Effective SEO copywriting is a lot more than putting together some paragraphs incorporating the right search terms.  Your old English classes taught many great basics for writing, like keeping the piece focused, and organizing your thoughts.  Don’t overlook the all-important proofread, proofread, proofread. These are all valuable concepts to keep in mind when putting SEO friendly content together, but there’s still a little more to remember.  These tips all help with writing for the web:

People First
Customers are people, too, and they’re the ones who will make the final purchasers. When content is excellent for SEO, you might get the initial hit. However, if it’s not readable, clients won’t stick around for more. In the end, people drive the success or failure of a post.

Link Intelligently
There’s no harm in linking back to previous blog posts in related pieces of writing. When it makes sense, a well-placed link can generate more traffic to past content. This sometimes-overlooked technique can provide easy and effective marketing. It’s smart to keep making use of what you’ve already done, and including access to it in new work is a very smart way to do that.

Forget “Keyword Density”
Repeating keywords not only makes for boring writing, but it can hurt content ranking in the long run. Search engines have caught on to this technique and have no qualms about penalizing the offenders. This takes us right back to the first tip: start writing with the audience in mind and then optimize for web.

Cite Your Sources
To hearken back to those English classes, citing sources is imperative when their material is used. With online writing, citation acts as both a safety net and a potential for expanded networking. Of course, it will protect against plagiarism, but sharing it with a link to the original post via social media can encourage the cited author to share the content because they’re mentioned. Of course, that means more publicity for all parties, and who doesn’t love that?

Most companies’ first shot at marketing campaigns don’t quite go as well as planned, but that is just the nature of the game. If you go in with a realization of what to expect, you can prepare yourself for better results. Getting started is never easy but it must be done, so come to grips with the fact that you might fail at first, most sites do, and instant success is not likely for most companies with the exception coming from companies that decide to hire SEO experts right from the start.

The experience of SEO professionals will help prevent you from making the same mistakes other start up companies make. The professional will protect you from the bumps and bruises you are sure to take by venturing off on your own. With so many different techniques to utilize, you will have to figure out on your own what your audience is responding to positively, while an expert will keep monthly reports on where traffic is coming from so you know where and where not to spend your marketing time and dollars.

Expect success once you know what your doing, but it’s going to be a difficult process that will result in website growth and more profit. The internet can take anything and make it a hot commodity, or in other words it can go “viral.” Once you’ve gone “viral,” you’ve pretty much been guaranteed success.

As with anything in the business world, SEO marketing is not an easy task to master when doing it on your own, which is why there are professionals out there to make your life easier. Remember to temper expectations with your first attempt, but eventually with the right combination of time, experts, and creativity you will find yourself running a very successful online marketing campaign.

If you have any questions on how to create a successful SEO campaign, feel free to contact us, Essential Services Inc., at 612-342-4000. Our experts will be glad to assist you with any concerns you have.

With the takeover of technology over the past decade, marketing has become a whole new ballgame with traditional advertising is quickly finding it’s way on the outside looking in. Having an ad in your local phone book or newspaper just isn’t worth the cost anymore. Traditional ads are becoming increasingly outdated with the whole world going digital, case and point is seen by the amount of companies shifting their marketing focus towards the internet instead of the traditional forms and below are a few directions they are heading.

Onsite SEO is a rather cheap way to go if your website is small, ideally under 50 pages, compared to the price of print advertising. Most Onsite SEO techniques cost mush less than a 12 month ad in your local phone book and will more than likely be twice as effective.
Another direction you can go is Pay Per Click advertising, this is when you pay the host a small fee every time a person clicks on your add. If using Pay Per Click, it’s better to spend your money with Bing or Google to increase your probability of getting phone calls or website hits. Your chances dramatically increase with Pay Per Click when comparing to traditional advertising.

Blogs will always be a great way to attract new traffic and if you don’t already have one I suggest you launch one immediately. Update your blog a few times per week, maybe even daily depending on your audience and industry. When done correctly and creatively, a blog will generate a nice amount of steady traffic.

Niche advertising is always an effective way to attract more traffic to your website. Find a niche blog in your industry and take out an ad on their site. Every niche out their has a blog, trust me, it’s your responsibility to find the best one suited for your brand.

The most recent addition to the online marketing game is Social Media marketing. Facebook and Twitter have taken the online world by storm so make sure you have an active account with each platform. If you don’t have one already, your lagging behind your competition, so try to create an account asap. Get involved with discussions because today’s market place is all about joining the conversations going on around us.

The days of traditional advertising are quickly coming to an end with cheaper and much more efficient rates with online marketing. Don’t continue to waste time and money with outdated marketing techniques, start searching for less expensive yet more effective ways to market your brand. If you need any help ditching your old marketing ways and moving forward with a more efficient online marketing campaign, contact us, Essential Services Inc., at 612-342-4000 to what our experts can do for you.

In Part 1 of this article I shared some tips on optimizing your mobile website to provide a great experience for your users. In this post I’ll address things from an SEO standpoint. Remember, your goal is to achieve both.

Tips for Enhancing SEO – Lessons for Mobile Webmasters

Announcements from Google recently have only confirmed what the SEO industry already knows – change is a given in the mobile SEO area.  You can’t just put something in place and leave it – you’ll need to adjust from time to time to keep pace with the industry. As Google and SEO industry experts make new recommendations, be prepared to adjust. That being said, here are some SEO enhancing tips based on current conditions.

