Author Archives: Nolen Walker

Marina Marketing: 8 Tips To Generate More Yacht Service Leads

Marina Marketing

What is Marina Marketing?

Marina marketing is the process of promoting a marina or yacht service to generate more leads. It can include online and traditional advertising and modern digital marketing techniques such as SEO, content marketing, social media promotion, and local directory submissions.

Why Marketing Matters for Yacht Services

Businesses that find themselves in a niche have distinct advantages and disadvantages when attracting customers. The advantage is that it can be easier to corner that market when people are looking for your services.

The downside is that getting people to look for your niche service can be difficult. If your product or service is centered around something that people aren’t looking to use regularly, finding new and unique ways to reach out to that audience is a must.

That is why marketing is so important for small, niche businesses. Most people aren’t even aware of that niche, let alone the business filling that niche.  So, what online marketing services can be undertaken for yacht services to capture some of that audience?

How To Generate More Leads for Your Marina in 2023

The whole purpose of marina marketing is to generate more leads. If your marketing fails to produce a return on investment (ROI), it is not serving its intended purpose. Below, Nolen Walker shares lead generation tips for marinas.

1) Build a Lead Generation Website

There is still a portion of business owners that believe that you don’t need a website. And sure, if you have an outstanding relationship with a small, localized community, maybe you can carve yourself out a nice little piece of real estate.

But without a website, there is a pretty good chance that you will be fighting to simply stay alive in the face of competition. This is because just about every business has a website. And why wouldn’t they? Just about everyone will visit a website before they actually visit that business.

The thing is that your website should be the place where you direct your potential customers. It gives the first impression of your business, and any valuable information potential customers may need to make an informed decision about it.

Most of all, you should have a website as an easy, hassle-free means for customers to book services. Making things as easy as possible for the customer is the key to making a sale that may not have been there previously.

2) Get Social With Social Media

Much like the crowd that doesn’t think websites are necessary, that same group also thinks that social media is unnecessary. But the fact of the matter is that social media has become an integral marketing tool for businesses of any size.

Look at Facebook. With a Facebook business page, you can display all of your pertinent information and photos of tours where customers are having fun to show those potential customers what they are missing.

Twitter and Instagram allow you to reach users directly by posting any updates to the site, deals that are going on, or responding to any problems that customers are experiencing. That direct customer interaction can be huge; when customers see that you are available and attentive, it leaves a positive mark.

Social media has graduated from a potential marketing tool to an absolute must. There are about a million other reasons that it is a great marketing tool, but the two reasons listed above should make it a clear case.

Get your yacht business on social media to begin tapping into the audience that you hope to reach.

3) Research Keywords The Modern Way

One of the most important aspects of digital marketing is a focus on search engine optimization (SEO). This is essentially the list of best practices that Google uses to rank websites for relevant keywords.

Those keywords are essentially how search engines separate sites into relevant results. If Google wasn’t doing its job on that front, searches would be useless because they would not generate results. The focus on those keywords is what will make your website appear when a user types in that relevant keyword.

Using those keywords smartly throughout page content is how you can best use them. Simply spamming them on your website no longer works; Google will filter it out or ban you if they think it’s worth a ban.

Utilizing these keywords can make your business one of the featured results for your geographic area. But you have to focus your SEO campaign on those keywords properly.

4) Distinguish Yourself From Competitors

While digital marketing is something that every business, big or small, needs to focus on, one thing needs to be considered: being unique. The simple fact of the matter is that the competition is stiff in any given industry.

This is because just about everyone is offering similar services. So, to stand out among those competitors, you need to make your business unique. Set yourself apart from the competition. What makes you a better choice than the competition? Figure that out, and you will have a leg up on the competition.

This can be achieved by looking at your business model and focusing on your strengths. While you should always work to improve weaknesses, building on your strengths is what can make your business stand out.

Besides, focusing on those strengths means understanding what your audience appreciates and making it more readily available to them. Customers definitely appreciate that.

5) Focus on Creating Quality Content

It might seem like there are topics that have a finite amount of information or content that can be written about them. But the fact of the matter is that content is one of the biggest factors in Google’s SEO rankings.

Google emphasizes content because they want to display the most informative, authoritative results for users every time. This is why your website needs to exist and have informative content that users crave.

Making your site an authority within the industry means giving that audience a reason to visit your website. This can be achieved through blog posts where you offer relevant DIY tips, share videos, and other such things.

You don’t have to have daily posts to achieve this, but regular content will help keep you near the top of the search rankings for your keywords.

6) Use Engaging Visuals to Highlight Content

One of the most underutilized assets that any website has is its imagery. This entails both pictures and videos. The former is imperative because 63% of social media comprises visual content. This means that it shares pictures and videos more than anything else and is a part of the online culture.

Additionally, there have been studies that have shown that our brains process images faster than words. This makes images a far more effective and efficient way of communicating with an audience. Having a catchy image that draws your audience’s attention can mean the difference between a lead and another passerby.

And perhaps the biggest reason to implement images into your digital marketing campaign is this: using images on social media increases the likelihood of your content being viewed by a whopping 94%. This, of course, is under the assumption that your pictures are clear and of the highest quality.

Not only that, videos have become the newly chosen avenue for sharing content. Writing can get you so far, but a section of the audience just doesn’t want to do it. That is where having interesting, informative videos can take you a long way.

Best of all, creating videos is far cheaper and more easily done. You can shoot videos on your smartphone and post them to your website easier than ever before. This is a must-have aspect of marina marketing online.

7) Open The Lines of Communication

One thing that some marina or yacht services struggle with in terms of their online marketing is inconsistent messaging or communication. Mixed or inconsistent messages can confuse or dissuade your audience, making them move on to another website or service.

When your messages are consistent, it reinforces that message across all platforms. That sense of authority and consistency is not lost on your audience; it will reach them subliminally and draw their focus to your business whether they realize it or not.

This can be achieved by ensuring that your staff is on the same page regarding a message. This way, no one gets confused or loses the message, and you can keep that consistency that is so valuable.

8) Reviews Are Everything

Perhaps the most important aspect of Google’s SEO ranking is the importance of reviews. Simply put, quality reviews and many of them can boost your SEO ranking substantially. But reviews can do so much more than that.

Reviews boost the level of trust that the audience has in you. With plenty of positive reviews, people can feel like they know your business. Most of all, they feel as though they can trust your business. That is a huge battle that all businesses wage, and most don’t win.

The key here is not to hide or ignore negative reviews. If anything, an amicable response can help improve your authority in the eyes of your audience. When a customer sees that you handled a negative response with professionalism and courtesy, they won’t be so quick to dismiss your business because of that negative response.

If you use website software to manage your reviews, you will have a leg up on the competition and also encourage more feedback from previous customers who may not have the patience to go through the review process on Google or Facebook. The software will streamline that process with minimal effort on their part.

Marina Marketing From Nolen Walker

If you operate a marina and want to market your services online, consider consulting with Nolen Walker in 2023. As an experienced SEO professional, Nolen can help your yacht service rank higher. So contact us today to rank on Google search and bring in new customers consistently in 2023.

Tree Service Marketing Ideas for 2022 (with/Updated Plan)

Tree Service Marketing

What is Tree Service Marketing?

Tree service marketing is the process of promoting a tree removal company with the intention of generating high-quality leads that can convert into new customers. Techniques used to execute a marketing plan include SEO, PPC advertising, social media advertising, and traditional promotional tactics.

Tree Service Marketing Ideas for 2022

Strategizing how to grow a tree service business is difficult to do. In a company like the United States, many markets already have a handful of established tree care companies with huge budgets and a mile-long head start.

