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5 Key Analytics Metrics to Monitor SEO Success
When getting started with an SEO campaign one of the first things that should be done is getting Google Analytics set up on your site if it’s not already. It’s a fairly simple process and it’s free information straight from the almighty Google. Without Analytics data it can be difficult, if no...
5 Important SEO Takeaways
If you’re just getting started with SEO you might be realizing that it’s unlike any other form of marketing that you’ve implemented before. There are lots of moving parts and variables that determine SEO success. The nature of SEO can sometimes be frustrating to website owners, but there’s n...
3 Steps to Content Marketing Success
If you want to do content marketing right, it’s not something to just dabble in when you have some free time. After all, who has free time today? Content marketing needs to be incorporated into the business and marketing plan and ample time/resources need to be dedicated to it in order for it to b...
Don’t Keep Your SEO Firm in the Dark
For many companies that don’t have the necessary time or resources in house, it makes sense to outsource SEO activities to an SEO firm. However, an SEO firm should be viewed as an extension of your own business. The SEO team is responsible for increasing traffic to your website, which is a critica...
On Site SEO Basics That Still Apply
It’s true that SEO has undergone a few facelifts in recent years. The SEO campaign that you were implementing just a few years back has hopefully been tossed in the trash and replaced with something more current. Some SEO tactics that once worked and improved a site’s placement on the search eng...
Are You Really Ready to Publish that Blog Post?
Blogging has become an important component of online marketing and SEO and what’s great about it is that is has essentially leveled the playing field for companies that are trying to build their brand up online. Any company can set up a blog on their website and publish content to be shared with t...
Keep Your Social Media Strategy Mobile Friendly
If you are using the Internet to market your business (and today, every business should be) it’s necessary to understand user behavior and the ways in which your target audience is accessing the Internet. Over time, more and more people are purchasing smartphones, tablets, e-readers, etc. The Inte...
Understanding What Content Topics Work Best
One of the most difficult things about content marketing is deciding what topics to write about. Many businesses tend to overthink it, which usually results in content marketing not getting done at all. No matter what line of business you are in, there is plenty of information to share with your tar...
A White Hat Guide to Content Marketing
There are plenty of tips out there about “white hat link building”, and many can be found right here on this blog. However, the face of link building has drastically changed over the years. In fact, we’d even say that “link building” isn’t even the correct term for generating inbound lin...
Questions to Ask an SEO Firm before Signing a Contract
Before signing on the dotted line and committing to pay an SEO firm for a specified period of time it’s necessary to have an understanding of the type of work that the firm does and what exactly is included in the proposed rate. An SEO program involves many moving parts and you don’t w...
Beyond the Visitor Report: Ways to Measure SEO Success
In order to determine how your website and SEO campaign is performing, it’s necessary to add analytics code to the site. There are plenty of website analytics tools to choose from, both free and paid. What we recommend is Google Analytics. It’s a free tool that really provides a wealth of inform...
Required Elements of a Modern SEO Campaign
SEO has undergone multiple transformations through the years. During the early days, the focus was on building links to your website. At one point, nearly any link would help. However, that’s no longer the case. The only way a link is going to help your SEO efforts today is if it generates traffic...
Characteristics of Content That Gets Shared
Online content is only worthwhile if people are actually finding it and reading it. The first step is to optimize the content so that it will appear organically in the search engines for related search terms over time. However, in order to create content that is “share worthy” and generates inbo...
Are You Expecting the Impossible from Your SEO Program?
One of our full-service SEO clients has experienced tremendous SEO success this year, with a 210.27% growth in organic traffic. I wish we could deliver such incredible reports to all of our clients because I know as a site owner if I saw that kind of YoY organic growth I’d be jumping for joy. But ...
How to Make Your Blog Work for SEO
One of the most important components of a search engine optimization campaign is content since it’s what can be optimized using keywords and is what generates natural links. That’s why a blog should be incorporated onto your website. However, just adding a blog to the site isn’t going to magic...
How to Measure SEO Campaign Success with Analytics
SEO is an online marketing function that is built for the long term. If you start SEO one month, there’s a very small chance that you are going to see much improvement the next month. However, as the SEO campaign moves along and you are producing SEO content and generating quality inbound links yo...
