All search engines consider location as an essential factor when ranking search results based on relevance. For instance, the results of the search for a real estate agent made in Houston will differ from those of a similar search made by another person in Atlanta. The localized nature of SEO thus elicits the need for businesses to develop content, which is relevant to their locality and the users within their geographic region. This article takes you through content development tips and tricks that can help digital marketing companies to localize optimized digital marketing content.

Why is localized SEO content important?

According to Google analyses, 46% of searches performed online — and approximately 82% of smartphone shoppers — involve searches related to location. Most of these searches seek to find specific business information such as phone numbers or addresses. To optimize the chances of your business being found by prospective customers near you, you have to build content and pages that are relevant to each locality of your business. Better yet, location-based content and keywords have less competition. If you’re a new venture or a small-scale business competing against big firms for search engine ranking, then localized content should be your strong competing tool. So where should your SEO management begin?

1. Creation of localized content and page

If you own more than one store, then ask the digital marketing companies providing your SEO services to develop separate location or store pages. These pages should have distinct descriptions for each store, its location, operating hours, and any other offers at the store. You should not duplicate content across stores located in different regions.

2. Look for relevant local key-phrases and keywords

The use of local key-phrases and keywords within your blog posts and website content is beneficial to local SEO. You can use the Google keyword planner tool to find keywords, which are relevant to your locality and business. Choose keywords with the least competition and high search volumes.

3. Compose localized content for your blogs

Regular posting of blog content boosts your search ranking and organic traffic. For example, you can integrate local news, locations, and how-to articles that have content related to your locality. You could also post blog content on local sites with authority in your industry and create backlinks to your site. This move can increase your organic traffic and improve your brand’s reputation.

4. Tap into social media platforms to reach more people

You can start by promoting your localized content on local groups in social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. You can use hashtags that are location specific and promote local events to reach out to people near you.

5. Create mobile-friendly content

Recent surveys show that 57% of internet traffic originates from smartphones. This fact implies that if you need to reach the increasing number of mobile users, then you have to create mobile-friendly content and sites that are easy to navigate on the phone.

6. Work with local experts and the local community

You should get involved in the community for your business to get noticed. You can participate in local sporting or charity events, and make donations or provide sponsorships during such events. Community activities bring many locals together, and they provide an opportune moment for your business to get attention.

7. Feature in local directories and reviews

You should get your business into local directories and encourage your local clients to make reviews on your business and the products or services that you provide. Positive reviews and local listings will help prospective customers reach your business. It’s free to get your business listed in online directories such as Yelp and Yahoo Local. Digital marketing companies can also give your business some insight about the relevant industry-related listing options that can help you list your business in directories that are related to your market niche.

Finding reliable digital marketing companies is essential for the success of your SEO marketing plan. As a rule of thumb, always go for digital marketing companies that provide complete digital marketing packages. This choice will ensure that you get all your needs in one place.

The growth in technology is changing how businesses operate. The benefits of digital marketing are becoming clearer by the day. More and more people are researching products and making purchases online.

A study by Forbes shows that 82% of buyers do research online before making a purchase. Another research by Tech Crunch reveals that 79% of consumers buy their products online.

If you want your business to be successful, you should reach out to these buyers. But how do you do this? Through digital marketing.

Implementing a digital marketing plan boosts your online presence allowing you to reach your target audience. Marketing online proves to be a cost-effective approach to reaching your target customers. Here are the main reasons why you should contact a credible digital marketing company:

Has a Wider Audience Reach

Promoting your business online exposes your brand to a larger audience globally. With traditional marketing, you’re restricted to a small geographical area.

Incorporating SEO services in your online marketing allows you to rank high on search engine pages. Why is it important that your brand ranks higher? Well, Google generates a whopping 94% of the total organic traffic.

It Levels the Online Playing Field

Gone are the days when working with a digital marketing company was only for large corporations. Digital marketing levels the playing field for small businesses and allows a small firm to compete with much larger corporations for the target market. A digital marketing agency actualizes this by boosting your online presence. Even without a business call center, small firms can engage multiple customers from all over the world.

Cost-Effective

Traditional marketing campaigns require you to invest huge resources. However, small businesses do not have the financial flex to mount these campaigns. Working with a digital marketing company allows you to get a much better handle on your finances.

