A little cheesy but I always wanted to say that. As most of you know i live in the lost city of Houstontis, twin sister of Atlantis. And as you know tomorrow is class day. As you can see the city is flooded. Sort of surreal with the blue skys and overflowing Bayous.
Even though the Internet Marketing Clinic scheduled for tomorrow night @ the SBDC on Fannin has been canceled, we are still at go @ Houston West Chamber of Commerce. Our lunch class tomorrow will be a class on Keywords and how to better identify them as well as how to formulate content around them.
Also in June I’m thinking of giving a class on WordPress plug ins that should be used when working on your website for marketing.
We do a lot of wordpress hosting and at this point we are really the experts in how to make a wordpress site work for all aspects of Digital marketing including Social.
With that said, enough of you have asked me what you needed to do so I though it may make a good class topic. I hate to do it in June..this years is flying by though and I don’t want to put it off until next January. Anyway just some thoughts in my head.
It’s a great opportunity to learn about wordpress, what plug ins are good to have and how us it to handle some of whats needed to survive in todays digital marketing world.
In other news Terry Bryant and the Houston West Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a blood drive on Thursday @ Mr. Bryant’s office. We are encouraging all our local Houston Clients and Friends to come find us there after 10 am. We hope to see a bunch of you out there.
I was reading about Blue Bell this morning. Anyone from Texas knows how loyal and even somewhat territorial we are about Blue Bell Ice Cream, but the article went on to ask if it really was superior ice cream or was it superior marketing and the case was made that it was superior marketing. Folksy, downhome, made in the Brenham, (Houston or Austin Suburb depending on who you ask), homemade vanilla ice cream. I agree its all about marketing.
This all got me to thinking. Google has made more tweaks to their algorithms this month that favor quality. I haven’t found anything yet that clearly defines what those tweaks were, after all they just admitted to it last night. But moving towards a certain quality bar is not a bad idea. It used to be that many SEO firms wrote for a mathematical equation and not for what’s best for the end user.
Those that have been putting up good pages, have been rewarded. But really it’s a solid marketing strategy to demonstrate to prospective clients that you actually know what you talking about. Gone are the days of the brochure website and just like Bluebell, each business should be carving out a niche for themselves and being an expert. This includes demonstrating that on the website and across all the digital marketing channels.
I often hear from clients, that they want simply 10 pages on their website and they are frustrated that we have created so many pages. What they don’t get is that the marketing behind those pages lets their visitors know they are experts in their field. It’s very difficult to convey being the best with so little said. Its hard to create a niche with 10 pages. And it’s hard create a comprehensive digital marketing plan with 10 pages.
Content still remains to be the thing that allows businesses to compete in the digital marketing arena. And despite all the discussion about links, if you build good content pages, the links will come, I am a firm believer in that premise. Yes there needs to be more link credit built in from social sites, where as in the old days people had their own pages and would make links and participate in forums, but the advent and diversity of social has changed that landscape some and maybe the algorithms haven’t changed enough. But overall, good content yields good links and should be a major consideration in the marketing plan.
So we all can borrow a few lessons from BlueBell and carve out what makes your business unique. Each business regardless the size needs to better define their marketing and understand that its not just about a website or just about a press release or just about a link or best of all, being to small to care about marketing. It is about a coordinated, high-quality effort to form a cohesive and consistent message about your company, otherwise known as your brand.
As you know I love to tell you my tales as I travel around town and meet new people.
My newest story is about a website that had its traffic drop off by half over the last year. As everyone knows, that can be a deathblow to a business.
Often there is a desperation play to hire someone…anyone that sounds like they know what they are talking about to fix it. Most times they
make it worse. Often by the time the folks get to use they are 3-4 SEO firms down the road and we are the big gun they call in to fix it.
We have encountered many a site that has found itself in hot water. Commonly its links that have caused the issue. When I look at a small local business that has 15,000 links, it becomes an instantaneous red flag. Most normal small businesses would never have that. Usually we have to spend time on cleaning up those bad links and anyone that has ever done a link audit knows how time consuming correcting 15,000 links can be. I suppose I also don’t have to spend time explaining the implications of the SEO team who has created 15,000 spammy links in 2015. Every site we take over these days this is now the first thing we do. I don’t think you can do effecient SEO on a site with a bad link profile. Bad SEO firms don’t even know how to do this and honestly can do more harm than good.
