It’S a search engine, optimization service and you’ll, be explaining what that’s all about thanks for joining us Chris. You bet thanks for having me on today. Well, for the sake of brevity here. Let’S go ahead and refer to search engine optimization by its industry, shorthand initials SEO that stands for search engine optimization Chris.
Just what is SEO and why is it important to online marketing? Well, SEO is a track of skills that helps a website be found and what’s happened is the internet is put the power into people’s hands the consumers hands. While traditional media marketing has always pushed the messaging at people, the internet really asked people to pull it from them. So most online sessions include querying a search engine and that event is the marketers opportunity to be present on the search result without applying SEO to a site.
It won’t be present for the search results. So it’s a very important aspect of having a website today. In kind of a new twist on the old saying that, if you build it, they they will come, but really if they can’t find you that they’re not going to come at all. Are they exactly so you better build it right? Well, who needs SEO and what sorts of companies are you working with? Are they large companies small companies? Well, we deal with all sizes’um state associations, visitor centers for States and things like that, and then we have a lot of mom pop businesses for sure.
A lot of our business has sprung out of my past life, which was marketing in the hospitality industry, and so that kind of gave us an ability to leverage ourselves into the search engine, optimization business. But basically, unless a website is designed just to be shown when someone – and it is asked about it – in other words, if if a business owner was asked, do you have a website and he gave somebody in a dress that would send somebody to that website.
But if that’s all, you ever do with your websites and that’s all you ever have to do, but as we know what we’re really trying to do with websites to get our message out to new people, people who’ve never heard of us. So in that aspect everybody needs SEO, because really, if you don’t optimize your site for search engines, how is anybody going to find you out there? It’S really quite a revolution in the marketing model? Isn’T it we’re now just for the cost of getting a host, which quite often is free and putting up some creative content and getting yourself well placed in a search engine? The small guy is on equal footing with the big guys.
Aren’T they to some degree? Absolutely. I mean for a hundred years, marketing and advertising was about shouting about who we were and hoping that people would take notice of us, and now we basically sit in a library waiting for someone to find us so very, very different methods. So you can succeed simply by being clever these days very much so then there still is room for four people with great ideas and not a pocket full of cash for sure.
Well, what are some of the general principles of SEO? Where does it all start? Well, in one word Steven, it’s definitely relevant. All items on your page have to be congruent with each other, and this is a lot of what people miss, because it’s so simple and what I try to have people understand is a search. Engine is just a computer application. If you will all it seizes pluses and minuses, and so it has to be able to add something up from all of that and come up with an answer, so you have to give them the answers.
Who are you? What do you do? Why do you do it? When do you do it, and where do you do it? If you don’t answer those age-old questions of marketing, then there’s no way for the search engines really to be able to compile that information and index you correctly into their collection of literally hundreds of millions of websites well and they’re, pretty clever at that, aren’t they. I know they have certain algorithms, that these search engines use, and quite often their top secret, that Google algorithm, and sometimes it seems that people are focusing on trying to chase the algorithm rather than simply starting with the fundamentals that you talk about is who are you Targeting and and what value, what content are you going to provide? Well you’ve got that right if you’re, an expert on safe flying pigs, but your site talks about the birds and the bees.
You’Ll fall short of your goals. To be sure, I want to quickly do a Google search on flying pigs. I imagine there’s probably a website specializing in yet how about some of the specific fundamental steps that you take when you’re, providing your your search, optimization service, one or three or four fundamental steps that you offer well given the opportunity to get involved with the client early On in their process of either creating or redesigning a website, there’s a lot of things we can do before.
Even one piece of code has been written, it’s so important, especially these days that a site be built. What we called search engine friendly and what I mean when I say search engine friendly, is that a computer application such as a search engine is able to do some things, but it’s not able to do other things. So if you build a website that makes it hard for the search engine to traverse across all of your pages and your navigation and your links, then it’s not going to find all of your information.
So we get in right at the beginning with the web designers and make sure that the site is being built search. Engine friendly, for example, fret using frames, might not necessarily be a friendly thing to do absolutely frames. Overuse of flash there’s there’s a number of pitfalls to be sure, there’s literally dozens of types of code that will display a web page, but not all of them will will allow a search engine to read it.
So all these great bells and whistles might be good for holding somebody once they get there, but isn’t necessarily going to work to attract them in the first place. Exactly I mean if we’re not on the first page of Google, for what it is, we’re we’re offering our chances of being found, at least through search or slim, to none yeah. I’Ve heard quite often in studies, you may get millions of returns, but if you’re not in the top 10 or the top 20, you might as well not even be there or what? If you optimize yourself for something, you think would bring you a lot of traffic, but it’s completely irrelevant.
You find yourself getting a thousand visitors a day who have no interest in what it issue offer. People do that at more and then you would believe. After after we have a search engine friendly site design, the most important thing that can be done on the page on each page of the website is make sure that correct titles and meta descriptions are used that match the content of the site. It has to be targeted at specific search phrases that have been proven through research that you’ve done to be the way that people actually search for what it is you offer we can’t just assume.
We know how people search we have to go out and do the research as to how they actually perform the searches that they do that bring up the web sites that they’re. Looking for now. My toe tags may sound like a fairly complicated concept to people who aren’t used to actually web design web development, but it seems to me it’s one of the simplest things to do for most effective return on your efforts ago with search engines.
It’S very simple, very obvious: there are a few rules and most people completely forget about it by the time they get to that part of their web design. They’Ve spent so much time and effort coming up with good graphics and writing whatever their their information is the simplest things get missed and that’s where the opportunity lies for people who are paying attention for sure, which is all for naught if it’s not optimized, for the Searches well – and you know finally, an interesting thing about websites.
Is there never finished? So you know the final of three fundamentals that that I list for people is that always be considering that you have never-ending improvement in growth of what was originally unique content that you wrote, in other words, don’t go and steal a bunch of content from someone else And expect to do very well for the search, especially if you never go on to go back to that page and work it over even more.
So you want to think of yourself as being a contributor to the web and not just adding more noise to all of that. That’S out there it’s a never-ending process, that’s for sure, as the internet itself, and can you think of any industry that you have ever seen that it has revolutionized the marketplace so quickly is the Internet to look at? What’S happened in just the last decade? Absolutely – and you know, I would bet that people from the 30s would say that direct mail certainly change things and it did back.
Then this is nothing more and nothing less than that. It just has the ability to reach people is like nothing ever before. What is a job like for a SEO specialist? Does it give you flexible time with your online work? Does it give you free time for some of the other projects that you might be working on? Oh absolutely, but I caution people that if you don’t enjoy the work that you do, this will be drudgery like nothing else, so very specialized research and I like competing, and so those two things are what I spend the majority of my time.
Doing the writing of titles and descriptions and tweaking people’s content, so it’s congruent with that. It’S the easy part! When I worked in television and radio, we were always checking. How is our ratings, comparing with the competition from quarter-to-quarter even from day to day? Imagine you probably do the same thing with search engine optimization. Absolutely you know one of the one of part of our process with the client is that we report back to them on a regular basis, exactly how well they are competing in the marketplace.
So I’m constantly looking at that and to to an obsessive extent. I guess: do you focus on a range of search engines or do you target primarily the big one or how do you? How do you go about selecting your strategy? Well, isn’t that interesting come you know, we’ve seen the rise of Google come at the turn of the century and when they when they, when they change the way people searched at at that time, we were probably querying upwards of 20 to 30 search engines for a Client there were that many, and you can probably remember things like Lycos and hotbot all received millions of visitors a day that we’re searching on it and what we’ve seen, certainly in the last three to five years, is a closing down of that too.
At first there were, there were four majors that would be Google msn yahoo and you could say, ayo l, even though that was really just a portal for somebody else, but it had a lot of a lot of traffic at it at that time. A lot of members, it was not forget to ask jeeves write. A speech has always been a second fiddle to everybody, whether it ever will rise. You know above a percent or so of market share remains to be seen.
However, I’m a true believer that if someone can build Google in the year 2000, someone will beat Google in the year 2010. So we have got our eyes and ears out all the time. Looking at literally hundreds of beta tests of different ways of searching that are going on in the marketplace today and just in the last year or so, we’ve seen a huge explosion of what’s called social media and tagging things that have nothing to do with search engines.
But have an awful lot to do with optimizing: the information that you’re delivering the people much like we optimized for search engines and Chris Tucker. I know you’ve been doing this since 1996, that true, that’s quite a bit of evolution. You’Ve seen happening within search engines within the Internet itself and I’m sure you’re keeping a sharp eye on future trends as they come out as fast and furious.
We’Re fortunate that Chris is going to be sharing with us. A few leaks that we can take a look at of some of his optimized sites and see how their ranking in the search engines and what little tricks Chris may have been applying. Chris, it’s been a pleasure having you with us today we’re here some contact information for credits. His website is email if you’d like to discuss some of the topics of today or to get more information on its services, and thank you for joining us Chris.
Thank you for having me Steve.
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In letting more clients find your photography business, I’m Jamie from jamiedelainewatson.Com and Let’S get into basic search engine, optimization for wedding photographers right now, The first step to getting started with search Engine optimization on your blog is installing the Yoast SEO Plug-in I’m using a WordPress blog, which I highly Recommend for the functionality and availability of all their plug-ins.
If you don’t see this on the recommended page When you go to your WordPress settings and their plug-ins we’re just going to search From keyword here, Yoast SEO and you’re going to hit install now, I already have it. So that’s why mine says: Active so you’re going to hit install now, Once that’s done when you go to one of your Blog posts you’ll see it underneath your main blog post content At the end of your blog post content, you’ll See the Yoast SEO plug-in right here.
This is a really handy plug-in that allows You to set the focus keyword right here and also helps you to edit the snippet that’ll Be shown on Google when somebody searches, so this is how it will appear in Google. You Can edit that there Then they’ll also tell you an analysis of How your SEO’s doing so any problems they’ve found improvements. You can make and good Results Then the plug-in will give you either a red Light a yellow light or a green light for good, okay or bad.
You can this specific blog post, because I Haven’T worked on it yet says: “ SEO Okay” The second step to achieving a good SEO rating For your blog is to create titles that your ideal client is searching for For this wedding that took place at this specific Venue you can see that I’ve named it with the venue’s name, followed by wedding. This is a huge improvement versus naming the Blog post, Sarah and Brandon Wedding, because nobody is Googling for Sarah and Brandon’s Wedding Instead, I want to attract brides who are searching.
In Google, the name of the venue followed by wedding assumably, because they’re getting Married there and want to see examples: Let’s try this out. I’Ve opened up a new Chrome Window in incognito mode, What this means is that it’s not taking into Account any of my past history or personal preferences, and it’s not personalizing, my Google results at all, it’s all exactly as another client or another person would see.
I’Ve searched Robert H, Lee Alumni Wedding. Because that’s the title of the post – and you can see here – fourth, fifth, sixth, my Post comes up number seven based on that search result. This is an amazing way for me to market to Brides who are getting married at this venue and actually number eight, is also me from A wedding two years ago After you have your search friendly title. You’Re going to want to make sure that you have the same title right here in the permalink Because this also will help Google know that this is relevant information.
So not only is The title there it’s also here Another great title – I could add photos to The end of this, because that may be an exact search term that somebody would be using Either one You definitely don’t want just the venue name: You want to add wedding, if not wedding photos SEO tip number three is to name all of your Images in the specific blog post with the search term as well. All of these images that I’ve put into this Blog post that you can see here, they’re not called SarahandBrandon.
Jpg instead they’re Listed as RobertHLeeAlumniCentreWeddingPhotos01.Jpg You can see here, if you look into the HTML You can see all of these different images tags here. This is how I’ve named them. It’S quite easy to rename using a program. Like Photo Mechanic or Lightroom, and you can rename these really quickly and I have them All named under the venue name or the search term, The reason we name our images with the specific Venues name is: it provides another opportunity for Google to show off our photos to a client Who may be searching for the specific venue Instead of typing into the regular Google Search results.
I tested this out by clicking images and under images I’m going to search Through these are all images that Google has deemed relevant to this search term. Now I don’t see… Well. This is actually My image right here you can see Jamie Delaine Blog written there, so the third image is one Of mine and as we go down I’ll see a few more of mine here, this is also one of mine. It’S Even pulled in other weddings that aren’t at this venue because it’s been from my blog That had this wedding on it Here we start to see Sarah and Brandon’s The blog post – I was showing you so these are popping up here.
This is also one of there’s Now this is only going to increase in weeks. To come, this is a pretty new blog post. Maybe a bride would be searching for wedding. Photos on Google images, she’d click this and then she’d want to go see where this post Is and the next thing we know she arrives on my blog post here and hopefully contacts Me to book her wedding SEO tip number four is to include the name: Of the keyword you’re focusing on throughout the blog post, It’s not enough to just have it in the title: And in the permalink and in the images we can go one step further and include links.
Throughout You can see that I’ve done that here by saying “, I’d love the chance to photograph weddings at Robert H, Lee Alumni Centre,”, while linking To the venue site, I’ve also listed it here under Ceremony and Reception Venue there. You always want to make sure that this flows Naturally, you definitely don’t want to just copy and paste that link a million times. That kind of used to be the old SEO rules 10 years ago.
What you’re going to want to do is try to Fit this in naturally with what you’re saying I could have probably done even a better job. At this, a good example would be. I could go down to where there’s a reception image like Here, for example, this is the ceremony and I could say something like I love photographing. In this beautiful space at the Robert H Lee Alumni Centre and then I could link to that As well – and that would be another way of introducing my keyword into the blog post SEO tip number five – is you want to include Quality links throughout your post A really easy way to do this when we are wedding, Photographers is to link to all of the vendors involved in the day I’ve gone through here, and I have every single Vendor and a link to their website, this is showing Google that my website is quality.
And it’s also focused on directing traffic to other quality websites, and so I’ve linked All of these here These are called outbound links, you’ll also Want some inbound links, which means bouncing people around to other blog posts? You have That they may find relevant Something I maybe should have done with this Post is, I could say, “ P.S. If you want to see another wedding photographed at the UBC Alumni.
