Author Archives: Nolen Walker

Aug '22

Fitness Center SEO: The 2023 Guide for Gyms + Health Clubs

Health and fitness are essential to most people. So it seems like it would be a given that people would naturally flock to your gym or health center, right? But, unfortunately, as anyone who owns or manages one of these facilities will tell you, that is often not the case. That’s because plenty of healthy competition exists (no pun intended).

So how do you make your fitness center stand out from the competition? With fitness center SEO. SEO is a form of digital marketing concerned with getting your website to rank as high on search engine results pages as possible. The higher you rank, the more people will see your website. Unfortunately, very few people click through to the second search engine results page.

Don’t believe us? Take the following statistic into consideration: the top 3 search engine results garner more than 75% of all clicks, which means that most people aren’t even bothering to scroll down on the first page.

Fitness center SEO is crucial in 2023 because search engines are how people find businesses and services with buyer intent. For example, if someone is ready to join a gym, they have already decided to spend money.

So the only question to ask yourself is: what is the state of my fitness center’s SEO? If you don’t know the answer to that question or don’t like the answer, there’s no need to fret.

In the following post, Nolen Walker walks you through some of the most critical steps to improve your SEO, get more leads and land more members.

Table of Contents

What is Fitness Center SEO?

Fitness Center SEO ranks a gym or health club on search engine results for various keywords and branded searches. The nitty-gritty of SEO involves refining website data, including HTML tags, producing content, and building relevant links.

Getting Started With SEO for Fitness Centers

SEO can overwhelm business owners as it seems like so much to learn. However, when you break down SEO into the essentials, it becomes manageable. The following guide outlines how to get started on SEO for gyms and the best ways to achieve desirable results in 2023 quickly.

Focus on Local SEO for Health Clubs

There is a sub-classification of general SEO called local SEO. As the name suggests, local SEO concentrates on increasing your website’s visibility to the consumers in your specific geographic market. For example, as a local fitness center, yoga studio, gym, or health club, yours is very much a local business.

The good news is that local SEO is a bit easier to tackle than general SEO. Think about it like this: it’s much easier to rank for a keyword like “MMA gym in Brandon, Florida” than for a keyword like “MMA gym.”

You will only see the country’s biggest and most prominent MMA gyms with the latter keyword. But you aren’t trying to attract people from St. Louis if your gym or fitness center is in Bozeman, Montana.

So it would be best to focus on local SEO first and foremost. So here are some tips on how you can start using local SEO tactics to attract more consumers in your market:

Sign Up for Google Business Profile: The Google Business Profile is free and will help your website rank immediately higher on relevant Google searches. That’s because Google prioritizes its own services on searches, so Google Business Profile company listings get placed near the top on relevant searches.
Use Online Directories: If you operate in a medium to a large market, there are probably business directory resources you can take advantage of. Try to get listed with local chambers of commerce, professional directories, or local industry directories to garner local links to your site.
Add Location Pages: This one takes some time, but if you have more than one gym, studio or fitness center, you must add specific location pages to your website for each one. This will boost your web crawler signals and make it more likely that people will find your location pages when they perform a local search.

Name Address, and Phone Listings for Fitness Centers

NAP consistency is one of the easiest ways to boost your fitness center SEO, but it is often overlooked. Think about all the places where the name, phone number, and address of your fitness center are listed on the internet. Now go through and ensure that all the information is consistent and uniform in all these online locations.

Various services and tools can update your listings in bulk, so you don’t have to update every single directory painstakingly. However, you should quickly update your most important business listings like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Facebook if they have inaccurate information.

Why is it important that your NAP appears the same everywhere? Because if it doesn’t, search engine web crawlers are much less likely to index your listings on relevant searches. Search engines don’t like to show confusing or inconsistent information to their users – so they usually won’t. That’s why you must ensure your NAP is consistent.

Fitness Center Blog Content

For the fitness industry, posting regular, unique blog content centered around strategic keywords is extremely important. In addition, blogs are critical to fitness center SEO because they answer common questions.

And there are always people looking for answers to their burning fitness questions. But it’s not enough to write about what you know. You have to do keyword research to find out what questions people are asking the most and what words they are using to ask those questions.

You can use an online keyword research tool to gather a list of the most relevant keywords for the fitness industry. Then, start building blog content based on those keywords.

On-Site SEO for Health Clubs

You can make some tweaks to your website that will help increase organic traffic. These tweaks are on-site optimizations because they involve altering your website to increase clicks. Take a look:

Submit A Sitemap: Create a sitemap of your website and submit it to Google. Sitemaps help web crawlers scan your site and make it much more likely that they will index it on relevant searches.
Use Keywords in Written Content: Keywords aren’t just for blog content; they should also appear on your website’s landing pages. From services pages to your “contact us” page, you should strategically include a relevant keyword on all your pages.
Optimize for Mobile: Did you know that if someone finds your gym or fitness center with their phone or mobile device, they are 88% more likely to call or visit? It’s true and why optimizing your site for mobile users is essential. You can start by compressing images, but you may need the help of a web designer to make your site mobile-friendly.
Use Reviews: If you have great reviews, why not use them on your website for increased organic traffic? It’s even better when you have reviews mentioning some of your target keywords. If you have trouble embedding testimonials from 3rd party platforms, check out Datapins, as it provides a handy and easy-to-use tool for displaying reviews on your website.

Invest in Gym SEO With Nolen Walker

Fitness center SEO is much more effective when you listen to the right professionals. So if you are serious about blowing up your gym, studio, or fitness center, contact Nolen Walker to enhance your SEO process. With over 15 years of experience in the digital marketing industry, Nolen can help you dominate.

Jan '22

House Cleaning SEO: The #1 Local Marketing Guide for 2022

House cleaning SEO comes into play because the fact is that there are most certainly people who are willing to pay for house cleaning. And those people are using the internet to find local house cleaning services they can trust.

