Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Articles
3 Reasons to Optimize for Branded Keywords
Some site owners may wonder; why should I bother to optimize my site for branded keywords? I already rank well for them and get all the traffic anyway. Why should I actively make it part of my SEO? This is actually a question we get a lot from many website owners. After all, your brand is everywhere...
Let Us Know Your Marketing Concerns!
It's true that we help our clients increase their organic traffic through white hat search engine optimization practices. We have a proven track record of success and we know that our methods produce great results. Although this is what we focus on, we have learned that marketing should be looked at...
Save SEO Efforts with a 301 Redirect
There’s a lot that goes into a website redesign. However, because your choices can impact your SEO, it’s important to take a very careful approach before your site goes live. Redesigning the business website may be necessary in order to keep the site looking “fresh” or if the company has und...
SEO Reasons to Launch a Blog
From a marketing standpoint, there are lots of reasons to launch a business blog as a part of your website. Blogging is a way to demonstrate your expertise in your niche and a blog is also a convenient outlet for sharing product updates and company news. However, blogging has plenty of additional SE...
Make These 5 Website Fixes to Improve SEO
While it’s true that great content, keyword incorporation, and quality inbound links are at the forefront of an SEO campaign, one important contributor to SEO success that sometimes doesn’t get the attention it deserves is website design and development. Website design and SEO complement each ot...
B2B Link Building is Reputation Building
Besides asking trusted friends and family members, where is the first place that people usually go to in order to find out more information about a company or brand? The answer is that they head straight to the computer or take out their mobile device and start searching online. Information about ju...
Give Your SEO Firm the Benefit of the Doubt
You spent a lot of time vetting SEO firms until you found the best one to hire. The process underway, things appear to be going smoothly. Maybe you start reading articles that you found online, you start getting sales emails from other firms, or you have a discussion with someone about SEO. Throu...
SEO Mistakes Web Developers Make
SEO and web development go hand in hand. SEO work in conjunction with web development work attract both the search engine spiders and target audience members to a website. However, web developers aren’t SEO professionals (just as SEO professionals aren’t web developers!). Sure, they might have s...
SEO Basics Never Change
When it comes to search engine optimization, things change constantly. SEO strategies that worked five years ago may not work today, or worse – they can cause penalties. It gets especially sticky when Google rolls out another algorithm change. SEO strategists and web developers often scramble to...
Why Does Black Hat SEO Still Work?
We are What Hat SEO firm, which means that we use strategies that are completely in line with Google's Webmaster Guidelines. We love helping our clients increase their web presence in a natural way. We are transparent about what we do and we don't guarantee results in any way. Every now and then,...
Why SEO Shouldn’t Wait Until “Later”
Are you getting your business website up and running? There’s so much to do, it can be difficult to prioritize your tasks. In the beginning, you’re likely focused on tasks that are immediately important, such as making sure your site looks great, is easy to navigate, and has some decent content ...
Black Hat Tactics and White Hat Alternatives
There are many tactics that can be used in a search engine optimization campaign to attract the attention of search engine spiders and get a website ranked prominently for specific keywords. Some of these tactics are considered to be white hat, which means that they are tactics that “play by the r...
Are You Really Ready for SEO?
A prominent organic search listing can be a boon for business, which is why executing an SEO campaign is really a no-brainer. The majority of website owners know this, but at the same time they also think that they can jump right into SEO whenever they feel like it. But that’s just not the case. B...
3 Things You Must Do to Earn Natural Links
Inbound links (or links from other websites pointing to your website) are one of the top Google search ranking criteria. While an important part of a search engine optimization campaign is to actively seek out link building opportunities, it’s also necessary to take steps in order to increase the ...
SEO Con Men Are Alive and Well
Do you regularly get emails from people who are trying to drum up business for their SEO services? This happens to me all the time. In fact, I received one just the other day. Typically, the emails read something like this: Hello, You could be doing much better in the search engines. As part ...
How to Make Social Media Work for SEO
When someone tells you that social media doesn’t impact SEO, they’re only half right. It’s true that there aren’t any direct ties to your follower count, number of likes and shares, and links that you share in the search engine algorithms. Yet, that doesn’t mean that social media doesn’t...
What’s the Difference Between Search Queries and Keywords?
Have you ever noticed that people often use the terms "search queries" and "keywords" interchangeably? The assumption is that they are the same thing, but there is, in fact, a difference between them. Simply put, the keyword is the phrase that we target when putting together an SEO program for our f...