Trying to compete with odds like that is something that simply can’t be done if for no other reason than they can outspend you if they so choose.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t compete and grow your business, though. Most tree service companies rely on similar marketing tactics, so making a name for yourself can be about picking the right battle.

Tree Service Business Leads

With the right advice, you can start generating tree service business leads that will not only grow your business but won’t require draining your bank account to do so.

Tree Service Facebook Advertising & Marketing

Despite all the flack that it has taken in recent months for the handling of private user information, Facebook remains a giant when it comes to marketing potential. There are, however, some marketing companies that specialize in tree care that will tell you to avoid Facebook.

Oh well, their loss is your gain. Creating a Facebook business page is essential and can give you a litany of new opportunities. It is one of the easiest ways to build your brand and the values that are behind that brand. But ultimately, Facebook is a tool for how to get more tree work.

It is also a way to communicate with customers to share deals, spread the word about your business, and communicate with happy customers that have previously used your service. And most of all, it is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to run your own ads.

Ad campaigns for tree service companies generally focus on immediately measurable results and immediate returns. The problem with this is that it can also undervalue the aspect of social media marketing, like Facebook.

Think about it. If someone sees one of your posts on Facebook, clicks through to your website, and then calls, companies would say that the website did all the work. Similarly, posting informative content might not get you immediate calls, but it does help to strengthen your SEO and expand your network.

Think of it as a “word of mouth” form of marketing. Only, well, word of keyboard. In any event, Facebook marketing is a serious opportunity to market your tree service company in order to grow potential leads and generate revenue.

How To Get More Tree Work Infographic

Google My Business for Tree Trimming

Google remains one of the internet giants because it is the place to go for anyone with any questions about, well, anything. Because of this, Google’s My Business listings are a wonderful marketing tool. Appearing in the Local Map can help you generate free leads for your tree service.

You can set up a listing for your business for free, and it only takes a few minutes to complete. It is important to note that you must ensure that all of your information is properly filled out. People will skip steps and wind up with incomplete information, which does not get the most out of a Google My Business listing.

Having this local listing makes you eligible to show up for local listings for keywords relevant to your business. Part of the problem that companies have is that they cut corners or don’t utilize them effectively. Here is how to positively use Google My Business:

  • Use your actual business name. Your business has to be precise with no added keywords. Fake names are easy to correct, and businesses that try to implement them are generally harder to find over the long term.
  • Use your actual business phone number. If you are thinking of using a tracking phone number, don’t. Google will check it against all the other data they can find on you; inconsistent data typically means less visibility for your business in searches.
  • Use your actual business address. Many businesses try to use a virtual office or P.O. Box, not realizing that it can do a lot of damage to your visibility. Use your real address, even if you work from home. You can hide it from searchers, so they can only see your service area.
  • Include categories that make sense. For tree service companies, other things are typically offered. If you do lawn care and landscaping, include them. This broadens your visibility in the eyes of search engines, and you can always refine this later.
  • Include your entire service area. You can always constrict this to your ideal service area later when you can afford to be picky.
  • Include hours of operation. This is another data point that Google uses to decide what companies to show in its search results. Your hours of operation can be one thing that sets you apart from the competition.
  • Add photos. Add real photos, too. Photos of equipment, work performed, and employees. This is because businesses with many photos tend to show up more frequently in Google searches. Make sure that you rename image files to include specific services and cities to give you an extra edge.

Free GMB Leads for My Tree Service

Google My Business can make a huge difference in your marketing while drastically helping your SEO. If you don’t have a Google My Business listing yet, you should make it one of your next goals.

Tree Service Referral Program

The aforementioned word of mouth continues to be one of the most powerful forms of marketing around. This remains true for one important reason: people trust people they know more than they trust your business.

That makes sense, so why not leverage that aspect? When you have a happy customer, try offering a referral fee. Something like “if they refer you a new client who spends $100, you’ll send them a $10 gift card.”

Something along those lines gives them an incentive to actually tell people about your business instead of “keeping you in mind.” This can mean a huge uptick in bookings if you have quality services. There are a few common mistakes, though.

Don’t be cheap about it. If you have to spend an inordinate amount of money to get a few bucks, people won’t bother. Not only that, pick a plan and stick to it. Having multiple deals can get confusing, leading you to mix up who got what deal.

It also goes without saying that you must give exceptional service to those who receive recommendations. If you provide flaky or uneven service, there won’t be another recommendation for that first person.

Also, consider to who you give this offer. There are some sources, like real estate agents, that could potentially send you hundreds of clients to take advantage of those referral bonuses. You could even put a cap on the total number.

Local Business / Non-Profit Partnerships

Regardless of how many five-star reviews you receive, you likely will never be as popular as a nonprofit. To put your business on the map, find a local nonprofit that you share values with or is doing something particularly amazing within the community.

Ensure that they have a sizable local presence but that they are small enough to have value in your help. Then make them an offer like this: 5% of total revenue goes straight to charity in exchange for promotion.

Many smaller charities will likely jump at this opportunity as it is an obvious benefit for them. Even better, you get the extra promotion and a boost for having your business’ name attached to their good name.

You need to make certain that contributions are defined throughout the project, though. Don’t assume that they’ll put the offer on their Facebook, in their newsletter, or on their home page. Make it clear what you are looking for from the jump, so there is no miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Even if it only results in a marginal uptick in business, you can take pride in knowing that the effort went towards a good cause. Ultimately, it benefits all parties involved: you get the attention your business needs, and a charity gets valuable funds for its cause.

These are just a few of the methods that a tree care service could implement to substantially improve its marketing efforts. For smaller businesses, the key is consistent growth, not an explosion in business.

These are methods of marketing that are meant to promote steady growth over a long period of time. The key here is to have patience. You won’t see a huge uptick overnight, and that is okay. Again, this is about steady growth.

Building a successful tree care business definitely is not an easy job. But with tips like these, anyone can be far more prepared to turn it into a successful endeavor. There are, of course, other methods to pursue, like SEO. That is one of the best ways to market a tree care business, whether you are a startup or an established business.

But for now, these tips should help you toward a more successful path.

Non Profit Arborist Group

Source: https://ctpa.org/membership-application/

Learn The Tree Trimming Marketing Plan at NWAcademy

Marketing is only as effective as its measurable results. It is very difficult to achieve sustainable success if you do not track your wins and losses. Obviously, the goal is to generate tree service business leads, but the routes in which you reach that destination are the most measurable. We often hear from arborists who want to know how to grow a tree service.

It is not rocket science to perform well online, but it does take patience and a real understanding of how digital marketing works. Is there a single best way to promote a tree service? The answer is no when considering the different challenges that arborists face depending on their budget, location, and other dynamic circumstances. Sure, you can pay services dedicated to finding tree removal jobs, but those seldom allow you to sustain success with your business over time.

Setting up Google Analytics and Google Search Console allows you to track where your leads are coming from and which keywords generate the most outside interest. You can also notice things like search impressions and click-through rates. If you have a high impression on a keyword but a low click-through rate, there is something about the page that is discouraging customers.

Arborists can enroll in Nolen Walker Academy to learn how to maximize their digital marketing campaigns in 2022. Nolen Walker Academy provides the highest level of SEO training for business professionals. We aren’t some guru selling SEO courses without ever doing SEO, as we’ve worked with thousands of businesses over the past decade.

6 Great Veterinary SEO Tips To Grab New Customers in 2022

Veterinary SEO

Let’s talk about veterinary SEO. It can be a challenge for vets to establish an online presence if they don’t have the tools or resources at their disposal.

What is Veterinary SEO?

SEO for veterinarians is the process of refining digital web content to increase your clinic’s position on search engines. When your website and other digital entities rank higher on search results, more people engage with your business and become qualified leads, as a result.

