Blog Marketing | SEO Marketing | Web Marketing

How To Automate Your SEO Strategy

January 3, 2021 by
SEO Automation

To run a business successfully in the 21st century, you must develop a sound online marketing campaign. Search engine optimization should be at the center of it.

SEO is the practice of using algorithms to drive people to your website. It involves a complex array of virtual systems and structures that have a single aim: clicks on websites owned by your company.

It would be costly and inefficient for members of your workforce or even an independent firm to monitor and manage your SEO operations. You should instead automate as many SEO tasks as you can.

If applied effectively, SEO automation software can significantly improve the efficiency of your SEO process.

What You Can Automate in SEO

You cannot automate everything. But you don’t need to. You just need to automate the most tedious and time-consuming tasks and process. Here are some of the parts you should focus on:

1. Site monitoring

After you launch your new SEO campaign, you will need to monitor it to keep track of how it performs. You will need to figure out ways to improve the site and carry out any maintenance required. It is essential to assess page load time, broken links, site downtime, and other basic housekeeping issues.

This kind of monitoring can be automated. There is software that allows you to set up alerts if something goes wrong with your site. Automation will also help you collect data on your site quickly so that you can put it into action straightaway.

2. Rank tracking

The main reason for developing and implementing SEO algorithms is for your website to rank high when key words and phrases are used in search engines. You will need a way to track this ranking process. But when you have a multitude of sites and hundreds of pages with keywords in them, it is difficult to track each page’s ranking manually. The better option is to automate. Automation software will make it easy for you to see how your pages are doing is search engine rankings. It will also show how your rankings change and improve over time.

3. Backlink analysis

Backlinks are fundamental to your SEO campaign. Backlinks demonstrate the soundness of the content you have published on your sites. They enhance the authority of your brand and boost confidence and trust in your company over time, which leads to an increase in rankings.

You will want the best backlinks for your page. However, you will need to monitor them to ensure their quality. SEO automation simplifies this process. The software you use will make it easier for you to see who is linking to your websites.

4. Competitor monitoring

You are in the most intense competition with other businesses for search engine rankings. The more information you have on your rivals the easier it will be to create SEO algorithms and strategies to outdo them—that is, outrank them.

You may have more competitors than you think. The web is a kind of equalizer when it comes to business. You can be sure that your rivals for search engine rankings go beyond those you are already familiar with. There are probably hundreds of companies that you must contend with. Automating the competitor monitoring process allows you to see the biggest threats to your ranking and develop strategies to keep your business at the top.

5. Site audit

There may be a number of technical issues that prevent your sites from ranking as high as they should. While it is possible to identify such issues through a crawl, this takes a great deal of time. You should instead automate the process. You can set up a crawl program that will do most of the work for you and present the problems that may be holding you back. You can then focus on fixing the issues rather than uncovering them.

6. Reports

Creating and presenting reports is part of managing your business. Financial stakeholders, employees, clients, and prospective clients will all want to know how your business is doing. They will want to know the areas in which your company is strong and those places that need improvement.

Generating reports helps you get the financing and investment you need to operate and expand. It also helps you develop a strategy that will help you meet your business goals. If your company is based entirely online or is heavily dependent on the virtual sphere, your reports will focus mostly on SEO operations. The trouble is that creating these reports is time-consuming. Your executive team cannot spare the time to carry out this task.

Fortunately, report generation is a SEO task that can be automated. You can create a range of different reports, including those covering monthly SEO status, organic search positions, site audits, backlinks, and competitor analysis.

7. Log file analyzer

One of the best ways to assess how search engines interact with your sites is to analyze the log files of your sites. This is a little-known method of figuring out which of your pages are being crawled and which of your pages is the most crawled. It will also help you determine whether your crawl budget is being well-spent.

Use SEO Automation Plugin

When choosing an SEO automation plugin, choose a company that has a strong track record of delivering proven results. The SEO plugin you choose is a crucial decision because it will help streamline SEO tasks. The one we use is called “SEO Press” and is among the top names in the industry.

With SEO Press, you get all the SEO and optimization bells and whistles you need in one plugin. Special features include the ability to manage your titles and to create meta descriptions and meta robots for every post and page.

