SEO in its truest form is all about the end user, NOT the search engine. True SEO is knowing what the end user is seeking and delivering that content to that seeker: the search engine merely becomes the conduit to deliver the message.

One way to ensure you are delivering what your audience is seeking is to listen. Listen to your Google Analytics or web metrics. Pay close attention to what searchers are typing into that search box, pay close attention and LISTEN to the language they are using in your social media channels. Listen to their testimonials or complaints.

The more we listen, the more we learn to speak their language. The more we speak their language, the more we connect and build a successful brand and search engine marketing campaign.

To discuss your SEO or Search engine marketing strategy with true SEO experts, call us. Nationwide: 866-998-6886, In Orlando: 407-830-4550 or fill out our contact form for a quick response.

1.) When building the mobile friendly version of your company web site, be certain to include your address or store locator on the page. Many businesses overlook this critical detail, but it’s imperative to help lead and guide your prospects to your store.

2.) It’s also important to include directions and / or maps to your store on your mobile landing page.

3.) Your prospects are also looking to save time and money. Help them do that by offering a stock check tool on your site.

The real core to this is simplicity and making it easy for your prospects to do business with you and find you. For more Internet marketing and mobile marketing tips, call and speak to one of our expert marketers. In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

Consider the following:

Mobile Searches Have Grown By 400% Since 2010.

- Source: Google Internal Data

61% Of Smartphone Users Call A Business After Search & 59% Visit The Location.

- Source: Google, “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users.” 2011

70% Of Mobile Users Have Compared Product Prices On Their Phones.

- Source: Lightspeed Research

It’s Estimated That By 2013, More People Will Use Mobile Than PCs To Get Online.

- Source: Gartner (2010)

By 2015, There Will Be One Mobile Device For Every Person On Earth.

- Source: Cisco (2010)

How Can Your Business Reach The 46% Of US Consumers That Own A Smartphone?

- Make certain that your web site is mobile friendly or switches to a mobile friendly site.

- Target the right consumer with location targeting, specific cell carriers, user interests and specific times of day.

- Create ads for the mobile user with call extensions to make it simple for them to reach you, you can also add a directions component to your ad to guide that prospect right to your store / establishment.

To learn more about mobile advertising and how the Internet Marketing experts at On Target Web Solutions can help your business grow, call us today: In Orlando, 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886 for a free no-obligation evaluation of your Internet marketing efforts.

I thought it would be important for you to know what kinds of things my SEO team looks for to see what we are up against. There are basically three key factors with several sub-factors that help us look under the hood, but here are the most general:

SEO Consideration 1: The Site Foundation.

A cleanly coded web site is a happy web site, and Google loves clean.  If we see a slew of messy sloppy code with excessive scripts, ugly URL structures, etc., our first recommendation will always be to get your ‘house’ in order.  Google doesn’t have a ton of free time, so it’s mission critical that your web site is constructed with clean and simple in mind.

SEO Consideration 2: The Trust Factor.

If your company just bought a domain name yesterday from Joe’s discount domain traders, don’t expect Google to trust your web site or it’s domain for quite a while. Google needs to trust your domain, that means, it wasn’t used for ill purposes in the past, or wasn’t linked to 90,000 link farms or questionable web site neighborhoods.  A well established domain with a nice and clean reputation will always do better in Google’s eyes.

SEO Consideration 3: The Content Factor.

This is usually where we see the most failures.  Content is king, content will remain king.  If your business set your web site up and walked away without a plan of growing it with rich content, Google will NOT be placing much weight on your site.  We look to see how often and how current web sites are, especially in terms of recent blog articles, etc.. It’s imperative that your business has a content / editorial calendar that can be used to update not only your web site, but your social media venues as well.  Google DOES pay attention to your Facebook and Twitter account (as well as Google+, YouTube, etc.) so, content needs to be considered in multiple places.  Here’s where most companies fail, they stop doing it.

When it’s time to get real results for your business, call an actual SEO expert. What’s the best way to find an SEO expert? Google them. For expert SEO guidance, call my company, in Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

Here are three mission critical search engine marketing / PPC tips you need to know about Google Adwords.

Quality.

Contrary to popular belief, the more you spend with a PPC campaign doesn’t necessarily equate to being higher up on the page than your competitors.  If the keyword(s) you are bidding DO NOT match any of the content of the ‘landing page’ that you are sending the click through too, you could be paying way too much for that click.
- Quality Tip: Create landing pages for each keyword campaign that directly relate to that particular keyword.  Be minimal with your copy and offer your call(s) to action clearly.

Demographics.

Google AdWords allows you to isolate and ONLY show your ads where you intended audience lives.  You can reach out to the demographic you want to and get very specific with boundaries, counties, etc.
- Demographics Tip: Do your homework and take the time to map out your service area.  Use the Google AdWords demographic tool to isolate those areas.  This will not only save you PPC money, but will also allow you finely target your prospects.

Tracking.

Google AdWords allows you to install conversion tracking within your landing pages / web site, etc.  Tracking codes can be assigned a potential dollar amount, sales goal, etc., so that you can truly gauge the ROI of your campaign.
Tracking Tip: Take the time to create, install and test the conversion tracking.  This can help your marketing team isolate which keywords are performing better than others, which landing pages are hitting the mark, etc.

