by admin | Feb 12, 2020 | Baltimore SEO, Local SEO
Hire a Reputable Baltimore SEO Professional Today!
Are you frustrated with your business’ Google ranking? Do you look at the website of your competitors with dismay, wondering why their website ranks higher than yours? Do you struggle to find the time to perfect your company’s online presence?
Your concerns can be answered by hiring a Baltimore SEO Expert. Here are the reasons you should hire a search engine optimization expert for your Maryland business today.
An SEO expert will give you ideas on how to improve your Google ranking
You hire accountants to do your business taxes. You turn to software developers to write your business’ applications. You hire professional cleaners to maintain your office. Why would you leave your Google ranking to chance? An SEO expert will give you ideas on how to improve your Google ranking
Your customers will only know that you exist by their online searches. If you do not appear on the first page of an online search, you may struggle winning new clients or customers.
An SEO expert will analyze your website’s content to make sure it includes essential keywords and phrases that will help customers find you. Instead of hoping that your content is good enough, hire an expert so that you know your website will be optimized for the latest Google algorithm.
Hiring a local Baltimore SEO expert will ensure that your website’s content sounds authentic.
Have you ever read an article on a business’ website and thought, “the person who wrote that article has never been to Baltimore.” We have too. That’s why if you own a business in Maryland, you need to search for a Baltimore SEO expert to assist you with your website’s content.
Hiring local experts will ensure that your website’s content seems authentic. Local experts will also be more familiar with the competition you face in your industry. Plus, it’s always a good idea to hire someone familiar with the peculiarities involved with working and living in the D.C. area.
Working with a local company also ensures that you can have a face-to-face meeting with the consultant.
An SEO expert can analyze your website regularly.
An SEO expert should monitor your website’s ranking periodically and make adjustments to make sure your page ranks well. The person you hire should routinely analyze essential metrics, including the ranking of keywords and phrases and conversion rates associated with searches.
Whoever you hire to optimize your website should work as your consultant should be vigilant about the changes in your industry. He or she should understand how trending topics may affect your ranking.
Your Google ranking is affecting your bottom line.
At the risk of sounding repetitive, your Google ranking affects the amount of business you receive. According to a study done in 2019, only 0.78% of users click on websites found on the second page of a search. If this statistic doesn’t frighten you, it should.
What are you doing to make sure your company appears on the first page? You should be hiring an SEO expert to assist you.
Following the advice of amateurs may hurt your ranking.
Did you know that over-optimization and keyword stuffing could harm your ranking? Naming images in your blog post incorrectly can also damage your website. SEO is too important to rely on the advice of amateurs.
For SEO advice in Baltimore or elsewhere across the country, contact the experts at Virtual Surge today.
Visit Virtual Surge’s knowledge panel with Google.
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by admin | Feb 7, 2020 | Digital Marketing, Local SEO
Using Quora for Your Blogs
For those of you not already getting daily emails from them, Quora is a question and answer website that started in 2009. It’s owned by Quora, Inc., which is based out of Mountain View, California. The company has between 200 and 300 employees and reported $20 million in revenue in 2018. Quora is not just for English-speaking audiences. In fact, Quora has 24 different languages, including English and Dutch, as well as Marathi and Tamil.
Quora has changed throughout its history, but its goal has remained the same. It wants to become the best answer database in the world. Unlike other question and answer websites, Quora seeks high-quality responses to questions requiring a factual answer as well as answers based off of opinions.
One only has to spend a little time on Quora to see how it compares with other question sites like Yahoo Answers. Most of the time, Quora’s responses are well written.
Four years into its history, Quora allowed the search stats to become public. This leads us to today’s topic: how to use Quora to find topics, headlines, or keywords for your blogs.
To utilize Quora for this purpose, you do not have to become an active user. But if you would like to increase your online recognition, this might be something that you would consider doing.
Sign up for Quora and create a profile. Add credentials to your profile to give your opinions and knowledge more validity. You can also add your education, job title, and location. Write your profile description so readers can learn a bit more about what makes you tick. Then, start answering questions about your favorite subject.
Ask questions as you familiarize yourself with the website. The more time you spend on the website, you will see how helpful it can be to gather data for your SEO projects.
For example, let’s say you have a website that reviews competitive swimwear and accessories. It’s an affiliate marketing website, and you are trying to write high-quality content that will draw people into your site.
