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This how-to guide goes through the use of AI tools for content, YouTube, local SEO, social posts, and reviews without sapping creativity or hurting rankings. The emphasis is on keeping human expertise at the center while letting AI handle structure, cleanup, and speed.

It is expected that by the end of the course, individuals will be able to:

What AI Is Good For-And Where It Trips People UpThere’s a difference between using AI as an assistant versus letting AI do the authoring. When the AI writes the entire page, it is normally safe but bland and forgettable. But when the humans retain control of the ideas and voice, and the AI helps to outline, polish and format, then the content remains original and useful.

Three tools complement most workflows:

• ChatGPT (paid): Reliable daily driver with strong iterative refinement and helpful features to save time.
• Claude: Naturally clear, concise, and excellent with long context and bullet-point structure.
• Gemini: Useful as an “answer engine” for synthesis and a second opinion.

None of these tools should be treated as authors. Think of them like paralegals—great at drafting, summarizing, and formatting—while the human expert delivers the argument.

Although there is a little more variation in placement now compared with the original line-up, most of the starting players have remained consistent.

The Transcript-First Workflow That Actually Saves TimeFor teams who have a hard time “sounding like themselves” in writing, a transcript-first workflow has resulted in authentic prose:

1. Speak first. Record a simple explanation of the concept as if you were teaching a client.
2. Transcribe it immediately. Using noise reduction and live transcription means there will be a transcript ready as soon as the recording ends.
3. Transcript-to-asset creation:
   • A YouTube description with a clear summary and timestamps.
   • A blog post drafted from the transcript, so the base language is genuinely original.
   • Show notes, email blurbs, and social captions.
4. Run a “reverse humanizer” pass. In place of adding flowery filler, remove it. Cut clichés (“in conclusion,” “moreover,” “delve into”), trim adverbs, and strip phrases no real person would say. The result preserves authentic voice and reduces AI “tells.”

Because the source is a human speaking naturally, detection tools generally grade the language as largely original, even when AI helps frame it.

Ensuring True OriginalityOriginality comes from ideas and examples, not just paraphrasing. If a page merely blends the top search results, it won’t rank or convert.

• Anchor to real expertise. Utilize actual cases, results, and city-specific information.
• Avoid AI tells. Watch out for generic transitions, perfectly symmetrical paragraphs, and fabricated quotes.
• Fact-check anomalies. AI can make up places, specifications, and statistics. Edit every output with a critical eye.

Introduction to Habits That Prevent SEO CannibalizationPoor prompting will create ten posts that compete for the same keyword. Good prompting places constraints on this and targets coverage, not duplication.

Example solution:

• Suggest non-overlapping topic ideas from what is currently active—this requires a list of topics or sites already covered.
• Include localization requirements, like having separate content tuned for Sugar Land and The Woodlands.
• Focus on search intent and zero-click scenarios, along with supporting topics of citations—Chamber, BBB, associations, and how they support E-E-A-T for local service companies.
• Structured output requested—table with title, target query, intent, notes—to create an editorial map.

This process delivers net-new topics aligned to specific local intents while building topical authority, as opposed to internal competition.

Building Local Authority the Boring, Effective WaySearch engines still respond to real-world trust signals:

• Citations from Chambers of Commerce, Better Business Bureau, and credible associations with steady NAP (Name, Address, Phone).
• Reviews, which for multi-location businesses are separated by location, then shown on the corresponding location page.
• Media mentions, talks and community involvement. Real-world presence informs online trust. The part everyone skips—showing up—remains the part algorithms reward.

A Brilliant Spanish Language ApproachA well-considered bilingual approach can unlock growth in markets with Spanish-speaking audiences.

• Create a dedicated /es/ site section for the search engines to recognize Spanish counterparts.
• Use human-reviewed translations for accuracy, tone, and local terms.
• Maintain parity on core service pages; add Spanish-first content for questions unique to the community.

This isn’t just about accessibility, it’s a real revenue stream if done right.

Where Search Console Fits (The Free Gold Mine)Before drafting new content, check Google Search Console:

• The “almost there” set includes queries in positions 6–15. Publish one supportive post for each query.
• Compare top pages vs. rising pages. Strengthen rising pages with internal links and an FAQ block answering the exact queries driving impressions.
• Use impression trends as a guide for new content. If you have a high-volume, local query with strong impressions, but weak average position, build topical clustering, and shore up local signals (reviews, citations, location pages).

AI can assist with outlining and drafting, but the data chooses the target.

YouTube + Blog: A High-Leverage Content EngineVideo forces clarity and doubles as a source for written content.

• Write a clean YouTube description with search-aligned keywords.
• Add timestamps, resources, and a brief summary.
• Expand those notes into a blog post—with real examples, screenshots, and step-by-step instructions—for readers who prefer text.

One recording becomes a video, a blog posting, an email, and multiple social posts—a repeatable system.

Using AI for Ads and Social Without Sounding RoboticAI can accelerate ad and social copy, especially when fatigue sets in. Two guardrails keep it natural:

1. Be specific about audience. For example, “Write five captions for homeowners in Kingwood comparing quotes for composite decking,” outperforms “Write five captions about decks.”
2. Ban clichés. Ban the use of words like “unleash,” “transform,” and “discover.” If it sounds like every other SaaS landing page, rewrite or remove it.

Claude excels at clean bulleting; ChatGPT is strong in iterative tone control (“less hype, more helpful”).

Authority Isn’t a Buzzword—It’s the ModelSearch engines and customers alike are trying to find what’s real. Consistent signals win:

• Time in market and proven track records.
• Demonstrated expertise—tutorials, screenshots, and process walk-throughs with results.
• Consistency over time, even with seasonal slowdowns.
• Network effects from chambers, associations, and community presence.

Knowledge panels, speaking invites, and organic mentions tend to follow an established offline reputation supported by a coherent online footprint.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid* Publishing 100% AI-created pages and expecting durable rankings or conversions. * Copying unverified “facts.” Even one wrong price or address erodes trust. * Displaying fake reviews or “as seen in” logos. This all backfires and can be easily exposed. * Creating “summaries of the top results” as if that equates to expertise. It doesn’t—and seldom ranks.

A One-Week Action Plan Day 1: Record a 10-minute explainer of the most-asked customer question. Transcribe it. * Day 2: Convert the transcript into a YouTube description and a 900–1,200-word blog post. Eliminate fluff. Insert local examples. * Day 3: Open Search Console. Select three queries at positions 6–15. Add a short FAQ to the new post, making sure to answer those very questions. * Day 4: Request two reviews from recent clients. Publish them to the correct location pages. * Day 5: Using AI, draft five social posts to promote the blog and video that are cliché-free, value-forward. * Day 6: Identify ten citation opportunities (Chamber, associations, high-quality directories). Start submissions with consistent NAP everywhere. * Day 7: If applicable, scope an /es/* version of the top two service pages with human-reviewed translation.

Repeat this cycle weekly. It’s not glamorous—but it compounds.

ConclusionAI is leverage. Used carelessly, it produces generic content that blends into the background. Used deliberately, it speeds up research, drafting, and formatting while preserving human voice and experience. The winning approach looks like this:

1. Record it. Speak naturally to capture authentic language and expertise.
2. Transcribe it. Get usable text fast.
3. Humanize it (by trimming fluff). Keep the voice; lose the filler.
4. Publish it. Turn one talk into multiple assets.
5. Verify with data. Let Search Console guide the next steps.

Do this over the course of a year, and a website’s topical depth and authority signals will increase, along with local visibility, without ever sounding robotic.

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[powerplay]For years, SEO professionals and website owners have been playing a guessing game with Google’s algorithm. We’ve analyzed rankings, tested theories, and tried to reverse-engineer what the search giant actually wants from our websites. But what if I told you that Google has actually been telling us exactly what they want all along—we just haven’t been looking in the right place?

Thanks to leaked internal documents and Google’s own AI tools, we now have unprecedented insight into the actual ranking factors that determine your website’s success. This isn’t speculation or theory—this is direct intelligence from Google’s own systems about what really matters for SEO in 2025.

The Whistleblower Documents That Changed EverythingAbout a year ago, a whistleblower released internal Google documents that outlined the company’s true ranking strategy. These weren’t marketing materials or public statements—these were the actual internal guidelines that Google uses to evaluate websites. The revelation was stunning: many of the things Google has publicly denied caring about are actually among their most important ranking factors.

Think of it like getting the secret recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken’s 11 herbs and spices, except instead of chicken seasoning, we’re talking about the ingredients that make websites rank on the world’s most important search engine.

Google’s Hidden Content Grading Tool: Vertex AIPerhaps the most shocking discovery is that Google has made their content evaluation system partially available to the public through Vertex AI. This tool, accessible through Google Cloud, will analyze any webpage and provide detailed feedback on what Google wants to see for better rankings.

When you input a webpage URL and tell Vertex AI to “evaluate this text,” something remarkable happens. The system provides a comprehensive breakdown of:

• Core keywords the page should target
• Long-tail keyword opportunities
• Competitor analysis recommendations
• Technical SEO requirements
• Content structure suggestions

This isn’t a third-party tool making educated guesses—this is Google’s own language model telling you exactly what their algorithm is looking for.

The Great Keyword DeceptionFor years, Google has insisted that keywords don’t matter anymore. SEO experts have been told to focus on “user intent” and “semantic search” rather than specific keyword targeting. The leaked documents and Vertex AI analysis reveal this to be one of the biggest head fakes in digital marketing history.

When you analyze a webpage about Italy tours using Google’s own tool, it immediately provides a list of essential keywords: “Italy tours,” “Italy travel packages,” “Italy vacations,” “luxury tours,” and “custom tours.” Cross-reference these suggestions with keyword research tools, and you’ll find they correspond to search terms with thousands of monthly searches.

The pattern is clear: Google not only still uses keywords but considers them fundamental to understanding what your page is about. If you’re talking about Italy tours but your content starts discussing Zimbabwe vacations or moon rocket rides, Google’s algorithm gets confused and essentially throws your page out of consideration.

The Critical Importance of Website HierarchyOne of the most actionable insights from Google’s internal guidance is the emphasis on clear, logical website hierarchy. This goes far beyond having a simple navigation menu—Google wants to see a sophisticated taxonomical structure that demonstrates expertise and comprehensive coverage of your topic.

Most websites fail this test miserably. They have generic navigation items like “Home,” “About,” “Services,” and “Contact.” But Google’s algorithm is looking for something much more detailed and specific.

For example, a dental practice shouldn’t just have a “Services” page. They should have distinct category pages for:

• General Dentistry (with subcategories for cleanings, fillings, extractions)
• Cosmetic Dentistry (with subcategories for whitening, veneers, smile makeovers)
• Laser Dentistry (with specific procedures and benefits)

Each category page should then link to relevant subcategory pages, creating what SEO professionals call “silos”—organized content clusters that help Google understand the relationship between different topics on your site.

The Portfolio of Poor SEO: What Not to DoThe presenter shared examples of websites that look visually appealing but fail completely from an SEO perspective. These sites typically have:

• Minimal navigation structures
• Vague service descriptions
• Generic page titles like “Learn More”
• No clear hierarchy or content organization

One particularly telling example was an event planning website that listed services like “designed by Jenny” without any indication of what Jenny actually designs. From Google’s perspective, this could mean anything from wedding dresses to coffins—the algorithm has no way to understand the business’s actual focus.

The Internal Linking RevolutionGoogle’s leaked documents reveal that internal linking strategy is far more important than most website owners realize. It’s not enough to simply link between pages—the anchor text and context of those links send crucial signals to Google about what each page is actually about.

When you link from a page about “local SEO” to another page using the anchor text “search engine optimization,” you’re telling Google that the destination page is related to SEO topics. But if you link from a page about buying shoes to a page about local SEO, Google gets confused about the topical relevance.

This is why successful websites create content silos where related pages link to each other using relevant anchor text, creating a web of topical authority that Google can easily understand and reward.

Technical SEO: The Foundation That Can’t Be IgnoredThe Google documents also emphasize technical SEO elements that many business owners overlook:

• Title tags and H1 headers that accurately describe page content
• URL structure that reflects the site’s hierarchy
• Image file names that are descriptive rather than generic (avoid “image123.jpg”)
• Mobile optimization and fast page loading speeds
• Schema markup and structured data

These aren’t nice-to-have features—they’re fundamental requirements for ranking in 2025.

The User Engagement Signal RevolutionPerhaps the most significant revelation is that Google tracks user engagement signals much more extensively than previously known. The algorithm monitors:

• How long visitors stay on your pages
• Whether they bounce back to search results immediately
• How they interact with your content
• Whether they engage with embedded media

This explains why smart website owners are now embedding videos, podcasts, and interactive elements at the top of their pages. The moment someone starts playing a video or audio file, it registers as meaningful engagement with Google’s algorithm.

Quality Backlinks: The Ranking Factor That Never DiedDespite years of Google downplaying the importance of backlinks, the leaked documents reveal that link building remains one of the most crucial ranking factors. Google essentially maintained an internal PageRank system even after removing the public toolbar that displayed these scores.

The algorithm still heavily weights:

• The number of quality websites linking to your content
• The authority and relevance of those linking domains
• The context and anchor text of those links

The AI Revolution: Becoming Source MaterialAn unexpected benefit of following Google’s internal guidelines is that well-structured websites are becoming source material for AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. When your site has proper hierarchy, clear categories, and comprehensive content coverage, AI systems identify it as an authoritative source.

This creates a new traffic channel beyond traditional Google search. Businesses are now receiving leads from people who found them through AI-powered searches rather than conventional search engine results.

Practical Implementation: Your Next StepsBased on these revelations, here’s what every website owner should do immediately:

1. Audit your site structure using Google’s Vertex AI tool to understand what the algorithm sees
2. Create a comprehensive hierarchy with detailed category and subcategory pages
3. Optimize your internal linking to create clear topical silos
4. Implement engagement elements like videos and podcasts to increase time on page
5. Focus on technical SEO fundamentals including proper title tags, URLs, and page speed
6. Develop a strategic approach to earning quality backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites

The Competitive AdvantageThe most exciting aspect of these revelations is that most businesses haven’t implemented these strategies yet. While your competitors are still guessing about what Google wants, you now have access to the actual playbook.

The businesses that act on this intelligence quickly will have a significant advantage in search rankings, user engagement, and even AI-driven traffic sources. This isn’t just about SEO anymore—it’s about positioning your website as an authoritative source that both search engines and AI systems recognize and recommend.

The age of guessing what Google wants is over. The question now is: will you use this knowledge to transform your website’s performance, or will you continue playing the old guessing game while your smarter competitors leave you behind?

FAQIs it okay to use AI to generate content for my website?No. we strongly advises against using AI to write full web content because AI tools aggregate and rephrase existing information, making the content unoriginal. However, AI can be used to edit and improve human-written content.

What is Vertex AI, and how can I use it for SEO?Vertex AI is Google’s machine learning platform, and it can be used to evaluate your website’s content. When prompted correctly (e.g., “Evaluate this text”), it will analyze your site and suggest improvements, including keyword recommendations.

Do keywords still matter for SEO in 2025?Yes—absolutely. Despite past statements by Google downplaying them, keywords are still a foundational part of SEO. Tools like Vertex AI confirm that Google uses keywords to assess relevance.

How can I find the best keywords to target for my website?ou can:

• Use Vertex AI to analyze your page and get keyword suggestions
• Use plugins like Keywords Everywhere to check search volumes
• Use Claude AI to study what keywords competitors are using successfully

Why is website hierarchy important for SEO?A clear, logical site structure helps both users and search engines navigate your content. Google prefers websites that are organized by categories and subcategories, with internal linking between related pages.

How should I plan the structure of my website?Start on paper. Sketch out your site’s main categories and their subtopics, like an outline. This makes it easier to:

• Visualize your site hierarchy
• Spot missing content
• Stay focused on SEO strategy

Can Vertex AI help fix a website that’s not ranking well?Yes. By evaluating your site with Vertex AI, you can get actionable insights into what’s missing or misaligned. It can show you where to adjust content, structure, and keywords.

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As a small business owner, we all understand the plight of too much to do, not enough hours in a day and how we can cover more ground in less time. So enter AI. As alluring as it is and as helpful as it can be, when it comes to a website design and SEO, it can be toxic to your sites overall health if its not leveraged properly. So, before you let an AI tool write your next blog post or launch your entire website, let’s take a moment to pause and ask: Is this actually helping your business—or hurting it?

I had the opporutnity to break it all down for business owenrs, explaining how AI can be a powerful ally in your digital marketing strategy—if you know how to use it wisely.

How to Use AI the Right Way in Your Digital Marketing StrategyArtificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way we approach digital marketing, but for many small business owners, it’s a confusing and often overwhelming space. With countless tools and conflicting advice, it’s easy to fall into traps that could actually harm your online presence rather than help it.

In the attached video, Beth Guide of Vertical Web offers some much-needed clarity. She provides small business owners with practical, experience-based strategies to integrate AI into their marketing efforts without losing authenticity, search visibility, or customer trust.

Here’s what you need to know about using AI effectively and ethically in your digital marketing strategy.

The Big Misunderstanding: Google and AI ContentOne of the first misconceptions Beth addresses is that AI-generated content is a shortcut to better SEO. It’s not.

In fact, Google does not favor AI-written content—especially if it lacks originality. AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude scrape and summarize existing content across the internet. When you use these tools to create blog posts without adding your own voice or ideas, you’re essentially recycling what’s already out there. Google sees this as “thin content” that adds no value to users.