Running a successful AdWords SEM campaign does require skill and experience. Please do give us a call if you have any questions or would like to speak with a Google AdWords professional in our office. In Orlando, call 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886. Visit our web site to learn more about SEO, Internet Marketing & PPC, http://www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com

When’s the last time you picked up the phone and asked a fellow business owner for a referral?

When’s the last time you picked up the Yellow Pages and let your fingers do the problem solving?

When’s the last time you performed a Google search?

If you’re like most of the US population, you are visiting Google several times a day and looking for answers to your particular problem. So are your consumers.

If your web site, or social media presence, or blog cannot be found, your business is not growing or thriving. If your business isn’t taking the time to KNOW what problems your prospects have and NOT taking the time to find out how they are searching to solve those problems, your business in not growing or thriving.

Here’s the real truth about SEO. It’s about solving problems. It’s about speaking the right language to a very fluid moving target. It’s about knowing your prospect and delivering the answers to their real issues within seconds. It’s about getting your business found before your competition can get there.

Is your business there? We can help get you there. Call one of our SEO / Internet Marketing experts today, In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

I’ve heard it all, and frankly, the companies that are ONLY putting their money in Organic SEO and dabbling with PPC or dabbling with social media aren’t going to be the champions. Internet Marketing is such a relatively new method of delivering your sales message, but each day, it becomes abundantly more and more clear that in order to win online, you need to be play ALL IN.

What does this mean in plain Marketing English?

- Spending a total budget of $25 a month in Google AdWords will not drive the leads your business needs in the door.
Ask an Internet Marketing expert to run some numbers for you and make some budget recommendations based on your business / keywords, etc.

- Performing a ONE TIME SEO job on your web site is good for short term gain, not long term.
Google is seeking a relationship with your web site, feeding it once won’t keep it coming back. Feeding it often with a content strategy is a solid plan for ongoing SEO success.

- Seek other areas WHERE your prospects are hanging out and BE there.
Social media can be a powerful tool when you know your demographic. Learn where your prospects hang out during the day online and be there. Be there often with the right messaging and with the right conversations. You can no longer ignore social media, in fact, Google pays a great deal of attention to social media posts, etc. now, you need to be there.

- Mobile and Other Advertising Venues
Have an Internet marketing expert take the time to discover other mobile and online advertising venues for your business can unleash new markets and opportunities and expose your brand / business to a whole new audience.

The Bottom Line is this… Don’t put all of your eggs in the Organic SEO basket. Be certain to have a true Internet Marketing professional evaluate your business and help determine where you should be, how often you should be there and how you much you should be spending to see a healthy ROI. At the end of the day, it’s all about leads and how many leads your web site can generate, they are not ALL going to come from Google.

To spend some quality time with one of our Internet Marketing experts, call us. In Orlando, call 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

Here’s 8 quick steps to make certain that your WordPress blog is telling the world about your blog when you hit that publish button:

Step 1.
Open your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2.
Navigate to Settings on the left portion of your screen.

Step 3.
Navigate to Writing Settings

Step 4.
Scroll to the bottom in the main window pane.

Step 5.
Note where it says Update Services. By default, you will probably only see rpc.pingomatic.com in the box, if that is true, than click the Update Services hyperlink and grab the full list of update services.

Step 6.
Copy the full list of Update Services from the WordPress site (using the link they provide you in the dashboard.)

Step 7.
Paste them into the Update Services Box

Step 8.
Click the Save Changes button and you are all set.

Now, each time you generate a new blog post, you’ll be notifying some of the latest and greatest Internet  aggregators about your latest and greatest blog post.

I’m asked this question with nearly every prospect I speak with. How often should I blog to get results?

The answer is, as much as it takes. There is no super duper secret SEO formula that says if you blog 2 times in one month, you’ll be crushing it in the organic search engine results.

Here are a few considerations to think about when setting a blogging SEO strategy for your business:

- How competitive is your market?

Can you stand out by generating some great content to keep prospects interested in your brand?

- Is your competition blogging? How often?

Pay attention to the frequency of your competition and their Google rankings.

- How competitive are the keywords you are after?

I can’t emphasize this consideration enough, pay attention to the free Google keyword data that Google graciously provides us all with. The higher the search volume on your target keywords, the more unique and relevant content you’ll need to generate to catch Google’s eyes.

- How prolific are you?

If you love to write, use the talent. Share the wealth and your insight into your industry. Remember to let your brand personality come out through your blogging.

Please do keep this in mind… Contrary to popular belief when it comes to SEO, there is no secret sauce. True SEO is about feeding your audience / prospects with rich content that keeps them coming back. A powerful side effect of that generosity is Google’s desire to index new, relevant content to searchers.

- Emarketer.com

It is truly amazing to me to see how much marketing has shifted in the last two years alone. Businesses that did not see the value in jumping on the Internet bandwagon two years ago are actually paying the price right now as they fight to be seen by the 34,000 searchers hitting Google’s search box a second.

Is your business fighting to be seen?
Is your business being found in one of the 10.7 places that people visited prior to buying anything in 2011?
Is your web site popping up before your competitors in the search engine results pages?

If your answer is no to any of these, it’s time to evaluate your marketing strategy. Here are a few of my recommendations on places your web site and business presence should be found online:

Search Engines

Roughly 78-80% of search engine traffic SHOULD be coming from Google if your web site is optimized for search engines, (SEO).

