Doctor, Dental SEO Consultant in Salt Lake City, UT

Tyson Downs, Dental SEO Professional

How To Increase Incoming Targeted Calls For Free

By

utah seo companyAlmost everybody has dealt with this situation: They go to the Internet to do a search for a business and they get a bunch of results. They get the phone number or email address from the site, only to find out that it is not correct. This is not only frustrating but also reflects poorly on the business.

This is just one of the reasons why it is so important to claim your local directory listings on popular sites like Yelp, Bing, Manta and Google My Business. By claiming local directory listings you can be sure that your business information is always up to date and correct. It will also give you an advantage over the local competition. Here are some of the reasons that you should consider claiming your local business listings, as well as some of the benefits you will get from doing it.

Why You Need to Claim Your Online Local Directory Listings

If you are unsure why claiming your local directory listings is important or you think it is a waste of time or something you can do at a later date then you should consider the following information:

-More than 90% of customers now search for businesses online. This means that if your business is not listed or doesn’t have updated information, you will be missing out on all of this business. If you are not claiming your local directory listings then your local competition is getting this business.

 

-People are increasingly using mobile phones to search. It is estimated that more than half of all Internet searches will be done by phone in just a few years. This means even more customers will be looking online for information about businesses. This allows potential customers to get information on the go. If they cannot find your business then you might miss out on customers that are just outside your doors.

-You’ll be missing our on referrals and repeat business. People now search and share information online, which makes it easy for them to pass along your business information to friends and family. If you are not listed then it will be harder for you to get referrals and repeat business.

local listing optimization

The Benefits of Claiming Local Directory Listings

There are many advantages and benefits of claiming local directory listings. Here is what you can expect to get by taking advantage of your local directory listings:

 

-You will have much more control over how search engines index your website and business. This ensures that you will get the most possible hits when people search for businesses in your area. It will also help to send qualified customers to your site, as they will have been searching for your specific type of business or service. Instead of only getting random customers you will actually get people that are ready to buy.

-It will prevent others from taking or using your business listing. Some companies will try to hijack the business listing of their competitors to make it much harder for people to find them. By claiming your local directory listings you will ensure that your competition cannot use your listing against you.

-It will improve your search engine optimization rankings. By claiming your local directory you will help tell the search engines that you are an active seo for small businesscompany doing business, and if all your stuff matches up on the different directory listings, then all things being equal, you will rank higher in search engine results than a company that is not on top of this.

 

-It will increase both web and foot traffic to your business. Web traffic will be increased because your site will be better optimized for search engines. In addition, people will be much more likely to see your business when doing searches for local businesses. Your foot traffic will also improve, as people will be able to get information about your business using their phones. This means that people that are away from their computer or phone book will still be able to get your company’s information on the go, which will increase your foot traffic.

 

Don’t Wait

dont waitIf you have not claimed your local directory listings then you are potentially missing out on a lot of business. If customers cannot find correct information about your business online then you could be driving business away. It will not only keep some customers away, but they might even think you have gone out of business if they cannot find accurate information.

 

If you use sites like Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, Manta and others you will be able to take advantage of a much wider audience of local searchers. Since the Internet now accounts for nearly all searches for businesses you will need to do much more than just put your phone number in the Yellow pages. Now is the time to start taking advantage of local directory listings.

The Smart Way To Use Local SEO

By

The planet is big. And the Internet is bigger. Unless you have founded a truly global company, like Yahoo or Google, you need to find a way to use local SEO to target your true market. You know that you want to ensure that your marketing strategy is speaking to the right people. How do you, as the owner of a local business in, say, Utah, do this?

This article points to some strategic steps that you can take to create a local SEO plan that works for you.

The first thing that you should do when building a local SEO strategy is to review your website. Is it engaging? Does it present your business in a way that is easy to understand? Is it visually inviting? Your website is the final destination for those customers that your smart SEO strategy attracts. If it does not capture a visitor’s attention, you’ve put energy into attracting new customers only to lose them –potentially – when they finally land on your site.local-seo-map

It is also important that you know which words are used by potential customers searching for businesses like yours. You want to target your local market, not the entire planet. (At least for now.) There are

some free online tools that you can use to identify these key words. Like the “Local Marketing Source-Kit”. You can create a list of popular local search terms with such a tool. Having located these key words, you can then include them in your website, hence bumping up your number of hits.

Check out your Google + listing.

First, make sure that you have one. If you are new to Google +, you should know that it is a button that can be added to your website. (You should also know that the Google + iPhone app became the most popular free app at the iTunes Store on the day it was released.)

Then, make sure that you’ve properly checked off all categories relevant to your business. One of the things it does is allow your website to be shared and searched with the Google+ social network.