Why Blogging Matters for SEO
When considering whether a new potential SEO client is a good fit there are a number of things that we take a look at. When reviewing the site one of the first things that we do is check the navigation to see if the site has a blog. If the site already has an active blog up and running, that’s a p...
Business Changes That Your SEO Firm Needs to Know About
Many companies choose to outsource SEO work because they don’t have the resources to handle all of the work that needs to be done in house. However, it’s imperative that an SEO firm still be viewed as a part of the team. A successful SEO firm/SEO client relationship is like a partnership and one...
Trade Shows As a Source of B2B SEO Content
Perhaps the most difficult part of delivering B2B SEO content on a regular basis isn’t the actual writing itself; it’s mostly deciding what to write about. B2B SEO clients often over think the content marketing component of SEO. What it really comes down to is simply creating content that your t...
3 Types of Posts to Share to Keep Your Blog Active
There are numerous benefits to operating a business blog. It’s an avenue to share your expertise with target audience members and be viewed as a trusted source of information. It helps SEO efforts by adding an additional page of content to the site each time a blog post is published that can be c...
Content is the Most Important Component of B2B SEO Today
With all of the SEO rules changing as often as they do, and SEO tactics that were once beneficial now on the “bad” list, website owners that want to improve their search engine presence are now left wondering, “what can we do?” What we always tell our clients is that the most important thing...
SEO Won’t Guarantee Conversions
The purpose of a search engine optimization campaign is to conduct activities that will capture the attention of the search engine spiders, and in turn get your website content to rank prominently in the search engines for related keyword search terms. If you are able to improve your search engine p...
The Benefits of Evergreen Blog Posts
Whenever clients ask what kind of content they should be writing to share in their blog, we always recommend that the content be evergreen, meaning that it will be just as relevant in the future as it is now. This is something that website owners sometimes struggle with. It’s much easier to write ...
Why SEO Success Won’t Happen Overnight
If you’re looking for a marketing solution that is going to generate a quick response and result in an uptick in sales, leads, conversions, etc. in the short term- SEO isn’t it. What’s frustrating to most website owners about SEO is that it is a necessary evil. It’s necessary because people ...
What Lazy SEO Looks Like
There are many SEO industry professionals and it’s likely that nobody takes exactly the same approach to an SEO campaign. However, if your business website is in the market to hire an in house SEO professional, an SEO consultant, or an SEO firm the one thing that you want to make sure of is that t...
Recognizing the Small B2B SEO Successes
Depending on what B2B niche your company operates in there might be a ceiling when it comes to how much new organic traffic you can pull to your site for certain keywords. For instance, “live chat software” has a monthly search volume of 5,400. If your website is already pulling in 3,500 visitor...
How to Start SEO for Your New Website
If you’re a start up and you’ve just launched a business website, it’s smart of you to already be thinking about SEO. After all, SEO is a slow moving process and the earlier you get started at it, the better off your site will be. However, we don’t recommend that new website owners hire an S...
Is My Social Media Campaign Working?
Unless you have been living under a rock over the last few years, you know how important social media has become to our everyday lives. People are constantly connected to others through numerous social networks on many devices including their desktop, laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc. It’s not just...
Consider the Competition in an SEO Campaign
An SEO campaign is like any other kind of marketing campaign in that it involves conducting research before getting started. It’s necessary to research the market online, which includes target audience behavior as well as a competitive analysis. If your business and/or website is relatively new to...
3 Common SEO Misconceptions
Even though search engine optimization has been around for years, it’s still a marketing tactic that many website owners don’t quite understand. This is partially due to the fact that the industry is always changing. What was an acceptable SEO practice even just 6 months ago might no longer be v...
SEO Writing Requires an Additional Skill Set
Not everybody has the skills required to be a good writer. You need to be able to understand what people want to read and convey it in a proper manner. Of course there are different kinds of writing. Formal writing requires citations and research while less formal writing can be written just as if y...
Using Your Blog to Create B2B Demand
Many B2B companies rely heavily on their content marketing and SEO campaigns to generate new leads. After all, content marketing and SEO help a B2B brand connect with potential customers at the exact moment those customers need them. Unlike traditional advertising, which relies on interruptive tacti...
Protect Your SEO While Redesigning Your Site!
A lot of our clients have undergone site redesigns this year in some way, shape, or form. Some just reworked a chunk of their content while others completed changed the entire design, URL structure, content and messaging and more. And while websites need to be redesigned every few years in order to ...
