Five Way Reviews Help SEO

Did you know that Google reviews can contribute to a business’s SEO?

Here are five ways that reviews help SEO:

Improved Local SEO

This one is pretty simple: positive reviews that contain relevant keywords can make a business appear more often in local search results.

Increased Click-Through Rates (CTRs)

Businesses with a lot of positive reviews are more likely to get clicks. More clicks equal a higher click-through rate, and a higher click-through rate improves your search engine ranking.

Keyword Relevance

Including keywords that are relevant to the business will make them show up more when those words are searched in Google. For example, “SEO Agency Michigan” and “Internet Marketing Company” are relevant keywords for Michigan SEO Group.

Fresh Content and Regular Updates

Google favors fresh, consistently-updated content. Since reviews are continuously updated over time, they are a strong source of fresh content. This in turn tells the search engine that the business is active.

User-Generated Content

This one goes hand-in-hand with “fresh content and regular updates.” Search engines often prioritize content created by users because it reflects real-world experiences, which contributes to the credibility of a business.

Get More Marketing Tips from a Local Michigan SEO Agency

Or better yet, let us help your business with SEO!

Michigan SEO Group is run by real people who are excited to help you grow your business. For more information, call (877) 815-6974 or submit a contact form here. Or click here to read Google reviews from our happy clients!

How Can Your Web Design Impact Your Search Rankings?

Does your company appear when your product or service is searched?

Would you like to show up above your competitors on Google?

Navigating the SEO landscape by yourself can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, we have a few tips to boost your business’s online presence!

Design your site to focus on certain target keywords—make sure these keywords appear in titles, headings, and links throughout the site. It’s also important for other relevant sites to link back to your pages. Publish relevant keyworded content on a consistent basis to boost your search results and your helpfulness to visitors! Google needs to understand that your site actually provides useful information to users before it will recommend your page above others.

Interested in optimizing your web design for search engines? Visit our website to learn more! 

Does Your Website Design Keep Visitors Interested?

Studies have shown that users form their first impression of a website in just 0.05 seconds! A quick glance is all it takes to convince a visitor whether your company is legitimate or not. 

A good web design shows that your firm is reputable and trustworthy. Customers like to buy things from websites which look visually pleasing and easy to use. If you’re looking to improve your business’s web design, make sure to:

• Have a simple, short, and memorable domain name
• Create a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate
• Make your home page informative
• Consistently update your site with fresh content

Learn more about how you can improve your Michigan business’s web design!

Is your web presence strong enough?

As consumers realize the positive aspects of working from home, our buying habits will continue to shift even as we recover from this pandemic. 

According to a survey recently administered by the Endurance International Group, approximately 30 percent of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) developed a business website or enabled e-commerce functionality since the beginning of the pandemic. Creating and developing your company’s online presence is crucial as our buying habits adjust to the “new normal.” 

Don't be left behind! To learn more about the importance of your web presence and how MSG can get you started, visit our website.

Videos Help Your Google Search Ranking!

Did you know video can help your business improve its search ranking?

If you’re not making and posting videos on YouTube and sharing them in your social media channels, you’re missing out on an increasingly important and popular form of customer interaction! Within the next year, over 80% of internet traffic will be video. Google and other search engines are already adding video as part of search results like they do with Maps. This could be a big help for your business' SEO ranking!

Your videos don’t have to be viral – just be relevant to your business. Got a new product in stock? Make a video with your phone and post it – and don’t forget to share it on social media!

Click Here to learn more about making video part of your social media management routine.

Are You Using Your Social Media Reviews?

You’ve done a good job and satisfied customers are leaving reviews on your social media. But are you leveraging them to your advantage? Good reviews not only help people decide to make a purchase, they’re also a powerful marketing tool you don’t want to let slip away.

Are satisfied customers leaving reviews?

If you’re not getting reviews, don’t be afraid to ask! Chances are folks will be more than happy to say nice things.

Are you letting people know you’ve gotten good reviews?

When people leave positive notices, post about them on your social media channels! People don’t always read articles or blogs, but they read reviews!

Did you know positive reviews help your search engine rankings?

When people leave reviews on your social media channels – especially your Google page, those positive reviews help your search engine rankings!

Strong social media management is essential for cultivating positive reviews and leveraging those reviews to help your organic search ranking. Click Here to find out more about how professional social media management can help your business thrive online.

What's the ONE Thing?

Recently one of our clients asked us a tough question. 

"Knowing what you know about marketing after 11 years in the business, what's the ONE thing that you'd do for yourself – and for new clients – to get the best chance of success at promoting your business online?"

