Medical Device Company Closes $2.4 Million in Sales Using LinkedIn- Story Inside

A medical device company that offers radiology equipment was skeptical that they could actually generate any interest for their devices using our LinkedIn strategy, and much less a sale. They did not believe the medical professionals they needed to reach even used LinkedIn.

After several conversations with the marketing team, and push back from the executive team, the executive team decided to allow the marketing team to test this new way of generating leads for their business.

We decided we would use the VP of Business Development’s profile to reach out to their target audience. We re-wrote his profile to highlight his accomplishments, but most importantly highlight the company and why their products are superior to the competition.

Their audience only had 2,000 prospects on LinkedIn, so we knew this would be a short campaign. Nonetheless, it was another touch point to reach their potential customers that was currently not being utilized.

In the first month, we generated 4 sales appointments. Yes, I know, nothing to be excited about, but remember, the first month is the slowest as people are approving our request to connect and getting through our message sequence which takes 2 weeks.

In the messages, we were very conversational in tone, but we got the point across that we were connecting with them because we had something they may be interested in, and asked for a meeting at their convenience.

The next month they had 8 sales appointments. Over the next 2 months they had another 12 appointments. That is a total of 24 appointments. 6 of those prospects went ahead and purchased their machine, which is an investment of $400,000.00.

At the end, from the LinkedIn leads that we generated over just a 4 month period, the company was able to generate $2.4 million in sales.

Not bad…

If you are looking to generate more leads, better quality leads and more consistently, schedule a meeting with us here:

https://my.timetrade.com/book/59TCH

How a Business Litigation Attorney Generated $183k in Business in Just 6 Months

A Business Litigation attorney in California came to us looking for additional ways in which they could attract new clients. They relied on referrals mostly, and the good reviews they had on Avvo.com to generate new business, but they were not at capacity with their caseload, and wanted to attract more clients, more consistently.

We looked at their website, and it did not communicate their expertise, case history, or good reputation very effectively, so the first action we took was a full website re-design with a mobile responsive website (Google favors sites that are mobile responsive vs. those that are not.)

During the redesign, we pulled in their reviews from Avvo.com so people can easily see what their clients are saying about them on the internet, without having to leave their website.

We also added videos from the managing attorney on several pages, but most importantly the homepage, discussing their areas of expertise and past successes.

This gave new website visitors a sense for the attorney, and made them feel as if they knew him, which they said greatly impacted their decision to call the firm for a consultation vs. other firms.

Once the website was finished, we engaged in a search engine optimization campaign.

Within the first 3 months, there was a 50% increase in inquiries from the contact form on the website. This was due to the additional content, videos and reviews we added.

After 6 months, the client was ranking at the top of page 1 of Google for several of their practice areas. This brought in $183,000 in new business in those first 6 months.

Since their investment for the SEO work was $2500 per month, that is a 1200% ROI!

If you are looking to generate more leads, better quality leads and more consistently, schedule a meeting with us here:

https://my.timetrade.com/book/59TCH

How a Nutrition and fitness Company Tripled their Sales Appointments & Grossed an Additional Half a Million in Sales in Just 5 Months

I wanted to share a story today, of a client who came to us needing help getting in front of more doctors to offer their products.  They had an amazing product, which was so good, that when they had the opportunity to present it to their target audience of Naturopathic Doctors, they would typically be able to convert the prospect.

The challenge was getting their prospects to take the meeting in the first place. When I first met this client, they were maybe getting 3-4 meetings per month.

They were marketing via cold calling (one sales guy was doing this about 20 hours per week), email, and direct mail… and after all that, they would only generate 3 to maybe 4 sales appointments in a month.

As you can imagine, doctors are very difficult to get to agree to a meeting, because many companies are always marketing to them due to their higher incomes.

Additionally, they typically have very good gatekeepers, making sure anyone trying to reach the doctor for anything other than a paid appointment, doesn’t get through.

We implemented a simple outreach campaign on LinkedIn, with our proven formula that we have developed over the past 5 years.

Our formula goes a bit like this:

  • Write your profile in a way that attracts your target audience and compels them to want to do business with you.
  • Reach out to connect
  • Start a conversation by introducing yourself and providing value to your prospect
  • Ask for the meeting

In their first month of working with us, they had 8 meetings from our leads.

They doubled what they were doing before!

In the second month, those numbers tripled, and they started making sales.

On average, 1 clinic is worth about $10,000 annually to them.

In their first 5 months of working with us, we were able to book a total of 89 appointments for them with their target Doctors, of which 48 of these doctors became clients.

If you add up what 1 clinic is worth annually to them, that is $480,000 in revenue and that is not including the fact some of these Doctors had multiple locations.

This campaign has been running now for 2 years strong.

If you are looking to generate more leads, better quality leads and more consistently, schedule a meeting with us here:

https://my.timetrade.com/book/59TCH

 

 

What Metrics Must You Track for SEO Success? [Part 2]

In case you missed it, last week I posted Part 1 of What Metrics Must You track for SEO Success? Since metrics are such an important part of your SEO strategy, I wanted to make sure I provided you will with the necessary information to successfully track SEO. Today, we’re going into Part 2 and discussing 7 more metrics for tracking SEO success.

1) Page Load Speed: How a slow page load equals a high bounce rate?