SEO Press can also improve your search engine crawling by providing XML sitemaps of your posts, pages, and custom post types. And it offers software such as Open Graph tags, Twitter Card, and Google Knowledge Graph to enhance social network sharing.

SEO automation can help you be a better manager, organizer, and entrepreneur—whether you run a growing independent company or you are part of a large and well-established firm.

I hope this post was helpful to you. I’d love to hear your thoughts about your favorite SEO automation tools and which ones you’ve had the most success with? Drop a comment in the box below and let me know!

SEO Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Web Marketing

Is SEO the New PR?

March 31, 2018 by
Is SEO the New PR?
Google PR marketing

Way back before the internet had even been invented, companies hired PR firms to get their name out, build a brand name reputation, and help prospective customers learn about them. Public relations professionals would dutifully go about writing press releases, scoring feature stories, and negotiating product presentation opportunities in the name of finding more buyers.

Then the internet came along and everything changed. Press releases lost their power to serve as a news source because newspapers and magazines were folding. Feature stories weren’t read because they didn’t stand out in the sea of information. Product placement decreased in value because there were so many new ways of viewing content.

Fortunately, there is still a way of getting your name in front of prospects when they look for the product or service you offer. It’s called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. This is a way of formulating your website, blogs, and social media content to be responsive to online search queries. If someone uses Google to search for “hotels in Santa Barbara,” or “restaurants in Santa Ynez Valley,” you want your website to pop up on the first page of their results.

How to Blend SEO Into Your PR Efforts

Here are tips you can use to incorporate more SEO, increase your visibility in search engine results, and help the internet drum up more business for your business:

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  • Make your website accessible: Search engines and potential customers need to be able to easily access your website. In addition to great content, you also want to get the technical parts right. You don’t want someone clicking to your website because you are the answer to their problem, only to get a “website not found” error. Check all pages for functionality, eliminate duplicate content, include title and H2 tags, and have a rich source of content.
  • Think about keywords: What do prospects search for when they need your product or service? Develop a list of words they might type into the search engine bar. If those words aren’t prominently included in your website copy, your site will not appear in their results. The content needs to be informative and natural; you can’t just add a list of keywords to the bottom of the page and hope it generates results. If there is a lot of competition in your field, incorporate plenty of terms which make your business stand out from the crowd.
  • Be a valuable resource: Look at your website as a potential customer might and ask yourself, “Does this help me?” You brought in somebody who searched for a particular term, so that had better appear right on your landing page. If you can’t see any benefits, then you’ve got some rewrites to do. Have content that is educational, helpful and easy to understand, and make sure it is current. There is nothing worse than navigating to a site that is chock full of old info. This effort helps prospects learn about you, and also signals the search engine algorithms that your site has something valuable to offer their users.
  • Provide a great website experience: Have a compelling website experience for your visitors. Most leave in seconds if they don’t think you can help, so have your prime selling proposition front and center. Make a clear learning path, avoid large blocks of content, and include helpful headlines that communicate key selling points. Include lots of pictures, graphics, and videos to quickly provide information. And make it easy to contact or buy from you.
  • Get social: Once your website strategy is in place, start bulking up your online presence through a concerted social media strategy. Have a Facebook page and Twitter account that offer useful information and drive visitors to your site. Provide the same branding experience across all outlets. This also increases the likelihood that the search engines will aggregate and incorporate additional contact opportunities for your company. Search results that include a website, Facebook page and LinkedIn page for a single company demonstrate a great deal of online flexibility. Use social media to encourage interaction and you’ll also boost search-ability.
  • Build more links: Search engines love it when other sites link to yours because this reflects your online credibility, but they can’t be random or low-quality links. Ask your current customers and contacts to link to your site if it makes sense for their business. You can provide reviews and referrals for complementary companies, and they can do the same for you. Bring in guest bloggers who will certainly link to your site from their blog, and you may even get organic links just because you have such helpful information in your blog. Make it easy for them by providing sample emails, tweets, or Facebook posts they can use to let others know more about you. You can also search for informative articles online and post comments on them that will introduce a new set of readers to your company.
  • Review sites: There are a number of online review sites that can help prospects find your business. You need to think in terms of Yelp, TripAdvisor, Open Table, Angie’s List, and other sites people go to gather insights. Initially, you just want to make sure they have the correct basic information such as address and phone number, but then you can ask your happiest clients to start posting reviews. If you’re in a more technical field, make sure your product specifications are included in industry sites.

