by admin | Mar 6, 2017 | Baltimore SEO, Uncategorized
Law Firms are Rising Above their Competition, are You?
Attorneys and legal firms around the world receive constant inquiries regarding their services and fees. However, is your office in the right location? This doesn’t apply to your physical location, but your internet location. Are you at the top of the browser bar when clients are in need of quality legal representation?
Ranking Above the Competition
You are associated with an industry that has experienced phenomenal growth over recent years because let’s face it, almost everything requires legal counsel these days. The increase in demand is definitely noticeable and many firms are wondering what they can do to rise above their competition in the industry.
The answer to this question is not an ideal one and is likely to be found in the last place you considered as an attorney. It is important to consider that most people immediately turn to the internet when they are in need of legal counsel or representation. Now the bigger question is, are you there? Not only are you there, but do you or your firm stand out, because potential clients are searching and it’s important that your company name is being returned at the top of their search?
The SEO Key that Opens Doors and Increases Clientele
Just as you can’t afford to lose clients, you can’t afford to ignore the effective use of SEO practices in your business. Now, just as you stop to Google exactly what SEO is and why you should have it, understand that your potential clients do the exact same thing (Google it) when seeking legal counsel. Google and its amazing returns are the foundation of success for businesses located around the world. People trust the internet to provide them with information they seek daily and when searching for an attorney, if you’re not ranked among the top ten, you’re simply not ranked.
Internet searchers generally contact the first five to ten businesses that appear at the top of their internet search. People simply have more trust in those companies that populate first and many have found the services they need within the first few phone calls. Unfortunately, potential clients don’t just click enter and your firm magically appears but there is an SEO key that can change your Google search location for the best.
The Facts
Lawyers value facts because they are what matters most and in this case, facts are extremely important. Search Engine Optimization has the ability to convert your website into a virtual powerhouse that produces millions of dollars in increased annual revenue, as well as increase the number of inquiries received on a daily basis. The only thing you must do is rank high but of course, you have no clue how that’s done. You are an expert in the legal industry and there are experts in the SEO industry that can help you accomplish quality rankings on the internet.
Before you make the call to acquire SEO services, remember a few important facts:
All legal SEO experts aren’t professionals. Inquire about monthly tracking efforts and if they service competitors.
- Inquire about their process and packages. Make certain that the team consists of experts that have delivered quality results at a quality rate.
- Google is an ethical powerhouse that will not tolerate tainted tactics. A reputable SEO firm will understand the rules and guidelines outlined by Google and will acknowledge these rules. Doing otherwise could lead to penalties for your firm.
- The legal industry has the most competitive market online and your firm can be extremely successful if it returns at the top of the search results.
There is a great deal of information to comprehend and understand about SEO. The great news is that you don’t have to know it all. Simply collaborate with an agency or firm that is skilled and has extensive experience in the field and you will begin to see a positive increase in clients and revenue.
If you need help with marketing for your law firm, Virtual Surge, your legal SEO expert, is here to help. Whether you reside in Baltimore or anywhere else in the nation, reach out today to find out about the immediate steps that you can take today to boost your website traffic, improve your SEO, rev up your offline marketing, and ultimately grow your law firm.
by admin | Feb 18, 2017 | Baltimore SEO, Uncategorized
SEO Marketing Plan for 2017
The perception of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) varies among businesses, but one constant remains favorable. It is necessary to utilize effective SEO to stay ahead of the competition.
Just as changes in technology seem to occur at lightning speed, SEO does also. The only way to dominate the SEO challenge is to remain aware of these changes, and implement them in your business. There is more to the process than strategically placing a few keywords throughout website or general content. The new year has just arrived and changes in the industry have already taken place. There are a few trends to keep you in sync with the changes of SEO in 2017.
Super Charge Your Content
Let’s face it! There is a ton of information out there for readers to absorb. It’s important to realize that readers will not waste time reading crappy content. Eliminate the fluff that will cause people to move on to the next article, which happened to be written by the competition. Provide informative content that engages readers and remember to keep it simple. At one time, it was considered best to use long pieces of content, but that is not always necessary. Utilize the smallest amount of space to present the most engaging type of info.
Enhanced User Experience
This is one of the trends that finds its way into each year in one way or another. It is imperative that users have a pleasant experience while visiting websites. Web pages that are adequately equipped to properly handle mobile devices and usually load without lagging or interruption, are primarily favored by Google. Expect an increase of attention to be directed towards the quality of user experience. Web pages that are designed to interact efficiently with mobile devices are among those that Google will favor for providing a quality experience to its users. Web pages that attract the attention of visitors is a great start, but it is important to present quality material to engage them once they log into the page. Extended visit times is another characteristic that Google favors.