Common Enterprise SEO Challenges to Overcome
The SEO process is mostly similar for any website, regardless of size. It begins with conducting industry and target audience behavior research before selecting the proper keywords to target on every page. Keywords are then implemented naturally into on site content including meta information and on...
3 Common B2B Blogging Mistakes
Content is an essential component of an online marketing strategy, specifically in the B2B sector. One of the best content outlets for a B2B is a business blog hosted on the business website which will help to improve both SEO and social media efforts. Each post is an opportunity to target relevant ...
How to Improve the Visibility of Blog Posts
If you want to be found online, you need to be creating content. It’s really that simple. Well, the concept is simple. Actually creating the content and publishing it on a regular basis can be quite tough! But it’s all the more reason to do it. It will give you an edge over the competition that ...
Common Reasons Why SEO Success Isn’t Happening
What SEO clients need to understand about SEO is that it’s a process. It takes time to begin to see the results of your efforts. However, if after six months of SEO work you still don’t see any kind of improvement, it could be because you are making common mistakes that are limiting the amount o...
Tips to Ensure that Content Marketing Gets Done
The most crucial component of marketing your business online today, and more specifically with SEO, is the content that is being created and published on behalf of your business or organization. Content is at the foundation of all online marketing activities. Without quality content, it’s difficul...
4 Important SEO Reports to Measure Success
While it’s true that SEO is a long-term process and you aren’t going to see an immediate ROI, that doesn’t mean that there is no way track the success of the campaign. Throughout the duration of the campaign, it’s important to check on your Analytics to make sure that things are trending the...
Consider Unlocking Your Gated B2B Content
Many B2B companies use their long-form content, such as white papers and on-demand webinars, as a form of lead generation. Readers simply give their email address in exchange for access to this gated content and they get great (hopefully!) information and the B2B website gets a new email address to ...
Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Successful
SEO has changed a great deal in even just the relatively short time period that it has existed as a beneficial way to market your business. Originally the focus was on gaining backlinks and utilizing keyword anchor text to tell the search engine spiders what a page was about. Now, these SEO tactics ...
3 Tips for Selecting The Right SEO Firm
There are hundreds of SEO firms, consultants, experts and agencies out there to choose from. Some specialize in local SEO, others prefer to work with B2B firms, and still others do nothing but international SEO. With so many options all-clamoring for your business, how is a site owner to know they a...
What SEO Clients Need to Understand
SEO is an important component of an online marketing strategy. After all, when people are looking for the products or services that you provide the first place that they go online is to the search engines. While the large corporations may be able to hire an in house SEO team, that’s typically not ...
4 Common B2B SEO Mistakes
Being a B2B business owner myself, I understand first-hand what it takes to create, launch, and maintain a successful B2B SEO campaign. And even though I’ve been in the SEO industry for over 13 years I still don’t “know it all,” simply because SEO is still a very young industry and tactics a...
Items to Measure after One Year of SEO
The goal of an SEO campaign is to improve a search engine presence as well as the number of relevant visitors to the website over the long-term. Due to the complexities of the search engine algorithms and the number of websites that are competing for target audience member attention, it’s nearly i...
How to Improve Your Social Signals for SEO
One of the biggest factors that contribute to your organic search ranking is the trust that your website and brand has established across the web. There are a number of ways that the search engines identify how trusted a website is. The domain age of the website and the quality of inbound links poin...
5 Components of Successful SEO Today
What’s both exciting and frustrating about the SEO industry is that it’s always changing. We are at the mercy of the search engine algorithms which are constantly being tweaked. That’s why it’s so important for SEOs to stay up to date by reading the search engine Webmaster Guidelines and SEO...
User Friendly Content Improves SEO
While inserting keywords into SEO content is important, there’s a lot more to it than that. In order for SEO content to be successful it needs to be user friendly, or have good “readability”. User friendly content improves SEO efforts because the more “readable” the content is, the more it...
Forget These Old School SEO Thoughts
What’s both exciting and challenging about SEO is that it’s an industry that is constantly evolving. What was considered best practice even just a few years ago might no longer be relevant. This is why it’s so important for those of us in the industry to stay informed by reading the search eng...
Where Can I Post Content?