If you’ve got a real news story, keep in mind that you can still generate PR with media outlets; it’s just moved online, too. If you’ve got a targeted customer base, check out your local media websites and look at ways you can provide news. They might have blogs or event calendars, or you might be able to email an editor or news director with a storyline about your business. SEO really can be the new PR for your company – you just need to know how to use it.

SEO Marketing | Web Marketing

IMAGE SEO & How To Correctly Name Your Photos

May 11, 2017 by
IMAGE SEO & How To Correctly Name Your Photos

SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION) – THE PROCESS OF OPTIMIZING A WEBSITE TO GENERATE THE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ‘ORGANIC’ (NON-PAID) VISITS FROM SEARCH ENGINES.

THE CORRECT WAY TO NAME YOUR PHOTOS FOR IMAGE SEO

The question on many photographers’ lips these days is: How do I get seen in a sea of similar websites?

Correctly naming your image files for optimal SEO, is a great way to start.  Google can’t analyze the actual content of an image to tell what it is depicting, and whilst this technology is most certainly on the way, it’s nowhere near ready just yet. Instead, they rely on several indicators on a web page to tell them what the photo is all about.  One of these is, as you might expect, the filename of the photo.  You should never upload photos to your website with the standard camera-applied filename, like DSC_9764.jpg!  This tells Google nothing at all and its content.

When Google knows more about the content of your image, it can include it in Image Search (click the image tab at the top of a Google search page), and sometimes the top images even show right at the head of a regular search page.  Not only does it help people find your photos directly, but it also helps Google understand the content of the page that you posted the photo on, helping that page show up higher in regular search results for the subject.

DASH OR UNDERSCORE?

Instead of the default filename, you should be describing the contents of the image in 3-8 words.  Importantly, you should be separating the words in your filename with a dash (hyphen), and not an underscore!

(THESE-ARE-DASHES)

(THESE_ARE_UNDERSCORES)

The inner workings of Google’s search engine algorithm are a closely guarded secret, but every now and again we get a little snippet of detail from one of their representatives on the Google Webmasters blog.  For some reason there’s a lot of misinformation circulating around the web on this topic, but Google’s Matt Cutts, has clearly stated that dashes (hyphens) are the way to go on this one. Whilst Matt Cutts does say that the SEO difference between the two is relatively minor, that means there is a difference.

STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH – DASH NOT UNDERSCORE!

EXAMPLES

– WRONG -> DSC_9807.jpg  

This tells Google nothing at all.

– WRONG -> blackcat.jpg  

Blackcat is not a word.

– WRONG -> black-cat.jpg

Whilst this technically does describe the image (assuming it is actually a black cat), have a think about how many photos of a black cat you’d be putting yourself up against on the internet?  Millions, I would imagine.

– WRONG -> a-black-cat-under-a-red-car.jpg

There’s no need to include stop words in your filename (a, the, it, to, etc.). Keep it short and simple.

– WRONG -> black_cat_under_red_car.jpg

Nope, the underscore isn’t a recognized word separator. To Google, this just reads as blackcatunderredcar.jpg! No good.

– CORRECT -> black-cat-under-red-car.jpg

Now we’re getting somewhere! Descriptive, and with the correct separators and no stop words.

USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE

Since the filename helps Google understand the content of the page that the photo is on, you can use this to boost your search rankings for specific topics.

EXAMPLE

You are a wedding photographer from San Francisco and on the About page of your website, there is a headshot of you next to your biography.

WRONG -> joe-blogs-portrait.jpg

CORRECT -> joe-bloggs-san-francisco-wedding-photographer.jpg.

SHOULD YOU RENAME EXISTING IMAGES?

