Friday, 31 May 2019

A Guide to SEO for Houston Small Businesses

guide to SEO

Following a guide to SEO techniques is one of the most reliable ways to get a Houston company indexed appropriately in Google and other search engines. The reason web content producers cannot ignore popular search engines is that they account for a high percentage of web traffic. Here are SEO strategies that Houston businesses can use to increase chances of search engine visibility.

 

Search Engine Basics

 

The art and science of conquering SEO for Houston businesses begins with understanding what Google’s search engine is meant for, which is to connect users with the type of content they seek. A small business has certain advantages if it serves a unique niche with little or no competition. One of the keys to successful local SEO is getting listed in as many relevant local search directories as possible. Primary elements that should be submitted to local directories are business description and location.

 

Adding Tools to Enhance Content and Search

 

One of the SEO tools for making sure your small business is appropriately indexed in search engines is Google Search Console, which helps measure a site’s search traffic and performance. This tool along with similar apps such as Screaming Frog can be used to fix technical issues such as broken links. Leaving errors on your site can draw penalties from search bots. Google Search Console will also help you analyze which queries attract the most users to your site.

 

Sitemaps and Blogs

 

You can increase the odds of better search results by submitting a sitemap and individual page URLs for Google to crawl your site. Sitemaps, which provide a list of web pages on a site, can be made for users or search engines to learn your site. While a sitemap for users is written in HTML, a sitemap for search engines uses XML.

 

Another essential key to achieving local SEO success is to use your neighborhood as a keyword combined with your type of business. Starting an authoritative blog that demonstrates expertise is another essential component of attracting target visitors to your content. The blog should contain a compelling headline with easy-to-read subheadings that summarize the content. It should also be interactive by allowing followers to post comments.

 

Waiting for Search Listings

 

The turnaround time for search engines to index your site can be several months, so it’s important to be patient and to work on organic search techniques in the meantime. Organic search is an ideal that connects users with your content without the help of paid advertising.

 

Simply writing strong content full of valuable information can lead to high search rankings, especially if you business is all alone in its niche. You can learn about top search queries from Google Trends and decide the best keywords to focus on for building content that’s in demand but with limited competition. Remember that web content is built on keywords but you also don’t want to overuse keywords, which search engines might regard as spam.

 

Adding Services to Your Arsenal

 

Two important vehicles for achieving success with search engines are pay-per-click (PPC) advertising services and social media marketing services. These two services open the door to increased interaction and exposure. PPC has proven to be the fastest path to generating web traffic while social media helps direct traffic to specific destinations.

 

Measuring Web Performance

 

There are various ways to measure web performance, depending on your business goals. One way is to look at how your site ranks in traffic compared with other sites. SEMRush is an excellent analytics site that provides a wealth of information about any given website’s traffic and rankings. An important factor to getting high search rankings that every web producer must recognize is that the content must be unique and cannot be duplicated from another site. Copyscape is a useful application for instantly finding out if text for a blog or article is copied from another site.

 

Page titles and meta data are very important for successful indexing. You can use Screaming Frog to find out if web pages are titled appropriately. This tool can help you identify titles that are too short or too long. You will also need to correct duplicated titles. Another problem that can affect search results is improper coding of

aHREFs and other HTML elements. All it takes for aHREFs to malfunction is a missing character in the URL.

 

Using SEMRush, Google Trends and Copyscape, you can get a good idea of how well your content serves your target audience. From there conquering SEO for a Houston company is a matter of creating useful content that people crave. While there is no universal guide to SEO since search engines do not publish all the factors that play into search results, it’s possible to develop SEO strategies based on studying analytics.

 

Aiming to Attract Users

 

Every content producer must keep in mind that search engines know the difference between robotic content written for bots and more fluid content written for humans. The goal is to attract both robots and humans to your site but you need to prioritize humans over bots in the big picture. Blogging is a way to showcase both personality and knowledge, as one without the other can hinder its development and appeal. A blog is meant to tell a story that gives readers a sense of your brand’s depth and experience.

 

An effective way to gain attention for your blog is to learn to avoid common beginning blogger mistakes. That means steering clear of jargon that your audience may not understand and emphasizing clear communication rather than trying to be too stylistic. Blogging should be similar to a conversational tone with an intense focus on making solid arguments.

 

The more you can demonstrate that you have deep knowledge about your craft that can’t be found elsewhere online, the more search engines will likely view your content as authoritative and original. Every blog should provide specific information that sets it apart from similar blogs that make broader statements.

 

Final Thoughts

 

Building relevant unique content will help align your site with search guidelines. The more quality web pages you create, which all serve as advertisements for your brand, the more likely search engines will view your site as useful to users.