Content is a necessary component of SEO and online marketing overall, and we’re not just talking about the content that exists on your website. In order to be successful with SEO (to generate inbound links) and to improve your online visibility in places where target audience members will find you...
Get the Most SEO Value Out of Blog Posts
Blogging is a great way to attract the attention of target audience members. Consumers are looking for information online and the more information that you can give them, the better. Informational blog posts help to establish a business as a trusted source. When it comes time to buy a product or hir...
Why Clients Should Learn the SEO Basics
There’s a reason why so many successful SEO firms exist today- there’s a huge need for them! Businesses understand that an online presence today is everything, and more specifically, a positive search engine presence. This is why they are willing to invest in online marketing and SEO. If an orga...
SEO Questions an SEO Company Can’t Answer
If we’re an SEO company, we should be able to answer all of the hard hitting SEO questions- right? Unfortunately that’s not always the case. There are plenty of SEO variables that are simply out of our control so that we can’t give definite answers to certain questions. This can be frustrating...
Tips for a B2B SEO Content Strategy That Works
Perhaps the most important tip that an SEO provider will give to a B2B looking to improve their search engine presence is to get involved with online content marketing. Content is what ranks in the search engines for targeted keywords and generates inbound links from other sites. A B2B SEO strategy ...
Utilize Existing B2B Content for SEO
Content creation is one of the most difficult aspects of B2B SEO, but it’s also the most necessary. An SEO campaign that has a strong content foundation is going to perform much better than one that doesn’t. Optimized content is what will rank in the search engines for specific keywords over tim...
What Does B2B SEO Success Look Like?
What frustrates many clients about B2B SEO is the long term nature of the strategy. It’s just not realistic to think that a brand new SEO campaign is going to yield quick results, even though that’s what clients obviously want. There are many outside factors that control SEO success, which is wh...
How to Improve a Blog Post for SEO
There are many reasons to create and maintain an active blog on your business website. It serves as an additional resource and source of information for website visitors. It helps to display the authority and knowledge that you have on a specific topic. It also is beneficial for SEO reasons. The sea...
Ways to Incorporate Video into a B2B SEO Campaign
A B2B SEO strategy relies on content. This is nothing new. Content is what informs target audience members and encourages B2B decision makers to select the product or service that you provide. It’s also what attracts the attention of the search engine spiders, improving your overall footprint onli...
Reasons to Keep B2B SEO Content Evergreen
A B2B SEO campaign is nothing today without a strong content marketing component. Content is required because it’s essentially what can be optimized and then found in various outlets online, including within the search engines. B2B online marketing content can take many formats and the primary pur...
How to Mess Up a B2B SEO Campaign
B2B decision makers are taking advantage of the web when it’s time to research a service or product provider. This means that if you operate a B2B, you need to be active in marketing the business online. SEO is an important aspect of B2B online marketing since one of the first places decision make...
How Did Your B2B SEO Campaign Go So Wrong?
B2B SEO is a long term process. There really is no other way around it. What you do today could impact the overall success of your website for months or even years to come. That’s why Brick Marketing always recommends our full service B2B SEO clients stick to a white hat SEO program. That way you ...
Features of a B2B Blog That Improve SEO
When a prospective B2B SEO client gets in touch and is curious about the SEO process that we’ll take one of our first questions is, “Do you have a blog?” Content writing has become an intrinsic component of SEO today, specifically blog writing. The search engines rank web pages and each blog p...
The SEO Firm and Web Developer Need to Be on the Same Page
First things first. SEO and web development are two separate things. To some that may seem obvious but if you are relatively new to online marketing it may be a bit confusing. Web development is more about the usability, look, and feel of the site whereas SEO is more about the content and making sur...
B2B Content Marketing Is Only As Boring As You Make It
The number one complaint I hear from many of my full service B2B SEO clients is that they don’t know what to write about. They feel like they don’t have anything new to say; that their industry isn’t exciting enough; that no one actually cares anyway—so their content marketing strategy gets ...
Where Did My Website Visitors Go?
Instead of focusing on rank (which fluctuates and is based on too many variables to be an accurate measurement of SEO success) we always tell our SEO clients to pay more attention to visitor growth. You aren’t going to see a huge bump in visitors at the onset of a campaign but over time there shou...
Boost the Visibility of B2B SEO Content
In order for a B2B SEO campaign to be successful, it must include a strong content component. The static content that exists on a website just isn’t going to cut it these days. The most powerful links to a website/blog are the ones that occur naturally when an outside party decides that what you h...