- Google Organic Results. These are the results that appear AFTER the Google Local (Maps) and the Google PPC (Pay Per CLick ads. This takes time, skill and patience.
- Google PPC. Pay per click ads can get your web site found in minutes. You do pay to play and I encourage businesses to set aside a decent budget for this.
- Google Local: a free submission, but requires an authentication that your business is actually physically located in the region (example..Orlando) you are submitting to.

Social Media Venues

Companies are still trying to figure out how to use Social Media effectively for their businesses. Here are a few suggestions that can help your business grow.

- Find out WHICH social media that your target audience is hanging out at. Is it Google+? LinkedIn? Facebook? This is mission critical to discover. Once you know, you grow,
- Consider using social media as a customer service portal. Twitter can make for a great place to offer support on your products and services.
- Engage your followers and prospects in conversation and keep that conversation alive. Social media is no more then a conversation that just happens to be taking place online.

Forums / Blogs / Press Releases

- Be the expert that you are and spread your enthusiasm through contributing to the Internet. Consider adding articles, whitepapers, etc., to forums and blogs.
- Create well crafted Press Releases and distribute them online with a backlink to your web site.
- Continue blogging on your web site to keep Google and your prospects coming back for fresh insight and content.

Go Mobile Or Go Home

In 2011, 46% of all US Mobile phone owners have a smart phone. This means that they are looking for your products and services on their phone WHEN they want and need you most.

- Make certain that your web site is mobile friendly and easy to view in phones and tablets.
- Offer a widget of some sort that will help your client make educated and easier buying decisions

At On Target Web Solutions, we encourage our clients to subscribe to our blended Internet marketing programs which is a hybrid of all of the above. 80 percent of business is just simply showing up. If they can find you, they can buy from you. Call the Orlando Internet marketing experts today at 407-830-4550 to discuss your business and how we can fight to get you seen. Visit www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com to learn more.

- SLOW load times.

If your web site takes over a minute to load due to excessive graphics / flash / content / just slow in general, Google may not be pleased. The great Google Bot is a very busy bot. It doesn’t have a month, let alone 1 minute to wait for your web site to load. Google wants it’s users (searchers) to experience quality web sites, it’s very important that your site loads quickly.

Solution: Check up on your web site frequently, be certain that it is loading quickly. If it is not, check your internet connection first, then consult your web host to help speed things up. If your site is cluttered with excessive graphics / code / flash, etc., consider cleaning it up or re-designing to something simple.

- FREQUENT Down Time.

If Google goes to crawl your web site and finds that it is down consistently, don’t expect your search engine rankings to thrive and grow. Google will eventually, simply stop visiting your web site.

Solution, find a host with a stable reputation AND one that offers excellent response times should / when something go wrong.

- GUILT By Association.

In the hosting world, your web site may site on a box with a few hundred other web sites. Some of those web sites may be spammers, some may be malicious, some may contain adult content, etc.. If Google has penalized any of those sites, it could end up affecting your web site and it’s reputation.

Solution, consider a dedicated server environment. It does cost more, BUT, you are the only web site on that server.

Google wants users to have a great experience online. If people are finding your web site via the Google search engine and your web site offers a terrible / slow experience for them, things can start to go south.

In this instant gratification world, we all want to see results, YESTERDAY. I’m one of those people, I don’t have a lot of patience (unfortunately) and I’m always assuming that technology should move faster and faster and get ‘stuff done’ quicker and more efficiently.

SEO does NOT work that way. Here’s why.

When Google goes out and looks (crawls) a web site, it’s out to find quality. Quality takes time. Quality is NOT accomplished overnight. Trust is not established overnight, therefore, your web site will not rank in the top ten overnight, much less days. Google defines quality as a web site AND a web presence that CONSISTENTLY accomplishes the following:

- The web site is built well for search engines.
- The domain name has been around the block and wasn’t just registered yesterday.
- The web site / and / or domain doesn’t have a history of spamming or is not linked to from web sites in bad neighborhoods.
- The web site regularly offers up content rich and UNIQUE content suited well for web site VISITORS, content that is not over-stuffed with garbage keywords, etc.
- The web site is linked to from great places, places that are relevant and make sense.
- The web site is talked about in social media places frequently. (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+)
- The web site stays up and running consistently at a decent load pace.
- The content on the web site is well optimized and targets known popular key-phrases that are RELEVANT to the marketplace.

There are so many more factors, in fact, Google just adjusted 50 of those factors last week to improve search results.

So, How long does SEO take? Results can TYPICALLY start be seen within 60-90 days, sometimes sooner, sometimes longer. It truthfully depends on so many factors including all of the above. It is also important to know this: SEO Should NEVER stop. We should always be looking for ways to enhance the users experience on our web sites, whether it’s quality blog content, or easier navigation structure, or a social media campaign, this is what true SEO is all about.

Using a sitemap for your web site is a great way to help Google, Bing & Yahoo crawl your web site, but the search engines also appreciate you helping them crawl deeper into your web site with internal TEXT links.  Simply put, the next time you compose a blog or add a page to your web site, be mindful about linking keywords to the key corresponding relevant pages WITHIN your web site.

Internal Linking Accomplishes Two Things:

1.) You are ‘anchoring’ keywords to key relevant pages within your web site.
2.) You are encouraging Google to crawl that link and index that particular page.