House cleaning SEO is, therefore, not only about getting seen by the people who want to hire house cleaners; it’s also about making your business as reputable and attractive as possible in the eyes of consumers.

So in the following post, Nolen Walker Academy offers essential tips on increasing your online visibility and helping your business stand out in the crowd. In addition, we are available for new student enrollments at Nolen Walker Academy if you are ready to utilize SEO to expand your house cleaning business.

What is House Cleaning SEO?

Before we get into the details, we know that many people don’t even know what SEO is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is a form of digital marketing that focuses on getting your website to appear on the first page and as high up on the first page of search engine results as possible.

For example, let’s say you are hungry and want to find a good pizza place near your house. You are likely to pop open your laptop or use your phone to go to a search engine like Google and type in something like “pizza restaurants near me.” Now how likely are you to click through to the second page of results? Not very likely, right?

Only 4.8% of people click on the second search engine results page. That means the businesses showing up on the second page aren’t getting any web traffic and losing out on much business. So it’s clear that the first page is where you want to generate the most leads and give yourself the best chance to convert.

Get Listed on Google Business Profile

Did you know that nearly half of all Google searches come from people looking for information on local businesses and services? It makes sense too. After all, no one in Los Angeles will be looking for a house cleaning service based in San Diego. One way to appear on more local searches is to get listed on Google Business Profile.

Business Google Profile listings appear on the Google Local Map Pack. The Google Local Map Pack appears near the top of the first page on nearly all local searches. So one of the simplest ways to ensure your website appears on the first search engine results page is to sign up for Google Business Profile.

You can get started here, and the best thing about it is that it’s an entirely free service.

All you have to do is submit documentation, so Google can verify you as a real business, but after that, you’re in!

Manage Your Reviews

In the intro to this post, we told you we would also provide tips for making your cleaning business stand out. One of the best ways to make your business appear professional and reputable in consumers’ eyes is by ensuring you have an excellent online reputation. It starts with being present on as many review websites as possible.

Make it easy for people to find your business and leave a review for it. Of course, it would help if you also asked your customers to leave reviews for your business, so you get a healthy stream of new reviews every month. Once you start getting a good amount of reviews, here are some tips to keep in mind for managing them successfully:

Respond to Them: Respond to as many reviews as possible. It shows past and potential customers that you care about their experience with your business. It’s imperative to respond to negative reviews. Acknowledge the complaint, thank them for their input and explain how you will do better in the future.
Use Reputation Management Software: As you start getting more reviews, you will find that managing them becomes a job in and of itself. That’s why reputation management software is beneficial. It allows you to see your reviews in one place instead of tracking them down on different sites. It also automates the review request process. DataPins makes a great reputation management software suite ideal for small businesses.
Try to Keep A Good Balance: Oddly enough, you don’t want a perfect 5-star rating on any review platform. It tends to arouse suspicion in the minds of consumers. Instead, you want to be somewhere between 4.4 and 4.8 stars.

Choose Good Keywords

Your on-site optimization strategy should include a healthy dose of keyword usage. For example, specific keywords are used by consumers looking for house cleaning services. You can use an online keyword research tool to find out what those keywords are. Then you should:

Include Them in Page Copy: Your service pages should include these keywords in the written copy.
Use Yoast to Help: If you use WordPress for your site, you should also use the free SEO tool. Yoast will make it easier for you to insert your keywords into the page descriptions and headings of the pages of your website without having to be familiar with coding.
Create Blog Posts Around Your Keywords: You should use your keyword lists to inform your blog topics, helping generate more traffic to your site from people interested in your services.

Be Present on Social Media

Last but not least, social media outlets like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and even TikTok are invaluable marketing tools in 2022. Your business should be present on all of them. Try to post interesting, funny, or informative content as often as possible but don’t spam your followers’ feeds.

You may also find it helpful to start a Facebook group for consumers who have questions or are interested in a house cleaning service.

Learn House Cleaning SEO at Nolen Walker Academy

House cleaning SEO is easy to start with; but more difficult to master. So, once you have conquered all the above tips, get in touch with us here at Nolen Walker Academy to take your house cleaning SEO efforts to the next level! Our SEO training program takes you through hours of course materials with SEO professionals.

Feb '21

SEO for Jewelers + Jewelry Stores: The Updated 2023 Guide

SEO for jewelry stores can directly impact lead generation, sales, and revenue in 2023. Nolen Walker Academy is the top education platform for business owners looking to improve their online presence. The following guide details SEO for jewelers in 2023 and how jewelry store owners can improve their techniques and generate more traffic.

What is SEO for Jewelers?

SEO for jewelers is a digital marketing strategy that aims to rank business web properties on search engines like Google. For instance, ranking your jewelry store website or Google Business Profile for popular keywords can generate extensive traffic to your web properties, resulting in more leads, sales, and revenue.

Why Jewelry Stores Need SEO in 2023

It’s a new year, and it’s time to revamp your SEO strategy if you are a jewelry store owner. For online and brick-and-mortar jewelry store owners alike, keeping up with the ever-changing SEO trends is essential to stay competitive in the rankings.

Of course, this can be a full-time job, especially with the frequent algorithm changes that major search engines roll out yearly. But it’s our job to keep our finger on the pulse of ranking factor changes and marketing trends.

Quite frankly, it’s our job to keep you informed. So in today’s post, we will be sifting through the SEO practices of yesteryear to let you know which SEO practices you should adopt/maintain in the new year and which ones you can scrap.

Local SEO for Jewelry Stores

Firstly, local SEO for jewelry stores is vital because the jewelry sales business is still very much a local business – and that’s not changing any time soon. Have you ever heard of someone driving across state lines to buy an engagement ring? Probably not.

But that’s not a 2023 exclusive fact. What is exclusive this year is that 72% of consumers who perform a search for local businesses will visit one of the companies they find within 5 miles of their location. That means that the people in your area want to stay local when buying jewelry. So local jewelry store SEO is still vastly crucial in 2023.