 

It’s important to remember that no agency can promise specific results due to the secretive formula of search guidelines. You can, however, implement the best digital marketing industry practices to increase the odds of high search rankings. Use marketing tools and industry mentors to accelerate your campaigns. Consider us, a Houston based digital marketing consultancy, and take the next step for your company’s online visibility.


Learn more here.

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SEO & Digital Marketing Trends for Houston Business Owners: 5th Edition

pearland seo destiny marketing solutions

 

SEO Tips to Rank and Index New Content Faster

URL Inspection is the process of asking Google is they can see your content. You’re basically telling Google to place your URL in their queue to crawl. This makes your URL a priority this gets crawled faster. Visit URL inspection tool to learn more about how it works.

Create the right linking signals to tell Google “hey these pages are important, crawl me now”. Not only does linking new content from important pages within your site helps but also linking to older content.

Another way to get your new content noticed is by sending external signals. This can be achieved by sharing your content via your social media or getting it shared on sites like Reddit. [Read More]

 

Podcasts SEO

Google recently announced that Google searches results will include podcasts. In order for the podcast to be found, it must be transcribed. We already find youtube videos in search results so transcribing podcasts shouldn’t be any different. If you plan to start a podcast this new information just reiterates how well structured your content should be. [Read More]

 

Complete Your Google My Business Account

If you just started a new business chances are you signed up for a Google My Business account. A Google My business Account is what helps Google find your business when users search your type of business. Optimizing your Google My Business is key to ranking and increasing your click-through-rate.

Make sure your business is verified, has correct location areas, awesome business description, and verify your number, address, and location (NAP) are correct. [Read More]

 

How To Use The Power Of Social Media To Grow Your Business

With so many active users on social media, no wonder why this is a gold mine. Its well worth that you invest marketing dollars on social media. First start by optimizing your social media accounts with proper images, about section and business name.

Start testing out types of posts that will give insight into what type of content will get the most engagements. Testing times you post allows you to find a trend within your specific audience. [Read More]

 

If Your A Houston Business Owner And Want To Boost Your Revenue Then Click Below For A FREE ($497 Value) Analysis Of Your Business. 

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Friday, 24 May 2019

SEO & Digital Marketing Trends For Houston Business Owners: 4th Edition

SEO & Digital Marketing Trends for Houston Business Owners: 1st Edition

housto seo agency, houston business owners

4 Proven Tips To Build Trust For Your Local Service Area Business

Local SEO and paid ads help to bring traffic to your online business website but what if that traffic doesn’t turn into paying customers. Focusing on ways to convert traffic while on your site should be just as important.

Here are some ways to build trust:

  1. Team Pictures – Share some information about you and your team. This helps to show transparency thus build trust.
  2. Trust Symbols – This may include local association groups you are a part of, niche specific organization, local awards plus certifications.
  3. Case Studies – Show off work you did for a local customer
  4. Reviews – Social proof is changing the way consumers shop for products and services so build social proof for your business by asking for reviews.[Read More]

 

8 Ways Google Ranks Your Organic Content In 2019

Authority Hacker did a study to see how is Organic Content found in 2019 and below are the findings.

  1. Fighting for the #1 search spot is still the way to go with an average of 47% clicks, while #2 spot received an average of 16% clicks.
  2. Featured snippets are growing in popularity so make sure your snippets are optimized for best results.
  3. SSL website will rank you higher on search results so you must act now to secure your website.
  4. Backlinks are still the #1 way to rank on Google. Consider creating great content that gets linked and becomes an authoritative site in your niche.
  5. URL length isn’t a ranking factor. Instead, make sure you have the keywords you are trying to rank for. As long as your keywords are serving the searchers intent then you will be favored.
  6. There was a high correlation with high ranking and H1 header, meta tags and title description. When choosing keywords its best to find the highest ranking parent topic.
  7. The content length was not as big as a factor as once believed. Instead, Google favors content with the right keyword density and parent topic.
  8. Although you want a faster loading page to help lower bounce rate and increase conversions, the study found no correlation with loading speed and ranking.

Overall the study provided valuable insights and proves Google favors relevancy. [Read More]

 

How Quality Linkbuilding Can Rank Your Site

Many businesses know having your website link to their website will eventually increase your traffic but having Quality backlinks will rank you higher in Google searches.  Quality backlinks from sites that are authoritative, well-known and online publication carry more weight. You can find many link builders that will offer hundreds of backlinks at a low cost but having just 10 quality backlinks will help boost your site in the search engine and give your site more authority. [Read More]

 

If Your A Houston Business Owner And Want To Boost Your Revenue Then Click Below For A FREE ($497 Value) Analysis Of Your Business. 