If you’re using a photo portfolio service like Photoshelter, SmugMug (get a 20% discount here), or Zenfolio, with hundreds or thousands of images, there’s little point renaming all of those files to make the names descriptive. There are obviously some organizational benefits to a photographer’s standard archive file naming scheme when photos are hosted in large volumes. Hopefully with these kinds of online portfolio archive services, you’re making use of all the other SEO options to optimize them.

The ideal setup is to use a blogging platform like WordPress, to create a new blog post every time you upload a new collection of images to your archive or online print store.  In that blog post, you include a few of the images from the collection, and those are the images that you optimize with a proper name for SEO purposes.  With properly optimized page content, and images, you’ll rank higher in more search results and bring people to the blog post.  That’s when you can let them know that a full collection can be viewed on your archive site, or prints purchased from your print store.

But what if you’ve got existing blog images that weren’t correctly named?  WordPress doesn’t natively offer a way to rename images, but you can use the plug Media File Renamer. What you have to remember, though, is that the filename is part of the direct URL to that image.  If you do decide to change the filename, you’ll be altering the URL and it will reset any SEO juice that this image might have already gathered over time.

If you already have images that show up often in Google Image searches, you definitely don’t want to go renaming these ones.  Choose wisely when tackling this question… my thought is that if you have a relatively new blog of only a few months old, you can rename the files with this plugin and probably get more long-term benefit from it than a short-term disadvantage.  For older blogs, it’s probably not worthwhile.

Web Marketing

How Mother’s Day Rates Against Other Holidays

May 8, 2016 by
Taylor Reaume Blog Headers19

How Mother’s Day Rates Against Other Holidays (According to Sales, SEO, and Strategy)

According to the National Retail Federation, Mother’s Day is the third largest retail holiday. On average, people spend over 20 million dollars every single year, and not all on candy or flowers. If we equate this per person, it would average out to over $150 each.

mothers-day1

Mother’s Day appeals to a wide range of people (grandmas, moms, and daughters), and marketing messages tend to be more effective as a result.  That said, it’s important to work smarter, not harder.  Keywords are often overused (such as “Best Mother’s Day Gift”), so it’s important to be creative with your editorializing efforts – vary those keywords!  Smart marketers and SEO strategists use the fact that many marketers are lazily using saturated keywords, to boost engagement levels by using niche, under-used keywords.

On average, about 30% of the population looks up retailer information for products. Most of the time, this demographic is generally younger people between the ages of 18 and 24. This means that it’s essential to use mobile to get millennial visitors. Totals associated with demographics continue to change, however. In 2015, 40% of adults aged 18-35 used their phone to research different products online.

You might think that viewers of your site love coupons, but this often isn’t the case. Statistics suggest that free shipping was the most important thing to buyers. Price cuts and coupons averaged less than 45% of total respondents, compared to 57% preferring free shipping.

85% of all adults between the ages of 18 and 44 have a smartphone and 1 in 4 buy all their gifts online. A tiny percentage of shoppers actually buy gifts a month or more before the holiday arrives (for example, in April or March).

Most people buy their gifts in the time frame between one week and 48 hours before the holiday (totaling about 50%). Americans spend most, but Canadians, French, and Europeans also spend over $40 per person.

The online marketing space is getting more and more crowded everyday. But with the right strategy in search advertising, you’ll be able to corner a portion of your market that your competition might not have tapped into yet. With the right online marketing strategy, you would be able to pull in more visits and see improved revenue.

For more information on getting more customers with a cutting edge online marketing strategy, contact Search Engine Pros today.

Happy Mother's Day
SEO Marketing | Social Media Marketing | Web Marketing

Accelerate Your SEO Marketing for Christmas Now

December 2, 2014 by
Taylor Reaume Blog Headers28

By Taylor Reaume @ NOOZHAWK.COM

The holidays are right around the corner, which means that now is the time for companies to ensure that they have a marketing approach that is geared toward bringing in the most clients possible. Not only will having a tailored marketing approach this holiday season help you close out 2014 with a bang, but it’ll give you a big boost as you prepare to ring in 2015.