Also, working with a professional marketing organization allows you to target a specific audience which increases the chances of conversion. Further, with pay per click, you’ll only pay your target audience views your post. All this ensures prudent use of your resources.

Measurable Results

Is your marketing campaign working? Is there value for your investment? Well, the only way to know this is by measuring your results. Online marketing offers analytic tools to determine whether your campaign is working or not. With this, you’ll know what works and what doesn’t. Use the results to optimize your marketing strategy for the better and improve your future campaigns.

Improves Your Customer Relationship Management

As a business, you should strive to satisfy your customers. The only way this happens is through maintaining a positive relationship with your customers. Unlike traditional marketing, digital marketing services offer a platform to connect directly with your customers.

Among the many benefits of online marketing is its ability to manage customer relations. Social media is changing the game on how to win customers. Today, your ability to win customer loyalty is dependent on whether you can interact with them online. Increase your online visibility by engaging and responding to customer’s feedback on social media.

Highly Flexible

Online marketing allows you to customize messages to a specific customer. Remember, each customer has their tastes and preferences. Further, they also have a different reason why they want to purchase your products.

Digital marketing offers various benefits to small and large corporations. If done correctly, online marketing offers untold benefits business. Capitalize on these benefits by reaching out to a reputable digital marketing company.

You’ve got a website that you truly like and feel will be effective. Maybe your website is getting traffic to prove it is effective and maybe it isn’t. What you should understand is that when it comes to Digital Marketing your website design is not the end of your journey. As a matter of fact, a website design is really just the beginning of your journey. Let’s explore together what comes after your website goes live in the Digital Marketing world.

Understanding Your Content

The website was just built and we’re sure you’ve heard enough about it by this point. Depending upon who developed the website (yourself or a 3rd party) you definitely want to make sure that you understand your website in at least a basic way. Your business website should be a complete representation of your business online. Convey as much information to your visitors as possible through content, extra pages, imagery, and video. The three things visitors want to know when visiting your website are:

  1. Who are you?
  2. What do you do?
  3. What do you want me to do about it?

Properly fleshed out home pages will be able to answer all three of these questions while directing visitors to other pages for further information. Did you know that the About Page is generally the second most clicked link on a website? Use that to your advantage and let people know who you are! In order to build trust with a visitor they may want to know who you are and a little history about your business.

Understanding The Backend

So, your content is squared away, but do you understand the backend and how to update things on your website? Do you understand how to navigate the backend of your website? Are you aware of any login information needed to access the different parts of your website? These questions are important even if you have someone managing your website.

No one ever knows what the future holds, so be sure to have these questions answered. Depending upon the builder of your website they may have tutorials to guide you in the backend functions of your website, but if not youtube is always a great place to gain some knowledge. There are three main things we recommend you have access to that involve your website:

  1. Your domain host.
  2. Your design.
  3. Your website backend.

Each of these areas is vitally important to at least have login access for. Bunn Brands manages each of these things, but we deem it critically important that you have access to these areas.

Driving Traffic To Your Website

Driving traffic to your website is vitally important. If you open a storefront in an area that no one noticed, then that would not be a very effective storefront. Simply having a website live and on the internet is not enough for customers to just flock to your business. Of course, a simple design will provide visitors with more information about your business, products, and/or services but if no one knows it exists then you wont see the benefits.

Two quick and easy methods for driving traffic to your website are:

  1. Pay Per Click Advertising (SEM – Search Engine Marketing)
  2. Social Media

Search Engine Marketing

Search Engine Marketing involves finding specific keywords that both represent your business and are searched for by users of the internet. Begin your keyword research by compiling a list of keywords and checking them with the Google Keyword Planner. This tool will allow you to check how many people are searching for whatever keyword you are checking. Remember, each page of your website should focus on one specific keyword but that does not mean you can’t utilize other keywords throughout your content.

Now that you have a list of qualified keywords you will need to setup an account with your search engine advertising platform. For Google the platform is Google Ads, which you can actually get certified with to use! Utilizing researched keywords you will set up ad groups, assign ads to those groups, and set the price you are willing to pay for each click you receive.

Setting target demographics for your ads is vital to ensuring those ads show up to the right people. You want to drive qualified traffic that is actually interested in your business to your website. You’re paying for each click so monitoring your account is very important to making sure you’re reaching the right people.