Last week, we discussed bounce rate, which primarily depends on good content and accessibility. Your page may be full of great content but if it’s too slow to load, chances are visitors will leave before ever having a chance to read the content. When your site is slow to load and visitors leave, it contributes to a high bounce rate and lowers your search rankings.

You want your site to load in 2 seconds or less. Ideally, the shorter the better. Several tools exist to measure the speed of your page.

It’s important to note that optimizing a page’s load speed can be difficult. It’s a very technical process and it takes a significant amount of time to understand. Consider hiring a professional to help if you’re unable to do it on your own.

2) Crawl Errors: Are you eliminating index problems?

Good content and backlinks only go so far if Google can’t read your page. In order for Google to rank your page, it has to be able to understand what your pages are about when crawling your site. Simply put, crawling your site means reading the pages and creating entries for search engine indexes.

You can check crawl errors using the “Webmaster Tools” within Google Analytics. On the “Webmaster” dashboard, select “Crawl” and then “Crawl Errors” and it will bring up a report.

Fixing your crawl errors can have a major impact on your search visibility. Google will identify the errors in the report, making them easier to fix. It’s important to monitor crawl errors frequently and fix them as the arise. Errors can unexpectedly come up and if you don’t catch it in time, pages can become de-indexed.

3) Mobile Traffic: How are people accessing your site?

Mobile traffic accounts for a significant potion of Internet users and the number of individuals using mobile devices to access information is on the rise. Since Google is focused on satisfying user needs, it recognizes the importance of mobile optimization. When your site isn’t set-up for mobile usage, it is difficult to read and leaves users less satisfied.

Earlier in 2015, Google released the “Mobilegeddon” update, which led sites that were not mobile-friendly to take a hit. While the release of this update wasn’t as large as some anticipated, it’s a good indicator of the direction Google is moving. It is likely Google will continue to place emphasis on mobile-friendly content, which will contribute to your SEO rankings.

You can check to see if the pages on your site are mobile-friendly by using Google’s Mobile Friendly checker. You simply enter the URL, click “Analyze” and it will tell you if your page is or is not mobile-friendly. If your page isn’t mobile friendly, this is something you’ll want to fix.

You can also get a general overview of your mobile performance in Google Analytics by going to “Audience”, then “Mobile” and “Overview”. When you’re reviewing this information, be sure to look at the other metrics we’ve discussed such as bounce rate and pages per session for each type of device.

Like the other metrics, record the date you viewed the information and the data. Address the concerns and recheck the information frequently.

4) Crawl Stats: How do you make Google like your page?

When Google likes your site, it will crawl it often. Ideally, you want your site crawled as much as possible, that way when you make a change or post a new article, Google will notice it quickly.

So what makes Google like you site? It’s a combination of good user metrics, such as average time on page and bounce rates, a lack of crawl errors and good page speed and size. To check your crawl stats, go to “Webmaster Tools” in Google Analytics, click “Crawl” and then “Crawl Stats”.

Several graphs will appear including information on pages crawled per day and time spent downloading a page. Your goal is to have the numbers for pages crawled per day be as high as possible and the time spent downloading to be as low as possible. Like the others reports we’ve discussed, check this information frequently. If you see major negative shifts in the numbers, fix the errors as soon as possible so they don’t negatively impact your SEO.

5) Index Status: How healthy is your site?

Your index status is a count of your indexed pages. Basically, how many of your pages has Google categorized and stored in their index of information. It’s important to have all your pages indexed so they show up in search results.

In the “Webmaster Tools” in Google Analytics, click the “Google Index” category. Then click on the “Advanced” tab. This tab will show you the pages on your site that are indexed as well as any errors that caused pages to be de-indexed. If a page has been de-indexed, you’ll be able to see why and you can correct the error as quickly as possible.

6) 404 Errors: How you lose your audience

When your site reaches a certain size, it’s inevitable that you’ll have 404 errors. A 404 error occurs when the webpage you were trying to search could not be found. Most of the time, these errors occur from other websites linking to the wrong address. In order not to lose your audience, consider creating a custom 404 page.

A custom 404 page let’s the visitor know you recognize the problem and allows you to redirect them to another page on your website. Before you design a custom error page, you need to find the broken links. You have three options when doing this.

The first is to go into Google Analytics, go to the “Behavior Overview” tab, click the “Full Report” at the bottom right and sort the pages by bounce rate or time on page. Click again to sort from “Worst to Best”. If a page doesn’t exist, it will most likely have a 100% bounce rate or zero seconds spent on the page. This is a quick and easy way to identify your error pages and correct them.

Another way is to go back to “Webmasters Tools”, then to “Crawl” and “Crawl Errors” and click the “Not Found pages” tab. A list of URL’s will populate and you can click each one to receive a detailed error report. This report shows where the “Not Found” URL’s are linked from allowing you to fix the link on those pages.

A third option allows you to find out when someone else has incorrectly linked to one of your pages. To do this, search for your site in Ahrefs. Under the “Inbound Links” menu, click “Broken Backlinks” and a list of sites incorrectly linking your page will appear. You can then contact an individual from this site to fix the link or use 301 redirect to send users to the correct URL.

7) Conversions: Are you making the most out of your traffic?

One of the most important components of your SEO plan is search traffic that converts. When you understand how your search traffic converts, you can invest in content and link building. Google Analytics allows you to track and monitor your goals in relation to SEO.