If you don’t know by now, marketing has changed drastically over the last few years. The emphasis on online marketing has quickly grown to be much more valuable than nearly any other advertising tool. In order to make online marketing work for your business, it all starts with your ability to be found through a search engine like Google.

You still have a few weeks until Christmas, but now is the prime time for consumer shopping online. Therefore, here are some ways that you can accelerate your SEO marketing for Christmas now, to ensure that you get the most amount of traffic that you can during this incredibly popular time of year.

Revamp Your Website

If you can’t find the perfect gift to give yourself this holiday season, look no further than your website. If it has been a while since you last updated your site, now is the time to make some very critical changes that will help you with search engine optimization.

There is a common misperception that just having a website is good enough to help you with your online presence and SEO listings. However, this isn’t the case. Instead, you need to ensure that your website is built with a strong foundation that will make it easier for viewers to find.

To improve the foundation of your website, make sure that URLs are cohesive and consistent, include valuable metadata, and work to keep everything organized along the way as you continue to build your website. Not only will putting in some effort on your website look better and be more cohesive, but it’ll also help it run faster as well. Google shows preference to websites that can load quickly, which is why it’s important that yours does just that.

If you’ve already invested in your website, you may not want to keep pouring money into it if it’s not working for you. However, you can rest assured knowing that your site is not something that should be overlooked, and instead it might be time for you to spruce things up. After all, the Internet isn’t going away, and revamping your website at the end of 2014 will have lasting positive benefits.

630 tr google7

Create Holiday Content

Content is king when it comes to SEO results. Therefore, you want to ensure that you have creative and relevant content throughout your website. The more content you upload, the better your SEO results will be.

If you are having a hard time coming up with creative content this holiday season, it might be time for you to spruce up your blog. With a blog, you can write about anything that is relevant to your website, and this will help with SEO.

Since it’s the holiday season, be sure to include something about the holidays in your blog content. Not only does this keep things relevant and give you something to write about, but it’ll also get your viewers in the holiday spirit as they read your content.

Keep Things Consistent During Christmas

Consistency is key as you begin building your online presence with the hopes of dominating search engines. As you start to build up your website, be sure that URLs for your website are consistent.

Santa Barbara Web Marketing

Consistency will help you with your SEO rankings, but it also helps with cataloging your entire website. Google and other search engines require you to setup an XML site map, and they give priority rankings to websites with a consistent internal linking structure. The truth is that requirements for search engines are always changing, and a more organized website will make it easier for you to make adjustments in the future.

Do yourself a favor and start with consistent cataloging now, and you’ll have a much easier time with marketing your website in the New Year as well.

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Consider Christmas Keywords

As a business owner, it can be hard to see things from the perspective of customers and clients. To dominate SEO marketing during the Christmas season, however, this is exactly what you’ll have to do.

Sure, there are plenty of fancy programs out there that will help you with keywords, and many of them are worth investing into. However, if you are on a budget with your business, you only have to think like a consumer to find relevant keywords.

To help accelerate your SEO marketing, consider the keywords and phrases that you believe your clients will be looking for. In doing so, you’ll notice more hits and traffic to your website.

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Spread The Holiday Cheer

2014 was a huge year for social media, and you can expect things to only become more dependent on this type of media in 2015. Therefore, be sure that you take the time during the holidays to improve your overall social media influence.

If you aren’t using your social media profile for your business, you are missing out on a big opportunity to draw in new clients. Your social media profile can also help you with improving your image and the perception that customers have of your brand by interacting with them on a regular basis.

Finally, as you also look to improve your social media presence for SEO this holiday season, also be sure to make your website easier to share. If you can easily share your site through your social media links, you’ll notice an increase in views from your followers online.

The year is almost over, so now is your chance to end 2014 with a bang. Consider these tips to help you accelerate your SEO marketing for Christmas. If you do so correctly, you’ll also be happy with the benefits you’ll get after the New Year as well.

