SEO
What is SEO
SEO is Search Engine Optimization. To understand what SEO really means, it helps to break it down into its core parts:
Quality of traffic. You can attract all the visitors in the world, but if they're coming to your site because Google tells them you're a resource for Dogs and what really you're are is a resource for cats, that is not quality traffic. Instead you want to attract visitors who are genuinely interested in products that you offer.
Quantity of traffic. Once you have the right people clicking through from those search engine results pages (SERPs), more traffic is better.
Organic results. Ads make up a significant portion of many SERPs. Organic traffic is any traffic that you don't have to pay for.
How SEO Works
Here's how SEO works: Google (or Bing or any search engine you're using) has a crawler that goes out and gathers information about all the content they can find on the Internet. The crawlers are called spiders and the spiders bring all those 1s and 0s of data back to the search engine to build an index. That index is then fed through an algorithm that tries to match all that data with your query.
Content Strategy
Content strategy is the piece of your marketing plan and development that refers to the management of pretty much any tangible media that you create and own... written, visual, downloadable. It used to be that google wanted a website's keywords to match searcher typed. Although it still true, Google is much more sophisticated and looks for over 200 factors to ensure it returns the best results for the search. Content is king. Make sure your content is relevant to what the searcher wants and focus the content formats a searcher may want to see that result. Different strokes for different folks: text, photos, videos, charts, social links, infographics, List w bullet point, links to more relative content such as blogs or industry influencers
What's the plan?
Who is the target
How does the info help the target
How is the info unique and reletive
What are the different formats
What channels will you use to publish the content
How will you plan and calendarize the the creation and publication/distribution.
Below are common formats of content. Identify the core formats that may apply best to your business and your target audience.
Local Optimization
Local search marketing is anything you do on the web to promote a physical business that makes face-to-face contact with its customers. It applies to both single-location small and medium businesses (SMBs), national enterprise brands, and chains. If a company meets with its customers directly — either through a storefront or service area — it’s termed a “local business” and a unique set of techniques and skills can be used to increase its visibility on the Internet. This may also be referred to as “local SEO,” or local search engine optimization.
Far from being a one-and-done form of marketing, good local SEO builds upon a base of clear business information, using an array of marketing practices to transform an unknown brand into a local household word.
The following graphic gives an overview of the core tasks that make up a local SEO campaign, from bottom (fundamental) to top (advanced).
Below is an example of a local search result from Google including a map result. Local search optimization is what Google is looking for to return a business at the top of the local map results.
Below is a video describing how your NAP consistency is viewed by Google to consider listing your business at the top of the Local Search Map results. NAP is Name-Address-Phone. Directory listings are expanding the amount of content they hold so keeping NAP and other content current timely updates is growing in importance.
150+ Directories that may have your content. Getting into the directories will help you, but you have to keep the content current and accurate.
Lean Generation
Each business is different in how you can most effectively turn traffic into leads. Your lead generation workflow needs to consider the size of your business and the resources you have to manage the leads. It starts by setting goals of who want as a target, what they want or need and how you are going to get them to engage to take some kind of action. Typically you need to have a plan for Outbound & Inbound traffic. Outbound traffic is something you send out such as an email campaign or monthly newsletter. Inbound traffic is typically the result of a paid add, Social posting or organic search result where the target finds you based on their search. You need a means to measure the traffic, establish a way to get them to engage or take action and capture and manage those leads. The actions are typically to make a phone call, fill out a form, send an email, create an account, request more information, go to another landing page. This is basically some form of sales funnel.
Smaller companies will typically do this in a more manual fashion. For example, it may cost $1200 a month to drive traffic to the website which delivers 1000 visitors a month of which 100 fill out a form and a sales rep follows up and closes the deal on 25 of the leads. If each lead is worth $1000 per year x 25, the $1200 investment delivered $25,000 in sales revenue. The Customer Acquisition Cost(CAC) was $48($1200/25). If that service you are selling is an annual repeat service, those 25 clients are worth $250,000 over 10 years(Lifetime). The Customer Lifetime Value(CLV) of that one new client is $10,000($1000 x 10 Yrs). In addition, you will lower your customer acquisition cost(CAC) in future years. You may increase the average amount they spend with you if they buy any additional services. That same customer may refer a friend generating more reoccurring revenue. It is in your best interest to initiate a referral program and track it. There are a lot of variables to track to establish ROI. As the business grows and the tracking becomes more complex, many companies will move toward some form of a Marketing Automation platform to manage and track the lead generation of the marketing efforts.