“Google wants content that makes the internet a better place,” Beth says. That means original, insightful, and experience-based material—something only you can provide.

You Are the Expert—AI is Just the AssistantBeth emphasizes that small business owners need to recognize their own value. If you run a business, chances are you’re an expert in your industry. That expert knowledge is what sets your content apart.

AI should not be your ghostwriter—it should be your brainstorming partner. It can help organize your thoughts, generate ideas, or even identify topics you might not have considered. But the core ideas must come from you.

“Be the source that others quote,” Beth advises. “Don’t be the one quoting others.”

How Do You Effectively Use AI in Your Content Marketing StrategyAI can be incredibly useful if you know how to use it correctly. We talked through how to be effective and some of the steps you can use to use AI to support your efforts but not replace you or your knowlegde. AI is about saving time, not just to repeat what someone else has said.

1. Start with Keyword ResearchUse AI to generate a list of relevant keywords for your business. Tools like ChatGPT or Claude can help, but you must be specific in your prompts. For example, instead of asking “What are good HOA management keywords?”, ask “What are people searching when they want to hire a homeowners association management company?”

This level of specificity matters—vague prompts will lead to vague answers.

1. Generate Content Topics from KeywordsOnce you have a list of keywords, ask the AI to generate blog topics based on them. This can help you build a content calendar and eliminate writer’s block.

2. Write Content Based on Your ExpertiseUse your own experiences and unique perspective to flesh out each topic. You can ask AI to help organize sections, identify talking points, or summarize research—but you need to provide the core message and tone.

Don’t ask AI to write the blog post for you. Instead, use it to structure and support what you want to say.

How Can You Use Video to Supercharge Your Content Creation Strategy?Not a writer? No problem. Beth suggests an alternative content creation method that works just as well—and sometimes even better: video.

Here’s how she recommends doing it:

1. Record Yourself Talking
   Use your phone or Zoom to record a video of yourself explaining a topic you know well. For example, if you’re an HOA manager, explain the importance of a reserve study or how to engage with residents effectively.
2. Transcribe the Video
   Use tools like YouTube, Otter.ai, or Zoom to get a written transcript of the video.
3. Feed the Transcript to AI for Summarization
   Ask the AI to summarize the transcript. This summary will serve as the foundation for a blog post, which you can then revise and personalize further.
4. Repurpose the Content
   From one video, you can create:
   • A blog post (from the AI summary and your edits)
   • A podcast (by extracting the audio)
   • A YouTube upload (the original video)
5. Combine All Formats on One Page
   Create a single web page that includes the blog post, video, and audio. This allows you to cater to different types of learners:
   • Readers (written blog)
   • Watchers (video)
   • Listeners (podcast)

Platform Matters: Skip the ShortcutsBeth also warns against relying on drag-and-drop platforms like Wix, Weebly, or Squarespace, especially if you’re serious about SEO. While these tools may offer convenience and AI-powered site builders, they often fall short in terms of performance, customization, and long-term growth.

Even WordPress, which is more SEO-friendly, now offers AI content features that may tempt users to shortcut the writing process. Don’t fall into that trap.

“If your website doesn’t offer anything unique, there’s no reason for Google—or your customers—to engage with it.”

Avoiding Common AI MistakesBeth highlights a few common missteps to avoid when using AI:

• Poor Prompting: The quality of your prompt directly impacts the quality of the AI’s output. Be specific.
• Overloading a Chat Thread: If the AI starts giving unrelated or confusing answers, start a new chat. Past context can distort future results.
• Blind Copy/Paste: Never copy and paste AI-generated content directly to your site. It lacks your voice and could harm your rankings.
• Thinking AI is Smarter Than You: It’s not. AI doesn’t know your audience or your business better than you do. Use it as a tool, not a replacement.

Build Value, Not Just ContentAt the end of the day, AI should help you bring your expertise to life online. Whether you’re creating blog posts, videos, or podcasts, your voice and originality are what will make your business stand out.

“If you’re not making the internet a better place, Google doesn’t want your content.”

So yes, leverage AI—but do it with intention, with creativity, and with a clear sense of what makes your business unique. Remember, AI is a tool—not a replacement. When used wisely, it can help you generate ideas, save time, and structure your thoughts. But it can’t replace your experience, your personality, or your expertise. So next time you sit down to create content, remember: Let AI support your voice—not speak for you.

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As digital marketing continues to evolve, artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool for website development and SEO optimization. In today’s video, we talk about how AI can streamline website creation, support SEO strategies, and save time on content generation.

WordPress: The Foundation for SEO SuccessBefore diving into AI applications, we need to establish a fundamental point: platform choice matters significantly for SEO success. While many businesses are tempted by the simplicity of platforms like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, or Shopify, these options often fall short of gaining solid SERPs.

“I’m very much about how we get traffic for people,” Beth explained, highlighting that WordPress (specifically wordpress.org, not wordpress.com) remains the superior choice for businesses serious about their online presence. This is particularly important for e-commerce sites, where Beth recommends WooCommerce over Shopify for better SEO performance. And although Shopify can be mofidified to perform, it us usually cost prohibitive to do so.

AI-Assisted Website DevelopmentOne of the most impressive demonstrations showed how AI can dramatically accelerate the website creation process. Using WordPress with the Astra theme and Spectra page builder, Beth demonstrated a near-complete dentist website built in roughly 20 minutes.

The process followed these steps:

1. Install WordPress with the Astra theme
2. Add Spectra as the page builder
3. Use the AI Builder feature to define the business type (dentist)
4. Provide a business description (generated through Claude AI)
5. Select images and design preferences
6. Let the AI generate the website framework

This approach doesn’t eliminate the need for customization but creates a solid foundation that would typically take hours to build manually. As Beth notes, this is particularly valuable for those who find WordPress intimidating but need a professional-looking site with good SEO potential.

Determining Website Structure with AIPerhaps the most valuable application of AI demonstrated was using it to determine optimal website structure and content strategy. Beth showed how asking Claude AI targeted questions about specific business types yields comprehensive outlines of recommended pages and services.

For example, when asked what pages a dentist in Kingwood should include for SEO purposes, Claude generated a detailed list including:

• Homepage
• About Us
• Services page (with specific dental services)
• Patient information
• Before and after gallery
• Testimonials
• Blog
• Contact information and map

The AI didn’t stop there – it provided a breakdown of specific services that should be featured, essentially creating a content roadmap for the entire site. This same approach worked for other business types, including commercial real estate and translation services, demonstrating its versatility.

The Critical Role of Keyword ValidationWhile Beth showcased AI’s power, she repeatedly emphasized a crucial point: “AI is thought-provoking, not thought-replacing.” This became particularly evident when examining keyword suggestions.

Using the “Keywords Everywhere” tool (a Chrome extension that shows monthly search volumes), Beth demonstrated how some AI-suggested terms have zero monthly searches, making them ineffective SEO targets. For instance, while Claude might suggest “property acquisition and sales” for a commercial real estate website, keyword research revealed that potential clients actually search for “buy commercial real estate” (10,000 monthly searches) or “sell commercial real estate” (1,600 monthly searches).

This validation process is essential for transforming AI suggestions into effective SEO strategy. As Beth explained, “I don’t want to see you go down an AI road and just give the AI answer just because it’s giving you the answer… It’s not smarter than you are.”

Creating Content Depth Through Page HierarchyOne particularly valuable insight involved using AI-generated service lists to create content depth. Rather than simply listing services on a single page, Beth recommended creating:

1. A main services overview page listing all offerings
2. Individual pages for each service category
3. Specific pages for sub-services within each category

This approach creates natural keyword targeting opportunities while providing the content depth that search engines reward. For the dentist example, this strategy could generate 24+ pages of relevant content without straining for topics.

Practical Application for Different BusinessesTo demonstrate the versatility of this approach, Beth applied the same methodology to a translation and interpreting business. The AI immediately identified:

• Core service categories (certified translations, business translations, technical translations, website/software localization)
• Interpretation services (consecutive, simultaneous, phone/video)
• Industry-specific translation needs (oil and gas, healthcare, legal)
• Priority languages for the Houston market (Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, French)

This real-world example showed how even business owners knowledgeable about their services can gain valuable insights about market demands and content organization through AI prompting.

Best Practices for AI IntegrationThroughout the workshop, several best practices emerged for effectively integrating AI into website development and SEO:

1. Use AI for framework generation: Let AI create the initial structure and content outline to save time.
2. Verify keyword relevance: Always check AI-suggested terms against actual search data.
3. Apply human expertise: Refine AI suggestions based on your industry knowledge and business goals.
4. Create content depth: Use AI-generated outlines to develop comprehensive content hierarchies.
5. Be conversational with AI: Using polite, clear prompts tends to yield better results from AI tools.

The Future of AI in Digital Marketing AI’s potential for website development and SEO is still evolving. The key is finding the right balance between AI efficiency and human expertise.

The most successful implementation is using AI to handle repetitive, time-consuming tasks while applying human judgment to strategic decisions. This approach allows business owners to focus on what they do best while leveraging technology to enhance their digital presence.

For those looking to integrate AI into their website development and SEO strategy, Beth’s approach provides a practical framework: use AI to generate ideas and structure, validate with keyword research, apply industry knowledge to refine, and build content depth through strategic page hierarchy.

By following these principles, businesses of all sizes can harness the power of AI to improve their digital presence without sacrificing the personal expertise that makes their business unique.

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Maximizing Website ROI with Google Analytics 4: Essential Insights for Business OwnersIn today’s digital landscape, having a website is the first step but should not be the last step. Understanding how that website performs and contributes to your business goals is what separates successful online ventures from those that struggle to gain traction. At Vertical Web, we frequently encounter business owners who have invested thousands in web design, SEO services, or SEM campaigns but have no idea whether that investment generates returns. This week’s Internet Marketing Clinic focused on implementing Google Analytics 4 (GA4) correctly and using it to determine your website’s true ROI.

The Foundation: Choosing the Right PlatformBefore diving into analytics, we need to address a critical decision that affects everything else: your website platform. While builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify offer convenience, they often limit your ability to optimize for search engines and implement proper tracking.

WordPress remains our recommended solution for most businesses. Despite what some may perceive as a steeper learning curve, WordPress provides:

• Superior customization options
• Better search engine visibility
• More robust analytics implementation
• Greater control over your digital assets

As we often say at our clinics, “You can’t fix what you can’t measure,” and many website builders simply don’t allow for proper measurement.

Setting Up Google Analytics 4 CorrectlyGoogle Analytics 4 represents a significant shift from previous versions, focusing more on user journeys and engagement rather than simple pageviews. Proper setup involves two critical components:

1. Google Analytics 4 code – This needs to be added to your website header
2. Google Tag Manager – No longer optional, this must be implemented alongside GA4

The Site Kit plugin, made by Google, significantly simplifies this process for WordPress users. However, it’s essential to verify that both components are working correctly after installation. Many businesses we’ve worked with had Analytics installed but were missing Tag Manager, resulting in incomplete data collection.

Understanding Engagement Metrics vs. Vanity MetricsOne of the most powerful insights from GA4 is the distinction between engaged users and total users. In our clinic, we demonstrated this using Vertical Web’s own analytics data:

According to our metrics, approximately half of our traffic consisted of engaged users—those who visited multiple pages during their session. This engagement metric has become increasingly important for two reasons:

1. Google’s ranking algorithms now prioritize sites that keep users engaged
2. Engaged users are significantly more likely to convert into customers

When we analyze client websites, we often find they’re focused on total traffic numbers (a vanity metric) rather than engagement metrics (actionable data). A website with 1,000 monthly visitors and a 5% engagement rate is performing worse than one with 500 visitors and a 20% engagement rate.

The Value of Search Console InsightsAnother invaluable tool we demonstrated was Google Search Console, which reveals exactly which search queries bring visitors to your site. Using Vertical Web as an example, we analyzed search impressions and clicks for various keywords:

• “Web development services” generated 7,000 impressions
• “Unlimited web hosting” showed 3,879 impressions with click-throughs despite being ranked 30th

This data provides actionable intelligence about what potential customers are searching for and where you have opportunities to improve your visibility. It helps answer crucial questions like:

• Which keywords are actually bringing in business?
• Where are we visible but not getting clicks?
• What content should we create to capture more relevant traffic?

Tracking Actual Conversions, Not Just TrafficThe most significant insight from our clinic was the importance of tracking conversions—the actions that translate into actual business revenue.

For e-commerce sites, this is relatively straightforward: you can track purchases and their value. For service businesses, tracking becomes more nuanced, focusing on:

• Form submissions
• Phone calls (using call tracking)
• Chat interactions
• PDF downloads
• Time spent on key pages

During our session, we shared a revealing anecdote about a business that discovered 90% of their conversions came from a single keyword (“web hosting”) despite spreading their efforts across dozens of terms. This insight allowed them to reallocate resources more effectively and significantly increase their ROI.

The Direct Traffic AdvantageAn often-overlooked metric is direct traffic—users who type your URL directly or have bookmarked your site. In our analytics review, we found that direct traffic often indicates:

• Brand recognition and strength
• Repeat customers
• Word-of-mouth referrals

While organic search traffic typically represents new potential customers, direct traffic often indicates existing relationships. Both are valuable, but direct traffic is usually more likely to convert and costs less to acquire. Building a business that generates substantial direct traffic takes time but creates a significant competitive advantage.

As we demonstrated with Vertical Web’s own metrics, a substantial portion of our new business comes from direct traffic—people who know us by reputation or referral—which has taken years to develop but now provides a steady stream of qualified leads.

Evaluating Web DesignersOne of the most practical segments of our clinic focused on how to evaluate web designers and SEO professionals before hiring them. The simple approach: ask to see websites they’ve worked on, then examine:

• Do title tags include relevant keywords (not just “Services” or generic terms)?
• Is the content naturally written for humans while still being SEO-friendly?
• Does the site structure make logical sense for both users and search engines?

Many business owners come to us after spending thousands on websites that were built without SEO considerations, requiring complete rebuilds. By examining a designer’s past work through this lens, you can avoid this costly mistake.

The ROI Bottom LineAt the end of the day, website ROI comes down to a simple calculation:

ROI = (Revenue Generated – Cost of Website) / Cost of Website

The challenge lies in tracking that first number accurately. By implementing GA4 properly and focusing on the metrics that matter, you can:

1. Identify which keywords and content drive actual business
2. Understand user journeys that lead to conversions
3. Allocate marketing resources more effectively
4. Measure improvements over time

Next Steps for Your BusinessIf you’re not currently tracking your website’s ROI effectively, here’s what we recommend:

1. Ensure both Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager are properly installed
2. Connect Google Search Console to your analytics
3. Set up conversion tracking for important actions (forms, calls, etc.)
4. Begin regularly reviewing engagement metrics rather than just total traffic
5. Test different approaches and measure their impact on actual conversions

At Vertical Web, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses transform their websites from expenses into revenue-generating assets through proper analytics implementation and data-driven optimization. The insights from this approach don’t just improve your website—they can reshape your entire marketing strategy.

Remember, the most beautiful website in the world is worthless if it doesn’t contribute to your bottom line. Start measuring what matters today.

Want to learn more about maximizing your website’s ROI? Join our weekly Internet Marketing Clinic every Wednesday at 1 PM. Subscribe to our channel to get notifications when we go live!

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Navigating the Future of SEO: Key Trends and Strategies for 2025The digital marketing landscape is perpetually evolving, with SEO at the forefront of this transformation. As we approach 2025, it becomes imperative for marketers and business owners to understand and adapt to the latest SEO trends to maintain and enhance their online visibility. This post delves into the significant shifts expected in the SEO realm, offering actionable strategies to help you stay ahead in a competitive digital world.

The Rising Impact of AI on SEOArtificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly influencing how search engines operate and how content is ranked. AI-driven algorithms are becoming more sophisticated in understanding and processing user queries, making it crucial for SEO strategies to align with these advancements. AI doesn’t just affect search outcomes; it’s also reshaping how SEO should be approached. For instance, AI can analyze user behavior, predict trends, and personalize content, making it essential for businesses to leverage AI in optimizing their SEO practices.

Diversifying Your Marketing to Go Beyond GoogleWhile Google remains the titan of search engines, new players like ChatGPT are emerging, challenging the status quo. These platforms are developing their own ecosystems and driving significant traffic to compliant websites. This shift underscores the necessity of optimizing content for multiple search platforms, not just Google. Ensuring that your SEO strategy is adaptable and broad enough to encompass these new platforms will be crucial in tapping into diverse traffic sources and expanding your digital footprint.

The Value of High-Quality Content – Content is STILL KingContent is king – a mantra that continues to hold true into 2025. The demand for high-quality, authoritative, and engaging content is higher than ever. Search engines are favoring content that provides real value to users, incorporating metrics that measure user engagement and satisfaction. This means businesses must focus on creating content that is not only informative and relevant but also tailored to meet the specific needs and interests of their target audience.

Link Building with a Focus on QualityThe significance of link building remains, but the focus has shifted towards the quality of links rather than sheer quantity. High-quality backlinks from reputable and relevant sources are critical in boosting a site’s authority and ranking. Effective link-building strategies now require a more thoughtful approach, where links from industry leaders, chambers of commerce, and influential publications can dramatically enhance your SEO performance.

Adapting to New Verification Processes for Local SEOSearch engines are placing a greater emphasis on authenticity and verification. Google, for example, has introduced video verification for business locations to ensure that listed businesses are legitimate and accurately represented. This move is likely to affect local SEO significantly, making compliance with these verification processes a critical factor in maintaining or improving search rankings.