To create a specific goal in Google Analytics, go to “Conversions” then “Goals” and then “Overview”. Next, select a template for your goal. An example of a common goal is having visitors subscribe to your email newsletter. After you select the template, you select the type of goal, which is typically a specific URL destination. The final step is to put in the URL destination and assign a value to it.

Once you’ve set-up your goals, you can go to this tab in the future and monitor the completion of the goals. A graph will appear and you can click on the “Source/Medium” option to see how well your traffic is converting. You can also see which pages are converting particularly well by going back to the “Behavior” tab, clicking on the “Site Content” option and “Landing Pages”.

Metrics Galore: Now What?

As I said in the beginning, metrics can be an overwhelming topic. My advice to you would be to take each of these metrics one at a time. If you try to incorporate all of them at once, chances are you won’t be nearly as effective. Metrics aren’t necessarily exciting but they’re effective. If you don’t use metrics, you have no idea what is and isn’t working. You could be spending a great deal of your time, money and energy on work that isn’t yielding results.

Decide which of the 14 metrics are most important to you and your site’s SEO. Start by incorporating one new metric a week, while also maintaining a tracking schedule. For example, each Monday you can incorporate a new metric and every other Friday can be your tracking day. An organized schedule will help you manage the metrics, take actions when you need to improve and experience great success in SEO.

What metrics do you use and why? Is there a particular way you organize and manage measuring metrics? Tell me in the comments!

If you are ready to dominate page 1 of Google, schedule a meeting with me here:

jimena.biz

What Metrics Must You Track for SEO Success? [Part 1]

The world of SEO is ever-evolving and always changing. When a new SEO metric arrives on the scene, it’s understandable to feel uneasy about using it. The last thing you want to do is spend weeks or months building content designed around specific metrics only to find you’ve achieved zero results and wasted your time. 

While new metrics can be scary, we can all agree you have to have a way to track your results. If not, there is no way to evaluate if what you’re doing is working. While you may feel comfortable using one metric, such as keyword ranking, over another, one single metric can not describe your results as a whole. 

If you want to be successful, you have to track multiple metrics. Metrics, also referred to as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), are hard numbers obtained from your website data. This data comes to you directly through analytics tools such as Google Analytics.

The topic of SEO metrics is very detailed. I want to make sure I give you all the insights necessary to be successful in SEO so this post is Part 1 of 2. Today, I’m going to discuss 7 of the 14 most important SEO metrics, how to use them and why they matter. Next week, I’ll discuss the other 7 to give you a complete guide to SEO success. It’ll then be your job to determine which, if not all, you choose to incorporate into your tracking.

One quick note before we begin, these are not exact measurements of your success. Metrics are simply indications used to evaluate your site’s health and growth.

1) Keyword Rankings: Where is your traffic coming from?

Keyword rankings are a great way to measure specific terms you’re trying to rank for. When you measure keyword rankings, you can determine if you’re using the right keywords to target your audience and how your site ranks among your competition.

While traffic from keywords only represents about 9% of your potential traffic, you can still learn a great deal from measuring keyword rankings. You can learn:

⦁    If you’re targeting the right keywords: If your blog posts aren’t ranking for their target keywords, you need to consider using other, less competitive keywords.
⦁    If you’re growing over time: As you become a more trusted site and gain backlinks, your keywords should improve in rank. This growth may be slow but you should see gradual improvement. If not, you need to reconsider your SEO plan.

When you’re ready to begin tracking keywords, select 1 to 5 keywords for each blog post or important page on your site. Select a tool such as Pro Rank Tracker (which is free) and follow the steps for adding and tracking keywords. You should continuously add new keywords to track and export your results to see how you’re doing.

2) Links: Who is linking to your site and why does it matter? 

Backlinks, which are basically any link received by a web page from a web page, are important factors in rankings and will continue to be in the future. One of the ways to grow your site is to acquire backlinks. You can measure your success with backlinks by measuring both the quantity and quality of the backlinks you acquire.

Two of the most popular backlink trackers are Ahrefs and MajesticSEO. Both start with free options but eventually require you to upgrade. Let’s look at an example from Ahrefs.

You start by putting your site URL into the search bar. Once you’ve clicked search, you’ll see a graph that shows the number of backlinks and linking root domains. The linking root domains should be more than the backlinks and the graph should trend upwards. Next, you can use the navigation menu to select “Inbound Links” and then “New”. This will show the new links to your domain. You can see who has linked to your site and visit those pages.

All link-tracking services are built on a system of scores. The higher the score, the better the quality of link. When you use one of the backlink trackers mentioned above, you will receive these results. Similar to the rest of the results, you should monitor and record these frequently.

Tracking backlinks is important. When you do this regularly, you’re able to evaluate the cost of links and your link-building strategies and tactics. You’re also able to see the success of your link-building tactics and find potential relationships. If someone links to your content frequently, it’s a great opportunity for you to send them an email and begin building a relationship.

3) Organic Search Traffic: How are people finding your site?

Organic search traffic is something we all strive for in SEO and it is another one of the metrics you should be tracking to measure your success. Like the other metrics we discussed, you should track it monthly and make sure it’s increasing. Seasonal changes can affect traffic so when you’re measuring this, consider searching over the course of a few months. 

In order to track organic search traffic, open Google Analytics for your site and go to “Audience Overview”. A graph will appear and show your traffic for the last 30 days (note: you can adjust it to make the time period longer). Next, click on the “Add Segment” button and add “Organic Traffic”. Once you do this, you’ll be able to see your organic traffic as well as your overall traffic. You can even break down your search traffic by specific search engines and the traffic by day.