The more pages that your web site has indexed in the search engines, the higher the odds of getting your content discovered by hungry searchers.

Businesses tend to focus on only one aspect of search engine marketing, the organic, but studies have proven that running PPC ads as well as getting found organically dramatically improves the click through ratio to your web site. This means the following:

Your business needs to look at that Google page as a real estate deal. To maximize your exposure when someone types a search term into that magical Google search box, you need a presence in the following locations:

- Google AdWords.

Those pretty ads listed above the Google Organic or Google Places listings get a great deal of attention now. Recent studies have shown that even with a #1 organic ranking, being found in the paid ads as well provides 50% incremental clicks.

- Google Local.

This free gem has ticked a lot of us SEO types off as it has pushed down organic results under many different search terms. BUT, it’s a great free local service for businesses, be certain to claim your Google Local page and further, be certain to get some great great reviews about your business listed in there as well. The word on the street is this: the more reviews your business has, the more attention Google pays to your local listing.

- Google Organic.

Yes, you need to be here, and NO it won’t happen overnight. An organic SEO campaign is composed of link building, domain authority, content, trust from Google and several other factors. Building a web site and not feeding it with rich unique content will not get you far these days.

- YouTube.

Google loves videos, google loves YouTube. Be In YouTube and you’ll be in Google listings. Upload your videos and optimize them for the keywords that people use to find your products and services and watch Google include your videos in the search results.

- Press Releases.

Got some great news about your business? Tell the world with an optimized press release and get it indexed in Google fairly quickly. Google loves news, google loves content, feed Google the news and content it is looking for. Be sure to link back to your web site for some URL juice.

- Social Media.

Still not sure how social media can help your business? Consider this. Google pays attention to social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinknedIn, Google+, etc. Have a presence in these social media channels and participate. The more you participate and create social content, the more Google will start paying attention to your social media accounts and index your content. Be certain to add links back to your web site on occasion in your posts for maximum organic SEO juice.

There’s a lot more to SEO then uploading a web site and generating a blog or two. If we can help answer any questions regarding your SEO campaigns, please do drop us a line: in Orlando, 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

- Francis Bacon

I speak to many companies who still don’t believe that Social media can ROI or drive any improve their brand presence, etc.. The simple fact of the matter is this. They’re usually doing it wrong. Here’s a few reasons why it went wrong.

- They weren’t talking to anyone.
Social media is about building and cultivating a following. Following four people on Twitter won’t cut the mustard. 6 likes on your Facebook page won’t do it either. Companies that are successful at social media campaigns are the ones that spend time attracting people to follow them.

- They hired an intern to handle their social media.
This is a common pitfall and I have nothing against interns. Your intern doesn’t know your brand or your audience. How can they cultivate relationships with the audience?

- They thought that talking about their sales and special offers was captivating enough.
Sure, a well placed discount code or offer can do some wonders with social media, but, it’s not enough to carry on the conversation.

- They were not listening to or engaging their audience.
Social media is a conversation, not a one way street. The goal of businesses should be this: how can I spark and nurture conversation that feeds both the company and the audience?

- It was ALL about them.
This is a common pitfall and frankly, one that we’ve been guilty of at times. Social media cannot always be about you. Your presence in social media, SEO, your web site, etc., all need to feed the prospects and your intended audience with what they want, when they want it.

The social media world grows each and every day. Your mission as a marketer should be knowing your target audience and then knowing which channels they spend most of their time at. Is it Facebook? Pinterest? Twitter or LinkedIn? Knowledge is power and social media can be a great place to build and nurture relationships with your brand.

Need help with your social media, SEO or web design strategy? Call my team today. We offer a well balanced blend of Internet marketing efforts to drive your brand further. In Orlando, call 407-830-4550, Nationwide, 866-998-6886.

Here’s a little bit of what it takes:

- A Strong Commitment To Being Different.
There are so many fish in this sea, how will your business be unique or remarkable? Ask yourself this way before you even think about opening that Facebook account.

- A Strong Commitment to feeding your prospects.
Without content, the Internet is nothing. Create content and win. Create winning content and win love by prospects and Google.

- A Web Site That’s Built To Win.
Just because your uncle Joey built a web site back in the day using notepad and knew HTML like the back of his hand doesn’t mean he can create a marketing piece that can and will convert. Work with marketing people, not IT people.

- Know What They Want.
Guessing at what keywords your prospect may type in is a recipe for going out of business online. Knowing what they want, where they want it and when they want gets you to the finish line. Take the time research, the payoff can be outstanding.

- INVESTMENT.
Spending 53.00 in Google AdWords is not going to transform your business. Taking the time to budget accordingly and investing some resources to draw the crowds can change your business. Don’t SKIMP with your online budget because you think you can get tons of great traffic for free.

- A Business That Takes Great Care Of It’s Customers.
Zappos wins. They win because they are remarkable and take great care of their customers. Treat them with dignity and human respect, the payoffs and the word of mouth online will be rewarding.

- Be Real.
Robots don’t close sales. People and relationships do. Be real in every interaction online. Your social media, your blogging, your web copy, be yourself, people like that.

- Eye On The Prize.
Pay attention to what your web site is telling you. Read your analytics, know your analytics, understand how people are behaving on your web site and evolve to give them what they want and need.