Centre,”, it’s another name for it: “ You can visit Jamie and Jason’s wedding, blog post Right here,,” and then I would link this to another wedding that I did at the Alumni Centre. And that provides another quality link to Google to show that my website is worth indexing. And bumping up in the search results, The sixth and final SEO tip is going to be Using alt tags in your images, Essentially alt tags are something that describe The image to Google, because Google doesn’t know what they’re actually looking at it’s Relying on all of this data we put in our blog post and in our images to provide quality Search results for people who are searching In WordPress if you click the edit button.
Here on the image you’ll see the alt text under alternate text written here. I’M going to write Robert H, Lee Alumni Centre. Wedding Photos: this is telling Google that this is what this image is about. Let me click update. What this means is that When I go to this image here and say you have a pin it Pinterest button, I can click, save And my alt text will automatically be imported here so anytime.
This image is shared you’ll Have that text embedded in the image through the alt text, Of course, adding alt text to 80 images? One By one, by using this, edit tool would take a long long time, so instead, what I do is I use the HTML version of this post If you’re new to HTML we’re going to click Over here to text and then I’m going to copy all of this text by going command C. But I’m Going to open up my text editor Once I have my text, editor open, I’m going To go format, make plain text so there’s no formatting and then we’re going to paste.
This This looks like a confusing amount of code. But what we’re going to look for here is alt equals two quotes, We’re going to use the find and replace and We’Re going to have alt two quotes go here, so this is what we’re finding and then what We want to replace it with What we want to replace it with. Is your keyword? Search term Anytime, you see this in the document. It’S Going to replace it with that, so we’re going to replace all and then we’re going to copy This text again and drop it back into the text editor and cover everything there Then you’re going to want to make sure that Nothing else changed in your post, which it didn’t and then you’re going to hit update.
And that’s a really quick way to update all of your alt text. I hope you enjoyed this article if you want More tips on how to find your ideal client and how to bring more work into your photography. Business you’re going to want to head to jamiedelainewatson.Com/50ideas five zero ideas and there’s over 50 ideas. For how to market your photography business and bring more clients to your awesome work, If you like this article, please give it a thumbs.
Up subscribe and comment below, and I would love to hear from you in the comments and Interact with you there. Thank you so much for reading
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I’M going to introduce you to My world of SEO experts and show you some of my favorite books on how to be The most findable business online, If you love to read or you have an E-Reader Then I’ve got some great books for you Now. I know a lot of us. Do our Learning through internet Internet searches blog posts, But I wanted to Cover my top books on SEO and social media People that I admire greatly and I Want to point you toward because they are master craftsmen in their own niche.
The first one I want to talk about is a book that I’ve looked at and read and Recommended my clients for years This is a book by Steve Krug. It’S called “, Don’t Make me think” – And this is actually a revised edition from 2014, But what it Does talk about is when I come to a website or I come to a digital asset. Don’T make me think, Give me exactly what I need when I need it. So I highly Recommend the book “ Don’t make me think” by Steve Krug.
The next one is a Gentleman that I admire greatly, He is a genius at Facebook targeting and when it Calls psychographic targeting And he wrote a book called “ Killer, Facebook ads.” And it’s from 2011, but it’s still absolutely relevant today. He also wrote A book called “ The Complete Social Media Managers, Guide, essential tools and Tactics for business success.”! So if you want to be a social media manager that Is the book you should absolutely read, It is genius It lays out the whole concept of how to really learn to be an expert in Community and social management – That’s Marty, Weintraub with AimClear.
He speaks At all the major conferences He is hugely well-respected in the industry. And I read everything I can get my hands on by Marty. The next one is search. Engine optimization all-in-one for dummies, You guys have all seen these Dummies book Well, this book is unique And that there is no dummy happening here. Bruce Clay is the father of SEO as far as on maybe the Godfather. Yes, I’m the Godfather of SEO – And I tell you this book – is the front the back – that the Sides and the inside of SEO from start to finish, I highly recommend this book.
It is search engine, optimization all-in-one for By Bruce Clay, Okay, So the next one is a dear friend of mine and a genius in Social media, His name is Corey Pearlman. He and I actually spoke at search engine Strategies a million years ago, When my book came out, findability formula Published by Wiley & Sons, he came out with his book called emarketing bootcamp And he and I instantly connected because we were sort of the the more extroverted People at search engine strategies, And so we kind of got you know we were Instantly liked each other – and we were very much comrades in arms And he’s Recently launched another book called “ Social media overload.
”. So if you’re a Business owner, who feels like all of it is just too much. You would definitely Want to read this book: It’s by Corey Pearlman, It’s called Social Media Overload Simple social media strategies for overwhelmed and time deprived Businesses, So I’m just absolutely enthralled by that book. Another book I Really like Look up Gina’s book, It’s called “ Social Media Doesn’t Work”. If you Don’T work it It’s a great book on how to really be an expert, but you have to Know how to work the system and that’s what Gina’s book is all about And then Last but not least, is my books, So I’ve had a tremendous education around not Only working with publishers, but also with self-publishing, So my first book Findability formula was released in.
… Oh, I hate to say it Was least. I think it was Like 2009, is that right, Yes, March of 2009, which seems like forever Ago, But I just stopped leaving…, I just stopped working at Yahoo and this Was my very first book out on my own? A lot of this was based on the experiences I had with my trainees when I was training for Yahoo. My second book is Called Thumbonomics — the essential business roadmap for social and mobile Marketing And that’s all about how to treat social media as search engines as Rather than social media sites, So it’s kind of an interesting take on social Media And then my final book is marketing espionage.
How to spy on Yourself, your prospects and your competitors to dominate online This book, Is my course work From start to finish it’s all about how to lay out an online Strategy based on data, Human intent data. What are they doing? How can I build a Business, that is in alignment with what people already want, with they’re already Searching So marketing espionage is a book from start to finish on how to Execute a SEO, slash findable strategy to connect and convert So I hope you’ll add Some of these books to your bookshelf – I absolutely adore these authors and They’Re experts in their own right – And hopefully this will help you to keep Digging keep learning and know that you’re never done with marketing and There’S always the next best thing: If you love to read, or maybe you have an E-Reader, I hope you love the books that I shared with you today, There’s so many Experts out there, So what I’m going to do to give you a head start is give you a Link to my ebook, It’s down in the description of this article, Download it Share with anybody you like I’m over it.
I can’t stop it Like once it hits Amazon if you’re an author, you know that it Just goes everywhere, So I give it away now. This is the best possible calling Card, So how I want to help businesses online So again, the links down in the Description Download that bad boy and hopefully you’ll get to become the most Findable business online with a little help from me,
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And the most trusted for searches related to Your products or business, So those two things, Relevance and trust – is What Google’s looking for to determine? Which which Websites, it should rank on the first page, And so when I say Google, just so you know, I’m going to be using that interchangeably for all search engines. Because 167 billion searches happen on Google a month. That’S a ton. Most searches happen on Google right Right, so I’m just going to Use, Google interchangeably, I mean it is the 167 billion Pound gorilla in the room, so we’re just going to go with it.
I’M scared All right so SEO, like Why why is it important? Why should we invest our time? Energy and money into it So search engines, they’re The new Yellow Pages: This is where people go to find answers Billions upon billions of Searches are happening each month and many of those are for Your products and services, So, if you’re not showing up On the search results, page you’re missing out on a Huge untapped potential of all these customers, Who, literally, are typing your products into the search? Bar wanting to purchase 88 % of people, research Before they buy and they’re-, where do they research [ Nealey ], That’s huge Google, so you need to just- It’S just plain and simple: You need to be there So, instead of me telling You, let me just show you, Let’s go check out a Search result right now, Cool: let’s do it All right, so we’re going to Break down the different pieces of SEO by going to the Search results page itself: Okay, So, let’s dive into it, So let’s go to Google.
Com and What’S an example business that we should look into [ Nealey, ] Um: let’s try, lawyers [, Morgan, ], Laywers, ahh, That business of yours is getting big time: huh [ Nealey ], Something like that. [ Morgan, ], Yeah, Phoenix Arizona, you need a lawyer now So lawyer, Phoenix Arizona. So what I just typed into The search bar is known as the search query and this Is a phrase or a question that you are looking for answers for This can contain your Keywords, for example, lawyer, is a keyword and Phoenix Arizona is probably a keyword.
So now, let’s look at the Three different pieces of the search engine results, page Also known as the SERP Okay, so these first two sections Right here these are the ads paid ads and normally You can tell because they have a little ad flag right there. So you can see there are two ads here and then, if we scroll down to The next section this is the local map listing sections, So these are local businesses.
Only so if you serve a national audience or you Don’T have a physical location that you serve, then you Aren’T going to show here The way that you appear Here is you have to have great SEO on your website? And you also have to have an optimized Google, My Business profile, And you can see that only a Few businesses appear here so there’s usually three. This is known as the local three pack And then occasionally there’d be an ad, So this is an example of Someone who’s paying to appear in the local listings and Then these three below it are the ones that are naturally Organically showing up here, which Google has deemed For Phoenix Arizona, these are the best three.
You can click on more places. And that’s going to bring you a wider map of all the Different local lawyers, So you can see quite a few And then you can dig into their Google My Business profile from there, So here’s an example of one So the next and last piece at the bottom. These are the organic results. This is where you want to be Because, unlike the paid ads, you have to pay to play for those.
So once your ad budget is Out poof you’re gone you’re no longer there, But with these you prove to Google over time that you’re the most relevant and The most trusted answer and then you’re going to stay Here, for a long long time, as long as you continue To show Google that you’re better than your competition And people love these A lot of people while ads are affective, we’re kind of trained to Just skip over the ads and go straight down: To the organic results, and so so many people will Just hop down right here and they’ll click and find their lawyer, So I wan na go back to the Top and I wan na talk about keywords and keyword.
Competitiveness because keywords are things which We’Ll be talking about, you need to put all across your website. It’S these search terms. That people are looking for, and so you need to make Sure that you have that on your website as well Um, however, some are much More competitive than others, So if you look at lawyer, Phoenix Arizona, there’s about 32 million results, It’s pretty broad Phoenix is a pretty big city.
If we change it to something. That’S less competitive, let’s say a dog grooming- Dog groomer Phoenix Arizona, only 2.3 million results So clearly less competitive business. So there’s not as much competition there, which is great if you’re a Dog groomer cause. That means you have a- if you’re Doing the right SEO it’s going to be easier to Appear on the first page for that search term, Unlike lawyers, where They put a lot of money into advertising.
It’S a very Very very competitive space. There are people, always Fighting for those top spots, Should we only put short keywords: Is there anything else we can use So initially, no With Google. You need to start Small with they’re called long-tail keywords, so They’Re they’re keywords with three four: five: Six words altogether um, because you need to prove your authority in the small, less competitive Spaces before Google is going to realize that you Should be ranking for these more broad terms, So for this example, If I’m a dog groomer, let’s say I specialize in poodle grooming, So we’re going to change It to poodle, groomer, Phoenix Arizona And you can see the Competitiveness there’s only 300 thousand search.
Results, so this is great because there’s not as many People who put poodle grooming on their websites, and so for me this is a great opportunity. For me to start building that authority with Google, So remember if I’m a dog Groomer and you go to my website and there’s absolutely Nothing about dog grooming, it’s just my name. My phone Number and maybe a photo Google’s going to look at that and think this doesn’t talk anything about It’s not relevant Yeah.
It’S not relevant. So this person must not be great for this keyword: They’re, probably not a dog groomer at all, So our job is to go and make Sure that all the content on our website is relevant, To those keywords, All right, so you’re Telling me all I need to do is update just a little bit. Of content on my website, Not exactly so remember, That we’re doing this not only for our users, So they have information, but for Google, Okay, So and Google wants our Websites to be structured in a very particular way right.
Ultimately, it’s a robot That’S scanning the backend of our website, so the Backend data of the website, Google wants to make sure that We have it formatted in a way that it can easily read and Know what our website is about, So these are things like Our H1 tag, our meta data meta descriptions which I’M going to go into right now to show you where this is [: Nealey ] Awesome. Let’S see it [ Morgan ]! So for Since we’re here on this poodle grooming website, Let’S go to this one Puff and Fluff Grooming and Pet Sitting: [ Nealey ], I’m all about rhyming, [, Morgan ]! It’S a nice! Looking Website it has great colors great branding, but the problem is Google doesn’t see any of that.
This is what they see Boom. [ Nealey ]. That’S gross [, Morgan ]! That’S not that pretty And end users, your customers, If this was your way that your website was presented, they would get nothing from this However, this is exactly what Google looks at when they’re Wanting to rank a website All right, so you’re Telling me that I have to know how to code to do that. Not necessarily because Modern day website builders already have this built in here.
You can see with this website. They’Re actually using a plugin for WordPress Called “ All in One SEO”, Where you just put it in and It just makes it super easy for you, as a non-technical. User to update all of these SEO elements, which is awesome So as part of this, you need To have your meta title, so this is basically the title: Of each part of your website that when you go back to the Search engine results page you, this is what will show up So for this example.
They set their meta title for Puff and Fluff Grooming and Pet Sitting And then you can also see right, Here the meta description they get to choose what that is All right. So that’s the basics of SEO. The search engine results page Everything on your website. We just talked about everything on-site that you need to do to your Website so now, let’s talk about the things off-site. Okay, That shows Google that you’re The most trusted answer for search results.
All right so explain trust A little bit more for us Yeah, so I have an analogy. So let’s say that you get a call one day and it’s from a fifth grader And the fifth grader says: “: Hey Morgan is the best basketball player in the entire world..”. Are you going to believe him? Probably not. I think you paid him Right all right now. What If Kobe Bryant LeBron James and Michael Jordan, called you up and said, “ Hey, I’ve got the scoop.