4) Time Spent Per Page: How long do users spend on each page?

Another metric to consider is the time people spend on your page. When they land on your page do they stick around because they’re interested or immediately leave? Your goal should be to provide information that will make readers stay, which will help improve your page ranking.

You can uncover this information in Google Analytics. Simply go to “Behavior”, then “Overview” and in the bottom right hand corner, click “View Full Report”. This will show you a full report outlining traffic volume. The column you’ll want to look for is the “Avg. Time on Page” column. You have the option to export these results into a spreadsheet, which will allow you to further analyze them.

Like the other metrics, record your results and monitor them over time. When you improve your content, check your results again and see if there has been an increase in volume. 

5) Pages per Session: How much of your site do users explore?

When a visitor is on your site, you not only want them to read the content that led them there, you want them to stick around and visit other pages. You can track this using Google Analytics.

In the “Audience Overview” dashboard, it shows “Pages/Session”. If you just started your blog or site, it’s understandable to have a lower number. However, the goal is to get this number to increase over time. Record the initial number and the date you checked it, improve your content and recheck the data. 

6) Return Rate: Are users returning?

If you’re not trying to create engaging content, you’re doing something seriously wrong. Engaging content is the reason people return to your site. If you’re content is sub-par, people won’t return and you’ll have missed out on an opportunity to add them to your email subscription and form a relationship with them. You want visitors to return.

Again, using Google Analytics, on the main screen of the “Audience Overview” in the bottom right is a graph. The graph identifies the new to returning visitor ratio. When you hover your mouse over the graph, you can see the actual number of visitors. 

You should record these numbers at least once a month with your goal being to see an increase in both categories. Returning visitors are extremely valuable. If they’re returning, they know you, they trust you and they are more likely to buy from you.

7) Bounce Rate: Why do visitors leave so soon?

Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who go to your website and them immediately leave after viewing only one page. Google wants users to be able to access the correct information when they search so if people click on your site and continuously don’t find the results they’re looking for; your ranking will drop.

It’s important to view the bounce rate for each page on your site. You can once again do this in Google Analytics, under “Behavior”, click” Overview”. At the bottom right hand corner, click “View Full Report”. The report will have a column specifically dedicated to bounce rates. It’s important to note that when looking at bounce rates, a big sample size is important. 

The bounce rate will also depend on the topic. If someone searched a straight-forward question such as, “how many inches are in a foot?” and you provided the short, simple answer, you’ll have a higher bounce rate. People will get the answer they need and move on. If it’s a more open-ended question or topic, you want your bounce rate to be below 50%. Like the other metrics, monitor your bounce rate monthly and record the changes. 

To Be Continued…

Finding the right metrics for SEO success is a comprehensive topic and I want to be sure to explain each metric in detail. Join me next week as I discuss 7 more of the most important metrics for SEO success.

In the mean time, try incorporating the metrics above into your SEO strategies. Leave me a comment and let me known what metrics work particularly well for you and why?

Link to part 2: https://wizardmedia.net/what-metrics-must-you-track-for-seo-success-part-2/

My Highly Guarded LinkedIn Secrets

Recently, I was inspired to rethink my selling strategies as they relate to the art of seduction. Have you ever thought about how these two might be connected? Dr. Hana-Meksem breaks down how leadership and seduction are intrinsically related in her blog post, The Most Concealed and Powerful Lesson of Leadership: Seduction, by explaining, often times both the leaders and their followers are being seduce in some way. But what about sellers and buyers?

Leadership and Seduction definitely have some commonalities, they both derive from the same Latin origin, se ducere, and ducere literally means leadership. Seduction is powerful, but so is leadership. Think about a time when you had a leader who didn’t really lead well (no seduction), what were the effects of this? It most likely caused you to feel less motivated and lead to less than stellar results.

How about in selling, it seems obvious that in a lot of selling, the seller is attempting to seduce the buyer. Do you feel that you seduce your customers or clients? You most likely believe that you lead them, but if you sat back and took a truly analytical look at it, would you say your leadership and selling involve seduction? I am betting they do, but just how much can make all the difference.

Take a car salesman for example. He tells the buyer all the wonderful things about the car, helping him to visualize himself driving this new, fancy car. In a way the salesman is seducing the buyer.

So is seduction a part of your selling process? How do you use it? Are you sure you are using it to the fullest extent possible to get the absolute maximum results you can?

I have 2 Highly Guarded LinkedIn Secrets, which I am, albeit somewhat reluctantly, going to share with you today. These have brought me thousands of new leads, sales, and profits.

Leave them Wanting More

When making new connections you have to dangle the “carrot” per se, but you also have to pull it away from them, in order to get them to follow you. You must seduce them towards you. This may seem obvious or simple, but because of its obvious and simple nature many of us continue using “carrots” that aren’t seducing our target market.

One major area of power, in seducing leads is to have your LinkedIn profile optimized. When you initiate a connection through LinkedIn there is a very high chance that the potential connection will navigate to your profile for a quick look at what you do. This is your opportunity to showcase your talents. Be sure to highlight the results that you have actually achieved for clients.

When they see your result driven profile highlighting your accomplishments, and the problems you solve for your clients, they will want to experience same results. Thus, your profile will help convert/seduce these individuals into wanting to be your customers. In order to stay seductive in your approach, particularly on LinkedIn, you have to reinvent your seduction and it begins with your profile as that is your first impression on this social network.

