Got SEO Conversions?

This is going to be quick.

SEO is also about visibility, user friendliness , navigation, availability and crawlability (i think i just made this word up). Whether or not your keywords are ranking on page one or not, you are probably getting some type of traffic. Here are a few points to consider and consult your SEO person on.

1. What are we doing to turn these clicks into customers.
2. Are we looking at tracking data.
3. Are we doing On Page SEO.

Most outsourced SEO companies or even US Based SEO companies are focused on your rankings. Which is good, but do they focus on turning traffic into revenue. An even better question is, do they know how to turn traffic into revenue!

Get your ad text right

So, I needed a root canal and I decided to use Google to find an Endodontist in houston. My goal was to find someone close to my home with affordable pricing. Since I have no Insurance, I decided to call a few places before making my decision. Looking back I noticed a few things that I wanted to share with everyone.

Yes! I looked at the Pay Per Click ads! Because I know businesses are actively promoting sales, coupons and discounts there. To my surprise, only a handful of advertisers were actually having the word Endodontist in their ad. More than half of the ads were “let me help you find one” type of service. Only a couple had the street address or location under their text and even fewer had the phone number in their ad text.

If you are a business owner and advertising via Pay Per Click, then do a quick audit of your campaign.

1. Are you showing the searched keywords in your ad text? Try this {KeyWord:Houston Endodontist}
2. Do you have a local phone number that can be displayed within the ad text. A local area code is more promising than a 1800 number.
3. Is your address or city/state being shown at the bottom of every PPC Ad?
4. Are you using negative keywords or continually adding to the list? For instance, most dentists refer a serious root canal out to an endodontist, and receiving calls asking for an endodontist is a waste of time and money. So instead of your ad showing every time someone types in endodontist, you can save money and time by adding endodontist (and other deriviatives) as your negative keyword.

If you need a quick audit and dont have the time, give us a call!

The best Web Ranking Software in the industry!

Monitoring rankings is essential to any SEO’s work. Especially when you start growing your client base and time becomes very valuable. Ive found many softwares out there boasting their features and free trials. Some of these were free and some were paid. We have tried them all and nothing has been worthy enough to pay for until we came across Caphyon’s Search Engine Ranking Software.

They have multiple versions and each one has quite a few features.  Some features are the keyword research tool, reporting, Google preview tool, word tracker integration, website submissions project management and much more.

As a local search marketing expert, I am always monitoring localized keyword rankings for my customers all over the world. Prior to AWR google maps results were very hard to keep track of, with AWR you can setup a local business maps report and choose your locale with ease.

Creating website ranking reports is very easy, primarily due to the user friendliness of this software. It looks like their application UI developers really knew what they were doing. From start to finish its very easy to understand and we did not get stuck anywhere in the process. If you dont feel like customizing your own report, you can choose some of their presets: keyword rank, overview, current rank and much more.

Automatic Search Engine Updates: You do not have to go to the website everytime an update is availbale. You simply recieve a notice in your software and the download will occur whie you are working. Over the course of 30 days we recieved a new update 2 or 3 times, this showed us they are working on this product and the support team is on the ball.

Google Page Rank (enterprise edition): You can look at both the Google Page Rank and alexa page rank. With different views for your reports, you can customize whats best for you and your clients.

Report Export: You can export your reports into multiple formats, csv, html, xls, pdf, xml and txt. This allows you to import your data into other software.The data is yours! Love it.

Scheduled backups: This is very very important. Whats gonna happen if you do not have the past rankings for your project? Yes, it would hurt. With this software you can create scheudled backups with ease.

Multiple api keys with Yahoo: you can only request 5000 queries with one api key. With this software you can create multiple api keys and breakt he 5k limit. 5K keywords is allot, but the option is there.

Project Management: You can organize your clients and even categorize all of your projects. Notes, views, reports and more. Its lovely for the Manager thatis working with multiple SEO’s under one roof or across the globe.

Overall this software has impressed me. Actually when i visited the product website i was surprised that they had put that much work into a nice web presence, that got me to bite. After downloading the software I was very impressed as to how they created a very intuitive and easy to use system built for the end user. Everything was very well though out and i had zero questions from the start.

How to build an effective Website for your business

Why am I writing this? A website is an investment and its surprising how many business owners do not understand the benefits of letting a Web Design Company build their website.

Thinking about letting your family member or friend build your website? Think again. Unless this person has anywebsite marketing experience, you are wasting your time. Here are a few questions to ask your self.

• Is my website going to fill the shoe of a 24/7 sales person?
• What will be the purpose of my website? (Sell products, Informational, Request a Quote online)
• Is the website going to be marketed for business growth? (Website Marketing)

Let me give you one scenario we just ran across. A roofing company here in Houston just opened shop a few months ago. They do not have many refernces and the majority of their sales are door to door. When they receive a potential lead or appointment, they need to create a trust relationship with the home owner. Lets say you have a business card with all of the general information like company, name, phone, email, website.

As a homeowner, would you just take the person for face value and trust they are good at what they do. Certified, professional and experts in their industry? Or, are you going to go straight to your computer and open up a search engine (google, bing, yahoo, ask) and type in their company name?

Think about this before reading on. Put your self in the homeowners shoes. What do you want to see on the companies website? What will make you feel comfortable with this decision?

• They go straight to your website and see a professionally created website with all of the pertinent information they were looking for. Phone numbers, cerfifications, links to the BBB or other authorotative websites, rich content and contact information including locations. An impression has been made, the home owner probably feels comfortable with their decision.
• The homeowner finds your website. The website is not aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The content is very thin and there is not much about your company. Maybe its a two page website. They do not see any type of authorotative logo’s links or information. An impression has been made, if the homeowner is any bit intelligent, they are probably going to be iffy about your services and whether or not you will do the job correctly. They might even cancel or call you. Have fun trying to convince the client otherwise.

After all it is a decision making process. No matter what you are selling.

Re-think your investment , yes your website is an investment. Think about all of the potential clients who will look at your website and how they will perceive your company. Take a look at your competition, you will be compared!

Hopefully you realize the benefits of choosing a professional houston web design company or designer to build your business website. Now you have to ask your self, how do i choose the right web design company and how much is too much!

Dont worry, we are going to write another post in a couple of days and it will do just that! Help you identify the good from the bad.