On this new player, Morgan She’s, the best basketball Player in the entire world.”. What would you say to that? Would you believe them? Oh absolutely Yeah They have authority, They have authority, so you will trust their opinion. And it’s the same thing with Google: The way that Google can Tell if your website, if it should trust your Website cause again, we could toot our own horn all day long, And we see this all the time.
People say: “ best dog, groomer, In Phoenix Arizona,,” right, Like people love to toot their own horn, but with Google [ Nealey ] Self-proclaimed. It needs that authority. From other people and that’s where backlinks come in And so backlinks are Links on other websites that point back to your Website and Google uses this as an indicator to see Oh okay, this is actually a really good website. Other people are talking about it Now with backlinks.
It’S Quality over quantity, You don’t just want to go on. The internet and go put your you know, go on every comment. Every YouTube comment, like just put your website everywhere, cause that’s going to look spammy Google’s not going to like that. It wants really high quality. The Michael Jordan’s, if you will, What is one thing they can do right now, The biggest thing that you Can do that will give you so much bang for your buck is to put content on your website.
Especially content that has your keywords To determine those keywords: You should probably… What are the products and Services that you offer or what are the products And services that you want your customers to know about, For example, using the dog Groomer in Phoenix Arizona – maybe is there certain types, Of grooming that you do that you’re really well known for Let’s say you’re the best Darn toy poodle groomer this side of the Mississippi, ( laughs, ).
Okay, You should have a separate Page with content on it about that specific Service that you offer So that’s what I recommend Go make sure your page Just has tons of content so that way, when users and Ultimately, Google look at it, they know exactly what You’Re about and then Google will start ranking you All right guys. I hope you Found this beginner’s guide to SEO helpful and that These are actionable things that you can start doing now.
So that way, your customers can start finding your business online If you’re going to get started. And you found this helpful, let us know in the comments: Below the number one thing you learned about SEO today Awesome and make sure You like this article, subscribe to the blog And if you wan na see these articles first ring that bell, But this has been The Journey Signing off.
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So, let’s get started to get started open your dashboard in a new in a new tab and now again we have to install a new plugin for this, so how our plugins click on add new and in your search for Yoast.
Okay, here it is Yoast SEO by Yoast. This is by far the best plug-in, for you know SEO, as you can see, more than 13,000 people have rated and that it is a five-star five-star rated product, five-star rated plug-in and more than 1 million active installs. At present, so this is an amazing plugin, no doubt so. Just click on install now now click on activate. Ok. Now again, you will see a new thing, a new tab, oh yah, which says SEO just click on that.
Ok, here it is it’s. It says zero problems, which is fine notification, not needed right down. Just click on general here you’ll get an option called open. The configuration wizard click on that now you have two options. You have to select this one configure Yoast SEO in a few step now here, the environment, you have to select the environment, three options: production staging development development is when the site is running locally for development purposes.
Staging is a copy of side used for testing purposes and production and the site is life with the real traffic. So our website is at production stage, so select production click on next now you have to select the type of the website, whether it is a blogging website, whether it is a webshop web shop is basically ecommerce website. So we have to select the webshop click on next, whether it’s a company or a person.
Ours is a company, we’ll select log, toad incorporation. You have to choose an image: a company logo, let’s select any image, a short image. If you have okay, this one select your logo, your company logo, click on choose an image. Click on next now put in your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, whatever you using Google+ or YouTube URL, and don’t don’t ever underestimate any of these steps? Don’T think? Oh man! This is not important.
Our facebook URL is not important now this is not important. This is really important. All these steps that are over here, it is not like you know they have just given you some random. These things are really important. I it is really connected to the SEO stuff, so make sure you put all your url, so you, okay now after you do so click on next, then it is post type visibility. The first one is, the post type post should be visible or hidden means the post type, which is post, which is basically our blocks, whether you want a visible or hide them on.
You know, search engine, so obviously we want it to be visible. But what should be there for your pages, whether you want to show your pages on search engines or not? For example, we created about this Contact Us page, so obviously we want them to be visible on search engines. If you want, you can also make visible for media. You can also hide them. If you have any products. Here is the main thing products we want this to be visible.
Okay, this is the main thing make sure it is visible for products. The most important thing. Okay, so once you have done this setting click on next okay, so it asks whether it has multiple authors does. Or will your site have multiple authors? If you think yes in the future, you have more author, then select yes. If no, then, no, then click on next. Okay, now you have to get Google authentication code.
So just click on this ok select your account. Click on allow just copy this code paste it over here now click on next and now you have to select the separator, for example, come back to your website and here at the top you see the title which says ecommerce website address in this separator is a Pipe – and you can select this big so on so let’s select this one, the small and click on next, you can have any kind of separator.
It’S just separates your website name with the product name or page name whatever. It is now click on next now you can sign up for the newsletter. If you want, you know, if you don’t, then just click on next. Ok, now you have some options. Basically, it is just you know some ads from Yoast. If you want to upgrade to premium, you can click on this. If you want to learn how to write copy that rank, you know whatever it is.
You have different courses, free courses, I guess on YouTube, so you can read those articles if you want, after that, just click on next. It says your turn Nate. You have done it. So click on close now come back over here in the webmaster tool, and here we have to add a Google search console so just open new tab or search for Google console. Ok search for Google search console! Ok! Fine! Now here you will see this link.
Google Webmaster Tools, click on that okay, now here, if the you’re upset and obviously wants you’re upset because we haven’t created that so click on add a property and just copy your website link paste it over here, click on add: okay. Now we have different options through which you know you can a connect. Your ghost from this Google search console with this one. No, so you have many different options.
Just click on the first one, HTML tag, the most easy one now here, you’ll see something called content. Is equal to then quotations under quotations? You have some code to you have to just copy those code which is under quotation, but I think you cannot copy when you click on that everything is selected. So just do one thing: copy everything open, a new tab, paste that way your and from here you will be able to copy this portion so just copy this push in which is under content.
Click on control C come back for you paste it over your click. On Save Changes, okay, once you do so again, come back, oh you’re on the console page and click on verify. Okay, so it should say this message. Congratulations. You have successfully verified your ownership of your website and you will see your website link over here. So we have successfully done that the most important thing this was the most important step.
Now, let’s see how to set up or how to increase the search engine optimization of our products, for that how our products, click on add product all products now select any one of the product. For example, let’s select this one men’s blue shorts live now scroll down. Now here, you’ll see one new box over here, which is Yoast SEO. Ok, you’re, getting a snippet preview of how your product or how your link for this product will look like on Google.
Ok, you can select mobile, so this is how it will look on mobile. You select that top. This is. How do we look on desktop now to select one focus? Keyword basically focused keyword should be like you know. Let me show you, for example, it is men’s. Blue shorts live, so what you can select is blue short sleeve. This might be, this can be your focus keyword. So now you have this, you know analysis section where you have different dots, red dot, orange dot, a green dot.
Basically, we have to turn all this thing into green dot so be here. We have turned two things into green dot. The first one is focused, keywords appears in the URL for this page. What does this mean? We have selected a focus keyword over here, and this is the URL of our of our page of our product. So, as you can see, blue short-sleeve is there. This is a focus keyword, it is present in the permalink, so that is what it means.
Okay and second, was, is you have never used? This focus keyword before very good? This is basically because this is the first product on which we are working for SEO. Optimization. Now, let’s see other thing now, this one, which is a red dot, it says no meta description has been specified. Search engines will display copy from the page instead, okay, so what you can do is just click on this edit snippet and you can have meta description, just copy something from your and paste it over here.
Okay, when it turns red, it means that you have. You have to decrease the size for this okay, okay, so this is how this is the length of Meta Description that you should have now. As you can see, the Meta Description is available. I and you can see it on the snippet preview. Okay, once you do so click on close snippet editor. Now we have the third thing. Also green, which says the length of the Meta Description is sufficient.
Now, let’s see the net nada dot, which we have to work on, the focus keyword doesn’t appear in the first paragraph of the copy makes your topics clear immediately: okay, so basically the focus keyword should be available on over here. Okay, so let’s add anywhere over here and obviously it should make sense, I’m just showing you for the sake of showing, but you have to see. Where does this thing fit and it should make sense, the sentence should make sense.
Okay, so that we have put this thing or your now again, we have turned one more thing, Green, which is very, very awesome. We are going good now again this a red dot which says a Meta Description has been specified, but it does not contain the focus keyword. So this is our focus keyword. We did enter a meta description, but it doesn’t have the focus keyword. So, let’s replace this thing with our focus: keyword, okay, put a full-stop at the end, click on close snippet, editor and now boom.
We have five green dots, so we are really going good. It says no internal links appear in this page. Consider adding some as appropriate. So what this means is, you know you have to link something to your to your page. Internal link. Internal link is basically when you click on that link, it will redirect you to different page or different product which is available on your own website. Okay on the same website – or I know external link are basically when you click on that link.
You will be redirected to another website, so that is internal and external link. So how to do that, for example, here it is written typewriter, so you can select this. You can a you have insert or edit link click on that and you can paste a URL okay. So, let’s add this URL domain website URL and click on apply. Okay, now we have added an internal link on this website and again now we see six different, green dots, which is awesome.
The keyword density is 0.4 percent, which is too low. The focus keyword was found one time. Okay, so basically, what it means is the focus keyword should be no available at several places. For example, let’s add all yours now we have to then we can add over here. We have three. Now, let’s again come back now, it has. The keyword density is now 10.1 %. So out of this content, one person content can has our focus keyword, which is very fine, which is very good.
Now, let’s see this thing, this orange marks, which says that okay, fine, it is good, but it is not best. You have to turn this thing into green, which is the best practice with best SEO practice. So, let’s we don’t want good. We want the best so we’ll turn all these things also into green. The next thing is the text contains 267 words this slightly below the recommend recommended minimum of 300 words add a bit more copy.
Okay, so we have to add some more text over here. So just copy this thing again paste it over here now again come back okay now it says the text contains 370 words to 74 volts, which is above the minimum of 300 words. So again we have a new success. Now, let’s move on to another point, it says the images of this page are missing, alt attributes. So basically what it means is, you know, let’s see, let’s, let’s see we have an image over here.
So, let’s click on this image, and here besides image, you have caption all text description, so you have a title which is good. You also have to have a caption, so basically caption you might have seen in different news ma news websites. If you have seen when you have an image like this, for example, this is the image the Indy caption in below this image. It will be written. This is a beautiful girl or she is Taylor, super she’s, so on and so forth.
So that is what a caption is, which says you about this image. Okay, so you have to put a caption for this image, so this image is selected and make sure you do this for all the images which you have used in your website, then there is alt text you. What is an alt text? Suppose someone is using a very slow Internet and what happens is you know? While is visiting your website? The image doesn’t load because he is using a very slow Internet.
So, instead of this image, he will see this text, so image won’t be shown, but he will see some text so that is alt text. Now you have to write some description about this image, so you can write some description about this image. Okay, so make sure you select all these images and you fill everything title caption alt text, description. Okay, once you do so click on set product image. Now again, that thing has turned green, which is again awesome.
Okay, where is it yeah here? It is the images on the page contains alt attributes with the focus keyword. So this is awesome now here it is no output. Outbound link appears, as I said, we have to kind of link. We have already had an inbound link. Now, let’s have an outbound link. Okay, so let’s select some something some you know some word house and let’s link it to outbound. For example, let’s select this word, click on link and let’s link this to wordpress.
Org. Don’T just link you to any random website, make sure you’re linking to a very strong website. WordPress.Org is a very strong website. You can link it to YouTube or so on. You can, for example, suppose you are talking about your product and you want to say that you know what I have a article on this product, so you can read that article on YouTube and you can give that link. So basically, your this link will redirect to YouTube, which is a very strong website, so make sure you, you know, have a mumbling for a very strong website, not just a mini XYZ website.
Okay, now come down and only one thing is left now. The SEO title is too short, use the space to add variation or create compelling call-to-action copy okay. So this is the title now again: click on edit snippet, okay, so basically it is at present everything is set to you know everything is set to default, which is the first. The title will be there. Then page name will be there. Then date will be there and then site name will be there.
You can have you know a custom title. For example, let’s have this title: you know click on this title and add something more best short or best blue shirt, because you want to use this terms again and again best blue short, sleeves sorry shirt available in the market. Okay, so this title does make sense and it is also bigger just keep it this to available. Basically, you have to turn this thing into green.
Okay. Now click on close now, as you can see, everything is turned to green. Now it says SEO thing is good, but readability, it needs improvement, because you know all these words. I don’t know which language is this, so you have to use basic English language and you have to use some really basic words. You don’t have to use some tough words. Basically, you have to have the description wherein everyone can read something easily.
Even a school guy can understand what you’re talking about. So if you do so, after that, your readable readability will increase okay, once you are done with all the changes, click on update and you have successfully posted and increased the SEO power of this product. Now your product become really strong. Seo is very, very, very important. Companies charge thousands of dollars just for making this thing the same, they use the same plugin, and this is how they will do everything and they charge a lot of money for that.
So after reading this tutorial, I hope you guys how you get a lot of help, and this tutorial helps you and you are saving indirectly you’re saving a lot of money. So just for this, I hope you guys will give a 5-star rating to this course, because I have used – and I have put in a lot of efforts in making these goals, and I’m also providing these bonus lectures to you, which will be very beneficial for you.
Not only for this website but for any website which you make in future, so I hope you are so I hope you guys have enjoyed this lecture. Take care and I’ll see you guys in the next lecture, probably the last lecture. Okay, so see you soon,
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There are so many different ways you can go about that, but We’Re actually going to cover how to actually optimize Your images for web and SEO here on The Journey All right fun facts with Nealey time. Did you know that images are The second most popular way to search after keywords.
No, but that makes sense I mean people buy with their eyes right Absolutely so leveraging The power of images with your content is crucial And that’s why, if you want to really make your business stand out and be noticed, you have to leverage the power Of images with your content, So there’s a lot that goes into it and I’m not going to do. All the work for you Come on. Please help a girl out All right I’ll at least help you I’ll.
