In parts one and two of this multi-part blog series, we’ve been looking at all the relevant factors for business owners or online marketing pros choosing whether to keep SEO services in-house or outsource them. There are benefits to both these approaches depending on your needs and the circumstances of your business, but knowing the ins and outs of each is important as you decide.
At SEO Werkz, we’re proud to offer the best SEO agency services you’ll find on the market, with services ranging from local optimization to link-building plus related areas like PPC, web design and others. In today’s final entry in our series, we’ll go over some of the themes and questions you should be looking into when choosing which type of SEO pro to invest in.
Like with any other service you’re paying for on the market, one of your top considerations should be the cost and what you get for the money you’re spending. SEO costs can vary incredibly widely depending on your business size and needs, plus the goals you have for your online presence.
Generally speaking, there will be four pricing methods available within the realm of SEO outsourcing: Hourly work, project-based jobs, monthly retainers or specific SEO packages (most common among agencies like ours). Individual SEO consultants often charge hourly; packages are usually most popular because they give you the best idea of what you’re getting.
Some general services to ask about while investigating your optimal partner:
One big red flag to be extremely wary of during your search for SEO pros: Any freelancer or agency who says they can “guarantee†particular results or sales could be trying to take advantage of you. This is a constantly-evolving industry where even the top professionals can never be 100% sure of results – we have a great understanding of algorithms and how to best position you for success, plus how to avoid penalties and get results over time. But we will not promise any particular benchmark, and neither will other top pros.
Another area that’s generally a no-no within the SEO world, for similar reasons, is a contract where you pay an SEO professional only based on the results they generate. While certain freelancers may offer such options to try and generate business, we don’t recommend going this route – SEO results can take time to show up in many cases, and are absolutely a long-term investment. You need SEO pros who can be flexible with their strategies, and this means trusting their judgement and expertise to some level.
For more on choosing to outsource SEO versus keeping it in-house, or for more on any of our SEO, PPC or other services, speak to the staff at SEO Werkz today.
Google has announced it’s bringing back the business description field within Google My Business listings, an important development for online marketing pros. This return, which is already in testing, allows up to 750 characters rather than the crazy 4,500 that were part of the last iteration (the first was just 200, so they’ve been all over the place).
Whatever the reasons are for Google going back to this service, it means marketing pros need to consider how to optimize their business description moving forward. Here are some tips we can offer on areas to avoid here.
Keywords are not part of the ranking algorithm used in this update, and there’s simply no point in taking the time to stuff keywords. Not only are you wasting your time if you do so, you’re risking being flagged for spam – this can happen automatically through Google’s bots. This kind of behavior is a quick way to get penalties from Google, so why do it if you aren’t even seeing potential benefits?
In earlier days of internet marketing, having some links within standard copy was okay – it might help send clients to areas of their website you want them on, and could help with conversion.
This is no longer the case, unfortunately. Google is stating directly in their guidelines that putting links in copy will not be allowed – you might be able to sneak some URLs into your descriptions, but there’s no need for this either.
There are cases where pages that use caps too often will see the listing suspended, and you don’t want to risk this. Like with keyword stuffing, this is a category that has very little upside along with lots of risk – using lots of caps really isn’t going to benefit you in any tangible way. We aren’t yet sure what kind of style options will be available for these descriptions, but it’s likely things like bullet points, bold or italics won’t be possible.
With this in mind, you should really be thinking of using the description field as the most important information about your business – assume this is your only chance to sell a potential customer on your brand.
For more on the description field in Google My Business, or to learn about any of our other SEO services, contact the experts at SEO Werkz today.
If you’ve ever worked with SEO professionals or have taken part in the field yourself, chances are you’ve heard the term “site migration†quite often. This is a basic and common event that can have a major effect on your site’s visibility to search engines.
At SEO Werkz, our SEO services include helping with everything relating to site migrations. Here are some basics on what this means, some common types, and some examples for you to consider.
Site migration is a broad term that describes anytime a website makes major changes in areas that will affect search engine visibility. These changes may include things like structure, content, coding, performance or UX.
It’s important to note that your own research is vital here – Google’s own documentation on site migration is limited and tends to downplay the degree to which they can result in losses in traffic or revenue. You have to have a successful recovery plan in place with a site migration, which is part of what our pros are here to help with.
There are a few types of site migrations out there. The first is site location changes, which can be organized by those that involve URL changes and those that don’t. Site move migration types include:
There are also a few other types of migration that can be triggered by changes to content, structure, design or platform:
For more on-site migrations, or to learn about any of our SEO services, speak to the internet marketing pros at SEO Werkz today.