Google My Business

Make sure that you keep your Google Business Profile up to date. Include new pictures and any new service hours. You can also update customers with GBP posts that can feature blog posts, products, discounts, and other business-oriented updates.

Local Service Pages

Also, ensure that you implement longtail keywords on your website and landing pages. Longtail keywords should include a specific service and an exact geographic location. For example, ring fitters in Tampa. Having multiple landing pages for various services is also a good SEO practice for jewelers.

On-Page SEO for Jewelers

On-page SEO is the foundation of any optimization strategy. Inserting title tags, meta descriptions, and keyword-rich body content is paramount for ranking at the top of Google search results. Other on-page SEO factors include permalinks (URL slugs), internal links, header tags, and image optimization.

Title Tags

Your title tag is what Google primarily shows on its search results pages, so it’s important to include the keyword and grab the user’s attention to increase CTR. For example, your title tag for a women’s earrings service page should be something like Affordable Luxury Women’s Earrings in Tampa Bay, FL. Your title tags will vary by content, so that blog posts will have a different type of title than a service page.

Meta Descriptions

Your page’s meta description appears beneath the title on search results. While it’s less important than a title tag, it can still impact CTR and overall SEO ranking. As a result, write a description that entices the user to click through. Avoid inserting your phone number in the meta description as that may discourage users from clicking on the link, opting instead to call your number without entering the website.

Body Content

Your page’s body content is the meat of your SEO ranking. You should insert keywords within the content where necessary. You can use a tool like Surfer SEO to show you exactly which terms and synonyms you should use within your content and how frequently. You’ll want to avoid stuffing keywords in your text as it may negatively impact user engagement and increase website bounce rate.

Image Optimization

Keeping up with your on-site content will be vastly influential in 2023. For example, images are a biggie. Posting new photos on your site or Google Business Profile is essential, but you must also remember to include rich tags to ensure they get indexed by search engines.

As we move from the holiday season to the new year, many shop owners are swapping out their Christmas photos for new pictures but forgetting to include descriptive tags. But all your new images need tags relevant for 2023.

Content Writing & Marketing

Search engines are placing a much higher emphasis on quality content in 2023 than ever before. And while many of you already know the importance of a content marketing strategy and have implemented one, you have to ensure that your plan is up to snuff in the new year.

Your content has to provide value to your visitors. Google only prioritizes well-written, human-oriented content.

Unique Content

Any sites that use duplicate content, poorly written content, keyword cramming, or content that has otherwise been written more for web crawlers than humans will get penalized and lose rankings. Aside from Google’s algorithm favoring unique content, reader engagement also responds to well-written text.

Service Pages

Service pages target buyer intent keywords like women’s bracelets for sale. You should create a service page for each type of jewelry you sell and include your location in the title tag to reach more local consumers. Your service page title tag should combine the primary keyword for the jewelry type and a location modifier like Tampa, Tampa Bay, or Tampa Bay, FL.

Blog Posts

Service pages may not be enough to build topical authority for your website. Since buyer intent keywords are highly competitive, it can limit your ability to rank (depending on your backlink profile). If you want to rank for more keywords and build topical authority, you must publish blog posts targeting informational keywords. For example, best watch brands for men garners 3,300 monthly searches (according to Moz.)

Jewelry Store SEO From The Top Experts

Keeping up with Google’s latest algorithm changes and shifts in marketing dynamics can be a full-time job. Luckily, we have specialists ready to help jewelers learn how to optimize their business online. Here at Nolen Walker, we offer SEO services through our various digital marketing agencies.

Dec '20

Irrigation SEO: The #1 Guide for Sprinkler Repair Contractors

Irrigation SEO helps contractors rank on Google for terms like sprinkler repair near me. If you can rank within Google’s Local Map 3-Pack along with traditional organic results, you can pick up roughly 60% of all search users (for this topic).

What is Irrigation SEO?

Irrigation SEO is the refinement of a sprinkler repair website and Google Business Profile for the purpose of ranking on search results for topical keywords. Increasing your ranking position through SEO strategies allows your company to accumulate more frequent irrigation leads and book more sprinkler repair jobs in 2022.

Why Irrigation Contractors Need SEO

Calling all landscapers: are you doing things the old-fashioned way? There’s nothing wrong with word-of-mouth referrals, local newspaper ads, and truck wraps, but there is much more opportunity.

It would help if you compliment your grassroots marketing campaigns with SEO or Search Engine Optimization. SEO allows your business to be seen by more people who use search engines to find local businesses and services.

And the numbers don’t lie. At least one market study has revealed that 4 in every five people use a search engine to find local businesses and home services. And the great thing about SEO is that you can use it to boost sales for specific services or specialties.

For landscapers, irrigation SEO can be instrumental in particular. Everyone needs irrigation services at one point or another, so will your company be the one they hire when the time comes? Find out how to boost your irrigation SEO rankings in the following guide we’ve composed just for landscapers.

Local SEO for Sprinkler Repair

Your landscaping business may be many things. But at the end of the day, it is, at its core, a local business. You most likely run a very personal, face-to-face business that caters to the residents and business owners’ needs.

People in your town probably know you and your crew on a first-name basis. So your foray into SEO should have a very local bent. Start by registering your business with Google My Business. GMB will help you break into the local three map pack and let people know that you offer their area services.

You will also want to register on Houzz and Angie’s List. Both sites offer excellent opportunities to customize your profile based on the areas you service. And they are specifically for home service contractors like you.

On the more technical side, you should also utilize schema markup on your company’s website. Local schema markup will make it easier for search engines to index your site based on searches with local intent.

For example, if someone searches “irrigation landscapers near me,” local schema markup will signal to search engines that you do offer irrigation services in the area of the person that performed that search (if you are actually in that area, of course).

Content Marketing for Irrigation Contractors

These days, people get their information through blog content, videos, and social media posts (for better or worse). Information about local services and businesses shows up on each vertical. So let’s say someone wants to know the benefits of installing a new sprinkler system for their garden.

