Your Website Should Be a Welcoming Space

Is your website accessible and inviting for all users? 

Could bad design or a poorly structured site be driving away customers or clients?

Especially now, so much business is being conducted online, and your website serves much like an initial client meeting would – you want to make a good first impression!

Read the full article on our website!

Running a business is hard work and keeping up with it all can be overwhelming. At Michigan SEO Group, we understand the feeling!

We take into consideration your wants and needs as well as the needs of your customers. We’ll help you put together a design that will not only make your website look great, but also keeps your customers engaged.

We’ll highlight what you do best so potential customers and clients know right from the beginning why you’re the one they should do business with.

Don’t spend any more of the time you should be focusing on running your business trying to tackle your SEO and website design tasks yourself! 

To get started, contact us today, or give us a call at 877-815-6974. We can’t wait to meet you and work towards your dream of growing a successful business together!

When DIY Web Design Really Means “Do-Over”

DIY websites can seem like a bargain, but the time spent designing, building, maintaining, and regularly updating your site can add up and cut into your bottom line. And let’s be honest, building web sites isn’t what you do best. Selling your own product or service is. 

As a small business owner, you’re used to wearing many hats, but you don’t have to wear them all.

We've specialized in Website Design for Michigan Businesses since 2001, and ever since, we've provided our clients with fast, reliable, and easily editable websites that have been built from the ground up with SEO in mind.

With proper website design, website hosting, and our proven best SEO practices, we’ll be able to move your business from Google’s proverbial No Man’s Land to page one. 

Contact Us for a free website analysis or give us a call at 877-815-6974.

Why Are Reviews Important?

Do you rely on reviews when purchasing an item?

Do you look at reviews to ensure other customers had a pleasant experience?

Do reviews make or break your own selling decisions?

Your customers do the same thing when searching for your products and services. Do you have a hard time asking customers to review you online? We can help you!

To ensure your business obtains good reviews on the internet, make the process as simple as possible. To learn more on how to get reviews, search engine optimization, and website design for your Ann Arbor, Michigan, business, visit our website!

Want more detail? Call!

We're always happy to talk about ways you can get more awareness, leads and sales by improving what you do online. Give us a call. No time to call? Send us an email instead! 

Don’t Ignore Your Website – Find Out How to Get More Calls!

Why aren’t you getting calls?

Are you showing up in the search engines?

Do you update your website on a regular basis?

One study found that 90% of searchers click on one of the listings on the first page of Google, and 14% of searchers click on the #1 result! That means you should try everything in your power to get on page one. The bad news is that (1) everybody wants their website to be at number one, and (2) it takes a series of things done right to get there. 

Some of these things are page titles, meta tags, headers, keyword rich text, clear syntactically correct html, robust content, and the number of other sites that link back to yours. 

Here are a few more SEO boosting tricks used by SEO experts:

• Include your location information on the home page
• Include descriptions of potential client categories
• Include a prominent call to action
• Employ social media to get more links and more traffic to your site
• Write a blog to get current information in front of your web visitors and links back to your key pages

Need more advice on how to get ranked? Do you want to pay someone who knows what they’re doing to help you?

Increase Leads and Awareness With SEO & Website Design For Your Ann Arbor Business!

The good news is there are people (like SEO Ann Arbor) who know how to get your site moving toward page one, and perhaps on page one. Those people are trustworthy, they’re hard-working, and they’re real people who live and work in the Ann Arbor area. They’ve got a track record of success, and they are constantly studying the science of SEO to make sure their methods are at the cutting edge.

If you have questions about how to optimize, our SEO experts are willing to chat with you to help you better understand our process. Feel free to browse our site. We’re sure you’ll find plenty of great information. Also, make sure you sign up to receive our FREE GUIDE – Seven Essential SEO Tasks You Can Do Right Now!

From day one we’ll work with you on a strategy and a way to execute on your plan. If you want to get started or if you just have questions, please shoot us an email or give us a call. 877-815-6974

7 Reasons Why We Love Re-Designing Websites!

Need a reason to consider a website design?

We’ve got a few!

A new website design can:

1. Communicate your message more clearly
2. Generate more traffic
3. Develop brand identity
4. Help you stay competitive
5. Improve your website’s functionality
6. Make you look more professional

We’ve helped many businesses like yours here in Ann Arbor. They gained the traction they needed to boost their sales and keep their business growing. Our client Steve Mussio said it best, “The owner, Nick, is willing to meet you face-to-face, listen to your concerns, and meet your needs. Let Nick and his team at SEO Ann Arbor help you increase your business opportunities. They are experts in marketing and will take you to the top! SEO Ann Arbor is important part of my business!”

