Search Engine Optimization 3 - Old City Web Services

More Internet Terminology Explained

November 17, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

It can be a challenging task to keep up with both your small business and your online presence when often the terminology can leave you confused. Here are some useful definitions to help you as you work on your website so you understand what is important.

Browser – A browser is the software application you use to retrieve information from the internet. It may not seem important what browser you use or your site visitors are using, but often it is. If you use an outdated browser, the webpages viewed may appear broken and all the elements that you worked so hard on for building your website won’t look good. Having an up to date, user friendly browser like Firefox or Chrome is best when using the web.

Blog – a blog is a website or place on your website where you add recurring information. It can be a personal blog, editorial, informational, or sales. A blog is a great way to regularly update your website, which Google loves for search rankings if you are using the right keywords.

Keywords – Speaking of keywords, here’s what that means: keywords are words used in your webpage that both describe the work that you do and make your site relevant for showing up in search engines. You can make your website or webpage show up in popular searches by using keywords, but make sure that the words you are using are relevant to your site. You want people to not only come to your site, but to stay because they’ve found your information useful.

E-Commerce – this is the use of the internet to sell products. You can leverage your website to not just draw people to call you or come into your store, but you can also sell directly to them online. Consider setting up an e-commerce shop online to increase your sales reach.

Plugin – a plugin extends or expands the functionality of your website. Plugins are easy-to- use additions to the backend of your website that make things like building forms, displaying photos, and even adding an online shop much simpler and more streamlined and easy to maintain.

All of these are things that we can help you with to maximize your website, too. Contact us today to learn more!

Content Marketing Part I: Use Analytics

September 17, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

We are beginning a new four part series which will be centered around content marketing. This week, we are looking at how to use Google Analytics to improve your content marketing. Believe it or not, there is actually a way to make use of the information you gather from your analytics report – bounce rates, where visitors come from, how long visitors stay on your site, what pages they view, and what page they leave from. It can be difficult to know what data is important enough to track so you can maximize your small business website.

Give direction

So, you have a page or pages on your site that has high page views, but it also has a high bounce rate. On the one hand, the visitor may just be finding all they were looking for and therefore your page is valuable. But you want to take this a step further and give the viewer something else enticing or compelling to view, keeping them on your site rather than leaving right away.

Track Daily

By regularly monitoring your top pages of content, you can see what is trending and even go in to those pages and make changes that are more current or link to other places on your site to keep viewers on your site longer. An old blog post or a page about an old event can be updated to link to other relevant content that the viewer would find enticing.

Discover viewer intent

Even if you have a page with high views, if you see those are coming from keywords that make it obvious that the viewer is not getting what they expected from your page, you can change your content to better fit what a viewer is or isn’t looking for. Getting page views that aren’t relevant to what you are marketing doesn’t help your business. Make sure you have your content drilled down to attract the right visitor with the right information at the right time.

We at Old City Web Services are experts at getting your website content where it needs to be for optimal marketing of the website you have invested so much time and energy into. Let us help you wade through your Analytics report and get your content at its highest potential. Call us or email us today!

Next week, we’ll be looking at Part II of Content Marketing: Build Your Strategy

Promoting Your Website Part I: SEO

August 5, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

The next 4-part series we have is going to focus on how you can take the website you have now and promote it, maximizing it's potential and making the most of it for your business.

Today, in Part I, we are discussing Search Engine Optimization, more often known as SEO.

The foundation of promoting your website is having it positioned in web search result rankings. SEO is what works in the background of your website and plays a vital role in how successful your website will be.

How do you, as a small business owner, use SEO to promote your business?

Set Goals: in order to do this, you need to determine the main purpose of your site. Then you can target customers, which will help you define the audience that you are trying to reach. Then you can pinpoint your competition for that audience which will help you determine what your goals for SEO will be. Your goals can be in relation to your own business - to increase your online sales leads, or in relation to your competition - to rank higher than them in search engines. Or you may have branding goals - to dominate the search rankings for a certain term closely related to your brand.

This brings us to Keywords: You, as the owner of your business, know a lot about what words define you and the services you provide. But you also need to know what others think of and what words they will use when trying to find your niche. The combination of what you know and what internet viewers are looking for, will help you to make the most of keywords to keep your business promotion strong in search engines.

Remember that SEO is your website's Way of Life: Everybody knows that for your body to be healthy, it has to be maintained constantly - regularly eating healthy and getting exercise. The same is true for your website. You can't just go for a 5 mile jog and call it good for life. You have to keep it up. You can't just set up your website and leave it. It has to be regularly maintained and tweaked to keep up with growing needs and requirements on the internet.

Next week, we'll discuss more about branding and branding goals for promoting your website in Part II of this series. Be sure to check it out!

