Let’s face it – we wish we could dedicate as little as possible to something to learn it as quickly as possible.  This is why we are intrigued by software like ‘Rosetta Stone’, promising your fluency with a dedication of a mere 15 minutes a day for a few months.  Or websites like Lynda and CodeAcademy, ensuring our proficiency in coding in a matter of weeks.  Leave it to Market My Market to provide the same satisfaction in the form of mastering digital marketing!  SEO and SEM have evolved greatly over the years, and arguably the most in the past 12-18 months.  Yet some tips hold weight – possibly as long as a company attempts to market itself online. I’ve been doing SEO for about 5 years now. Here are my ‘5 SEO Tips I Learned in My First Year’:

  • Track Absolutely Everything – We discussed this in a previous blog entitled “Call Tracking:  Quite Possibly the Most Important Component of Your Marketing Campaign“.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to make sure you know where every single lead is coming from.  It is straight-forward logic:  if you don’t know which of your marketing campaigns is working, you won’t know which ones to cut off or which ones to put more money into.  Tracking is also evolving tremendously – we’ve worked with clients that like using websites like Kall8 to do their tracking numbers.  Some SEOs (including myself in some situations) are skeptical about throwing various numbers out there that are associated with your business name/address/overall NAP because of the Google Local implications.  In this case, other companies like https://calltrackingmetrics.com are capable of switching out the number on your site depending on where the visitor came from.
  • It Almost Never Pays to Half Ass Something- Getting tired of adding pages to your site, so the content is getting thin?  What about modifying your website stylesheet so it looks good on every screen resolution or browser?  Digital marketing and web design are fields that should be done correctly and comprehensively the first time around.  Once they are done right, they typically only have to be tweaked occasionally.  All it takes is some weak content and poorly fitted elements of your website to push someone from your site in a  matter of moments.  Sometimes setting aside a couple hours to write a few really, really good pages on your website will make a dramatic difference you otherwise would have underestimated.  The same goes for maybe a unique design on your website, or a few images you did yourself instead of got for free on a Google search.  You’d be surprised how receptive people are to engaging images they’re seeing truly for the first time.
  •  ‘Too Good to Be True’ Rings True All The Time-Got someone that will give you 10,000 links to your website for 5 dollars?  What about a new site for $200?  How about being on the front page within a matter of 3 weeks?  The digital marketing landscape is hard to grab a footing in, so there really isn’t any real easy way to make a statement with little time, effort, and investment.  If you decide something does look good, always go into it figuring it will supplement your current efforts, and by no means should be the core campaign you have your online success riding on.
  • There Are Literally Thousands of Avenues to Take, And Not Every One is Right Or Wrong-Two perfectly capable and qualified SEOs may have completely different strategies for the same company getting on their feet online.  One may say a combination of on-site optimization, blog networks, and white-hat link building is the key, while the other says advanced social strategy and supplemental display networks and contexual advertising is best.  Though it could depend on the industry, if either SEO is solid at what they do, there is no reason your company wouldn’t benefit from either.  What matters is if the work they are doing has substance, a focus on the right audience, is completely ethical, and has a focus on brand awareness, brand adoption, lead generation, and conversion in the appropriate manner.
  • Free is Good.  Really Good-There are directories out there that can generate leads at no cost (looking at your Yelp).  Google My Business can be the exposure you’ve been lacking.  Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools are great tools for knowing what’s going on with your site and how to improve it (and Google PageSpeed Insights which has been a lifesaver lately).    Social media has been stellar for many small businesses.  You don’t always have to pay to be everywhere.

I learned these pretty early on, so I will follow up with some other tips that takes years in the industry to truly see and synthesize in a meaningful way.  If you are struggling with grasping some SEO and SEM concepts your first year, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Market My Market dedicates itself to helping clients from multiple industries optimize their digital presence and generate success. Our team is well-versed in up-to-date SEO practices and can implement them on your behalf. Contact our office at (800) 954-9441 to learn more about our services and receive a free quote today!