Social Media

Social Media is all the craze right now and that’s because people are all over it! Chances are that most of your potential clients are combing through Social Media on the daily. If you’re not reaching out to those potential clients then you are definitely leaving money on the table. Reach out and let people know who you are and what you do. Tell everyone out there the story that is you and your business. Effective Social Media management can lead to an increase in followers and visitors to your website.

Research and prepare for advertising on Social Media. There are so many different ways to advertise on Social Media now that we will definitely need to cover this in another blog! We recommend starting with boosting popular posts to spread your brand and gain followers that are interested in hearing more. Also, running ads that drive people from your Social Media straight to your website or landing pages is a great way to increase that website traffic.

Advertising on Social Media is a great way to tell your story and direct visitors to your website for more detailed information about your business.

Ranking Your Website In Search Engines

Now we’ve come to the big question of how to rank naturally in search engines. No real secrets exist to ranking in search engines, but there are best practices. Search Engines actively crawl your website looking for content and keywords. The more you use a word the more likely search engines will recognize it as a keyword. In order to truly show web users the most accurate websites for their searches a search engine must know what your website is about and they use crawling robots to determine this.

The real secret to SEO is to develop quality content that people want to read in a proper format. That means understanding things like:

Continue to produce content you will gain ranking for various keywords, especially the ones you are focusing on! Provide as much information about your industry or business specifically. Your goal is to establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Other ways to increase your SEO are Social Sharing and Backlinking. Although, we feel this might be a subject best suited for another post. Stay tuned as we deconstruct the mysteries of digital marketing!

 

Small businesses have a lot to gain from PPC. A successful pay per click campaign will generate profits faster than any other digital marketing option paving way for business growth. Statistics show that firms using PPC make $2 in revenue for every $1 they incur on Adwords.

As you can see, PPC is an effective tool for reaching your target audience at the right moment, when the customers are ready to convert.

As a newbie, do you want to increase your online visibility by investing in pay per click promotion? Check out PPC demystified and explained to see how this works to your advantage:

What is Pay Per Click?

Pay per click is one of many digital marketing services you can use to promote your enterprise. Its model works in a simple manner making it so popular.

In short, you place an ad and pay when someone clicks on it. Currently, many PPC services are available for use. However, the most common are Bing Ads and Google Ads.

What Are the Benefits of PPC Advertising for Your Business?

The purpose of this article is to shed light on PPC demystified and explained, and its role in business success or growth. So, read through these advantages and decide whether to incorporate PPC into your SEO marketing strategy.

1. Quick and Fast Results

As an entrepreneur, you want quick results to your digital marketing results. Well, PPC is the fastest way to run a marketing campaign online, and instantly generate leads into conversions.

Well, to make this simple, do you have a website? If yes, create an Adwords account, set the ad up, and run them in the Google network and start generating traffic to your site.

2. Provides Measurable Results

Here, you can ascertain everything that relates to PPC campaign from views, clicks, visits, costs, and profits.

So, you’ll be able to know whether the entire campaign is generating any profits or losses. Further, you’ll have different reports and key performance indicators that give all the information you want. With this data, your marketing department will make clear and decisive decisions.

3. No Dependency on SEO or Search Engine Algorithm Changes

Yes, SEO is good for any business. And for long term success, you need to have an SEO friendly website and practice best SEO practices. You may also seek assistance from reputable SEO service firms.

PPC demystified and explained: However, with PPC, you’ll only need to create good and profitable campaigns. Once you do, you don’t have to worry about the changes to search engine ranking algorithms.

4. Allows you to Reach the Right Market

When designing a PPC campaign, you choose how you want the ads to appear. All this will be based on factors like location, keyword, website, time, date, device, and more.

The flexibility in PPC advertising allows you to subdivide your market. The result is a wider reach to your target audience.

5. Allows you to Grab Business Opportunities

Let’s say you’re dealing with web hosting packages. But a technical problem on your competitor’s site has knocked them offline.

Well, this is a perfect opportunity to run a targeted PPC campaign and provide a solution to those jilted customers.

Well, this can only happen with PPC because of its ease of use and ability to generate instant results.

6. The Campaign is Budget Friendly

When dealing with PPC, there are no budgetary restrictions. You’re the one who chooses the money to spend on the ad or campaign.