Attributes of a Good SEO Firm
The decision to hire an SEO company isn’t made lightly. The types of businesses that hire a firm as opposed to hiring someone in house to do the work typically have a limited budget and SEO work requires a significant investment. Of course, that investment is well worth it since a positive search ...
Getting More Value from Your Published B2B Content
Most B2B marketers understand the importance of great content and how it can impact their long term B2B SEO success. However, most B2B marketers are concerned with producing enough content to help drive their SEO and social media marketing campaigns forward…and they should be. In my experience, a...
3 Questions You Shouldn’t Ask Your SEO Company
In my 13 year career as an SEO professional I’ve gotten some pretty crazy questions from clients. Not that I mind answering questions—I think a well-educated client makes for a better client so I’m happy to answer any and all questions my clients have about SEO, no matter how basic it may seem...
4 B2B Link Building Ideas
Most B2B companies understand that in order to have a successful SEO program they can’t just get a few links here and there from random sites and expect to be successful. Although no B2B link building campaign is set in stone, here are four ideas that should definitely be incorporated into your ov...
Don’t Make These B2B SEO Errors
While the overall approach to SEO may be similar for B2Cs and B2Bs, B2B SEO often takes additional care since the sales cycle is that much longer. B2C customers make decisions much more quickly, especially if the product is relatively inexpensive. B2B decisions affect an entire organization and ther...
Why B2B Content is Essential for Link Building
Link building is the ongoing component of a B2B SEO campaign. Link building is never really “done” since the search engines like to see that inbound links pointing to a site grow naturally over time. If a site is steadily growing links and then suddenly stops, it will eventually result in a dip ...
Read Industry Blogs to Improve Your SEO
We all know that blogging is an important part of SEO because it creates fresh content on your site and provides an opportunity to target different variations of keywords and get noticed by the search engine spiders. Almost as important as it is to create and publish your own blog posts is to spend ...
What to Look for When Researching an SEO Firm
As a firm that specializes in B2B SEO services we understand the complex process of B2B decision making. Deciding that an SEO firm should be hired to improve the search presence of a business website is a step in the right direction, but it also means that there will be some work involved on the par...
Is Your SEO Program On Autopilot?
There are plenty of SEO tools and software programs out there that can help automate some of the aspects of your SEO program, freeing up your valuable time so you can focus more on other SEO-related tasks like content creation and blogger outreach that can’t (and shouldn’t) be automated. I’m a...
SEO Tactics for New Website Owners
It’s a policy of ours to only take on a new full service SEO client if their site has existed for at least a year or two. This is because a brand new site doesn’t yet have the search engine trust that is necessary in order to see a measurable improvement in ranking or traffic in the short term (...
Ways to Gauge Social Media Success
There is often a struggle between the marketing department and the finance department. The marketing department knows the importance of long term efforts like SEO and social media marketing, both of which require some of the budget in order to execute the strategies efficiently. However, those respo...
Competitive Analysis is Part of an SEO Campaign
When getting started with a marketing campaign of any sort, one of the first things that must be done is to conduct a competitive analysis. It’s necessary to understand what the competition is doing in order to know how much work needs to be done to compete and what kind of angle you can take to s...
Don’t Host a Business Blog on a Separate Domain
One of the best ways to give your SEO program a boost is to become a content marketing machine. Content that includes targeted keywords is what gets noticed by the search engine spiders and content that provides useful information is what gets noticed and shared by target audience members. Win win. ...
How to Properly Conduct Keyword Research
If you frequent this blog you’ll notice that we mention “keyword research” quite often. Actually, any SEO blog is likely to discuss keyword research a fair amount. After all, it is one of the most important components of an SEO campaign. The search engines find and rank websites based on the w...
What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Copywriter
Not every business owner or marketing manager is going to be a great writer, and that’s okay! For some people writing just comes naturally—they know how to craft a story, make a point, teach the reader something and keep someone engaged for 1500+ words. Others struggle to come up with even a 500...
Making Enterprise SEO A Priority Across Your Departments
Unlike a small business where the owner handles SEO, or even a mid-sized firm with a marketing manager or marketing director, an enterprise can have multiple teams and departments that contribute to the ultimate success or failure of an enterprise SEO campaign. The key is to make SEO a priority acro...