Accelerated Mobile Pages
There are a large percentage of web browsers that log into a site from their mobile devices. The worst-case scenario presents itself at the point of log in when the page fails to load or loads slowly. Many times, this occurs because the point of access is a mobile device and the page being visited is not equipped for mobile visitors. This will result in a loss of business for some businesses because the redirected visitor will choose to visit the site of a competitor. Make certain your business page is designed to offer an enhanced experience for those utilizing mobile devices. Google makes known its appreciation for those sites that make mobile access an easy experience. It makes them visible in a carousel, which includes the image of a bolt of lightning to indicate that the site is mobile accessible. Many brands have upgraded their website to accommodate mobile users to enhance their visibility and improve their productivity.
Voice Search
Voice search is by far the new kid on the block, but usage of the feature has increased over the past couple years. This is especially true with teens and older generations. It is a convenient feature that saves time and expedites return of results. More than 50% of teenagers and adults say they find the feature convenient and use it whenever possible. Websites should be optimized for voice search to ensure that there is a clear understanding of the terminology being spoken by users. Aim to optimize the site to accommodate those utilizing voice search as part of a strategy to dominate SEO this year.
Brand Building
Businesses must give attention to the continued development and building of their brand in 2017. Effective branding efforts increase the odds of consumers browsing for your brand specifically. Make certain the brand is visible and highly recognized because of its design and development. Keyword ranking is beneficial but it is not enough. Search engines have improved dramatically at recognizing artificial linking and calculated SEO strategies, including keywords. Execute strategies that diversifies the brand’s online presence.
Social Media Marketing
Simply put, your clients are on social media almost 80% of the day. Brands cannot afford to be absent from the social media platform. Social media sites have become almost as effective as Google, in that they present a variety of options to users when searching for certain categories.
by admin | Aug 27, 2015 | Baltimore SEO, Uncategorized
Top 5 SEO Myths
Properly done search engine optimization (SEO) will do a lot of things for you. It will get you to the first page of search engine results, it will create more exposure for your site and most importantly, it will bring good traffic. But to enjoy these and many other benefits of well-done SEO, you have to stop believing some of the myths about SEO.
1. SEO Does Not Work
Believe it or not, there are people who still believe that SEO is a big scam perhaps by marketers who want to keep earning money. But the evidence is there for everyone to see. 44% of customers start the buying process from a search engine, most often Google. Also, the use of search engines is the fourth highest activity online after email, social media, and video. The services we provide at Virtual Surge Baltimore SEO, has proven that SEO does work, and it has worked for hundreds of businesses. Our clients are enjoying higher traffic flow, improved lead conversion and better brand exposure.
2. I Did it Once and it Was Enough
At least you believe SEO works, but there is still a lot for you to do. Doing SEO once, may have increased the flow of inbound traffic but as you may have noticed, traffic falls over time in the absences of sustained SEO. Search engine optimization is a not a once-off project, it is a continuous part of marketing. You have to keep writing good content, using the right keywords and so on. Get up and pick up from where you left off.
3. For SEO to work, keyword obsession is a must
There was a time when keywords did carry a lot of weight. But sites gamed Google’s algorithms by spamming their content with keywords, thus lowering the value of the content. With several updates, keyword obsession will get you penalized. If you fill an article with “Maryland Dentist” 10 times, Google sees that as spamming.
While you still should target certain keywords – especially in important areas such as titles and meta tags – you will find more success in trying to determine what your visitors want from your site. When you write good content meant for your visitors, you will find that you have used many other keywords that you did not even intend. For example;
• Baltimore dentist (the main keyword)
• Affordable Baltimore dentist
• Family Dentist Baltimore
• Invisalign treatment Maryland
• Baltimore deep teeth cleaning
Eventually, you realize that the long tail keywords splattered in your content are bringing in much more traffic than the main keyword that you were tempted to spam. This is because you have targeted specific needs of potential customers.
4. SEO is Expensive
If you get an offer of $200 per month for full SEO services, that is something to be concerned about. The most reputable companies cost a lot more however, your ROI will surpass your initial investment.
You may wonder why the cost of SEO can be so high. There is a lot of work that needs to be done on the back end that most people do not know about. The work doesn’t stop there. It can take months for a site to rank to the front page of search engines which means it takes months of work to get your site there. SEO involves extensive continuous research, content creation, technical work, site optimization, link building and many other things. What you get is a constant inflow of leads that consistently build your customer base. SEO is not expensive; it is an investment.
5. I can achieve top rankings in 2 weeks
There are marketing techniques that can speed up the process a little; PPC and social media are some examples. But with SEO, patience is a must and success are not guaranteed. You have to work hard, smart and long to get on the first page of Google. Of course, having a team of experts like Virtual Surge Baltimore SEO to help you, means you can focus on your business while they do what’s necessary.
by admin | Aug 13, 2015 | Baltimore SEO
Benefits Of SEO For Small Business
The number one reason for the failure of small businesses is unfair competition from established brands. Customers tend to be trustful and loyal towards established brands making it difficult for startups to gain entry into the market. Hence, SEO is the only remedy for startups. To gain a deeper understanding of why small companies need to invest in SEO, outlining the SEO concept is important.