                                                            

If you would like local help with your website design for Ann Arbor, call SEO Ann Arbor at 877-815-6974 to arrange a time to meet or get your questions answered. If email works best for you, contact us at: info@seoannarbor.com

                                                                        

Let’s sit down, have some coffee, and let SEO Ann Arbor get to know you!  

Are you Accountable?

SEO 'experts' are a dime a dozen these days. Every time I go to a new networking event, there are a handful of SEO gurus, social media managers and email marketers in the room. A few of them are pretty good at what they do. Most are struggling to make ends meet, often because, while they understand their core competency well, they haven't yet learned what it takes to run a business. And that missing skill set is not only killing them, it kills the work they do for their clients.

One of the most critical skills needed to run a business well is also critical to getting the online presence for your business where it needs to be: staying accountable to the goal, and to the strategic plan.

If you're not accountable to the goal, you find that you change campaigns frequently, based on what area is currently 'hot' or 'cold' in your field. That's okay, but if you have a clearly defined long term goal, you're going to build a much stronger web presence by focusing on that for a sufficiently long period of time.

If you're not accountable to the strategic plan, your posts will stray from your core theme, they won't be as consistent over time, and you'll lose the parabolic power of leveraging your creative energy across multiple platforms using best practices.

So, assuming your 'expert' is strong at what he or she offers, or if you know enough digital marketing to be dangerous, the next level of inquiry should be: is there a system of checks to keep us accountable to our goals, and to our strategic plan?

Sometimes that's a checklist, sometimes a digital calendar, sometimes an elaborate purpose-built accountability system. Whatever form it takes, it should work, and it should work specifically for you. 

Want more detail? Call!

We're always happy to talk about ways you can get more awareness, leads and sales by improving what you do online like website design, content, optimization, social media, and more. Give us a call. No time to call? Send bacon. We'll think of you.

Do You Need a Web Designer?

Do you need a website re-design?

Are you in need of a customized solution to fit your website needs?

Do you need to hire a professional website designer?

Are you committed to truly being the best in your industry?

If you want the job done right the first time, you should consider hiring a professional website designer. A professional will know all the ins and outs of creating a website design for your Ann Arbor business.

You may be asking yourself, “Why should I pay thousands of dollars to redesign my website when there are free services that let me create one on my own?”

There are many shortcomings to the free services. One of them is that they are built on a public network where almost anyone who understands a bit of coding can gain access to the backend of your website. If you want your site to be secure and virtually impossible to penetrate, you need a professional. 

If you’re committed to truly doing the best you can for your company, make sure you have: (1) robust, redundant web hosting; (2) a website installed in a professional, SEO friendly, content management system; (3) automated backups; (4) a professional website design that does more than just look good, but also utilizes current best practices for user engagement and analytics; (5) consistent, thoughtful SEO to make sure your website appears as high in the search results as possible and stays there; and (6) a dedicated person or team making sure that the technology is monitored, fully functioning, and updated regularly.

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 website 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.

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.

THIS is Why You Need Professionals

It’s story time! Are you ready? Do you like scary stories? We’re going to tell you one that’s worth hearing! This is a bit long, but it illustrates a critical point that we make to our clients (and potential clients) all the time...

*This* is why it makes sense to have business class web hosting.

*This* is why it makes sense to go with a local company that knows what they are doing on all fronts (hosting, programming, design, and SEO), and has your best interests in mind.

*This* is why you don't let "creative" people create your website on the platform du jour because it's "easy" with little or no thought to maintenance, backups, or security.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent, but this is real.  It actually happened.  Please make sure you are working with competent and reliable professionals so it doesn’t happen to you.

Here’s the story:

Anonymous Marketing Company [AMC]:  Hey, Michigan SEO Group, Client X’s website is messed up. We think you are hosting it.  Can you restore it from a backup?

Us:  Sure, we can take a look at that!  Hmmmm, it looks like we used to host it, but you guys moved the web hosting away from us last year.  We have backups of what was hosted on our server, but nothing since you redesigned the site using WordPress and moved the hosting elsewhere.  You’ll have to check with the new hosting company for recent backups.