How B2Bs Should Use Social Media
When social media first started gaining momentum as an outlet to promote a business, the first companies that found success were the B2Cs. It makes sense if you think about it. B2Cs typically target a wider audience and since most people have at least one social media account it was a great way to g...
Consider SEO from the Start
While it may be hard to believe, there are businesses out there that still don’t have a website. There are plenty of other businesses that have a bare bones website and are realizing that it’s time for an overhaul. And of course there are always new businesses being launched that need to create ...
The Buying Cycle Has Evolved- What’s SEO Got to Do With It?
I came across this really interesting post on MPDailyFix.com a few weeks ago about the excuses that SMBs come up with to avoid blogging. The post has a lot of good points, but the one that resonated with me the most was this: Studies consistently demonstrate that the majority (70% or more) of the...
Is Your Business Blog Conveying the Wrong Message?
Business blogging is highly recommended for any business that is looking to improve upon its SEO efforts, social media efforts, and online marketing efforts overall. For SEO purposes, a blog post is an opportunity to target relevant keywords. Each blog post is a new page of content on the website an...
SEO Musts for Your Local Business
For many reasons, local businesses are often the most hesitant when it comes to getting involved with SEO. Maybe they have found success by simply using other marketing methods like direct mail or flyers and promotions. Or maybe they rely heavily on word of mouth within the area. Local businesses ty...
SEO Company Red Flags
There are plenty of SEO providers out there to choose from. There are some good ones, and some not so good ones. Unfortunately it’s the not so good ones that give the industry a bad reputation. Prior to hiring an SEO firm it’s important to do some research in order to determine what firm is the ...
Why You’re to Blame for a Failed SEO Campaign
What SEO clients need to understand from the get go is that the relationship between SEO client and SEO firm should be viewed as a partnership. Both parties need to work together in order to achieve positive results. An SEO client can’t sign a contract with an SEO firm and then think that the work...
Make Content Creation a Top Priority
If you want to grow your business it’s necessary to have an online marketing presence today. If you want to succeed in online marketing it’s necessary to create quality content on a regular basis. Content is really at the foundation of an online marketing strategy. Without good content you reall...
Important Ways to Improve Local SEO Efforts
Unless your business is booming simply by positive word of mouth or being in the right busy location, it’s necessary for your local business to have a search engine presence. People are looking for just about everything in the search engines, and if you can’t be found, you’ll miss out on new b...
Offer Your Referral Sources Lasting Value Throughout the Year
This is a guest post by Steve Klinghoffer, President of WPI Communications, Inc. Many people base the bulk of their purchasing decisions on relationships and on things like social proof (e.g., a friend’s recommendation, a colleague’s referral or a glowing review), good customer service, or h...
A New Year Means New SEO
I see so many site owners make the mistake of thinking that SEO is a “set it and forget it” medium. Just like any other marketing campaign you may undertake this year, SEO is something that can’t just put on the back burner and expect to run itself. No, you don’t need to be re-optimizing you...
B2B Conversions Require More than SEO
Some may argue that B2B marketing is more challenging than B2C. A B2B marketer typically needs to convince more than one person within an organization that their product/service is the right one for the organization. Since multiple employees may have a say in the decision, the sales cycle is typical...
Google Analytics Data to Pay Attention To
One of the first things that you should do once your website is up and running is to add Google Analytics to the site. Google Analytics is a free tool by Google that provides you with data about the performance of your site. Without Analytics, you are essentially operating your site blindly. How are...
SEO Copywriting Rules to Follow
When writing copy that is going to be published anywhere it’s important to consider the basics- correct spelling, language, grammar, structure, organization, etc. However, writing for the web and more specifically, for SEO purposes, is a different kind of writing that requires additional thought. ...
How to Execute SEO with a Small Budget
SEO is extremely important for any business that wants to improve its online presence and good SEO does cost money. Unfortunately many small businesses don’t even bother looking into SEO because all they think about is the cost that is associated with it. While it’s true that a small business wi...
Don’t Favor Social Profiles Over a Website
Social media has become a huge part of online marketing today, and for good reason. Nearly everybody has a presence on at least one social networking site while most people have accounts on multiple sites and check in on a daily (or even hourly!) basis. Social media is where the people are, which me...
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 ...