Within certain corners of the online marketing world, site migration has a bad reputation. Many in this world mistakenly believe that all site migrations, even the best ones, will result in significant losses to traffic and revenues – this simply isn’t the case.
That’s not to say that all site migrations will go without any loss; if you don’t take the proper steps, you absolutely will see these kinds of drops. Here we’ll go over why this doesn’t have to be the case for your website, plus some examples of good and bad migrations.
If you’ve been involved with a site migration, it’s likely you’ve heard this myth. While it’s true in some very specific cases, there are absolutely ways to avoid it in the majority of situations. You can migrate without losing traffic or revenue, and many of the best site migrations actually end with significant growth right after a re-launch. It just takes the right planning and execution.
Recently, a large retailer went about a site migration all wrong and lost 35 percent of its visibility in just two weeks due to a switch from HTTP to HTTPS. It took the company six months to recover, with a huge impact on revenue due to organic search.
That’s not even the worst of it, though – this recovery won’t be possible for all companies. Another big retailer made this same switch recently, but it resulted in a permanent visibility loss of nearly 20 percent. Our next section will go over the goals you have to prioritize to avoid this happening to you.
A successful site migration will depend on the type, the objectives, and the key performance indicators. That said, there are two primary characteristics that indicate a successful migration:
How to accomplish these will vary, but there are a few basics to know. Try to never include too many changes at the same time – if a single area goes wrong, it’ll be tough to pinpoint this area. On the flip side, don’t delay too long on major changes, as this will require more resources and might be more complex.
No matter what, make sure you have a good idea of the migration types available to you and the reason why many fail. This is one of the many services the pros at an SEO company like SEO Werkz can offer – call us today to learn more about this or any of our other high-level SEO services.
In a few of our recent posts here, we’ve discussed some of the basics of site migrations. Within the world of SEO and internet marketing, site migrations are both incredibly common and hugely important.
These events, which describe changes in any area that affects search engine optimization, can be done sub-optimally if you don’t have the right SEO team in your side – and this can lead to a massive disaster for the site in question. Here is part one of our two-part blog on common migration mistakes to avoid if you’re undergoing one.
Likely the single most common reason for a failed site migration is a strategy that was in line to fail from the very beginning. Just like other areas of online marketing, site migrations should come with realistic expectations for the move – plus ways to measure these expectations and determine if they were met. If your migration is lacking either of these elements from a broad standpoint or is unrealistic about them, the migration is in trouble.
In many cases, the biggest mistake here is simply not being detailed enough. A site migration requires this kind of granular attention to every little thing, and you should be aware that nearly all migrations come with small bumps in the road here or there.
As such, your planning needs to be both detailed and flexible. Try not to plan a big migration for major seasonal peaks, as these will be busy times that require attention elsewhere.
Most managers in this realm know to consider a site migration from an SEO standpoint, but are you considering the UX standpoint also? User experience is absolutely vital for your brand, and certain SEO areas might damage it if done incorrectly – or vice versa. Make sure you have consultants who understand both sides here.
A big part of the planning for a site migration involves dedicating the proper resources to the project. This comes with being realistic about your objectives, as we noted above. If you’re dealing with a limited budget, you may want to consider whether the migration is even worth the likely issues it may cause. If possible, be liberal in your budgeting – try to keep at least 20 percent beyond what you think the project will cost, just to be safe.
For more on-site migrations, or to learn about any part of our internet marketing program, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.
We’ve been talking a lot in this space recently about site migrations, an essential area of internet marketing across numerous industries. This process, which involves any major site changes that might impact SEO, is highly detailed and requires careful planning to execute properly.
Broadly speaking, what are the steps you’ll follow during this process? Here are the basics.
As we’ve noted in previous blogs, planning is all about setting realistic objectives. You’ll create a project plan that includes every element and individual involved in the process, including making stakeholders aware of all the tasks and their timelines. This process also involves tabbing project managers who are detailed, focused and up to this specific task.
Pre-launch prep is the largest single area of the process, with dozens of different areas to be covered while developing the new site. You should already know your SEO requirements, and you should be working with designers and information architects. You’ll prepare everything from technical SEO specifications to priority pages, redirecting, mapping and image files, among many other areas.
From here, you want to get to the testing phase as soon as possible. Not all parts of the site need to be fully implemented to begin testing – our pros can help show you which ones are most vital here. The earlier you’re able to get into testing and identify prominent issues, the better your chances are of removing these before launch.