They might search what we in the industry call a “research intention” search. In other words, they may not be ready to spend money on new sprinklers just yet, but they want to know more about them.

On the other hand, we have buyer intent searches representing people conducting a search engine query to find a product to buy or a business to work with/hire. An example of a buying intent search may be “affordable landscapers near me.”

But whether a person is ready to buy or wants more info, you should have content on your website, YouTube, or social media pages prepared to inform or convert them.

Irrigation Company Reputation Management

These days, online reviews are an essential commodity for any business. People rely on online reviews as much as they do word of mouth referrals. So be sure your company is listed with Yelp, the Better Business Bureau, and other public review websites, so people have the opportunity to tell other consumers about your business.

Be sure you and your staff are requesting reviews. And make it easy for them to leave reviews. Consider having QR codes printed on your business cards that lead to a review page. Include a link in any emails you send out that also leads to your review pages.

Link Building for Irrigation Business Websites

Websites with a strong backlink profile can more easily rank for relevant keywords. Of course, you’ll still need to implement on-page SEO and publish high-quality content in order to rank. However, powerful link authority makes those techniques work much faster. You can acquire links by joining your local chamber of commerce and networking with other local businesses.

Other ways to earn links include guest posting on other relevant and trustworthy websites and submitting pitches to reporters via HARO. While acquiring links is a powerful SEO strategy for irrigation companies, it also comes with risks. For example, certain llink-building strategies (like buying links) violate Google’s quality guidelines and can result in a manual penalty and de-indexation of your website.

The most natural way to acquire backlinks (aside from business networking) is to publish high-quality blog posts targeting informational keywords or data-driven queries. For example, several websites will naturally cite your blog post if it contains original statistics. You can expect to earn natural and organic links if you publish a data-driven post about the most common sprinkler types in a specific region.

Learn About Sprinkler Repair SEO

Of course, there is a lot more to SEO than what’s listed here. Still, this would be a good start whether you already have an SEO strategy in place or not. And for irrigation SEO ranking dominance, be sure to enroll in Nolen Walker Academy. We can teach your landscaping business how to earn new customers through tried and true digital marketing strategies, so get in touch with our team today.

Oct '20

7 Fresh Electrician Marketing Ideas for 2022 (w/Digital Tips)

As an electrician, you provide an essential service. Still, many electricians compete for the same customers. That’s where electrician marketing becomes imperative. So you must ask yourself one crucial question: Is your business getting noticed? If not, the following electrician marketing ideas can change the course of your business in 2022.

Digital marketing becomes so crucial for your business. An effective digital marketing strategy will help get your business noticed in a virtual sea of electricians offering the same services as you.

The challenge is, therefore, launching an effective digital marketing campaign. To that end, we offer this list of electrician marketing ideas tailored to the trade.

What is Electrician Marketing?

Electrician marketing is the active promotion of an electrical contractor business to engage prospective customers and increase sales. Standard marketing strategies for electricians include search engine optimization (SEO), Google Ads, Facebook Ads, email marketing, and traditional advertising. Most modern contractors perform some form of digital marketing in 2022.

Electrical Contractor Marketing Ideas

1) Unions and Local Trade Organizations

Getting backlinks to your website is one of the fastest ways to establish it as an authority. Backlinks are one of the top factors determining which sites Google will index on relevant searches. But backlinks can be hard to come by. Fortunately, as an electrician, you have ins with your union and local trade organizations. Please become a member and request platforms list your site in their directory.

2) Content Marketing

Content marketing can be especially useful for electricians. That’s because homeowners often search to learn more about their electrical systems. So ask yourself: will they find your website if they want to know how to repair a blown fuse? Content marketing allows you to share your industry knowledge and become an authority that people will trust when they are ready to hire an electrician.

Blogs and video content are some of the most effective types of modern digital marketing. Post blog and video content that helps home and business owners navigate some common electrical problems.

3) Local SEO

Electrical work is very much local work. Your business needs to get noticed by people in your city, town, province, village, hamlet, holler, or wherever it operates. There are plenty of ways to enhance your local SEO, but establishing a good Google My Business profile is one of the most important. Doing so is one of the easiest ways to make it into the Google local three-pack. And the local three-pack account for nearly half of all search clicks.

And while setting up your GMB profile may not be a specific tip for electricians, it is nonetheless crucial. Make sure you claim your business, fill out the profile as much as possible, that your business name is consistent across all digital platforms, include all the areas you service, and provide a detailed and alluring description of your business.

4) Virtual Consultations

Lots of contractors are getting their name out there by providing virtual consultations. Going virtual is a great marketing strategy for an electrician because it allows your business to reach more prospects quickly. As long as you have Zoom, Skype, or are familiar with Google Hangouts, you can easily provide this service.

Don’t forget to let people know about it. Announce that you offer virtual electrical consultations on your website, your social media pages, your GMB profile, your Yelp profile, and your business cards.

5) Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click advertising is the right solution for electricians who are more or less running the entire show. You may not have much time to devote to organic digital marketing strategies as they are time-consuming. Pay-per-click ads represent a relatively quick and straightforward solution to get your website seen by more people and get more potential leads further into the sales funnel.

Pay-per-click ads account for 41% of click-through traffic on SERPs. Plus, the results are almost instantaneous. While you still need to be sure that you have informative and compelling content on your landing pages, pay-per-click ads can get the ball rolling for you with minimal effort.

6) Contact Form Plugins

Digital contact forms are a vital part of the sales funnel. They allow potential customers to set up service appointments or easily get the information they need. On your end, they can provide you with valuable market research and help generate a lead list. You can even use the information you garner (keep in mind that the data is provided willingly by the potential customer) to create an email list.

Digital contact forms can be tricky, but there are some great plugins that you can use to create effective, custom contact forms quickly. WPForms, Jetpack, and Conversational Forms are some of the best plugins to use if you have a WordPress site.