 

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Friday, 17 May 2019

SEO & Digital Marketing Trends for Houston Business Owners: 3rd Edition

 

Houston marketing, seo services

Researching Keywords With The Buyers Journey In Mind 

We know researching the right keywords to use in paid advertising is key. Some tactics include spying on competitors keywords, comparing keyword search volumes and how competitive the keyword is but we are overlooking one important factor. When it comes to making ANY purchase decision consumers go through what is called a buyers journey. The basic buyer’s journey has 3 stages:

  1. Awareness – the consumer is researching a solution to a current problem
  2. Consideration – the consumer found several solutions and narrowing down to the best one
  3. Decision – Found the solution but with so many vendors they are looking for the best buying decision

In today’s world, product and service reviews are a huge motivation for buying decisions so it makes sense that one would target consumers in the different buying stages. Before creating a campaign find keywords or phrases that fit into each stage of the buyer’s journey. Keep in mind your industry and business since not all keywords fit all.

Congratulations! Now with a concise list of keywords, you can now target each stage of the buyer’s journey and build a successful buying funnel. [Read More]

 

SEO And Google My Business

Brightlocal did a study of 500 consumers and how they used Google my business. This study lead to ways you can improve on page and off page SEO. The findings were interesting and insightful if you’re looking to monetize from this tool.

The study asked 7 questions that lead to key findings. Consumers use Google my business mainly to find out about business hours, read reviews and find directions. Many mentioned they get turned off by inconsistencies on the business website and no information. [Read More]

 

Chatbots Taking Over Digital Marketing Trends

Today the chatbots trend is steadily growing and is one of the fastest growing opportunity in digital marketing. Chatbots are not only useful since they can be used 24/7 but they can save you money by eliminating customer service reps. 85% of interactions between consumers and businesses will be handled by chatbots. Although many are not as sophisticated now, with more information getting fed to these AI chatbots they will become just as sophisticated as humans. [Read More]

 

If Your A Houston Business Owner And Want To Boost Your Revenue Then Click Below For A FREE ($497 Value) Analysis Of Your Business. 

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Friday, 10 May 2019

SEO & Digital Marketing Trends for Houston Business Owners: 2nd Edition

Houston Seo agency

Repurpose Old Stagnant Content

 

Yes, your content can last forever on your website but when is it time to get rid of it? Repurpose old content when you notice a drop in page views, reduced time on page or lack of perceived value from your intended audience. Some examples include: use content in other platforms, change the title, add FAQ section, add new keywords, or adding outbound links to new references. This is a must-read for Houston based businesses using content to improve SEO. [Read more]

 

New YouTube Series: SEO Myths

Get Ready Houston! Google has a new Youtube SEO talk show. Traditional Google shows were a one-man show but this time there will be interviews with SEO experts. Judging from the video the series looks entertaining. Check out the trailer here. Topics include SEO tips, Googlebot and javascript frameworks to name a few. [Read more]

 

SEO for Houston Events

Are you planning an event in Houston? Google has a feature called “Event Pack” that will display your search result in position zero. That’s right zero. Zero is a result before traditional organic search. If a target search term triggers your event you will see an increase in CTR. Another way to optimize your event is by marking your event using Google’s event schema. Make sure you mark up all areas needed for your event to get the most out of this feature.[Read more]

 

Rank Beyond Your Location

When someone triggers a service near search Google gives you what is called a local pack. A cluster of businesses offering the service you’re looking for. To rank in the local pack you must claim your Google My Business Listing and get a few reviews. Invest in building local business listings manually or from help from an SEO agency. When creating content mention surroundings cities or neighborhoods in order to populate in a wider local pack results.[Read more]

 

GoogleAds Mistakes

If your a business running GoogleAds campaigns for your business here are some tips to increase your CTR. The First mistake is not creating a well-organized campaign using search intent keywords, not just a general keyword. For example, instead of using Houston lawyer a more relevant search term would be Houston DUI lawyer. This helps get inside of what a user is actually searching. Another mistake many businesses do is have too many keywords in an ad group. Instead, have well-organized 3 ads per group so you have had an eye view of what keywords are working the best. The last mistake seen is not using ad extensions. You are missing out on valuable Google search real estate to take advantage of as many extensions as possible.[Read more]

If Your A Houston Business Owner And Want To Boost Your Revenue Then Click Below For A FREE ($497 Value) Analysis Of Your Business. 