On launch day itself, first, be prepared that the new live site will be temporarily down. Most downtime periods here are short, but this is a basic reality here.
Once the site is live, check things like robots.txt files, top pages redirects, canonical tags, server responses and noindex/nofollow directives. Also consider search console actions, such as uploading XML sitemaps and dealing with potential duplicate content problems.
From here, it’s time to begin even more testing. There will once again be numerous areas here that our pros can help walk you through.
One of the biggest questions within a site migration is how long it will take to know the success of the move. In reality, the answer here is that you learn more and more as more time goes on – the first few weeks are likely to have a lot of volatility, so don’t get too upset or elated over any results during that period. Smaller sites may begin to show realistic results within 4-6 weeks, while larger sites generally have to wait at least a couple months before taking the results too seriously.
For more on-site migrations, or to learn about any of our SEO services, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.
Recently in this space, we discussed some of the major pitfalls that can come with a site migration that isn’t done properly. A site migration is a detailed and involved process, and you need an SEO consultant that has been through it before and can guide you through it.
With that in mind, here’s part two of our blog on the kinds of errors online marketing pros should be looking out for as they consider site migrations of all types.
Most site migrations take months from the original planning stages to the full recovery and scale. If you start too late or seek help from a consultant too far in, you could have already missed several of the most important steps of the process – many of which are at the beginning.
One such area is testing before the eventual launch date of your new site comes around. This is a process that often picks up major issues with the new site before it launches, which is far more preferable than having to pull the site down or rush a fix once it’s already up. As we noted in part one of this blog, the site needs to be tested before the launch date – both by SEO and user experience teams with great attention to detail and proper implementation.
In many cases, the people at the top of a business – shareholders, stakeholders, and CEOs – don’t understand SEO and UX completely, and don’t realize how involved a site migration really is. They often demand unrealistic timelines or plans, but they often simply don’t get how badly even just a few days with a buggy site can impact organic search recovery efforts months into the future. Consultants and project managers have to be convincing and firm with executives and other big-picture folks when it comes to migrations.
All site migrations, even the best-planned ones, will come with some bugs here or there. The name of the game here is how you address and prioritize them – some are more meaningful than others, for instance, and a trained eye can spot these for you. If you respond too slowly to the inevitable bugs in your re-launch, you’ll often inflict massive damage on the new site that it could take months or even years to recover from.
For more on avoiding big mistakes in site migration, or to learn about any of our SEO services, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.
Google’s Chrome browser recently ramped up website security, so unless you keep your site current with industry encryption standards, it could hurt your standing in the search engine rankings.
Specifically, Chrome has begun flagging sites as “Not Secure†if they haven’t upgraded to HTTPS protocol. Not only do search engines penalize you for not having these protocols in place, but your prospects and customers are more likely to avoid your site due to security concerns.
The World Wide Web uses a set of rules known as HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) to transfer information over the internet. For example, if you click on a hyperlink, HTTP dictates that you will be taken to the URL associated with that link.
HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secured) is the same thing, but includes the addition of a Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) to protect transferred data. HTTPS uses a three-layer protocol, which delivers three specific types of protection:
To put it more simply, this layer of security protection indicates to anyone visiting your site — namely your customers and prospects — that you have taken the steps necessary to protect them from anyone who might want to track their activity, steal their sensitive data or infect their computer with malware.
Having a secure website isn’t just important for your potential visitors — it’s also becoming increasingly important to the search engines. Because Google ultimately puts the needs and well-being of its users first, its algorithm offers some perks to sites using HTTPS protocol.
Google began favoring HTTPS sites over their less-secure counterparts in 2014. However, the weight given to this ranking signal was originally slight, especially as compared to other critical ranking factors such as good content, backlinking and on-page optimization.
Over time, Google gradually increased the weight of this ranking factor, making the HTTPS site element increasingly more important for indexing.
Recently, Google’s Chrome browser began clearly marking all non-HTTPS sites “Not Secure.â€
This means that, when a potential site visitor attempts to access your site from Chrome, they will see this warning prominently displayed in the browser’s address bar. In reality, this cautionary notice doesn’t mean that your site has been compromised, only that you haven’t yet added SSL protection. However, potential users — most of whom are justifiably obsessed with keeping their computers and personal information safe — are likely to move on to one of your competitors who has implemented HTTPS, especially if they don’t really understand what the warning means.
In fact, e-commerce cart abandonment and visitor bounce rate are both highly influenced by whether visitors can determine that your site is secure and trustworthy.