Even better, PPC demystified and explained shows that everything you do is measurable. As a result, you can check and determine whether you’re making profits or losses and make appropriate decisions.

The rule is, if the campaign is profitable, you can spend more money till you get your return on investment.

Conclusion

PPC offers many benefits because of its ability to generate quality and instant results. Even if you don’t get favorable results from PPC at first, you can always try again. Optimize for keywords or hire a PPC service to help you.

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If you’re below 40 years of age, you must have noticed that virtually all people under your age are avid internet users. It’s also highly likely that they own a Smartphone, laptop, tablet, or P.C. Notably, as they spend more time on these gadgets, digital marketing grows in popularity. Instead of relying on traditional marketing channels, more businesses are opting to increase their online presence to get more clients by harnessing digital marketing. Ideally, your business should use the following mix of strategies to help you in getting more business online.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Businesses with an online presence thrive or survive at the mercy of search engines such as Bing and Google. The SEO strategy works by optimizing content in a manner that makes it stand out among the first search engine result pages (SERPs). Developers of SEO content can use certain keywords or a mix of outbound and inbound links to generate organic traffic.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)

Social media platforms are an ideal tool to promote the B-2-C kind of business. You can market on the wide array of social media platforms by posting business-relevant content and ads. You could also use influencer marketing targeting popular users of social media platforms or hashtag campaigns to reach out to followers of trending issues and people. You could also insert links and sharing buttons on your social media posts to link the viewers of your content to your other digital marketing platforms.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

In SEM, you pay a fee to the search engines so that your business’ advertisements can appear among the paid results that pop up after organic search engine results. The paid results often appear before the organic SERPs. The commonly employed paid search services include Bing Ads and Google Ads. In fact, findings have revealed that most businesses that use Google Ads get a return of approximately 200% on their investment on SEM. SEM results are often paid for based on the pay-per-click (PPC) model of advertising where your business only pays when someone clicks on your ad that appears after a search.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a digital marketing service, which allows you to outsource your online marketing to service providers. You’ll only pay such providers per conversion and after the prospective client has made a purchase. The service providers do all the marketing including the landing pages and banner placement. The upside of this strategy is that it has no upfront costs.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is perhaps the oldest digital marketing strategy and you can reach out to your consumers through email product notifications, thank you emails, confirmation emails, or the creation of newsletter campaigns. It’s an ideal way of getting more business online and reaching out to your returning customers.

Viral Marketing

A viral marketing campaign works when you create content that is highly engaging because it’s either humorous, highly informative, or memorable. This content is often shared across various online platforms and promoted to spread to a wide audience within a very short time.

Additional digital marketing services that can help you in getting more business online:

Apart from the highlighted digital marketing services, you’ll also need additional online services such as web hosting and review management for effective online marketing. There are numerous web hosting solutions for your site. You can choose paid, free, dedicated, or shared hosting. These options can be confusing and hiring a digital marketer to provide hosting services and management can save you lots of trouble.

Additionally, it’s essential to respond to online consumer reviews as a way of getting more business online because it’s an integral part of enhancing your online presence. Negative reviews can taint your brand and reputation. If you have no sufficient expertise or time to make appropriate responses and manage all your consumer feedback, then you should hire an expert to manage your consumer reviews and make appropriate responses.

When marketing online, one of the successful strategies to use is audience segmentation. It is a process of classifying potential customers based on the characteristics that define them. For instance, you can choose to group them based on age, parental status, or buying behavior. You can also segment them using location, social background, and many other details. Experienced salespeople know that creating and identifying unique customer profiles is essential to cultivating a successful sales funnel.

It easier to sell to segmented customers than to a general audience, a fact confirmed by the latest trends in marketing. For example, large marketing firms are assigning workers duties that require them to focus on particular types of customers.

Here are the main benefits of audience segmentation.

It’s a more effective digital marketing strategy

When marketing online, you need to know how to craft your message for the audience. You will notice that every group of clients is unique, and so you can attend to their needs better. Besides that, the process of developing these customer profiles will help you better understand your customers in the first place. You will know who they are and why they want to connect to your brand. Because of that, you will know how to craft marketing messages that appeal to them. The latest SEO research shows that 92% of online consumer traffic goes to businesses that appear at the top of search results. However, once those visitors reach your website, do you know how to convince them to pick up the phone or make a purchase? Breaking down your audience into distinct segments will help you move customers through your sales funnel effectively.