Reinvent Your Seduction

Now you’ve gotten the connection, what can you say to keep them interested and further seduce them, to the true desired goal, getting them to buy? You know why they should, but how can you make them want to? The power to seduce them, lies within your profile, your content, and your messaging. The key here is what you say and how you say it.

The content you provide on your profile, your messaging (when reaching out to connect and once the connection has been made), and your website all matter significantly to the potential customer. If you are not providing rich and valuable content then you might as well be using Lorem Ipsum to fill your pages. Without superior content your ability to convert and seduce will be greatly reduced.

So what is superior content? In a nutshell it is content that not only educates your prospect which shows your expertise but also discusses the results you get for your clients. At the end of the day, the only reason anyone is going to buy from you is because they have a problem and you are the solution to get them the result they want.

For example, at my company whenever we are talking to a potential LinkedIn client, we always make sure to discuss the successes other clients have had with our services like how we generated $18,000.00 in sales in just 30 days for an event we promoted.

When we are speaking to potential SEO clients we make sure to tell them how one of our CPA clients tripled his business thanks to us driving traffic from Google or how an attorney client of ours brought in $83,000.00 in new business in just 6 months due to our efforts.

Our clients want these results, so they are on my profile, on my website and we discuss these in our phone meetings.

So, once you have connected with them through using your result driven profile and valuable content, you have to seduce them into doing business. You will want to use a value driven message (such as a free consultation or a short conversation to see how you can help each other), to get them into a meeting or on the phone to back up the powerfully seducing content you have already shown them.

Leading with this mindset, that you have value and benefit to offer to these customers, will be the best place to draw from in converting them into actually doing business with you. Make the process seamless and as easy as possible for the customer, that way why would they say no? When providing the rich educational content, an optimized profile, seductive (value driven) messaging in your approach, and the easy onboarding process, you are taking the “no” out of the picture.

So, is seduction harmful? You have to ask yourself, do you intend to harm your customers? Or do you intend to help them realize they need your services in order to better succeed in their business?  If it is the latter then it is your duty to ensure your prospects hire you for their own well-being.

The only thing in your way is 99% mindset. If you can achieve a congruent mindset between you and customers using both leadership and seduction then the desired powerful positive effects will be realized for both of you: you getting a new client and the client getting the services they need to better their business. It is a win win!

For more information about SEO and Marketing click here

Google Makes Huge Change to Local Business Search Results

Google’s local search results had, yet another, major change take place on August 6th. The way that local businesses used to appear in search results will now have a completely different look and feel. The previous way the results displayed for local businesses in search results was known as the “local 7-pack.” The pack consisted of seven local businesses featured prominently near the top of the search results page. Now Google’s replacement of this pack is being called, the “local 3-pack.” The gasps are almost audible, I can imagine. Local business owners are sure to be concerned about how this will affect their SEO as well as their bottom line.

So, let’s get right down to it, how will this change affect you and your business? Many leading experts in the SEO industry seem to be quite shaken up by ideas and opinions regarding how the change will impact local visibility as well as traffic. Below is a scaled down guide to give local business owners some comfort and reassurance about the changes, and possibly even some ideas about how to use the change to your advantage.

Major Aspects of the Change

The old Google Search Results Page offered an area in which seven local business could be visibly seen along with their contact information. The new local search results are limited to three businesses only and provides no contact information. This is huge, in that searchers will now have to click more than once to immediately contact your business.

But this could be a good thing considering there are only three spots available and if your business doesn’t land in them, you will want the consumer to have to click through for contact info as a list of 20 competitors shows up along with the contact information. Therefore, in that list of 20 your business is more likely to appear.

What is important to know is that the top three results are in rotation and also vary depending on your physical location. So for example, one customer ten miles away from your business may not get you in their top three search results, but a customer a mile away in the other direction just might see your business in their results.

How Do These Aspects Actually Affect Me

As I mentioned, the fact that the list went from seven to three creates an immediate panic among local business owners who rely on getting business from those local search results. But, never free, because the contact information for all of the business landing in the top three results can only be contacted by way of the 20 results page, in which your business is sure to be listed.

Now that your business will be listed among a list of 20 competitors, you are going to have to look at how to make yourself stand out. In the old local search results you were only competing with six other businesses. Now that the ante is upped, you are going to need to make your business the one that people want to choose.

Tips on Tweaking Your SEO Agenda

Keep in mind, good old-fashioned SEO strategies still serve their purpose and with good reason. Remember this change was not an algorithm change, so your previous SEO strategies should remain in place. The only thing you need to do with them is to make sure you stay on top of the cutting edge changes that are released from time to time.

What you can do regarding this new local results change is consider updating your snippet and making it more compelling. If you haven’t already, add pictures to your snippet, and keep them relevant. Make sure all your information is up-to-date. And do some research, search your product or service and take a look at the 20 businesses results page. What are your competitors doing? Can you do it better?

Make sure your Google Business Page is up to date and optimized, this is important because most of the information that the local business card, Google creates for you, is pulled from this page. If you haven’t claimed your Google My Business listing, then you should stop reading his now and go claim it, then come back and finish.

Make sure you fill out the page completely, no detail is too minor. Concentrate on your description, categories, high res images, and consistency with your physical address throughout your internet postings. The local business card is basically your first representation of your business while standing up next to 19 other competitors, so make it count.