SEO is a term that most entrepreneurs are familiar with. SEO enables your company to be visible and rank higher in the search engine results of popular search engines like Google. Research conducted by Forbes indicates that 80% of customers today use the internet to search for information on goods and services they consume. Out of this, 60% use the internet to make inquiries, booking, or purchase of the goods. Unless your website is visible on the search results, you are missing out on this huge customer base. Further, a higher ranking website is viewed by customers as more credible. Hence, you need to optimize your website to not only stand out above your competitors but to compete fairly with the leading brands.
SEO is the simplest and most effective way to provide customers with solutions to their problems. When a customer goes online to search for product information, there is nothing more frustrating than finding websites with irrelevant, insufficient, or outdated content. A good SEO strategy is not just about good ranking but also great content. A combination of ranking and content is something most leading brands lack hence, as a small business, you must capitalize on their weakness to beat them.
SEO is the most cost-effective form of digital marketing. To succeed as a small business, you must ensure you not only keep your spending at a minimum but also get value for every dollar spends. By improving your online presence, SEO gives you value for your marketing budget. Also, SEO increases traffic to your website which can easily be converted to sales.
Leads generation is one of the best effective online marketing strategies. Remember, customers, are looking for products and services in their local area. SEO incorporates phrases that a customer is most likely to use while searching for information on goods and services related to your business. This helps you to beat larger corporations since you are providing customized information to customers. Whereas a large company advertises its brand, you are marketing a specific product or service, hence a customer can easily choose your company.
Good customer relations are the easiest way to gain a larger market share. By incorporating social media techniques in your SEO plan, you can easily interact with customers answering their questions and addressing their concerns. Further, using social media, you can share customer stories hence getting positive reviews and testimonials on your website.
SEO will not only help you beat large corporations but help your business grow and achieve stability. Get an easily-navigable, highly interactive, and user-friendly website. With the website designed, get a good SEO company to optimize it and start getting higher traffic and increased online presence. Convert the traffic into sales and watch your market share grow. At Virtual Surge Baltimore SEO, we are your one-stop-shop for all your SEO needs ranging from content generation, social media marketing, organic SEO generation, and high conversion rates. Talk to us and allow us to share in your success through effective and affordable SEO services.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
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by admin | Jul 15, 2015 | Baltimore SEO, Uncategorized
The benefits of Effective SEO by Virtual Surge, a Baltimore SEO Company.
Simply put, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In layman’s terms, it is a marketing technique that uses keywords to achieve high rankings on search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, etc. These search engines use what are called web crawlers (also called web spiders) to create an index of information on websites throughout the World Wide Web. There are two main types of SEO, each with its own advantages and drawbacks. There’s Organic SEO, which concentrates on web based operations, and what’s called Local SEO, which has more to do with a physical location, and there are also two subtypes of SEO – White Hat SEO and Black Hat SEO.
White Hat SEO – The “Good” SEO
White hat SEO is good SEO – you are using “white hat” tactics (in case you’re not familiar with my terminology, “white hat tactics” refers to using ethical practices to market your website, keeping your website free of hidden links and spyware, etc. All of these are tactics upon which Google will look favorably.) An example of White Hat SEO would be a company using a safe and secure website to market their services.
Black Hat SEO – The “Bad” SEO
Black hat SEO is bad SEO. Black hat SEO uses very questionable marketing tactics, such as overloading websites with keywords (this is referred to as keyword stuffing), creating false backlinks, and may even involve using spyware or malware to steal the personal information of those who visit the website, usually for the purpose of sending spam Emails, or for storing personal information. Google has been cracking down hard on websites that use Black Hat SEO tactics, ranging from taking their website off their search engine to going as far as blacklisting, and even imposing strong penalties upon the website in extreme circumstances.
Organic SEO – Mostly for Websites and Web-Based Businesses
Organic SEO uses generic keywords to locate websites on the Internet, and as such, it isn’t really effective for physical businesses unless they also have a web presence. Also, organic SEO doesn’t include customer reviews or maps telling you where the business can be found.
What this means for your website is that if these web crawlers find a nice variety of keywords having to do with the type of website you own, Google will index that information, and use that information to rank your website. For example, you could use the keywords “tropical fish tank”, “tropical fish”, and “tropical fish food” to gain visibility for a tropical fish store, just to give you a few ideas. However, as I mentioned before in the Black Hat SEO section of this article, you should NEVER over stuff your website with keywords, otherwise you may be flagged by Google for spam. Just limit yourself to a few keywords in the title, and sprinkle a few keywords, spaced widely apart, throughout your content. The idea of a good Organic SEO campaign is to rank on the first page of Google’s search results when you type in your keywords on their search engine. Websites that rank on the first page on Google tend to get a great deal of traffic, and the more traffic you get, the more potential customers your business will have.