Preparing for Technical SEO AdvancesAs search algorithms become more complex, the technical aspects of SEO cannot be ignored. This includes site architecture, mobile optimization, page speed, and structured data. Websites that quickly adapt to technical SEO requirements will perform better in search rankings. Ensuring that your website is technically optimized for both desktop and mobile users is more crucial than ever.

Leveraging SEO for Voice Search and IoTThe proliferation of voice-activated devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced new SEO challenges and opportunities. Optimizing for voice search requires understanding natural language queries and focusing on long-tail keywords. Additionally, as more devices become interconnected, there will be new avenues for optimizing content across different platforms and devices, further complicating the SEO landscape.

Sustainability and Ethical SEOAs consumers become more environmentally and ethically conscious, they expect the same from the brands they interact with online. Sustainable practices and ethical SEO strategies will become factors in brand preference and loyalty. This includes transparent marketing practices, sustainable digital operations, and ethical use of AI and data.

SEO Requires Continuous Learning and AdaptationSEO is not static; continuous learning and adaptation are required to stay relevant. The digital marketing field is fast-paced, with frequent updates to algorithms and best practices. Staying informed through credible SEO resources, ongoing training, and industry conferences will help you keep up with the latest trends and techniques.

Looking ahead to 2025, SEO is set to become more integrated with AI, more diversified across new search platforms, and more dependent on high-quality content and ethical practices. By understanding these trends and preparing with effective strategies, businesses can not only adapt to these changes but also thrive in the evolving digital landscape. Implementing these forward-thinking SEO strategies will ensure that your online presence is robust, resilient, and ready to meet the future head-on.

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Whether you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or digital marketer, understanding the fundamentals of SEO can help you gain visibility, attract leads, and grow your business.

What is SEO and Why is it Important?SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of improving a website’s visibility on search engines like Google. The goal is to rank higher in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find your business.

Why SEO Matters for Businesses Increases website traffic – Higher rankings lead to more clicks and visitors. * Generates quality leads – SEO attracts users actively searching for your products or services. * Builds credibility and trust – A well-optimized website enhances user experience and authority. * Cost-effective marketing* – Unlike paid ads, organic SEO provides long-term benefits with sustained effort.

If you’re relying solely on social media or paid ads, you’re missing out on a powerful organic traffic source that can continuously drive potential customers to your site. SEO has been around since the early 2000s. While the digital landscape has evolved, it fundamentally remains the same: helping search engines understand and rank websites based on relevance and quality.

How an Optimized Website Can Transform Your BusinessA well-optimized website is more than just an online brochure—it’s your best salesperson, working 24/7 to attract new leads and customers.

Case Study: The Power of SEOBeth Guide shared her personal experience with SEO:

• Before SEO, her company received 7 orders per week.
• After optimizing for search engines, that number jumped to 20-30 orders per day!
• Today, her business reaches 10,000+ customers on average.

This is an example of how ranking higher on Google can dramatically increase traffic, sales, but most importantly, business growth.

Choosing the Right Website Platform: WordPress.org vs. WordPress.comYour website platform plays a crucial role in SEO success. Beth strongly recommends using WordPress.org over WordPress.com.

Why WordPress.org is Better for SEO✅ Full Control – Unlike WordPress.com, which limits customization, WordPress.org allows complete website control.
✅ SEO-Friendly – Built-in tools and plugins (like Yoast SEO) make optimization easier.
✅ Scalability – Easily expand your website with new pages, features, and content.
✅ Better Performance – Faster loading speeds and better security for improved rankings.

Because you need maximum control, WordPress.org is the way to go. Vertical Web offers WordPress hosting plans that are prebuilt with the right tools that lead to SEO success.

The Importance of Content: Why Your Website Needs 100+ PagesMany businesses fail to rank because they don’t provide enough quality content for Google to take them seriously.

How Content Affects SEO* Google prioritizes websites with substantial, high-quality content. * A well-structured blog and service pages help establish authority. * More pages mean more opportunities to rank for different keywords.

Common SEO Mistakes That Hurt RankingsMany businesses struggle with SEO because they unknowingly make critical mistakes that prevent them from ranking higher.

Avoid These Costly SEO Mistakes🚫 Poor Website Structure – Confusing navigation and lack of internal linking can harm rankings.
🚫 Low-Quality Content – Thin or AI-generated content lacks value and engagement.
🚫 Ignoring Title Tags & Meta Descriptions – Missing or generic metadata reduces click-through rates.
🚫 Not Using H1s & Subheadings Properly – Headings help Google understand page structure and relevance.
🚫 Neglecting Local SEO – If you’re a local business, optimizing for local searches is crucial.

If you’re investing in SEO, make sure you’re doing it the right way to see actual results.

The Truth About AI & SEOWith the rise of AI-generated content, many wonder: Is AI good for SEO?

Google’s Stance on AI Content🔹 Google accepts AI-generated content IF it provides new and valuable insights.
🔹 However, repetitive or regurgitated content won’t rank well. Paraphrasing someone else’s work does not add to the betterment of the internet.
🔹 AI should be used as a tool for assistance, not a replacement for human-written content. Even this blog post you are reading is a summary of the video lecture I gave on this topic and is 100% unique. So, even though I used AI to generate this, it is a summary of my lecture.

Tip: Use AI to streamline research and outlines, but always add unique insights and expertise!

Does Google Ads Improve SEO Rankings?A common question is whether paying for Google Ads helps with organic rankings. I am one of the few people that has always said the two are intertwined. Although Google vehemently denies they are related, there has always been some benefit.

The Reality💰 Google claims ads don’t influence rankings, but…
📈 Higher click-through rates (CTR) from ads may indirectly help boost your website’s credibility.
💡 Focus on SEO first, and use Google Ads to supplement your organic efforts.

SEO is a long-term strategy, while ads provide short-term visibility. A combination of both can yield the best results.

How Much Does SEO Cost?SEO pricing varies based on competition, industry and location.

SEO Pricing Breakdown💲 Local SEO: Starts at $500/month for small businesses.
💲 Competitive Niches (Lawyers, Dentists): Can range from $5,000 – $8,000/month.
💲 Enterprise SEO: May exceed $20,000+/month for national rankings.

Cheap SEO services often cause more harm than good, leading to wasted money, poor results and possible long-term damage to the website or brand.

Keyword Research: The Foundation of SEO SuccessWithout the right keywords, your SEO efforts may fall flat. Remember to watch our Video on Keywords if you need more help on the topic

How to Find the Best Keywords🔹 Use tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs.
🔹 Focus on long-tail keywords (e.g., “best web designer in Houston”).
🔹 Look at competitor rankings and identify gaps.

Tip: Use a mix of high-volume and niche keywords for a balanced SEO strategy!

Building a Strong SEO Strategy TodaySEO is an ongoing process, but by following these best practices, you can increase rankings, drive traffic, and grow your business.

Key Takeaways✔ SEO is essential for long-term business success.
✔ WordPress.org is the best platform for SEO optimization.
✔ Content is king – Aim for 100+ pages of valuable information.
✔ Avoid common mistakes that can hurt rankings.
✔ AI is a helpful tool but shouldn’t replace human expertise.
✔ SEO is an investment – Choose a provider that knows what they’re doing.

Ready to improve your website’s SEO? Visit VerticalWeb.com for expert SEO services and training!

📢 Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more SEO insights! 🚀 And sign up for our Internet Marketing Clinic newsletter to receive our monthly class schedule and notifications of when we release new videos.

SEO #DigitalMarketing #BethGuide #VerticalWeb #SearchEngineOptimization #WordPressSEO #GoogleRanking #SmallBusinessSEO

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Keywords have been at the core of search engine optimization (SEO) since the early days of the Internet. Despite evolving algorithms, they remain crucial for ranking on Google. This guide explores the history, best practices, and strategies for using keywords effectively in 2024.

The Evolution of Keywords in SEOEarly Search Engines and Keyword UsageIn the late 1990s, search engines like Lycos, AltaVista, and AOL used simple Boolean searches. Web pages were ranked based on keyword frequency, leading to the rise of keyword stuffing. Websites repeated targeted phrases excessively, sometimes even hiding them in the background by matching the text color to the page’s background. These manipulative tactics initially worked but soon led to poor search results.

Google’s Algorithm ChangesAs search engines evolved, Google implemented more intelligent algorithms that penalized keyword stuffing and rewarded content with natural language and contextual relevance. Instead of focusing on exact matches, Google now looks for keyword variations and related terms to determine page relevance. Updates such as Google Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird refined how keywords were evaluated, emphasizing content quality over manipulation.

Understanding Modern Keyword OptimizationThe Role of Keywords TodayDespite algorithm changes, keywords remain essential. However, they must be used strategically with supporting context. Simply repeating a phrase like “Houston movers” is not enough—Google expects additional context, such as “packing services” or “moving company reviews.” Using a natural language approach that aligns with user intent is now the key to effective keyword optimization.

Finding the Right Keywords for Your WebsiteOne of the most crucial steps in SEO is identifying the right keywords for your content. A good exercise is to create a list of 50 relevant words related to your business and organize them into groups. This helps structure content efficiently and target multiple search queries.

Essential Keyword Research ToolsKeywords EverywhereThis browser extension helps users

keyword search volume, competition, and variations. It also helps them discover which terms are most valuable for ranking in search results. The tool provides real-time data, making keyword research accessible and efficient.Google Keyword PlannerGoogle’s free keyword tool offers insights into search volume, competition, and related search terms. It allows businesses to refine their keyword strategy based on search trends and user behavior.

Using Excel for Keyword ManagementOrganizing keywords in an Excel spreadsheet allows for better analysis and strategy development. Keywords should be grouped logically to improve content structuring. Website owners can tailor content by categorizing terms based on intent—informational, navigational, or transactional—accordingly.

On-Page Optimization for KeywordsKeyword Placement and DensityGoogle’s algorithm considers more than just keyword frequency. Proper header placement (H1 to H6), meta descriptions, and body text are critical. The ideal page length for ranking well is around 1,700 words, ensuring the content is comprehensive and informative.

The Importance of Related TermsGoogle assesses content using an interrelation of words. Instead of focusing solely on a single keyword, including related terms helps improve page relevance and search visibility. For example, a page targeting “home health care services” should also incorporate phrases like “senior home care,” “skilled nursing,” and “in-home medical care.”

Using Header Tags EffectivelyHeader tags (H1, H2, H3) should logically contain keywords and structure content. Breaking content into readable sections improves user experience and search engine crawling. Google prioritizes well-structured content with precise topic segmentation.

Standard SEO Mistakes to AvoidLack of Contact InformationWebsites without a phone number, address, or precise business details can appear less credible to users and search engines. Contact information signals legitimacy and improves local SEO rankings.

Using Overly Broad KeywordsTargeting general terms like “shoes” is ineffective due to high competition. Instead, focus on more specific keywords that reflect user intent, such as “best running shoes for flat feet.” This approach reduces competition and increases conversion rates.

Neglecting Content DepthThin content with insufficient keyword coverage fails to rank well. Each page should provide detailed information that comprehensively answers user queries. Adding FAQ sections, bullet points, and related topics enhances content value.

Content Strategy for Better RankingsWriting High-Quality, SEO-Friendly ContentA well-structured blog post or landing page should include keyword-rich headings, FAQs, and a natural writing style. Content should be informative and address user needs rather than simply inserting keywords. Google values pages that provide actual value over those that try to rank for specific phrases.

Crafting Keyword-Rich Blog PostsFor businesses like home health care services, an article titled “Essential Home Care for Seniors: Tips for Living Comfortably” can rank well by incorporating related keywords like “in-home nursing,” “senior care,” and “skilled nursing facilities.” Structuring content around commonly searched questions improves visibility and user engagement.

The Role of Internal LinkingInternal linking helps distribute page authority and improves site navigation. Linking to relevant blog posts or service pages enhances keyword relevance and keeps users engaged on the website longer. For example, linking a blog post about “home health care services” to a service page detailing in-home care offerings strengthens keyword associations.

Using Schema MarkupSchema markup provides additional context to search engines, helping pages appear in rich snippets. Adding structured data for services, reviews, and business details increases search visibility and click-through rates.

Keywords Remain ImportantKeywords are still fundamental in SEO, but their usage has evolved. To rank effectively in 2024, website owners must focus on keyword relevance, strategic placement, and high-quality content. Businesses can improve their search engine rankings and drive more organic traffic by utilizing keyword research tools, structuring content logically, and avoiding common mistakes. With a strong keyword strategy, SEO success is within reach.

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Unexpectedly, the SEO community was gifted a leak. Just as everyone was wringing their hands and lamenting SEO is dead (it’s not), here came a blueprint for SEOs.

I have just begun soaking in all the information contained in this document. By way of background, Rand Fiskin, founder of MOZ, was contacted about the Google API being accidentally uploaded. But as I read through this, in many ways, it’s not telling me things I didn’t already know, but I feel very vindicated because it backs a lot of what I think but could never prove.

From the Desk of an SEO Expert – A Look BackSo why should you trust my insights as an SEO Expert? The Google leak, in many ways, validates things I’ve been saying for years. I’ve always maintained that Google lies and misleads SEO companies, and this leak seems to confirm that. But let me define why I am an SEO expert so you can evaluate the podcast, video, and this post. I have 28 years of experience in SEO. My company was formed seven months before Google. Since my very first client, I have been navigating the ever-changing landscape of SERPs.

Back in those days, it was easy. How much keyword stuffing is needed? How many pop culture references can I add to my title tag? Or, best of all, I could type in the same color of the background and feed the search engine but not making apparent to the visitor. There were a lot of these ‘tricks’ back in the day. Do them now and do so at your peril. This is not a thing anymore and hasn’t been for many years.

Our SEO journey began when the search was still rudimentary before there were 14,000 data points. As the industry evolved, we adapted and built our knowledge. In a nutshell, we have been a part of every change Google has ever made, giving us a unique skill set and vantage point. While there are others like me, we are few and far between. Some, like Danny Sullivan, have even gone to work for Google. But others, like myself or Bill Hartzer, continue to fight the good (Google) fight in the trenches.

It’s all about the Algorithm. So What is the Google Algorithm Anyway?It all starts with the algorithm and the quest to understand it. The Google algorithm has always been as complex as it is simple. For those who don’t know for sure what an algorithm is, let me define it for you. An algorithm is a set of mathematical computations that solve a problem. In the case of Google, it’s the equivalent of a scoring system ‘grades’ web pages (and websites) and then putting them in numerical order, with the best page being listed in the first position. For years, I said there were 29,000 ‘things’ we had to know to get a page to work/rank within the Google algorithm. The number is 14,040. But what’s a few thousand data points between friends?

What we don’t know is the value of each of the items we are going to discuss below. What is the amount each item adds or subtracts from the score? Some may argue that predicting the outcome without those values is hard. But this is where the SEO expert part comes in. I believe I can tell with pretty good accuracy what is more important than other things. It is probably a companion piece I need to write that puts them in order and assigns the BG (Beth Guide) scale of Google Values to them.

So, what IS the Google Algorithm based on?

What have we learned from this Google data leak? Learned is subjective in this application. Me, I haven’t learned much. It’s all the stuff I already knew. For me, I used the word validated and vindicated. The first thing I’ve long said is that it is my opinion that Google lies to and tries to mislead SEO companies. I mean, why would they tell everyone how to game their system? It makes perfect sense. I have to say that I laugh when people tell me about the Google raters guidelines as if they are gospel. I have long said follow it to the letter and see how far you get.

Google Misdirection #1 – Page RankIt’s 2024, and I’m about to type the word Page Rank for those of you who have not been around for the last decade. When Google first arrived, it had a delimiter called page rank. It lived in the Google toolbar, and you could always see how Google ranked your website. From my SEO perspective, it was always time for a party when you increased page rank. How do you move up in page rank? Links links and more links. For several years now, coming out of Google links were no longer relevant. Surprise! They are still relevant. Color me shocked. At least up until the time of this leak, which is arguably as early as Sept 2023 and could be as late as March 2024, links are important. (10:34)

So what is a small business to do? Links really are important. Well, some of these things your business should be doing already. You should be participating in your community. You should be helping others. And you should learn how to identify situations that may gain you a link. There are other reasons to do this, and I’ll talk about branding and authorship in a minute. But for now, you have to learn how to identify an opportunity. (18:56)

Google Misdirection #2 – Chrome Data is Not Part of the AlgorithmEvery year, the expression is that there is nothing free in this life. As you know, everything about Google is accessible to the end user. Chrome and Gmail, to name a few. Why is that? Is Google possibly using that data to scrap and feed into their algorithm? Gmail helps with trends and what people are talking about. It’s not that it says anything specific about Gmail in the code anywhere. What it does say, however, is it talks about what is a good click and what is a bad click. I feel compelled to insert a pithy WOZ reference here, but I won’t. However, it could be argued that Glenda and Google sound somewhat similar.

Part of the page you are reading is one of the ways we send signals to Google. I don’t know if you are reading down this far or started watching the video but in either case you have had to be on this page for a while, making this into a good click. People stay on the pages associated with the Houston Internet Marketing Clinic Class. So, I am, in effect, sending a signal to Google. And I am not forcibly holding you back from the page, which is good.

Google Misdirection #3 – What is Spam Anyway?We all know what spam is. Nigerian Princes, Russian Brides. But Google is ever vigilant against spam. They define pages that could be better written, not well sources and sometimes just keywords stuffed and stuffed. Now I agree that keyword stuffing and the pages written over and over again just to simply say the same thing in hopes of moving a needle on a secondary keyword. But are all things spam? Or is the person just not a good writer? Is there the use of AI content?