7) Email Marketing

Maintenance is a big part of electrical work, and it can be a huge “in” in terms of digital marketing. You can use an email marketing campaign to reach out to customers about service reminders and maintenance schedules. Email marketing can be beneficial because it makes the sales process that much easier for the client when they see your business name right in their inbox.

A couple of things to keep in mind with regards to email marketing for electricians, though:

According to research, people are more likely to open your emails sent between 4 pm and 8 pm
Email campaigns that utilize segmented emails have a better open rate than ones that don’t

Learn Electrical Contractor Marketing at Nolen Walker Academy

These are some of the best electrician marketing ideas you will likely hear in 2022. But if you would like to learn the hands-on skills required to implement these strategies, enroll in Nolen Walker Academy. At Nolen Walker Academy, we specialize in training electricians to gain the marketing edge required to grow their business in 2022. Our instructors teach a proven SEO blueprint that drives results for our marketing agency clients daily. Best of all, you won’t have to rely on an expensive agency to promote your business.

Aug '20

7 Appealing Design Elements of the Best Veterinary Websites

As a veterinarian, your job is to help animals. But how can you help any animals if their owners can’t find you? If you seem to have few patients walk through your doors, the problem may be with your website. A lot of veterinarians overlook the importance of an attractive and functional website. But in the digital age, your online presence can make or break your business. That’s because an astounding 97% of consumers use the internet to research local businesses and services – this includes veterinary offices.

It may seem counterintuitive but in order to help as many animals as you can, you need to focus on digital marketing – namely, your website design. Your website should be inviting, easy to navigate, and have all the information your patients (and potential patients) may need to make their animals well and keep them healthy.

In the following guide, we will be going over the most important design elements that veterinary websites absolutely need to utilize.

1) Pet Insurance

A growing number of Americans are investing in pet insurance. With nearly 70 billion dollars being spent on pet medical bills in the United States annually, pet owners and employers are wising up. More and more companies are offering pet insurance to employees as part of their benefits packages. So what does this have to do with your website? When a pet owner visits your site, they should be able to find out whether you accept their pet insurance. Be sure to have a page or section of your website that lists all the pet insurance plans you accept.

2) Practice Photos

We all love our pets. And as pet owners, we need to feel comfortable with the veterinarians we bring our furry friends to because they can’t speak or choose for themselves. Some high-quality photos of yourself with some animals you have treated, happy patients, and your smiling staff will go a long way in instilling trust in potential patients.

3) Exceptional User Experience

While this design element isn’t exclusive to veterinary websites, it is still very important. The fact is that every website, including yours, needs to be responsive. It has to load fast, be easily navigable, and be accessible across all platforms. Invest in a UX designer to help you with your site. Things like first contentful paint, mobile device access (being able to easily navigate your website from a smartphone or tablet), and flat architectural site design are some points of emphasis you should discuss with your UX designer.

4) Essential Pages

There are a few pages that every veterinarian should have on their website: an about page, a contact page, and a services page. The about page should be written to convey what it is that makes you stand out among other vets in the areas. This is a good opportunity to list your credentials, certifications, education, and areas of expertise and to tell patients about your bond with animals. The contact page should have all the necessary info like office hours, email address, phone number, physical address, and any other contact information. The contact page should have links that enable a visitor to send an email or make a phone call with a single click (if they are on a mobile device). You may also want to install a message reception system where people can simply type in a message right on your website without having to send an email. And your services page should provide a clear list of all the medical services you provide (check-ups, x-rays, vaccination shots, emergency care, etc.).

5) A Blog

One interesting phenomenon that is occurring among pet owners is that more and more, they are turning to the internet for help concerning their pets. In a recent study, it was revealed that 70% of participants (pet owners) have used the internet to research information about pet health. In fact, many pet owners take to the internet first before they consult vets, general practitioners, or even friends and family. So in order to capitalize on this trend, you may want to start a blog that focuses on pet health topics. This will draw a ton of traffic to your site form concerned pet owners seeking your specialized knowledge.

6) Local SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is a method of getting your website noticed and ranked on internet searches. But as a veterinarian, you are probably focusing on your local market. So your website should emphasize local SEO. Localized keywords (a good example would be something like “veterinarians near me”) are a good place to start. But schema markup, geo-location functions, and review management are also helpful local SEO tools that will bolster your click-through traffic.

7) Patient Reviews

While your business should be claimed on all relevant third-party review websites like Yelp and Google My Business, you should incorporate patient testimonials on your own website as well. Patient testimonials go a long way toward instilling trust in the minds of potential patients. In fact, 84% of people surveyed in a poll run by Inc reported that they trust online reviews as much as referrals from their friends and family. Having a healthy amount of reviews readily available for visitors to read on your website will not only make your website look more attractive but draw in new patients as well.

Digital Marketing for Veterinarians

So what makes us qualified to talk about the most appealing design elements of veterinary websites? Here at Nolan Walker, we specialize in digital marketing for veterinarians. The veterinary industry is one we have a lot of experience with. We have helped hundreds of veterinarians all around the country implement effective digital marketing strategies and expand their practice – and we can surely do the same for you. We know what goes into effective marketing for veterinary practices so put our team to work for you right now!

Jul '20

Crawl Budget: How Does it Impact SEO in 2020?

Google is always looking for ways to improve its service. One way they have done this is by introducing the concept and practice of the Googlebot. The Googlebot essentially looks at millions of websites when someone enters a search query. This is how Google is able to turn up relevant results for the searches we perform every day. But Googlebot is not omnipresent. Believe it or not, Google has limited resources.

And that is why crawl budgets exist. So what is a crawl budget anyway? A crawl budget refers to the number of pages or documents on your website that the Googlebot will crawl and potentially index on SERPs. If your site is given a high crawl budget, the Googlebot will spend more time and resources looking for relevant content on your website. If your site has a low crawl budget, the Googlebot won’t allot as many resources towards indexing your pages.