AMC:  Oh dear, we’re waiting to hear back from their web hosting firm, but apparently they didn't sign up for a hosting plan that includes backups.

Why someone would even offer a hosting plan without backups is a mystery to us. Do you see the problem here? There was nobody in their marketing or hosting company with a sufficient professional mindset to make sure the client’s best interests were protected.

If you’re committed to truly doing the best you can for your company, make sure you have: (1) robust, redundant web hosting; (2) a website installed in a professional, SEO friendly, content management system; (3) automated backups; (4) a professional website design that does more than just look good, but also utilizes current best practices for user engagement and analytics; (5) consistent, thoughtful SEO to make sure your website appears as high in the search results as possible and stays there; and (6) a dedicated person or team making sure that the technology is monitored, fully functioning, and updated regularly.

Website Design in Ann Arbor: Contact the Experts!

We know this sounds like a lot of work, it is!  But if you'd like more clarity about any of these things 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!

Elements of Great Website Design!

At SEO Ann Arbor, we’re your experts when it comes to website design in Ann Arbor and the surrounding areas. We have your best interests in mind and want to see you succeed in the online world! We’ve compiled a list of the website design elements and trends you should keep in mind:

1. Unique Typography

According to Hubspot, “When you create your company's brand, your choice in typography can provide subtle hints about who you are. Are you fun or serious? Functional or informational? Regardless of what font you choose, be sure that your designer considers its applicability across browsers and computers. Choosing a font that is not supported by common browsers and computers could mean that your website displays awkwardly on different devices.”

 2. Ribbons

Want to showcase important information? Do you want to grab your viewers’ attention quickly? Ribbons are mostly used for highlighting important text on the web page. If you’re having a hard time grabbing visitor’s attention you may want to consider this!

3. Background video

Do you want to tell people what you’re all about? Do you want to make personal connections with your customers? A video can help tell your story by significantly reducing the amount of text on your page, making it visually more appealing to look at!

Learn more about elements of great website design in Ann Arbor by reading more on our website! Call our experts at 877-815-6974 to arrange a time to visit or get your questions answered. If you’re more comfortable with email, you can reach us at info@seoannarbor.com or just contact us.

5 Ways to Take Your Website to the Next Level!

Is your website fresh or stale?

How can you tell?

Well, are you getting leads?

Is your business on the upward path to growth in 2017?

We're dedicated to helping people succeed on the Internet. The people we work with are successful and passionate about what they do, but sometimes just need a little help getting the word out.

Here’s what you need to do to step up your game:

1. Google loves fresh content – Do you consistently write new content? Google notices if your website hasn’t been updated recently.
2. Keep your website engaging – Do you have an opt-in? Are people filling out your contact form? If not, chances are your visitors aren’t finding what they need.
3. Simple design – Is your website hard to navigate? Do you have a lot of bells and whistles so to speak? You should make it easy to find the information a potential client would be looking for.
4. New Photos – Pictures are worth a thousand words and help put a face to your business!
5. Pop ups – Pop ups are annoying! If your visitors’ average time on your page is low, this could be why. Avoid pop-ups at all cost!

What to learn more about why your website could be considered fresh or stale? Read about our website design tips!

Do you want to learn more? If you are still having trouble figuring out whether your website design is in need of a face-lift, we’re here to help! To learn more about how to get the best return on your marketing investments and website design in Ann Arbor, sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News!

Why It’s Important to Communicate with Your Best Customers!

How do I know what to write about in my blog?
 
How do I communicate with the right people ... those who are great to do business with?
 
I can create a plan for my online content, but how do I frame the content for best results?

Even among our clients who are most engaged in creating online content, some say: “I know the topics I should write about, but I’m not sure exactly what to say about them.” It's true that your topics should relate to your target customers’ key pains and problems. If you focus on those and write from their points of view instead of your own (don’t “we” all over yourself), you’ll be ahead of most of the other businesses out there who create their own content. Most are stuck in the world of “we have great stuff and you should buy it!”

But merely being ahead of the mediocre isn’t our goal and it shouldn’t be yours. If you’re going to put the effort into marketing your business online, you can work a bit smarter by:

1. Getting more engagement from prospective customers
2. Getting those customers primed to do business the way you want them to

A bit of extra work at the start can pay huge dividends if you understand this and get it into the majority of your online content.

