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SEO and PPC Should Work Together
While search engine optimization and search engine pay per click advertising are two different marketing functions, they both work under the search engine marketing umbrella and ultimately have the same goal: website clicks that drive conversions. Some website owners choose to deploy one or the othe...
What to Know About Link Building if You’re New to SEO
If you’re just getting started with SEO and doing some research, you’ll likely see the phrase “link building” used a lot. While link building remains an important part of SEO, how you go about link building has changed over time and a lot of the tactics you’ll see mentioned are no longer r...
Don’t Expect to Live Your SEO Past
There was a time when a website could do very well in the search engines without putting forth a lot of effort. We have a client who fits this description. A few years ago, they achieved success in the search engines with very little effort. Their business was thriving because their site was ranking...
Is Your Website Mobile Friendly Enough for Google?
In a rare turn of events, Google announced way back in February that a major algorithm update was coming. Considering Google almost NEVER warns site owners ahead of time, and often doesn’t even officially confirm an update until several days of panic have passed, giving site owners essentially t...
Winning Approach to B2B Content Marketing
When it comes to the B2B sector, consumers are looking for as much information about a product, service, business, or brand before making a decision as to whether to spend their money. Since the sales cycle can be rather long with B2B, the content has an even more important role - to keep brand enga...
Everyone at the Company Needs to Be on Board with SEO
Are you of the mindset that only the SEO specialists are able to take care of your search engine optimization program? Well, even if you entrust this aspect of your business to a reputable firm, everyone in your company, including the leadership as well as the marketing department as a whole, needs ...
The Most Important SEO Reports
SEO is comprised of many functions, one of which is reporting. After all, if you’re going to be investing time and money on optimizing your website, building inbound links, writing link worthy content, and sharing your content in social media – don’t you want to know if it’s working over tim...
Be Wary of SEO Firms That Email You Out of the Blue
It blows our minds that in 2015 emails like this are still being sent to site owners/managers. What’s worse is there are plenty of small businesses that are still falling for it! While the SEO industry has certainly cleaned up its reputation over the last 5 years, there are still more than a few S...
B2B SEO vs. B2C SEO
Business to business and business to consumer markets are treated differently in many ways, including the ways in which that they are marketed. In fact, because the two types of business are different, the two approaches shouldn't be the same. Each market includes very different target audiences ...
5 B2B Social Media Tips to Follow
Even though social media has been a huge part of our lives for years now and has become a key marketing tool, there are still some B2Bs that have largely remained hold outs. They still think it’s more for B2Cs and aren’t quite sure how to leverage it. The truth is, social media is an important p...
A Common Keyword Research Mistake
Depending on the industry your company (and website) operates in and the content on your site, there might be hundreds of keywords that you could target with your onsite SEO (incorporating keywords naturally into the on-page content and meta information of each page of the site). Best practice dicta...
4 Reasons You Aren’t Ready for SEO
Since we’re an SEO firm you probably assume that we’d tell every website owner that they need to be doing SEO. While we do think that every website owner should be doing SEO eventually, the truth is many just aren’t ready for it. Here are 4 reasons why a website owner might not be ready to exe...
Putting Together an SEO Report
If you’re actively working on an SEO campaign, it’s important to be aware of how that campaign is performing. The first thing to understand about SEO (and SEO reporting) is that SEO is long term. While it’s recommended to pull reports on a regular basis, it’s highly doubtful that you’re go...
Sometimes It’s OK to Ignore SEO Plugins (And Other SEO Tools)
Here at Brick Marketing, we’re really into WordPress. We use it on all of our sites and always recommend it to clients going through a re-design. At the very least, we recommend it for blogging since it’s very user-friendly. To assist with SEO efforts, it’s advisable to use an SEO plugin. Our ...
Don’t Focus on Rank to Measure SEO Success
So many potential SEO clients have one thing on their mind. They want their website to rank number one in the major search engines for their priority keywords. What they don’t realize is that ranking can never be guaranteed, and any SEO company that does guarantee a number one spot is full of it. ...
Ask Yourself These Questions Before Pursuing a Link
Inbound links pointing to your website play an important role in determining where your website appears in search. The search engines use these links to determine the trust and authority of your website. Earning inbound links naturally is the ultimate goal but it’s also in your best interest to se...