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Monday, 6 May 2019

How SEO Works: A Guide for Houston Business Owners

If you’re a Houston business owner, you may have heard about how SEO can help grow your business, especially if you’re locally based. Rather than having a general idea that search engine optimization can benefit your business, it’s better to know the mechanics of how SEO works.
 
Here’s a helpful SEO tutorial that will walk you through the fundamentals so that you really understand what you’re potentially getting into.


What Is SEO? Learning What the Search Engines Want and How to Give it To Them



The goal of the search engines is simple. They want to provide the best possible search results for the queries, or questions, that users type in. By accomplishing this goal, their users will come back and the search engine companies will be able to monetize from their users by selling ad space to advertisers.
 
To provide the best possible search results, they’ve created an algorithm to rank websites. For the most part, it’s all about providing relevant and valuable results.

If you’re a business owner in Houston, you’ll want to build a campaign that works with this algorithm. For the most part, you’ll want to provide web pages that are relevant, informative, and helpful to your target audience. Your website should also further your goal of generating a lead or sale.
 
The process of optimizing your website to attain high search engine rankings is called SEO.



What’s Inside the Search Engine Algorithm?



There are multiple factors that Google may look at to determine the ranking of your website. Keep in mind that Google focuses on ranking individual pages although the quality of the website as a whole plays a strong role.
 

Here are the ranking factors to consider:

  1. Links and Citations – Links pointing to your page are seen as votes in the eyes of Google. So the more links you have, the higher your site will rank as long as the links going to your site are related to the topic of your site. Citations are mentions of your business (name, address, phone number, etc.) and are important in the local search results. 

  2. Reviews of your Business – If you’re a Houston based business, it’s important to know that customer reviews on your Google My Business profile is a strong ranking factor. The more high rated reviews you have, the higher you will rank in the local search results.

  3. Site Structure and Performance – Google needs to be able to crawl through your site to find all the pages. This will allow them to index those pages in their results and categorize pages properly. Google also looks at various aspects of your site’s performance. This includes the loading time of your site (lower is better), mobile friendliness, abandonment rates, actions taken on site, and more.

  4. On-page Optimization – Your pages need to be properly optimized so that Google understands what it’s about and how relevant it is to the search. This process includes using meta tags properly, making sure that related keywords are used naturally in the content, and linking to the right sources (internally and externally).

  5. Quality of Content – The content on your page does matter. Your content must be relevant to the search, valuable to the visitor, and be authoritative. This is obviously linked to site performance metrics like abandonment rates and actions taken upon landing. Some SEOs have even found that longer form content outranks short form content.

 

Part 1: Building a Successful SEO Campaign 



Building a successful SEO campaign requires many steps. The best place to start the campaign is by working on your site. As mentioned just a moment ago, you need to have a site structure that is built properly. This will serve as a strong foundation for the rest of your campaign.

To make sure you have this foundation, you’ll need the following:

  1. A web designer that can create a design that is attractive, loads quickly, and facilitates conversions for your business. An example of a conversion would be someone filling out your contact form.
  2. Web developers that understand how to reduce loading times on a technical level and work with existing scripts and plugins on your site.
  3. SEOs that can create tightly themed categories and linking structures so that the Google search bot can find your pages and determine what they’re about.



Part 2: Keyword Research and Content Creation

The next step is to conduct keyword research and follow it up with the right kind of content.

Here’s what you’ll need to do to continue building your campaign:

  1. Conducting keyword research to figure out what to optimize your site for. Building your campaign on the most opportunistic keywords and working your way up is often the best approach.
  2. Figuring out what the intent behind the keyword search is so that you can get ideas on how to frame your content page. Not understanding intent will lead to low quality content or unaligned messaging.
  3. Creating content for target keywords. You will need to either write the content yourself or hire someone else to do it. Content will be based on what you think the keyword intent is and how you can deliver value to the user.
  4. Optimizing your content page properly to enhance your relevancy to both Google and their users.  



Part 3: Link Building and Citations



Now we’ve come to the point where the process of SEO marketing begins. You’ll need to acquire links by creating a marketing campaign designed to spread your content, build influence, and create relationships. Here’s a summary of what a successful campaign may look like:

  1. Submitting your website to the proper business directories. You’ll also want to go after industry related directories and sites to get citations.
  2. Creating and distributing your content across many channels and partners to acquire links naturally.
  3. Going forward with an outreach campaign to contact related sites that may want to post your content (guest blogging) or exchange links in some manner.
  4. Building a large social media following to help supplement your SEO campaign.
  5. Forming relationships with social media influencers so that they can potentially link to your content in the future.