For more in depth news on how to stay on top, sign up today for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News! You’ll learn about the truth about how to stay on top and website design in Ann Arbor.

Want to learn more about internet marketing and successful website design? Call our experts at 877-815-6974 to arrange a time to visit or get your questions answered. If you’re more comfortable with email, you can reach us at info@seoannarbor.com or just contact us here.

Are You Getting a Good Return on Your Marketing Investment?

Are you getting a good return on your marketing investment (ROMI)? It turns out that a lot of clients come to us and they just ... don’t know! Their marketing strategy has been, basically, the “hope” strategy ... they do some kind of marketing and hope it makes a difference. Very few businesses we know make a habit of knowing what value their marketing brings them.

What CAN online marketing do for you?

Online marketing can help improve awareness, leads, and sales. You can track the first two with statistics, and the third with cold, hard money. Here’s a quick summary of each one:

Awareness

We measure awareness by getting a baseline report on how your current website shows up on the internet, then we look for improvements in things like:
1. Number of visitors to their website;
2. Number of comments on their blog; and
3. Number of followers, likes and share on their social media.

Leads

1. Calls or emails from your online “Contact Us” page;
2. Incentive downloads (like coupons or spec sheets);
3. Requests for proposals; and
4. Questions, survey responses, and frequent commenters on your social media.

Sales

To point out the obvious, here are some ways to make sure you know when sales were generated online:
1. Actual online sales if you have a virtual shopping cart system;
2. Use of an online coupon or offer code when customers buy from you;
3. Customers who say “I saw you online”; and
4. Customers who buy a product or service only available on a specific online web page of yours.

Do you want to lean more? Are you still having trouble figuring out your return on investment and need some guidance, we’re the experts! To learn more about how to get the best return on your marketing investments and website design in Ann Arbor, sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News!

You May Be Blown Away by What Deep Research Shows You!

Have you ever dug deep ... I mean really, really deep ... and studied how people are searching for ideas, products or services like yours? You may be blown away by what you discover.

We’ve done some in-depth research recently for one of our clients and here’s what we found out:

Focus on the basics!

One of the things our research confirmed was that our client’s main product (let’s call them Titanium Widgets for anonimity ... TWs for short) happens to match the most-searched keyword in their category. That means they’re facing a LOT of competition, but it also suggests that they should throw their weight behind that keyword rather than trying to nibble around the edges with related but less often searched keywords. We’ll recommend:

1. Add a section to their website specifically focused on TWs, optimize it, and keep adding content that’s helpful to their visitors, month after month, without fail;
2. Post helpful content about TWs on their blog and link it back to their website’s TW section, month after month, without fail;
3. Post engaging and helpful content about TWs on their social media channels, frequently linking it back to their website’s TW section, month after month, without fail; and
4. Invest in pay-per-click ads (we’re loving Facebook’s ROMI these days) about TWs. Don’t be afraid to spend ... if you’re earning $1.25 for every $1 spent, it’s time to get out the big boy checkbook!

Go after the most important “other thing” that’s already working for you.

Our client also sells a specialty bracket for TWs. It’s made by a major manufacturer that also sells them, but our client sells them at the lowest price in the industry and still manages to make a profit.
It’s a significant portion of their overall business. Our research showed that people are searching for the TW brackets almost as often as the TWs themselves. We’ll recommend:

Invest BIG in pay-per-click ads offering specialty brackets at your fantastic prices.

This all sounds simple enough, right? But the truth is, most people don’t do it, and as a result they waste money on their digital marketing and they miss out on untold opportunity. That’s where we come in. We can help you with strategy. We can help you focus. And we can help you execute. All of that, taken together, is the key to online success.

So, What’s the Next Step?

Sign up today for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News! You’ll learn about the truth about online marketing and website design in Ann Arbor and how you can make it work for your business. Get started today!

The Importance of Being Mobile-Friendly

Let us remind you of three simple truths:

1. The majority of all internet searches are done on mobile now.
2. Google can tell if your website is mobile friendly.
3. Google will penalize you for bothersome pop ups on mobile.
   

So what does that mean for you?

It means you should ensure that your website is responsive or otherwise mobile friendly. Check with your webmaster. If your site isn’t responsive or adaptive, get it upgraded as soon as possible!

It means that if you use any form of pop-up or “interstitial” ads, you should make sure they are unobtrusive. We recommend that you don’t use pop-ups or slide-through ads without very careful consideration. They are almost always annoying to your visitors!