How Does Google Determine your Crawl Budget?

The concept of crawl budget first came around in 2017 when Google laid out the Googlebot protocol. When they did this, they also explained how they determine the crawl budget of any given website. There are basically 2 factors that will determine your crawl budget.

1 – How much traffic your website can handle. If Google determines that your server will be hampered by frequent crawling by the Googlebot, it will assign your site a lower crawl budget. This is referred to as the Crawl Rate Limit.

2 – How popular your website is. The number of external links pointing to your website, how often the content is updated and how much it is frequented by web surfers all play a part of how popular your website is. This is referred to as Crawl Demand

Google takes Crawl Rate limit and Crawl Demand into account when determining your site’s crawl budget. Again, it is important to keep in mind that the motivation behind crawl budget and many of the other components of the Google search engine is to improve the user experience. And in most cases, improving the user experience means pulling up the most relevant and helpful web pages possible.

They want to be able to pull up search results from the sites likely to have the most reliable (or popular) websites. So they allot more of a crawl budget to authoritative websites. They also don’t want to waste any resources on websites that can’t connect or handle the traffic. These are the basic principles of Crawl Rate Limit and Crawl Demand.

When Should you Worry About Crawl Budget

So obviously, you want as high a crawl budget as possible. The higher your crawl budget, the more pages on your website that Google can scan and potentially pull up on search queries. But at what point do you need to be concerned with what your crawl budget actually is? Luckily, most small websites don’t ever have to even worry about crawl budget.

Google does a great job of scanning and indexing sites very quickly – so long as they are under around 10,000 pages. If your website has a pretty basic homepage, about page, contact page, service page, blog section structure (let’s say around 20-50 pages) the Googlebot can quickly index any of your pages.

When you need to start thinking about your crawl budget is when you have around 10,000 unique pages on your site. These are usually sites that have lots of different product pages, user-generated content pages, and location-specific pages.

So for those of you do have large websites like the ones we just mentioned and are feeling a bit hot under the collar right now, don’t panic. We are going to explain how your crawl budget affects SEO.

Crawl Budget and SEO

As you may be able to imagine by now, your crawl budget can affect your site’s SEO in a number of ways. To understand the effect that crawl budget can have on your search engine optimization, take a look at some of the most important links between these two concepts:

Load Speed – Load speed will have a significant impact on your SEO. If the Googlebot can’t scan your pages quickly because your website’s load speeds are slow, simply put; it will not index your pages. At least, it is less likely that it will index your pages. Things like first contentful paint and first meaningful paint are also aspects that can affect your crawl budget. Your site’s load speeds therefore become integral to SEO.
Fresh Content – You may already understand the value of updating your website’s content and posting new content. But having fresh content also affects your site’s crawl budget. If Google detects that your site hasn’t been touched (part of the Crawl Demand criteria that focuses on popularity) for a long time, it will not waste crawls on it. Posting new content and updating old content also becomes very important to SEO in this regard.
Linking – Getting back links for as many of your website’s pages as possible is always a good thing – but especially for raising your crawl budget. External links are signals to Google that your website has something to offer. Likewise, making sure that you don’t have any orphan pages (pages that don’t have any internal links leading to them) is another good way to make the most of your crawl budget because it is harder for the Googlebot to find orphan pages.

Improving in the above-mentioned areas of website design are the most effective ways to increase your crawl budget. And if you would like to know your current crawl budget, Google makes this information readily available for any webmaster.

Increase Crawl Budget and Improve SEO

It can be difficult to increase your crawl budget on your own. But here at Nolen Walker, we offer a thoughtful and comprehensive list of services aimed at all-around website performance. We can help increase your crawl budget for the benefit of SEO so contact us today.

Jul '20

What is First Contentful Paint and How Does it Impact SEO?

Google has been in a ceaseless war with shoddy UX for over a decade now. User experience means pretty much everything to Google, and they have the resources to throw at it. And since Google’s job is to organize and display what the internet has to offer, their crosshairs may be pointed at your site. In the past, we have talked a lot about the different factors that affect Search Engine Optimization and Google ranking. So today we want to continue that discussion by explaining something called first contentful paint. And in explaining first contentful paint, it would help to familiarize and refresh our memory as to what user experience is.

First Contentful Paint and User Experience

First contentful paint is an important aspect of user experience. First contentful paint has to do with the loading speed of your website. When someone types your URL into their address bar or clicks on your link from a search engine or other source, the first contentful paint is the first element of your website that begins to render on their monitor. Usually, first contentful paint is your website’s header or top navigational menu.

This is the first thing that people see when loading your website and it lets them know that the content that they came in search for is on the way and will render soon. You may be starting to see what first contentful paint and user experience have to do with one another. When your site loads fast – when the first contentful paint shows up quickly and in turn, renders first meaningful paint quickly – Google considers that part of good user experience. When people have to wait multiple seconds for your website to start showing signs of life, Google considers that you guessed it, part of bad user experience.

The New Era of Google Ranking

We are living in a significant era as far as digital marketing and SEO are concerned. On Thursday, May 28, 2020, Google announced that they would be using a set of metrics called “Core Web Vitals” to incorporate into their ranking algorithm. Core Web Vitals are criteria that judge websites based on user experience. This includes “load time, interactivity, and the stability of content” as Google puts it. And while these changes are not set to roll out until 2021, smart marketers will begin to adapt right now so that they are ready to rank when Google officially makes this change.

Introducing upcoming ranking signals for Google Search based on various aspects of page experience–combining Core Web Vitals and previous UX-related signals.

Read our pre-announcementhttps://t.co/L3IrB2dOnM

— Google Webmasters (@googlewmc) May 28, 2020

In essence, though, Google will now be looking at SEO and the overall user experience when ranking websites. That means that first contentful paint is going to be a huge decider on how high your website gets placed on Search Engine Results Pages.