The absolute truth is to act as an expert in your field, so yes, I am an SEO expert. I am a local SEO Expert. I would put my knowledge up against anyone out there and feel confident. Yes, I have my own opinions, and I’ve also been fortunate enough to grow up in this industry, so on-page and technical SEO to me are the same thing in many, many ways. I can fix technical SEO issues. I can fix semantic SEO issues. I know how to gain natural links for my website rather than resorting to buying them, as many others do.

But most of all, Google knows that I do not spam because when they see my name, I have built my name as part of our brand, and they know it’s a name that can be trusted. Just as when they see my company name they know it too can be trusted. They know I have been involved in SEO and Web Design for nearly three decades now. In addition, they see my involvement with organizations like SCORE, HCC, and the SBDC as a validation of my credibility. These relationships are extremely important to your overall success. So, what are you doing to increase your credibility? In a nutshell, they are grading my website based on my relationships and affiliations.

So How do Small Company’s Keep Up with SEO

The tenants of all of this are still the same. Good quality content will always win the day and is the fundamental building block. But how does a small business owner keep up or even get these ideas? Every time I open my email there is a treasure trove of content ideas. For example, how do you decide to use medical device or medical plastics. What is the right term, and what are the steps necessary to determine which is correct? What do you need to tell someone to get an SEO quote? (0:35)

Google Misdirection #4 – There is no SandboxIs there a Google Sandbox? So, this one is interesting because, in 2024, the answer is No-ish. In the truest sense of the word and using the historical application, no, not really. There was a hardcore sandbox back in the early 2000s. I don’t care what you did with a new domain; it was not going to rank for at least a year. But in the modern era, it’s not as arduous, but domains that are newly registered will usually sit for a year or two with low traffic. You will get some traffic. But not a lot. Now, most businesses won’t notice this because they will have localized traffic and weren’t expecting much. But if you are looking for SERP wins, and your domain is new, you have a distinct problem.

So what is the remedy to this? There are domains that are after-market, and those domains seem to be impervious to any restriction unless the domain has been completely banned (yes, they ban domains). My experience tells me that there are a few break points in this, meaning the older the domain the less issues you will have. In my opinion any domain that has maintained a continuous since the early 2000 is much less likely to be sandboxed. I’m not going to see it. I’ve never seen an old site have trouble, but I think I can count it on two fingers over the last 28 years. (40:46).

SEO Isn’t Magical Voodoo

I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard the terms voodoo or magic when describing SEO. It really is not. We now know that 14,000+ data points are strung together to help derive the best possible answer. I’m not a magician; I just understand how Google thinks. Doing that makes your site far more likely to rank on a given term. I can see the mistakes people make with their own sites, but most of all, I feel vindicated by this data dump because up until this all came out, everything we always said was theoretical.

Related Posts* Basic SEO Maintenance: Five Simple Things Site Owners Can Do to Improve SEO * How To Get Started in SEO: A Small Business Survival Guide * SEO Hacks: Easy Ways to Win at SEO * Ultimate Guide to Recovering from Google Algorithm Updates and Penalties

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SEO Hacks: Ways to win at SEO SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is a crucial aspect of digital marketing, and understanding how to navigate it can significantly impact the online visibility of your business. In this class we will explore the basics of SEO so that you can compete in this world and understand the do’s and don’ts and if you’re paying someone you can understand that they’re doing what they need to do.

Google and SEO: Two Sides of the Same CoinGoogle’s relationship with SEO is constant and ever-changing so it’s important to stay on top of their updates and requirements as they roll out. Since September of 2023 Google started the “Helpful Content Update” and has been aggressively rolling out new fixes in an attempt to combat the use of AI for content creation. In March of 2024, the latest roll out will alleviate 40% of the content that is currently sitting on the internet, because google reads it as written with AI. This is also designed to go after marketers using tactics to gain Google’s System.

What does this mean for business owners? For business owners and content writers, this update means that they will have to ensure that no content used is created with any AI tool. Content must be written by a human, as organically as possible, and with as much helpful information as possible. If you’re not being helpful, they’re not ranking your website.

No mixed signals with SEOGetting fancy with your words has its uses in marketing, but when it comes to your website and its content the messaging must be clear and concise. Google operates on a set of signals that help it understand the content and relevance of web pages. These signals are crucial for ensuring that your website ranks well in search results. One important aspect to note is that Google is literal and specific, how you communicate information on your website needs to align with how Google interprets it. Using the right keywords and structuring your content effectively are essential for signaling to Google what your website is about. A reoccurring issue with some websites and their signals, is that a website will change, which causes the signal to break.

The Role of Keywords for Great SEOKeywords play a pivotal role in SEO as they help Google identify the relevance of your content to user queries. It is significant to understand your business’s keywords and how to find them and use them effectively. Using plug in tools like Keywords Everywhere can provide valuable insights into search volume, competition, and the potential value of specific keywords. The search volume of a keyword is how many people are looking up this or adjacent terms. The competition is how many other people are attempting to rank using that same keyword. Remember, higher competition keywords may be harder to rank for, so it’s essential to prioritize and strategize accordingly. The potential value of the term is how much it would be for you to purchase specific search terms, but this won’t be necessary to start.

Local SEO and the “Near Me” TrendAn interesting trend highlighted is the growing importance of local SEO, especially with terms like “near me.” Google’s algorithms are increasingly favoring localized search results, making it crucial for businesses to optimize their online presence for local searches. Incorporating location-specific keywords and ensuring consistency across online directories and platforms can greatly improve your visibility to local customers.

In some instances, your business name can be a keyword, but often the business name is a more abstract concept than what your business does, so it’s good to ensure your support keywords are strong enough. For example, if your business name is “TreeCutting.com”, Tree Cutting would be a keyword because it would be something someone googles. But if you’re business name is something abstract like “Jose’sCutters.com” you would then have to set up a good amount of keywords in your website like “tree cutters” and variations such as “tree cutting” “landscaping” and many more.

Using the suggested tools you can verify the value of these keywords and in turn find other keywords that may be more valuable than what you may already be using. Remember it is important to be specific and clear but not so specific that you become too niche and not easily found.

SEO Success: Takeaways and StrategiesSEO is essential for improving online visibility for your business. With the basics provided in this class and understanding Google’s updates and staying on top of them, there is a great starting point to begin implementing these improvements.

Remember, it is essential that the messaging remains clear and concise, with effective keyword usage for Google to pick it up and rank. Use the available tools, like Keywords Everywhere, to optimize your strategy by identifying valuable keywords.

By applying these principles and techniques, you can enhance your website’s visibility and drive more traffic, ensuring your content meets both user needs and search engine criteria.

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Fall is upon us, which means the holidays are soon to follow. For business owners, this time of the year is filled with opportunity – opportunities to develop your brand and capture a new wave of customers in the process.

Of course, the competition is fierce during the holidays, especially as we near Black Friday and Christmas. That means SMB owners and online retailers must be ready to optimize their web presence to the extent they can. By strengthening your website, ad marketing, e-mail marketing and social media marketing channels, you’ll give your business a fighting chance to rise above the holiday noise this year.

Here, we’ll address how to do just that.

First, start by optimizing your Google Business Profile and integrating analyticsWhether your business operates globally or locally, optimizing your Google Business Profile (GBP) is a strong – and simple – first step. For local SMBs, it’s unavoidable – your company needs a locally optimized GBP to garner traction with Google.

Start by making sure your company’s name and address are accurate. Put up a photo of your company’s building. Fill out as much of your profile as you can – posts, reviews, events – all of these signals add up to let Google know where your business is located. And ensuring your business is properly geolocated by Google is a must-do to achieve any degree of local SEO success. Use geo-specific keywords in your company’s description and posts. Publish photos and videos (that you or someone within the company has taken) regularly. Just make sure that the company’s profile is active and frequently updated.

Take a few minutes and integrate Google Analytics (widely termed GA4) into the website, too. It’s quick and easy to do so, and it provides valuable insight into how your site is performing from a traffic and lead-capturing standpoint. Users, sessions, page views, conversions, bounce rate, engagement time – there’s a lot of data here, but you don’t need to be a digital marketing expert to extract value out of it.

Create more customer touch points through e-mail and social mediaAs the holiday season approaches, consumers start gearing up to buy. That means it’s time to get your brand in front of them. With so much online noise competing for our attention these days, consistent (but not obnoxious) touch points are needed to drive leads to your company.

A proven way to do this is with e-mail marketing – Mailchimp is our preferred tech for automating many e-mail marketing functions, but you’ll need to provide the content.

Ideally, this content will provide valuable information that’s designed to “hook” the user toward your website. At the least, taking a spot in their inbox will bring your brand to the front of their mind – the first step toward making a conversion.

Don’t be afraid to regularly send out these e-mail blasts – a couple times a week is considered optimal – and make an effort to capture user e-mails when they visit your site or make a purchase through your business. It’s easier to sell to current customers than new ones, and that means you’ll need an updated e-mail list.

E-mail marketing can also be used to pick up additional customer reviewsCustomer reviews are weighted heavily by Google for SEO purposes. They are, therefore, a high-value target for brands. E-mail marketing can also support this goal by (politely) reminding users to leave a review. Many buyers have no problem doing this, they just need to be asked.

Don’t overthink it. A week after a customer buys something from your site, automate your e-mail marketing platform to send out a review request/reminder. It’s a no-risk, high-reward approach to building your brand’s reputation.

The Google Display Network provides a brand awareness boost for pennies on the dollarChances are, you’ve seen plenty of small ads served through Google’s Display Network (GDN). The GDN is one of Google’s many, and often confusing, advertising platforms that allow companies to reach customers wherever they go. You’ll find GDN ads everywhere – on search engine results pages, e-commerce pages, forums, blogs and so on.

Brands have some control over where their GDN ads are published, but the real advantage here is the sheer volume of impressions companies can capture through GDN ads. There are millions of websites participating in the network, so your ads could potentially be seen by many, many people. It’s also inexpensive for the potential return, so for SMBs that need to drum up some quick brand awareness, it’s a no-brainer for the holiday season.

Act like an expert and write like an expert – with a little help from AILet’s introduce artificial intelligence into this conversation. AI writing tools – ChatGPT best known among them – have added another dimension to content creation. At first glance, AI looks like a perfect way to quickly develop a ton of content, saving business owners the time and challenge that often comes with writing.

But while AI can help support better and more efficient writing, it’s no replacement for a true, human expert.

That’s because Google wants unique, expert level content, not just keyword-rich and topic-relevant content. AI can generate a ton of words, but those words are “scraped” from the internet. Put another way, AI writes by pulling from existing content all over the web. It’s fast and achieves a base level of competence, but AI cannot insert unique experiences or bits of expert insight that only an industry veteran can offer.

Unfortunately, Google is adept at tracking this, so it can identify websites filled with AI content. And though the search engine juggernaut’s opinion on AI content is still in flux – Google is developing its own AI search assistant, after all – sites that depend on AI are being penalized on the SERPs.

Here’s how to make AI work for your content writingThe best approach for business owners is to take on a subject matter expert (SME) role within their industry. If you own a business in the field, you’re an expert in the field. And as an industry expert, you are capable of bringing that uniqueness to your site’s content.

Currently, we draw the AI writing line at blogs and permanent website content (landing page stuff, mainly). These should be heavily human-written given their critical importance to the site’s SEO and user experience. Product pages, sales letters, social media posts – these are better suited to ChatGPT and similar tools.

If you’re starting off on a blog or piece of site content, here’s one way to bring in ChatGPT as your AI assistant:

• Generate a list of relevant keywords – Keywords are terms that Google uses to understand what the surrounding content is about. These terms are typically search queries themselves or encapsulated inside a search query. Though Google’s crawlers have become much more sophisticated in their ability to understand content, keywords still play an important role. ChatGPT, if asked, can provide a list of keyword terms to include in your writing. Doing so will help Google interpret and categorize your content for better SERP placement.
• Develop a list of content angles – You can also ask ChatGPT to provide a list of ideas for your particular topic. If prompted, AI will generate a list of suggestions that could go in your blog. Not all of them will be a fit for your blog, but you may find an idea or two that you hadn’t considered and would make a good addition. This may also help with creating follow-up content and a longer term strategy for tackling the topic.
• Form the general structure of the page – ChatGPT can tweak its output by length, tone, target audience and more, as long as you ask it to. If you’re writing a blog and aiming for 1,500 words and targeted toward younger consumers, ask it to include those filters and you’ll get a slightly different piece of content. This can be used as a kind of bird’s eye view of how the content should read and how it should be structured.

At this point, you’ve got the skeleton of a page, content ideas that you can use to help develop it further and a list of high-value terms that will help Google understand what the content is about. As the SME, you’ll need to ensure the content’s accuracy (AI will confidently generate the occasional error), “humanize” it with unique turns of phrase and sentence structure, and add important pieces of industry expertise to charge it with value.

With the holidays upon us, tis the season to boost your digital marketingWe’re mere weeks away from peak purchasing season among consumers, so it’s time for business owners to tighten up their online marketing. If you have a website, but don’t know where to begin with optimizing it for search engines, the above steps will give your brand an extra push – and some extra customers, likely. If you’d like to further your impact, contracting a firm experienced in digital marketing can be the best decision for your business success.

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Auditing Website Basics: The Rules Every Business Website Should FollowDeveloping a business website is difficult work. To be frank, it’s a job that most small business owners aren’t prepared to handle on their own. The job is only getting tougher, too, as Google is constantly raising the bar on what constitutes a high quality, trustworthy site. And every business owner should want a website that Google considers trustworthy because those are the sites that secure top ranking spots.

If your site isn’t performing as well as it should, the problem (or problems) may be basic. With so many elements to optimize on modern websites, it’s practically impossible for small business owners to catch everything. That’s why we’ve put together this quick guide to business site basics. Follow these rules, and your site will be off to a good start.

First, a word of caution about website builder platformsBefore diving into those rules, though, we need to address a question that comes up all the time:

“Can I build a business site with Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, etc.?”

The answer is yes, you could, but business owners should avoid doing so at all costs. Site builder platforms are easy to use and inexpensive, but the website they crank out are impossible to market and optimize. That’s a deal breaker for any business owner that plans on using their site as a lead and sales generator.

Websites build on one of the above platforms are essentially invisible to Google. They spit out bloated code that Google has trouble recognizing and interpreting. They give site owners insufficient latitude to make major technical changes. They do not allow site owners to choose their own host and you’re trapped inside the platform’s ecosystem. If the platform goes under, so does your website, permanently.

Given all of this, we cannot in good conscious recommend site builders. What we do recommend is WordPress – the standalone version, not WP’s own platform and hosting service. WordPress remains the gold standard for marketability, customizability and performance, so every business owner’s first choice should be WordPress.

That out of the way, on to the rules:

Rule 1 – Make sure your title tag and headers are formatted properlyEvery page should be paired with a title tag – it’s the single most important element in helping Google understand what the page’s content is about. This title is identified using a title tag – something you may hear referred to as an H1. H1 (or H2, H3, H4 and so on) tags are designated in the page’s HTML code and are used to identify a title or header. Titles and header are important for Google and users, and generally for the same reason – they help the reader understand what the page’s content is about. This is obviously important for users, as their decision to consume the content or move on has to do with the content’s title.

It’s also crucial for SEO purposes because Google isn’t going to rank a page that it doesn’t understand or isn’t properly titled. Properly-formatted and written headers help Google with this. Proper format means using the right H tag – only one title tag (H1) per page, and headers should be organized in a hierarchical format. That means using an H1 with the top header, H2s for content section headers, H3s for subheads inside those content sections and so on down the line.

Rule 2 – Feature your services and products in high-importance navigation elementsIf Google doesn’t know what your business sells, it will probably not rank the page. At best, your site will be improperly categorized in the wrong product or service area. The result of this? Users ending up on your site after searching for something completely unrelated to your business. That’s exactly the kind of traffic business owners don’t want.

To ensure Google places your site in the right category and serves it to the right users, reinforce what your company does in the site’s most important navigation elements. Specifically, this means placing your top-level product and service categories up in the top nav menu. One of the first elements Google checks when crawling a page is the navigation. Put your product and service categories up here – don’t be afraid to get rid of generic nav entries like “about us” – and your site is far more likely to be served to the right users.

Rule 3 – Make sure your content helps Google understand what your business is aboutFor Google to properly categorize and locate your company – important for local businesses – the search engine will use content clues to determine where to place you. For obvious reasons, it’s important that Google identify what your business does and where it’s located as precisely as possible. If search engines have this information, they’ll be more likely to list your website on local search results pages relevant to your area. In other words, it will be easier for potential customers in your service area to find your business.

Again, content clues are key here. The writing and photos on your website should address what your business does and where it operates, as directly as possible. Google has difficulty discerning between certain terms (a painter, for example, could be a house painter or an artist – Google can confuse them), so don’t be clever or coy with what your business does. No long-winded personal story about what inspired you, the business owner, to start the company. No personal anecdotes or attempts at humor. Just keep it direct and professional.

This approach extends to the use of location-specific keywords.

Rule 4 – Find and fix anything that would make your brand look amateurish or untrustworthyDepending on its size and function, your website may have hundreds or thousands of pages and URLs – with thousands of links connecting all of it together. That’s a lot of online infrastructure to maintain, and it’s common for the occasional technical issue to emerge – like a broken link, a bad redirect, a missing piece of content, a duplicate page and so on.