Unique experiences for customers

In a digital company, you can connect better with your customers when you work with small groups. You will understand their unique needs and the solutions that they expect. To make it even better, you will know how they perceive your company and therefore makes it easy for you to develop unique experiences for them. If you want to give your customers a one-of-a-kind experience, segmentation is the way to go. The strategy will even help you understand how to personalize your products.

Take advantage of modern analytics

There’s one major advantage to marketing online — the vast amounts of data available to you. In Google Ads and Facebook’s advertising platform, you can target potential customers based on age, sex, location, income, relationship status, and interests. On top of that, analytics tools give you incredible insight into the consumers who interact with your company online, whether via your website or social media. By using this analytics data, you can refine your marketing strategies to better appeal to your ideal customers.

Useful for marketers on a budget

You may want to launch a marketing campaign, but you do not have a massive budget for television commercials. Fortunately, marketing online is incredibly cost effective compared to traditional forms of print, TV, and radio advertising. Plus, once you’ve identified your market segment, you can show your ads only to these customers, focusing on likely customers with laser-like precision. You will notice that with smaller groups, you can stretch every dollar. It makes it possible to maximize your online marketing ROI even on a tight budget.

Another reason why you are likely to get more ROI with this strategy is the reduced workload. It is exhausting when dealing with a massive audience, which is why many marketers find themselves stretched too thin. However, if you can ensure that your ads only show to your most likely customers, you can conserve your resources for the leads most likely to convert into long-time customers.

It is now evident that segmentation has a lot of benefits. Every marketer looks for the most effective way to do their work, and this strategy gives them exciting new tools. When marketing online using customer profiles, you can achieve a higher ROI and better customer relations. If that sounds like something you would be interested in, then it’s time to start developing customer profiles and distinct market segments. When marketing online, it’s the best way to ensure a positive ROI.

More and more businesses are taking advantage of the reach, convenience, and versatility of digital marketing. Since 94% of online traffic goes through Google, and businesses that appear on the first page of Google search results get a monster share of potential business: 92%, tools like Google and social media networking sites are great for businesses that use them right.

The digital age has forever altered the way consumers shop for everything, including real estate. The following are some of the ways digital marketing companies can help a realtor or firm find, draw, and hang on to new business in the digital real estate sector.

Web Design and Branding

Very few businesses in the western world are without some kind of a website; not nearly as many are taking full advantage of their online space by having a digital marketing agency design and maintain it. This innovative approach can significantly help not only your website but your company as a whole/

A good website will include a blog that is paired with social media accounts. The social media accounts distribute the blog and the blog lands potential customers on the website. But there’s more to it than that: without appropriate and effective branding that immediately identifies your firm and what it’s about in the community, many visits and click-throughs to your website are remote.

A professional and experienced digital marketing agency can help you construct a cycle that leaves your brand in the minds of visitors and in their memories when they’re done kicking tires and are ready to see properties in the real world. If you’re hoping to boost your digital presence, it’s important to consult with trustworthy, professional, successful, and successful marketing strategies. If your online space and the cycle that draws traffic to it are not saying this about your real estate firm, you are not taking full advantage of your digital marketing. It starts with branding, and branding starts with your website.

Social Media Management and Strategy

Social media is a vital part of the cycle referred to above. It reaches potential home buyers in their online communities, who frequently are connected to their physical communities. Potential home buyers will find your content among content that they’re already predisposed to engage with and that is relevant to them.

Often, the cycle will even work without the website visits and click-throughs: many users engage businesses and online merchants exclusively through their social media channels.

Of course, it’s not enough to simply have a social media account: they have to be current, active, and strategic. A digital marketing agency can help you design and maintain a social media strategy that enhances your firm’s visibility, appeal, and reach.

Content and Search Engine Optimization

Once your business has a website that quickly and clearly identifies you, your strengths, and your values — and you have effective social media designed to drive traffic back to your online space or to remain engaged within social media — what next?