What Veterinarians Should Know About SEO

Animal owners will need the help of a veterinarian at some point in time. This can be routine care like a shot all the way up to emergency services in a time of need. No matter what, veterinary care is routine when it comes to having a pet.

Clients often stick with the vet that they have seen for years. But it is that competition for those loyal clients that is so tough for local vets. This is especially true in the digital age, where digital marketing is now integral to making your business visible.

One of the best ways for veterinary offices to bring in new animal owners is by making their service easier to find online. This requires a process that is known as search engine optimization or SEO.

SEO has been a staple in search engine rankings for years, and Google keeps refining it with time. Knowing the best ways to optimize your website so that it shows up in Google’s local search rankings can mean the key to growth for a business in 2022.

Having said that, there are a few things that veterinary offices can do to grow their SEO game. Follow these six tips, and you could see more clients than ever before.

6 Veterinary SEO Tips to Grab New Customers

1) Link Building for Vets

One key to building your website’s SEO is making your site more authoritative. This is determined by how many credible sites link back to yours. Your ranking only improves when you can get plenty of credible websites to link to you.

Search engines will know that your veterinary website is not only trustworthy but one that other reputable blogs, sites, and publications will link to. This will get your website ranked far higher and make it generate more traffic to your website.

However, building links is one of the most challenging aspects of site building. It takes more than just changing the headings and titles on some of your pages. Reaching out to other site owners and explaining why your website is worth linking to is just part of the process.

Once you get those important linkbacks, you should see a marked improvement in your overall SEO analytics. Again, this is just part of the process of building your overall SEO for vets ranking.

2) Keyword Research for Veterinarians

For the longest time, keyword research has been one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization. Before fully optimizing your website for those search engines, you must determine which phrases and words pet owners use when searching for the kinds of veterinary services you offer.

You don’t want to waste your time optimizing your pages for terms that none of your audience is actively looking for. Thankfully, you can do keyword research to find the most relevant keywords for your specific website.

You can implement several tools to help identify how people search for those specific veterinary services and how difficult it is to rank for a given keyword.

Another thing to focus on is long-tail keywords. These are longer and more specific keywords that are a bit easier to rank for. These long-tail keywords might not get as many searches as a standard keyword, but they will ultimately bring in more potential clients and qualified traffic to your website.

Because of the amount of competition regarding keywords, it is unlikely that your website will rank just on keywords alone. There are a few other aspects you need to consider for your website to rank properly.

3) On-Page Optimization for Vets

When you have successfully determined the keywords you want to target, the next step is incorporating them into different elements throughout your website. It is important to note that Google will now punish you for spamming those keywords, so don’t try doing that.

A good rule of thumb is to target one keyword per page; you can include that keyword in that page’s headers, title, meta description, and even the body copy. This will help the search engines better understand what the page is about and will show in the search results.

The key here is to only use that keyword where it fits naturally. Search engines might rank your pages, but the human readers are the ones that want that information. If your keywords don’t make sense or feel unnatural, it won’t make sense to the human readers who are the ones looking for your content.

Don’t stuff your copy full of keywords that don’t make any sense. Not only will your readers think that it feels forced, but it will also ultimately hurt your search engine rankings. This will make all that you have done to optimize your website worth little to nothing. Be smart about your keywords and how often you use them.

4) Content Creation for Veterinarians

Over time, Google’s algorithms have evolved to the point where content is king. One of the ways to make your website authority within the industry is to ensure that you have informative and original content. This will draw visitors to your website, making it appointment surfing.

When people have questions about their pet care, you, as a veterinary expert, are uniquely qualified to answer those questions. One of the easiest ways to answer those questions and create unique content is to create a blog.

Creating posts based on common questions your audience asks is the key to that unique, attention-drawing content that will often bring visitors to your website. Answer common questions like “should I brush my dog’s teeth?” or “what kind of food should I feed a puppy?”

Then, you can optimize these pages for those specific keywords you targeted so that when users search for those keywords, they will find that information on your website. Again, content is king.

This works in several ways. The first and most obvious is that it attracts traffic to your website. In the end, that is the point of your website: to bring in traffic that will see your products or services and eventually spend their money on those products and services.

That traffic also generates potential leads. Those leads are users who are considering using your services but have not made that jump for whatever reason. These leads are imperative to any business as they can become your business’s dollars.

Perhaps most importantly, that information helps to build your website into a trustworthy source. Even if their question isn’t one that will warrant an immediate visit to the vet, they will certainly remember your clinic when it comes time to make an appointment.

Building trust is one of the most important aspects of any business and having an informative, content-driven website is just one of a few ways that you can achieve that level of trust.

5) Meta Descriptions and Title Tags

In general, many veterinary practices and businesses don’t pay much attention to their meta descriptions and title tags. The fact of the matter is that this is a huge missed opportunity for businesses trying to optimize their websites.

These title tags and meta descriptions are a very large determining factor regarding search engine rankings. They also have a high degree of influence regarding click-through percentage. Your title tags and meta descriptions are imperative.

One goal of improving your website should be optimizing every single page on the website. Your home page is the most important, though. Your title tag should be just a few words describing who you are and what you do.

Meanwhile, the meta description should be just a sentence or two that includes a quick proposition of value, any basic services you offer, and what location(s) you serve.

6) Clean Up Veterinary Directory Listings

One of the biggest factors in your SEO rankings is backlinks. What most website owners don’t realize, however, is that many of your backlinks to your website come from online directories. A significant portion of your SEO depends on the accuracy of these online directory listings.

Check into your directory listings to see how you are doing. Some tools will generate a score to see how you are doing with your listings. If you are under 90%, you need to spend time entering the correct information into directories where you might have incomplete or inaccurate information.

It cannot be overstated how important directories are. Google uses them to determine their SEO rankings, and they help pad your overall trustworthiness. And remember that trustworthiness is one of the most important factors in SEO rankings.

Make these tweaks to your website, and you will significantly change how your site ranks locally. And then, you should see a significant effect on your business’s bottom line.

SEO Resources for Veterinary Clinics

Veterinary SEO Keywords

veterinary services
vol: 2,900

veterinary specialty services
vol: 1,000

veterinary services near me
vol: 1,000

veterinary services usda
vol: 390

veterinary services inc
vol: 260

vitality veterinary services
vol: 260

vet near me
vol: 550,000

vet near me emergency
vol: 74,000

vet clinic near me
vol: 49,500

veterinary clinic near me
vol: 22,200

"Vet Near Me" Keyword Research

(- data from ubersuggest -)

Veterinary Client Appreciation Ideas

  • Run social media/email marketing campaign inviting families and pets to a sporting event
  • Promote pet of the month on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
  • Give out treats to animals after visits
  • Do a free pet food giveaway every few months
Veterinary Client Appreciation

SEO Strategies That Can Make a Positive Impact on a Veterinary Practice

Several marketing strategies can improve your vet practice. SEO is a single acronym, but it involves so many avenues to boost your online presence. Everything from on-page SEO to off-site SEO can really make an impact. Aside from veterinarian SEO services, paid advertising can also help. Running Facebook and Instagram ads for your clinic can allow you to target demographics like people with pets. Another strategy is to link your website to your Google My Business listing in the Map Pack.

