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What to Know Before Outsourcing SEO
A business/website owner has a few options when it comes to SEO services. The first option is to hire an in house SEO Specialist. While large companies can afford the salary of an SEO Specialist or an SEO team, many smaller companies cannot. The owners of very small businesses may elect to do the SE...
SEO Advice for a New Small Business
Congratulations on your new small business! Your website is up, your phone is connected and you’re just waiting for those visitors to start falling into your lap, right? Well before you can start to see any real online growth there are a few things about SEO that a new small business owner should ...
Guest Blogging Isn’t Just for Link Building
One of the best ways to build links to your site is to participate in content marketing. After all, content based links are very valuable. As long as the content is good it will get noticed by the search engine spiders and target audience members. When speaking to anyone in the SEO industry about bu...
Save SEO Efforts during a Website Redesign
A website redesign can be a huge undertaking and typically many parties get involved in the process. One important party to keep in the loop from the start is your SEO firm and if you don’t have an SEO firm, this might be a good time to get some guidance from an SEO consultant. It’s important to...
Share-Worthy Content Ranks Higher In Search
Did you know that the majority of content that ranks high in the search engines tends to be the most popularly shared. As social signals are having more of an impact on the SERPs, you need to make sure your content is not only optimized for search engine spiders, but for your readers and followers a...
Why Rank is the Wrong Metric to Pay Attention To
Of course there is value in ranking in the top spot in Google. We’re not trying to tell you there isn’t. However, it’s important to understand that rank isn’t the only way to measure the success of your SEO efforts. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on rankings because too much fluctuation c...
SEO Competitor Info to Look At
When developing any kind of business or marketing plan it’s always important to consider the competition. If you are entering a market that has lots of established players, you are going to have to do one of two things. The first option is to provide something that is exemplary that will allow you...
Should You Accept That Guest Blog Post?
Are you a blog owner that has received an email that looks something like this: Dear Brick Marketing, We came across Brick Marketing, and found many blog posts interesting. "Tips to Succeed in Local Search" is one of the best blog post we liked in the blog section. After reviewing your website...
SEO Clients are Also Responsible for Results
When a company decides that it wants to improve its website visibility in the search engines it has a couple of options. A larger corporation that has the budget to do so may consider hiring an in house SEO Specialist. Since that isn’t an option for many businesses, alternate options are to have c...
Are You Using LinkedIn Properly?
Most of the attention in the social media world is paid to Facebook and Twitter while other sites like Google+ and Pinterest continue to gain popularity. It seems like LinkedIn tends to get lost in the shuffle and only comes up in conversations when people are looking for a job or looking to recruit...
3 Signs that Your SEO Campaign is Working
SEO is a long term process. It takes time to see results from efforts, but as long as you did a good job of optimizing your site and are regularly building links and keeping active in social media you should begin to see an improvement. What many businesses make the mistake of doing is putting too m...
The Best SEO Firms Practice What They Preach
One of our employees was at a recent SEO roundtable discussion where an inquiring mind asked “how do you find the best SEO company?” Another member of the discussion replied by saying “look at the company’s SEO. It’s like hiring a personal trainer; you would want to look for someone who wa...
3 Onsite SEO Tips for the Internal Pages of Your Website
Every single page of your website needs to be optimized for SEO, including those deep internal pages. One very important thing to remember about onsite SEO is that the search engines rank individual pages, not the website as a whole. This means that each page (in theory anyway) has a good chance of ...
Good SEO is a Two Phase Process
The SEO process involves multiple steps and for the best results it’s important to take them one by one and dedicate ample time to each. You shouldn’t rush the SEO process and you also shouldn’t jump around from one thing to the next without completing the prior step. SEO involves two phases. ...
Retraining Your Brain to Focus on Content Creation
Content creation is definitely one of the biggest challenges facing B2B marketers these days. While you might not think turning out a quality blog post every once in a while is all that hard you have to remember that a strong content marketing campaign requires consistency and a continued commitment...
When an SEO Firm Shouldn’t Take on a Client
The relationship between an SEO firm and an SEO client should be viewed as a partnership. After all, the two parties will be working together for (hopefully!) a long time. It’s important that there be a level of trust and comfort there between the two. An SEO partnership is different than working ...