The truth is more basic, then you think! Research!

Whatever business you may have, whatever online or old school platforms you may use, whether you're just starting out or you've been in business for decades, you simply must figure out: (1) how potential customers are searching for what you offer; and (2) what needs or wants they have that you can fulfill. Without that knowledge, you're just putting out there what you want. If you get lucky and make a living that way, great, but chances are you'd be leaving a huge part of the potential market untapped.

So, do your research before you start gathering resources and plan of attack.

What should you try to find out? Here's a quick and dirty list:

Keywords
What keywords are people typing into Google when they're looking for services or products like yours?

Trends
Is the market for what you offer stagnant, shrinking, or growing?
What changes are there in search trends and how could that affect your approach?

Pains and Problems
What pains and problems do those people want solved?

Who's Out There?
Who's already out there addressing those pains and problems?
Who are the major players online, who dominate the search results?
What are those players doing particularly well?

What's the Market Like?
What are the major players charging for services or products like yours?
What exactly do they offer at that price point?
Is the market big enough for another player (you)?
Is there price flexibility or a value equation you can provide to compete differently?

What Platforms?
On what platforms are the most successful players getting traction?

Their websites? Facebook? Blogs?

Advertising Dollars
How much is it going to cost to compete in the paid advertising arenas like Google Adwords and Facebook ads?

There's more to this, of course, but without this basic knowledge, you could be chasing a pipe dream, missing out on a lot of revenue, or at the very least wasting part of your marketing effort. Understand the market before you begin your strategic plan ... and sometimes this research can reveal things you'd never thought of before!

Contact The Website Design Experts!

If you'd like more clarity about how to create a healthy online presence or if you'd like to explore what it would be like to work with SEO Ann Arbor, please contact us! We’re committed to our clients’ online success!

To learn more about other helpful tips and news about SEO and website design in Ann Arbor, sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News!

What It Takes to Be an Effective Online Marketing Company!

Thinking about taking the plunge into the internet age, or trying to finally crush it online?

What should you look for in an online marketing company?

Finding an effective online marketing company may be a bit more complicated than most people realize!

The Basics, of Course

Look for an established business with a real office. Sure, there are a lot of folks out there ‘doing’ website and SEO, but the truth is most of them can provide only a minimal level of excellence without a support staff and a network of related service providers.

Should I look for somebody local? Yes. It really helps to be able to sit in an office with somebody and see their facial expressions, listen to the tone of their voice, and get a sense of how they conduct themselves in person. This is doubly helpful when you run into challenges (not getting to page one fast enough, ads not running in the right places, service outages). And you’ll always run into challenges at some point if you take this on as a serious endeavor.

Get a few testimonials. Talk to their customers if possible. You can’t expect every client they’ve ever had to be ecstatic, but if there aren’t a few true believers, they may not be capable of hitting home runs.

And, most important, try to figure out their “why?” Why do they do what they do? How will they help you communicate your core mission to the world? Plain old SEO “experts” are a dime a dozen. The ones that are truly worth working with can bring something more to the table. They’re A-players who relate to the world on a deeper level, and that depth will help raise your game, too. Look for people with a clear purpose.

So, then what?

So, now you’re looking for a company that is truly a full-service provider. You want a company with an integrated system for domain registration, web hosting, website design, programming, a dedicated content management system, and expertise in content writing, SEO and pay-per-click. Otherwise, they’re basically doing the same job you’d do for yourself – grabbing third party solutions and trying to get them all to fit together. Do they really have people who are proficient in all of those different areas? 

We think you get it...

We just hear too many horror stories. Companies signing up with some anonymous “expert” who contacts them by email. Businesses paying their receptionist’s sister-in-law to design their website. Entrepreneurs getting on board with the “free website” nonsense that ends up becoming the bane of their existence. Don’t let it happen to you!

Real success online takes experience, expertise, and hard work. It’s not necessarily inexpensive, but remember: price is what you pay, value is what you get. A little time invested in knowing what to look for and asking the right questions can make the value equation work in your favor. Invest in the right partner to position your company properly online.

We’re always happy to chat with serious people who want to get their business to the next level. Feel free to call if you’d like to dig deeper into what makes an internet marketing company worth hiring.

To learn more about other helpful tips and news about SEO and web design in Ann Arbor, sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News!

Online Presence Could Be Your Missed Opportunity!

In our professional presentations lately, we’ve been running into this kind of thinking:

“Hey, I know you talked about all the ways people are succeeding online, but we get all our new business from referrals/networking/trade shows.”

“Why should I invest in a powerful online presence when nobody else in my industry is doing it?”