If You’re a Marketer You Can Be a Link Builder
Some marketers are apprehensive of the secret world of SEO link building. The truth is, there’s really no magical secret to link building and it’s not that complicated. If you are a marketer, you can be a link builder. Today’s link building is a manual process, much like any other form of mark...
Don’t Miss These Easy Link Building Opportunities
Link building as a whole isn’t easy. That’s because a big link building focus is on generating natural inbound links that are earned by publishing great, linkable content. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t some easier ways to get inbound links. There are plenty of “low hanging f...
Follow These Steps to Generate the Best Possible Inbound Links
Inbound links pointing to your website are one of the top 3 Google ranking factors. Clearly, link building remains an important part of an SEO campaign. Link building can include specifically seeking out link building opportunities but it also includes doing things that will attract natural links ov...
Link Building Fundamentals are Marketing Fundamentals
Despite search engine optimization being a legitimate online marketing practice for many years now, there are still plenty of marketing folks who don’t quite understand it. Some even fear it due to fear of the unknown. All they hear about are link warnings and penalties from the search engines and...
3 Things that Generate More Inbound Links to Content
Publishing great website content is important for a number of reasons. For SEO purposes, it’s necessary in order to rank for specific keywords and to generate natural inbound links that help to convey trust (and determine rank) in the search engines. That’s why it’s so important to not only pu...
The Downsides to Working with a Specialized SEO Provider
If you’re in the market to hire an SEO firm, you essentially have two options. You can hire a firm that specializes in your industry or you can hire a firm that doesn’t specialize and works with clients across multiple industries. While it might seem like a no-brainer to work with a firm that sp...
3 Ways to Recycle Your Content
You know the mantra: “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.” Turns out it’s applicable to more than the items we throw away. As content marketers, you should be keeping this saying in your head as you devise your content marketing strategy. Just as it requires time, money, and energy to create any item that...
5 Reasons to Still Do Keyword Research
Search behavior has evolved. Instead of typing (or speaking) a keyword into a search engine, people are more likely to ask a full question. And, thanks to the Hummingbird update and machine learning, Google has a better understanding of what searchers are looking for and is delivering a relevant res...
Things that Make Your Content More Linkable
You might have thought the title to this article was “Things that Make Your Content More Likeable.” Turns out you’re not too far off because what’s likeable is also linkable! As we know, links play an important role in SEO. In fact, links are one of the top two Google ranking factors along w...
6 Easy Link Building Opportunities to Capitalize On
Despite what you may have heard, not all link building is difficult. Sure, link building might take some time and effort but there are some link building opportunities that are rather easy to capitalize on. Here are 6 “low-hanging fruit” link opportunities you don’t want to miss out on: Press...
Content Repurposing Should be Part of Your SEO Game Plan
We know that content is king and it’s a required part of an SEO campaign today. But let’s face it, creating great content takes a lot of time! And sometimes, time is at a minimum. Now, if you’re new to SEO and content marketing you don’t really have a choice. You need to create new content o...
Be Wary of Link Building Opportunities
Let’s be honest. White hat link building is tough. We know we need inbound links but also know that Google’s link building rules are strict. It’s a sort of catch-22. That’s why it’s always tempting when a website owner reaches out with a link opportunity. “The site looks halfway decent, ...
Attending a Trade Show Can Improve B2B SEO
B2B marketing can be quite complex. In order to be found, and remembered, by business decision makers it requires many touchpoints. Trade shows have always been a main staple of a B2B marketing program. Presenting or speaking at a trade show provides businesses with the opportunity to network with o...
Is Your Website Worthy of a Natural Link?
Link building remains an important component of an SEO program, since inbound links still convey trust to the search engines and remain part of the search algorithm. However, link building has shifted away from the quantity of inbound links and instead focuses on the quality of inbound links. And wh...
Shift Content to Meet Target Audience Needs
Getting started with a content marketing strategy can be overwhelming. It’s not easy to produce quality content on a regular basis. In addition to brainstorming topic ideas, conducting research, and writing/creating the content you also need to spend time promoting it once it’s been published an...
Stagger Social Posts for Maximum Exposure
There is a right way and a wrong way to use social media for business. Unfortunately, too many companies think that “doing social media” means creating profiles on the big networks, and posting a few links whenever they feel like it. That is the wrong way. If you want to use social media correct...
Social Media is a Two-Way Street
By now, the majority of businesses understand the importance of social media. It has become a large part of the lives of people of all different ages and backgrounds. This means that no matter what kind of business or industry you are in, your target audience is using social media. Social media is a...