The next problem we see is bad content which may caused the site to be Panda-ed. Yes, that is now a real term. It is when Google algorithmically penalizes a site because the content is thin or repetitive. So on the new , there were many pages on this website that were product pages with server specs on them. Pretty beefy pages in the word count realm, but pretty much a regurgitation of the manufacturers server spec pages. There were no usable pages that help buyers make informed decisions. These pages aren’t really repairable and it will take time to get good quality content in place to off set the issue.
There is no accounting for the quality of writing really. What one person likes another person complains about. But don’t hire writers over seas. Make sure you review the content your SEO firm is putting up to make sure they aren’t hiring writers over seas. There is a definitive way a person writes when English is not their native language. Google now has the ability gauge the quality of writing so bad writers beware.
And then of course there is the web design issues. There are so many designers that have no idea how to put a website together properly for SEO. What it really means is that they don’t know how to put a site for the end user really. Worse yet is there is the group that says they know SEO, but then build a website that although may have title tags, it doesn’t have much else.
It is always hard for me to have to tell someone …site looks great but its poorly assembled and then have explain how to fix it. Sorry you wasted your money. It seems to be an never ending battle. As recent as today, we looked at today, and there was no NAP on the site anywhere, yet they didn’t’ understand why they had no google local listing.
Fixing broken websites or algorithmically challenged sites has become something we all are faced with these days. I suppose its good that there are so many bad web designers out there because it means plenty of work for us good ones. But, if i could tell a consumer one thing, it would be to do their homework and make sure you know who your selecting to do your website and that cheap or inexpensive is not always better. A bad web design firm or SEO firm can do far more harm than good.
As I have been providing prospective clients with proposals, I kept getting the same question. What does each of these terms mean.?
Sure I have my statement of who we are as a company and what result can be reasonably expected, but what I found was I had my talking points, but what I didn’t do was clearly define what each of these things do in writing for the boss that may or not meet me.
From the perspective of a blog post, it struck me that these things should be included in every SEO proposal, regardless of the company. Furthermore, if you receive a proposal, and these things are not included, the proposal probably belongs in the trash.
Yes, I know it sounds harsh, but one thing I do a lot of is clean up after bad SEO agencies.
So here is a handy list of definitions and a road map for anyone looking to hire an seo agency.
- Keyword Development: provide the client with a list of recommended Keywords that we feel will help them rank on terms that will help their business grow as well as rank organically.
- Content Creation: We create multiple pages each month to demonstrate your expertise to Google. Well developed content serves multiple purposes, but if done correctly, the term should be awarded top placement.
- Blog Creation and Management: Blog are handled differently because of there more current nature and there more colloquial feel. A blog is an important signal to send from a site because it shows active participation.
- Link Development- Creating a strong link profile to send signals to Google regarding the usefulness of the website. Links can also be called endorsements of the website.
- Citations – Citations demonstrate a strong commitment to local community. Additionally reputable companies, have a strong presence in professional directories and trade organizations. This includes places like the BBB and Yelp.
- Local Development – Google has a special classification for businesses that allows a stronger local footprint. This has to be developed differently than a more traditional SEO strategy.
- Social Media – This new channel helps create a strong community for you to interact with your users or people who are interested in your information. Additionally it allow for signals to be sent to Google regarding the information on your site. Better information spreads faster.
- Branding and Public Relations – This is extremely important because its sets business apart. A strong brand demonstrates confidence to clients. Google sees that strong brands are present in serious companies and they view them as more trustworthy in their recommendations.
As I’ve previously posted, SEO isn’t just about words on a page anymore.
I’ve added our May Class Schedule:
A little cheesy but I always wanted to say that. As most of you know i live in the lost city of Houstontis, twin sister of Atlantis. And as you know tomorrow is class day. As you can see the city is flooded. Sort of surreal with the blue skys and overflowing Bayous.