SEO Marketing | Web Marketing

Taylor Reaume Speaking at UCSB’s “Careers In Online Marketing and Social Media” on 5/15/2012

May 15, 2012 by
Taylor Reaume Speaking at UCSB’s "Careers In Online Marketing and Social Media" on 5/15/2012
Taylor Reaume - The Search Engine Pros Founder

Taylor Reaume, founder of Santa Barbara marketing company Search Engine Pros will be a panelist at UCSB’s “Careers In Online Marketing and Social Media” presentation. The event is expected to be a highly valuable and rewarding experience for UCSB students. The panel will be held on Tuesday, May 15th from, 4:00-5:30pm @ Career Services, Building 599, Room 1109.

Each panelist will have 10-15 minutes to cover the following:

How did you get to where you are?
What does your career path look like?
What/who influenced you to choose this type of work?
Are you still in this field?
What barriers might students face wishing to enter this field?
How did you overcome any of these barriers?
What tips would you give to students wishing to enter this field?
Do they need special training or expertise in a certain area?

**There will be Q&A from the students immediately following the panel discussion**

Taylor will speak to the importance of internships and explain how they provide essential “transferrable skills” and clarity with your career path.

Students interested in Search Engine Pros Santa Barbara marketing internship may apply at :
https://www.thesearchenginepros.com/mentors/

For more information contact The Search Engine Pros at 800-605-4988 or Emily White Career Counselor, Career Services, University of California, Santa Barbara (805)-893-4412 http://career.ucsb.edu

2012 05 16 11345500847

SEO Marketing | Web Marketing

SEO & The Battle Of Perceptions

September 8, 2011 by
SEO & The Battle Of Perceptions
final seopros header2

SEO is a form of marketing on the internet called Search Engine Optimization.  One reason why it’s smart to start off your web project with SEO as your chosen  marketing medium is because this form of marketing deals with polishing your reputation as the strategy is executed.

As the old saying goes: “It’s great if you get 1000’s of visitors to your web site, not so great if they don’t buy (convert).”

Marketing is the battle of perceptions.  Marketing is needed for all businesses to stay competitive.

In today’s talk, we’ll discuss the battle of perceptions as it related to SEO and the online marketing world.

Starting a web site business is not easy – it’s frought with challenges and often simply understanding what’s being recommended and the costs associated can be like a big algebra problem.

For most businesses the cost of doing nothing is far greater than the cost of the marketing plan.    Similar to diet and excersize, most business owners realize they need to focus on their web strategy to stay in business.

To be successful, one must reinforce perceptions. Having a better offering is a prerequisite.  Having a better story is the catalyst.  Find a way to add massive value efficiently, do something remarkable and get people to love you.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the class today at 5:30pm -Taylor

When: Thursdays Nights 5:30pm-6:30pm ADD OUTLOOK REMINDER
Where: THE EAGLE INN (by Sambos) 232 Natoma Ave Santa Barbara, CA 93101

SEO Marketing | Web Marketing

Taylor Reaume Shares 3 Key Concepts To Search Marketing

March 2, 2011 by
Taylor Reaume Shares 3 Key Concepts To Search Marketing

“Let’s Do Lunch!” The Knights of the Women’s Festivals Round from Kimi Vandyk on Vimeo.

Meet 3 shining KNIGHT’S from the upcoming Women’s Festivals ROUND TABLE line-up and get a quick peek into the hot topics they will be discussing. Don’t miss this fun, interactive segment of our festival program on Saturday, March 5th starting at 1:00pm.

..Sir Scott Topper, Knight of IMproSolutions will be showing you How to Have Fun with Public Speaking; next,
..Sir Taylor Reaume, Knight of Search Engine Pro’s will be teaching you about Search Engine Optimization, and last but not least,
..Sir Lex Sisney, Knight of Organizational Physics will be tapping into The Vector of Happiness.

And, this is only a taste! Visit our website to view the entire program of events and a complete listing of all 27 Round Tables discussions we have in store for you. womensfestivals.org/​womens-conference-santa-barbara-program.php One last thing.. have you LIKED us on Facebook yet? If not, pop over to our page at facebook.com/​womensfestivals and write on our wall. Tell us what Round Tables you plan on going to!   Okay, we’re all set. Just don’t forget the gravy! We are looking forward to connecting with you on this “Let’s Do Lunch!” webinar.

The Women’s Festival “Let’s Do Lunch” Webinar Team
womensfestivals.org