Take you through your own website and show you at home a quick demo of how to optimize your Images for web and SEO Perfect: Let’s do it Cool compromise All right Alex. So, let’s Check out some of the images on your website, so where do You go and upload your images, So I normally go to where it says: media [, Nealey, ], Okay. So let’s Check out some of the content that you’ve uploaded All right, so all burgers, I dig it [ Alex ], Nothing wrong with that.
So let’s check out one of these images Cool, so I’m noticing some good things and noticing some not so good things. Let’S dive into this little bit: Okay, Alright! So we’ll start with a good Start with the positive right. So I do see here you have Some of what’s called “ Alternative Text.” Now, when Google or other Search engines crawl, your site, it can’t actually see This delicious burger, All it sees is that it says “ image”.
It doesn’t know what to do with that. That’S where that Alternative text comes in so this one, you put awesome Burgers, which is good, it’s descriptive, shows Exactly what it is, But I don’t see you have it On any of your other images, So you definitely want to Write some type of description of what that is, that way, it Gets indexed by search engines because, like we said before, it is the second most Popular way to search Okay, so every image gets Its own alternative text Yeah, and you really Want to describe it too, The more descriptive the better.
This also helps for Visually impaired people that are on your site, That have screen readers So if they’re on your site, It’Ll have delicious burger it’ll. Have this or it’ll have that versus just going and saying Image is not very helpful. You got to keep the site successful to Moving on to title Your titles aren’t bad I’ve seen worse. I’Ve seen The ones that are like screenshot dash this date dash blah again, that’s not really helpful.
You want to be as descriptive as possible. [ Alex ], Okay, [ Nealey ], So this one says Beef dash blur dash bread and then some numbers. How do I make it better? So we can probably just Get rid of the numbers Again, it has to be Descriptive of what the image is all about, so beef dash blur Dash bread that one’s fine You want to have those dashes in there,’cause that’s! What’S going to Show up in the address bar [ Alex ], Okay, It’s also something that Google kind of takes a look at as well, And then WordPress saves in real time.
So as soon as I clicked Off of that, it saves So you kind of have the same trend here. Blur dash buns dash burger those numbers just get rid of the numbers All right. The next thing, You really want to look at are the captions of the image themselves. The captions are one of the Most read parts of a website so having something there again, As descriptive as possible, Now, if you got this image elsewhere, usually caption has the source Of where you got that image, These are your photos and Since you’re Alex eats food, so it’s yours there and Then description same thing As descriptive as possible: The more descriptive, the more keywords you can Add to your website‘s images, the better you are going! To be in search engines, [ Alex ].
So what would be a Good example for a caption here, literally just really describe it Juicy delicious burger. I can’t type today I really can’t type today With tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, And Dijon mustard sure, So it’s a pretty solid caption and I really cannot type today, Let’s add burger in there too, Oh yeah, maybe I guess Burger there. We go Nope, not there. Let’S put it right here, I’m struggling today, I’m just hungry.
It’S about that time. [ Alex ], ( laughs, ), A mustard burger Juicy, delicious mustard, all right All right now with this, it’s not really optimizing it for SEO. But it is optimizing it for your website itself. Now what you don’t want, To do is have an image: that’s like 5000, with by 5000 height, It’s way too large. My screen, Is definitely not that big? You want to keep them condensed If they are pretty big.
You Can resize them on a computer and re upload them? You can actually resize Directly in WordPress, by going to edit image, And then right over here, there’s new dimension. You Can literally just type say I want this to be 800 width, it will automatically Constrain it down to by 533 Click scale and then It’Ll shrink my image, so it’s not as large. You also use the plugin WP Smush, smush And it’ll.
Basically do What exactly what that is it’s going to smush your Images so they’re not as large, because also the faster Your website is the better search results. You’Ll come up with whether it’s text based search results or image, search results, Good to know perfect. Well, thanks, so much Nealey. Hopefully my great burger pictures will get seen a lot more now, Yeah Be sure to let us know. In the comments below what kind of articles you Want to see in the future Yeah and while you’re there make sure you smash that Like button as always Subscribe to, the blog and You can get this content first.
This is The Journey We’Ll see you next time,
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Nowhere And so SEO stands for. Search Engine Optimization and it’s work that you do To make sure that you prove to Google and other search Engines you’re the best So for SEO. I like to use the analogy of all the work that you need to do is like a 1,000 piece puzzle And you and all of your competitors. You all have the same puzzle and we’re trying to prove To Google who’s the best which one of these puzzles Is the most complete My puzzle’s best? Definitely the best Yours is definitely the best.
We know that Does Google know that We shall find out Right But the thing is not Everyone has all 1,000 pieces, Some people are new, Some people have been Doing it for a long time, and Google doesn’t necessarily care that you have all the pieces in The thing that Google cares about is that you have more than the next guy. You could have maybe 10 pieces and if you’re in not a very Competitive space then yeah you’re going to appear on the first page, So these eight tips that We’Re going to talk about are going to help you to Start putting those pieces in to get started on your SEO.
Journey for local businesses Perfect. So, let’s jump into the tips. What’S tip number one Tip number one for local businesses: Everybody needs this. Is you need to create or claim your Google My Business Profile, Google, My Business? Is this Tool that Google has created that allows users to see all Of your business information in one place, We did a article all about This so go check it out, so you can deep dive, but basically, if you don’t have a profile, You need to go, create one and, if you haven’t claimed your profile, meaning that your profile exists.
But you didn’t necessarily do It or some user created that you need to claim it. So that you can update it with all the right information Right, You need to make sure It’S in your control, Don’t let it out to the World for anyone to add It’s yours, So tip number two is that you need to optimize your profiles, It’s great to have it created, but if you don’t have all the information that Google is looking for, then they’re not going to recommend your business over someone else.
So that means having your Business name correct your address: your phone number, your hours of operation, Those are the basics that most people do, but optimizing it really Means going a level below that so adding photographs, adding your logo adding pictures of your building, so that was when people are Actually going to your business, they know what it looks like If you’re a restaurant include pictures of dishes.
And what you’re known for so that way, people have Lots more information when they’re, looking at your Google, My Business page, So those are the key things That you need to do to optimize If there’s reviews that are outstanding, you need to respond to All of those reviews You need to encourage your Customers to go and leave reviews, because that also plays a part In how you’re going to rank against other local business profiles, All right, Morgan What’S tip number three Tip number three: is you Need to add your business to relevant business directories.
These are other sites. That their main business is promoting other Businesses like yourself, and so you need to make Sure that your business, not only is there but the Information is correct and the great thing It’S an easy back link. Absolutely So it really helps with your SEO to make Sure that your business anywhere people are looking At these business directories, your business shows up All right, which brings Us to tip number four Tip number four is to Add your business address to your website.
It sounds pretty plain and simple, but a lot of websites don’t have that So again to increase your rankings. This is one thing that not Only Google is looking for, but your users, if they’re wanting to visit your business, they want to have the address. Very prominently placed So put it in the footer. Have a separate page about your location, Just make sure that it’s there Visible and very prominent All right so should We put a Google Maps thing on the site too.
Yeah that helps That’s. Visual People can click it. They can see exactly where you’re located the cross streets. So that’s Always helpful as well so just make sure that you actually have the address called out. And written out next to that Perfect, which brings us to tip number five, What’s tip number five, Make sure that your NAP is consistent across the web. What’S NAP, Name I like naps, I mean well ( laughter, ) Name address phone number, So you need to make sure That those three things are consistently formatted everywhere, So pick one and then Update it on your website, [ Nealey ], Stick with it, Update it on your Google, My Business and then update it anywhere.
Else where your website appears, If you don’t own those websites, Email, the owner and say: “: Hey: can you update this?” And most likely they will but just make sure it’s Consistent everywhere Perfect To number six, what do we got? You need to update your home, page’s, meta, title and meta description, The meta title and meta Description are things on your website that you control how your website shows Up on the search results, So whatever the meta title, Is that’s what will appear on the search engine results page and then the little description below This is a great opportunity for you to let your clients Know what you’re about So, if you are a coffee shop in Seattle, maybe you should have That, in your meta, title and description Put your location, Put more information about your business.
So that way, your users Know what you’re about Right and most website builders or applications that you use have a section for you. To add a meta title, a meta keyword and meta descriptions. If you don’t know how to go. In the backend and do it, which most of us don’t want to right So if you need help just contact, whoever you’re Hosting your site with They’ll, probably be able to help you get that information there.
Because if you don’t set anything Google will just assume Whatever it wants to put there – and it may not always be relevant to what you want to Invoke to your audience All right Morgan! What do We got for tip number seven Tip number. Seven is just to make sure that all of your other Seo elements are in place Make sure that you have great Content on your website Make sure that your Source code is formatted in the way that Google likes to see it, Make sure that you have a great number of high-quality backlinks that are pointing back to your site.
All of this will help with your local SEO. We actually did an entire article. All about the basics of SEO check it out right here, So it’s super relevant to make sure your site is structured in a Way that Google basically wants so on your site, those H1 Tags, like you mentioned it’s basically, a code On the site that says “, This is my most relevant Tag line,”, if you will So only one H1 tag per site.
Images are super important. Because Google cannot read images, but it can read text. So that’s that little description there Most website, builders or Applications, like Word Press, has a place for you to add those All right. Morgan, we’re On the very last tip, It’s been an incredible Journey # thejourney. What is tip number eight Tip number. Eight is To consider launching paid ads or Google guarantee, So if you’re not getting The results fast enough or the traction that you need Using steps one through seven and appearing in the organic sections, then this is where paid ads and the Google guarantee comes in, So you can consider doing these things Paid ads.
Obviously, it’s pay to play Whoop. You appear right at the Top of the search result, It’s amazing, but once Your ad budget is gone. You no longer appear there, But people click on the ads, They’re very effective. So I love paid ads. It gets you right to the top, but I’m not really familiar. With what Google guarantee is Give us the low down, So the Google guarantee Is basically paid ads supercharged, So you could pay.
Anyone really can pay to have their business. Appear in the paid ads, but the Google guarantee Takes it to the next level, where, if someone purchases the service through the Google guarantee And they’re not happy, they can get their money. Back, which is really awesome, So it’s Google vetting certain businesses and making sure that they Provide a great experience, There’s extra levels, you Have to do to qualify for the Google guarantee, but it’s really great and Stands out in the search results and people love it All right guys.
Those were our eight quick tips to help improve your local SEO. I hope you liked it I liked it Did you like it. Loved it, I thought you would Make sure you like this article Comment below on just Something you learned today Subscribe Ring the bell, so you Know when these articles are coming at your first, This has been The Journey. And we are signing off
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I don’t know about people say a lot of things out there about how to make your website it stand in the top result, but I don’t really know how to achieve that. You know right, fair enough. That’S a that’s a really good question: how to achieve that and I think that’s a perfect introduction into what we’re trying to do here we’re trying to like bust these myths.
What can I help you with? What are the questions that come to your mind? Okay? So, let’s start with something simple: what it’s a search engine all right, so a search engine is a platform of service or program whatever you want to call it that basically goes through the internet content and tries to catalog it. It works a little bit like in the library right, so you probably go to a library and ask the librarian.
Where can I find a book on topic X right, that’s what you do and then normally it doesn’t take you to basically go through all the books. In the library you just ya, get the right books and that’s what search engines do for you. We find the right content for your purpose, all right, but I went when he’s heard of search engines. I also heard this word called crawling. Is that a thing? That’S a thing so the way that we are doing this or search engines do this is by first going through the entire internet and we have links from one page to the other yeah.
So we are using that we start somewhere some URLs and then basically follow links from there on. So we are basically crawling our way through the Internet, one page by page, more or less, and then once we have, these pages have found them have grabbed the content. From the Internet, we need to understand it. We need to figure out what is this content about and what purpose does it serve? So then that’s the second stage which is indexing.
So then we figure out. So this page is about ice cream. This page is about ice cream in Miami. This page is about marmalade and stuff like that, and then the last step is, if you type something in you don’t type in. I want this particular thing here. You just go like. I need ice cream ice cream online. Midian right, yes, you got it, so we then basically look into our index and find the ones that are serving this purpose.
And then we try to figure out, which is the one that serves these purposes perfectly or best, and then we rank these higher than the others and show you the example, the examples that we found from the index. So how do you know which one is which results are more relevant to a given user? That’S a really good question. We have over 200 signals to do so. So we look at things like the title: the Meta Description, the actual content that you’ve got on your page images links all sorts of things.
Well right, it’s a very complicated question to answer what ranks you best but yeah. We look at the bunch of signals now, if you could give me like. You know, like top three things, that I should consider. What would that be right, so us being developers originally, you probably want me to say. Oh, I use this framework or use that framework. Yeah, that’s not how it works. You have to have really good content, and that means you have content have to have content that serves a purpose for the user.
It’S something that users need and or one optimally they need it and want it. Okay, like ice cream, so if you’re, if your content says where you are, what you do, how you? How you help me with what I’m trying to accomplish? That’S fantastic! If you just have a page that says like we are a fantastic company and we have plenty of products, that’s not serving a purpose, so you want to make sure to serve the purpose of the people who you want to attract and get who you want to Interact with your content, and you want to make sure that you’re using words that I would be using if you use a very specific term for your ice cream, let’s say like smooth cream 5000 or something like that.
I’M not I’m not going to search for that because I don’t know about I’m just going to go like I need ice cream, it’s good to mention it somewhere, so that I know. If I look for that trademark, I find it as well okay, but if I, if I’m exploring ice cream around me, I don’t know what particular ice cream there is, if there’s like a specific brand fantastic, but that’s not what I’m looking for so speak the language That I’m using so you’re you’re saying more.
Like a page, it’s like an exactly you wouldn’t when when we to meet and you have a fantastic product or I have a fantastic four, I wouldn’t go like yeah blurp master 5000. It’S fantastic and you’re like yeah. It doesn’t say it does that do all right, so do that, do an elevator pitch and help us. Okay, put you in contact with the right people, so content is number one priority. Oh, could you mention another two things that are important for this yeah you’re going to love them because they are technical, so the second biggest thing is make sure that you have meta tags that describe your content.