Content Marketing Tips for Small Business
Inbound marketing tactics, specifically content marketing, is all the rage these days. Potential customers and clients don’t want to feel like they are being advertised to. The companies that get their business are the ones that earn it over time by providing useful information that garners trust....
Definition of a 301 Redirect
A 301 redirect is a specific set of coded instructions that routes you from one URL to the other. Technically referred to as an HTTP status code, they are used to signal that there has been a change from one URL to another. They should be used in any situation where you delete a page, change a URL, ...
Definition of Anchor Text
Anchor text is the clickable, often blue and underlined, text in a hyperlink. Though usually blue, the anchor text color can be changed to match that of your website's colors. An anchor text is used when the creator of the website wants to hide a link under text. An HTML code can turn a phrase or wo...
Definition of AD Quality Score
An ad quality score is a tool that allows Google to measure how relevant a keyword is. Also known as quality score, this diagnostic tool will give insight into how well your ad quality is compared to other advertisers. When Google has enough data, keywords that are in an advertiser's account are ...
Definition of Ad Copy
Ad copy is the written material that is found when someone clicks on an advertisement. Ad copy is used to describe the advertisement in further detail. Imagine that you have a product or service that you want to sell. The best way to get people interested is to compel them with your words, while ...
Definition of A/B Testing
A/B testing is a method of testing for an advertising campaign. Also known as split-run testing or bucket testing, A/B testing consists of participants who are unaware of the test being conducted. This is a blind study where half of the visitors see version A, which is the control, and the other hal...
Definition of a Buying Cycle
A buying cycle is what customers typically pass through on their way to making a purchase. You are likely familiar with the experience even if you weren't aware of the term. The buying cycle consists of the following stages: Awareness: During the awareness stage of the buying cycle, a potential c...
Definition of a Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumb navigation is a tool that is used in web searches that allows users to keep track of their locations within websites, documents, or programs. The easiest way to think of breadcrumb navigation is with the Hansel and Gretel reference for which breadcrumb navigation is named. The siblings le...
Definition of Branding
Branding refers to the marketing and business concept of an individual, product, or company. It includes, but is not limited to, the name, logo, design, or slogan that is recognized by people thanks to marketing. A brand can also be thought of as a promise that you make to your customer. You are tel...
Definition of Branded Keywords
Branded keywords are words and phrases that are associated with a service, product, or brand. Branded keywords are used by individuals who are searching for a specific business or brand through social media or a search engine. The most common types of branded keywords include: Brand Names: Bra...
Definition of Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is an internet marketing term that refers to the percentage of visitors to a website who enter and then leave (“bounce”). A “bounce” is when a visitor only views one page and then leaves without viewing any other pages on the website. There is no minimum or maximum time a visitor...
Definition of a Blog
A blog is a website with written content that is added to regularly and in chronological order. In the past a blog was more like a personal journal, but it has since evolved into a web page or website that can be used for personal or business purposes. What is the benefit of a blog? A blog is a w...
Definition of Blog Comments
Blog comments are comments, questions, and opinions that are left by readers at the end of a blog. Having comments enabled on your blog has a number of benefits for both you and your readers. One of the greatest benefits to having a comment section enabled on your blog is to create a two-way dial...
Definition of Cost Per Thousand (CPM)
Cost per thousand, also known as CPM or “cost per mille,” is a model that measures the cost of displaying an advertisement on a web page. Mille is the Latin word for thousand. Cost per thousand is a system that has to do with how many times an advertisement on a web page is viewed. Each time an ...
Definition of Backlinks
Backlinks, also known as inbound links or incoming links, are links that are created when one website links to another website. Backlinks are an important component of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can drive more people to your website, increase conversions, increase your authority, and help...
Definition of Cost Per Order (CPO)
Cost per order (CPO), also known as cost per acquisition and cost per purchase, is an important part of many web-based businesses. Cost per order is the cost of internet advertising or marketing required to acquire an order. If the main goal of an ad is to create sales, cost per order is the preferr...