If you don’t have the talent or experience on your staff to execute any of the above, you need to hire an Internet Marketing firm that understands these principles.  In Orlando, call (407) 830-4550. Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

If your business needs social media strategy guidance or Internet marketing expertise, be sure to give me a call: In Orlando, 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

The bottom line is, there are many factors built into online internet marketing success, but here are just some of the most basic reasons your competition is smoking your online SEO presence:

1.) They’ve been around the block a lot longer.
While not always the case, Google trusts web sites and web domains that have been around the block. It’s not a fan of the Johnny Come Lately domain name that was just registered 6 months ago, but favors domain names with horsepower and longevity.

2.) They keep their web site fresh and with up to snuff coding techniques.
If your web site is still sporting the flying butterflies and flock of seagulls mp3 music, it’s time to let go of the 90′s and clean that code up.  Further, Google is a busy search engine, it doesn’t have time to sift through 32,000 lines of frivolous outdated Java Script code. The leaner and cleaner, the better.

3.) They show up in MANY places.
In 2011, the average consumer visited 10.7 places online prior to buying.  That means your competition has online reviews out there, a Google places presence, a Facebook presence, a YouTube presence, a LinkedIn presence, Google+, etc. AND they actively participate in conversations at those places.  Google does pay attention to activity, that’s where the relevance lies.

4.) They are blogging and / or educating their web site visitors consistently.
If your business wrote a blog 8 months ago about Beatrice the housekeepers wedding anniversary and how special that was to your business, you’re not doing it right. Feeding your audience with the information and expertise that THEY are looking for is mission critical to succeeding with SEO. Google wants new food to display in the search results, feed it wisely. Another important factor here is SEO optimization.  If your web site is speaking YOUR language and not your prospects language, how could your web site ever show up to your prospects in the search engine results?

5.) They have all of the right tools in place to succeed with SEO.
If your web site was hand built years ago, you may be missing a huge leg up in SEO.  Modern web sites generate RSS feeds / XML feeds that search engines are hungry for and digest much more rapidly then static ‘old school’ web sites. Upgrading your technology platform can do wonders for your online presence.

6.) Google simply trusts them.
1/3 of winning at SEO is THE trust factor.  If your competitor keeps feeding Google and doesn’t try to trick the search engines with gimmicks, tricks, etc., they will ultimately win.  Trickery and slight of hand tricks will NOT result in a long term SEO success story and could ultimately get your domain expelled from the search engines period.

7.) Their domain name was well thought out and may contain some great keywords.
Domain names do play a decent role in Google rankings.  If you are considering a new web site, think very carefully about what keywords you can get in that domain.  Use keywords that your prospects would actually use to find your business / products.

8.) They are linked to from places that matter.
Google loves to crawl and follow links.  It also loves to see that your web site links back to important places that are RELEVANT to the content on your web site.  This is an art form within itself, but link building is a strong key factor in how your web site can rank in the results.

9.) Their brand is simply talked about online much more then yours.
Smaller companies and brands really do need to put forth more effort to get found and to get recognized in Google.  It truly is a David and Goliath scenario, BUT, it can be done with rave product reviews, viral social media campaigns, etc.

10.) They are cranking out information outside of their web site and optimizing it properly.
A great example of this is videos.  YouTube is the second most used search box on the Internet for a reason.  People love to watch.  Another example are press releases.  Composing and distributing compelling and newsworthy press releases with return URL’s can tell Google just how important your web site is.

With that being said, I think that it’s very important that consumers understand this.  They are downloading free applications used to communicate.  The companies that are providing the apps need to turn a few bucks in order to provide the services that we all love.  Companies like Facebook and YouTube make money selling advertisements and the best way to target these ads is to know WHO to show them too.  The data they may be able to collect from you helps them dish out the best ads.

Fox 35 news in Orlando had me on last week to discuss this issue:

As a marketer, I see both sides of the story, I think we all have a tremendous right to privacy, but on the same token, we all want to use these free applications that cost a tremendous amount of money to create.  It’s a fine line.  The bottom line is this…. Read the terms of use prior to downloading anything to your phone or computer.  If you’re not comfortable with it, don’t download it.  If you’re worried that you may be being snooped on, you can delete that application from your phone.

Here’s the spot from Fox:

3 Quick Social Media Tips For Business:

- Be A Leader.
Be the expert in your field, lead and feed your tribe.

- Create An Exclusive Club.
People want to belong to something extra special and exclusive.  How can your business create a savings club or a super secret incentives club?

- COMMUNICATE With Your Tribe.
All great relationships begin with open and clear communication.  Using social media is about creating and nurturing relationships
If your business needs some social media guidance, please give us a call today. In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

As you can see, the Google places information sits directly beneath the AdWords (PPC) and above the Organic search engine results.  So, how can your business grab a piece of this valuable real estate?

Here are 5 Google Places Placement Tips For Your Business:

1.) Keywords, Keywords, Keywords.
As with any SEO related campaign, know your keywords.  How do people search for your products / services? Find out prior to even entertaining a campaign.  Once you’ve fine tuned your keyword list, be certain to incorporate them into the description of your business.

2.) Allow Reviews.
If your business has a great reputation, it’s time to let the world know.  People LOVE to read reviews, both positive and negative.  The downside to this practice is of course inviting in a negative review, they will happen, but tip #3 should address this.