Another important aspect related to reviews is being listed with online directories that relate to your business. These directories will list your business and give customers an opportunity to review your business, which means potential customers also have an opportunity to read these raving reviews and choose your business over the others.

Finally, reviews make all the difference, you want to have the best rating you possibly can. Believe it or not customers look at this. They are looking at how many stars your business has and they are taking it seriously. If you rating is too few stars, then you are likely not going to get their business.

For more information about SEO and Marketing visit this website.

Penalized by Google? Here’s How to Fix it

Every person with a website knows that feeling – you could get up the next morning, only to discover all that heard-earned search engine traffic you had fought for has disappeared over-night because Google changed a few lines of code in their algorithm. If you are one of the unlucky few who saw their worst search engine nightmare come true, then here is a simple process for helping you get your rankings back in no time.

If you’ve recently been slapped with a Google penalty, you know it can really affect the traffic coming to your site. You can go from being incredibly successful, bringing in a myriad of traffic on a daily basis, to barely getting any visitors when you are slapped with a penalty from Google.

Known as the largest search engine operating system, Google has a lot of pull on your traffic. It is actually accountable for roughly 69.3% of all searches. In just last October alone, it controlled over 12.6 billion searches.

The quality of these Google searches and the traffic that it brings to your site is stellar, because SEO has been known to offer the largest impression on consumer interest. Inbound marketing leads used with Google’s search engines offer a whopping 14.6% conversation rate compared to other common outbound marketing leads like cold calling and pay per click advertising, whose conversion rates are much lower.

But maybe you don’t even know you’ve been penalized. Sometimes the effects are so small at first, it’s hard to tell.

There are quite a few reasons why Google could frown on you, but the long and short of it is – if you are caught violating their guidelines, then you will witness a dramatic fall in your search engine rankings.

The more worrisome issue is, you could follow their guidelines to a t, and still end up being penalized! After all, negative SEO attacks cannot be discounted.

So what can you do?

Before you do anything, educate yourself to help understand what these penalties are and how you got them in the first place. This will allow you to figure out the right plan of action.

To help get you started, here are some key points in dealing with Google penalties:

Which penalties are affecting your site?

If you are experiencing traffic drops to your site, don’t panic. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have been penalized. There are other reasons why traffic has been dropping and a lot of the times it’s a technical problem with your server, improper redirects, crawling challenges or content by blocked by robots.txt.

But technical difficulties aren’t the only thing that can cause your traffic to drop. There are other things to consider, too. If you’re promoting a seasonal vocation, your traffic might not be as high as it was during the time of high season.

There are two main penalties to watch for: manual and algorithmic.

Manual: This type of penalty happens when a manual quality rater finds something suspicious on your site. An easy way to figure out whether you have been penalized with a manual action is by signing into the Google Search Console( https://www.google.com/webmasters/ ) and clicking on your messages. A rater will have written the issue here for you to view.

Algorithmic: Google can detect violations with its various algorithms but unlike a manual penalty, you won’t get a message in your Search Console explaining the issue. You will need to manually figure out when the penalty happened by using Search Console for indexing problems and/or Google Analytics for any traffic-related issues.

Sometimes people even need to use both. You’ll need to do a little digging to understand which algorithm change your site has been slapped with. To do so, you’ll first need to find the date when you noticed the penalty took place, such as when your traffic significantly dropped. After that, you’ll need to pair it with the date when Google performed one of its many algorithms and see if they match up.

You have a penalty. Now what?

Now that you have a penalty, it’s important to understand how you got it. There are several reasons for a manual penalties including unnatural links on your site. These can be from outside sources, or ones that you’ve put in there yourself. Unnatural links can lead to spam sites making your site appear suspicious in Google’s eyes.

Spammy content found on your site is another red flag. There are many reasons why you’re being flagged for spam such as having suspicious comments backlinking to bad sites or filling your site with duplicate content found from outside sources.

As for algorithmic penalties, there are two main ones to keep an eye out for. The Panda algorithm distributes penalties for invaluable, poorly written content, while the Penguin algorithm penalizes for bad backlinks that are found in unusual link systems.

How do you fix the problem?

While some problems can easily be fixed, like deleting unwanted spammy comments on your site or limit the amount of links you use, others can be harder and more time consuming. When fixing unnatural links, you have to get a list of your backlinks to help search for the penalty before you’re able to lift it.

If you need to fix a Penguin or Panda penalty, you’ll have to take the necessary actions such as removing any duplicated content, and then wait for the algorithm to run again to see if your penalty is removed.

Get reconsidered

You are able to submit a reconsideration request to Google if you were hit with a manual action. To find this form, go to the Search Console and click “Manual Actions” under the “Search Traffic” tab.

This detailed request will explain why the penalty happened, how you fixed the issue and how you plant to prevent it from reoccurring in the future.

How do you not get penalized again?

The last thing you want is to get hit with another penalty again. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to help prevent from future problems to occur.

Stay on top of audits: Remember to conduct SEO and content audits regularly. This can include keeping an eye on links, check your messages in Search Console and never approve any comments that look like spam.

  • Monitor all the links that are pointing to your site on a regular basis.
  • Never publish duplicate content.
  • Monitor blog comments closely, and delete those which do not add any value to the conversation.
  • Keep a close watch on Google’s updates, and compare new changes to your implemented SEO strategy. Make changes as you see fit.