“There’s no way I’ll get new business from Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn. None of my business connections are on there.”

That sounds convincing enough, but the truth is, these are really just business people playing defense. They don’t know what they don’t know, and they’re worried about spending money on something they don’t understand. Which is fair enough, but there’s huge opportunity being missed.

Let’s explain.

You get all your new business from referrals/networking/trade shows 

What you actually mean to say is that you’ve put all your efforts into those methods, and little or none into online methods. Most business to business connections probably do happen in those old-school ways, but the truth is, you don’t know how much more business you might get if you develop a strategic online presence. 

Insider’s tip: The process of developing powerful online content often helps you discover new ways to talk about what you do even in your existing marketing channels! 

Nobody else in your industry is doing well online 

We actually hear that. Is it really your reason for not building out your web presence? If so, that suggests you think doing what everybody else is doing is the path to success. But, are they really that successful? 

If you conquer the online space in your field, it will be harder for the next guy, and you may discover that there’s a huge, unexplored world of potential business out there that’s being missed with the usual methods.

Insider’s tip: Even if you’re “not online,” you’re online. A determined searcher can almost always find information about your business. Why not take control of what’s out there and start getting more of the right kind of prospects to contact you?

None of your business connections are on Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn

We have two responses here. One is that the point of outside marketing is to reach NEW customers. If your current business connections aren’t on a platform, that absolutely doesn’t mean that other potentially interested business people might not be on there. The other is that – through real experiences – we’ve become agnostic about which platforms will capture new interest for a particular kind of business. We’ve been stunned to see how much new hard core industrial business we got for a client on Twitter when everybody thought it was just for posting about politics and celebrities. That kind of thing has happened on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. Don’t write off a platform until you’ve actually put a reasonable amount of effort into it.

Insider’s tip: Don’t just jump into posting about your idea, product or service. First, check on what the most successful online players are doing on that platform. Listen, business is hard enough without having to reinvent the wheel again and again. Copy what works. When you’re rich, then you can start getting creative fulfillment at work.

Contact Experts For Web Design in Ann Arbor!

Want to learn more about internet marketing and how to optimize your website using SEO? Call the experts for web design in Ann Arbor at 877-815-6974 to arrange a time to visit or get your questions answered by our experts! If you’re more comfortable with email, you can reach us at info@seoannarbor.com or just contact us.

You can even sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News! We report on the latest in SEO news and research findings.

Web Design Guidelines Everyone Should Follow!

What are web design guidelines?

Should I follow them?

Are these guidelines necessary?

Web design guidelines will help you create a clear and concise outline of what you should focus on first in the design process. We’ll tell you exactly what you need to know and how you can prepare yourself for a website redesign. It can be a lot of work, but if you want your website to be an effective part of your marketing, it’s worth every effort. 

To give you an accurate estimate for your new website, we basically need to know three things:

1. How many pages will your new website have?
2. What will each of them do?
3. What do you want it to look like?

How many pages will your new website have?

Barring any special functionality, it typically requires more work to create a website with 100 pages than one that has 5 pages (thank you, Captain Obvious!). Therefore, it’s important for us to have a fairly accurate idea of the number of pages you’d like to have on your new site.

What will each of them do?

A simple website for a small business typically consists of 5-10 pages that each display a few paragraphs of text along with 1-2 images. Some websites and web pages contain special functionality, such as a product estimator, e-commerce capability, members only sections, etc.  If you want your website to do anything like that, you’ll need special programming services, so we need to know what that is and how you’d like it to work.

What do you want it to look like?

Do you have anything specific in mind for the way you want your new website to look?  A good place to start would be to find some other websites that you like. Sometimes it’s helpful for us to know what you don’t want your site to look like (i.e. “here’s a website I hate – don’t make mine look anything like that!”)

Color and mood preferences are also helpful, as well as anything else you might have in mind for your new site. 

Some people are very specific about what they’re looking for, while others only have a general idea and give us little more than a few clues our designers can use to fill in the blanks and come up with a kick-ass design.

Our Web Design Recommendations

Here are our recommendations, based on best practice and years of experience:

Remember the 80/20 rule. Focus 80% of your time on the content, and 20% on the look. Most people obsess on the look and neglect the content. Yes, you want your website to look nice, but it’s the content that’s going to drive results. Don’t make SEO an afterthought. Too many people obsess on the look of their site, and only when it’s complete do they ask, “Will my website show up in the search engines?”  If SEO is important to you (and it should be), then make SEO a priority right from the start.  If it’s important, SEO should be driving the content and design, not the other way around.

Do you have questions about your current website? Are you considering updating your web design for your Ann Arbor business? Do you want more visibility for your business?