• Use Responsive Web Design to Serve Up the Same HTML with Separate CSS By Incorporating Responsive Web Design.  Here’s what Google itself has to say about handling website design:  “Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and using only CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device.”  You want to make appropriate indexing for the Googlebot easy, so you may need to take some extra steps if you for some reason you need to do things differently.
• Use Automatic Redirection Between Your Mobile and Desktop URLs.  Despite the fact that the SEO industry has gone back and forth about mobile-specific URLs affecting a site’s social shares and link equity, Google recently made its position clear and confirmed support for mobile URLs (for example, m.myowndomain.com).   If you want details on how to get automatic redirection set up, here’s a great article from Google .  It contains all the specific instructions you need to get things set up.
• Use Mobile-related Canonical Tags Carefully.  Myth:  Canonical tags should be omitted from all duplicate URLs except for the home page.  This is a misconception.  Google has clarified the subject, and the current state of things is that these tags should be used on ALL mobile pages, even if the content differs slightly.  Having the tags in place won’t affect your page rank for unique keywords.

The important lesson that webmasters should take from Google’s most recent announcements is that the world of mobile SEO is always changing. While it will always be important to understand the needs of your mobile users and to update your mobile interface design to best meet these priorities, keep in mind that the appropriate way to handle mobile website setup may change from time to time from an SEO perspective.  Stay flexible, and adjust your site to keep up with changing trends. 

Google is one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world, so needless to say, it’s not in your best interest to but heads with them especially if your using an SEO marketing approach. Play nice and by the rules and Google can be your best friend.

Avoid using tricks to get ahead or to move around a bit for some quickly gained but short lived traffic increase. Play by the rules and you’ll eventually be rewarded, otherwise Google will quickly catch on to your scheme and come down on you with harsh penalties that will undoubtedly bury your website in search engine results. The word “trick” should never enter your mind when brainstorming ideas for your SEO marketing campaign. In fact, Google has said on numerous occasions that companies should always be wearing their marketing caps to get ahead in search engine results. This means companies need to get creative with their marketing approach to increase website traffic and maintain a solid SEO marketing campaign.

Never forget the power known as Google. Always play nice and follow whatever rules or guidelines they put in place in order to achieve positive results from your SEO marketing campaign. Tricks will get you instant results but won’t last. You’ll eventually get caught which is why a creative, proactive marketing approach is the only way to obtain long lasting success.

By Henry Passot

From time to time, good, hard-working companies find themselves being penalized for choosing the wrong SEO vendor to do business with. The SEO game comes with boundaries and when those boundaries get crossed, you don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the fence. The good news is there are ways to move forward and put the penalty behind you so you can proceed with a successful SEO marketing campaign.

Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistake twice and if at all possible, try and do the exact opposite. By doing so extensive research, you will be able to locate the perfect SEO company that really knows the in’s and out’s of the search market industry. Educate yourself on what a professional search marketing campaign consists of so you will know the right questions to ask when deciding on what SEO company to work with. There is a vast amount of free content available online, so it’s up to you to do the research.

Now it’s time to move forward with a well thought out game-plan and every good SEO company should have a strategy in place that you can visually track on a monthly basis. Nothing is worse than moving forward with out a well put together plan.

Try to stay positive while dealing with your penalty, mistakes do happen from time to time, even to good guys. Don’t let the mistake of one SEO company discourage you from dealing with other SEO companies. Like any other industry, we’re not all the same and assuming so would be a colossal mistake. There are many SEO companies that follow the rules and when executed correctly, search engine marketing can be very powerful and influential in helping your brand’s image grow immensely.

Penalties are never fun do deal with, but remember that you’ll get a second chance. When your penalty is over, try not to be over aggressive to make up for lost time and ground causing you to get another penalty. Take an approach that seems natural and safe yet keeps your campaign creative and diverse. If you have any questions on how to deal with penalties you’ve received and how to move forward, feel free to contact us, Essential Services Inc., at 612-342-4000 to see how our experts can assist you.

By Henry Passot

Everyday more and more junk is finding it’s way into online search results creating even more traffic for you to navigate through in order to reach your intended audience. SEO allows you to emerge from the pack and stand out in search queries instead of being buried at the bottom with a bunch of junk. Waiting does nothing for you, now is the time to act or prepare to be left behind.

More and more clutter is gaining entrance into search engine results and it’s not going to stop anytime soon. Most companies will never make it to the top, but it only takes one to move ahead of you and begin to steal traffic that might have otherwise been yours.  Your competition is getting smarter by the day with SEO becoming a high priority and not just a secret around the office anymore, in fact, your competitors are more than likely discussing it right now.

With the way technology has taken off, there is no other forum that can bring you business then getting deeply immersed in online marketing strategies. Newspapers, yellow pages and even in-mail ads are slowly dying…it would not be surprising to see most snail mail eventually phased out of our lives completely. The post office is already considering eliminating Saturday delivery. Surely it’s not going to happen in the next year but eventually most expensive traditional mailings  be eliminated because that’s how digital our lives have become. Everything is going digital, leaving companies with no other option except to overhaul their resources and create a fully digital marketing campaign. Don’t mistake this as a trend, it’s quickly becoming a lifestyle with everyone wanting their information right now!!  - and on the go (which we are witnessing) with the exponential growth in mobile technology.

Online marketing competition is happening now all around you. But, there’s plenty of room for everyone to grow, so explore what it will mean for you to get started or take your online marketing campaign to the next level. If you need  advice on running a successful search marketing campaign, feel free to contact us, at 651-342-4000 and see what our expertise can do for you.

By Henry Passot