Map Pack From Local SEO for Veterinarians

Map Pack For Vets in Plano, TX

Ways to Promote a Veterinary Clinic

  • Veterinary SEO
  • Facebook Advertising
  • YouTube Advertising
  • PPC Advertising (Google Ads)
  • Email Marketing
  • Google My Business Optimization (Local Map Pack)
  • Newsletters
  • Business Cards
  • TV / Radio Commercials

Sample Veterinary SEO Marketing Campaign

Step 1: Register a domain name for your veterinary business website

Step 2: Claim your business on Google My Business

Step 3: Create or invest in a website design

Step 4: Perform keyword research

Step 5: Publish a page for each specific service based on keyword volume

Step 6: Write original content that explains your business

Step 7: Insert original images of you and your staff

Step 8: Link your website to your GMB and social media profiles

Step 9: Ask satisfied customers to leave a review on Google My Business

Step 10: Run promotions on your social media

SEO for Breweries: 9 Expert Google Ranking Tips for 2022

SEO for Breweries

SEO for breweries is a powerful digital marketing tactic that allows beer makers to rank on Google for craft beer keywords and other phrases that drive new business. At Nolen Walker Academy, we know something about helping business owners improve their online presence, generate brewery leads, and increase revenue in 2022.

The following post outlines nine effective brewery SEO tips to boost your online presence in 2022.

What is SEO for Breweries?

Brewery SEO is a digital marketing strategy that increases organic traffic to a business website or listing. For example, implementing an SEO strategy on your brewery website can rank your company for thousands of craft beer keywords, driving relevant traffic and ultimately increasing sales and revenue.

Do Breweries Need SEO in 2022?

Search engine optimization is a key part of any website strategy online. This is because a study has shown that a whopping 93% of online activity starts with a search engine. That means ranking well for certain words can mean the difference between a successful business and one that isn’t around much longer. This is especially true for a niche business like a brewery.

How your company ranks for certain keywords is dependent on your domain authority; this is also affected by other brewery SEO factors as well. The thing is that most search engines, like Google and Bing, are continuously making changes to their search algorithms to create a more refined search experience for each of their users.

For this reason, it is imperative that business owners use up-to-date SEO tricks and tips if they want to remain near the top of the search engine rankings. Here are a few things you can do as a business to rank near the top SEO rankings for breweries.

Brewery SEO Tips from Industry Experts

1) Speed up Your Brewery Website

One of the most overlooked SEO tricks is site speed. Google has been using website speed as one of its SEO ranking factors since way back in 2010. According to Google, users expect a website to have a load speed of 2 seconds or less, with many of them completely abandoning that site if it does not load within 3 seconds.

Optimizing for Mobile is imperative.

This is indicative that website speed is a decisive factor not only in SEO rankings but for users who might not bother coming back to your website if it takes too long to load. The thing is, there are a few different things that contribute to overall site speed.

One of the biggest impacts that site speed has is on your images. If you compress your images, you can cut the page size by a huge margin (30-40%). This results in a much faster loading time for your website visitors.

2) Secure Your Craft Beer Website With HTTPS

Making your website secure is another thing that many companies don’t even consider. If you haven’t done so already, make the switch over to HTTPS. This is because HTTPS is a more secure version of what is known as the HTTP web protocol. HTTPS works in tandem with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to communicate information much more safely.

While improving your website’s security is the obvious benefit, it also has some perks regarding your SEO. This is because Google prefers HTTPS, and, as of October 2017, Google will warn Chrome site users that visiting non-HTTPS sites is not secure.

That warning message could cause visitors to your website to turn away before they even get there. Besides that, Google has included this in its ranking factor as a part of its search engine algorithm since it wants to provide the safest experience possible.

3) Optimize for Beermaking Website for Mobile

For a long time, most brands have treated having a mobile-friendly website as something nice to have. But the truth of the matter is that Google is making it more imperative than ever for these brands to have a website that caters to those visiting on a mobile platform.

Beginning back in 2015, Google now prioritizes mobile responsive sites when it comes to its search results. This should come as little surprise, given that 57% of all web traffic now comes from mobile devices. That means you are leaving many potential visitors on the table if you don’t optimize for mobile.

The key is to remember how keywords rank for mobile versus desktop. This is why optimizing content that is friendlier for those reading it on the go versus those who are using traditional desktop screens is so important. Quick and easy-to-read is the best bet for quality mobile content.

4) Increase Engagement Metrics for Your Brewery

There has been plenty of evidence that suggests that Google will reward those websites that have strong user engagement. This is measured by the amount of time a user spends on your site; the more time they spend there, the more likely they are to have been engaged by the content they find.

Better site engagement has been shown to have a correlation with lower bounce rates as well. These factors show that users engage with specific content because they find it more valuable. And since search engines are trying to provide the best and most relevant results for their users, they will reward those sites with higher engagement.

This means engaging and relevant content that will keep users around for a longer time. When you do this, your website will be more optimized than ever.

5) Focus on User Experience for Brewery Consumers

Not only is the user experience an important part of the SEO rankings, but it is also important when it comes to lead generation and conversion efforts. Making certain that your website is easy to use means that visitors can find the information that they are looking for and move to the next step in the buying process.

There are several things that you can do to make your website a better experience for users. Try having simple menu navigation with categories that are clearly listed. Site users should be able to navigate to the pages they want without jumping through hoops.

Make your site design simpler. This also lends to helping users find what they want; clean, easy-to-read fonts and color schemes make this easier than ever. This improved experience means that users will stay on your website for longer.

Featured Snippets get you to the top page of search results.

6) Create Engaging Brewery Content

Content marketing is another huge factor in improving search engine rankings. This content allows you to target specific topics and keywords that are ideal for buyers, but it also presents an opportunity to connect with readers and to provide the kind of value that can really set you apart from your competition.

Creating valuable and engaging content is the key here. You need to find out what topics your audience cares most about and provide the quality content that can set you apart. Making yourself an authority on the matter is the key to being recognized as an authority by your audience.

Content remains king, so having original, unique, and quality content in a long format can really do wonders for your overall search rankings. You can sprinkle in relevant keywords, but the content itself is what is most valuable these days.

7) Establish a Brewery Social Media Presence

While social media seems more like a marketing device than anything else, it impacts your SEO strategy. This is because your social media profiles rank in search engines. As a matter of fact, for most companies, their social media profiles will actually appear in the top results for their search listings.

Another reason that social media is so important is that sharing your company’s content can actually help to boost your search rank. Sharing that quality content through your social media account is a huge boon for your SEO rankings and can drive traffic straight to your website.

Ensure that you put the proper amount of informative content on your social media accounts, and you will see a noticeable uptick in your search engine rankings. Not only that, you will be able to drive valuable traffic to your website.

8) Incorporate Long-Tail Craft Beer Keywords

One of the most fundamental SEO tricks is the use of long-tail keywords. These are keywords or phrases that are longer and more specific than broad, common keywords that are limited to a single word or two. This is important to use in your SEO strategy as it can help bring in more specific traffic and qualified leads.

Focusing on long-tail keywords improves the chance that your site will rank on the first page of Google’s results for relevant phrases and keywords. And landing on that first page is the key to serious traffic to your website.

9) Optimize for Craft Beer Featured Snippets

Google now has Featured Snippets which show snippets of information at the top of their search results. This allows users to get the relevant information they need without having to click through several results to find what they are looking for.

These featured snippets are a great way to show up on the first page of search results and they make it easy for Google to extract the content they need for the snippet itself. Using lists, graphs, and tables is a great way to get these snippets to appear in Google search rankings.

Any way you can improve your chances of landing on the top page of Google search results is a great way to drive valuable traffic to your website and convert those leads into actual sales dollars that will impact your bottom line.

Learn Brewery SEO at Nolen Walker Academy

Nolen Walker Academy provides a proven blueprint for brewery SEO success in 2022. Why pay an agency $2,500 per month when you can get better results yourself? At Nolen Walker Academy, we reveal an SEO blueprint used by our actual agency. We are brewery SEO experts rather than gurus, allowing us to deliver industry professional courses to all our academy students. We help business owners take control of their digital marketing and drive results through search engine optimization.