Watch SEO sites: Keep up on the news so you’re always clued in on changes that might cause penalties down the road.

Don’t get lost in temptation: There are lot of scams out there that say they can offer you too-good-to-be-true offers. Don’t fall for them. Building traffic to your site and placement on SEO takes time, but well worth it when you do it right.

While you can’t always prevent penalties from happening, you can stay well-informed giving you a better chance at keeping your SEO ranking high and your website thriving.

If you prefer to have a professional company handle your SEO rankings and monitoring, contact us.

Related posts:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-get-massive-seo-effectively-building-links-jimena-cortes

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/google-makes-huge-change-local-business-search-results-jimena-cortes

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-absolutely-sure-googles-panda-42-actually-launched-jimena-cortes

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-seo-tactics-may-lose-your-rankings-jimena-cortes

LinkedIn SEO: How to Increase Your LinkedIn Ranking and Profile Views

One of my biggest pet peeves is when I hear professionals say LinkedIn is a waste of time and doesn’t work for business. This could not be further from the truth. Not only is LinkedIn one of the fastest growing social networks, it is one of the most powerful business networking tools.

I think most of the people who believe LinkedIn is a waste of time simply don’t know how to use LinkedIn to maximize business results. I typically see people go wrong on LinkedIn in one of two ways.

  1. You create a profile, add your professional experiences and rarely log on. If you don’t put the time and effort into your LinkedIn profile, people won’t put the time and effort into looking at your profile and the services you can provide.
  2. Your profile is your resume. If you’re using LinkedIn to find a job, this makes complete sense. However, if you want to use LinkedIn to generate new business, you have to position your expertise correctly. You need to put relevant information on your profile such as your unique selling proposition, your ultimate claim, your value, your prospects challenges, needs and problems and what differentiates you from your competition.

If you want some tips for writing your profile, check out this article I wrote on the subject:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-using-your-linkedin-profile-conversion-tool-jimena-cortes/

When you use LinkedIn correctly, you have the opportunity to reach thousands of prospective clients and attract new business. You can do this by optimizing your LinkedIn profile. Many people know SEO is important for their website, but it’s also extremely important in attracting new business through LinkedIn.

LinkedIn SEO is very similar to SEO on your website. When you strategically place words throughout your profile, it helps you get found by the LinkedIn search algorithm. Again, just like website SEO, with the right keywords in place, you can reach the top of the searching ranking, which is exactly where you want to be in order to get found by your target clients.

Here’s how you can increase your LinkedIn ranking and profile views, to turn your LinkedIn profile into one that attracts prospects:

Add Keywords to Your Name

Your name field is the first place LinkedIn looks for keywords. It’s important to identify the specific keywords you want to target using LinkedIn. For example, one of my clients is a CPA and CPA is one his LinkedIn keywords. Rather than just stating his name on LinkedIn, we included a keyword after his name.

LinkedIn will allow you to have 40 characters in your last name field. I do not recommend using all 40 characters, as it can make your name look long, confusing and unprofessional. Too many keywords and symbols can also make it harder for people to find you when they search your name. Additionally, if you use too many characters in your last name, it can cut off your professional headline in the “People You May Know” sidebar. A significant number of your views come from this sidebar, so you want it to be as clear as possible while still grabbing the attention of potential clients.

Enhance Your Professional Headline

After reading your name on LinkedIn, most people look at your professional headline. This is also where LinkedIn looks for keywords. Remember when we talked about using your LinkedIn as your resume? Well the majority of people use the professional headline to state their current title and where they work. The problem with this is thousands of other people have that same job title, which does nothing to help your search rankings or show your value.

Instead of using the professional headline as a place to list your job, use it as a place to spark people’s attention and get them to click your profile. Identify your target keyword phrases and place them in your headline. For example, one of my keywords on LinkedIn is Lead Generation. So my personal LinkedIn headline reads: Lead Generation Expert Gets Clients Targeted Leads Through Google & LinkedIn, Delivers ROI of 300% Plus+. By enhancing my professional headline, both my search results and profile views have increased.

For more on your LinkedIn headline, check out How Your LinkedIn Headline Can Improve Your Sales Success.

Write a Compelling Summary

The next section of you profile to place keywords is in your summary. The key here is to use keywords naturally without overusing them. Carefully integrate the keywords into your summary just as you would on your website.

Your summary is a great place to discuss your expertise but it’s important to focus on your target client and the benefits they will receive from working with you. Your ideal client is going to be less interested in you and what you have accomplished and more interested in what you can accomplish for them. It’s best to use keywords to balance your credibility with your results in order to increase your search ranking.

Create Your Experience

The second most important factor to increasing your LinkedIn ranking is incorporating keywords into your experience section, specifically your job titles. Similar to your professional headline, many people use this section to list their past titles: Sales Manager, Director of Sales, V.P. of Sales, etc. While it’s important to build your credibility by sharing past experiences, it’s just as important to use keywords to rank well.

One way to do this is to create several job titles within your own company making each title a keyword. For example, on my LinkedIn page, I list the following positions I’ve held within my company: SEO Lead Generation Expert, Facebook Lead Generation Expert and SEO, Social Media Marketing, Consultant, among others. This helps me rank well for each keyword phrase and improves my overall ranking and profile views.