Content is anything you post to social media or build into your website. It’s your “About” page, your “Contact” page, the images of new properties that you post or share, the news you post, the events you create, and the blog posts you write. That content has to educate, engage, and entice. It must be targeted, relevant, and clear. And, most importantly, it must appear high in search engine results when tactical and predetermined words are searched for: it must be optimized for search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of preparing content to rank high in search results. A professional digital marketing agency will have experienced content creators working hand-in-hand with experts in SEO to make sure that your firm is ranking high in search yields and drawing readers to content that will keep them engaged.

A Digital Marketing Agency

It can be easy to fall behind in the digital age, as things develop and become obsolete so quickly. But for realtors and real estate agencies. the versatility, convenience, and reach make it absolutely necessary to keep up. Contact a digital marketing agency today and learn more about how to maximize your digital marketing.

If you own a business today you most certainly have gotten a call or email from “someone like me”. According to us, there are several areas of your online marketing that need work! Let’s be honest they probably do, but what needs to be done and do you need someone else to do the work for you? The good news is that you can do it all yourself, but it’s a lot of work so let’s go over our methods used here at Bunn Brands.

Reputation or Review Management

In our opinion, one of the best places to start is Review Management (sometimes called Reputation Management). Of course, as a business, you want quick result and Review Management will provide results in the first month. Managing reviews can be a lot easier with an automated system, which we offer, but you may very well manage these accounts manually. We’ve put together a list of things to do when managing your reviews:

  1. Know where people are reviewing you and gain access to those accounts. (i.e. Google, Yelp, Yellowpages, etc…)
  2. Respond to positive reviews with a “Thanks!” style message, but make it personable.
  3. Respond to negative reviews with apologies, regrets, and attempts to make amends. Remember you’re the “good guy” in this situation!
  4. Saturate your marketing with easy access to reviews. Ask clients to review you by email, text, in person, through QR codes, or even in your email signature.
  5. Show your reviews on your website and other marketing efforts. Reviews are online versions of word-of-mouth and that is often referred to as “the best form of marketing”.

Website Design and Optimization

Secondly, we recommend taking a good look at your website. How does your website compare in overall design to your competitors? How well does it compare to your favorite websites? Of course, appearance is not everything, but it is the first impression many will get. In order to sum everything up nicely, we’ve compiled a list of questions and concerns involving your website to reveal what may need work.

  1. Does your design stand up well against other modern designs that exist today?
  2. Does your site have Google Analytics setup to analyze your traffic?
  3. Are there clear goals (i.e. Buying Items, Contact Forms, Opt-Ins) built throughout your website to drive action?
  4. Is your website properly setup for Search Engine Optimization?
  5. Is your website kept up-to-date? Is all information correct and do all forms work?

Social Media and Pay Per Click Marketing

Here at Bunn Brands we always recommend that Social Media be handled internally at a business. There are various ways to achieve this, but generally, one or more people are designated Social Media Managers. These managers are responsible for everyday posting and engagement with customers on your various Social Media platforms. Having a brand presence online is very important for our next step.

Social Media ads and Google Ads are treated quite similarly at Bunn Brands (with obvious differenced in messaging). Both services are designed to get viewers to click the ad presented. There are various types of ads, which we will dive into on another post, but the basic concepts are the same. Below are some key points and questions to answer when creating your Pay Per Click Campaigns.

  1. If sending someone to a website page from the ad does the page content match the shown content in the ad?
  2. Are your ads properly targeting those interested in purchasing or taking action with you?
  3. Do you have a budget and are you over or under spending that budget?
  4. Are you testing and tracking multiple ads to see what is working better?
  5. Are you adjusting your click costs according to gathered analytics?
  6. Are tracking goals setup properly to see how well ads are converting?

Search Engine Optimization

SEO can be a confusing term for some people. We believe that is due to its confusing nature and the way in which it is explained. Simply put, SEO is a group of services used to increase your websites search engine ranking for specific keywords or keyphrases. The “secret” behind SEO is not really a secret at all. Other things factor in, such as backlinks, but the core of everything is developing continuous, deliberate and targeted content.

Search Engine Optimization is a long-term and on-going process that can evolve and grow as needed. Providing useful and targeted content involves plenty of research and skills in writing. That being said, it is something that you can definitely work on yourself. Below are some tips, questions, and tools you can utilize to get going on your SEO journey.