You’ve written about googles and tech suits. You’ve compared Speedo suits versus those made by TYR. You’ve written about innovative practice techniques, and how to find a quality swim team in your local area.
Once you have followed competitive swimming on Quora, a wealth of topics is immediately at your disposal.
One Quora user asks if she should quit competitive swimming if it stresses her out a lot?
Another person asks what body styles are suited to specific swimming strokes.
Someone asks how to stay fit after quitting the swim team, and another asks if competitive swimming techniques have changed much in the past 20 years.
BOOM! You have dozens of new topics about your subject.
Besides having new topics, Quora will also help you figure out headlines and subheads to use for your blogs.
Of course, all of the headlines on Quora are formatted as questions. Perhaps this is one reason Quora has appeared at the top of your most recent searches. You and everyone you know are changing how you search the internet. More people are asking Siri questions with a voice search. Perhaps this means you, like Quora, should begin using questions in your headlines or subheads as well.
While you are at it, make sure your blog answers the question succinctly and clearly, and if you have a high organic ranking for your website, you may find yourself in Snippet territory.
Finally, Quora can also help you do basic keyword research, as well. When writing about competitive swimming, is it better to refer to the sport as “competitive swimming,” “competitive swim,” “USA swimming,” or “swim team?” Perhaps those who are just beginning their search about what it’s like to be on a swim team may use one form over another.
For some subjects, people from varying parts of the country may use different labels or names for the same item.
Of course, all of this advice is for a person who is an SEO amateur. Your topics, headlines, and keywords will come from observation rather than data or statistics.
For more detailed information, consider going through the process of opening a Quora ad account. Even if you decide not to advertise your website through Quora, as you go through the process, you can complete a test campaign for free. This will enable you to type in keywords to see whether “USA Swiming” or “competitive swimming” receives more traffic.
Whether you utilize Quora to increase your web presence, come up with topics, or help with your keyword search, understand that Quora is doing something right to bring in viewers. It is the 115th most visited website in the world.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
by admin | Feb 3, 2020 | Baltimore SEO, Local SEO
How Hiring an SEO Expert Helped You
Are you a business owner who is struggling to bring in customers to your website? This article is for you!
Are you an SEO expert who needs help with explaining to your customers why they should hire you to increase sales? This article is for you, too.
Here are five reasons that most businesses need an SEO expert and why this industry is here to stay.
1. SEO Experts make your business easier to find online.
Search engine optimization experts bring people to your website. Why is this a big deal?
Let’s say you bake pies. You run a small shop that is tucked away in a quiet part of town. There’s not a lot of foot traffic that goes by your bakery, so you struggle letting people know you even exist.
An SEO expert will help your local customers find you by improving your online presence. SEO experts know how to use social media, blogs, review websites, and local influencers to increase the foot traffic into your shop.
Maybe you specialize in making jewelry from the cremated remains of a person or pet. (Yes, there is an entire industry based around making jewelry and ornaments from cremains.) Of course, your business is a niche industry, and you need to reach out to people all over the country to find enough customers to keep you in operation.
An SEO expert will figure out what your potential customers would type into a search engine that will lead them to your website. They would then work on adding content to your website that is valuable enough that others will want to link to from their own websites.
As you can see, an SEO expert can assist any sort of business — either local or national.
2. SEO Experts will help you build links to your website.
There’s a lot of junk on the internet. A link is one way that Google learns that your website is not full of garbage. If someone links your website to his or her page, this tells Google that your website is valuable and a good source of information.
It is important to understand that more links aren’t always better. Don’t let your brother-in-law go crazy with your website and spam a bunch of discussion boards with links. Doing so will tell Google that your website is junk. Instead of getting more people to visit your website, Google will bury your page in the basement of the internet.
3. SEO Experts are experts in determining keywords and phrases that you should use on your website.
SEO experts are knowledgable on how to use specialized tools to determine which keywords and phrases real-life customers are using to try to find your website.
Sometimes business owners are too familiar with their own industry that they don’t understand what phrases a layperson may search for online. Sometimes specific keywords are incredibly competitive, and targeting less-popular keywords is a strategy that a business owner may consider. Sometimes the keywords must include the business location if you want to drive foot traffic into your brick and mortar business. Perhaps adding a descriptor to the keyword may take your website into a different (but helpful) direction.