SEO Results Can’t Be Promised
One of the first questions that prospects often ask during the sales process about our SEO services is, “So when can I be on the first page of Google?” While it seems like a fair question to ask an SEO firm, the response that we give is always the same. We cannot promise that kind of result from...
The First 3 Steps of an SEO Campaign
For those new to SEO, it can be a little daunting. There’s a lot involved: keyword research, on-site optimization, link building, content marketing, social media, etc. Where do you start? What’s the best approach: all at once or start with one thing and build to the next? Different SEO firms wil...
Use Keyword Data to Make On Page Improvements
Despite what you might believe, keyword ranking data isn’t the “be all, end all” SEO metric to track. That’s because rankings fluctuate and vary depending on the device being used to search and the location and search history of the person searching. While overall organic traffic growth (and...
3 Easy Ways to Enhance Your SEO Content
The word is out: content is king. We’ve been hearing it for years but it’s clear that website owners are finally getting behind the statement. Essentially, everyone is creating content. The problem is, a lot of this content is sub-par, at best, which means that there’s still opportunity for yo...
The 5 W’s of SEO
SEO is a form of marketing and just like any good marketing program, you need to understand certain things before you can be successful with it. One way to look at it is that you should have a clear understanding of the who, what, where, when, and why before you can get anywhere good. The more knowl...
SEO Tactics that Work
If you know anything about SEO, you know that it’s an ever changing industry. Search engine optimization was a much different game even just one year ago. The search engines are continually changing their algorithms and what worked before may not work now. In fact, what worked before may even g...
Incorporate Long Tail Keywords into the Mix
Perhaps one of the biggest indicators of SEO success is whether or not the correct keywords are chosen to target throughout the campaign. These keywords will be used throughout on site content and within every additional piece of content that is published on the web (press releases, blog posts, etc....
What to Do if You Have Unnatural Links
As a part of its effort to be more transparent about its practices, Google has been sending out a notification to webmasters alerting them when unnatural links are detected. The notice itself serves as an FYI and doesn’t necessarily mean that a penalty has occurred (yet). The only way to really...
Patience Is A Necessity When It Comes To SEO!
Once you have decided to implement a search engine optimization campaign, it’s important to understand that the desired outcome may not come for months, sometimes many months. Even if you have done everything correctly you aren’t going to get instant results. However, the wait will be worth it! ...
Tips for a Productive SEO Consulting Meeting
Business success today is largely dependent on online visibility, and the search engines play a large role in this. Web users want instant gratification and they won’t spend time looking beyond the first one or two pages of search results. Therefore, it’s extremely important for a business to ha...
How to Properly Ask for an SEO Quote
At some point during the hunt for a white hat SEO provider, chances are you’ll need to get an SEO quote from several firms. Obviously budget is a big factor in your decision (although it shouldn’t be the only factor!) and it’s important that you know what kind of work you can expect from each ...
5 Signs It’s Time to Switch SEO Providers
Outsourcing SEO work makes a lot of sense. After all, SEO is a specialized industry and a campaign requires time and resources that an in-house marketing team might not have. But how do you know you’re working with the right SEO company? If any of these red flags sound familiar, it might be time t...
SEO, Content and Social All Work Together
The way people search for information online isn't necessarily linear, which means that they may arrive at your website in unpredictable ways. Will they find your website based on search results, social signals, or a combination of both? The reality is that social media and SEO work together and enh...
What to Look at to Measure SEO Success
The first thing you should do as you embark on an SEO campaign is ensure that you have Google Analytics and Search Console set up on the website. After all, you don’t want to invest in a campaign that you can’t measure the results of. If you’ve never optimized your website and you’re comp...
Where to Start Your SEO Efforts
Quality. You’ll hear that word a lot in SEO circles. You need quality website content and quality inbound links pointing to your website in order to rank prominently for valuable keywords in the search engines. But where do you start? Creating content, building links, or both? To make the most of ...
SEO is About More that Just On-Page Optimization
SEO has changed a lot since the early days, and most of it has to do with how much more sophisticated things have become. The queries that search engine users make have change a lot, and so have the search engines. With all the algorithm advancements made after the past few years, the search engine...
Broken Links Can Hurt Your SEO Efforts
Broken links are a part of owning and/or managing a website and if they're not addressed, they can hurt your long term SEO efforts. In fact, they're bad from both a search engine perspective and a user perspective. Marketers need to continually monitor broken links and address them before they can...
