the page, visitors can’t see the main points of a website without scrolling far down the page.
The phone number on the mobile version of the site must automatically call upon clicking.
Since visitors often scroll far down to read a web page, calls to action such as driving directions and phone numbers should remain static at the top of the phone so visitors can effortlessly convert when they decide.
If you receive customers at your place of business, you should have a clickable button that immediately loads Google Maps with directions.
Check to make sure your mobile site is rated as “mobile-friendly” by Google’s tool.
Confirm structured data for Name, Address, Phone Number, hours, business type carries over from desktop version.
Accelerated Mobile Platform (AMP) is a Google-backed project designed as an open standard for any publisher to have pages load quickly on mobile devices. Existing mobile pages need to be recorded to fit this structure. A lightning bolt icon identified AMP pages in the search results.
Always know if your website goes down for any reason for any length of time. Set up an uptime monitor that will alert you with downtime by email.
Track website visitors and their activity by installing Google Analytics, a free service from Google.
Google gives website owners a lot of information about their site, how it is performing, and any errors through the search console.
The search console can talk to Google Analytics to open more information about keyword search querries if they are linked.
Call tracking systems can give website owners much information about who is calling from the website and where they came from (referral source). Keyword level data is available for paid search pay-per-click ads.
If a mobile site is developed within the Accelerated Mobile Platform (AMP), a specific tracking code needs to be installed for call tracking to work.
Goals can be set up for different amounts of scrolling on mobile phones.
Bing also gives website owners information similar to the Google Search Console.
Analytics goal tracking to monitor how often visitors click to get directions to your business.
Goal conversion tracking is an important way to determine the number and which pages or referral sources drive visitors to become customers.
Track ranking for both maps and organic search for your business’s main products and services along with any geographic locations.
Same as official name for everything
The address also has to be consistent across the web.
Any Unit or Suite Number
The Name, Address & Phone number represents the company’s NAP
Exact web address, including https://. This should be the exact same address used across every instance the web addres shows up on the internet.
Search engines like it when the business is in the same location every time it is referred to on the internet. The geocoordinates should be taken after the Google map indicator is properly placed.
Email address for customers to contact the business
Email address used to create accounts in the various directories. These directories generate a lot of spam so a dedicted address to get it all is advisable.
This phone number needs to be the main company line and needs to represent the company everywhere.
Number for any licenses needed to do business in the state.
If the business is governed by a state license, the name of the company on the license should be the same as the “Official Company Name”
Address on the state website should be the same as the company address.
If the phone number is listed on the state website, it must match the main company phone number.
Florida’s corporation tracking system. Name, address, phone number (NAP) must be the same as on company’s website.
Address must be the same also.
Is the company’s name on Tax ID the “Official Company Name”?
Is the company’s address on Tax ID the “Official Company Name”?
This is the URL for the company’s logo on their website.
This is a collection of 20 images used across the internet uploaded to a folder in the company’s Google Drive account.
Official Hours must be consistent across the internet.
Any phone numbers used by the company either currently or in the past.
Any company names used either currently or in the past.
Any alternate or old address for the company.
Maybe the most important thing some businesses can do. If you show visitors to your site what you have done for customers in the past, they will be more convinced you can do it for them. A great example is the “Landscaping Design Offer” area of Keep it Green’s website. Almost all visitors looking for landscape design and installation can identify with one of the “before and afters”. Whether they have a lot of shade or want a colorful tropical look, they see that Keep it Green has done.
Set up a system to immediately notify someone if the website goes down and take action at once. Without someone monitoring, it could take hours to find out your site down, along with profits for the week.
A search on Google for “site:yourwebsite.com” tells you what Google currently has in its system as possible results for searches. It also means that all those pages are considered in determining the quality of your site. So many pages with thin or duplicate content could hurt quality rating of the overall website.
WordPress is constantly upgrading the platform to add new features and increase security. A site has to be saved, upgraded and then checked to make sure nothing is broken on the new version. Many times plugins (code inserted to perform specialized functions) will not work until it is also upgraded. If you don’t consistently upgrade to the next version, you site could be very vulnerable to hackers injecting viruses and spam into your site.
By documenting tactics we can use to accomplish internet marketing goals, we always have a complete picture of the possibility actions. It is impractical for a company to commit resources to everything on the list, each type of business benefits most from different actions.
We start every customer with a complete analysis on the status of every action item on all three parts of the plan. We then prioritize, specific to each company, everything that needs to be done, usually starting with the most important foundational items as well as a few items in “Ongoing Activity” to “start the clock” for things that benefit from long-term consistent activity. We revisit the plan every month and develop a plan for the next month.
Call today for a free consultation on where your company stands in relation to our Master Internet Marketing plan. 813-215-6386.
At the dawn of the Internet age, […]
Google, through its 2014 acquisition of artificial […]