Analyzing Google Analytics

April 29, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Analyzing Google Analytics

You've got your website
You've got Google Analytics Installed
You get a report monthly
And you have no idea what it means
Don't worry - you are not alone!

Google Analytics can be extremely helpful in honing in your message to your audience but only once you understand who your audience is, how they interact with your website, and why they are there in the first place. Everything in your analytics report is telling you something about your audience and how you can improve your online presence and experience for users.

There are many different insights that Google offers you through Analytics.

How you are acquiring web visitors?
Typing your URL (domain) directly in their browser?
Clicking on your website from a search engine?
Arriving via links you have posted to social media?
Arriving from websites where you advertise?

All of these are important things to know, and can be determined in the referral section of your analytics report.

Understand the behavior of your web visitors. Once you know how they are arriving at your site, you can analyze what they are doing once they get there.

Are they clicking on your coupon?
Are they clicking for directions?
Are they going deeper into your site and onto other pages to find out more about your business?
Or are they leaving immediately?

Understanding who your visitors are can help you market better, too

Have more females or males?
What is the age group of your viewers?
Domestic or international?

Knowing the answers to these questions, you can tweak your marketing strategy accordingly to bring in more from certain demographics.

What device are they using to get to your website?

Phone - Is your site mobile friendly?
Tablet
Desk Top

If most of your website visitors are coming to your site on their phone or tablet and your site isn't optimized for a mobile experience, there is no way you can keep them around long enough to keep their business. If most of your viewers are on desktops, investing in a custom mobile website doesn't need to be at the top of your priority list.

All of the information on your Google Analytics report is there to help you help business grow.

Knowing
Understanding
Changing with your audience is key to keeping your business growing.

How can we help you understand how to get you the information you need from Analytics? Give us a call or email us today! Call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us today!

Quick and Dirty Search Engine Optimization Tips

March 11, 2015 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

In this day of every business having a website and the demand for digital information being so high, it's critical that the website you put forth to the world is optimized for search engines. Simply having a website is not all it takes - it has to be found by those searching for your business' niche for you to gain the site traffic and thus business to keep you going.

Here are some quick and dirty tips for keeping your website optimized so the work you can reap the benefits of the work and money you put into creating it:

There are a few things that every website should have to help with optimization.

Search bar - a search bar on your homepage will aid in navigation and encourage the viewer to go further into your site, increasing page views and thus page ranking

Links to internal pages of your website - in addition to a search bar that will help visitors explore deeper into your site, having links on your homepage to interior pages will keep visitors on your site longer as they explore all your site has to offer. Don't go overboard, but provide them with easy links to internal pages so they can find what they are looking for.

Photos - adding visuals your website will make it more aesthetically appealing. Aesthetics isn't enough though. Your photos need to be tagged appropriately. Having your photo show up labeled as DSC_100 doesn't help your SEO. Having your photo of your business tagged and labeled with the name and location of your business makes your site not only look more professional but helps search engines know what your non-text content is and helps your ranking.

Quality content - Speaking of content, you have to have quality content. Quality content isn't one-size-fits-all. Depending on your website, quality content could be informational, humorous, newsworthy, or educational. Quality content is valuable and doesn't waste the viewer's time. Make it short, sweet, and valuable. Making it shareable is also important - catchy headlines, and succinct information will make viewers much more likely to share your information on social media.

All of these are things that will improve your site's optimization that we at Old City Web Services are skilled at helping you with.. Contact us today to optimize your website and optimize your business!

If you'd like for us to help you in taking your business to the next level, call us (904.829.2772) or e-mail us and we will be happy to offer our services!

5 SEO Mistakes to Avoid

October 15, 2014 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

It seems like search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, making it very difficult to keep on top of best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Despite these constantly changing factors, there are basic SEO mistakes you'll want to avoid.

Not Researching Keywords Properly

Your website shows up in search engine results based on keywords. It is vitally important to do your research on keywords and produce content that matches those words. Otherwise you are limiting your opportunities to be seen online.

Displaying low-value backlinks

Link building is an important part of your online presence, but you must consider quality over quantity. It is much more important to go after links with authority in your niche rather than spam or irrelevant links.

Not Updating Site Enough

Fresh content matters. Not only does new content help with keywords, but it keeps your site up to date, relevant, and will help with rankings based on Google's new freshness ranking.

Avoiding Analytics

You need to be measuring your website's data so you can know what areas are performing well and what areas are underperforming. This is the only way you will know how to optimize your site better. Setting goals for conversion and monitoring terms that are driving traffic are integral parts of your optimization for search engines.

Focusing Too Much on Search Engines and Not Enough on People

While rankings in search engines matters, don't forget about your site visitors. There is a balance to be struck that will help your ranking which will bring more people to your site, but once they are there you want them to feel like you're site is there for them, not for Google. Make sure the content of your site is of value to your visitors and not just a search engine.