  1. Is your website optimized for SEO? Does each page have meta-data and do all images have descriptions, titles, and alt tags?
  2. Does each page have a “focus keyword” or “focus keyphrase”? You can research search engine results for highly searched terms with the Google Keyword Planner.
  3. Does the content of each page use the focus keyword throughout and give quality information about its subject?
  4. Are you writing blogs and setting them up with proper meta-data?
  5. Are you linking internally to different pages of your website?
  6. Are you linking externally to other websites?
  7. Is anyone linking to your blogs or website pages?
  8. Is your information correct across directories? (i.e. Google MyBusiness, Yellow Pages, Yelp, Etc…)

Conclusion

Digital Marketing can be quite a handful, which is why professional companies, such as us, exist. However, that does not mean it’s impossible to do yourself. The key factors we suggest you focus on are Review Management, Website Design & Optimization, Social Media Presence & Pay Per Click Marketing, and Search Engine Optimization. Don’t worry if you can’t answer every question and don’t know exactly how to deal with some of these things. Stay tuned as we continue and deep dive into each subject to help you understand even more!

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If you’re looking to become a Web Designer then one of the first things you’re going to have to put together is your Web Stack, which simply put is the set of software or code you will be using to build your websites. There are tons of options out there and there are pros and cons of every single one of them.

Understanding your Web Stack and being familiar with all of its components is key in becoming a Web Designer. As you use these various software or code you’ll get more and more familiar making your life easier and allowing you to design much faster. This means you can pick up more clients!

Website Platforms

There are various website platforms available for use, so take your time and see about testing quite a few out before you decide. I’ve heard of Wix Website Designers all the way to Magento or WordPress Web Designers. I don’t believe there is any shame in using any platform as long as you work as a professional and do a good job. Some popular platforms are:

Aside from these builders you also have the option of using just raw code if that’s what you enjoy and you are efficient enough at it to do so. I’ll leave frameworks and coding stacks for another post, but there are some popular ones we can discuss. If you don’t already know HTML and CSS no matter what you want to do that’s where you need to start.

Themes

Quite a few of these platforms have various themes attached to them. Some of these themes are pretty broad like DIVI or Beaver Builder for WordPress. Those specifically are ‘themes’ that turn WordPress into a sort of “website builder” making it much more efficient to design websites in WordPress. Both of these have various “child themes” that are designs using those specific builders. There are various subscriptions for things like this.

Aside from WordPress I know there are built in themes for other platforms included in the platform. You can also pay for themes and that is quite a lucrative business (designing themes). Keep this in mind as you decide on what all is going to be included in your Web Stack. You’ll find yourself diving deeper and deeper into your Web Stack and building out a list of themes you can take apart for the sake of building your own sites.

Plugins & Addons

Each platform is going to have various plugins, add-ons, and methods of dealing with various parts of your website. There are SEO plugins, form builder plugins, payment plugins, e-commerce solution plugins, and much much more. Actually there are way too many out there for me to even go over, but know that you will most likely have to find various tools that you use.

Some of the ones I use for WordPress are Gravity Forms, Yoast, Podbean, WooCommerce, and Askimet. There are a few more i’ll go into detail with in a later post I just wanted to throw in a few that I use often. If you have any to suggest be sure to throw it down in the comments so I can take a look. I’ve also used quite a few with Magento, but that’s not one of my favored platforms to use.

Consistency

Obviously your Web Stack will grow, change, and get better as you move along, but consistency is key. I say this because the more consistently you use your stack the better you will get with it and the faster you will be able to work. This is important especially if you’re doing all parts of your business (sales, design, billing, paperwork, contracts, etc…). As you can see from that short list there is quite a bit more to being a web designer than just knowing how to design.

I’ll be breaking down my opinion on various platforms in future blogs, but for now know that I am a pretty big fan of WordPress and Shopify in general. I have designed on Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Joomla, GoDaddy builder, and Magento in the past just so you know a bit about my experience. I’m sure I’m missing a few things in there and not to mention the various frameworks of code I have used.

This was a post for those completely new to the subject of Web Design so I hope you got some use out of it and better understand what a Web Stack is and what all goes into setting one up for yourself. Theres not much more I can say other than get out there and play with these things! You need to see what works for you and what you enjoy using because you’ll be using it a lot if this is something you truly want to do. Until next time, stay classy and be safe.

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