Search engine optimization is a collection of tactics and actions performed on and off a website. The SEO process involves formatting and optimizing your website so that it performs well for your chosen keywords in the search engine ranks. SEO has many benefits and perks, but unfortunately it's downside is that the process is very time consuming and a tad bit mind numbing (plus the fact that for best results, it needs constant updating and work in order for you to stay ahead of your competitors). 

Do I really need to SEO my website?

Failing to formalize a good SEO strategy will most likely cause your site to linger in no-mans land gathering cyber dust in the search engine directory listings. With the billions of searches entered into the numerous search engines every month online, the opportunity to tap into these traffic sources and siphon users to your website is huge.

How to SEO your website.

The process of optimizing your website for the search engines starts with keyword research and market competition analysis. After you finalize your target keywords it is time to create content for each page of your website. Using the keywords/key phrases from the first step you will focus the content on each page around those keywords. Other factors will include integrating the keyword into your heading tags known as (H1- H6).  Images on any page should carry the main keyword in the file name, title and alt tags (Meta tags hidden from view - they aid the search engines and visually impaired people using screen readers)

We always tell our clients to keep in mind of the 80/20 rule: 20% of your SEO efforts will go towards "on page/site" factors. while 80% of your efforts "off page/other sites" are continued SEO work building other online properties that will provide one way links pointing back to your sites web pages.

SEO is in constant change with new algorithm changes happening weekly, so to rank well in the search engine listings you should keep up your search engine optimization both on and off your website. Like a strategic game of chess; it is something that takes time, strategy and knowledge to build a successful web presence campaign. 

With 97% of consumers searching for local businesses online, local search SEO is an absolute must for any business. We can help you spruce up your local listing by adding photos, assuring your address and business hours are correct, and generating a keyworded business description. Local Search lets you make the most of your listing and show customers why they'll want to choose you. Take advantage and get into the race to position your business in local search results.

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then video must speak in volumes. Using video as a marketing tool to promote your business or yourself is a great way to connect and spread your message. Video marketing is also awesome for exposure; people love to watch video, and they are a quick way to create a positive reaction from your audience.

How Can Video Marketing Benefit my Company?

• You can pack a lot of information into a video in a short amount of time. This helps those of us that prefer to learn through watching something vs. reading large boring blocks of content. 
• People are more inclined to share a video link online to friends or colleagues.
• Through video, you humanize yourself and your business by putting a voice and face behind the company.
• Using video to market your services will help you educate your target audience online, build trust and build brand awareness.
• Using video on your website can help with your bounce rate (how long a visitor stays on a page). If people go to your web page and leave after a few seconds, this looks bad to the search engines.
• Video is affordable. Video Marketing doesn't cost anywhere near what it did in the past.

We strongly believe in the power of video to market your brand or business. Video marketing is an excellent avenue for any company to create more business and drive conversion. We understand what it takes to run a successful local video marketing campaign for our clients including production, editing, syndication and optimization. Don't be left behind, if you are not utilizing video marketing to reach your local market, you should consider using it to your advantage.

Email marketing offers a unique opportunity to speak directly with your customers and prospects. Using email marketing allows you to build a loyal customer base that you can nurture and present new sales opportunities to over time. Getting your visitors to purchase or convert to a sale from just one visit to a website can be tough. We are skeptical beings by nature and tend to be suspicious of making online purchases unless we have confidence that we are dealing with a trusted source. For instance, most people trust websites like Amazon and Apple because these companies have done a great job at building confidence in their services and reliability. Using e-mail marketing allows businesses online to break down these barriers over time. If people are willing to give you their email address, this opens a huge gateway for you to provide them with more information and advice about your services or products. As time goes on, you are able to build trusting relationships with your customer base and sales will result. 

If your business focuses on establishing trust with your clients, then email marketing and video marketing are your best tools to let people get a sense of who you are and how you can aid them with the services or products you have to offer. The biggest plus to having a mailing list of confirmed clients is that these consumers know who you are and you can market them in a way to sell to them again in the future, rather than just catch them at one point of sale and be done. If you need help implementing your email marketing campaign, the RI Web Gurus can help you get it done right. From helping you develop strategies to designing your email templates, we have an array of options to offer you. Or maybe you just want some direction and instructions on how to create a list and market to them, we can help with that too.

We have provided a link to a free 60 day trial run of Constant Contact. Having worked with CC the last few years we have found them to be a very reliabe platform for our clients marketing campaigns.  

Constant Contact makes it easy and affordable to build strong relationships with your customers. Try our FREE 60-Day Trial.  

Another great platform for email marketing is Aweber. Click the image below give them a trial run. As of now it costs $1 for 30 days to see if you like their services.

Try AWeber's Email Marketing Tool Risk-Free

Understanding social media

Social media is an online-based platform used to provoke an interactive dialogue between people. In business, this dialogue can be a huge benefit because it gets people talking about you and the services or products you have to offer. Utilizing social websites like Facebook and Twitter to market your business correctly can drive more sales and conversions and give you a direct line of communication with your customers no matter their location.

It is our belief that social media is the new media form and it is how we find information and share it. Still in its infancy, social media has a much greater reach than previous one directional methods, such as radio, static websites, TV and newspapers. The process has transitioned from one-way communication, where the business marketed to the consumer, to interactive, where the audience has direct influence on how the information is shared and viewed. This audience helps create and build upon the media by interacting in real time, and that is the real power behind using social media websites; the ability to interact with people in real time gives businesses opportunities never seen before.

The continued growth of social website interaction is proving to be enormous, with massing numbers exceeding the population of continents. Having your company or small business involved in these social media platforms offers huge opportunities. The ability to have a voice in large markets has never been so easy and accessible. Everyone from small businesses to international monsters, like Red Bull and Coca-Cola are taking advantage of these social media spaces to get their message out and talk directly to their fans and customers. Revolutions have even been spearheaded and coordinated with the help of Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. 

So if you want your companies voice to be heard, then you need to get social. Don’t be intimidated by it, embrace it, and we’ll show you the way. RI Web Gurus can cater to any type of business and help create a RI Social media campaign designed just for your company.

Why do we bother with analytical tracking for websites? 

It doesn't matter if you have a small 2 page website focused on your hobby or a huge site consisting of thousands of pages, by installing analytics you can benefit from some of the following: 

• Track where your visitors are coming from and how they interact on your website.
• Realize if there are any issues that people are having with the internal pages of your website.
• Figure out what keywords your prospects are using to find your web pages.
• Understand what content people are most interested in and more importantly, what makes prospects convert to paying customers.

Google Analytics will provide all this information and a whole lot more. 

In conjunction with Google Analytics, we will also sign you up for Google webmaster tools and Bing webmaster tools. These tools provide additional information such as if the search engines are having any issues with your website and the most popular terms visitors are using to find your content online.

Web analytic reporting is a sure way of tracking your success online. It is a must have tool in today’s online community to understand your websites abilities and your clients needs.