So I have a Meta Description. Okay, because that gives you the possibility to have a little snippet in the search results that let people find out, which of the many results might be the ones that help them the best and have page titles that are specific to the page that you are serving. So don’t have a title for everything. The same title is bad. If you have titles that change with the content you’re showing that is fantastic and frameworks, have ways of doing that so consult the documentation, but there’s definitely something something that helps with the content and the last bit is performance.
Herot right, yeah performance is fantastic. We’Re talking about it constantly, but we’re probably missing out on the fact that this is also good for being discovered online. Our so performance is not just making my website faster, but it’s also making my website more visible to others, correct okay, because we want to make sure that the people clicking on your search was like clicking on your page yeah, getting this content quickly.
So that’s one thing that we want to make sure as well, so we’re it’s one of the many signals that we are looking at, but also it just helps you use this right. They get happier. If I want ice cream really badly, then I get the page quicker, that’s fantastic yeah! So if you want to look at performance, I highly recommend looking into hybrid rendering or server-side rendering again, because that gets the content quicker to the users.
Usually right also, you might have BOTS that don’t run JavaScript so Googlebot. Does that, but not everyone else. Does it necessarily? So you want to make sure to probably figure out something like dynamic rendering, if you don’t want to make code changes, because I understand we’re all pressed for time. We have lots of bugs and and features too to fulfill and work through. So if you can’t change the code dynamic, rendering might be something that gets you there.
Okay, if there’s rendering shoes with your content. But besides that, I would say definitely look into performance. Optimization get the content quicker, get the first content full paint in there quicker optimize. Your servers optimize your caching strategies make sure that your script doesn’t have to run for, like 60 seconds, to fetch everything that you need. I know yeah, so those are things that you should definitely look into, and I guess performance is something that pretty much everyone in the developer community is looking at.
Certainly yes or they should at least they should. I hope that they do okay, so we already discussed, like all these basics around SEO and search engines and how to position my my website in the top search results. Now the question is: why is it so important for companies to rank like like in the top results right, so you’re you’re a web developer right? Yes, your build stuff on the internet. Yeah.
Do you want people to use it? Certainly, yes, certainly right, so in order to make sure that people can use that they have to know about it, and unless you are probably one of the really big players might not, and even for the big players, if they launch something new, you might not know About it and you’re not looking specifically for products you’re looking for something that serves a purpose for you, okay, I want to know how I built this thing with a framework I want to know where to find the best ice cream and the place I am in.
I want to find the cutest dogs and poppers online so, like I have a purpose, I don’t know who serves this purpose necessarily. So if you build the best ice cream, PWA ever in, let’s say Medellin. Is that how you profess? So if you build the best PWA to order ice cream online in midian, then I don’t. I don’t know about that, especially if I come as a tourist. But if I type that into a search engine like order ice cream in medicine, and then it goes like hey this, this PWA does this trick yeah you want to be the the first or the first couple of because I’m not going to go to page 99 And go like oh yeah.
This might be the perfect thing, because Google and other search engines are trying to like figure out what is the best for this purpose and then show me those up front and then I might pick from those because normally they’re pretty good. I think that covers have all the questions I have fantastic, so you feel like ready to build that, certainly excellent. That is so cool. Thank you. So much for being here.
Thank you, my guests, and I hope that this this helps other developers as well and developers and se owes can be friends. I think I think so yeah I think so. Thank you. Oh, are we still on please stay tuned for another episode of SEO: myth busting. Next time with soos Hinton we’ll talk about what is Googlebot so come back again and read what happens?
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It cannot thank you all enough for coming today and I’m thrilled that we’re Able to have this gathering under these circumstances today we’re going to be Talking about your business alive during Coe bid 19 and we’re going to talk about Different ways in which, in which you guys can sort of cope with this Difficult moment and different tips and tools and resources that are available, To you for helping to deal with this kind of unprecedented crisis, I wanted to Just talk a little bit about what you can expect from today’s session, really Appreciate it, if you can stay till the end, I know this hour of time is Incredibly valuable to you and I’m going to make sure to give you as much as I can.
During this hour, um we’re going to talk with three different businesses to get Some tips from the trenches of what’s working and not for some of these other Companies in town – these are all three of them – are retail or storefront businesses? These are businesses that actually run physical operations. Um not too, unlike Biz hack Academy, which has been traditionally an in-person training, Academy we’ve now converted completely online and you’ll, see some really Creative ways in which these businesses are doing the same, I’m going to share with You three, you know, really simple, but I think important marketing principles.
That, I hope, will help you adapt to this sudden shift in consumer behavior and I’Ll talk a little bit about what that shift is and then what those principles That I would recommend you keep in mind as you’re thinking about what the heck To do with your yourself in your business and then finally um we have Collected a tremendous number of resources to help small businesses Weather the storm we’re going to have a representative from miami-dade County on The call who’s going to share some of the general small business resources.
That the local state and federal government is making available and then We’Ve actually curated a list of digital marketing resources, a lot of Software companies, Google, Facebook, are making available resources and funding To help small businesses – and this is a great opportunity for you to take Advantage of that, for those of you who don’t know me already, my name is Dan Gretch and I’m the founder of busy AK Academy, my background is actually as a Journalist and I was for many years on public radio – I was the news director at Wlr n Miami Herald News, I hosted a show on public radio called under the Sun.
I Was also in marketplace, the national business show. So for me, this kind of Setting is very reminiscent of a hour-long call-in radio show and so in Many ways that structured this in a similar way, We’Ve already solicited through a survey that many of you filled out and thank You for filling that out some of your input on what’s going on and then we Have lined up several special guests: three different businesses, an accounting Representative who we’re going to be hearing from during this hour, so it’s Kind of like a little radio show I was part of a Pulitzer Prize winning team When I was back at the Miami Herald kind of one of the, I call it the award for Being in the right place at the right time, but a highlight of my journalism, Career and then I transitioned more recently into communication and Marketing for businesses, where I’ve worked both at two software startups and A billion-dollar energy company and I’m a proud for instant and FIU graduate go Panthers, so I’ve been in this community for more than two decades and my attempt Here is to give back.
This community has been incredibly good to me to my family To my business – and my hope is that you will get as much out of this next hour. As possible, that won’t be helpful to you, as you guys are figuring out how to Weather this storm, so a little bit more about biz hack business hack, was named a Start-Up of the Year in 2019 by the Miami Herald – and we were part 10,000 small business accelerator program, we’ve partnered with the major Educational institutions in South Florida, including the idea Center at Miami-Dade College start-up FIU and the innovation hub, a Broward College.
We have Dozens and dozens of community partners in the nonprofit foundation and business Space and I think really our signature achievement and what makes me so proud. Of what biz has accomplished, and also the impact that we’re having in this Community is we run a 12-week program, that’s about helping businesses generate Leads and sales online and last year we had more than 100 businesses run through The program they spend $ 17,000 in advertising online and they made more Than half a million dollars for the local economy, this is something that it Drives everything we do.
We are basically here to help you learn how to market Yourself and communicate about yourself online and make more money by doing so. Well and the folks that we’re going to have here, starting with Rafael Sabino of the Sun Dance Studios are all folks who’ve gone through our program and then taken What they learned and used it for their businesses, Rafael Sabino, is from one of Our earliest cohorts of biz hack, he runs a dance studio called a Sun Dance Studios in Doral Florida in Doral and they’ve really been very aggressive.
And creative in turning ascendance, which has always been you, know an in person Dance studio into a virtual one, I’m actually happy to say that my Seven-Year-Old daughter, whose own dance studio here where I live in Surfside Wasn’T offering online classes got a chance to enjoy a jazz class last night. And she was just beaming afterwards, so um, you know here are examples of some of The posts that they’re putting on social media as they communicate about this Change um, one of the things that I think is really cool about.
Rafael, he’s, very Tech savvy is a former Amazon employee and their communications are almost Exclusively text message and through an app and so We’Re going to invite him now to chat and one of the things that he’ll talk about. Is how he’s communicating with his parents so Rafael, Sabina, welcome. Thank You so much for joining us dad. How are you guys doing today? Good Good good so raft: let’s talk about how you have Changed your products and services as a result of Corona 19 Copa dad so so for Us it’s kind of a difficult transition right, we depend on being in person and Massive gatherings to run our business right, Oh, since Miami Papa shut down, there are school programs.
You know we, we kind of Have to the simple thing for us to do was to follow that’s right and at that Point you know you have to way to to to continue delivering. You know, classics. Right and that’s when, when, when we figure well, we will have to move to Digital, it’s going to be a little odd at the beginning, but but if we get people To we did like a little NBP, I caught it right through Instagram live classes.
Right product: yes, yes and quick, quick for those of you don’t know the idea of A minimally Viable Product is spending as little time and money as possible to Test the concept to see if it works go ahead right exactly so so the idea Was to kind of test the concept of online through Instagram live classes; Right and then eventually, if we get with reception, moves some of our classes, Fully online and and obviously it’s not going to be, as you know, as profit, was it Might be to run our in-person classes, but in this time you just have to find a Way to kind of mitigate your losses right, so that was kind of a deployment What has worked and what has not in terms of the new products and services That you’re offering so in general, I think our so we have two different Programs right we have our company, Kitt’s and, and those have been you know, In general, they’re like seven and up I’ll, say seven years old enough and that Has been really successful like since day one you know the kids know the Platforms, they’re very you, know, they’re on Instagram all day, so for them it was An easy transition right now with the when we run into a little bit of an Issue is with the little ones right, because we we did pin on the mom to be Able to manage the technology, so we can deliver the class right now.
So you know We had questions like oh hi. What is Instagram life? You know like what I do. I Have to download to see that right. So so there has been some, even though Instagram is fairly popular. You know some people simply don’t use it as much Right and they’re not as familiar right so so that has been definitely a Challenge and then on the second phase right, where we kind of our Instagram Classes were open for the community, so anyone could join on the second phase of The test we we kind of open our own classes, but only to our customers right So we offer more than a hundred classes every week.
So how do I get people to be In the right, Simca or Chad, row or virtual classroom, you know what, while We’Re running through before classes at the same time, so you know people joining Into the wrong classroom – and you know not showing up on time, not using their Their microphones so a couple questions you know I use so when viz hack, Transitioned online we used zoom, which is what we’re using right now for this Gathering you, who actually were featured by Google in a national ad campaign for Your skilled use of Google AdWords to grow your business.
You guys have chosen To use a different tool, a tool that I wasn’t aware until you told me about it: Called Google meat, which is part of the hangout offering that they have but Specifically geared for like webinars and and online classes, you want to talk About Google meat and as well as the other technology tools that you’re using Like, for instance, your text messaging software, I’d love to hear more About what you’re, using to stay in touch with your your and communicate with your Your customers right so so I think it and you know nowadays are pretty much Two options right: you either go with zoom or you know: there’s Google Meads That it’s not as famous but for us it make more sense because behind Google me There’S an entire product called Google classroom.
Okay and Google classroom is Google’S effort to you know be able to share lessons from any teacher around The world right, so it doesn’t matter if you’re in the US or in the UK, you can Join a class on someone: that’s teaching online right um. So so, since we decided To use Google classrooms right that default, you know, meeting tool will be Google, meat, right and, and then what we do is we we’re hosting all of our Content right, so you know we, we ask our teachers to record themselves and do Their choreography right now, whatever we’re preparing for a recital right, we Have specific articles that we uploaded to Google classrooms right for the little Ones we upload and materials like you know something for them to draw.
Then mom Can print at home and they you know they can. You know, paint you know, be drawing Our butter in our painting, you know those kind of things right and also we We have, you know like messages for them right, like don’t don’t be sad, you know, We’Ll be back like at the end of the day, we wanted to keep the kids asses engage. As possible, right and Google classrooms set up help us out organize all the Content that we have by ages on by different classes – okay right, so your Classroom Google meet for the action, so Google classroom is the learning Management system to manage all the materials Google meet is how you’re Actually doing the live, chats and tell us about how you’re staying in touch via Text message right, so so the other thing you know, basically, we have everyone’s Email, right and and we can just send an email with the link of it to the Classroom from right, but honestly you know email, it’s 5050 right like it.
They May go into their spam box. They might give me their Spam email – because I don’t want to you – know – get emails from us. Whatever you Know like there’s like a Cillian things, I can go wrong with II right However, text messages is more direct. People usually only have one phone Number right and text messages are just you know, very personal right. So what we Do is every day around this time we send them a text message with the link to Their classroom, okay, so all they have to do, is just press on that right and and Open up their classroom and join the class, you know we’re just trying to make It as friction frictionless as possible, such a day.
They joined our online Classes, yeah, and I mean this is not a small task, because if you have a hundred Classes – and I would imagine hundreds and hundreds of parents that are to get them – The right link just in time is not a simple technical challenge, but you have That infrastructure built so that it’s yeah we had it so so every single class That we we have, we teach we group them. You know every student by class right And then we have the ability to message that class.
You know in a heartbeat, so What we do is we in in the backend of our of our software, we assign a link to The virtual classroom for each class and then you know three four hours before The classes system will automatically message them. You know with the location, Of their virtual meeting, on top of that, we we build in our website. We have a Schedule where people can just go in and and click on, you know they can just Filter by program, h or teacher – and they can find now the link to so we have a Couple of ways for them to kind of find that out perfect um lilia there was a Question about what phone number to dial in using! If you could put that into the Group chat that would be great and Andrea.
Richard was asking which text Messaging platform, are you using, so we use Twilio in our back-end to handle all Of our text messages and then we also are Our automation is powered by autopilot HQ Great so autopilot HQ is where the this is just for the for the folks on the Line is is the is where the automation is in the flows and the database of Customers is captain and Twilio is the the technology that actually enables the Text message, and then you also mentioned Google classroom for as an LMS and you Also mentioned Google Hangouts meet RAF, we’re going to move on, but please stay stay.