Each of these issues has the potential to damage your brand online. It’s like walking into a brick-and-mortar business and finding out the restroom is out of order. While it may not have a direct impact on the business’s operation, it’s a bad look all the same.

The same is true online. If users click on a product page but are instead taken to a generic 404 page, there’s a good chance they’ll leave the site altogether – removing your chances of converting them into a customer and dinging your user experience metrics in the process.

The goal, then, is to identify and resolve the myriad, minor technical glitches that can impact how users respond to your site. You may need to bring in a web development or digital marketing expert to address this, as it may involve running various technical audits (targeting indexing errors, duplicate pages and the like), diagnosing the offending issues and correcting them.

Nailing down the basics is the first step to website successEvery business website is a custom-built, complex piece of software that serves multiple purposes. It’s a lead generator, a 24/7 salesperson, a brand ambassador and a showcase for your company’s knowledge and expertise.

That’s several important roles your website must fill for it to be an effective investment. And with online competition as fierce as ever, there’s no room for basic mistakes.

Hopefully, this guide revealed some of the most common, fundamental problems that small business owners run into with their sites. If any of the above apply to your site, an experienced web development and digital marketing firm can help correct them and get your site back on the right track.

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Wordpress is one of the internet's most powerful engines, as something like 40 percent of all sites run on WP. Millions of those sites are professional or e-commerce in nature, and from the get-go, they must be configured properly to succeed.

That means integrating the right tools into Wordpress during and following the initial WP install. If you're partnered with a reputable web hosting company, these tools may be included with your install package - a major convenience for site owners who don't know where to begin.

Here, we've got a list of every important tool to consider for site owners just getting started with WordPress, along with some helpful information about WP management fundamentals. For SEO purposes, it's Wordpress or bust - stay away from site building platforms If you haven't launched a site yet, build it in WordPress. If you've already launched a site that's not in WordPress, prepare to move it to WP. And if you've already launched a WordPress site, congratulations - you're on the right track.

The truth is, there's no good reason whatsoever for business owners to pick anything other than Wordpress for their online presence. WP is the gold standard for several reasons, including:

Google prefers WordPress websites (better SEO) - The downside with site builder platforms is that they're built using bloated code that search engines cannot interpret well. Wix, Weebly, Squarespace and other drag-and-drop builders may be easy to use, but that simplicity means sloppy code on the backend. If you're serious about ranking on Google, this bloated code is a fatal problem. WP is well-supported by an active, open source community - WP is an open-source engine, so anyone can access the codebase and contribute to it. The benefit of an open source engine is that it's constantly being improved upon by the community, so WordPress users are always coming up with new and better tools. There are hundreds of thousands of plugins that can expand WP's functionality - Speaking of tools, there's an endless list of additional features and plugins to choose from. Each one adds to the site's capabilities, so if there's something that your site needs to do, but currently can't, there's a good chance that a solution already exists. It just needs to be installed on the site. Wordpress allows people to maintain ownership of their domain and assets - If the site is created through a standalone installation (Wordpress.org), you'll have complete ownership over all the site's assets and domain. With site builders like Wix and others, the site is contained inside the builder's ecosystem. That means if the platform goes down, so does your site. Further, if you want to move or make major changes to the site, that may be impossible if it's hosted on a platform.

In short, WP's feature-rich, SEO-compatible code makes it the undisputed leader among site creation engines. Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org? Here's the difference The first hurdle business owners may run into when getting started with WordPress is whether to publish through Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org. We strongly recommend going with Wordpress.org, but here's a quick guide to both:

com - Wordpress.com is WP's version of the site builder. While it utilizes the same WP dashboard and publishing process, the site itself is hosted on WP's own servers and is therefore functionally identical to sticking the site on another self-contained platform. Further, by opting for WP's own platform, site owners may be responsible for additional fees related to "premium plugins" and other features. org - Wordpress.org is the standalone version of WP that we recommend. With wordpress.org, site owners have access to all of the software's base files and user-friendly dashboard. In addition, owners have complete freedom to host the site with the hosting company of their choosing, and may make any changes they wish without interference.

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How to Write  a Better Blog Blogging, it’s not why most people get into business, but written communication remains an important part of customer acquisition. And online, that means writing high quality blogs, articles and landing page content to help send the signals to Google that will equal long term SEO success.

With today’s tech-based, always-online economy, the value of good writing may not be obvious. That’s where we’ll start before addressing how to write a more effective piece of website content. A 24/7 Salesman: The value of an expert blog Without a website, companies are passing up on 30 percent of their potential business. Even when no one is at the office or manning the phones, the company’s website is there representing the brand. In this way, an effective website is like a salesman who never takes a break. Publishing high quality content is like giving that salesman the best possible sales pitch - with it, they’ll represent your company well and earn more customers as a result.

In the end, as the company’s owner and resident expert, you have complete control over your brand’s messaging through the power of blogging. Every business owner is an expert, so put that expertise to good use The first hurdle for business owners to get over is a psychological one. “I can’t write,” said just about every business owner ever, but as an expert in your industry, your insight has value to Google and to users. That’s true even if you can’t write like Shakespeare.

If you’re willing to practice writing and get better, you’ll eventually develop your spoken voice into an effective written voice. For many niche subjects, all that’s needed is clear, direct writing with some expert insight or examples sprinkled in. One easy way to come up with blog topics - listen to the customer Looking for a good blog angle? Pay attention to what customers are concerned about. These could be your customers or a competitor’s customers, wherever they provide feedback. This could be a question asked in an e-mail, a comment in a product review or a complaint on social media. Whatever it is, there’s probably a blog angle in there somewhere, as long as you’re looking for it. Google wants original, expert ideas, so be careful with AI writers like ChatGPT Although some of the ChatGPT mania has died down, there is still plenty of conversation regarding what it, and other AI writers, can do for website owners.

ChatGPT can help with some writing-related tasks, but it cannot replace the expertise needed for the content writing itself. It’s not a cut-and-paste job. You’ll have to do some extra work to get the page to a publishable level.

Google is on the record saying that it’s okay with some AI content as long as it meets the search engine’s quality standards. Unfortunately, AI content doesn’t. When AI “writes,” it’s actually scraping content from tons of existing pages, pulling out information and reordering it to create the semblance of an original article.

But nothing in the AI page is original - just an amalgamation of the pages it pulled from. Google doesn’t like that because users don’t like that. Users don’t want an internet full of same-sounding, no-value junk, and so Google doesn’t want to fill its SERPs with same-sounding, no-value junk.

As such, search engines will penalize sites that rely too much on AI for their blogging and website content. And yes, Google can easily detect AI writing. There’s room for AI to fill a role, though, so here’s how to use it To summarize so far - don’t take what the AI writer gives you, then turn around and publish it on your website. That’s a no-can-do, but what can you do with ChatGPT and similar AI generators?

Generate a pool of subject-relevant keywords - Every blog should be optimized with high-value, subject-relevant keywords. These provide Google with the signals it needs to understand the page’s content and properly categorize it for its search results pages.

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If you’ve just launched a business website - or are about to launch one - your work is just beginning as the site’s owner. With millions of e-commerce and professional sites already online, it’s a real fight to get new websites noticed. In fact, it’s impossible to gain traction online without an effective SEO plan in place. That’s because search engines are picky when determining which pages to rank - those with better SEO fundamentals are much more likely to snag those coveted top spots.

https://youtu.be/w7Bdz9JOqVg

But that only raises another question - how can business owners get started with effective SEO? That’s what we’re addressing this time. With these following tips, any business owner in any industry can get a competitive start with SEO and build a steady stream of traffic. The right engine means everything when starting a website, and that means WordPress If you already have a website, it is hopefully built in WordPress. If it’s not, we’ve got some bad news - you’ll likely need to migrate it to WP. That includes sites built in Squarespace, Wix, Weebly and other stripped-down website builders. If you haven’t built a site yet, WordPress is the engine of choice.

Why? Compared to site building platforms, WP’s backend is far more compatible with Google’s site discovery and indexing process. In other words, Google understands WordPress sites better than others, so it’s more likely to fully crawl, index and properly categorize a website. In general, the more confused Google’s spiders are when crawling a website, the less likely that site will rank. WP ensures minimal confusion between the website and Google. Make your title tag count - with high impact keywords Every page on your website has to explain itself to Google, and title tags and headers are an important part of that mission. Each page gets one title tag (an H1), and you should treat it like a proper title - it should explain the content’s primary focus. And for Google, every title tag should also include relevant keywords that send the right content signals to search engines. These keywords are essentially clues that tell Google how to judge, locate and categorize the content.

It is extremely important to locate the most relevant keywords (i.e., the product you’re selling) as high up on each page as possible. This will maximize the chances that Google’s spiders will find them.

Additional headers are used with content subsections, and they act just like title tags. Each section header should describe what’s in the following section while including high-relevance keywords for Google. Localize your headers, copy and images for your business’s service area Most small businesses have a tight service area that’s near their operating facilities. It’s this area that your SEO should be targeted toward.

Local SEO is the branch of digital marketing focused on targeting users in a particular service area, and it’s a slightly different game than general, national SEO. When users punch in a local search query (“Houston Mexican restaurants,” for example), Google returns a local SERP in response. This local SERP includes additional high-value spots like the map pack, so engaging local SEO comes with additional rewards.

But local SEO also takes a slightly different approach. One part of this approach is to localize the content on your site’s pages, so Google understands where your business is located and what areas it serves.

In practice, that means mentioning where the company is located in titles, headers and inside the body copy. The city it’s located in, the neighborhoods or regions it services, the names of nearby landmarks and major roads - these are all useful clues for Google.

It goes further than that, too. Every image published on your website has metadata associated with it. This metadata includes where the photo was taken, so consider taking your own photos and publishing them with that metadata intact.

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For anyone who has been around the Internet Marketing Clinic for a while, knows we always try to stay ahead of where the road goes. AI tools have turned 2023 on its ear, and it is not even March. In this episode of the IMCH, we are taking an in-depth look at how to balance AI tools like ChatGPT and your website, content or SEO efforts. There is a lot of very dangerous misguided implementations ideas so we wanted try and stay ahead of it and let you know what we think you should be doing and how to used this very powerful tool, but do it in a manner that you don’t blow yourself up.

Do not copy AI-generated content and paste it into a websiteBefore you run off to ChatGPT and generate your entire website from scratch – stop. In our practice, we’ve already seen business owners attempt this with disastrous results. And that is what I keep seeing and hearing. It feels like, right or wrong everyone things they found the secret to creating mass pages to place on their website and that is just not true.

Google has upped the useful content penalty possibly taking aim at cut-and-paste AI-generated content, and the search engine is getting better and better at detecting it. There are hundreds of AI writers out there, but it’s unlikely that any of them could evade Google’s AI detection for long.

Why is Google seeking and destroying AI-generated pages? Because AI can’t produce a page that’s as well-written, organized and detailed as a human expert-created page. At least for now, human experts provide more value with their writing than ChatGPT or other AI tools.

This is because AI content generators work by scraping and distilling what’s already on the internet. Google doesn’t want a web full of copycat content – it wants originality. And it wants original thinking because that’s what users want. From Google’s perspective, AI content generators have the potential to pollute the internet with identical pages and damage the user experience.

On the other hand Google also is okay with AI content if they add to the web. If there is solid new information it more than likely won’t get dinged. But you have to committed to making sure the information is not just spun and put out on the website.

There are a few more problems with AI content generation, that you need to be aware of to avoid a penalty.

• Superficial reasoning and knowledgebase – ChatGPT and AI writers can spit out tons of information with every prompt, but because this information is sourced from thousands of sites – many of them low quality – the information tends to be superficial. This problem is more pronounced for niche topics and industries, where there are fewer inputs for AI to work with.
• Confusing conceptual linking and writing flow – AI also has trouble determining which pieces of information link together and how they should link together. Us humans do this naturally when we speak, because our communication is predicated on exchanging and responding to information provided by other people.That’s why AI writers tend to go off-track with topics or repeat themselves throughout an article. You won’t find an AI linking an insightful first-hand experience with the topic at hand. That kind of web-like conceptual thinking is still beyond the reach of AI.
• Difficulty with proper punctuation and grammar – Curiously, AI writers also seem to have the occasional issue with word order, sentence structure or punctuation. The longer the content, the more likely these mistakes are to emerge in a piece of AI content.

It may not be long before these kinks are hammered out, but for now, the above should give business owners pause before they go all-in on AI. Doing so could wipe out your traffic now or in the future, when Google retroactively applies penalties for AI content-generation methods.

All of this is subject to change as Google implements GoogleBard, its own AI ToolEverything in this article could become obsolete overnight – thus is the nature of AI development. The technology is evolving extremely fast and no one (not even industry experts) knows how Google intends to leverage AI for search ranking purposes.

What we do know is that Google has its own AI in development named Bard, and it’s planned for release “soon.” In Google parlance, “soon” could mean months from now or minutes from now. When it is released, it will likely shake up the digital marketing industry even more.

What can AI tools like ChatGPT paired with Jasper AI and then paired with a Human do for content marketing?Okay, now that we’ve laid out the risks of AI content, we’ll address how to minimize those risks and make the technology work for business owners. After all, while Google doesn’t want AI cut-and-paste jobs, it has admitted that it’s okay with AI content, as long as it provides value and meets the search engine’s content standards.

Getting AI content up to that standard, though, that’s the trick.

We’ve experimented a bit with ChatGPT and AI content writers like Jasper, and there’s an opportunity here to create high quality, expert level content using both. Specifically, ChatGPT can be used to develop outlines for your content pages, while Jasper can do some of the actual writing. The emphasis is on the word “some,” however. At this point, we recommend an 80/20 mix between human-created and AI-created writing on any particular page.

A recommended step-by-step guide on using AI to generate content for your website So there’s room for AI in your content generation processes, but you’ll need to be careful. First, we’ll create an article outline in ChatGPT. Here’s how to do that:

• Go to the OpenAI website, where ChatGPT is the featured piece of software.
• Create a free account – there is a premium account option, but it only provides faster answers from the chat bot.
• Now, you should be in the chat app and ready to provide ChatGPT with a prompt. First, ask it to list the keyword you’ll need for your page. For example, “tell me the keywords I need for a page about small business accounting services.” ChatGPT will instantly spit out the high value words to place in your content.
• You’ve got the keywords, now you need the outline. Ask ChatGPT what topics should be included in your article. For example “what should be included in an article about small business accounting services?” ChatGPT will list the high-level ideas that should be addressed in your article.
• You can continue this process to go further in depth. Once ChatGPT suggests the high-level topics that should be in your article, you can ask follow-up questions to dive deeper into those ideas. For example “compare accrual accounting and cash-based accounting for small businesses.” By asking more and more detailed questions, you’ll be able to create a more focused, thorough outline.

Once you have this outline in hand, you can stop here with the AI and start writing your page. For many, the outline is the tough part, and just getting that worked out can speed things along. However, if you want, you can take this outline and develop it into content.=

You’ll need a high quality AI writing tool to begin with. We recommend Jasper because it’s the best we’ve found, but it can be expensive for small business owners. If you do invest in Jasper, you can use it like ChatGPT by entering a prompt.

Using the example from above, you could enter “write about the differences between accrual account and cash-based accounting.” Jasper will immediately generate an answer, which could be several paragraphs long.

Don’t take this copy and paste it into your website!

Your job, as the subject matter expert, is to review the content and do the following:

• Identify and correct any errors – and there will likely be some
• Update any outdated information – and there will likely be some
• “Humanize” the content and add your own original experiences and insights
• Reorder and link the content sections, if necessary
• Fix any grammatical or punctuation errors and there will be plenty

My page on Google Penalty Repair is a great example of how to mix the balance or mix mentioned above, and we recommend starting and ending the page with from-scratch content that you write. In effect, you’re “massaging” the content so that it doesn’t read like an AI wrote it, or flow like an AI thought it up. Your voice as the writer and expert should still clearly come through. The article I produced was 80/20 in favor of human touch despite using AI to build the entire page.

AI will be the focus for digital marketers in 2023, so stay up to date here on any developments All of this is still developing in real time, and it’s possible that this article will be completely off the mark by the end of the year. For now, though, the above practices are what we consider to be the best practices for using AI in your content marketing.

If the AI picture changes, and boy will it, we’ll record our findings and report them here. Check in with us throughout the year to ensure your content remains in lockstep with Google’s standards.

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Buckle up 2023 is going to be one for the ages. Every year brings a new set of challenges for the digital marketing industry, but 2023 may bring more upheaval than normal. Multiple content-related updates in late 2022 appear to be targeted at identifying and deranking pages with low quality (potentially AI) content. Google has also made recent updates to its Search Rater Quality Guidelines – with added emphasis on communicating expertise and experience in content.

Additionally both Google and Bing are rolling out chat modules for search that have the potential to upend digital marketing, especially for small businesses. Over this year as this rolls out we will address and work to find strategies that will work inside that framework. It may be a big deal. It may be a fad, no one knows yet. It’s in part why I have been running these classes since 2007.

Google is clearly raising the bar on what constitutes a high-ranking website. Quality content, quality performance, quality navigation and linking – there’s no more cutting corners for business website owners.

That’s why we’re focusing on cleanup this week. The little things matter more than ever for digital marketing, and so we’re addressing some of the little things you can do to improve your standing on Google.

Optimize your online presence with the right platform, plugins and patches First, if your site isn’t on WordPress, move it to the WP ecosystem. More than 40 percent of the internet is built on WordPress, so Google thoroughly understands it – and prefers it. If your site is built on any other platform – Wix, Squarespace, Shopify, etc. – then you’re at a major SEO disadvantage from the start.