5 Tips to Keep Social Media Followers Happy
Getting social media followers is really only the first step when it comes to social media marketing. The real goal is to keep your social media followers happy and engaged long after they initially click the “Follow” or “Like” button. Many brands still aren’t quite sure how to do this wel...
5 Blog Content Topic Sources
Owning a business blog that is a part of the company website is a smart idea for a number of reasons. First, it’s a content outlet that the business owns, meaning that the business owner or marketing department has full control over what’s posted, when it’s posted, and how often it’s posted....
Your Link Building Activities Need to Be Relevant!
At Brick Marketing, we are advocates of strictly white hat link building. That means that we believe that SEO campaigns need to play by the rules set forth by the search engines (as best as we can understand them anyway) and avoid anything that might land our clients' websites in hot water. There ar...
Save Your Link Portfolio with a 301 Redirect!
Are you rebuilding or redesigning your website? If so, then you'll want to make sure that you keep your SEO partner informed for several reasons. One of the most important of these is because you will want to make sure that you keep your hard-won link portfolio intact as you make any changes to your...
Turn a Product Launch into B2B Content Marketing Gold
Content is perhaps one of the most important components of a good B2B social media strategy today. B2B decision makers are looking for as much information as possible and it’s the content that they find online that helps guide their purchase decisions. While most B2B marketers understand this conc...
Use Your Audience and Traffic Data When Creating a Content Plan
When it comes to creating a content marketing plan that will work for your business, it isn't a simple matter of coming up with a list of interesting sounding topics, writing the articles, and publishing them whenever the whim strikes. These days, your online marketing efforts rely on content, inclu...
How to Keep People Engaged With Your Content
It's no secret that content marketing works. Everyone knows this, which is why there's so much content on the Internet in the first place. While content marketing continues to be effective, this has also created a challenge. There is simply so much content out there, your target audience is in dange...
How Content Relates to the Buyer’s Journey
There are many factors involved to creating an excellent content strategy for your company's website. Your main goal is to create content that your target audience wants to read - but your motives should be a lot deeper than that. Your content should target every stage of the buyer's journey. When d...
SEO Challenges Faced by Large Corporations
For the most part, the SEO process is what it is regardless of the size of the website that is being optimized. The process begins with industry and keyword research, then moves on to on site optimization, then continues on to link building. In some special instances on site optimization and link bu...
Content Marketing Research Tips
Coming up with new topics for your content marketing campaign can be a challenge, but it’s not nearly as hard and most marketers assume it is. Through a combination of understanding your market and the ongoing needs of your audience, inspiration for your content can come from a variety of places....
Why Long Tail Keywords are Important
Keywords are the foundation of an SEO campaign and are at the center of every SEO decision that is made. When conducting keyword research the most important things to pay attention to when selecting keywords are the relevancy and the search volume. For a small business or one that is just getting a ...
How RankBrain Has Impacted Search Results
When Google launched RankBrain in October 2015, it was unknown what the implications of having a machine-learning technology play a part in Google's search results would be. Essentially, they developed a system of artificial intelligence that is designed to make search queries more efficient. It ...
Tips to Improve Your Social Media Strategy
It's true that social media marketing is here to stay and continues to grow and evolve. If you aren’t growing and evolving along with it, you might as well not be doing it. Most businesses (even the hesitant ones) have created business profiles on social networking sites but many still struggle to...
Why You Should Avoid Thin Content
When people search for information online, they're looking for content that will satisfy whatever need they may have. Examples of what people may search for include general information about a topic, research products to purchase, and having their questions answered. Your role when writing conten...
B2B FAQ Page Tips for SEO
Potential customers and clients visit a B2B website for more information both about the company and about the products or services. Unlike a B2C focused website, a B2B product or service has business implications and it’s important to choose the product or service that is just right for the busine...
Stop Outsourcing Content Writing Overseas
Inbound marketing strategies like SEO are all about the content, but what if you have none? Well, you pretty much have two options. You can hire an in house content writer or outsource the work. Depending on the size of your company, you may not need to hire a full time or even part time staff membe...
5 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Blog
While it is true that there are many reasons to start a blog, there are certain instances where it can do more harm than good. The truth is, blogging is only beneficial if you have a deep understanding of all the pieces involved. If not, you should steer clear until you are willing to do what it tak...