This represents a shift toward more “human-centric” metrics that Google is using to rank websites. You can probably see how this is going to have an effect on the current standards or Search Engine Optimization.

What FCP this Means for SEO

Before you throw out all your SEO textbooks, understand that current SEO practices are still very much valid. As Common Places Interactive lays out in their article, SEO is still going to be the first signifier to the Google bots. In other words, just because Google is getting more UX and human-oriented, doesn’t mean that they are going to start using humans to comb through the millions of search engine hits it pulls up on a single query.

In short, this means that computers are still going to be used to index your website, and what do these computers use to index? That’s right, SEO signals. In 2021 the process of Google rankings is going to go something like this:

A search is made using keywords
The Google algorithm will scour the internet in search of those keywords and relevant data
Google will then comb the sites based on Core Web Vitals and other metrics
Google will display results based on the relevancy of SEO and Core Web Vitals

So as you can see, SEO is still very much part of the game. As things stand now, it looks like SEO will still be the initial signifier for the Google algorithm. The results that are indexed in this initial search will then be further scrutinized using Core Web Vitals.

Going Forward With FCP

While this may sound like a bit of frustrating news to a lot of webmasters out there, it should nonetheless come as no surprise. Google’s job since its inception has essentially been to improve the way their system provides relevant content to its users. One just needs to take a look at Google’s update timeline to see how much effort the company has put into improving its search engine. It’s obvious to see that Google is an ever-changing machine. So not only should this latest update come as no surprise to you; you should also expect more changes very soon.

But don’t stress out. There are some very helpful tools out there that you can use for free to improve the speed of your first contentful paint. Google itself launched Lighthouse in 2008 which lets developers test their website loading speed and see how it loads as visitors experience it. Lighthouse will essentially audit your page based on SEO and UX and let you know where and how you can improve.

Adapting to SEO’s Evolution

If you haven’t figured it out by now, it really pays to be adaptive when it comes to digital marketing. The value that Google has placed on first contentful paint and UX, in general, is just another shift that the company has made to keep developers honest and to keep their own users happy. It was preceded by past changes and it will be succeeded by future ones.

Here at Nolen Walker, our job is to help you be adaptive in the ever-changing digital market. With our tools and guidance, you can stay on top of the latest changes in search engine algorithms.

May '20

Top 46 Best SEO Keywords for Churches

What are Church SEO Keywords?

Chruch SEO keywords, sometimes known as church marketing keywords, are common terms or phrases that users search for on Google. When enough people search for the same term or phrase it becomes known as a keyword. You can measure the volume of these terms through tools like MOZ Keyword Explorer and SEMRush. Some keywords are more competitive than others, and therefore more difficult to rank for.

Why Keywords Matter for Church Marketing

Church SEO keywords can work wonders for the growth of your congregation. SEO is a modern tool that a lot of preachers, ministers, pastors, and clerical organizations have been a bit slow to adopt. But no matter how you prefer to do things it is an undeniable fact that SEO and digital marketing, in general, are becoming essential to congregation growth. Church Leadership lays it out in plain English. There are 4,000 churches that close their doors every year and only 1,000 that take their place. And one of the things that churches that close down fail to do is utilize digital marketing.

The churches that are thriving are those that are adopting modern outreach methods. One of the most important of these techniques is SEO for churches and digital marketing. SEO (search engine optimization) is what makes your website visible to people who search on Google and other search engines.

And more and more people are relying on online search results to help them find local services – including church services. It is estimated that Google alone gets 30,000 search queries a month that are related to local churches, church services, and even online church services. And that number is expected to grow as the digital age marches on with ever-increasing vigor.

So how can you leverage this trend to reach more people and expand your congregation? One of the most effective and essential SEO tools are SEO keywords. Here at Nolen Walker, we have taken the liberty of researching and listing the best church SEO keywords. We offer digital marketing and SEO services for a wide variety of niches including churches and religious organizations. Take a look at this definitive list of the best church SEO keywords that you could be using to grow your church right now.

Church SEO Keywords

church near me
church near me now
church near me open now
church near me catholic
church near me Christian
churches near me
churches near me now
best churches near me
contemporary christian churches near me
church services near me
find a church
protestant churches near me
christian churches near me
evangelical church near me
bible based church
protestant church near me
church near me hours
open churches near me
american church near me
cool churches near me
christian church near me
best church near me
good churches near me
church service near me
contemporary church near me
bible churches near me
new churches near me
community church near me
late church services near me
churches near here
baptist church near me
non denominational church near me
contemporary church services near me
church open near me
house churches near me
churches in my area
born again church near me
churches near my location
small churches near me
modern churches near me
churches near me with evening services
bible based church near me
local churches
evangelical churches near me
black churches near me
catholic church near me

Making Sense of Church Marketing Keyword Terms

As you can see, there are some church SEO keywords that are used a lot more often than others. And what you should also take note of is that most of these keywords end with “near me.” Churches are a local service so naturally, people want to find a church they love that is close to where they live.

Another reason the “near me” tag is so widely used is because people who travel for work often look for church services to attend while they are on the road. So you must include keywords like this in the copy of your church’s website. Utilize longform keywords that include a “city, state” tag at the end to specify your church’s location as well. Using the above keywords will get more eyes on your church and more people through your doors.

How Nolen Walker Can Help Optimize Your Congregation

At Nolen Walker, our digital marketing services are among the best in the United States. We have over 250 clients who trust us to expand their online presence and help them generate clicks through organic search results. Our methods are tested and proven, and we are always on the hunt for new information. Not only do we help organizations optimize on traditional organic search results, but also on the Local Map 3-Pack. For phrases like “churches near me” the Map Pack can be very effective.

Call Nolen Walker at 866-356-8198 to Learn More about SEO

May '20

The #1 Escape Room SEO Guide (2022 Edition)

What is Escape Room SEO?