Please email or call us if you’d like to go deeper on any of these topics.

Are You Thinking On A Higher Level?

Are you thinking higher level?
Are you doing what it takes to truly get to page one?
And when people do find you, are you engaging them?

You Need the Five

These are the five things you should be doing no matter what. The absolute basics going into 2017 that are like your meat and potatoes, your ABCs, your 8 hours of sleep, or your 30 minutes of walking every day. Here they are:

1. A good website;
2. A blog;
3. Social media;
4. Opt-In and Autoresponder; and
5. An email newsletter

Get these things done and done well, and most businesses will thrive!

Not Many People Know What It Takes To Succeed

If you execute the five elements and find that you’re still not getting the awareness, leads and/or sales you want, what can you do?

We can help walk you through the entire process, help you identify your goals, and help you develop content. If you want to learn more about website design, read “How to Get the Perfect Website for Your Business.” This article takes you step by step in how to create the perfect website design for your Ann Arbor business including what it will take for you to succeed.

You can even sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News! We report on the latest in SEO news and research findings.

Meanwhile, keep the faith! When you deliver great products and services, provide terrific customer service, and let people know about it online consistently, in alignment with how they search, you will succeed!

Do You Have What It Takes To Succeed?

I have a question for you:

Among businesses that work with online marketing experts, what’s the ONE THING that distinguishes those that fail from those that succeed?

Hint: it may not be what you think it is...

 Is it the size of their company?
    Is it their marketing budget?
    Is it the beauty of their website?
    Is it the market price of their products or services?
    Is it the state of the economy?

The answer to these questions is “nope, nope, nope, nope and nope!”
 

Another hint: you may not like what you hear…

As you may know, we’ve been in the search engine optimization game for over a decade, and we’ve represented virtually every sort of business, from “solopreneurs” in photography and financial management to large industrial companies that sell their products all over the world. We’ve had some challenges along the way, but we’ve learned from them, and now our client portfolio is packed with businesses who not only have many target keywords on page one of Google, but that also have a robust online presence that brings them a lot of awareness and leads that they can turn into sales!

So, besides that…

Now that I’m done blowing our own horn by telling you how great we are, let me answer the question that started this conversation.

In our experience, the single most important difference between clients who fail and those who are successful is this: successful clients commit to staying engaged with their marketing company and make it a “must.” Clients whose marketing presence doesn’t rise to their expectations don’t live up to this commitment.

What to know what it takes to succeed in the online world? Sign up today for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News! You’ll learn about the truth about online marketing and website design and how you can make it work for your business!

Do you have a copy of our book yet? SEO and Beyond: How to Rocket Your Website to Page One of Google! It's packed with easy to understand explanations of how all this stuff works. Heck, we wrote it so we think it’s pretty good. You can get it here:

http://amzn.to/2hGgmuM

The Truth About Online Marketing!

When online marketing is done properly, you can kick it up to a whole new level. Today we’re gonna remind you of one of the most important – and most often ignored – “musts” of reaching your potential clients with a compelling message: make it about them!

Don’t WE all over yourself!

Your customers have needs and problems that you can solve in your own unique way. The road to your success is paved with pages of online content that address their needs and problems... not necessarily your qualifications. It doesn’t seem to matter how much data is out there showing that marketing works better when it describes a solution from the customer’s point of view, businesses (and even a lot of “professional” marketers) keep advertising with “WE are great, just ask us!”

Your content should be customer-centered – make sure what your posts are about them! Here’s a helpful way to get started down the right path – when you sit down to write content, ask yourself:

“What are the pains and problems of my potential customers that I can solve?”

After you have your list, identify a few of the top problems and imagine what a happy customer would say to someone after you solve them. Write it in their words, not yours.

To learn more about the truth about online marketing and website design in Ann Arbor, sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News!

Facebook Advertising: It's as Easy as 1, 2, 3!

We’ve worked with a lot of great clients over the years. But for some, the concern about paying for online ads can be significant. We’ve listened, and some of the issues clients have mentioned to us are things like:

“Will I be able to actually reach potential customers?”
“Can I tell if the ads are actually working?”

Or sometimes just really simple questions like:

“How can I be sure not to spend too much?”

Concerns about Whether Pay-Per-Click Works?

Many of the clients who joined us started out with these worries or other concerns about starting to use pay-per-click ads. Our guess is that it would be helpful if you could have some reassurances so you could make sure the risk is minimized and your chances of success are maximized.


To learn more about SEO Ann Arbor's Facebook Advertising success stories and how we can help you, visit seoannarbor.com.