Month: September 2015

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Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – Social Media Nightmare, Where Should I Be?

Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?
Confused about how to effectively promote your business on the Web?

You hate Facebook, but your customers are there. You just don’t get Twitter, isn’t that for teenagers? Too busy for LinkedIn? All these social media sites may seem like too much trouble for some business owners to get involved with, but did you know your competition is there and so are your future customers!

How do you demystify where you personally should spend your time and on what social media sites? It is easy, look at your demographics in Google Analytics.

If your customer/reader base is 18 to 29 to 30 years old or so, you’d better be on Twitter.

If your customer/reader base is 30 to 60 years old or so, you’d better be on Facebook.

If you are selling business to business, regardless of age, you’d better be on LinkedIn.

How do you find your own Google Analytics stats?

  1. Go to “Audience” in the left side navigation, then go to “Demographics” and then select “Age”.
  2. There you’ll be able to see your visitors from the last 30 days organized by age groups.
  3. Make sure that you check average session duration, pages per session, and bounce rate.
  4. Based on what you see for your own traffic then make a decision on where you should selectively be on social media.

Don’t feel that just because you may not be on social media that your business does not need to be there. Social media use is an excellent way to start building a community of readers loyal to your message.

Not sure where to start? At McCord Web Services, we make it easy for you. Check out our writing rates for social media with service options for frequency. You are sure to find something that fits your budget.

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SEO – Is It Worth the Trouble?

Google Partner Badge
McCord Web Services is one of the few Google Partners in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.

Is SEO or search engine optimization worth the time and trouble today? With Google seemingly to be changing all the rules and more competitors moving into your own marketing landscape, it may seem like a losing proposition, but… there are smart things you can do that DO payoff for placement.

What are the smart things that any small to medium sized business can do to improve organic search placement?

  1. Make sure you have unique content and work hard to make your website experience different from others in your vertical (business classification).
  2. Make sure you are blogging regularly – at least once a week. If you are not a good writer, invest in finding a firm that you can trust that will create great linkable and sharable content.
  3. Make sure you have unique Meta Title and Meta Description tags for all pages in your website.
  4. Claim and authenticate your website in the Google and Bing Search Consoles. You’ll get information that will help you do a better job and understand what Google and Bing think about your site so you can improve.
  5. Implement Google Analytics. You cannot improve your own website if you do not know how visitors are using it. Got a low bounce rate? Pat yourself on the back and find out what people seem to like about the page with in-page analytics. Don’t have many visitors? Get the truth and then drive traffic there with Google AdWords.
  6. Get a full SEO evaluation and roadmap on where you are and how to get to the next level personalized based on your own statistical information.

You can still succeed and garner search engine placement with optimization, but be smart and savvy about the tactics that are used. Don’t buy into link building, link farms, and guest blogging on off-topic sites. Think mainstream, great content, and excellent user experience.

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There’s Still a Need for the Personal Touch

Google Partner Badge
McCord Web Services is one of the few Google Partners in the Fredericksburg, Virginia area.

With our world being accessed from our fingertips via a smartphone, tablet or desktop, the personal touch has now become even more important than ever before.

Case in point, as I am new in the area and have tons of questions and issues with banking, moving my business, and other nagging details, it is great to find what I need online fast, but when I don’t… I want to talk to someone fast – not leave a message, get my answer now!

I am like every customer who comes to yours and my website. We want information, but when we want to talk to someone, we want the personal touch and we want it fast!

For me it is about staying connected. I am now using Google Voice as my business phone and am solely using my smartphone for business as I am immediately on with a prospect just about any time of day.

For clients in service areas like plumbing, pest control, and even lawyers this new customer-craved immediacy now translates into having a chat function on their website with real operators to take messages 24/7. It’s the personal touch but one that gives you as the business owner freedom so you are not working at all hours.

For smaller businesses, it is about being reachable by prospects who want to chat, schedule an appointment to chat further or to get a fast question answered.

If you need solutions to bring your website up to speed to take advantage of this new immediacy need contact us at McCord Web Services, we’re the Virginia Web Visibility Experts.

 

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Google My Business and Reviews

Image of a Google Maps exposure on Google.com.
Image of a Google My Business exposure on Google.com.

Yes I know, Google My Business is tied to a Google+ Page and no one seems to like Google+, but I have to say that there is a place for Google My Business and the reviews that are done there.

I recently moved to the Fredericksburg area which is in central Virginia. I need all new doctors, a new beauty salon, a new dentist – well new everything! How have I, an experience web marketer found new businesses to trade with and doctors to go to? From Google My Business!

As Google showcases Google My Business listings in the search results preferentially and returns them based on your own location, the results are catered to you personally. Click a result and you do not go to a website, but rather a larger map view with all local listings at the side and a plethora of reviews.

Which listings did I take time to review – those with reviews. Who did I not even bother to look at – anyone with no reviews or those with poor reviews and a low number of stars.

I never even went to any websites but the last two selections I made and then to only get the phone number and check out the faces of people who I would be trading with.

That’s the new way Google is forcing us to use their search engine. Clicking into a business website is secondary to getting the information you need fast right from Google AND this is where the Google My Business page is so important, as this is now the landing page before a client even gets to your website.

If you are smart and work the Google system, you will start now by setting up your Google My Business page and then aggressively working to add reviews to that page. Remember, Google is wanting people to stay on THEIR site to serve ads and to not even need to click into your website for information.

If you need savvy solutions to help with your website visibility visit us at McCordWeb.com – there’s no SEO “snake oil” here!