Close by because we’ll probably bring you into the conversation, you know, I we Have a capacity of a hundred people and we’re up to 96 I’m starting to get a Little nervous because we never expected this many folks to to join us. But Hopefully, hopefully everybody will anyway, you guys are here and that’s what Matters most so here we go, I’m going to just share my screen again, so I wanted To give you guys some data about how marketing has changed during coab in Nineteen, you know I was thinking about this marketing is about meeting your Customers where they are, what do I mean by that if your customers are on Instagram you meet them on Instagram, you communicate with them on Instagram.
If Your customers, like rap, said, prefer text message over email. You text message them And you figure out the tools to do that in an efficient way in a scalable way. That, in its essence, is what communications and marketing and digital Marketing is all about at its core. What makes this challenging in general is That people’s behaviors change with time so tick tock is in the platform that Young people love that wasn’t around even five years ago.
Snapchat emerged and became popular, and that was a little less popular Instagram. Has boomed so the landscape of how you communicate just during normal times, his Con stantly shifting – and this is hard for Resource contains too constrained, not necessarily marketing savvy small Businesses to keep up with koban nineteen Blew up this whole framework. People now have completely changed their behavior Overnight this lockdown in home this quarantine, if you will, has changed how All of us are behaving online and offline, and your marketing must change.
With it, I wanted to give a couple of examples of the profound ways in which People are now shifting their behaviors and how marketing has had to adapt with It so, as we all know, working from home is now the norm. We’Ve actually created a Tools sheet that we’re going to be sharing with you at the end of the Webinar with a list of some great tools that you can use if you’re in the Process of converting to telework that’ll be in an email follow-up for Everybody who registered for this um, not surprisingly internet usage, has Skyrocketed, which is putting a strain an internet download times, are slowing down.
Because of it, Facebook has seen a 50 % increase in messaging across all of its Platforms now remember: Facebook includes facebook, Messenger, Instagram messaging And whatsapp they own all of those and they’ve seen a 50 % increase in Communicating across their messaging platforms, but interestingly their online Advertising has plunged – and I have another slide that will help understand. That email, open rates have spiked people are sitting in front of their computers.
And they’re more attentive to their email and overall worldwide we’re seeing A 5 plus percent spike in email, open rates, so if it was in 20 percent before It’S a 25 percent now, in other words, now is a very good time for you to be email. Marketing the ads spend by in commerce companies has doubled, and I would expect That will increase even faster, so an e-commerce company is simply a company That sells online and obviously, if you sell online and now is your moment, You’Re going to spend even more on advertising to get to that audience that Is stuck at home and can’t go out to buy things now, b2b or business-to-business Companies, companies that sell to other companies um have traditionally relied On things like trade shows in person, meetings and phone calls for their sales.
Process, they’re increasingly now looking to digital marketing to help with that They have not been early adopters by and large b2b companies in the digital Marketing space but they’re now looking to places like LinkedIn and you know, Email marketing phone calls, of course, to start driving more of their sales. Um This is just a tiny slice of the changes that we’re starting to see. Um one point: I just wanted to make is, as with Facebook, while you’re seeing more usage, Of the platform you’re seeing a decrease in advertising on the platform as many Businesses don’t have a product to sell right now or that they’re not Comfortable with selling, during a time when everybody’s in crisis, so you’re Seeing a lot of people putting on pause, there are traditional campaigns and Starting to really promote what community service or resources that They’Re offering to help during this time, Jennifer Hudson mentioned that it’s Really nice news on email, she’s, a marketing and communications specialist So yeah absolutely email marketing is really having its moment right now by The way email, marketing and search engine optimization or the two most Profitable forms of advertising of digital marketing, so those of you who Think that email is dead.
It’S not true at all. It’S actually along with search Engine optimization, which is driving people to your website, the most Profitable form of marketing – and it’s even more so right now it’s getting a Huge boost right now, other platforms that like aren’t doing as well, are Things like and I’m talking now about, traditional platforms. Um, you know radio Which is largely listened to in the car is probably going to see a decrease in Listenership TV he’s going to see a spike in listenership Other types of advertising online through because someone’s called Over-The-Top through things like Netflix and variety, we’re going to see more Advertising on TV is people read more TV because their home all the time, Billboards like physical billboards on the highways – this is not a great time to Have a billboard on the highway.
I think this is actually going to be an Incredible moment for Direct Mail, you know just talking about traditional Marketing now you know people are at home, they’re, probably checking their Mail more closely, I think Direct Mail is going to be a great opportunity and Direct mail believe it or not, has seen a increase in its effectiveness in in the Last few years, because fewer people are using it so you’re in your mail boxes, Are less crowded your physical mail boxes, so Direct Mail is actually a Really great opportunity, by the way I wanted to also mention that you’re going to Be getting a link to this presentation in an email follow-up to everybody who Registered so you can take notes, of course, but you don’t need to you’ll, be Getting these slides shortly now there was a survey of almost 16,000 businesses, And this is a list of those businesses that have been most impacted by Cova That 19 nonprofits and charities, health and medical business management finance Beauty and personal care, on-demand media – that’s like Netflix, also social media, Readings, gifts and flowers, those are the ones that are seeing a boom in their Business there these are, these are industries that are right now, busier Than ever and enjoying a lot more business, the bad is real estate as a lot Of people hold off on big purchases, home improvement, same idea, home furniture, Same idea, so people right now are holding onto cash and avoiding big Purchases, just because we don’t know how long this is going to last Same thing with cars and automotive retail, a lot of these businesses are Shut some of the ideas that we’re going to be Talking about are ways that retailers can move into e-commerce, which we saw Are is having its moment, jobs and education and legal services with legal Services, you know, unfortunately bankrupt ajikko bankruptcy.
Attorneys are going to Have a field day um, my guess, is: divorce. Attorneys are going to probably have a lot. Of business coming up is we’re all stuck with our wives and husbands uh. We might Not have liked that much, you know there’s there, but other types of law: a Transactional law, for instance, litigation which involves having to be In a courtroom, that’s shut down, you know, they’re there different parts of them, What legal practice that are going to be struggling The the ugly travel and tourism they say that Florida is going to be the Most impacted by Koba 19 of any state in the country, and it’s because our travel Tourism industry is such a huge part of our local economy bars and restaurants.
Are shut down, we do have a restaurant owner anna robbins of two to two taco Who’S going to be presenting who’s actually seen a steady, steady flow of Business through her takeout offerings we’ll have her tell us about that. Momentarily, you know, live at entertainment, conferences, events, trade, Shows anything that involves in person is going to be struggling for a good While you know sports its kind of shocking to think about, you know major Sports teams shut down, you know the NBA canceled its season and so forth.
Fitness Um, I think, is going to be more of a mixed bag. You know, I think you know, for those Of us who have kids at home, who love dancing? You know Raphael hopefully, will be able to reach an audience that maybe doesn’t Live in Doral, but is thirsty for those kinds of classes that is now offering Building and construction and industrial and manufacturing so the point here is a Couple things number one: there is not one impact of kovat nineteen, it depends.
Based on the industry and even within industries like we talked about legal Services, it depends on which aspect you’re offering so you know if you’re in The fitness area, you know, as Michael pace, brought up pellet owned the online Platform and the at-home bikes, spin, bikes and other equipment is doing Well, Willie brought up that beauty and personal care or shut down indefinitely. Because we service the public, so beauty and personal care, that’s sold like Products based is going to do well, so if you have products that you’re selling They’Re doing very very well, but if you are like a nail salon, you’re in real Trouble so that’s another example of you know: And they, you know an area where, in the how in the beauty and personal There are some folks doing better than others.
Direct Mail area all brought up a point that it’s work. It works as long as we’re. Still delivering the mail and in some places in Europe, they’ve shut down mail. Delivery, so that is a risk that you might take if you do decide to go to the Direct mail route, but at least for now mail is still being delivered and I Think Direct Mail is definitely a marketing blog. You should be thinking About so I want to bring now Anna Robins from taco and if you could go ahead, And unmute yourself, um taco Anna Robbins, was part of our cohort 12.
The Most current cohort, she runs, and she was one of the she was behind the founding Of Koyo, taco and now her newest concept is a Cali Mexican. Restaurant called Taco it’s in North Bay Village, which is in basically in the north of Miami Beach. But along the barrier, islands and anna has been doing really well. With her takeout service they’re doing curbside takeout in boxes that are Actually, coronavirus safe and one of my favorite things, as I saw on her social Media, oh wait: you’re still you’re delivering margaritas.
Is there a maximum Quantity order so they’re now delivering margaritas to go something they weren’t Allowed to do before and they have a margarita bar and trust me. I think a lot Of people are taking advantage of that. So Anna welcome. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me no problem, so talk to us a little bit about the new Products and services that you’re offering to your customers around Takeout and delivery to help meet the demand for your.
You know: Mexican food Well, basically, we had to switch everything over to takeout and delivery. We decided to do an extra level of packaging. Those are the cardboard boxes. You’Re, seeing before we used to just use them for catering and big bigger orders, Now every order that’s placed in house whether it’s through the phone or Whether someone comes in comes in a box right, Oh sealed, with the box, and then we Put it inside the cardboard boxes, so people are feeling secure that their Food is safe, another switch to all to take out in delivery and kind of change.
Up our menu a little bit so items that don’t travel as well. We took off, we made A more consolidated menu to take pressure off the kitchen, because right Now we can only work with one cook at a time because of Labor issues and we are Still in the process of putting together a new menu with all of our larger Offerings with big boxes, big family-style, which we were doing in the Past so we weren’t promoting as much where you can order a box with a pound.
Of chicken and a dozen tortillas and all your sides and kind of build everything At home also working on combo boxes that will begin rolling out, so we can have Special of the week where you get maybe a quesadillas guac and chips and some Rice and beans trying to make it fun and, of course, very visual. What we’ve been Doing photo shoots and shooting articles and trying to get we’re getting ready to Launch all of our online campaigns and then we’ll start running digital ads for All that and also needing to launch online ordering, so all of these things Are kind of in the works with somebody maybe done by today, but it’s kind of a Lot when you have to change everything overnight, So once the online ordering is set up, we’ll run the odds when people see it They’Ll be targeted to our local community and they’ll, be able to click Go straight to our website and from there order their boxes for either Takeout and delivery, and trying to do all this to steer them away from Ordering with ubereats and post means, while we love our delivery partner, they Do take 30 % so right now it’s not the time for that.
So it’s also educating our Clients through messaging that in the most PC way to sway them to order Directly in house, and not order through the delivery partners, you know that That’S actually a really good point, because it brings up something that Marcelo Salib asked, which is: how is this impacting your margins, so you’re selling The piece you broke that protect okay, um. How is this impacting your margins? Your Selling the the same, you know the same price for the food, but You have now the box that you need to deliver it in sometimes post mates to Share the fee with how is this for your margins, so we right now we’re including A service charge that we were, including for table service, that was going mostly To the servers now the service charges being included, some of that is going Back to the house to cover things like extra packaging and just the expenses of Staying open without having the dining room open, I mean this is we’re only on The second weeks, accountant, still in the process of analyzing, all of that yeah It’S going to do you expect the margins to be lower or with the fee you’re going to Basically make the same amount per order.
I think that’d be walk. Well, I’ve said it Right, how much is the fee per order for years or based on is like a percentage Of the price, it’s a percentage of the price yeah to 18 %. Some of that goes Towards the server or towards the team whoever’s working that day and some Because some people come in and they don’t I’ll leave a tip when they get a Takeout order and they’re not realizing right now that my staff, that is actually Coming to work – and you know taking that risk being out in the public when they Are coming to work that they deserve? You know to get tipped like they’re, their Hourly is only as a minimum wage tipped employee hourly at 5:50.
So if people, if People don’t leave a tip for them, then they’re really not making anything that I have to subsidize that again, that’s hitting the margins, so the service Charge is also ensuring that the staff is being taken care of, and there I Haven’T had any complaints, I mean all all take it off. If a customer, it doesn’t Agree to it, but from what I’m seeing they agree, and then they also tip extra And they’re very they’re very grateful that we’re open that were there feeding Them that we have stepped up our packaging, they love the boxes, they feel Secure with this, so I haven’t had any pushback there and if anything, people Are trying to support they’ll come and they’ll order, a shot of tequila or Margarita, while they’re waiting for their for their box, we’re also now Selling the margaritas by the leader, the margaritas we have set up in a draft Machine so they come and they’ll take a leader home and put In the fridge, that’s awesome, you know they Harbor Islands, where you’re based Has been supportive of you know if a village, I’m sorry North Bay, Village, Sorry, North Bay Village, where you’re based is he’s, been very supportive of You could you talk a little bit about the local town is, is being helpful and In turn, because you’re obviously going to be servicing for take-out and pick up The local, exactly I mean from the beginning, the first day when we got the Announcement that we had to close the dining room, the mayor showed up to order.
Food for his family – and I actually mentioned to him that we Actually he he came two days before the whole shutdown happened and said: yeah I’Ll be in your commercial, so if you see the little clip that you would pose it That you showed at the beginning, that’s on Facebook, in a ton Instagram in the First, clip the second, the second scene for bringing food out to an SUV. That’S Actually, the mayor of North Bay, Village, Brad Latham who’s been very, very Supportive yeah: it’s when he’s going to be reposting it that all of North Bay Village has we have a Facebook group for Northland residents, so there’s a Facebook group, the town hall and the mayor, supportive of you, you had also Mentioned that are they making available to you, email addresses as well.
Yes, they Are they’re in angel me that well they I mean this was even before this epidemic. They said that it was just public information if I want the email Addresses of all the residents of North Bay Village so I’ll be getting that so That we can start targeting and now that that’s you know the point here – sometimes Is again no problem? Well, what we’re going to move on, just as we Have a lot to cover, but Anna stick around.
Thank you very much one other Thing I just wanted to mention is that a lot of towns and municipalities are Looking for ways to support their local small businesses, especially ones that do Geographically, based off retail and storefront, and so if you had you can’t Get it if you don’t ask, and so and I was bringing up the fact that they have an Email list, which we know now is much more effective than ever before.
