Over the last 10 years, Internet marketing has changed dramatically. Initially, pay per click was a great option for every type of small business owner. The clicks were affordable, with some niches costing only 1 to 5 cents per click. Those days are long gone, and even on Google’s Display Network today, you can’t get 5 cent clicks anymore.
If you have a real business, you need a website. Not just any website. It has to be responsive AND mobile. It must have a layout that is built to tell the every customer how you want them to interact and take action exactly so you can capture a lead or make a sale.
On-Page SEO is The First Step
Once you hire a professional web design company who can show you their work and results for other clients, make sure they have a great in-house SEO expert. The top companies actually have the web developer and SEO work hand-in-hand from the beginning of every project.
This collaboration of great minds means the client’s site will convert and rank well on Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other major search engines. After the site goes live with at least 15 pages of unique content, there must be at least 5-10 additional pages of content added every single month.
Fresh Content Ranks
Google rewards fresh content. As recently as June 17, 2015, Google reported another algorithm update and stated it was not related to Panda, Penguin or the SSL certificates on a site (https://). When reviewing the top sites online in multiple niches, it was shown that websites with the freshest content saw a lift in rankings and search visibility.
How Do I Make New Content Valuable?
Don’t just write content and do nothing with it after posting it to the website. Millions do just that, and that’s where they are dropping the revenue ball—big time. Share it!
Sure, social media is time consuming. Ten years ago business owners said they didn’t need a website and they are out of business now. So saying social isn’t important is repeating history and insanity. Everyone NEEDS to do social media. It’s not optional anymore.
Where Do I Start?
We recommend setting up the following social media accounts, which are all free.
- Google My Business (local page with your physical address)
- Google + will tie into your GMB account above.
- Google + BRAND page for anyone who wants to build their brand nationwide.
- Facebook (open a personal account, then build your business “Fan page” off that account)
- Yelp (Optimized well with at least 5 reviews is a great start for any local business)
- Twitter (Follow and Retweet others in your field)
There are more, but these are essential and will bring in more business. Start posting images, links to articles on your site; and build a following by following, liking, adding to circles, re-tweeting and keep adding valuable information customers will want to share. It makes a HUGE difference and costs nothing but time.
Proper Social Website Placement
After testing various layouts on websites, we have found the best placement for social media widgets is in the upper, right-hand corner of the header area for a website. These widgets are the first thing a customer sees, and adding your Yelp widget first (when you have at least five great reviews) and G+ widget last works best.
Make sure every blog post has the share buttons at the top of each area, too. Many sites have side navigation that includes their company’s share buttons.
We’re going to share two of our clients’ sites, so you can see actual examples of social media placement widgets that help conversions. The use of Crazy Egg Heat Map software showed us how valuable these widgets were and will be for your business, too.
Heatmap Software Shows User Intent
Dr. Hauser, a general and cosmetic dentist specialist in Lake Elsinore has done very well with our custom site, ongoing content, Facebook and Google+ posts and social widgets on their site. We actually added the Yelp widget after our client had more reviews.
This heatmap image shows where visitors to Dr. Hauser’s site click:
A law firm client, The Law Offices of Grant Bettencourt in Orange, CA, has two Yelp locations; so we added both to his site. You can see we’ve placed them in the same position as our other client, and because he has so many five-star reviews, he receives a lot of business from Yelp.
Yet, when people are searching for a criminal defense lawyer on Google, they go to the website and still click on those social widgets for “social proof.” Then, they either pick up the phone or fill out the form for a consultation on his site.
Take these steps and start turning your business around with the best website and latest social media practices. You will find the time invested is well worth the results!