Assuming your site is built on WP, there is a plenty of plugin available. Many of these are useful for optimization purposes, whether performance or search engine optimization.

A favorite of ours is Rank Math. Rank Math is an SEO plugin for WordPress that provides broad functionality. It offers deep insights, like tracking your position history for a particular keyword. It also integrates seamlessly with Google Analytics 4 and offers centralized control over many SEO functions, like configuring headers or metadata.

And if you’re wondering just how entangled Google and WordPress are – Google has an official WP plugin called Google Site Kit. With Site Kit, your Google Analytics are available through your WP backend and through a single dashboard.

Verify that your business is properly listed online Google uses your company’s location for local SEO purposes, which can be a problem if your actual location doesn’t match Google’s own data. It’s a problem that a lot of businesses have.

If your company’s address or phone number have ever changed, there’s a good chance that your older addresses or numbers are listed somewhere on the internet. If there are many such outdated NAP citations out there, Google may place your business in a different market.

The goal is to monitor your NAP citations and correct any that are inaccurate. Our clients have a tool to make these easy – one available through Yext. With Yext’s Optimize Location tool, business owners can get a status update on all of their NAP citations scattered around the web. This includes Google itself, along with Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter, Bing, Yelp and a score of directory sites. If there are any NAP inaccuracies, it’s made obvious here, so website owners can correct the citation.

To do that, you’ll need access to the account associated with the citing website. Businesses are in a constant state of flux, so it’s common for brands to lose control of certain accounts as employees are turned over and changes are made. If you do lose access to a citing account, you may able to correct the citation by submitting your company’s information to a major data aggregator like Acxiom or Localeze.

Set up Google Analytics 4 so there’s no interruption in data tracking Google is overhauling its analytics platform and releasing a new version in July. Termed Google Analytics 4 – or GA4 – the new platform will use AI to provide advanced reporting. For example, GA4 will notice when certain products are in greater demand, or predict when a customer is likely to churn. This is another example of Google’s reliance on machine learning. Over time, the platform will “learn” customer behavior based on previous actions.

That’s a major departure from the current system, which will be sunset in July. If you haven’t migrated to GA4 or integrated it into your website, now is the time. We recommend you run Google Universal Analytics until it’s discontinued, but bring on GA4 now so you can start building data for your website. If you wait until Universal is shut down, you’ll have zero recent historical data to make digital marketing decisions from. You’ll be in the dark for months regarding your site’s performance.

Get to know your online competitors, so you can produce better content than them Before your site can grow in a productive direction, you’ll first need your bearings. In other words, how does your company compare with its competitors online? This is a critical piece of information, because if you target the right competitors, you can leapfrog them with better content. If you target the wrong competitors, you’ll either grow your business slower or not at all.

One way to do this is through Semrush. Semrush has a deep digital marketing toolkit, including a helpful organic research tool that can be used to analyze potential competitors. Using Semrush’s organic research tool, you can reference a company’s website and get a list of all the keywords they rank for and where they rank.

You can use this tool to determine which of your competitors are positioned better on Google. The ones that are just ahead of you in important keywords – those are your targets. Once you have your competitors sized up, you can visit their content pages and determine how you could make a better version of what they’ve produced.

That doesn’t mean copying and pasting. It means taking their blog topic and writing it in your own words, using your own expertise. Write longer on the subject, with additional examples and discussion that reveals your authority on the matter. This is what Google is looking for with its push for helpful content – an internet that’s constantly producing (better and better) answers to every possible query. If you take on this mission by producing content in your own niche, Google will be more likely to rank your site higher for more valuable keywords.

Business owners are in for a wild ride this year, so ensure your fundamentals are in place There are a lot of digital marketing unknowns as we head deeper into 2023. To what extent will Google roll out additional AI functionality? Just how high is the content bar going to go this year? How will business owners prepare for the changes to come?

We’re have answers soon enough, but one thing that business owners can do now is lock down their site’s fundamentals. NAP citations, updating WordPress, integrating useful plugins and getting ready for GA4 – all of these little things add up to a more effective online presence.

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Looking back at 2022 - a year of major Google updatesAnother year, another slate of algorithm updates from the world’s leading search engine. Google making changes to its ranking algorithm is nothing new – it’s always going on, actually – but 2022 saw a couple of impactful changes that website owners should be aware of. Ideally, you will have already made some of the necessary adjustments, but if not, we’ve got a quick recap here you can use to get up to speed.

Table of ContentsAdd a header to begin generating the table of contentsTechnical PerformanceWhile Google’s 2022 updates would eventually target content guidelines, the search engine started the year by making technical performance the focus. In a way, this was a continuation of Google’s Core Vitals update, which was pushed over during the summer of 2021.

Specifically, Google wants websites to run faster and more reliably than ever. It’s easy to understand why. A site’s user experience (UX) remains a primary consideration for Google, because search engines don’t exist to promote businesses. They exist to connect users (the people entering queries into Google search) with the best possible answer to their search.

A website’s UX describes how user-friendly the experience is on a particular page. If users are leaving the page before it loads or as soon as it loads, that lets Google know that the page is offering a poor UX. Search engines will always send traffic to a site with good UX metrics if given the opportunity. That means your site should also be optimized for UX.

A major part of UX is a page’s technical performance. Does it load important content quickly? Does it respond to user interaction quickly? Does it remain visually stable while loading? These are critical performance metrics roped into Google’s Core Vitals update.

The search engine is still raising the bar in terms of technical performance, so slow, unreliable sites are having added trouble in ranking well.

Stay away from “cookie cutter” website builders If you’re building a website, Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Shopify and others offer convenience. They don’t offer anything else, though, including technical performance or improved conversion rates.

In today’s world of digital marketing, nothing beats WordPress. With unmatched Google integration, unmatched versatility and unmatched support, WordPress websites are far easier to rank on Google and other search engines. If you’re building a new site, start with WordPress. If you have a website in a site-builder like Shopify, consider your options in moving the site to WordPress.

Content was always important, but helpful, expert content is now necessary Content has always been a top ranking factor for Google and other search engines, but what exactly that content should look like has changed over the years. And this year, Google made one of its most meaningful content updates in its history.

Termed the helpful content update, Google is now prioritizing high quality, expert level content that provides value to the user. But what does value mean when it comes to an online blog?

Users go to Google to answer questions. Google returns the best possible answer to their questions. As a site owner, your job is to get Google to pick your answer first. That means you’ll need to generate content that offers the following:

• Expertise –Google places a lot of weight on expertise. It does not want to rank a non-expert highly on any of its SERPs, as this reflects poorly on its own ability to spot valuable information. This is especially true if the question has to do with an expert industry like medicine, legal or accounting.

Expert content answers a relevant query fully, from every angle possible. It may take 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 words to provide a complete answer, but Google prefers longer, more thorough content that short content that offers nothing new. * Authority – Authority is closely related to expertise, obviously, but in an SEO content, authority refers to how well-researched your content is. If you cite respected authorities in answering a query, if you’re linked to by respected authorities or if you have a history of expert content, you’re more likely to be considered an authority on your chosen subject. * Clarity – Helpful content is easy to read and understand. It should be free of typos, grammatical errors, euphemisms, extended analogies and the like. Be direct and clear with what you’re talking about.

All of your site’s content should meet the above guidelines, as fuzzy as they may seem. The point is this – lead with your area of expertise. Answer industry-specific questions in your blog the same way you would if you were having a conversation with a potential client.

AI content tools have emerged, but Google is heavily penalizing their usage

AI-based content generating tools are the next frontier in black hat content marketing tactics. These tools claim to spin up dozens of pages of content in a short time, using data fed into the content generator. Sounds like a shortcut to success, right?

More likely, it will run your website into a ditch. Google has not trouble spotting AI-generated content, even if the typical user on your site would never know the difference. And because Google considers AI content to be non-expert by definition, it will heavily penalize any site that it catches with AI content. Stay away.

Push your content out through multiple channels to pick up and drive trafficHaving trouble coming up with more and more content? Make every content idea pull double, triple or quadruple duty by pushing it out through additional channels. For example, with a single content idea, you could:

• Write a blog post or article on the subject
• Record a video of you talking about it
• Record a podcast discussing the subject
• Craft a social media post that links to the content
• Put together an image or graphic about the subject

The more ways you can present your content, the more traffic you’ll pick up through all those channels. Google can also associate this content together, so it will be more likely to present your content pages and Youtube videos on the same SERP if you place multiple types of content on your pages.

Here’s the take-home message for 2022: You need to be an expert in your fieldWe’re at the end of 2022, and in the end, this year was about the value of expertise. Google is no longer promoting websites that aren’t striving to be leaders in their industry. It wants the most knowledgeable, best communicators speaking for every industry. To achieve online success, then, the primary goal is to become a thought leader for your field, and to communicate this insight on your website.

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Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the primary components of digital marketing and is foundational to a successful website. Proper SEO gives your website the best possible chance at securing favorable search engine listings, and those top listings are valuable. In fact, the top 3 organic listings in Google gets an estimated 80 percent … Episode 217: SEO Basics Read More »

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Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the primary components of digital marketing and is foundational to a successful website. Proper SEO gives your website the best possible chance at securing favorable search engine listings, and those top listings are valuable. In fact, the top 3 organic listings in Google gets an estimated 80 percent … Episode 217: SEO Basics Read More »

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If you’re running an e-commerce website, then you’ve got competition. At last count, there were more than 20 million e-commerce sites in operation around the globe. Every one of those websites has the same goal – stand out, attract traffic and pick up conversions in the process. With millions of sites crowding the online picture, … Episode 216: E-commerce for Businessowners Read More »

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If you’re running an e-commerce website, then you’ve got competition. At last count, there were more than 20 million e-commerce sites in operation around the globe. Every one of those websites has the same goal – stand out, attract traffic and pick up conversions in the process. With millions of sites crowding the online picture, … Episode 216: E-commerce for Businessowners Read More »

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When I teach class, I always advise using WordPress because it gives small business a way to level the playing field. At Vertical Web we do a lot of things, but client advocacy is one of the biggest. We talk about why using a platform like Wix or Squarespace in my opinion does not allow … Episode 214 – Getting Started with WordPress Read More »

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When I teach class, I always advise using WordPress because it gives small business a way to level the playing field. At Vertical Web we do a lot of things, but client advocacy is one of the biggest. We talk about why using a platform like Wix or Squarespace in my opinion does not allow … Episode 214 – Getting Started with WordPress Read More »

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Each month I sit down to pick topics that are most relevant to the Digital Marketing landscape. Or, I am asked questions from clients that really can be a strong class topic. That is exactly what happened here. I had two different clients ask us to help them understand an SEO report. So out of … Episode 213: How To Read an SEO Report Read More »

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Digital marketing is a huge field, encompassing several fields of study and changing all the time. And like with any technically-heavy field, digital marketing comes with its own lingo that’s used among industry members. Here we’ll start delving into those terms and what they mean to digital marketing professionals. That way, when someone starts spitting … Episode 212: The Ultimate Glossary of SEO Terms Explained Read More »

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It seems like everyone is a web designer or an SEO expert these days. After all the years in this industry you learn to spot trends.  When the economy is poor, the web designers come out of the woodwork. Everyone suddenly knows how to build a site and knows SEO.  I am here to say … How to Build a Website or How to Hire Someone Who Can Read More »

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Common Mistakes That Negatively Impact Website Success Errors Errors everywhere and not a person to help.  We see errors everyday. Even sometimes we miss things. But what are critical mistakes that hamper you digital marketing success. Table of Contents The Platform And the Host We will start our list of mistakes at the most fundamental … Common Mistakes That Negatively Impact Website Success Read More »

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Their back! Well I think they never went away. What I’m talking about is content silos, or as ahref called them a topic cluster.  On a side note, recently there was a post on twitter about how people rename things and then go Eureka, I found something new. This Eureka, whether called content hub, topic … Episode 209: All about Content Read More »

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When a user does a search, Google determines if they are looking for something that is either close to them in proximity, or something that is further away. But with the passage of time, more searches are being pushed into a local space, and to be successful in that space, website owners have to understand … Local SEO Tips for Getting on Google Maps Read More »

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This is the second part of our SEO for Beginners podcast. Because this section is vital for the success of any website when it comes to Google, I felt it best to put this section together all on its own. In SEO for Beginners Part I.  I touched on some of the external decisions you … What is SEO? A Beginners Guide Part II. (Technical SEO) Read More »

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We finally got to kick off 2022 with our partner Houston Community College’s Center for Entrepreneurship. In tonight’s class I picked several points that will be the key items for ranking well in Google for 2022. Web Hosting There has been a dramatic focus put on Core Vitals. Because I have a long track record … Episode 206: Fine Tuning for ’22 Read More »

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When it comes to search engine optimization, people often overlook the value of basic SEO in their website and digital marketing operations. And some honestly may not even understand what to do or how to get started. It is never too late to make basic SEO an integral part of the website. As the owner … Episode 205 -A Beginners Guide to SEO: What is SEO? Read More »

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Table of Contents Add a header to begin generating the table of contents One of the biggest mistakes I see small businesses make is underutilizing Local SEO practices. If you want your local business to rank better in Google searches, Local SEO is a necessity because it reveals things about your specific location that could … Episode 204: Local SEO for 2022 Read More »

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I was invited to give a talk on SEO for the Houston West Chamber of Commerce and decided to talk this and make a bonus podcast out of it. This is a quick sprint though core vitals and how to use and interpret Web.dev. It is important to have a strong web hosting company to … Quick Primer on Core Vitals and Technical SEO Read More »

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As many know I have always been a big proponent of creating a comprehensive marketing strategy where the digital part, is just that apart.  So in this week’s podcast, we go through and unpack what that should look like and what you should be focusing on to set up a long-term sustainable strategy. What Business … Digital Marketing Strategies for 2022 Read More »

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As we all know goals are important. At the start of the year, they seem to be front and center. Digital Marketing for your business is no different. There is no time like the present to get started with it. Two Sides of the Content Coin Content discussions have been going on since the start … Digital Marketing Goals for 2022 Read More »

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New Year’s Day always brings with it resolutions. As business owners, we often have a set of business resolutions for an upcoming year. But do you include your marketing, and specifically your Digital Marketing?  Wherever you are in your digital marketing journey, start it or strengthen it by making sure you have the fundamentals in … 5 New Year Resolutions for Digital Marketing Success in 2022 Read More »

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I often hear what I do is voodoo or some kind of magic. Simply that is not true. Optimizing for SEO has everything to do with math and common sense more than it will ever be about magic. So we have some basic steps that we need to follow to do optimization for each page. … How to Optimize Content for SEO Read More »

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There is a lot of confusion about how to handle blogs in 2021. From should I be running a blog down to how should I be running it. As a business owner, your website (notice I said website) needs to have a blog. That is not really optional anymore. And the blog needs to be … Blogging vs Podcasting Episode 124 Read More »

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I hear a lot of different opinions on keywords and how relevant they are. I even had someone tell me that Google says there is not published keyword density and if Google says it we know it’s the truth. While it is true there is no published keyword density, the density of the keyword presence … Keyword: Why They Are STILL Important Today! Read More »

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June 2021 COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive Classes Remain Zoom Only June 2, 2021 Picking winning Keywords for better SEO Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98185725390 Meeting ID: 981 … June 2021 Class Schedule Read More »

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In last week’s Score class I got a a question about adding content to keywords after you wrote a page. In essence, what is an SEO content strategy.  I answered the question no that I do not do that, but upon further reflection it got me thinking about the process I do use when I … SEO Content Strategy : Dissecting the Process Read More »

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In last week's Score class I got a a question about adding content to keywords after you wrote a page. In essence, what is an SEO content strategy.  I answered the question no that I do not do that, but upon further reflection it got me thinking about the process I do use when I … SEO Content Strategy : Dissecting the Process Read More »

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So Google is FINALLY seeing things my way. Every year since I've been doing the Internet Marketing Clinic, I've tried to prognosticate where I think we will be or what will happen in the up coming year. I am often pretty well correct.  But this year there is a some vindication for me I think. … Is your Digital Marketing ready for 2021 Read More »

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So Google is FINALLY seeing things my way. Every year since I’ve been doing the Internet Marketing Clinic, I’ve tried to prognosticate where I think we will be or what will happen in the up coming year. I am often pretty well correct.  But this year there is a some vindication for me I think. … Is your Digital Marketing ready for 2021 Read More »

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February 2021 *note: there are some extra classes this month including: Intro to WordPress  COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive Classes Remain Zoom Only Feb 3, 2021 Are You Ready to Win 2021 in Digital Marketing? Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic … February 2021 Class Schedule Read More »

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It may be helpful to think of general search engine optimization as a large umbrella under which more specific types live, one of which is technical SEO.  If SEO is the umbrella, technical SEO is the handle.  So, let me ask you this: how well does an umbrella work without a handle?  The answer is … Technical SEO: The Foundation of SEO Success Read More »

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If you’re reading this, chance are you are trying to figure  out the cost of SEO should be. this blog post, then you’ve already SEO needs to be integrated into your website’s culture and are now delving into what is would cost of SEO to be implemented.  It is important to remember that the main … What is the Cost of SEO Sevices in Houston? Read More »

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December 2020 COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive Classes Remain Zoom Only December 2, 2020 50 WordPress Hacks Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98185725390 Meeting ID: 981 8572 5390 One … December 2020 Classes Read More »