As of mid-2018, only about one-third of all websites have adopted the HTTPS protocol. However, that number is growing rapidly, particularly among the internet’s most high-profile sites. In fact, although only 33.5 percent of all sites use HTTPS, more than 80 percent of the top 1,000 websites have adopted the extra layer of security.
So if you want to protect your search engine rankings and inspire trust in your customers and prospects, it may be time to seriously consider upgrading your site — especially since it’s relatively simple and affordable.
You can protect your site and its visitors — and provide your prospects and customers with the confidence they need to give you their business — by adding encryption to your site. And because your site’s search engine rankings will likely depend on having encryption eventually, it makes good sense to handle this task sooner rather than later.
To accomplish this, you must purchase an SSL certificate from a certificate authority (CA), typically your hosting company, and install it on your site. Next, you must perform a variety of site updates and modify all necessary settings.
You can check out Google’s instructions on how to update your website to HTTPS. However, these instructions may confuse even tech-savvy individuals. For a quick and easy HTTPS upgrade, your digital marketing specialist can handle the process for you.
SEO Werkz offers HTTPS upgrades to our clients as part of our comprehensive SEO and internet marketing services. Contact us today if you would like to learn more about how we can help preserve your Google rankings and increase consumer confidence by giving your website this important security update.
Within the world of social media marketing, Twitter is becoming a more and more important tool. Any major branding effort that doesn’t involve Twitter is likely missing out on major demographics and growth areas, just like the one that doesn’t include a major site like Facebook.
If you’re a business just getting into the Twitter world, it may seem intimidating and foreign. Luckily, it’s actually very easy to navigate from a business standpoint – as long as you have the right strategic emphases. Here are some basic areas to consider as you’re getting started.
For starters, it’s time to create the account basics. Remember that your username, or “handle,†is the basic call sign the public uses to identify your business – hope your exact business name is available, but if it isn’t, make it something your followers can still identify easily.
In addition, look for a picture and bio information that properly captures your business. Remember that most people who view your profile will do so with no prior knowledge about what you do – as such, your bio should be able to explain your business in very simple terms. The picture should make you stand out, and for existing customers, it should be one they already recognize.
From here, it’s time to figure out who to follow. Accounts on your list should include other pros in the industry, friends of the business, other local businesses, colleagues, and in some cases even customers. Be sure to follow other businesses in your industry that are doing well to get a model for the kinds of tactics that work.
Early on, it’s great to send a welcome tweet that lets people know the account isn’t a bot. You can pin this tweet to the top of your profile for the first few weeks.
In addition, it’s time to let your overall network know you’re on Twitter. This includes people on your email list and other various contact lists, and there are simple email templates to invite them to follow you.
Twitter lists allow you to organize the accounts you follow into groups based on any factors you choose. This can be very valuable for marketers to keep contacts organized.
Saved searches are another way to organize content – this time by topic, rather than by the user. You can go back weeks or even months later to view a previous search.
A recent study showed that over 80 percent of all small business websites don’t have the proper linkage to their social media networks, including Twitter. Make sure you link your Twitter profile and your overall website to help organically build the following in both areas.
For more tips on starting up your business Twitter account, or to learn about any of our other SEO services, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.
As technology continues to advance, the world of online and digital marketing continues to change. One big area that’s making a huge impact on searches and the entire realm of search engine optimization? Voice search.
Mobile devices are already a huge area, making up over half of all online searches today – but voice queries have increased by over 30 percent, and experts expect over 50 percent of total searches to be done via voice command by the year 2020. Here is part one of our two-part blog on some of the basics of voice search, the numbers it accounts for, and the common ways people use it.
Every single day, roughly 3.5 billion searches are performed on Google. As we noted above, voice searches make up just under a third of this – if you’re in internet marketing or any area of SEO and haven’t begun considering this area, you’re missing out on a huge optimization area.
In many cases, voice search commands are used for basic information or to answer questions. Commands might include searching for nearby locations, or for information like directions, weather or other basic facts. As the technology expands, the ability of these searches will only increase.
A huge driver of voice searches on the market is the growing rise of virtual assistants, which make up a high percentage of the total voice searches made. The four primary virtual assistants on the market are Siri (Apple), Google Now (Google), Alexa (Amazon), and Cortana (Microsoft).
Apple started this area off by introducing Siri into iPhones, allowing for voice search and personal assistant services. These assistants have become more advanced as they’ve updated over the years, including those that merge between devices and can actively answer questions rather than just simply providing web pages or search results.
For more on why voice search is important for your SEO, or to learn about any of our SEO services, speak to the pros at SEO Werkz today.
