If we were to ask you to find out what time Home Depot opens tomorrow, the best local restaurant, or the phone number of a local plumber, we are willing to bet the first thing you do is conduct a Google search. However you may feel about it, there are at least two generations who view the Yellow Pages as something to throw in the recycling bin than to actually use. It is a fact that many young people have never even used a phone book.
Every minute of every day millions of people will use search engines such as Google or Bing to find something whether they are searching for a local company or researching a new product to purchase. Did you know that the top ranked Google search result is clicked 94.1% of the time compared to only 5.9% for second place? How do you rank for your industry’s keywords? Are you even on the first page? How about the second? How about at all? If you can’t be searched for, how will you be found?
Marketing in the post-modern era revolves around search engines, especially Google. If you are not optimizing your website for Google and other search engines, you are essentially letting your competitors outrank you and steal your current and prospective customers without your knowledge.
So What Exactly Is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves a number of techniques and strategies from tweaking your website to make it “search engine friendly” to building links to your page to increase your search result rankings. Below are the steps Post-Modern Marketing will take to position your site, so that it will have the best chance of achieving a top ranking.
Keyword Research
SEO begins with identifying the keywords your target market(s) use when searching for your products or services. Optimizing for the right keywords is crucial to your success! PMM will help you identify the best keywords and phrases based on search volume, frequency and relevance to your marketing strategy. Targeting the right keywords and phrases from the start will pave the way for higher rankings down the road.
Competitive Analysis
We don’t need to tell you that the Internet is an extremely competitive marketplace. It goes without saying that there are other companies, both locally and nationally, targeting your keywords and reaching your potential customers. Analyzing and profiling your competitor’s online strengths and weaknesses can reveal opportunities for your site. Post-Modern Marketing’s Search Engine Optimization team will conduct an in-depth analysis of your top competitors for your chosen keywords and develop strategies to outrank them and stay on top. You must keep in mind that your offline competitors might not be same as your online competitors. As many people are not aware of the benefits of SEO, they might not even be in the search rankings to begin with. This is shocking to a lot of people new to SEO and the most common reaction is, “Why haven’t I been doing this all along?”
On-Page Optimization
On-page optimization are the tweaks we make to your website to ensure it is search-engine friendly, structured properly, and the content is optimized. Below is a list of a few tactics we employ to ensure your site is properly optimized:
Keyword and Keyword Phrase research and analysis report
Creation and submittal of sitemap.xml to Google
Creation and optimization of robots.txt for
Meta-Tag creation and optimization
Submission to Google, Bing, Ask, and DMOZ
Optimized URL Structuring
HTTP Headers Check
Proper 301 Redirects for additional owned domains (.net, etc.)
Proper internal link structuring
Content optimization
Keyword density & proximity optimization
Alternative-Image tags added with keywords, synonyms, and misspellings
Setup of Google, Bing & Yahoo Webmaster Tools
Off-Page Optimization
In the SEO world, links to your website are the most critical factor in improving and maintaining top search result rankings. The search engines see each link to your website as a vote, and the more votes you have the better odds you have at obtaining a top ranking. Not all votes are equal, as the more relevant the link, the more “link equity” your site will obtain. Here are a few of the tactics PMM does to increase the number of links pointing to your site:
Link-building
Article syndication and distribution
Directory submissions
Press release syndication and distribution
Social bookmarking
Classifieds sites submissions
Local SEO
Local search is the latest trend, and some would argue, the most important segment of search engine optimization. Approximately 40% of all online searches have a local intent behind them and if you aren’t ranking at the top, then your competitors are. Why are you passing on all these leads and potential customers? Let Post-Modern Marketing help you jump to the top of the Google Maps and local search results page. Check out our detailed Local SEO services page
Analytics, Metrics, and Reporting
Modern Marketing makes sure each client’s website is running Google Analytics so we can track and analyze your website traffic. There are numerous benefits for this including:
The ability to find out how many people are visiting your website, time spent on your website, how many pages per visit, and numerous other metrics
The ability to find out where your visitors are coming from which shows you where your efforts are being successful. Traffic can be direct (typing the address in the title bar), organic (searching Google for instance), or a referral (which means a visitor clicked on a link from another page or source on the web, including social media).
Visitor Segmentation allows you to see, for example, where geographically your traffic is coming from or what percentage of your traffic is coming from Social Media.
The ability to identify which pages are most popular and interacted with from your visitors
Using the intelligence we gather from these metrics, we can adjust your online marketing accordingly.