That they’re willing to share that she can then use for her email, marketing, um She also can leverage that for Facebook advertising Google advertising targeted Ads for folks in the local community, Marcelo Salif also asked about geo Fencing so geo fencing just means carding targeting a geographic area, so That only people in that geography who live in that geography would actually See the ad and that’s also another thing – that’s done through Facebook and Instagram advertising, as well as Google, Adwords I sing so you have a tremendous number of tools at your fingertips.
We focus our 12-Week program on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram advertising and the geofencing Is a big part of that, so we show businesses how they can do it, but you Can do it in a lot of other places as well, so wanted to now take a minute. You Know I’ve been reflecting I’ve been speaking to a lot of business owners and I wanted to reflect a little bit on some marketing tips and marketing principles.
That, I feel, could be very helpful in terms of thinking about what you’re Doing in this moment, so the first one is, as we discussed earlier, customer Behavior has changed. Fundamentally, people are teleworking, student students, Are home from school and what I’ve heard a lot is people say things like Why, and by the way Chiara, I realize I forgot to get to your question about the Margarita delivery, so I hopefully Ana Robbins, if you could answer in the chat, Chiara was asking: did you have to get any special licensing to be able to Actually do your margaritas for delivery, if you could just put that in the chat That would be great and and angel Gonzalez asked earlier.
About which crm that Raphael used and the CRM he used is called autopilot HQ So we know that customer behavior is changed fundamentally and I put and Maybe forever the reason: why is, for instance, even though you it seems like a Lot of people buy online Walmart is much larger in terms of its retail sales, then Amazon is but what’s going to happen, is more people are going to try Amazon out Online purchasing out for the first time because they have to, and I believe that That’S going to cause a permanent shift from retail to e-commerce because once They’Re on the platform, many that will probably become Prime members they’re Now, locked into that way of buying that many of us quote early adopters have Already done same thing with telework, I don’t think everyone’s going to rush back.
Home rush rush back to the office when this all ends. You know, Teleworking, I think, is now going to become a much more standard practice. Across businesses of all size, it’s more convenient in some cases, if it doesn’t Impact productivity or businesses see ways to have people spend two or three Days at the office and the rest of the time working from home, they’re building Right now, all the infrastructure that will allow for that and they’re building The processes to allow for that, I just don’t see how that that’s going to change.
When, suddenly, you know everyone’s going back to work and rush, I just don’t see. That happening learning online is another one. Many of Us are taking an opportunity now to learn online. Even those of us like me, Who grew up in in-person education, so learning online and the business that I Run which is online education? I think people who are in my target demographic Which is 30 and above but people who do not grow up with digital.
I think they’re Going to become more and more comfortable with digital marketing, with learning Online and learning digital marketing online so because we’re seeing this Fundamental shift that may or may not be a forever shift in customer behavior. You Must change your marketing, so you must look at how you’re communicating with Your customers and make sure that you’re communicating with them to where they Are I would also add that now is not the time for the hard sell? You know most People are still kind of getting used to this new normal, really thinking more in Terms of how can you help and how can you communicate in a way? That’S helpful.
To them, rather than the hard sell tip number two is start with your audience. What your audiences need right now, so, if you’re trying to think about what the Heck, can I talk about online? What how the heck can I avoid just going dark and By the way, no business should go dark, even if you’re not able to do work right. Now, if you’re a you know a retail store that doesn’t have an e-commerce Component, you know when there’s a business in our program right now that Runs malls right, yeah, there’s not a heck of a lot for a mall to do right now that Doesn’T mean that you should not be communicating with your target customer So, for instance, if you’re a mall and you have hundreds of businesses that are Working with you, you could talk to them about tools to move from retail, to E-Commerce or you could talk to them about some resources for retailers that Are available so there’s a lot that you can do to communicate with your Customers that goes beyond just the direct product or service that you sell.
So really think about what is your audience or What are your audience’s need and there are different audiences and then try to Serve those audiences, and one big recommendation I would make – is do not Forget about communication with your employees, even if your folks are working From home, or not working at all, if you want them to come back to you after this You must be communicating with them and a near-daily basis, and for most of you, Everyday, you want them to know that you’re there that you’re thinking about Them and that you’re keeping them abreast of how this larger situation is.
Impacting their individual lives and then finally, you know Ana Robbins Doesn’T right now have a way to take orders online? She had been relying on Post maids and other options because she was primarily a in person. You know sit Down fast casual restaurant now is the moment that Ana can pick up that project. That was probably sitting on the shelf and get a really good online. Her online Ordering system up and running get an app going, get a process and a system to Do it efficiently? This is the moment for those of you who need to revise your Website who want us get started with your social media.
Now is the moment to Do it dust off those plans and get started communicating through these Digital tools, many many small businesses – have tended to be really slow to doing. This kind of thing – and now is the moment to do it, so I wanted to bring Andre inna From post, our Pilates on a hundred, you know was part of cohort seven. She is the Ceo of a international organization called pole star that not only runs four Or five studio hosts Pilates studios in the Miami area, but also is the number One educator worldwide of Pilates instructors and they provide a Certification, so she is kind of two sides of the business.
She has one side: Of the business which is offering classes – and you can see that they’re Offering now Virtual mat classes, but they also are an educator kind of like Biz hack, the does online and in-person education, and so you can see here that They’Re now giving a 50 percent discount on almost all of their Online courses, Andre inna, welcome hi Dan hi guys thanks for having me how Are you good to see you? You know, we’ve talked a lot about you.
Know the how you know a restaurant is transitioning, you know how Rafael is Transitioning to online classes, um, let’s talk about your post, our educational Component, you’ve graduated more than 10,000 Pilates instructors worldwide. How Are you guys shifting more aggressively into online Education well um. Thankfully we have a learning management. System that we’ve had for a couple of years now, and what most of so just to Give a little background on our courses: they’re Pilates teacher training courses, So most of our teacher trainings were used to being on on-site.
We would meet Every month for a weekend a month and have the labs and all of that and what We’Ve done with our current cohorts we’re running around, I want to say 25 Courses of people right now across the USA, what we’ve done is, depending on what Module they’re in right now we meet online to cover the theory, part of the Training and we’ve postponed all the labbing exercises until we can all meet In sight to test out the equipment and work on each other as it as a group, yeah And then what we’ve been doing is we’ve been focusing on our grants, the ten Thousand people worldwide and trying to see types of offering we can give them That’S considered continuing education for them to apply with their client base.
So these people are people who already know their body are know how to Use the equipment know enough about the basic Pilates theory that we can just Through virtual classes and workshops continue to educate them on new new ways, Of working with a population or how to work online or what things they should How do new ways or things that they can apply to this new virtual delivery of Courses, so are you seeing an uptick in the purchase of these courses? What are You seeing more people buying online courses from you.
Yes, so we’ve seen a Little spike on our courses right now we have around 20 virtual courses currently On in stock and what we did, what we’ve been doing is going back to the basics. Of our core curriculum and trying to dissect that and convert those into Virtual training courses to offer them to either new Pilates students or people Who wan na you know have been have had haven’t, had any training in a little While and are now that they have spare time, they can go in and read some Courses online, that’s great.
Another question I had for you is you’ve. Also Moved your student, you, you run one of the studios and you’ve moved your Pilates Reformer classes, reformer is a piece of equipment that you use to do. Pilates to mat classes. How is that going? How is that transition? It’S good. We have Five studios in the US and all our clients have been really really thankful. For our offerings, we are offering two Classes in the mornings and took classes in the evenings, mostly mat classes and Then, for those clients who have a have the equipment at home, we meet depending On it’s a small group, it’s a group of seven people we meet depending on on Their schedule we host a class with equipment online as well, and are these Classes you pay for a la carte, or these are for your members.
We most of our Members have kept their memberships, so we haven’t had to do much there that Were just there they’re happy to continue with their membership and as Long as we hold classes for them every day, another thing that we’ve been doing Is we created a new pricing offering for those people who were currently on a Groupon package, so that they can continue once their wants, their Groupon Is over, they can continue to purchase something that’s more.
It’S a lower cost. And what a regular membership would be right and unlimited for ninety five Dollars a month, so I wanted to take a second thank you. So much under you know. For for that insight, I want to take a second and just make a plug for our Three small businesses, if each of you guys could please in the chat, put your Website and so that people know where to go if they want to do business with you, Um one thing to think about is you know for Andrei Nina and for Raphael um.
They Are right now in a place where they can serve? You, no matter where you are in the County so, like I’ve always wanted to send my seven-year-old daughter to Raphael’S dance classes, and now I can so please support them and everybody else. Who runs a small business in town? Please feel free to put that in the chat as Well, um now is the moment guys to supports our small businesses. This is Going to be brutal, you know for Raps business for Andrea in This business, it looks like you and Robbins might be able to kind of Make it work as long as she’s allowed to continue to deliver, but this is the Moment now to support small businesses to try to do direct business, even if It’S a little less convenient to call versus using post mates.
You know please Do everything you can guys to support these small businesses, because I can Tell you as a small business owner in South Florida. This is a really hard and Scary time and your support is just incredibly important to us um I wanted To now welcome Rachel Cohen, she works with miami-dade, Commissioner Aileen Higgins, from district 5 Eileen was actually a graduate of the biz hack Program she then used what she learned to become an instructor in the biz hack, Program my first lead instructor and then because she’s, a digital marketing, Whiz leveraged that to become elected as a miami-dade County Commissioner, so she Was so generous to send Rachel Cohen and she’s created Rachael has a resource List for small businesses – all of you guys, are going to receive a copy of that As part of the email, a link to it and that list is constantly being updated, I’M Rachel Cohen, if we’re a small business, what message would you want to Send to us about what’s available hello, everybody.
Thank you so much for having Me so what we usually do in our district and district five, if you don’t know, Includes Miami Beach Little Havana downtown Brickell core away a lot of Really small local businesses, we send out a monthly resource, every single Month through email, I’m called strictly business where we put together a list of Classes going on mostly free programming grants loan applications, things like That, because the situation is changing so rapidly and more organizations are Coming forward with resources, we decided that this Google Doc that you’re all Going to be receiving was the best way to consistently update all of our Business owners, what I would say is that our local organizations are doing a Really good job by providing free consultations and assistance.
With loan applications in the resource guide, it’s it’s organized by local state. And federal for our office, specifically, we work a lot with Prospera to help our Hispanic business owners they do a lot of free work, a lot of free consultations, And sessions with people and they’re still open for business Most of our organizations have like most of your businesses adapted and realized. Ways that they can do consultations through webinars or phone or FaceTime They’Re there for you, I have most of their links in the guide and I would Just encourage you, if you’re struggling, if you can’t figure out what to do next, Please reach out to them because their that’s! What they’re there for Other things that we’re working on in our office is just working with the sea.
And federal representatives of this area so working a lot with Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez and congresswoman Donna shillelagh to provide more programs, so I Know on April, first Donna shillelagh is is hosting a town. Hall, where she’ll be discussing the loan applications with a representative from The SBA so we’re going to be promoting different things on all levels of Government that are going on to help you in this in this resource guide, I will Post my email in the chat – and I can add any of you to our normal newsletter list – That will be sending out, but this hold up and you’ll receive after this is Going to be constantly changing and constantly being updated, so please feel Free to send me any suggestions, if you know of any resources that are included, On it, please send them my way and I will update it as I get it.
So, thank you yeah. Thank you so much for the time and obviously for the work that You guys are doing. I wanted to share um, you know, biz hack. Does digital marketing Training, and so I wanted to share a couple of resources that are specific to Digital marketing that could be helpful to you guys so Facebook has launched a Hundred million dollar a small business grant program, I’m Assuming that most of this money they haven’t given a ton of detail around it, Yet, but I’m assuming most of that money is going to be advertising credits, but Facebook is getting a bump in usage, so if you have something to advertise this Small business grants program can help you.
Of course, you do need to know how to Advertise that’s what we teach Facebook also has created a business resource hub Which is a full list of all their resources for small businesses? Google Has done something similar, they call it the resource hub. They have a tremendous Amount of tip sheets and resources for you, I’ve been waiting to see if Google Was going to announce something similar like a small business fund or small Business grants and I haven’t seen it yet so I would expect that that will Come out shortly, it seems like you know.
Google does rely so much on businesses. Like yours for their advertising, I’d be surprised if they didn’t do something. Too um, but it’s not just Google in Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, HootSuite, Shopify, Moz we transfer box and more have been offering free reduced-price services in Some cases, funds for small businesses, we’ve been collecting a list of all of Those at Tribeca comm slash Cove at 19, similar to the list of resources that Rachel is doing for state, federal and and local resources for small businesses.
We’Re collecting digital marketing resources – and this is leads to my bonus – Tip of the day, which is if you’re using a software, ask them about their koban 19 Program, though, like if you’re, using a CRM or if you’re using you, know a Technology platform, if you say that then look I’m a small business, I’m struggling Right now, what can you do for me? I almost guarantee that they’re going to come.
Up with something maybe forgiving your fee for a few months, it’s worth the call It’S worth the Google search to see what they’re doing, because just about every Software company is offering something right now and just don’t be Shy to ask it now is the moment I wanted to you know: III, I am just inundated and Overwhelmed with an enormous amount of amazing responses, thank you all of you, Who filled out our survey so many insights and ideas and questions that we Definitely can address in this first webinar, but our plan is to do more.
I did Want to share one thing from Michelle Benesh. I think that that’s the way you Pronounce it from menu men, she wrote hoping I’m the last menu company Standing so we will gain market share. So the point there is that this is a moment. Obviously, of a challenge, but also of opportunity and we’re going to strike that Theme here in a minute as we wrap up so the first thing I wanted to do is I Wanted to announce that we’re going to be doing another community webinar next Week it’s Wednesday at 12:30 p.