4. SEO Experts stay current with industry trends.
Life would be easy for SEO experts if Google didn’t change their rules. But Google tracks how people do online searches, and they change the rules periodically on what makes a website obtain the top rank.
For example, SEO experts know essential it is that your website is optimized for mobile searches. They also know how to bring users to your site who use voice commands to find content. Down the pike, Google knows that more people will use visual searches to find products online. SEO experts will help you prepare for that shift.
As a business owner, you are too busy managing your team, developing relationships with customers, and providing quality goods and services. You don’t have time to keep up with these latest SEO trends — especially since many of the changes come without warning.
5. SEO experts know how to balance strategies.
Unlike the enthusiastic brother-in-law who wants to link your website on the comment sections of popular YouTube videos, an SEO strategist understands the importance of balance. SEO strategists know how many links you should use in your content without making it seem spammy. They know how many times (and where) you should use keywords in your blogs to drive traffic to your website. They know how to write compelling Meta descriptions to get users to click through on your content.
These strategies must be carefully choreographed, or else Google will penalize the website.
Hiring an SEO expert makes as much sense as hiring a tax expert for your business. Not every website strategist is equal. Make sure you do your research before entrusting someone with your website. They can do more harm than good.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
by admin | Jan 16, 2020 | Baltimore SEO, Digital Marketing, Local SEO
Optimizing Content to Improve Google rank
Snippets aren’t anything new. In fact, Google started utilizing the snippet answer boxes (also known as position zero) way back in 2014. While the snippet is old news, SEO strategists are still scrambling to try to determine how to achieve this ranking that scores above even the paid advertisers.
Much has been written about how to get your website’s content to appear as a snippet in Google. We’ve perused the experts’ observations and came up with this list. Here are some snippet-strategies you may want to try to achieve that coveted zero position.
How to optimize your content to appear as a snippet.
1. Cinderellas don’t get Snippets.
Sorry to break this to you, but your website that currently can be found on page eight of a Google search will not be visited by a Fairy Godmother and immediately find itself as Snippet worthy. That’s not how it works.
Snippets usually are pulled from websites that are in one of the top five organic positions. This means you have to have a lot of high-quality content that readers enjoy before finding yourself dancing with a prince.
This high-quality content should come with authority. It should include external and internal links.
2. Answer a question.
For a long time, SEO strategists have advised businesses that the way people search for content will change. The strategists were right, as users are utilizing voice search more than ever before. They are also asking questions instead of looking for content with a statement.
Stay focused on answering the question throughout the whole piece. The question and answer should appear in the introduction, H1 headings, and the conclusion.
3. Answer related questions as well.
In an attempt to improve your organic ranking, answer related questions as well. Get ideas by looking at the “People Also Ask” box. Your website is more likely to be pulled if you are an authority on the subject. The way you can become an authority is by answering all the related questions clearly and concisely.
For other related questions, also look at Yahoo Answers and Quora. Quora’s “related questions” are often long lists and can give you insight into what kind of information is being sought after by users.
4. Write concise answers.
We know that you have heard that your blog posts should be between 750 and 1,250 words, and that is still accurate. But when answering a question, you need to write clear, concise answers. Don’t back into your answer with a lot of explanatory material. Lead with the good stuff.
Your snippet may be pulled from a longer article. You can write more explanatory and background information, but sum up your article with a list or table.
5. Experiment with different formats.
Sometimes Google pulls tables for their snippets. Other times it pulls lists or paragraphs. Experiment with bullet points or numbers. Play with a few Google searches to see what format is pulled most often in your industry.
Paragraph snippets are often pulled when a person asks “how to do/get,” “who is,” “why is,” or “what is” questions. Often an image is also pulled.
Numbered lists are often pulled when the user is asking for a step by step guide. Examples of this type of snippet may be “steps on how to install a faucet.”
Bulleted lists are pulled for list posts. These snippets are often “top 10” lists or “best of” lists. An example of this would be the top 10 National Parks to visit during July.
Finally, tables are pulled for structured data. Examples of this may be comparing online real estate schools by cost and other features.
As a side note, YouTube videos are often pulled as snippets now as well. If you aren’t using video in your strategy, now is the time to make that change.
6. Experiment with the type of questions you answer.
Instead of just answering “what is” questions, consider answering “how-to” questions as well. People ask the same question differently. Do keyword checks and consult with Google and Quora for other ideas of questions you may want to answer.
