Is moderating blog comments really worth your hard work, time and effort? Here’s some more info why perhaps you shouldn’t turn off those comments just yet.
How to Rank For Your Business Name
I can't tell you how many times I'm working on a client’s SEO and notice they're not even ranking #1 in Google for their own business name. In fact their own name might not even appear anywhere on their website! Ranking for your own business name doesn't involve extensive keyword research — it's super simple to do but often overlooked by most entrepreneurs.
You can start ranking for your business name by including your business name in the page title and meta description of your home page and every page of your website where it makes sense (easy if you're using Shopify, Squarespace or WordPress with the Yoast plugin).
And If and when you get more inbound links to your website, try to make sure the anchor text (the actual words that are linked) is your business name (and not, for example, the words "click here"), like this:
Melissa McGraw is an SEO consultant who owns The Creative Potential.
Ranking for your business name isn't always as easy as it seems. If you have a generic business name (like I do!), you're competing against generic searches for that same term. So you might try to these variations to ranking for your biz name:
your business name + the industry ("the creative potential search engine optimization")
your business name + products & services you sell ("melissa mcgraw seo consultant")
your business name + location ("the creative potential new york city")
your business name + owner name of biz ("the creative potential melissa mcgraw")
If you want to know where you stand in rankings for a certain search term, like your own business name, you can use the free SERPS Rank Checker Tool.
Want to get your site on the 1st page of Google? Don’t forget to grab your free guide here.
How Do I Get My Site on The First Page of Google For Free?
How to Write Killer Meta Descriptions That Will Bring Traffic to Your Site
Bounce Rate: 6 Reasons Why Visitors Are Leaving Your Site
Have you ever gone to a party or event, took a quick look, and decided to just leave? Did you ever think later what if I missed out on something? Or what I was just being too judgmental? Chances are probably not. You made your decision and went with it.
Your “bounce rate” is the same thing when it comes to your website. It’s the percentage of visitors who come to your website (home page, blog post, sales page, landing page, etc.) and leave without engaging with any content, filing out your opt in form, or clicking through to another page.
Optimize Your Images For SEO Success
So why should you optimize your images?
Google Image Search only gets a small piece of Google’s overall traffic, but since the search results are now blended, images can generate a lot more traffic than you might think.
So if you search for a particular thing or subject matter (‘chocolate chip cookies’), you could see images in the standard listings without ever having to click on the Images tab.
Now is the time to get your images optimized for SEO success.
How to Do Keyword Research in 60 Minutes or Less
When I ask my clients this question “What keyword or phrase should I type into Google that you want your business or brand to be known for?” about 90% of them have no idea how to answer me.
If this sounds like you, that’s totally ok. You don’t have to be an SEO ninja to figure it out. The fact that you can discover how many people per month are searching for something, what words they're using, and what questions they're asking in search still boggles my mind!
Keyword research doesn’t have to be a painful process and I am going to show you 5 easy hacks that connect you with your target audience in no time.
5 Ecommerce Mistakes That Could Be Costing You Sales
Did you ever wonder if your website could be costing you sales? Sure it looks pretty and you have tons of content. You constantly tweak your product and service pages. But did you ever think your content could be causing that customer not to add that product or service to the cart?
Here are five ecommerce copywriting mistakes that might be costing you business and I’ll show you how you can fix them.
Is Your Business Taking Advantage of Google's Questions and Answers?
Our first post that chatted about creating a local SEO strategy introduced you to creating a Google My Business Listing for your business. Now let’s focus on the Questions and Answers portion of that listing that Google introduced back in mid 2017 that many small and large businesses are still not taking advantage of.
Over the past few years, Google has been building on their success in local search by providing more and more information to consumers directly in the search results. Consumers are making their decisions right there and then without necessarily heading over to your website. Consumers want instant information to make an informed decision and this Question and Answer feature is doing just that.
How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing in 5 Easy Steps
You created a business and that pretty website of yours-now it is time to get it found. One of the most first steps in any DIY SEO strategy especially if you have a service based creative business is to think of getting found locally. Makes sense right?
Before searchers get the opportunity to visit your page, the first thing they will see could be your Google Search Business Profile, also known as Google My Business (GMB).
You know what I mean: that box at the right with a picture of your business that has your contact information and a link to your website. Yes, that one. If you didn’t know how important this resource is, you soon will.
Black Friday/Cyber Monday Alternatives for Online Store Owners
Now chances are you might be planning your own Black Friday/Cyber Monday event for your online store or website. If you’re a small business, competing with retail giants on price shouldn’t be your main objective. Let's be honest here- It just might not be profitable. You have to use your creativity to bring the customers to your store during the holiday season. No matter if you have a physical or online store, you can also create your marketing campaigns around the following three events.
5 SEO Mistakes Online Entrepreneurs Make (Here's How to Fix Them)
I know SEO can be downright intimidating but it can also be your best friend when it comes to getting found online. You also don't have to have an entire SEO team in place or be an SEO guru to make simple changes to your website that can improve your ranking in search. Here are five mistakes that you might just be making- or as I like to call them missed opportunities-— on your website and how to quickly fix them.
How Your URL's Can Be SEO Friendly
Did you know your URL’s are an important aspect of SEO when it comes to optimizing your website? Not only do they make an appearance in your web browser but also on search. That is why it is important to take a look at them- whether it is a blog post or product page and make sure they are formatted for optimization.
How Your Website Can Be Picked For Google's Featured Snippet
Did you ever wonder how sites get featured in Google’s “featured snippet” which appears above the organic search results and below the paid advertising? Appearing in this snippet can prove to be a huge competitive advantage, increase visibility and rank for your creative business. Is it impossible to achieve? Here’s a quick tutorial on how you can optimize your website (whether it be content or video) to be picked for a featured snippet.
SEO Copywriting Strategies: Let's Break it Up
Congrats on finally making your keyword list! You may have found keywords or keyword phrases that are often four to five words long with a high search count and low competition. So what’s the problem you ask? Well, even if you have a bunch of keywords when you put it into your site the copy does not seem to flow. It just doesn’t make sense. Did you know you can break up these keywords with the use of basic punctuation and line breaks?
3 Types of Customer Service Support for Your Online Business
Last week we chatted about online reviews and how to handle them when you find a negative one out in cyberspace. Check out this post here in case you missed it. When it comes to responding to the concerns of your customers, there’s no such thing as overdoing it. They can’t interact with the product before they purchase it so they need the extra assurance that they can buy from you and contact you if there is an issue.
So when issues do arise, it’s imperative that you provide your customers multiple avenues to resolve their problems. Customers these days expect omnichannel integration. What does that mean exactly?
How to Take a Negative Review and Turn It Into a Positive
How Your E-Commerce Return Policy Can Create Happy Customers
You have finally gotten your site launched and are ready to starting making sales! But have you thought about your website’s return policy? Sure the goal is not to have any returns but let’s face it the online sales return rate for some product categories can be as high as 50%! That’s right, 50%!
Having a solid return policy in place on your ecommerce site will not only create credibility and validity with potential customers but will create loyal and lifetime customers for those that decide to make a purchase. So are customer returns somehow your fault? Not necessarily but you can do everything in your power to prevent them!
Here are 6 handy tips to think about when creating your ecommerce return policy.
Is Blogging Right For Your Business?
Blogging is very popular — now more than ever. And, with good reason. There are a lot of benefits to blogging. But, are those benefits worth the time for your business? In this article, I'm going to go over the benefits of blogging. I'll cover businesses should avoid blogging, and businesses that would I would encourage to start.