How To Optimize for User Intent in 2020

How To Optimize for User Intent

If you have a business or have been thinking about starting one, there is no doubt you know about how important digital marketing is. And in that same vein, you may have heard about things like conversion optimization and search engine optimization. These are imperative for growing your business and your overall online presence.

More and more, it is believed that Google and other search engines look far beyond the typical ranking factors like titles, meta tags, keywords, etc. when assessing websites. SEO is valuable, but there is one other thing that is really having an impact: user intent.

When you put together a strategy for your content marketing, it is still very much important for you to do keyword research, make proper use of long-tail keywords and links, and write the kind of content that is properly optimized for SEO rankings.

But keeping your audience in your thoughts and understanding the context of your chosen keywords is just as important. And so is understanding what users are really looking for when they enter certain keywords; this is user intent.

Keyword Intent

What is User Intent in 2020?

There are plenty of times where we as users go to search for something but don’t really know what we are looking for. For instance, let’s say that you are looking for a specific song from a specific show. You ask your Google Home to play the song from that show. Google Home finds it even if it is called something else.

This is Google looking at the search query as a whole so that it can find the best match for the user. It is trying to understand precisely what the user is looking for and ensuring that the content behind the keyword is what the user is actually looking for.

Matching user intent to these search queries is critical as people continue to switch from laptop and desktop to mobile and voice-activated devices and services. Understanding that intent can close the gap and allow users to get a better overall search experience without having to be as specific as possible.

How User Intent Impacts SEO

More likely than not, you have been relying on your SEO to keep your content ranked as highly as possible in SERPs. Then, suddenly, you see some of your most consistent performers start to slip with no explanation of why in terms of SEO.

This could be when it is time to take a look at your existing material, even as you take a look forward to new content, to ensure that you have properly captured user intent.

How Does User Intent Change Search Results?

When Google, or another search engine, assess a website for ranking it on a SERP, it will look at the relevancy of the content but it also has to take a number of other factors into consideration to determine if that content is relevant.

These factors include the linguistics behind the query, the location of the user (especially if the search is navigational), the context of the query as a whole, and whether or not the user’s search is navigational, informational, or transactional.

A transactional query is a straightforward one that signifies commercial intent like a user looking for a specific brand or company. Think about it like this: if you are looking for the Home Goods website, Google will give you the home décor company’s site first because Home Goods has domain authority and because the keyword matches.

After that, you would generally see more results that have to do with smaller local businesses that might actually have the same name. Then, you would get home décor content that has the same keyword phrase of “home goods”.

For your navigational services, if you happened to search for something like home décor stores, Google would then give you those brick-and-mortar stores that are most relevant to your area, as well as those online brands. This is because Google believes you are looking for something local, not necessarily something online.

And for informational searches, you might have a search of trendy home accents or home decorating trends, expecting to get the most relevant results in order to help you do some research. Home decorating trends is a term that is pretty straightforward.

It is trendy home accents that Google might treat a little differently. If you’re searching for this term, you are most likely looking for accent pieces in order to update your home. You would not be looking for accents in trendy homes or different languages and Google has to understand that through its algorithms.

Google also uses both bots as well as human reviewers to make sure that the content matches the keywords that come up. It will crawl your content for titles, metadata, and subheads; these are elements that will signal to it whether or not your article is actually about trendy home accents.

One big thing that human reviewers will look at your content for is called EAT: expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. This is because you need to show that you know what you are talking about or that the sources you have cited understand what they are talking about. This is called showing authority in that subject area and showing that you are trustworthy.

Lastly, Google will also take into consideration how well-received the content you present is received by users. Things like how long they remain on the page and how often they bounce through. If they tend to bounce quickly, it could be a sign that your content isn’t satisfying their intent when they are searching.

These can all help you better understand just what user intent is and how it can have an impact on the way that users search.

How To Merge SEO Strategy With Consumer Needs

It should go without saying that at this point, user intent and SEO go hand in hand. When marketing your content, user intent should be at the very top of your mind in determining how to best reach that target audience.

You might also be wondering if this is the end of keywords. Be assured that, no, it is not the end of keywords. They still have a place in searches and it is one method that Google and the other search engines will use to match search queries with content.

Keywords remain a way to target your audience as well as focus your content. Those primary keywords provide the structure of your strategy and the content provides the depth. You still need to have secondary keywords and terms, but that primary keyword is the foundation of your piece.

So, how can you align that user intent with your SEO to increase your overall rankings in SERPs? Start with a marketing persona. Understand what it is your audience wants and get a clear understanding of who your audience is.

In the aforementioned home décor example, you have to determine if your audience is made up primarily of women or men, baby boomers or Gen Z, rural or urban dwellers, and the litany of different possibilities that exist.

This helps to inform you not only of the keywords that you need to target and what kind of content that you need to create around those keywords that will ultimately satisfy your users’ search intent the best.

As you create the content for your site, you need to make certain that it covers a topic from every possible angle. If you can’t do this in one piece and need to create a topic cluster, that is okay so long as you provide authoritative content.

How To Modify Existing Content To Satisfy User Intent

The good thing about optimizing for intent is that you can not only do it going forward but you can actually go back through your old content to make certain that they are performing to the best of their abilities.

You can create a list of your strongest pieces, including keywords, length, topic, and any relevant analytics and pull a spreadsheet like this using your analytics tools like Google Analytics. You can then take a look at this information and perform what is known as a content gap analysis. Ask yourself what keywords and topics that you might be missing that would ultimately satisfy the intent of the audience that you are trying to serve.

You can also compare your pieces to those of your competitors. Note how they are covering the same topic or if they have missed any of the angles. There are multiple ways to do this, including by hand or using a marketing tool to analyze that content semantically.

Then, you can go through and optimize your best prior pieces so that they will perform better going forward. Your keyword and SEO research is as integral to the success of your marketing strategy as anything else. Do your homework, look for trends, and keep your content relevant.

These are just a few things that you can do to optimize your website going forward and be among the most relevant in the eyes of search engines.

Why Bad Reviews Can Be Good For Business

Bad Reviews Good for Business

Generating customer reviews is critical to any small business in 2020. The sheer volume is a huge part of that, not only having an impact on the way that consumers view your business but how Google ranks your website for their search algorithms.

There is one false perception among a great many business owners out there and that is having a perfect 5-star rating is going to make your business look untouchable. Many think that having negative reviews is a bad thing for their business. And while it is understandable why they would think that, it may surprise you to know that they’re actually kind of good for your business.

First, a perfect rating looks suspicious and could indicate to the consumer that you have purchased fake reviews. Aside from a more natural-looking business profile, having negative reviews for your startup or business can actually have benefits that you may not have realized.

Bad reviews can assist in buying decisions

The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of customers will first look into reviews about a particular company before they make a decision about spending their money with that business. And here’s another fact about reviews: people look for the negative ones as well as the positive ones.

This is because positive reviews only provide one side of the story. Those negative reviews present a more realistic look into your business and can actually provide customers with more trust in your business than displaying all five-star reviews.

The reason why those negative reviews are looked at first is that they show potential customers why others were dissatisfied with the product or service. And here’s something else: a bad review does not automatically mean that the product or service was bad, it can mean that it didn’t meet the expectations of the person leaving the review.

This is useful to your business because it gives you a chance to harness important customer data that only reviews can provide. This gives your business the chance to make changes that can be beneficial in the long run.

Negative Reviews

Negative reviews can be positive.

