Finding the right marketing talent for your small business is crucial if you want to see continued growth and expansion in the future.  Yet, top marketing professionals don’t stay available for long, as according to LinkedIn, the best candidates are off the market within 10 days. In addition, it can be difficult for small businesses and startups to acquire top marketing talent on a limited budget.  For instance, most small to medium-sized businesses won’t have the funds to keep a top-tier marketing agency on retainer.  Does that mean you have to settle for subpar talent or rely ..read more

When Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were still at Stanford, they had an innovative idea for how search engines rank web pages.  In addition to ranking content based on relevancy, they also wanted to rank pages based on how many other websites linked to them. The idea was that the most high-quality, sought-after content on the internet would have a large number of links pointing to it due to its helpful, accurate information.  They would go on to develop the PageRank system, an algorithm that ranks pages based on how many high-quality backlinks they have – and it would pow ..read more

Search engine optimization is a staple of digital marketing, with 61% of marketers citing their SEO efforts as their #1 inbound marketing priority.  It’s easy to see why, as SEO ROI can be as high as 12x your original marketing spend.  As such, implementing an SEO strategy is a great way to generate more search traffic for your business or eCommerce store.  Yet, SEO is a complex process that requires in-depth keyword research, content creation, technical audits, link-building, and lots of competitor research.  You also need to keep a close eye on key metrics like search ran ..read more

Are you tasked with convincing your higher-ups to give you the green light (and funding) to implement an SEO strategy? If so, you may run into a snag.  While search engine optimization is a popular topic amongst digital marketers, it’s less understood by C-suite executives and stakeholders.  SEO tactics are undoubtedly effective, with 61% of B2B marketers reporting that SEO (and the organic traffic it generates) drive more leads than any other marketing channel.  Then there’s the fact that 70% of digital marketers claim SEO is more effective than PPC (pay-per-click) ads for gene ..read more

Outsourcing has been gaining popularity over the past few years. In fact, more than 44% of business owners now say that they are more likely to outsource than they were just five years ago.  Small businesses often outsource jobs like accounting, human resources, payroll, and many more projects to stay on budget.  Actually, freeing up resources to be able to focus on core businesses is the most widely cited reason for outsourcing.   The remaining article will explore how you can outsource blog writing if you should hire a ghostwriter, and everything else you need to know abo ..read more

There’s no doubt that SEO is one of the most effective digital marketing channels out there today.  The proof? Paid and organic search are the two most dominant sources of traffic online, with both accounting for 68% of trackable website traffic.  Beyond that, there’s a ton of value in securing a top-ranked spot on Google (#5 or above). That’s because the first 5 organic Google search results account for 67.6% of all clicks.  Yet, you likely already know this if you’ve implemented a successful SEO strategy for your website.  You’re also likely aware of the fierce competitio ..read more

2022 has been an eventful year for SEO. Mobile-first indexing entered its final stages, Google revised its 20-year-old Webmaster Guidelines (renaming them Google Search Essentials), and E-A-T became E-E-A-T (the extra E stands for experience), among other things.  Yet, nothing has changed quite as much as the local search.  On Wednesday, September 28th, 2022, Google held its Google Search On 2022 event, where they announced the newest features coming to the platform – including many local search updates.  Changes include exciting user features such as being able to search for s ..read more

If you want to grow a significant online presence for your business, you can’t afford to ignore the power of Google and SEO (search engine optimization).  Google search accounts for more than 79% of desktop traffic. Their top competitor, Bing, only accounts for 7.27% – so it’s clear that Google is where you should focus a majority of your efforts if you want to boost traffic.  Yet, to get the most out of your keyword research, content creation, and other SEO efforts, you need top-tier analytical tools to measure your success and ensure you’re on the right track.  Luckily, Google ..read more

Is your real estate website not generating any organic traffic from Google? If so, you likely need a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in place, something that’s essential for any business in the modern age, regardless of industry.  For the real estate industry, consider that 97% of home buyers searched the internet for property in 2021.  That means realtors must have a robust online presence, including visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs).  You need to tweak your website and overall marketing strategy to dominate the search engine rankings.  That inclu ..read more

If you Google any major company right now (Amazon, Facebook, etc.), what’s known as a ‘knowledge panel’ will appear on the right-hand side of the search engine results page (SERP).  It will contain a brief paragraph describing who the company is and what they do, as well as  other important information. But why should you care about knowledge panels? Because they significantly affect SEO click-through rates.  Let’s say that one of your web pages has snagged the top organic position for a query. You’re ranked #1, which means you should enjoy an average click-through rate (CTR) of ..read more