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In today’s episode we discuss social media and tips and tricks and how planning can make these efforts more effective.  To that end we talk about: Why businesses need a Facebook page dedicated specifically to the business and what the About Us section can do for you. The importance of being an expert, owning your … Ep 120: Tips and Tricks for Successful Social Media Read More »

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In today’s episode we discuss social media and tips and tricks and how planning can make these efforts more effective.  To that end we talk about: Why businesses need a Facebook page dedicated specifically to the business and what the About Us section can do for you. The importance of being an expert, owning your … Ep 120: Tips and Tricks for Successful Social Media Read More »

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No matter what type of business you have, for the holidays see a better buying time. Many small business owners though don’t always handle this all right. It’s passe’ but making sure your website is mobile-friendly is often and can work well with a mobile device. We are now to a point where more transactions … IMC Ep 121 Hints and tips for Holiday Success Read More »

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No matter what type of business you have, for the holidays see a better buying time. Many small business owners though don't always handle this all right. It's passe' but making sure your website is mobile-friendly is often and can work well with a mobile device. We are now to a point where more transactions … Internet Marketing Clinic Ep 121 Read More »

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November 2020 COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive Classes Remain Zoom Only November 4, 2020 Spying 101 Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98185725390 Meeting ID: 981 8572 5390 One tap … November Class Schedule Read More »

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In today’s Internet, Marketing Clinic decided it was a good time to go back to basics and talk about some basic tips that are often overlooked, forgotten, or just poorly executed especially when SEO is a goal for your website. Last week I was talking a web design client who asked me to ‘do’ SEO … 22 Tips for SEO Success Read More »

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In today’s Internet, Marketing Clinic decided it was a good time to go back to basics and talk about some basic tips that are often overlooked, forgotten, or just poorly executed especially when SEO is a goal for your website. Last week I was talking a web design client who asked me to ‘do’ SEO … 22 Tips for SEO Success Read More »

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October 2020 COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive Classes Remain Zoom Only October 7, 2020 Social Media Tips and Content Planning Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98185725390 Meeting ID: 981 … October 2020 Class Schedule Read More »

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Okay I’ll admit it, I am a big fan of WordPress. The whys of course is multi-faceted. Although we talk a lot about the ilks of web site builders, the other side of WordPress is how flexible it is and however even Google is now building plugins. So what are plugins. They are ways to … Internet Marketing Clinic 118: WordPress Plugins | RankMath vs Yoast Read More »

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Okay I’ll admit it, I am a big fan of WordPress. The whys of course is multi-faceted. Although we talk a lot about the ilks of web site builders, the other side of WordPress is how flexible it is and however even Google is now building plugins. So what are plugins. They are ways to … Internet Marketing Clinic 118: WordPress Plugins | RankMath vs Yoast Read More »

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I’ve seen many things through the years and one thing that puzzles me is a small business owner who has trouble justifying SEO (search engine optimization). Sometimes it comes down to money, and I get that. But, sometimes it is the misnomer that bigger businesses need SEO. I often here no one comes to my … How To Get Started in SEO: A Small Business Survival Guide Read More »

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I've been doing SEO along time and keywords have been around since the first boolean searches. The premise is simple. You add a word to a page and the Boolean search comes along finds those words and returns the answer. Though the years, keywords were that one talking point that SEO companies used as a … Episode 117: All About Keywords Read More »

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I’ve been doing SEO along time and keywords have been around since the first boolean searches. The premise is simple. You add a word to a page and the Boolean search comes along finds those words and returns the answer. Though the years, keywords were that one talking point that SEO companies used as a … Episode 117: All About Keywords Read More »

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Using the right permalink and how to build one is often lost in modern day web building. For those of us that have been around 20 years, we remember the days of building a site with actual directories and publishing with dreamweaver or Microsoft Front-page. Now with CMS system like WordPress, the old directory structure … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 116: The Truth About Permalinks and SSL Read More »

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Using the right permalink and how to build one is often lost in modern day web building. For those of us that have been around 20 years, we remember the days of building a site with actual directories and publishing with dreamweaver or Microsoft Front-page. Now with CMS system like WordPress, the old directory structure … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 116: The Truth About Permalinks and SSL Read More »

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COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by And Our Partner Sponsors Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive September 2020 Class Schedule *Classes Remain Zoom Only September 2, 2020 Picking Keywords To Be More Effective Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join … Vertical Web Class Schedule September 2020 Read More »

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In today’s Internet Marketing Clinic we talked about how to do Email marketing with the Vertical Web way of doing this. Since the pandemic Vertical Web has started working with email marketing to help our clients stay in touch but also we have realized that we can create a circumstance where we are reminding folks … Episode 115: Recreating Sales Leads – Email Marketing Can Help with SEO and Sales Read More »

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In today's Internet Marketing Clinic we talked about how to do Email marketing with the Vertical Web way of doing this. Since the pandemic Vertical Web has started working with email marketing to help our clients stay in touch but also we have realized that we can create a circumstance where we are reminding folks … Episode 115: Recreating Sales Leads – Email Marketing Can Help with SEO and Sales Read More »

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We do a lot of talking about how to do SEO but we often don’t talk about the tools we use and why we use them. In this episode we talk about the tools but also how I use them to make decisions on how to move a page up in Google. I’ve always said … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 114: Internet SEO Toolbox Read More »

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We do a lot of talking about how to do SEO but we often don't talk about the tools we use and why we use them. In this episode we talk about the tools but also how I use them to make decisions on how to move a page up in Google. I've always said … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 114: Internet SEO Toolbox Read More »

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Sometimes it is good to go back to basics. In today's episode, I take a look at what are the basic principles of SEO and why every business owner needs to have an SEO strategy for their business. The topics I cover are: What is SEO anyway? And, why does it matter?  There seems to … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 113: SEO Beginners Guide Read More »

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Sometimes it is good to go back to basics. In today’s episode, I take a look at what are the basic principles of SEO and why every business owner needs to have an SEO strategy for their business. The topics I cover are: What is SEO anyway? And, why does it matter?  There seems to … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 113: SEO Beginners Guide Read More »

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Episode 112 is something I speak about a lot which is what web building tools or platform is good to use.  As I teach these classes many point out their tools/platforms don't have the ability to do what I'm suggesting. That is because they are platforms that have the most rudimentary SEO functionality built-in but … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 112: How To Choose the Right Web Building Platform Read More »

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Episode 112 is something I speak about a lot which is what web building tools or platform is good to use.  As I teach these classes many point out their tools/platforms don’t have the ability to do what I’m suggesting. That is because they are platforms that have the most rudimentary SEO functionality built-in but … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 112: How To Choose the Right Web Building Platform Read More »

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COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by And Our Partner Sponsors Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive August 2020 Class Schedule *Classes Remain Zoom Only August 5, 2020 Beginners SEO Checklist Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98185725390 … Vertical Web Class Schedule August 2020 Read More »

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If on your own you’ve researched and implemented some basic SEO on your website but have found the results to be more lackluster than you would like, it is time to look into what technical SEO is and why you should care.  SEO in any form is better than nothing, but an SEO team can … What Is Technical SEO and Why You Should Care Read More »

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Todays’s podcast covers a bunch of different SEO topics as we work on our ultimate end of the year checklist for 2020. (I know it’s a few months away but it’s coming fast!) Google Webmaster Tools We talk about webmaster tools and why every site should have it set up. The easy way to do … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 111: Ultimate SEO Checklist pt1 Read More »

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Todays's podcast covers a bunch of different SEO topics as we work on our ultimate end of the year checklist for 2020. (I know it's a few months away but it's coming fast!) Google Webmaster Tools We talk about webmaster tools and why every site should have it set up. The easy way to do … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 111: Ultimate SEO Checklist pt1 Read More »

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It is barely noon and with the more than half a dozen calls and emails I’ve already received this morning asking for advice on keeping businesses relevant and operational during coronavirus, the irony that long ago I scheduled a post for today on tips for how to turn a website into a new online storefront … Seven Tips to Add E-commerce To Your Website to Add Revenue Read More »

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Technical SEO is a must for anyone that needs to do onsite SEO. Learn here why it is a must and why elements of a page are included. Topics include H1 Tags, Title Tags, and other more technical aspects of a page Read our recent blog post on technical SEO

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Technical SEO is a must for anyone that needs to do onsite SEO. Learn here why it is a must and why elements of a page are included. Topics include H1 Tags, Title Tags, and other more technical aspects of a page Read our recent blog post on technical SEO

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Some business owners mistakenly think that putting a website together will automatically cause a business to boom.  It’s true that a website can put you on the map, but if you’re the only one with the map, it won’t amount to much.  Using SEO to boost your website’s google search ranking is like giving someone … 8 SEO Tips That Can Contribute to Better Google Rankings Read More »

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In this episode, we take a look at the importance of six  specific items that will make or break your Google rankings: Content – Why content is important and how Google may now go as far as to exclude thin or. underdeveloped/uninspired content. Without a strong content footprint, it is very difficult to have a ranking … Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Ep 109 – 6 Tips to Better Google Rankings Read More »

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In this episode, we take a look at the importance of six  specific items that will make or break your Google rankings: Content – Why content is important and how Google may now go as far as to exclude thin or. underdeveloped/uninspired content. Without a strong content footprint, it is very difficult to have a ranking … Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Ep 109 – 6 Tips to Better Google Rankings Read More »

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In today’s episode, we talk about all the things you need to do to make LinkedIn work for your business. Included is a discussion of how to set up your LinkedIn Profile How to manage your business LinkedIn Page Good LinkedIn Etiquette The value of LinkedIn Creating B2B leads How LinkedIn can be a vital … Internet Marketing Clinic Ep 108: Making LinkedIn Work For Your Business Read More »

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In today's episode, we talk about all the things you need to do to make LinkedIn work for your business. Included is a discussion of how to set up your LinkedIn Profile How to manage your business LinkedIn Page Good LinkedIn Etiquette The value of LinkedIn Creating B2B leads How LinkedIn can be a vital … Internet Marketing Clinic Ep 108: Making LinkedIn Work For Your Business Read More »

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COMPLIMENTARY SEO CLASSES!   Presented by And Our Partner Sponsors Class Information and Archives: Internet Marketing Clinic Houston Full Class List  and Video Archive July 2020 Class Schedule Classes Remain Zoom Only July 1, 2020 6 Things That Improve SEO for Small Business Owners Topic: Houston NW Digital Marketing Clinic Time:  11:00 AM Central Time (US … Vertical Web Class Schedule July 2020 Read More »

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Today’s episode covers a wide variety of topics all of which are common SEO mistakes business owners make. Topics include Not properly securing your website and using https Not using Title Tags and Meta Descriptions properly Duplication of content and title tags Not adding proper Anchor text though the site and not setting up a … Internet Marketing Clinic Ep 107: 27 Common SEO Mistakes Read More »

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Today's episode covers a wide variety of topics all of which are common SEO mistakes business owners make. Topics include Not properly securing your website and using https Not using Title Tags and Meta Descriptions properly Duplication of content and title tags Not adding proper Anchor text though the site and not setting up a … Internet Marketing Clinic Ep 107: 27 Common SEO Mistakes Read More »

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Establishing a digital foundation for your company’s website is mandatory for success in 2020, but throw in a pandemic that puts sales in jeopardy?  The answer is yes, or at least it is if the foundation is laid correctly. What do I mean by this?  There are two main strategies involved in crafting a digital … How to Keep a Strong Digital Footprint Read More »

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The importance of authority has been growing. Because of the May 2020 Core update, authority is back in the spotlight. Blogging is now more important than ever. What are you doing to bring value to the internet at large? We emphasized why to add a blog, how to blog, and what to do push the … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 106: Blogging For Authority Read More »

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The importance of authority has been growing. Because of the May 2020 Core update, authority is back in the spotlight. Blogging is now more important than ever. What are you doing to bring value to the internet at large? We emphasized why to add a blog, how to blog, and what to do push the … Internet Marketing Clinic Episode 106: Blogging For Authority Read More »

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Crafting a strong online presence that has your company appearing in local business searches is no longer optional if you want your business to survive amidst a pandemic. It is not a popular thing to hear because it demands an investment of time search engine optimization (SEO), but we are in the business of solving … Local SEO May Help Business During Pandemic Read More »

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In this episode, we take a look at the 4 items that help build internet success. We cover the need for onsite content and building authority for your site and for your brand. We also look at Social media and the proper use of social media to build up the reputation of your website and … Episode 105: Internet Marketing Clinic Tips for Internet Marketing Success Read More »

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In this episode, we take a look at the 4 items that help build internet success. We cover the need for onsite content and building authority for your site and for your brand. We also look at Social media and the proper use of social media to build up the reputation of your website and … Episode 105: Internet Marketing Clinic Tips for Internet Marketing Success Read More »

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In today’s episode, our topic covers the use of a chamber of commerce membership and how it will impact your local search success. We cover how to find and identify a good chamber of commerce that will help a website. We discuss website authority. And, we also discuss which ones you should join based on … Episode 104: How a Chamber of Commerce Membership Helps Local SEO Read More »

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In today's episode, our topic covers the use of a chamber of commerce membership and how it will impact your local search success. We cover how to find and identify a good chamber of commerce that will help a website. We discuss website authority. And, we also discuss which ones you should join based on … Episode 104: How a Chamber of Commerce Membership Helps Local SEO Read More »

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This is a great overview of what is needed for success in 2020. In this episode, we talk about building authority through your blog and your behavior. Google is looking for experts and in order to be an expert, you need to blog and build an audience. You need to do things like Facebook lives … Internet Marketing Clinic – Holistic SEO for 2020 Read More »

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This is a great overview of what is needed for success in 2020. In this episode, we talk about building authority through your blog and your behavior. Google is looking for experts and in order to be an expert, you need to blog and build an audience. You need to do things like Facebook lives … Internet Marketing Clinic – Holistic SEO for 2020 Read More »

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In Episode 102, the Internet Marketing Clinic takes a look at how best to create content for Google. We look at a myriad of different considerations from how to pick the keywords to how to structure the page. And then how to code the right information into the page to make it more attractive to … Internet Marketing Clinic – How To Write Content For A Website For Google And SEO Read More »

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Vertical Web Podcast Link Subscribe: SoundCloud  In this episode, we explore how to make sure your website is in tip-top shape and how to work towards converting a user into a buyer or a warm lead for a business. We reviewed errors, from spelling to layout to descriptions. We critique the words and how that … Internet Marketing Clinic Ep 101 Read More »

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Vertical Web PRIVACY POLICY Effective 01/01/2022 Vertical Web  is a U.S. based web hosting service provider. Vertical Web respects the privacy of every individual who visits www.veticalweb.com (“Website”) and/or purchases its Services. This Privacy Policy is our commitment to transparency in communicating how Vertical Web collects, uses, and discloses the information that is collected from … Privacy Policy for Vertical Web Read More »

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The week of October 25th Google released another update that they say is the biggest leap forward in search in the last 5 years! So, let’s talk about what it’s all about and what it means to us as marketers that want to be visible on Google’s first page. BERT Understands Human Like Queries Better … Understanding Google’s Bert Update Read More »

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Google makes a lot of changes to their search algorithm in a years time. Last year there were 3200 0f them. These are usually minor changes we are never really told much about. Now core algorithm changes are a bit of a different matter those are major changes that google makes to the core of … September 2019 Google Core Update Has Rolled Out! Read More »

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The terms seo friendly or search engine friendly website seems to come up a lot these days but what does that actually mean to you as someone that has a business or wants to get a website built? The short answer is that a search engine friendly website is a site that is built in … What Makes For A Search Engine Friendly Website? Read More »

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So Google completed a core update as of June 3, 2019. There has been a lot of things written on the subject. However, there is one thing that seems to have been overlooked so far. How does this core update change the game online for  Franchise Owners and Realtors? The reason this comes up is … Franchise Owner and Real Estate Agent Google Survival Guide Read More »

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Hiring a reputable SEO firm is often tackled with apprehension and uncertainty. There are numerous online resources that make unrealistic promises, and charge high prices for results that simply cannot be guaranteed. Results depend on a number of factors, and hiring the appropriate company for those results is the first step to insuring a better … What To Look For When Hiring An SEO Firm Read More »

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The Best SEO Companies Uses White Hat SEO! The best SEO company practices guarantee a white hat rating by search engine organizations. A business that wants better internet visibility realizes what a valuable asset this service provides. They will also consider specific criteria for choosing the best SEO company that will meet their needs. What … Tips For Choosing The Best SEO Company Read More »

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Let’s face it Google has raised the bar on the quality of the content that appears on a website. Long gone are the days of keyword stuff pages that are overflowing with cliches just to up a word count, complex overly verbose sentences and every other trick we used to use to just fluff up … Content Guidelines for SEO Success Read More »

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 At some point in every businesses life is a membership for a chamber of commerce. There are many reasons a business chooses to join.  Networking, connections mentorship are probably the few immediate reasons to pop to mind. But did you know that your Chamber of commerce membership has a hidden but important value that most … Why Google Loves Your Chamber of Commerce Membership Read More »

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A friend asked for 7 tips a small business can follow that are basic for social media. It’s been rattling around in my brain for most of this Sunday because these are going to have to be pretty basic tips, I think. But if you knew nothing about social media, what would you say or … Seven Tips for Social Media Beginners and Confused Read More »

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Yesterday, I got up, got my coffee and sat down to cruise Facebook and Twitter, for anything Google may have changed while I was sleeping. Immediately a video was put up by Eric Enge, who I’ve seen speak many times and has written books on SEO. Great guy and super knowledgeable, so it caught my … Does Social Sharing Impact SEO? Read More »