Bad reviews give you the chance to respond to customers

When a customer leaves a negative review, there are generally a few ways to respond but two ways that a great many businesses choose to respond in: censoring the review or responding negatively to the bad review. It is important to note that these are both bad ideas and can negatively impact your business.

The key here is to respond properly to negative reviews with a proper solution. When you show the customer that you are trying to provide a proper resolution, that goes a long way towards instilling confidence in your business and showing that person that you are willing to work with each customer.

Responding in a positive way to a negative review can really do wonders for the way customers, even those who have had a bad experience, view your business and might convince them to give your business another chance. Any additional chances that you can get to convince a customer that your business is the one to go with, that is a plus for your business.

Make amends for bad reviews

This ties in a little with the aforementioned reason but making amends with a customer who feels like they have gotten a poor product or service not only reflects positively when dealing with that individual customer but setting a good precedent for other customers who may see those reviews and interactions.

While it is not a guarantee that a response to a customer will lead to positive things, there is a much better chance that customers will be willing to use your business if they see that you not only reply to negative responses but reply quickly at that.

There are also measures of good gesture. For instance, there was once a story of a major delay for an airline in Atlanta due to weather. The flight was stuck, but as a gesture of goodwill, they ordered 600 pizzas for passengers who were experiencing delays on those flights.

It is gestures like that which show both past and potential customers that your company is willing to go above and beyond for the satisfaction of the customer. This will make them far more likely to not only trust your business but spend their hard-earned dollars on your business when there are other options out there.

Bad reviews can highlight positive ones

This might sound a bit ironic, but having those bad reviews can actually highlight the positive ones. As mentioned previously, customers do compare those negative reviews with the positive ones to get both sides of the picture and to get a fair view of the entirety of your business.

If you have a customer that is not just looking to vent and is actually interested in providing insight into their experience, they may actually list the pros and cons of the service and products. This can be incredibly useful for potential customers that are looking for a completely unbiased review.

Bad reviews help you improve your business

Last, but certainly not least, is the fact that those negative reviews can help to make your business better. Perhaps you were unaware of those weaker aspects of your business. With those negative reviews, you can get an idea of where your company needs to improve to be more well-rounded and turn those negative reviews into positive reviews.

Having a mature approach to this is important. There are some business owners out there who do not accept criticism of any kind and will puff their chest out at a negative review. Instead of doing that, be willing to listen and learn. When you do this, your business can make the improvements that it needs to grow and progress.

Not only that, being open and honest about the lesser aspects of your business can help you take a closer look at your business when you need to do so and make the improvements that will keep your business growing at a consistent rate instead of remaining stagnant.

Monitor Your Reputation With The #1 Digital Marketing Company

4 Ways Lawn Care Companies Can Use Facebook to Generate Leads

Lawn Care Facebook Tips

Though Facebook has caught a lot of flack in recent months and years for the way they handle their users’ private information, there is no denying the reach and potential marketing power that it still possesses for lawn care businesses of all sizes.

And how can it be anything but? With more than 1.3 billion daily active users – each of them spending an average of 50 minutes within the array of Facebook apps offered – it remains one of the most powerful and influential forms of social media that there is.

What is amazing is that only 45% of marketers think that Facebook remains an effective marketing tool. This would imply that most marketers are finding it a bit difficult to generate leads for their businesses and that remains one of the top challenges for businesses across the country.

Still, there are a number of techniques that lawn care businesses can use to generate leads for and to nurture those leads into sales conversions that can really have an impact on the bottom line. It is important to note that all of these take consistency and effort, and should be combined with lawn care SEO strategies. they are not overnight, game-changing methods that will magically produce millions of customers.

Facebook Leads

Facebook is a hugely effective way to get leads for your business.

Pre-filled forms and instant articles

Facebook has an instant article option that gives publishes the option to share its content directly to Facebook through a few dedicated methods that are within the app itself. Facebook created this as a way to combat problems of slow loading times when used on the mobile web. It has been shown that those instant articles load 10 times faster than most other mobile web articles and are denoted by a lightning symbol within the image itself on the Facebook post.

Additionally, instant articles have been shown to generate around 20% more clicks than mobile web articles from the News Feed feature. Not only that, when a user clicks on one of these instant articles, they are 70% less likely to ultimately abandon the article before even reading it.

The best thing is that you don’t need a CTA to drive that traffic to your custom website; you can use those instant articles to capture audience data without actually having to direct people to your landing page. This can be hugely beneficial since it can generate leads by pre-filling data for those users. You can even download a CSV file with all of that information and upload it to your email marketing software.

Facebook Messenger

There is a new feature called destination ads that has been applied to Messenger that is designed to drive people to chat with specified Messenger bots. When the user clicks on the ad in their News Feed, there is a Messenger thread that appears with a copy of the ad as well as a pre-filled message to begin the interaction.

This is a great way to capture customer leads because customers are always looking for someone to discuss their questions before they make a purchase or subscribe to a specific service. Businesses can easily retarget their website visitors that have either viewed their services or products before; this enables you to potentially address any questions that they might have.

For more complex services, this is a great way to demonstrate what your product can do for skeptical customers and display expertise and knowledge about the products and services that instill confidence in the customer before they make a purchase or use a product.

Any time that you can help answer questions that the consumer has and instill confidence in your product or service, that is a major win for your business.

Video ads

Video has rapidly become one of the most popular forms of content when it comes to Facebook. Not only that, Facebook’s video ad options give you a whole new range of opportunities to connect with your audience and develop those leads that you are after.

The best part about Facebook video ads is that you can easily collect user data right inside the video ads. The users don’t even have to leave Facebook or fill in their information; as is the case with Instant Article forms, Facebook can pull their data from their profiles to make it easier than ever for them to sign up.

All the user has to do is tap on your call to action button in order to submit their information. And since the emails that are used for Facebook are verified, you know that you are getting absolutely authentic leads. Creating high-quality, informative videos is easier and more cost-effective than it ever has been before, making it a form of advertising that businesses on Facebook should absolutely be implemented in their marketing strategy.

If your business is not using Facebook video ads, it absolutely should begin using them as soon as possible.

Facebook Conversions

Convert those leads into actual dollars.

Facebook lead ads

This option gives businesses an easier way to collect that ever-valuable information from their users. This can help you to increase your leads in a far more simplified manner, giving you more and more potential customers to help further your business.

Once the user clicks on your ad, they are then shown a pre-filled opt-in form that makes it easier than ever for users to subscribe to one of your lists. It takes just two clicks and they don’t even have to fill in any extra details. You get the leads that you want and they get to find out more about your product or service without having to do much of anything.

When you couple Facebook lead ads with retargeting to mobile devices, this can help to boost your lead conversion efforts substantially. This means that you turn those leads into actual sales dollars that impact your bottom line.

Best of all, when the user fills in their details, Facebook will help you store that lead information in a CSV file that you can easily download. You can then download that information to your CRM to utilize that data. It is super valuable information like this that turns leads into sales.

Get Started With a Trusted Digital Marketing Company

How To Diversify Marketing Channels and Become Less Reliant on Google

Diversify Marketing Channels

Google is the industry standard when it comes to marketing campaigns online. This is for good reason, however: more than 90.46% of searches worldwide go through Google. When you consider that literally billions of people now have the ability to get online and that 80% of them are searching with Google, that means a whole lot of potential eyeballs that can see your product or service.

Google AdWords, meanwhile, is the standard in the industry when it comes to pay-per-click advertising. A pay-per-click ad is one that attaches itself as the user goes through their searching. This will keep that business in the peripheral of the user and doesn’t cost the company anything until it is actually clicked. It is a cost-effective way to get more leads for your business.