M. Brewster Kahle has so generously agreed. He’S a branding expert, we’re calling it what now So, if you’re interested, please click that link and sign up, send it to friends. We actually hit capacity, which I never expected that we were going to do. We had More than a hundred people who wanted to join us and we’ll find a solution for That biz hack is also still in business. We’Ve moved all of our program offerings Online, we have traditionally done in-person classes, we’ll transition back To in-person, when the moment arrives, but we’re going to be continuing our online for Our 12-week program through online – I do not want to be selling right now, but I Do want to say that I am a small business.
I’M scared, like many of you, About what’s going to happen next, if you think, there’s someone that you Know who could benefit from learning how to market themselves online how to build Up their digital presence, that’s a link to our syllabus and our application and Then finally, I wanted to leave with a note our lead instructor for the current Business, a 12-week program which we’re offering online is Alex dr.
, bio, Of IBM and Constant Contact – and he intricate appointed me to this just Amazing quote in this amazing thing from Chinese in when written in Chinese, the Word crisis is composed of two characters: one represents danger and the Other represents opportunity, and I just want to leave by saying now is a moment: When we are all in danger – and we have unprecedented opportunity – and it’s Really a matter of frame of mind if you’re in a siege mentality and you’re Looking at just the erosion of your revenue and you’re, asking yourself how Am I going to survive this you’re, definitely feeling the danger? Part of crisis, but there is an opportunity part of crisis as well.
There’S an opportunity for you to reinvent your business to serve your Customers to think creatively about how to transition your business into an Online setting – and I just want to say that there is also a community of us who Are working on this with you? That’S what biz hack is all about is creating a Community of online marketers and businesses online to help you think, About how to deal with this incredible transition – and so I wanted to leave you With these words, which is focus as much as you can on the opportunity, when I say Thank you guys so much for being a part of this.
I am so grateful to all of you. For being here, thank you, 200 to Raphael and to Anna Robbins. I wish you guys the Best of luck with your businesses and everyone’s business, it’s online there Were a lot of questions that you asked that we weren’t able to get to in this Really packed setting we’re going to look for ways to continue to answer those Whether it’s on social media, on our blog on our website or perhaps in future Webinars stay in touch.
We have your email, Addresses all of you should have in your inboxes now a copy of this presentation. A list of tips for remote work, a list of tips for digital marketing resources, the County resource list of all the different things that you can Do and they link to RSVP for next week’s webinar looking forward to Brewster Kahle next Wednesday, at 12:30, and with that, thank you guys. Please send your Best regards in chat and we’ll see you really shortly.
Today, I'm going to share 7 digital marketing. Strategies that I have personally used and gotten results with, And if there's only one thing that you take away From this article, it's to not try all of these at once. Instead pick one of these strategies: experiment, and master the blog before moving on to the next, Let's get to it. So before we dig into these strategies, you need to make sure that you're adopting today's mindset of the consumer.
Today we live in a "content" first world. People are looking for information before they buy, so you need to put yourself in the buyer's shoes, rather than allowing yourself to get blinded by how great you think your products and services are. The mentality you need to adopt is to help people, rather than trying to cold, sell them. When you help people solve problems through free and valuable content that is relevant to your business. You reach larger audiences and build trust. The best part is that you get the opportunity. To show people how your products and services can help them solve their problems and fulfill their desires and needs.
BLOGGING!
Alright, so the first internet marketing strategy is blogging with SEO. Isn't writing about what you did today, or even something nobler like an epiphany, you had. This kind of content can work well if you have an existing and loyal audience. But for most of us, we just want to get more traffic leads and sales. We need to intentionally target problems that your target audience wants to solve In the world of blogging. This whole process can be summed up as a technique called a keyword, "Research". Let me show you two clear-cut examples of how keyword research works.
In the first example? Let's say you sell physical products like computer parts and accessories. What do you think future customers might be searching for in Google. Probably questions like why is my computer so slow. How to build a computer,? How to speed up a computer? These are all very real problems that people are looking for solutions to? Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer, tells us exact search queries get tens of thousands of searches each month. Now the best part about these specific queries, Is that you can help people solve their problems while integrating products from your store? In the content, "Why is my computer so slow?" It could be a hard drive, CPU or ram problem. So you should be blogging about fixing a slow computer. That will help readers diagnose their problems.
Don't forget to offer product solutions within your post "How to build a computer'' would be a super easy plug for any computer components. They're already showing intent to build, so it's unlikely that they've already purchased parts and peripherals.
Alright, here is the second example. Let's say: you're a real estate agent and you're compensated when someone buys sells or rents a property Now the thing that most agents do is boast. About how many homes they've sold or how they won an award that you nor I have never heard of. My point is that the average buyer or seller doesn't care and to prove my point, no one is searching for things like which realtor won the most awards in New York. But again, potential customers are looking For solutions to their problems. Problems like how to invest in real estate. How to buy a house? What credit score is needed to buy a house? And again, these all have the potential to attract a massive audience By ranking in Google for something like "how To invest in real estate?'' Now attracting potential buyers with deep pockets and they likely have intent to buy Content on "How to buy a house?'' would likely require the work of an agent at some point which could be you. "What credit score is needed to buy a house'' Is a great way to show that your knowledge and intentions go beyond making a sale. The best thing about blogging for SEO is that once you rank you'll be getting free, consistent and passive traffic from Google. If you're new to SEO.
Keyword Research
On doing keyword research that grows traffic and revenue, as well as an article on how to write A blog post with SEO in mind, for now, let's move on to the second strategy: Which is to invest in article content specifically on YouTube. YouTube is the second most visited search. The engine in existence To top that off article carousels nearly doubled, In 2017, in Google's search results, Video isn't just the future. It's the present and the same principle of helping potential Customers work for the article too. When people go to article search engines like YouTube, they're, looking to find answers to their questions. For example, if you bought a so-called "new iPhone X" on eBay, you might search for "Phone X, unboxing'' and see if all of the contents. Are in the box And according to Ahrefs' Keywords, Explorer 108,000 searches are happening each month globally on YouTube alone.
For this keyword, this article that you're reading right now was chosen because I can see that people are specifically looking for digital marketing. Tutorials for beginners To come up with topic ideas that people are searching for in your niche head over to Ahrefs' Keyword, Explorer switch the search engine to YouTube and search for a broad keyword in your niche. Let's use "makeup'' as an example.
Now "makeup'' as a standalone keyword, isn't a problem. So, let's go to the questions report where you can see popular questions. People are searching for your topic and right away. You'll see great topic: ideas, Like, "how to clean makeup brushes'' and how to cover acne with makeup. Now when you're, creating these articles, try And keep the fluff out and pack in as much necessary value as possible doing this has helped us grow our YouTube views to over 150,000 views per month and best of all, since all of our articles show how our SEO tools can help it's led to thousands of new paying leads and customers specifically mentioning that they found us through YouTube. Most of our article growth was done through Youtube SEO so I'll leave links to a tutorial to help you rank your articles and get more views. Next up is social media marketing, Rather than covering every social media network.
I want to pass on a couple of important tips that will help you grow your social blogs. The first is to focus on just one social media, Blog when you're, just starting It takes time to build a following, But numbers aren't everything. What you want is a loyal following When you dip your toes into every possible Social media network out there, your attention gets divided and the results get diluted So which social media marketing blog do You choose That leads us into the second tip, which is to go where your target audience is.
And cater to the platform, If you have to choose just one social network, it's not about choosing the one with the Most active users, It's all about understanding the audience. That'S there and if you can serve the reason for them being there, You need to think about why someone Is logging into the specific social media network, For example, people usually go to YouTube. To learn how to do something or to be entertained, But Facebook is different.
Think about it. Have you ever logged onto Facebook, hoping That you would see an unboxing tutorial Or better yet have you ever opened your Facebook App hoping you would find a limited time offer that's 97 % off only for the next 37 minutes? Probably not People don't check Facebook with a credit card in hand. People like and share helpful things. Interesting, shocking or funny, So if you are going to try and bring people Into your world present your message as a story article or something else that will Likely stand out from the endless feed of vacation vanity shots Pinterest, on the other hand, is primarily a Social search engine where people can control what they want to search for The primary intent of users on this platform.
Is to get inspired, learn things and plan to do things So create content that caters to their intent. For being there, So if this is your audience, take advantage, Of a less competitive landscape from both ads and organic perspective, Speaking of ads, that's the next digital marketing. Strategy on the list for today, When it comes to paid advertising, please do not Throw your money blind into an ad network, because you read that it was good.
What works for one person won't necessarily work for the next person Instead think about the ABCs of paid advertising. A is for audience B is for budget and C is for commerciality. We'Ve already covered the audience part. You want to engage on social networks where Your target audience hangs out The Budget is the next one. Bloomberg reported that Google and Facebook Own a combined 58 % of the 111 billion dollar market Now the way ads work are usually based on auctions, The more advertisers there are, the more expensive It gets for you and I So let's say you're in the ultra-competitive Industry of conference calling, If we search for that keyword in Keywords, Explorer with Google set as the search engine you'll see that the cost per click from Google Ads is $ 20.
If you have an ad budget of let's say $ 1,000 per month, then, you'd only be able to get 50 clicks before your budget was depleted. Instead, you can do two things. The first option is to look for keywords that Have a lower cost per click Just go to the Phrase match report to see. All keywords in our keyword database that contain your target keyword Next set a filter to only show keywords that Have a maximum cost per click of something lower like $ 5 From here, you can filter through the list.
And see if there are some more lucrative opportunities rather than spending $ 20 per click, This one for a “ conference call app'', might Be good since it's a quarter of the price Another benefit. Is that the reason behind The searcher's query is more clear. Someone searching for this is looking For an app that does conference calls, whereas someone searching for just “ conference Call'' could be looking for many different things.
The second thing you can do is an experiment. With less popular ad platforms, where your target audience might be, Finally is commerciality. Now all major ad platforms can bring Roi for their advertisers, Otherwise, they wouldn't exist, But you have to find a way to bridge the gap. Between the intent of the platform and how you monetize your products And the solution is going to be content, For example, let's say you sell boutique furniture And think that Pinterest will be a good platform to run some ads.
In my opinion, it wouldn't be a good idea. To advertise a bunch of links to high-end furniture like couches and dining tables, Instead, blog posts could work well. Here, since people log on to Pinterest mainly to get inspired and learn new things, Here's what that bridge might look like Pinterest ads would be the discovery tool You pay them money and they'll show your pin. The bridge would then be a helpful blog post.
On, let's say: “ 11 Interior Design Tips For Your Living Room That Won't Break the Bank.'' And within that content you could showcase your products where it supports the tip you're. Speaking of Nail, the ABCs of paid ads and increase your chances of actually converting your hard-earned dollars into ROI Next up is one of my favorites and that's podcasts. Now there are two ways to look at. Podcasts First are to create your own and the second Is to be interviewed on someone else's podcast, Creating your podcast can be great for Brand and building an audience, But if you're just starting it can take Quite a bit of time to get any sort of traction Getting interviewed on.
Podcasts are a different story. Podcasters are always looking for interesting. People to interview, Even if you don't have a ton of experience, In the online world, your offline experiences and expertise could be a great way to land Yourself a position on a popular podcast. Now, if you don't know which podcasts you Should approach an easy way to find opportunities is to look at your favorite podcasts and find Someone in your industry that has been interviewed Looking at the podcast page for Entrepreneur, On Fire, you'll see this episode with Jim Kwik.
Now, if we click through to the interview You'Ll notice, two things: The first is that the guest's name is in the title. This is very common for the podcast. Interviews. Second, is the link on the page? The host will almost always link to the guest's Home page in the show notes, Knowing this we can use a tool like Ahrefs' Site Explorer to find all podcasts they've been interviewed on So I'll enter in jAlso Set the search mode to a URL search, so we can find pages that are linking specifically To the homepage, Once the overview page loads go to the backlinks Report which will show you all of the pages that are linking to this URL. Finally, let's use the Include search and Type in Jim Kwik And to keep our results super relevant. I'm Going to set the filter to search for his name only in the titles of the referring pages, And we now have around 120 podcasts.
We can Pitch to get interviewed So filter through relevant podcasts and pitch The host as to why they should interview you and the value you can give to their audience Next on the list is email marketing. If you've ever looked into email marketing, then you've probably heard people claiming That “ email is king.'', But I promise you that once you get into it, You'Ll quickly discovers that it's not as turnkey as online gurus make it sound And don't get me wrong.
Email marketing is great, But first you need the traffic to get email subscribers. It also requires opt-in forms to turn a visitor Into a subscriber, In my opinion, email is a great long play. To build a connection with your audience and even sell high ticket items, So my tip for you on email marketing is quite simple. First focus on building your email list from day one It's important and you might as well collect Emails from interested people from the start, even if it's not a substantial list, But be realistic with your goals and as you build Your audience put more time into your email list and see how it can serve your business.
The final strategy is to use forums and Community boards, Community forums like Quora Reddit and Facebook Are great promotion blogs But before you go off and start posting links, To your product pages, there are a few things you need to understand, And these are all based around the unspoken Rules of spam First, don't promote your products or services. Pages within these groups, users on these platforms intend to learn Not to be sold to directly Instead think of these networks as a place, To share your expertise, build relationships and help others Second use links to your content sparingly.
If you're constantly posting links to your Blog and have justified in your head that this is non-promotional, then you're most Likely wrong Links can be more appropriate based on the network you're posting on, For example, Quora generally, has longer answers and linking to your content, where it supports your point is a good idea. Facebook groups, on the other hand, are a different Story, Let's say: you're a real estate agent and you Join a “ first time, homebuyers'' group on Facebook.
If someone asks a question like “ I'm looking to buy my first home and was wondering if I can even get a mortgage?'' Now, if every agent on that group posts links to their website, can you see how spammy that could get? Instead, it would make sense to post a link. To someone else's affordability, calculators or offer introductions to blenders, The point is that helping first will go a Lot farther than self-promotional content that can taint your reputation Now.
I'd love to hear from you, Which digital marketing strategy do you think Is most effective in online marketing? Let me know in the comments and if you enjoyed This article then make sure to like share and subscribe for more actionable SEO and Marketing tutorials So keep grinding away focus on one marketing. Blog before trying the next and I'll see you in the next tutorial
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