Max Out Your Skills

LinkedIn lets you add up to 50 skills on your profile. It’s important to use this section to include all of your target keywords as skills. Once you enter your skills, reorder them so your keywords are prioritized. For example, my first skill is Social Media Marketing followed by SEO, Email Marketing, Lead Generation and so on.

LinkedIn will then ask your network if they want to endorse your skills. The more endorsements you receive, the more it will help your search ranking. This is one of the easiest and most effective ways to increase your search ranking so be sure to take full advantage of the skills section.

Don’t Forget Your Interests

The last place to add keywords on LinkedIn is your interest section. Many people use this as a place to list hobbies but it’s also a great spot to add keywords. Consider adding a few business keywords to this section to increase your ranking and views.

Your Turn

Now it’s your turn to take the above advice and transform your LinkedIn. Start by making a list of keywords. If you’re unsure of what keywords to select, do a little research and see who currently ranks at the top of search results, the keywords they use and where they place them. Try adding keywords in the suggested places and document your results. Be active on LinkedIn and start using this powerful network to connect with prospects and grow your business.

Looking for more? Contact us for a free consultation. 

Why LinkedIn Connections Matter and How to Grow Your Network

LinkedIn can sometimes be an intimidating social network to use. However,

once you create your profile, you have access to millions of highly successful

people, working at some of the premier companies around the world.

Maximizing Business Success Rate.

LinkedIn is focused on building relationships in the form of connections.

Most people are not aware that having 500 connections in LinkedIn

establishes them as a networker and influencer on this site.

While 500+ connections are great, know that LinkedIn is not a place to rack

up connections like what most people do on other social media platforms. It’s

important to know that these need to be quality connections — not only just

connecting with present and past colleagues but, more importantly,

prospective clients.

Yes, it can feel like a daunting task to create an engaging profile that leads

others to want to connect with you. You may also feel that growing your

LinkedIn connections can be difficult, with the biggest obstacle being not

enough time. It’s easy to ignore or avoid devoting time to working with

LinkedIn, when you don’t know how to maximize LinkedIn’s capabilities to

attract business opportunities. It’s the reason why most people limit their

LinkedIn profile to just a resume of skills and achievements.

Go beyond and attract prospective clients and business opportunities the

right way

The goal is to have your prospects buy into you and then buy from you.

Before you connect with anyone on LinkedIn for business opportunities, it’s

extremely important to have a profile that draws prospective clients to you.

Your current LinkedIn profile is a resume of skills and achievements, and

there is plenty of room to improve it—to effectively target or attract

prospective clients. It’s often a one-time chance with prospects. If they don’t

see why they should connect with you, then they are less likely to engage

with you—and may not ever connect with you for business opportunities.

Here is my article with some extremely useful tips—including how to write a

profile to attract prospective clients:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-your- linkedin-headline- can-improve-

sales-success- jimena-cortes

After your profile is written in a way to draw and engage prospects,

what next?

Next, you must be proactive about connecting with professionals whom you

see as potential clients, partners or affiliates, etc.

The key here is to hone in very specifically as to who you want to reach and

how. The “who” is very important. While your product or service could work

for several audiences, who are the clients you prefer working with? What

types of professionals are worth more to your business than others? Who do

you help the most?

LinkedIn allows you to search prospects by industry, location, job title that is

current or past, company size and many other parameters you can use to hone

in on your ideal clients.

Once you have defined your target audience, the next thing you want to

do is connect and engage with your potential prospects.

Now, it’s all about being consistent in connecting with your ideal prospects,

and also saying the right things in the right sequence. Check out this article where I discuss this process in more detail: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/4-ways-monetize-your-linkedin-connections-jimena-cortes/

For example, most people try to sell right away, if they are connecting with a

prospect. This is no way to engage. It’s best to provide value, ask questions

and create a conversation that leads to a meeting.

As long as you are consistent with your lead generation process, and you are

not being overly salesy, you can have success and connect with potential

clients you would otherwise never have had the chance to meet.

Want help with your LinkedIn Strategy? Schedule a meeting with me here:

jimena.biz

What Have Others Experienced Who Have Followed this Advice?

Just completed and I’m pleased to say my understanding of LinkedIn

has improved massively! My connections have grown, my daily views

and interactions have increased and more importantly I’m getting

better client leads. Now that my profile has a face lift, my next steps are

to activate more of Jimena’s strategies and get clients! Recommended.”

— Donovan Grant

“Generated $12K in new business, in the first 60 days. Cut prospecting

time from 4 hrs., daily, to 30 minutes. Cut sales cycle from 3 months to

less than 1 month.”

– Shayne Hall, Alpha Dog Digital

“I spent almost a year floundering around with LinkedIn with

absolutely nothing to show for it. One day I came across “LinkedIn

Blueprint”. I had just recently purchased 2 other LinkedIn “how to”

courses back-to- back that were (sort of) helpful but neither lived up to

the expectations and hype their marketing created.

After viewing the LinkedIn Blueprint system on several webinars, I

decided to give it a try. The early results have been nothing short of

stunning.

Using the implementation strategies, group engagement, and response

templates they provide, I’m finding that our most qualified prospects

will respond at alarming rates if you connect and engage exactly the

way the course teaches.

It’s well-organized, clear, concise, and right to the point. No fluff and no

hype. I’ve been in web marketing for over 14 years and this system is

proving to be a game-changer for us!

I highly recommend LinkedIn Blueprint!”

– Michael Hines, Triple Your Clicks