It means you should think about how your potential customers search habits will change if they’re on a mobile device rather than a desktop or laptop computer.

To learn more about mobile friendliness and website design in Ann Arbor, sign up for our Black Belt SEO Tips & News!

Five SEO Tips You Can't Live Without!

First, find the best keywords! 
There are two things that the average business website does that are NOT very helpful to SEO. 

First, they choose words that only a person who already knows about their business would type into Google. For example, a local heating a cooling business we know optimized their site for the word “mechanical.” Now, an educated person might know that “XYZ Mechanical” would repair and install home furnaces, but someone whose furnace just quit will probably type in “furnace repair.” You have to make that kind of calculation for all your keywords.

Second, they choose keywords that very few people are searching for. If you have limited space on your site (and you SHOULD limit the number of words on your homepage, at least), then you want to focus on the keywords that most people are searching for. There are a number of good tools to find out, including the keyword tool on Google Adwords, and many free services offered by the search engines. Make sure the keywords you select are actually ones being commonly searched in your area of specialty. Don't forget to check your successful competitors!

Find out how many incoming links your competitors have, and their top five keywords. This will give you very specific guidance as to (1) how many links you’ll need to compete, and (2) what keywords they deemed important.

You’ll have to dig a little deeper to make this information meaning, however. The quality of incoming links is at least as important as the number, so you can use of the many free back link checkers to find out the Page Rank of your competitor’s incoming links. 

You’ll also want to go further with your analysis of your competitor’s keywords. Review them just as you do your own – make sure they’re keywords that are widely searched, and figure out how to incorporate them into key phrases that generate sustained search interest.

Third, add great content! This is the thing Google is trying to get you to do, anyway. You want to include actual content that inspires people to visit your site and share it with others. If you aren’t a great writer, find someone who is. In the large context of your advertising budget, freelance web writers are often very affordable. Here are some of the qualities of good online content: originality, usefulness, worth sharing, accuracy, detail, excitement. One way to learn more about shareable content is to visit one of the free sites that allows you to search for most shared articles. Study those articles and you’ll figure out some of the things they do that make them so shareable.

Fourth, make sure you optimize your page titles and meta description. Page titles are those words that appear at the top of your browser window, usually in the gray or blue space above the URL (uniform resource locator). Make sure your page titles contain as many of your top keywords as possible while still reasonably indicating the purpose of the page. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that Google only considers the first 66 characters of a page title, but many SEO experts still advise including as many words as you think are necessary to adequately describe the page. 

The meta description is a phrase that often shows up in the snippet of text Google shows below the link to your site. It’s a chance to point out what your page is all about. As part of what we call “four-in-one” keyword optimization, we like to be sure our most important keywords are included in the URL, page title, headers, and text of our home page, and to make sure the meta-description is compelling.
 
Fifth, be sure to use title and ALT attribute 
The title attribute is included in the html of a link. Though the viewer won’t see it (unless she’s looking .. or actually, if he or she is blind. Browsers for the visually impaired often read the title and ALT attributes) it tells the search engines more about where they will end up if they click the link. Since this isn’t meant to be a technical article, we’ll just say here that the link will not only contain the URL of the destination page, but also a short description of it. Once again, this is a good place to employ keywords.

The ALT attribute is also for the search engines and those who use browsers or readers for the visually impaired. It gives more information about an image, which otherwise wouldn’t have any value to the search engine.

This is far from an exhaustive list of SEO methods. But it will help get you started. If you’re not inclined to do this kind of work for yourself, or if you’re too busy, give us a call at 877-815-6974. We’ll do a quick FREE evaluation of your website, and let you know if we can help get you to page one of Google!

Why Web Hosting Matters!

Why Web Hosting MattersHere at SEO Ann Arbor, we offer to host our clients’ sites with a service we call “Business Class Web Hosting.” Actually, to be accurate, the hosting is done through our sister company, Network Services Group, LLC. To be even more accurate, we actually require 99% of our SEO clients to use NSG hosting. Why, you might ask, are you guys so particular about web hosting?

Thanks for asking. I’m bout to tell you!

But first, let me share a typical story we hear from callers and potential clients on an almost weekly basis. The names have been changed to protect the evildoers and their helpless victims.