Don’t Overlook These SEO Steps During a Website Redesign
Website redesigns often make sense every couple of years in order to keep a website fresh and relevant. If you’re considering a redesign, it’s important to pull your SEO provider into the conversation as early as possible. If you aren’t working with an SEO professional, it’s a smart idea to ...
You Can’t Predict or Forecast SEO Results
When you implement an SEO program, it's only natural that you want to find a way to predict results. In fact, people ask me this very thing all the time. They wonder if they can not only forecast their SEO results, but also their website visitor growth and the ROI of their overall SEO program. While...
Red Flag Warnings to Look For When Hiring an SEO Company
The growing influence of organic search rank on business success has correlated with a growth in SEO companies. There’s certainly no shortage of them. Unfortunately, the industry isn’t regulated. Anyone can essentially call themselves an SEO professional, which is why if you’re working with an...
Don’t Believe These SEO Lies
SEO isn’t new. It’s been an effective online marketing solution for many years. Yet, for some reason many website owners (and marketers!) don’t quite understand it. We blame this on the fact that there are plenty of lies circulating about the industry and website owners don’t really know wha...
CEOs Need to Buy Into B2B SEO Programs
As a marketing professional, you know that it is important that the CEO of the company is on board with everything that you do. Even though your CEO may not be concerned with the details, it is his responsibility to make sure that every decision that is made supports your long-term growth. This is ...
SEO Checklist for Site Redesigns
Does your site need a redesign? If so, it's important not to ignore the SEO aspect of your new site. In fact, redesigning your site presents you with an excellent opportunity to refine your SEO strategy and optimize even more effectively than you were before. You certainly would want to hurt your si...
Don’t Put Your SEO and Social Media on Hold!
Are you thinking of putting your SEO and social media on hold? Over the years, we have seen clients come and go for various reasons. However, no matter why they decide to walk away from our partnership, they need to remember one important fact - that SEO and social media are both ongoing and should ...
Want to Earn Natural Links? Here’s What You Need
Actively seeking out new inbound link opportunities remains an important part of an SEO program. However, some of the best links are the ones that are earned naturally, when another website owner chooses to link over to your website because they find value in its content. Here’s what’s needed in...
4 Things to Do Before Launching an SEO Campaign
If you’ve finally decided to get around to the whole “SEO thing” that’s great! Welcome aboard. However, before you get started there are a few things to take care of. Doing so will ensure that the campaign is as effective as it can be. Here are 4 things to do before launching an SEO campaign...
Where Do I Put My SEO Keywords?
Keywords are at the foundation of any SEO campaign. People search using keywords and the purpose of SEO is to ensure that your website matches these search queries in order to generate organic search engine traffic from target audience members. To determine how target audience members are searching,...
Managing Product Pages for SEO
One of the unique SEO problems that e-commerce and b2b lead generating websites face is that their products can be constantly changing. This means that new pages are being added, content is being tweaked and discontinued or out of stock product pages are being taken down. This kind of page turnove...
Making the Case for Nofollowed Links
There are two types of inbound links: followed and nofollowed. In the world of SEO, followed links are “followed” by the search engine spiders and affect PageRank and domain authority. Nofollowed links include html code (rel="nofollow") on the back end that tell Google not to follow a link, or a...
Marketers: Are Your Online Passwords in Order?
This post isn’t about SEO directly, but it’s a topic that is relevant to all online marketers, including SEOs. An important component of online marketing (or any marketing, really) is to expand the reach of your brand and to be found wherever target audience members are. Online, it means setting...
Reasons to Stop Obsessing Over This SEO Metric
Reporting is an important part of an SEO campaign because doing so on a regular basis essentially tells you how the campaign is performing and what tweaks need to be made to improve it. There are many SEO metrics to review and report on, but for whatever reason we find that the one that some website...
Why SEO Is a Continual Learning Process
Even if you decide to outsource your SEO campaign execution and management to a full service SEO company I believe it is incredibly important that site owners and marketing managers take the time to learn SEO for themselves, even if it’s just an understanding of the basics. I know what you’re th...
What SEO is NOT
SEO is the practice of making changes to your website in order for the search engines to find and deliver targeted visitors. It's also defined by its white hat practices, such as creating excellent content on a regular basis, performing effective on-site SEO, and building trusted links. However, t...