Definition of Cost Per Lead (CPL)
Cost per lead (CPL) is an online advertising pricing model. The advertiser pays a set price for each customer that fills out a lead or sign-up form. Advertisers pay for the basic contact information, most often an email address, of a consumer who may be interested in their service or product. Cos...
Definition of Cost Per Click (CPC)
Cost per click (CPC), also known as pay per click (PPC), is a term that has two different meanings. Cost per click refers to the total cost accrued by an advertiser when an ad is clicked on. This includes from listing the ad to the additional cost of the click-through by the visitor. Cost per click ...
Definition of Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Cost per acquisition (CPA), also known as cost per action, measures an advertiser's per conversion cost from start to finish. This is from the addition to search engine results to creating landing pages that will grab visitor's attention. Cost per acquisition measures how much it costs to covert one...
Definition of a Conversion Rate
The conversion rate of a website is the measurement of the success of a paid campaign. A conversion rate is measured by the number of potential visitors to a website performing the desired outcome. The outcome could be filling out a form, buying a product, membership registration, software downloads...
Definition of Content Marketing
Content marketing is a form of marketing that is focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience. This content is relevant and consistent for the audience in order to drive profitable customer action. There are different types of content marketing including: ...
Definition of a Click Through Rate (CTR)
A click through rate (CTR) is the measurement of how many times a link involved in a paid inclusion is clicked on when it appears in search engine results. It is calculated by the number of clicks an ad receives divided by the number of times the ad is shown. Each ad, keyword, and listing has there ...
Definition of a Domain Name
A domain name is the name of a website. Well-known examples of domain names include: • youtube.com • facebook.com • google.com • wikipedia.org A domain name is what comes after the “@” in an email address and after the “www.” in a website address. Any name that is registe...
Definition of Domain Authority
Domain authority (DA) refers to a measure of the power of a domain name. It is just one of many search engine ranking factors. Domain authority is based on three things: size, popularity, and age. Domain authority can help you build a strong SEO strategy, which makes it an important marketing metric...
Definition of a Display URL
A display URL (uniform resource locator) is the website address that appears with an ad. The display URL is usually found in the last text at the end of an ad and may be simplified if the URL is too long. In this case, the full URL is not listed with the ad. The display URL makes it easier to read. ...
Definition of a Content Management System (CMS)
A content management system (CMS) is a computer software that is used to manage documents and websites. They enable inter-office control of content and act as a company archive. Features of a content management system can include, but are not limited to, the following: • Format management fa...
Definition of a Description Tag
A description tag is an HTML tag that is used by web page authors to provide a short summary for the search engine listings. Most of the time, this text appears under the headline, but sometimes search engines will pull a piece of text from the main body copy of the page. You can find the descrip...
Definition of Deep Linking
Deep linking is a tool used to help point user's to a specific page in a website through the page they are on instead of from the home page. Deep linking can be a good way to help visitors to a website get to a specific page, such as that of a product, without them having to go through multiple page...
Definition of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, also known as HTTPS, is an acronym that precedes the URL in a website address. HTTPS is an extension of the hypertext transfer protocol. Hypertext transfer protocol secure is used for secure communication over a computer network as well as being used on the Intern...
Definition of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Hypertext transfer protocol, also known as HTTP, is an underlying protocol used by the Internet. This protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted. It also determines how browsers and web servers should respond to different commands. Imagine that you enter a URL into your browser. ...
Definition of Internet Protocol Address (IP Address)
An Internet protocol address, commonly known as an IP address, is a unique numerical label that is connected to a computer network that uses Internet protocol for communication. An IP address usually looks like this: 123.0.4.5. These numbers serve two functions: to collect data for geographic locati...
Definition of an Impression
An impression, also known as an ad view or a view, is used to measure the number of digital views or engagements an ad (sometimes digital posts or a web page) receives. Impressions are used in online advertising. Counting impressions that an ad receives is important as online advertising often pays ...
Definition of a Keyword Phrase
A keyword phrase is two or more words used in search engine optimization (SEO). An example of a search someone might do using a keyword phrase is: “teal running shoes.” A keyword search, in comparison, is usually only one word (sometimes two) and may read as “shoes.” Advertisers can use keyw...