“My Website Keeps Going Down, Help!”
 Yesterday, we got a panicked call from somebody at NicePantsDude.com (their office is only about two miles from ours). Their site was been down all day, and it's back up and running now. Their web guys say it was caused by a DDoS attack directed at SoftMembrane.  Apparently they (The Bird Brain Group – NicePantsDude’s web developers), are using a hosting service called CheapAssHost, which appears to be one of those "pay us $8.50 per month to host your site" companies like GoDaddy or 1and1.  Just for reference, we typically charge people $300 per year to host their sites.  It’s not really a profit center for us because of the costs involved in maintaining our robust, redundant services, but we offer it for a variety of reasons, a few of which we’ll explain below. By the way, a good friend of ours who has a highly effective website and SEO business in Florida charges $85 per month for hosting ($125 per month for hosting both a website and blog), and it’s worth every penny.

CheapAssHost appears to have their servers hosted at SoftMembrane. SoftMembrane (formerly MyOrbit and now owned by HCN) is actually where NSG has several of their servers, though the NSG servers were unaffected by this supposed DDoS attack.

There are plenty of companies that charge $8 per month (or less) for hosting, and, at first glance, that sounds really good.  In fact, when Don Prior first started NSG back in 2001, he signed up with a couple of them.  After all, why go through the expense and hassle of setting up your own servers, paying the monthly fees to a data facility (hundreds or even thousands per month) when you can pay as little as $3 per month per site?

The fact is, they seem to work pretty well, especially at first glance. You pay your $8 for the first month, and voila! You have a website that works...  most of the time.  It turns out, however, that those sites had an odd habit off slowing down at random times or not submitting form data properly, and of course if you call to talk to someone, you are talking to a "script reader" who, when you get down to it, really knows nothing about web hosting or servers. So paying $8 per month makes a lot of sense, but only if low cost is more important to you than having a site that works all the time and having access to good support.

We've seen this happen with our clients’ sites too. National Sandwich was originally hosted with Craftwerk Solutions. Their site had an odd habit of timing out or crashing a couple times per week right around 6-7pm when everyone went home and started ordering sandwiches. We transferred it to NSG servers and … the problems stopped!  The NSG servers even survived their super bowl ad. We've had people transfer from GoDaddy or one of the other commodity hosting companies and the comments we get are usually something like this: "gee, it sure is nice to have reliable email for a change!"

Within a couple months of starting NSG, Don quickly decided that having sites that work most of the time – and not having full control over his hosting environment and servers – probably wasn't the best recipe for success. He bit the bullet and purchased servers that NSG controls, and all the problems went away. NSG spends a lot of time and money setting them up, hosting them at a data facility, and maintaining them so they continue to run well. They have servers in multiple data centers, so that if one blows up (don't laugh - it actually happened) they can switch to the other. They backup to one another, and also to servers at NSG world headquarters here in Ann Arbor.




Losing Your Site Can be Bad, Okay?

It's not that our servers never go down. But it has happened pretty rarely, and NSG goes to great lengths to make sure that they would be able to recover from a failure and get people back up and running on another server relatively quickly.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. So think about that the next time someone asks why our web hosting costs so much. $8/month for a site that works most of the time … it doesn't sound so good when you say it like that!

Or as one of the great minds at NSG puts it:

“One thing people need to realize is that when we host their sites, it represents the shortest possible path between the people who care about what’s happening with their site and the people who can really work the magic to make things happen if there's a problem or if they need something special. With canned hosting providers, there's a very big gap there.”

Our focus, first and foremost, is relationships. We market SEO Ann Arbor in part on the fact that our clients can sit across the desk and yell at us – if the need is there. What happens most of the time is that they sit across the desk and tell us how much better their websites, social media, and blogs are doing now that we’re helping out. Whether they’re shouting insults or heaping praise on us, it’s always better – both for them and for us – because of the direct connection. We care about their success, and if they aren’t our friends when we first meet, many do become friends, so we have a vested interest in seeing them succeed.

It’s truly a joy to be around people who are wired to work hard and help others succeed. That’s one of the biggest intrinsic rewards of what we do. And because we spend a lot of mental energy on “getting it right,” we’re lucky enough to be around a lot of those people. So, remember this the next time you’re thinking about whether to go the “cheap” route or the “good” route: price is what you pay. Value is what you get. If you’re after price, think GoDaddy, 1and1, or another discount hosting service. If you’re after value, think quality, think local, and think SEO Ann Arbor!