If you are still struggling with improving your Google rank, consider hiring an SEO strategist to help. These strategists will look at your website content and first try to determine how to increase your rank. Once that objective is achieved, he or she will then help you create content to make that elusive snippet status.
The health of your business may be determined by where you rank in a Google search. Don’t ignore your company’s web presence.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
by admin | Jul 13, 2019 | Baltimore SEO, Digital Marketing, Local SEO, Online Advertising
Voice Search and SEO’s Future
Don’t you love how technology allows you to connect with potential customers easier than ever before?
You have optimized the content on your website, so your company ranks on the first page of many keyword searches. You are connecting with customers who need and want your product or service.
You are beating competitors!
You are increasing sales!
You are winning life!
But now that you rank high for keywords specific to your industry and location, customers are changing how they search for information. More customers are conducting searches using their voices rather than keying them into a search engine.
You can’t blame them. Completing voice inquiries is much more convenient than keying in text. You can search for something when driving or when your hands are full.
Your older customers have become accustomed to asking Siri or Alexa for help, and younger customers don’t remember life before having every answer available at the sound of their voice.
While voice searches aren’t new, many SEO strategists have ignored this form of query up till now. Don’t let this happen to you. You still have time to add more content that connects your website to voice searches.
Here’s what you need to know.
You still need good, quality informative content.
In fact, it is more important than ever before. Your content still needs to be engaging, and you need to keep including internal and external links within your text. Content is still king, and that will never go away.
Remember your goal is still to be Google’s featured snippet that answers the question. The only way to do this is to provide helpful information to a wide variety of users.
You need to answer specific questions.
Brainstorm common questions that people may ask regarding your business. Within your website, you may want to include the question as an H2, and then answer the question clearly and concisely in the body text below the question. These more extended questions replace the shorter keywords that we have been accustomed to including in our writing.
The answers should be found within the first few lines of the text. Think about times when you have used voice searches to find the answer to a question. You probably had no intention of reading a thesis over the subject. You probably wanted a quick answer, free from jargon or complications. Lead with the most important information.
You need to optimize for your local area.
Think of the times you have used voice searches when driving. Most of your queries probably regard where you can find a specific business in your local area.
If you are running a business that relies on walk-in customers from your surrounding area, it is essential that your Google My Business page is up to date. Your customer, whose hands are covered with paint, wants accurate information on when your local paint store closes when making a voice inquiry.
If you are a barber, your business needs to pop up every time a shaggy man on his way home from work asks, “Where is the nearest barber?”
You need to make sure your website is mobile friendly.
Most of the verbal searches will be completed from a mobile device, so to capitalize on these searches, your website must be mobile optimized. Your customers are at a stoplight or in a hurry. They won’t have the patience to wait around for your content to load.
You need to utilize long tail keywords.
While your websites may be optimized so that customers can find you while searching “cooking class near me,” customers using a voice search will potentially ask, “where can I find a barbecue cooking class in Kansas City, Kansas or Missouri?”
These long tail keywords can be used on your websites FAQ section or within original blog posts that answer your customers’ questions.
How Voice Searches Work for Your Business
If you are the owner of a cooking school in Kansas City that specializes in barbecue, you may want to consider having professional writers create blogs that answer some of the most common questions people would have regarding making mouth-watering ribs or melt-in-your-mouth briskets.
Here’s how it would work. A worried at-home chef does a voice search saying, “how long should I cook a rack of ribs?” Your website will appear with the answer. The answer is clear, concise, and includes message advertising your barbecue cooking class that teaches the basics of ribs, briskets, and how to make your own amazing KC Sweet and Spicy BBQ sauce.
Don’t assume that because you made it to the top of the Google search your job is done. Keep up the fight. Learn new strategies. Your business depends upon it.
This article was originally posted at Virtual Surge.
by admin | May 23, 2018 | Local SEO
I had the pleasure of meeting with my mastermind group and learned about a few new SEO tactics that have blown my mind. I am excited to implement them on my current client’s sites and have decided to offer a local map special to new clients. If you are a local business owner and want to get ranked in the maps section, contact me today about my $500 per month deal. I have never been so confident in my local ranking skills! I only have a few spots left to take on more clients at this time. Contact me today!