3.) Be Transparent.
If you happen to receive a negative review from Negative Nancy, address the issue promptly, and PLEASE do not flood your review pages with fake or hyper inflated positive comments.  People see right through nonsense. Adding a ton of positive comments after a negative looks fishy and could invite a whole additional string of negative reviews.

4.) Follow The Rules.
Playing by the rules in Google is a must.  Yes, there are many ways to work a system, but don’t monkey or try and stretch the rules with Google.  Be certain that your business is adhering to the guidelines to avoid getting booted from Google all together.

5.) Fill In The Blanks.
Be certain to fill in as much information about your business as possible.  The more information you provide, the more relevant your Google Places presence can be.

To claim your business in Google places, get started here: http://www.google.com/places/.  To start wining the Google real estate game, give my company a call today, we’ve got the experience and horsepower to drive your business forward.  In Orlando: call 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886 or visit http://www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com.

- Woody Allen

34,000 Searches Are Performed In That Google Search Box Every Second.

Is your business showing up? Do your competitors seem to dominate that golden search engine results page on Google? How can your business start ‘showing up’?

The Google search engine results page is composed of a few different elements and getting your business found on each of those components well is mission critical for your business.  In my next couple of blogs, we’ll be taking a deeper look at each one of these key real estate components, PPC (Pay Per Click), Google Places, Google Plus and of course Organic SEO. I’ll give you a few key pointers on how your business can claim some of this valuable real estate.

PPC or Pay Per Click is Google’s cash cow.  Basically, your competitors are bidding on keywords / keyphrases and paying for each click.  Adwords (PPC) show up at the top of the search engine results and to the right (as I’ve highlighted the On Target ad). Succeeding at PPC is not as easy as it may seem, so I’ve compiled a few pointers to help your business thrive at the PPC game.

5  PPC / AdWords Tips.

1.) Keywords.
Do your homework.  Google offers some great keyword discovery tools and traffic estimators designed to help you choose the most targeted keywords for your demographic. Once your campaign is running, Google will constantly try to get you to bid on more and more keywords, be cautious with this.  You know your business better then Google does, and the more keywords you start adding to your campaign, the muddier it can get.

2.) QUALITY Score. 
The pages that your ads lead to should be optimized for that specific keyword / keyphrase that you were bidding on.  Many folks have a mentality that the more you spend, the more you’ll get.  That’s not necessarily true here.  Google is all about relevancy, your keywords should be relevant to the content that you are leading your prospects to. The more relevant, the higher the quality.  The higher the quality, the less you’ll pay and the better your adwords will rank.

3.) Pay Attention. 
Like all campaigns, the PPC campaigns need to be managed.  It’s imperative to pop your head in and look under the hood of your adwords campaign at least a few times a week. You’ll see opportunities for budget improvement, you can see how your different ads are performing, you can see what keywords are killing it and which ones are stagnant.  Your campaign needs to fine tuned often in order to get maximum performance.

4.) Negative Keywords.
This is something many folks don’t pay much attention to.  Negative keywords are words that MAY be similar to a keyword you are bidding on, but don’t have anything to do with your business whatsoever.  Google allows you to ad negative keywords that you DON’T want your ads showing up under, for example, Job seekers love to click PPC ads and fill out your contact form costing you time and money.  You would want to add ‘jobs’ to the list of negative keywords.  This list should continue to grow as your campaign progresses, the key is to pay attention to what words and what word phrases people are using to trigger your ad.

5.) A/B Ad Testing.
Google does a remarkable job of showing you which one of your ads is outperforming the others, and will even give you the option of showing those more successful ads more often.  Pay attention and adjust your ads often. Make them stand out from the sea of other AdWords. Pay attention to the shape of your ad, the words you are using, the calls to action, etc..

In my next post, I’ll break down Google Places with some specific recommendations to help your business gather some of that real estate.

If your business is ready to gather up some of this valuable real estate on the Google search engine results pages, let me know.  I’ve got a few $100.00 coupon cards from Google to kick off new campaigns and I’d love to share them. Call today: In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886. http://www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com

Your web site, your blog, your Facebook page, your twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ page ALL need to be updated frequently.  And, simply changing three words on your web site about us page does not count as an update.

Here’s the bottom line. Activity creates activity.  The more you compose blogs, the more products you add to your web site, the more insight and white papers you add to your LinkedIn account the more a.) People notice and b.) Google notices.  The more Google notices, the more Google love you’ll receive.

While it does require quite the discipline, the conversations need to be had.  The updates need to be made. The blogs need to be written.  If your business is to succeed with an Internet marketing plan, it’s time to a.) Hire a company to assist you with the content and strategy or b.) hire someone in house capable of devising a strategy and executing frequently. That’s the reality, That’s the world we now live in.

If my company can help, call me. In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide, 866-998-6886. Visit http://www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com

– SEO Is Not An Overnight Process
It can take months to a year to rank well under keyphrases / keywords.  Once your business ranks for those certain keywords / key-phrases, those positions need to be maintained.

– SEO Is NOT A One & Done.
Again, once you get there, you need to maintain that positioning.  Threats in the form of new web sites / more relevant content, changes in algorithims, play a huge role on where your web site ranks on a daily basis.