How many people are finding your site?

December 11, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Proven ways to market your website

So, you've taken the time and spent the money on a brand new website, but now what? You now have the challenge of bringing in traffic and not just any traffic, but new, qualified visitors that will spend time exploring your site and essentially contact you for either more information or to secure the deal.

Marketing your website once it's live is just as important (if not more so) than the site itself. Today, we are going to give you two HUGE ways to pull people into your site.

SEO, SEO & MORE SEO

We cannot emphasize the importance of this enough! Search engine optimization (SEO) is the primary way people are going to find you online. Search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo are taking over the web and you can guarantee people will be searching for you (and your competition!) on them. DO NOT let your competition get ahead. Make it easy for people to find you, and only you, by having your site fully optimized by a professional. Test it out by signing into your Google Analytics account and see what common keywords and phrases people are using to find you. Then Google these key-phrases and see if your website comes up as a result. If you don't see a link to your site on the first results page, people aren't finding you, plain and simple. Since SEO trends are constantly changing based on alterations made by search engines, this is something that should be ongoing and maintained to ensure your one step ahead of competition.

Facebook Ads

In September 2013, Facebook had 728 million daily active users and 874 million monthly mobile active users. Furthermore, these millions of users are spending a huge amount of time on the site-- an average of 55 minutes a day or 30 hours a month! The final kicker-- Everyone's on Facebook! All types of demographics are now regular users of the social network. So how does this pertain to generating more traffic to your website? Facebook Ads allow you to target specific demographics based on location, age and even those who have "Liked" your page. Basically Facebook Ad's are a cost-effective way to take advantage of Facebook's traffic in order to bring these users to your website.

Make sure your SEO and ad campaigns are done right the first time -- contact Old City Web Services so that people will start finding your website online today!

Once you've mastered these two crucial marketing challenges, you can focus on growing your website and expanding your social media presence, which will in-turn increase your web traffic exponentially.

Google Devalues Link-building Tactics

August 21, 2013 by anoadmin

For years, SEO professionals have emphasized the importance of increasing the number of external in-bound links to a site in an effort to build authority and trust, hence boosting organic search rankings. One by one, Google has been devaluing these tactics. What does this mean for your website? These changes will remove value that your site previously enjoyed by means Google classifies as unnatural. Below, we've included three devalued link building tactics from Google's latest link scheme guidelines:

Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links.
Advertorials or advertising where payment is received for articles that include links that pass PageRank.
Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites.

Feeling overwhelmed or possibly scared that your company's website may be affected by Google's ever-changing algorithms? Are you 100% certain your site is optimized organically? Don't fret! Let the professionals that specialize in organic SEO and SEM maintain and monitor your website's rankings so that it won't be devalued because of new policies. For more information, contact us today by giving us a call: 904.829.2772 or emailing us: letusmarketyou@oldcity.com.

3 tips on advertising your business online

July 10, 2013 by anoadmin Leave a Comment

Making room in your marketing mix for online advertising does not always have to burn a hole in your wallet. There are numerous inexpensive ways to advertise your business online that can have just as big of a return as some of the more costly ways. Below are 3 cost-effective tips on advertising your business online:

1. Get local

First, make sure your business is claimed on local listings such as Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Places for Business. Take advantage of these free tools that will increase your search result rankings for locals or visitors searching online in your area. Also, don't forget to utilize community sites that have a proven track record of high volume visitors. If you are a local shop, restaurant, B&B or other St. Augustine business that is not taking advantage of advertising on OldCity.com, you should seriously consider it! Advertising or having your business listed (and back-linked to your website) is the most cost-effectively way to get the word out about your business to a more targeted group. It's this simple: Our traffic becomes your traffic.

2.Try Facebook Ads

We've said it before and we'll say it again -- but this time with some stats! In 2010, the total Florida population was 18,732,783 and 42% or7,839,520 people were Facebook users!(www.internetworldstats.com). Furthermore, you can expect the number of Facebook users has nearly doubled in the last 3 years. Why choose Facebook? For the simple fact that it allows you to create several ads and target them based on location, demographics and interests. It's directed, effective and most importantly - affordable.

3. Publish Yourself

It's not nearly as difficult to get published these days as we see many more credible online publications forming. How does it work? Submit articles, PSA's, press releases, news releases, etc. to various reputable and local websites. In return for your content, many of these websites will offer back-links to your website providing you with potential traffic and leads for your business. This will also help you become established as an expert in your field or industry.

Want to start advertising your business online today, but would rather let an expert help? Contact Old City Web Services today! We'll take the stress off your shoulders by determining the online advertising outlet(s) that's best suited for your business needs. Give us a call: 904.829.2772 or email us: letusmarketyou@oldcity.com for more information.