Part 4: Reviewing Content and Analytics



Finally, you’ll have to look through your campaign to get an idea of what’s working and what’s not working in your campaign. You want to look at the following:

  1. Which ranked pages are generating leads and sales for your campaign and which aren’t. You’ll want to focus on the pages that are performing well and place less emphasis on those that aren’t.
  2. Which keywords you’ll need to funnel your resources to. An SEO campaign is dynamic, so you’ll need to constantly shift how you use your resources.
  3. What kind of topics and content your audience is responding to. You’ll want to create more of what’s resonating with them.
  4. What outreach method and strategy is leading to the most link acquisitions. 

Frequently Asked Questions About SEO



Q: Can you build a SEO campaign for free?

A: It’s possible, but you’ll want to invest in tools that can help with your research and speed up the process. You’ll also need to invest in a team to help build your campaign as doing it yourself will end up consuming all of your time.

Q: Can I learn SEO on my own?

A: Yes, there are many free resources that you can find online to learn SEO on your own. Keep in mind that it can get quite technical and might pose as challenging to learn for some. Here’s a SEO guide that we’ve created for beginners.

Q: Can I Learn How to Do SEO Quickly?

A: Yes, it’s possible to learn SEO quickly. However, most people learn through trial and error. It’s very likely that you’ll make mistakes in your campaign as a beginner and waste a lot of time.

Final Thoughts on SEO for Houston Business Owners

That’s a quick guide on how SEO works. While it looks simple from a fundamental perspective, it’s really all in the details. SEO can be very challenging, time consuming, competitive, and even costly. Some business owners will be able to build a successful campaign themselves, but many will usually require outside help to build and manage their campaign while they’re working on their business.

If you are looking for help with your campaign, feel free to contact us for a free video audit.

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Wednesday, 1 May 2019

SEO & Digital Marketing Trends for Houston Business Owners 1st Edition

Houston SEO digital marekting small business

The Future of Voice Search 

https://streetfightmag.com/2019/01/14/voice-search-readiness-in-2019-and-beyond/ 

Technology is changing and more brands continue jumping on the voice search wagon. ComScore predicts by 2020 50% of all consumers will be using voice search. This is a huge game changer for SEO marketers looking to target consumers with the right keywords. Businesses need to start focusing on long tail keywords when structuring paid advertising in order to get found. 

 

Become A Local Authority With Content

https://www.advicelocal.com/blog/local-content-marketing-infographic/

Creating the perfect SEO Geo-specific google campaign is a start to gain some traction in paid search ads. In addition to having a sales page, you need the perfect content to laser target Houston consumers and boost your traffic and conversions. Before creating local content you must first know your ideal consumer and their needs. For example, a Houston plumber can create a guide for troubleshooting a basic plumbing issue and at the end include a call to action button if they are ready to hire them.

<a href=”https://hubshout.com/?p=Resources_Infographic&IID=1736″><img src=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/systememailimages/41_20160729_6114016.jpg”></a><br><a href=”https://hubshout.com”>HubShout</a>

 

Are Emojis Effective When Used In Email News?

Emojis are great icons used to express emotions to your reader but do they work in email newsletters? According to an article in PublishersDaily emojis help give a human touch to emails thus increase reader engagement. Using emojis may be a clever way of adding emotions and humor but testing must be done beforehand. A/B testing emails with vs without emojis is a must to see how your audience responds. Lastly, pay close attention to how the emojis come across different platforms and the receiver isn’t just getting a code.

 

Ranking #1 On Google. Is It Worth it?

https://ahrefs.com/blog/ranking-number-one-is-overrated/

Getting to that coveted #1 spot for your keyword is what SEO is all about but what if I told you that being #1 gets clicked only 49 % of the time. This is from a 100,000 query study done by ahrefs where it reveals #2, #3 and #4 get just as many clicks as number one the other 51% of the time. As an avid Google user, I can attest that I never click on the first few searches. Why? It’s spammy. Consumers are sick and tired of being bombarded with ads. Marketers need to focus on cutting through all the ad noise and create more relevant content.

 

Ahrefs:  New Search Engine

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ahrefs-search-engine/300573/

Ahrefs CEO Dmitry Gerasimenko plans to compete with Google in order to give content creators more site visitors. Ahrefs is best known for tools to help with SEO and rank websites on search engines now they are going a step further to help content creators make money from their writing and innovative efforts. I’m looking forward to seeing this search engine showdown but rooting for the underdog of course.

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for Houston Business Owners

1st Edition appeared first on Destiny Marketing Solutions - Digital Marketing Firm in Houston, TX.



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