– SEO Is Not About How Much You Pay Google.
I’ve had lots of folks ask me if we can just pay Google to get organic rankings. The answer is No, BUT you can pay Google to rank under their PPC (Ad-Words) ads.

– SEO Is Not Just About One Particular Element.
Many folks have been told that because a competitor has better reviews in Google places that their web sites will outrank them.  Many folks have been told that it’s only about inbound links (link-building), many folks have been told that the domain name alone will help the web site outrank everyone.  The truth is, there are hundreds of factors that go into the way Google, Bing or Yahoo rank web sites.  A sound SEO strategy should focus on these key areas, Technical, Content & Establishing Trust with the search engines.

– SEO Is Not About Creating Crumby Content Written JUST For Search Engines.
Creating junk content with hopes in ranking a web site high is a recipe for disaster.  This strategy MAY yield some results but will not be sustainable results.  Writing copy for real humans that is useful, relevant and compelling is what sticks and is exactly what Google is seeking.

– SEO Is Not About An Automated Process.
Using an automated computer program to rank in any search engine is not an effective strategy for reaching your prospects or customers.  True SEO should begin with the end user in mind first and foremost, search engines secondly.  There aren’t many computer programs who can speak to the intended PERSON that we are trying to pull to your web site.

If your business is in the market for a search engine marketing,  I’d encourage you to check, double check and triple check references about any firm you choose to work with.  One of the best ways to find a search engine marketing firm worth it’s salt is to google a few search terms and see if you can find that firm listed in the organic results.  If they can get themselves found, they can probably get your business found.  (example, Orlando SEO, Orlando Internet Marketing). If you’d like to discuss getting your business found in the search engines, please give me a call, In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

SEO is a two way conversation. It’s about knowing what your clients and prospects are looking for and then it’s about responding to their needs (Google search) to answer their questions, to enlighten them, to entice them, to educate them and to endear them to your brand.  Your prospects speak, you learn, you speak back with the content that they are seeking. Great SEO is constant.  Great SEO never stops, it continues to learn, to observe and to evolve.

With that being said, how can you use your Social Media platforms to improve your SEO?

Great social media is about two-way conversations.  Conversations between you and your prospects and vice versa. Nestled within those conversations is gold. Your prospects and clients are speaking to you about your brand and products using THEIR language.  Your mission: LEARN Their language.  Pay very close attention to what keywords they are using, note how they refer to your products and start crafting your messaging speaking their language. The more you speak their language, the more they know you are listening, the more your messaging will convert, the more Google will index your web site using the language of your prospects.

The key: listen to them, engage them and learn from them. The more that you relate to your clients, the more successful your Internet marketing efforts will be.

In my next few posts, I’ll focus on some concrete ways you can use Google+, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to improve your overall SEO efforts.

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When it’s time to take your business and your SEO presence to the next level, it’s time to speak to On Target Web Solutions, at On Target, we fear NO search box.  Call us today, in Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

Here’s why.

* His site was built in 1995 and it showed.

* He was still playing background music when the web site loaded (and it wasn’t good background music either)

* He did not lead or tell the web site visitors what he wanted them to do.

* There were NO clear call’s to actions or even a mention of a social media presence

*The copy was clearly composed by an angry second grader

* The site graphics and logo were plastered in Teal & Maroon colors.

* Mouse trails were being generated as you moved the mouse across the web site

* The code to the site was cumbersome and clearly  coded by the same angry second grader that wrote the copy.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many great SEO keywords you rank under if your web site isn’t even going to come close to converting a visitor into a lead.  In fact, Having great SEO in this case is costing this gentleman business rather then improving his bottom line.

Here’s the bottom line on this sad story: It’s critical that your web site stays current and on trend with design, social media integration, etc. now more then ever.  All the clicks in the world from great SEO will not garner 1 dollar if your web site is stuck in the 90′s. In todays’ digital world, cutting corners on a web designer  to save a few bucks could be costing your business thousands in lost sales.

Need a reputable web design & SEO firm that get’s marketing, CRM integration, social media and online advertising? Call us today: In Orlando, 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

Here are 6 reasons I bother to blog weekly:

- Google crawls my site rapidly and often. The more content that I create, the more Google wants to come back to my site and crawl it. The more it crawls my site, the more opportunities I have to edit / alter keywords, etc., to grab certain key rankings.

- Google indexes my content rapidly. I’ve written blog articles before that have been indexed IN google within 13 minutes flat. This means I can obviously get my message out quickly and be able to be relevant on trending topics. Again, Google has come to expect content from me, so it constantly is checking for new content.

- Ideas & Insight. The more content that I create, the more I’m forcing my mind to stay on top of my industry. This of course translates to being an authority in my field.

- Credibility. I’ve been invited to speak at countless conventions and associates because of my blogging. I’ve also been on local Orlando news channels frequently because they found a relevant blog article in Google and called my company.

- Newsletter Food. On Target sends out a weekly newsletter to our client base. Because I generate content for my blog, it auto-populates our newsletter and automatically sends it out weekly. I don’t have to create articles in multiple places.

- Social Media Feeder. Because of my blogging, a lot of my social media posts, etc., get automatically populated. I’m able to quickly disseminate my my insight across multiple platforms & now that Google loves to crawl social media outlets, I want those blog posts linked to from those outlets.