It’s also important to note that although Organic SEO does have elements that are influenced by location, the information returned will not be tied to a physical location.
Local SEO – Good for Physical Businesses
Recently, Google has introduced new algorithms that can index locale-based keywords. For example, if you were to type something like “Auto Mechanics Detroit, MI”, you might get a listing of available auto mechanics in the Detroit area, along with a list of customer reviews and even a map showing the location of the business. This is one of the primary differences between Local SEO and Organic SEO. Instead of just crawling websites, Google’s new Venice algorithm will also scan a business’s Google Plus profile, public image sharing sites, and even online forums and social media sites where your business has been mentioned on the Internet! (In the marketing field, these are called web citations.) From this data, Google compiles information on not only your website, but data on your physical location and how customers view your business as well.
SEO has come a long way since Google first became a popular search engine. Not only can an effective SEO campaign done by an amazing Baltimore SEO company, make your business explode in popularity if used correctly and ethically, it can also create some rather decent PR for your business.
Reference Links
What is the difference between local SEO and traditional SEO?
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/crawler
http://www.brafton.com/news/google-closing-black-hat-seo-practices
by admin | Jul 12, 2015 | Baltimore SEO, Posts
Hiring The Best SEO Agency For Your Business
Many people and companies claim to know how to do SEO (search engine optimization). There are many SEO services to choose from. How do you know what to look for in a good SEO consultant/service? Below are a few tips.
1. A reputable SEO company will not offer you any upfront promises.
With the high competition of SEO professionals fighting for your business, some will offer fixed pricing or low pricing. A reputable SEO company will not offer you any upfront promises or pricing. All companies’ needs and goals are different from another. An SEO professional should take the time to get to know all aspects of your business and your advertising goals and work with you to come up with a cost for the service.
2. Make sure that your SEO company is not being outsourced to a 3rd party.
What I mean by this is that, when you are shopping for professionals, confirm that they are completing the work themselves and not with a sub-contracted company that they hire. Your relationship needs to be direct with the company or person you hire to do your marketing and advertising. Too much miscommunication will break down your advertising campaign efforts. There are certain circumstances where it may be appropriate for an SEO company to outsource a portion of the work. An example would be website design. If an agency is hiring someone to do the graphics and set-up only, then that is acceptable as long as the SEO service is doing the content and optimization of your site. Professional SEO companies have very tight partnerships with web design professionals.
3. Be sure that they can rank difficult keywords.
Ask about their strategy in getting your keywords ranked. A good test is to see if their own company is listed on the front page of Google. There are some circumstances where this may not apply. For example, if someone has been doing SEO for a very long time and decides to start a new company, it can take a few months to rank their own site to the top of the search engines (just as it will for yours).
4. Watch out for anyone who promises to have your company at the top of the search engines within a designated time.
There is no prediction nor is there any specific formula that can be completed to know exactly how long it will take to rank websites. If someone is getting you to the top within a few weeks, then they are not doing ethical practices and this will only hurt you in the long run. Google will catch up to SEO’s who are using unethical practices and your site will be penalized which will put you at the bottom of the rankings. It typically takes around 3-4 months to get sites ranked on Google. There may be some instances that you get to the top sooner and some that you may get there later. It depends on how competitive your keywords are.
5. Make sure that SEO is the person’s full-time profession.
You do not want your SEO advertiser to be putting your campaign on the side because they have other things to tend to. You also need to be sure that they know what they are doing and are not just doing this as something extra to make money. Also, watch out for people who think they are SEO professionals because they work in a computer field. Although I have a degree in Computer Information Systems, it did not make me an SEO professional. I learned everything I know outside of college through a team of experts.
As with any new purchase, do the research. Ask questions. Ask for references. Find out what your SEO person does to keep up with the ever-changing times of SEO. Search Engine Optimization is never a sure thing so be sure to find someone who has access to the education needed as times change.
If you are looking for excellent service, reasonable pricing and confidence in picking the right Agency to get your company to the top of Google, please contact me. http://www.virtualsurge.com. I will help your company surge to the top of the search engines.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shannon_McCraw
Just as you can’t afford to lose clients, you can’t afford to ignore the effective use of SEO practices in your business. Now, just as you stop to Google exactly what SEO is and why you should have it, understand that your potential clients do the exact same thing (Google it) when seeking legal counsel. Google and its amazing returns are the foundation of success for businesses located around the world. People trust the internet to provide them with information they seek daily and when searching for an attorney, if you’re not ranked among the top ten, you’re simply not ranked.