And with their purchase of YouTube, your ads can show up on only Google platforms and still have an enormous potential audience. Being able to have your ad pop up on millions of websites and reach over 90% of users on the internet, it is kind of hard to imagine what your options are if you are either banned by the internet giant or if you are simply looking for other avenues.

If that is the case, you might have to get a little bit creative but there are certain strategies that you can implement that can make your marketing applicable even if you are no longer relying on the powerhouse that is Google.

Spread out your offerings

One thing that will get you restricted, if not outright banned, by Google is advertising something like “technical support by third-party providers”. Still, if you create a blog that is valuable with things like trustworthy tips or discussion trends, you can then pay to promote those specific articles on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.

Those two sites are hugely popular, reaching millions upon millions of users each and every single day. You could use these articles to help draw new customers to your website which would then potentially attract a new audience to your services.

Social media is a great way to help avoid the giant that is Google. The aforementioned methods are proven to work with constancy as well as quality content; you could also build a Facebook Business Page as a way to attract users to your page to see what other customers are saying about your business and to get a better idea as to the trustworthiness and reliability of your business as a whole.

Twitter is another fantastic way to drive traffic to your website. When you create the unique content mentioned above, you would then be able to share it out to your audience on Twitter and even reach users who might not know about you or your business using the correct hashtags. Additionally, you can tweet out links to your content which will then drive up traffic to your website. The more eyes that you have on your website, the more potential conversions to actual dollars that you can potentially make.

Nolen Walker Twitter Clip

Use influencer marketing and email campaigns

What exactly is an influencer marketing platform, you might be asking? Well, it is a software solution that has been designed to assist brands with their influencer marketing campaigns. These provide discovery tools for agencies and brands and will offer pretty massive searchable databases for finding potential influencers.

Let’s say that your business is centered around a clothing line. These influencer marketing campaigns would entail finding influencers from YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and other forms of social media and paying them to advertise your goods or business. Influencers have been shown to have a tremendous and unique impact on the way businesses reach their audience, particularly if they have a younger demographic.

Email marketing might sound outdated but it continues to be one of the most consistent methods for reaching your audience and letting them know who you are and what you have to offer them. Obtaining that valuable user information – name, email, address, etc. – is how businesses continue to grow.

They send out a feeler email offering their services or a discount on one of their products to entice the user. The user will then usually either dismiss it entirely or go to the company website to see more about that business. This is huge as it is the goal of your marketing to drive traffic to your custom mobile website so that users can see what you have to offer. Just getting your product in front of as many eyeballs as possible can make a huge difference towards your bottom line.

Email marketing is also a great way to get customers to leave you reviews. Reviews are one of the most important aspects of an online business for several reasons. If you are not banned from Google, having good reviews (and a good amount of reviews) can make a huge difference in your SEO ranking, making your website that much easier to find in Google search rankings.

Reviews are also the quickest way to vet your business. Obviously, most businesses will tell you how great they are; few are going to say that they are mediocre or bad at what they do. So, you need to be able to vet that they are in fact what they say they are, right?

Reviews left by others who have used your service or business is a great way to build trust with potential clients. If you have a ton of positive reviews, it should not take long to build a level of trustworthiness with the audience that you are attempting to reach.

Even if you have negative reviews, that is okay so long as they are not overwhelming in number. Addressing negative reviews in a constructive manner will show whoever is looking through the reviews that you cared enough to take the time to address the situation. It is obviously better to have positive reviews but addressing that criticism positively will go a long way.

Focus on building your brand, reputation, and SEO

Even if you are looking for a way around making Google a focal point, optimizing your SEO strategy will only help to make your site more of an authority. Websites that have exceptional SEO, with content so good that it generally ranks in the top three of the results on Google, will only be outranked through the Google AdWords network.

Not only that, websites that did not have to pay for users to find them generally are deemed as more trustworthy and far more clickable than those who have the ad marker next to its name. Building that level of trustworthiness makes your website an authority in the industry and makes the user more likely to click on your page.

Likewise, building your brand and reputation is equally as important. Let’s say you are a new business and don’t really have that many reviews or much of an online footprint. Working to get positive, quality reviews as soon as you can help to make your brand more trustworthy.

Additionally, when consumers begin to recognize your business for being trustworthy and a reliable source within the industry, you not only begin to become an authority on the subject but your brand becomes more recognizable for that specific thing.

Brand recognition is one of the most important aspects of getting users to notice a business and it is something that businesses everywhere strive for. If you can get your customers to begin associating your type of service or product with you specifically, you have successfully developed brand recognition.

Nolen Walker YouTube Marketing

Make use of alternative ad networks

Even though Google AdWords is the standard in the industry, that does not mean that it is the only option out there. Even if your industry isn’t one that is in a restricted sector, you should still try to expand your overall online advertising platforms.

Depending on your goal, you can expand your reach, narrow your reach if that’s your prerogative, and lower your cost per click rates. What you might not have realized is that it is possible to get too many clicks in Google AdWords if the clicks are lower in quality.

The broader your industry is, the better your chances are of racking up low conversion rates and higher advertising costs. When you get into a more specific niche, you are competing for less clicks but ultimately are looking at higher conversion rates. This is what your business is after.

Pay-per-click is a marketing technique that needs consistent, almost constant optimizing. When you use something like Bing Ads, for example, you can unlock a huge network of users that don’t have much in the way of Google crossover. This means that the only way to attract them is through the Bing Ads network. Likewise, the aforementioned social media platforms make as excellent ad networks that can reach areas of customers despite not having a Google influence play its part.

There are many things that you can do to help your marketing grow even without Google on your side. It just takes a little work and creativity.

Get Started With a Trusted Digital Marketing Company

6 Real World Reasons Tampa Businesses Need SEO

Tampa SEO

When people say Tampa SEO, what do they mean?

Search engine optimization for a particular city like Tampa is the process of showing up on Google search results for users within the Tampa Bay area. Without a specific city attached, it is simply known as local SEO.

When you own a business in a larger city, whether its a law firm or dental practice, it should go without saying that the landscape is quite crowded and makes it difficult to stand out. Tampa Bay is one of those big cities where it can be difficult for a business of any sort to distance itself from the competition.

This is generally where SEO (search engine optimization) comes into play. For businesses to become more identifiable to search engines online, their websites must be as optimized as possible. This allows those search engines to pick them out of the crowd more easily if they are relevant to a specific search and or location.

What makes it difficult for some less tech-savvy business owners to really grasp SEO is how it has real-world applications on their business. Sure, there are the obvious benefits that you might see in a digital format, but what about the ones that actually impact your business in real-time?

Here are six reasons that have real-world applications as to why businesses in the Tampa area need to make sure their SEO game is strong.

SEO is vital to the survival of businesses everywhere.

Becoming a local authority

The way internet searches are done has changed. Because of the sheer number of businesses and keywords out there, it would be impossible to not compartmentalize based on location. But this is where a small business can benefit.

When you optimize your website, you are fighting in the rankings based on a keyword but also based on location. This is huge when considering that you as a business don’t have to fight everyone. When your website is optimized, you become one of the focal results for that area and that is huge for a small business.

Brand recognition

What most businesses are looking for is their target audience to identify their industry with their business in specific. When competing on a global scale, this is nearly impossible. But with the aforementioned location-based searches, you can become the recognized name in your particular field based on location.

If your business serves the Tampa area, your rankings will focus on that area and appealing to the audience in that area. This makes your brand more recognizable with not only that service in particular, but with that area. This is the kind of recognition of one’s brand that is incredibly difficult to do in any other circumstance and can be hugely valuable for a small business in a given region.

Take advantage of that fact and use it to make your brand the most recognizable in your area.