If you despise writing, hire someone. If you don’t have the time, pay someone who does have the time. If you really want your web site and it’s Internet marketing presence to grow, content is a hefty consideration that must be a part of your overall Internet Marketing plan. My team at On Target is all about quality, relevant and intelligent content creation.

Call us today to see how we can help your business gain and share it’s expertise on the Internet. In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886. http://www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com

Initial Configuration Tips

1.) Permalinks.
When you install WordPress right out of the box, you need to change the ‘permalink’ structure. The default permalink (site links) is a bit ugly and not conducive to an optimum SEO campaign: you can learn more about changing the default permalink settings at this link: http://codex.wordpress.org/Settings_Permalinks_Screen

2.) Setup Ping Services.
Many web masters miss this, but you can alter and add ping services in WordPress so that each time you compose an article, it alerts news feeds, etc. Here’s a great link to help you alter this setting and get your brilliance out on the web quicker: http://codex.wordpress.org/Update_Services

3.) PRIVACY settings.
Sometimes, WordPress is installed with privacy enabled.  This means it blocks search engines from ever accessing your site.  This, of course, is NOT good for SEO.  You can double check your privacy settings in the settings control panel within WordPress. You want to allow search engines to crawl and index your web site.

Some Great Plugins:

1.) Google Analytics Plugin.
You need to know what’s happening with your web site visitors, you need a Google Analytics plugin.  This plugin allows you to simply drop your Google analytics code into a box and click the submit button.  WordPress does the rest. Take your pick of a Google Analytics plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=google+analytics&sort=

2.) Google Analytics Dashboard.
Want to see what’s happening with your web site traffic without having to go and login to Google? Install the Google Analytics Dashboard and get analytics information displayed right on your WordPress dashboard. Get the plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-analytics-dashboard/

3.) Google XML Sitemap Generator.
Since you’ll be generating all sorts of blogging goodness, you’ll be adding pages and pages to your web site. The XML site map generator adds every new page of brilliance that you author to an XML document that gives search engines a running list of all new and existing content that you generate.  It’s important to note, you need to create a Google WebMaster account and submit your XML site map for maximum SEO efficiency. I prefer this particular plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

4.) All In One SEO Pack.
Each page and post of your WordPress site deserves a unique title tag and meta description.  WordPress does not allot for this out of the box, so the All In One SEO pack is a great tool for serious SEO Types.  The tool allows you to customize each tag on each new page and post that you create. This plugin is a MUST have. You can grab this plugin here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

5.) Related Links.
One of the core strategies of any successful SEO campaign is a strong back linking and related content linking strategy.  Once you’ve composed a few hundred articles of brilliance, you’ll want your web site visitors and Google to be able to access other nuggets of wisdom that you’ve created.  This plugin lists all related articles to the one you’ve just composed making it easier for the end user to click, and it enables ease of use for search engines to crawl to the related articles. There are a few here that are great options: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/search.php?q=better+related+links&sort=

There are of course more SEO type plugins which we’ll share with you soon, but the ones listed above are critical in my humble opinion.

Need help with your SEO and Online presence? Give one of our SEO Experts a call today: In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886. You can also fill out our quick contact form here: http://www.ontargetwebsolutions.com/contact/

Here are a few things that should trigger an exodus from your existing SEO company:

- NO Metrics / or Reporting.
If you can’t get straight answers about your web traffic like where it’s coming from, is it increasing, where are people leaving the web site, etc., you can’t gauge the performance of the SEO company period…..

- PROMISING you top ten organic SEO rankings.
Plain and simple, NO ONE can PROMISE you that your web site will be ranked in Google, Bing, Or Yahoo, let alone ranked as number 1.

- IN and Out.
Any SEO company worth their salt knows that SEO is an ongoing process. Google wants to be fed. Your web site needs to feed Google to keep it coming back. In this industry, there is no quick fix, it’s a commitment.

- NO Strategy.
SEO requires a plan. It requires research, it requires technical know how, it requires copy writing skills, it requires experience to do it well. No plan, no success.

- SHADY operations.
Yes, there are ways to manipulate search engine rankings, but Google strictly warns webmasters NOT to employ any shady tricks when it comes down to search engine optimization. If your SEO company talks about cloaking, or hiding text, or secret tricks, it’s time to distance yourself and your web site from that company. Getting penalized by Google is NOT worth getting a few top spots for a few days.

The bottom line is this: Like any industry, there are several shady characters in this space. Educating yourself and your marketing team about what’s legit and what’s nonsense is mission critical when it comes to your online presence.

When it’s time for results, ethics and strategy, it’s time for your business to call On Target Web Solutions. In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886.

Who Is Your Customer?
- What do they look like?
- Where do they hang out?
- What do they search for?
- What do they value?
- What do they need from your business?
- What are they hungry for?
- How will your business address and solve their problem?
- How can your business connect with them and relay the relevancy that they are seeking?

Taking the time to dig deep into this question is by far one of the best things your business can do. Before you build that web site, before you call your SEO guy, before you write that blog, before you post that tweet… Who is your customer?

Does your business need helping digging deeper? We’ve helped hundreds of clients get to know just who their clients are and where they need to be to reach them, the right place, at the right time, with the right message. Call us, In Orlando: 407-830-4550, Nationwide: 866-998-6886 or visit http://www.OnTargetWebSolutions.com