Escape Room SEO is the process of ranking your web properties on Google for relevant keywords with the intention of acquiring more customers through online channels. SEO can be applied to your main website but also to your social media profiles and business listings, especially Google My Business. SEO differs from PPC (Google Ads) because it costs nothing to rank organically.

Why Escape Rooms Need Digital Marketing

Escape rooms are popping up everywhere you go now, and it’s easy to see why. Escape rooms offer a wide array of opportunities to come together and bond. This means that an escape room can provide the perfect forum if you are looking for a fun night out on the town with your friends or need a unique bonding exercise for your corporate event. The first place people look for escape rooms is online.

The idea of escape rooms is fresh, and people are flocking to them right now. There are all kinds of themes and interactive experiences to choose from, and proprietors are getting more and more clever about it. But if you run an escape room, there is no amount of creativity or cleverness that will cover for your lack of online presence – namely SEO. For example, SEO can drive traffic to your escape room’s webpage, and once patrons are there, they are that much more likely to make a booking.

Is SEO Common for Escape Room Businesses?

in a survey conducted by SEO Orb, it was found that more than half of all escape room owners operating in the United States received 80% or more of their bookings online.

To tap into the ease of online booking, you need compelling, organic, and effective SEO. This post discusses various methods to enhance your escape room SEO process.

Our team of marketing educators focuses on industries like escape rooms, so we are better equipped to help you tackle the unique challenges you face as an escape room owner. But to begin with, let’s discuss the basics of escape room SEO.

A Crash Course in Escape Room SEO

Escape room SEO is all about getting your escape room noticed by as many people as possible. And in this industry, you need all the help you can get. As recently as two years ago, more than half of all escape room owners expected to expand their business and add more rooms. This means that the market is becoming saturated. Escape Room SEO allows you to stand out above the jostling crowd by helping you rank higher on Google searches.

When your website appears near the top of the list of a Search Engine Results Page (SERP), people will be more likely to click on your website. Studies constantly show that the amount of clicks that websites get when they are on just the 2nd page of a Google search is close to zero. Escape room SEO will ensure you don’t get lost in the shuffle.

By using analytic data of search trends, composing original and useful content, leveraging media, and engaging with your clientele, you can create an SEO-friendly webpage that more people will see.

SEO will get your webpage noticed and approved by Google, which means a higher ranking. Those are the basics of escape room SEO.

Escape Room Keywords

Some top escape room SEO keywords include:

escape room near me
escape room near me groupon
escape room near me for kids
escape room near me prices
escape room near me nj
escape rooms near me
groupon escape room near me
best escape rooms near me
escape room deals near me
escape room locations near me
cheap escape rooms near me
escape rooms near me cheap
escape room prices near me
room escape near me
escape rooms near me groupon
scary escape rooms near me
best escape room near me
mystery rooms near me
2 person escape room near me
escape room for two near me
escape room groupon
escape room coupon code
escape room coupons
panic room near me
scary escape room near me
escape room price
escape room prices
groupon escape room
escape games near me
escape room coupon
escape room locations
escape room rooms
scary escape room nyc
best escape rooms in usa
escape room price near me
escape room 60 promo code
escape room coupons near me
escape room promo code
escape the room promo code
horror themed escape rooms near me
best escape rooms in the world
escape the room near me
cheap escape room near me
escape rooms for kids near me

SEO Outline for Escape Room Businesses

The problem that many escape room owners have is that they don’t know where to begin with escape room SEO. After all, you probably didn’t get into the escape room game because you have a passion for marketing. But that is where we can help. There are some basic steps that you can take right now to help you improve your ranking. Some of these steps include:

Set up your Google My Business Profile

Google My Business Profiles are what show up when people perform extremely common searches like “escape rooms near me.” So having a GMB profile is the first step you should take. You will want to keep some things in mind when setting up your GMB profile: using good pictures of your business, posting your full phone number often, including reviews from patrons, and including a thoughtful and descriptive blurb about your escape room.

Keyword Research

One of the ways that Google pulls up and ranks websites for SERPs is by keywords. Google is always trying to provide relevant search results for its users; keywords are one way it does this. Google Analytics provides a wealth of helpful resources for researching hot keywords related to your business. Implement these keywords and variations of them in your website content.

You can also use longtail keywords which are popular keywords followed by your city and state name to show up in more local searches. For example, if you operate your escape room in Austin, Texas, you might use the longtail keyword of “escape room in Austin, Texas.

On-Page SEO Content

There are certain ways to tweak your on-page content to rank better on Google. Pictures are great to have on your website, but if there is no alternative text or captions, Google will not know how to categorize them. Having a descriptive caption is imperative for pictures. Framing your content in a table or list will also help you rank higher. For example, you can have a “what is an escape room” page on your website in which you answer this question in curt but concise detail as a bulleted list.

A bit of a side-note regarding keywords: be exact. Google doesn’t like to guess, so if you choose a hot keyword relating to escape rooms, try to use it exactly as it appears on Google searches. For example, if “fun escape rooms” is trending, try not to saturate your content with the term “escape rooms that are fun.”

Link Building for Escape Rooms

Building links helps your escape room website rank for keywords faster. The quickest way to build links is to submit your business information to local directories. Platforms like Yelp, BBB, and Facebook all provide nofollow links which help build website authority. These directory placements are known in the SEO industry as NAP citations.

While nofollow links are the best place to start, your website should eventually garner dofollow links from endorsements, business partners, guest posts, and local reporters. You can speed up your link-building process by publishing high-quality blog posts, especially those with relevant statistics. As more reputable websites link to your domain, you’ll find that ranking for optical keywords becomes easier.

Become an Escape Room SEO Expert

Nolen Walker Academy provides extensive training for escape room SEO in 2022. If you own or operate an escape room, you can benefit from the Nolen Walker Academy curriculum. Our SEO methods are proven over over a decade of successful optimization work with dozens of industries across the U.S. Nolen Walker Academy graduates won’t need to hire an SEO company to get results because they will have the skills, tools, and insights to get to the top of Google on their own.