Cost savings

Let’s face facts: it is expensive to properly market a business, even in a niche industry. This is because traditional mediums are not only expensive to use, they are limited in their overall reach. Traditional newspaper and television advertising remain but they do not have the reach and impact, nor the bang for the buck, that they once had.

That is why optimizing your website can be such a big deal. The big companies can afford to buy ad space online because they have the funds; when smaller businesses enter the foray they depend heavily on their website SEO to deliver users to them.

Save money by making sure your website is more easily found by search engines.

Improved engagement

This goes a bit hand-in-hand with your website traffic, but there is a little bit of a difference here. Your website traffic shows the number of people who are visiting your website. But being able to engage those visitors and convince them not to click through is the biggest challenge.

With improved SEO rankings, you are likely optimizing your website with relevant content in a way that makes your website a draw to potential customers. This means that you are engaging those potential customers and providing enough value that they aren’t leaving right away.

Those extended looks and that engagement is the biggest key to turning those leads into actual sales. Drawing attention to your product is one thing; converting those leads into sales is an entirely different beast. With a website that is properly optimized, you can give your business a much better chance to convert those leads.

Keeping up with technology trends

This might not seem like a huge benefit, but keeping up with relevant technology can have far-reaching effects on a business. The internet is constantly evolving and is oftentimes center stage when it comes to the latest technologies (think about the impact that smartphones have had on the internet as a whole).

When your company is concerned with optimizing its website, you ensure that you are staying on top of the latest technological trends. You ensure that you are not left in the dark when new platforms become prominent and the way that businesses are moving.

Keeping an eye towards these relevant trends can go a long way towards helping your business to adapt to the times and more successfully and consistently reach you’re their target audience. Don’t let technology trends slip by you; you could find your business trailing behind and being left in the dust.

More Traffic

More traffic to your website is one of the most important aspects of having a digital presence for your business. This is because, in this day and age, your website is often the very first place that prospective customers will go before they make a decision about your business.

The more traffic that you can drive to your website means that there are more eyes that are potentially interested in either using your service or purchasing your product. And that’s the idea, isn’t it? Though traffic to your website does not automatically mean sales for your business, these are the leads that your business needs to not only grow but survive.

Those numbers that you see on your analytics page then begin to have far more depth and feel to them. Instead of just being numbers on a screen, they become the number of potential customers that have at least shown enough interest to look into your business. That is the kind of awareness that every business wants.

Get Started With Tampa Bay SEO

How to Get Maximum ROI From Your PPC Management Service

Pay per click campaigns offer incredible opportunities to supplement your organic search traffic. Not only do they provide fairly consistent returns (in the form of leads), they typically come with thorough reporting measures. Thanks to the very dedicated refinement of PPC management platforms, such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads, it’s easy to track and tune your paid search strategy.

With that being said, many businesses simply don’t have the time or expertise necessary to run their own pay per click efforts. That’s where digital marketing companies often step in with PPC management services. These companies vary wildly in their results. Some provide substantial returns for their clients, while others seem largely ineffective (or downright shady). Since PPC represents a significant investment – many contractors spend over ten thousand dollars a month on PPC alone – it makes sense to take steps to maximize your ROI.

Google Ads PPC Management

Google Ads is the Most Widely Used Platform for PPC Ads. Image Source: AdEspresso

Today, we’re going to cover three crucial steps in securing that maximum ROI:

  • Step #1: Create Accountability.
  • Step #2: Build Diversity.
  • Step #3: Review & Adapt.

Master these three steps, and you’ll be well on your way to stronger lead generation and greater revenues. Let’s get started!

Step #1: Create Accountability

Accountability serves as the foundation for any successful PPC management service, yet so many digital marketing companies seem to neglect this step. What does accountability look like in a pay per click strategy? Transparent reporting and billing. Before going anywhere near a paid search agency, businesses need to learn one time, money, and effort-saving rule:

Get your reports directly from Google, Facebook, or whoever runs your PPC ads!

Direct Billing

Direct Billing From Your Provider

Do not accept reporting through your PPC management company, or even a 3rd party service they recommend. It’s a common practice for PPC services to markup the cost per click of keywords, so they can pocket a larger portion of the budget provided to them. The only way to guarantee that your costing is accurate is to receive the report directly from the platform that runs the advertisements.

Monthly Contract

Choosing Month to Month

Another accountability-driving practice is month-to-month billing. While a company might be tempted to slack off in an annual contract, monthly services have powerful motivation to continually provide leads. If they don’t, you can simply switch to another PPC management company to run your campaigns!

No Bundles

Skip the Search Bundle

While closely tied to the direct billing suggestion we mentioned earlier, this particular guideline can also protect you from shady costing practices that so many PPC management companies seem to love. Specifically, digital marketers often use organic SEO/PPC bundles arranged in an annual contract. Instead of providing the portioned work and budget suggested in their itemized billing, these companies mostly neglect the other activities and invest almost all their funds into paid search ads.

With markups, this makes it very easy for PPC-focused companies to turn a high profit without providing a substantial return. If you want both SEO and PPC services, just make sure they’re billed separately!

Step #2: Build Diversity

In the finance sector, seasoned planners often recommend diversifying your investments by spreading across multiple industries and nationalities. This lowers risk and allows you to explore numerous markets. When it comes to PPC campaigns, diversity also plays a key role in finding the best bang for your buck!

Most contractors only have experience with Google Ads. While that platform certainly enjoys an earned reputation for consistency and customization, there are plenty of other sources to choose from. Facebook Ads, for instance, also provides substantial tinkering and testing capabilities for your advertising campaigns. You can even use your most popular content marketing resources and turn them into ads!

Facebook's PPC Management Ad Center

Facebook Offers Extensive User Data and Simplified PPC Management for Your Team. Image Source: Facebook Business

Seasoned PPC experts can easily run campaigns in multiple platforms, generating high-quality leads for your business. They also experiment with multiple types of paid advertising, including retargeting ads. Retargeted ads identify visitors leaving your website (or an opponent’s) and delivers an ad specifically targeted to their recent experience. These ingenious marketing devices usually enjoy a higher conversion rate than your standard Google Ad.

What sort of diversity does your PPC management company incorporate into their strategy? If they take a hardline “Google Ads or nothing” stance, it might be time to try out other companies!

Step #3: Review & Adapt

One of the hardest parts of managing your own advertising campaigns is knowing when to adjust your strategy. Some keywords simply don’t pan out, while others require tweaking for maximum success. When you partner with a PPC management team, that team must be able to adapt if they wish to secure a maximum return on your ad money.

What does an adaptable company look like?

A Keyword Research Tool for PPC Management

When One Keyword Phrase Doesn’t Pan Out, a Seasoned PPC Team Adapts. Image Source: Ubersuggest

When a capable search marketing company realizes that a particular strategy isn’t producing the leads they’d like one month, they change their approach. Inept companies simply make up excuses on why it’s the market’s fault. They may also try to make themselves look better with familiar lines, such as “These search results just take time.”

They don’t, by the way! PPC campaigns should start generating results within days (or weeks, at most), unless your company competes in a market with a longer sales cycle. If a PPC company tries to argue otherwise, they’re probably trying to buy time.

Shopping for PPC Management?

Accountability, diversity, and adaptability are crucial parts of pay per click campaigns. Without them, it’s easy to lose perspective, then spend money on campaigns that don’t real returns. Consistently hold to these steps, and you’ll be much more likely to find a winning PPC management team, or effectively managing your own!

Hunting for your own PPC management team? The experts at Nolen Walker would love to handle your paid search activities. We provide a month-to-month service with reporting run directly through Google Ads. No sketchy click markups, just a simple flat fee!

See what an accountable marketing team feels like with Nolen Walker. Consult with an expert for free at (866) 356-8198.