Definition of Keyword Research
Keyword research is an important part of search engine optimization (SEO) as keywords are at the foundation of SEO campaigns. When users search for things online, search engines determine the relevancy of websites based on these keywords and key phrases. When you are a website creator, it is importa...
Definition of Long Tail Keywords
A long-tail keyword is a keyword that contains at least 3 words. Long-tail keywords are used by searchers who are searching for something specific. An example of a long-tail keyword: “Leather jacket black size medium.” Long-tail keywords might be less searched, but because the user knows exactly...
Definition of Link Building
Link building is the process of establishing relevant and inbound links to your website. These links are aimed at helping your website gain a higher ranking with major search engines, which will drive targeted traffic to your website. Link building is not about getting the most inbound links to y...
Definition of a Landing Page
A landing page, also known as a destination page, static page, or lead capture page, is the web page that users arrive at when they have clicked on a link in a search engine results page. A landing page can also be arrived at by clicking on a marketing promotion, email promotion, or online ad. A lan...
Definition of a Meta Tag
A meta tag is an HTML tag that identifies the content of a web page for search engines. Meta tags go inside the element and are usually used to specify page description, character set, keywords, viewport settings, copyright information, and the author of the document. Although hidden, meta tags can ...
Definition of a Nofollow Tag
A nofollow tag, also called “no follow,” is a non-standard HTML attribute value that is used to tell search engines that when a specific hyperlink is clicked on, it should not affect the ranking of the website. Nofollow informs bots that they do no need to crawl links as no endorsement is implie...
Definition of Pay Per Click Advertising
Pay Per Click Advertising, also known as PPC, is an online advertising model where advertisers place ads on advertisement platforms. Pay per click is used to drive traffic to websites. Advertisers pay a publisher when an ad is clicked on that leads to the website. The end goal of ads is for visitors...
Definition of a Robots.txt
Robots.txt, also known as the robots exclusion standard, is a text file in the root directory of a website. It is a standard that is used by websites to communicate with web crawlers and other web robots. A web crawler is an Internet bot that systematically browses the web. A web robot is a software...
Definition of Retargeting
Retargeting, also known as behavioral retargeting or behavioral remarketing, allows online advertisers to target consumers based on their previous interactions with their website. Imagine that a visitor comes to your website, but does not make a purchase. Retargeting is like a reminder to them th...
Definition of Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing, or SMM, is the use of social media and other social networks to market a company, its products, and services. Social media marketing allows companies and brands to interact with customers as well as reach new ones who might not know of them yet. Social media allows companies ...
Definition of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
Search engine ranking refers to a website's position in a search engine results page. Each search results page typically lists 10 results. Results can be a combination of websites, videos, images, sponsored links, and local listings. When you see a page of search engine results, relevant links wi...
Definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process of improving your website in ways that increases its visibility when people do searches online for services or products related to what you offer. When your website has good visibility in search results, the more likely you are to have more visitors...
Definition of a Search Engine Crawler
A web crawler, also known as a spiderbot, spider, or crawler, is an Internet bot that browses the world wide web for the purpose of finding new and updated content. This content can include a webpage, video, image, etc. Search engines use web crawlers to crawl the billions of web pages that exist. W...
Definition of a Search Engine Algorithm
A search engine algorithm is a set of rules that search engines use to determine how important a web page is. Each search engine has its own set of rules. The rules determine if a web page is real or spam, if it has important information that people are looking for, and other factors. The algorithms...
Definition of a Tracking URL
A tracking URL is a special URL (Uniform Resource Locator) used for the purpose of tracking certain element when a link is clicked on. Tracking URLs are used in paid advertising and to trace where visitors to your website are coming from. Tracking URLs share important metrics such as the search engi...
Definition of a Title Tag
A title tag is an HTML element that is used to create the title of a web page. Title tags are used by search engines as the title of search listings, which are underlined in blue hyperlink. Title tags are meant to be relevant to the content of the website, which will help them rank higher in search ...