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We often get this questions from clients who are considering adding a new product or service to their company that doesn’t fit inside what they presently do. So today I want to take a look at navigating how to decide what to do. There are a lot of factors to consider when launching a new … To Have Two Sites or Not to Have Two Sites? That is the Question. Read More »

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So yesterday I got an email from our publicist that asked me to give her 3 tips for people that own a website.  As I sat down to write them for her, I realized we had a really good core idea that could be easily made into a killer blog post as well as … Making Multiple Uses Out of Your One Content Idea Read More »

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In the age of penguins, there has been much attention paid to anchor text and how to use it properly now.  When I add in the considerations for the over-optimization penalty a page has, how to add and when to add anchor text had to change. First lets recap how we did things in the … Anchor Text in a Post Penguin world Read More »

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The 7 Deadly Sins of Web Design: Let’s face it, website conversion should be the end game of every website. The basic purpose of a website is to have the page convert into a sale or a contact from a potential client.  Almost daily I am confronted with a website that didn’t include ways for … 7 Deadly Sins of Web Design Read More »

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Is paid search marketing beneficial? Is it going to cost less to do it oneself? Why is hiring an SEO expert ideal? Advertising to an online target audience is not always easy. Even a professional can easily become overwhelmed especially with all the rule changes associated with each and every search engine. Success means understanding … Look To The Experts To Perform Paid Search Marketing Read More »

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What makes the ideal choice from all of the available online marketing companies? How can the consumer save money while maximizing results? What is most important when searching for a better page ranking? Ask about the experience of the proposed service provider. If the provider hires employees, are those people trained and experienced? Is their work … Achieve Real Results With Online Marketing Companies Read More »

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Everyone has known someone who takes risks and cuts corners and that is what a black hat SEO does.  It is a lazy way to promote a business as being a search engine optimization service when in actuality the service they are providing is immoral and unethical.  They will eventually lead their customers into the … What Is A Black Hat SEO Service Read More »

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Some people think of it is as high tech advertising, but internet marketing is much more than that.  The idea behind the success of a company’s website is to make sure that they beat out the competition by allowing search engines to find the business’s page easily. This is done through the placement of links, … Internet Marketing Is More Than Just Advertisement Read More »

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Local search marketing services will help guide a small business in the direction of profit making.  They manage the existing site and bring the website’s rankings up on the various popular browsers like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. A search engine optimization company will have a consultant meet with the business owner.  They will discuss the … How Local Search Marketing Services Can Increase Sales Read More »

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One of the key elements to business web development and its success is hiring the right SEO firm.  Anyone can design a website on the internet.  It is even possible to do so without charge.  However, there are other things such as hosting and maintaining it that begin to make the average person nervous.  For … The Key Elements To Business Web Development Read More »

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What are the most effective techniques to use when investing in a search marketing campaign? Are all results the same? What provides the best long term results? When it comes to online advertising, people have questions. There are so many variables and possibilities that a single answer is not going to suit every website. Knowing … Deciding The Best Methods To Use For Search Marketing Read More »

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The Internet marketing specialist is increasingly becoming a vital part of companies’ strategies to hold and expand their share of the marketplace. Displaying a dazzling array of Internet-specific skills, these personnel develop and refine the digital presence of companies, corporations and organizations, ensuring the continued commercial viability of their business clients. Search engine optimization, blog … Turning To An Internet Marketing Specialist For Help Read More »

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Part of hiring a professional internet marketing consultancy includes ensuring a proper prioritization of strategies to maximize potential benefits. Some techniques take longer to see provable results, and other techniques are going to see faster results.  Mixing the two ensure better results that are long term, and provide the desirable affects. Many people try coaching … Finding The Right Internet Marketing Consultancy Firm Read More »

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Choosing a web development firm to ensure a positive online presence takes a bit of effort. There are a number of viable choices online, and sometimes, the choice comes down to price. However, knowing how to choose a company that provides the needed services and is on the up and up is the first step … Searching For The Best Web Development Firm Read More »

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Choosing the right internet marketing service company means investigating the process by which that company works. Does the company have a plan of action that is detail orientated? Can the company provide all the necessary parts of the campaign? What success has the company had in the past? A company that provides this type of … Internet Marketing Service Read More »

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There are many methods for obtaining a professional ecommerce website design.  There are free templates, premium templates, and custom designs to choose from for the business owner looking for an online presence. While some of those methods allow the business owner to not have to pay a single dime, sometimes, they want something a little … How Ecommerce Website Design Can Help A Business Read More »

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There is a vast difference between designing a business site and custom web development.  Knowing the difference can save a business a considerable amount of time, stress, and money.  A well designed site can increase its potential for revenue and attract a specifically targeted demographic to the site. Basic designing may look aesthetically pleasing but … What Custom Web Development Companies Have To Offer Read More »

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Website development IS defined by customization to client need. Sites are attractive and balanced.  They are also highly functional.  Advanced internet marketing methods are combined with the best in copywriting and web editing services.  This makes your site easy for potential clients to find. We regard it as pointless to create websites that rival movie … The Power Of Website Development Read More »

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Google’s Panda has been something that we SEO experts have been trying to keep up with for a little more than year now. So as I sat down to write my SEO class for this month. I wanted to put all the Google Panda updates in one place. I started to compile its history so … What is Google Panda…Really Read More »

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Social media marketing will soon be the primary medium for PR, marketing, and sales. Using these resources needs to be top priority if you wish to dominate your respective vertical market. By enhancing your image and dialoguing with your clients, your protect those clients from being stolen by your competition. Meanwhile, the ongoing community management … Social Media Marketing Management Read More »

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Vertical Web’s high impact website creates consistent, long-term lead generation for every client. Every website is aesthetically appealing without busy overkill.  The power of our approach, and the key to the success that we create for you, is rigorous SEO. We require ourselves to make sure that you are found by your clients.  We see … High Impact Website Design Read More »

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What is Reputation Management? Simply stated, it is the science of URL domination on the front page of a search engine.  We see to it that every listing about you that appears in a relevant search points to something good about your organization. Why would we need it? You need it because someone out there … What is Reputation Management Read More »

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Our services center on search engine optimization.. This means you benefit from organic listings that keep you in high positions in Google and Bing.  This is thanks to copywriters that develop a robust presentation of content across the board. The key phrases that are used directly pertain to your business offerings. These phrases are then … SEO The Competitive Advantage Read More »

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Vertical Web builds turnkey websites and offers ongoing search marketing and enterprise solutions. The qualified leads we generate for our clients create new streams of consistent revenue.  The strategies we implement are carefully planned and executed with systematic precision. Our search marketing methods are highly specialized, having been tested and proven with over 10 years … What We Do At Vertical Web Read More »

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Vertical Web builds turnkey web designs around enterprise solutions. We provide everything needed by you to rise to a position of true market dominance.  We offer plenty of room, and even more options, to provide you with reliable, productive process flow. Co-location makes it possible for the smallest companies to have everything a big company … Web Design & Enterprise Solutions Read More »

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Matt Cutts recently said that Google was going to start penalizing for over optimization. It was somewhat abnormal for this to be said because Google doesn’t pre-announce what its plans are. Plus to boot, this was the opposite of the information he had previously released. But again, as we struggle to figure out what Google’s … Over Optimization on the SEO Horizon Read More »

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Okay, so we all have theories, right? Well I have a new one, based on the new decoder ring info Google put out saying it changed how it evaluates links. Google often says very little about what it does and gives very few clues other than to provide quality, engaging content. Well, this one seemed … Panda 3.3 What is the change to how Google Evaluates Links? Read More »

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More and more companies around the world are turning to professionals to help them with internet marketing for their online business.  To keep up with the fast paced world of today, people are finding out that they need to hop on the online interstate.  They need to have a company website that customers can use … Internet Marketing For An Online Business Read More »

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An internet marketing consultant can make a key difference in the success of an advertising push on the web.  A business is wise to hire an internet marketing consultant to maximize the number of satisfied customers that will result from a promotional campaign. The first of the pieces to this project is to get the … The Service An Internet Marketing Consultant Provides Read More »

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Finding an internet marketing guru is not as difficult as it sounds. The World Wide Web is a hotbed of information, news, and services, which allows anyone to find what is needed when it is needed the most. Indeed, online is the perfect place to look for a specialist who is capable of advertising a … What An Internet Marketing Guru Does Read More »

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When it comes to online searches, cheap search engine optimization is a priority for many business owners who know just how important it is to have their website ranked well. Keywords will be a big focus, but the basics are really all the owner needs to know when he is willing to look to the … Using Cheap Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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It is advisable to hire internet marketing agencies to do a number of different tasks when preparing to launch a website.  These professionals know everything that needs to be done to design a successful website for an online business, or to give more visibility to a brick and mortar business.  They are highly trained in … About Hiring Internet Marketing Agencies Read More »

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Choosing the best internet marketing and advertising campaign for a website takes dedication, patience, and knowledge. There are numerous popular methods for getting the best SEO or SEM today, but all of those campaigns must follow similar rules set forth by the numerous popular search engines that lead the way in getting revenue to those … Get The Best Results With Internet Marketing And Advertising Read More »

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The best way to describe what search engine optimization companies do is to explain it using an example, as in realizing that a business has the best coffee that anyone has ever consumed.  This coffee is raved about by everyone who has the chance to drink a cup.  However, once the local customers have all … Consider Using Search Engine Optimization Companies Read More »

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What defines an affordable search engine optimization campaign? How can a website get the natural results that are necessary for optimal success? Does price really make a difference? What is the most effective type of campaign? Understanding how affordable search engine optimization functions is usually the first step in recognizing real services provided by real … Defining Affordable Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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Professional search engine optimization seeks to rank any individual company over all others when it comes to online searches.  Of course, there are other ways to get the word out for any particular company, but as time moves on, some of those become more obscure.  Some will even become obsolete.  While a big, splashy yellow … Turning To Professional Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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Internet marketing campaigns are a priceless tool for any company wishing to increase its visibility on the web.  A company can gain a wider customer base, enhance its reputation, and accelerate growth through the use of internet marketing campaigns. During these online operations, statistical data is gathered that is used to create lists of potential … The Key To Internet Marketing Campaigns Read More »

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Internet marketing solutions are a multi-pronged approach that a Search Engine Optimization Company will use to take a business to the first page ranking in the browser.  Purchasing decisions can be increased simply by changing up the business’s homepage and pushing them to the top of the search engine.  A business can make profits by … Internet Marketing Solutions Come In Various Forms Read More »

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Great internet marketing advice is one of the most important things that an online business can hope to find.  The best way to find this necessary strategy is to enlist the services of a great search engine optimization specialist, such as an SEO consulting firm.  SEO consultants know what it takes to optimize all of … Seeking Internet Marketing Advice Read More »

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Many people have no idea what to do once they have their website; search engine optimization is what they need.  The idea of SEO can be explained simply through comparing it to simple advertising at a physical business.  Advertisement is the key of the SEO consultants.  It is impossible to sell something if no one … Understanding Website Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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Search engine reputation management ensures a positive image on the internet.  With more and more potential clients relying on information about businesses that surface on the internet on which to base their buying behavior, use of a search engine reputation management service is extremely important. It seems logical that a good company would have nothing … Considering Search Engine Reputation Management Read More »

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One look around the internet and it is easy to see as a business owner that one will need the assistance of search engine optimization consulting.  Why? It is all about getting one’s website noticed and accessible. Being more visible on the web means more return on one’s investment.  That can only be done with … Utilizing Search Engine Optimization Consulting Read More »

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There are a number of ways to get results from online internet marketing. However, not all websites will benefit from every method. In addition, some methods are free and some can get quite expensive. Knowing how to best get those vital visitors may be better left in the hand of a professional with experience melding … Ways To Get Results From Online Internet Marketing Read More »

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How powerful can the best search engine optimization company, or SEO for short, be for a business?  The choicest SEO Company will lead consumers to the top rankings of page one in the web browser.  This process will influence the millions of people searching for a particular product or service to the businesses homepage. Many … Finding The Best Search Engine Optimization Company Read More »

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Effective internet marketing doesn’t involve just one aspect of advertisement.  It combines many different types of methods that are available online to help get the product, goods, or services out to the right demographics and target audience.  There are many ways that electronic advertising can be used to boost sales or find new customers.  Some … Effective Internet Marketing Tools Read More »

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In the online world that we all live in today, many businesses are opting to hire a search engine optimisation company to help get more customers logging onto their business website.  There is a lot of competition on the internet today with just about any type of business out there.  When someone does an internet … Looking For A Search Engine Optimisation Company Read More »

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Anyone who is attempting to make a website for their business needs to ask “What is Search Engine Optimization?”  This is a very important question and can make the difference between an average site and an amazing site.  The more people that visit that webpage, the better the company will do.  Today, it is not … What Is Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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Utilizing top search engine optimization is probably one of the best decisions a web based business can make.  By doing so, they will have hired a company that can not only maintain their website and the information on the page, but they can guard their online reputation as well. Top search engine optimization will help … Using A Top Search Engine Optimization Company Read More »

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There are many companies out there that claim to provide internet marketing help.  However, there are many of those that are not to be taken seriously.  If it seems too good to be true, then beware.  The best way to find a great SEO consulting agency is to make sure that they are clear about … Getting The Best Internet Marketing Help Possible Read More »

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There are few advanced techniques in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as effective and affordable as local internet marketing.  Whether a company goes at it alone or hires a professional, the effectiveness of techniques will depend on the functionality and development of the website.  Additionally, a good website is not always the aesthetic value of the … How Local Internet Marketing Can Help Read More »

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Whether a business that has just got started or is one that has been around for a while, they both need a reputation management SEO company.  A SEO consultant will know and understand the needs of a business whether or not it has been the victim of some bad press, or it is enjoying a … The Benefits Of A Reputation Management SEO Company Read More »

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It is good for any company that interacts with its customers online to have a great reputation management strategy.  Basically, this means that the company needs to make sure that they have a plan on how to get and keep a good image for all of their customers.  Any strikes against a business could be … Coming Up With A Good Reputation Management Strategy Read More »

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Small business internet marketing is defined largely in part by what the company does, how it does it, and who it does it for in addition to why it is better than all the others out there doing the same thing.  Knowing who the target audience is allows the advertisement to reach them with ease.  … All About Small Business Internet Marketing Read More »

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Internet marketing management is a branch of advertisement that is widely sought after on the web today.  It is crucial to be able to maintain exposure while finding new ways to get the word out about a business’s product or service.  This is absolutely necessary in the competitive online market that a business faces. Internet … What An Internet Marketing Management Offers Read More »

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Today, more and more people shop on the web so it only makes sense to engage in an internet marketing campaign.  While the oldest methods of advertising still exist, this is, by far, one of the best options for the technologically savvy customers that a business wants to target. There are many options which can … How An Internet Marketing Campaign Helps A Business Read More »

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A search engine optimization consultant can be a very important person to the website development for a retailer or business.  This is a writer who can try to maximize the traffic directed towards this commercial establishment by writing pieces with specific guidelines to follow. A search engine optimization consultant could be an employee or an … What Is A Search Engine Optimization Consultant Read More »

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Discovering the advantages of hiring a local search engine optimization company is as easy as understanding how marketing and advertising works for any sized business.  Sometimes, it can be complicated knowing where to spend those marketing and advertising dollars.  With more than 80% of all households owning a computer, is it any wonder that the … Hiring A Local Search Engine Optimization Company Read More »

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Online reputation management is something that can make or break an internet based business.  If the management is poor, then the public will quickly turn away from the company.  If it is done well, though, it could make the popularity of the company grow exponentially.  The definition of this term simply means creating a good … The Importance Of Online Reputation Management Read More »

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The best path to great internet marketing is through search engine optimization which is also known as SEO.  An SEO consultant is the digital equivalent to the advertising agents of days gone by.  While there are still advertising agents that are employed in the world, this new digital era has meant that there is a … About Internet Marketing And Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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The importance of a great internet marketing solution could be as simple as a great webpage.  A company designs a website because they make the best cookies on the planet.  They are known in their area for these cookies, and now they want to offer them to everyone online.  The website is now designed, and … Finding The Best Internet Marketing Solution Read More »

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What type of people or companies need reputation management services?  Is hiring a professional expensive?  Does it work? Controlling the character of an entity is vital.  Entities take pride in a positive character review by past clients.  Sometimes, negate reviews and comments can be left online even if the reviewer lives on another continent and … The Purpose Of Reputation Management Services Read More »

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There is no way to offer a set fee for a search engine optimization cost analysis.  Even if one was to call an SEO consultant, there still would not be a number that is carved in stone because of the variations in the types of needs that each individual client will require. More often than … Looking Into A Search Engine Optimization Cost Read More »

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It is crucial to have an internet marketing plan if one is trying to have a successful online business. One may want to do research and organize this information so that one can see the competition for their product. Be sure to know the facts and statistics about the product. Then it will be easier … Getting An Internet Marketing Plan Read More »

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There are a lot of people that know how to start a website, but they may not understand how important Google search engine optimization is to gaining traffic, business, and clients.  Many people have started a website only to be left with the question of what do they do now.  They have built the website … The Importance Of Google Search Engine Optimization Read More »

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Having an internet business and a successful one means that, most likely, one is going to use natural search engine optimization.  If not, then one is going to want to use it to increase their websites visibility.  Using natural search engine optimization means that one’s website will be more accessible and visible than other sites … Natural Search Engine Optimization For Your Internet Business Read More »