In conclusion, the reason to build a solid local SEO strategy is to make sure that your local customers find you, when they are looking for a business like yours. Taking some simple steps like those described above can get you on a path to profit.

SEO: Why You Should Include It In Your Marketing Plan

By

Fortunately, in this day age more and more people are turning to the internet to sell their goods and services. For you and I as consumers, this is great. It makes the internet a wonderful place where nearly anything can be found. Nearly anything in the world that we want we can find it online, usually within a few seconds. However, this also means the Internet is becoming a very competitive for both online businesses and local business. So, if you are a business owner, establishing an Internet presence, you’ll need to understand that SEO, or Search Engine Optimization is just a piece of the puzzle, just one of the many irons that you should have in the fire when marketing your business.

 

You see rarely does a business become successful if they have only a one legged stool. Oh sure you’ll have some exceptions to the rule, but it doesn’t make much business sense to only perform one marketing strategy. It is just isn’t smart. If you are a small business with a storefront, Local SEO should be one of the elements — an important element to be sure — of your complete and comprehensive marketing program. That program may include other effective elements such as PPC, Direct Mail, Social Media, TV, Radio, Print, Cold Calling, etc.

 

If you are new to operating your business or are trying to manage all aspects of marketing and daily business management to yourself, you may want to small-business-seo1consider hiring an SEO professional to assist you in developing your SEO plan for your business. Of course the advantage of hiring a professional is that they work that business each and every day. They are staying up on trends in the industry. You are paying them to perform. Just like they likely couldn’t just sit down and do your business with no formal training and without a strong learning curve, you likely can’t do the same SEO. SEO is an art. SEO takes patience. SEO can be very complicated and ever changing. You may want to hire somebody that you feel comfortable with, somebody that is deeply committed to growing their own successful business as well as helping you grow your own.

 

In the end, by developing a solid SEO plan and program — as part of an overall Internet marketing program — you will be able to boost the traffic that visits your Internet website. The goal of the increased traffic of course is more calls and more sales. If you treat SEO as a long term marketing strategy, then over the long run you will become a recognized market leader on the internet. Once you understand the importance of small business SEO in a marketing plan, and the advantages of hiring an SEO consultant you will be much better off in regard to growing your business than you previously were.

Remember, SEO isn’t the end all be all. It is simply a piece of the puzzle.

The Secret To Success In Improving Your Local Search Engine Results

By

If you haven’t been tapping into the power of local SEO, (Google Places, Bing Local, Yelp, etc) you’ve been leaving money on the table.

Every single day, millions of small business owners around the globe tap into the power of search engine optimization hoping to finally strike it rich. They spend an almost insane amount of time and money just trying to get their websites and web properties ranked just a bit higher in Google, focusing on all kinds of keywords.

And while some of them will actually be able to rip and claw their way to the very top – at least with some of the less competitive keywords they were targeting – the fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of them will fall to the wayside. All of that money and all of that time will have been wasted on literally no improvement in your business.

This is true for a million and one different reasons, but the most obvious one is that folks just aren’t targeting local SEO traffic the way that they should be. There is literally no better tool for boosting your business almost overnight then finding hot prospects in your local area. Combine that with the simple fact that you’ll not have to go toe to toe with hundreds of thousands of different businesses from all over the globe – you’ll only have to outrank the handful of services you are directly competing with locally – and you have the kind of super powers you’ve been looking for.small-business-search-engine-optimization

But you will have to properly plan and execute a near flawless local SEO strategy if you’re hoping to really boost your business. Luckily, that’s exactly the kind of information you’re going to find below.

Before anything else – you have to have a plan

Way too many people get into the search engine optimization arena not really 100% understanding how much work it really can be. They have conjured up some sort of fantastical myth of a pimply faced teenager punching away rapidly at the keys, just trying to crank your ranking a little bit higher than it was yesterday. And while this might not be too terribly far off the mark to how things are in the SEO world, you’ll need to give that same pimply faced teenager and effective SEO plan to work off of or you’ll be wasting all of your money and time.

Just like everything else in life, the right search engine optimization outline can make your business flourish like nothing else. Not only will you be able to target specifically the kinds of keywords you’re going to go after, but you’ll also be able to clearly outline which different SEO tactics you’re going to leverage, the chokepoints you’re going to have to fight through or conquer, and how the entire SEO plan will tie into your business.

Without this critical game plan, you may as well be flopping around in the dark.

Ignore the latest and greatest tactics du jour and instead spend your time building real strategies.

This is probably the biggest chokepoints that most business owners and even SEO professionals have to contend with on a daily basis. The world and landscape of search engine optimization is the most ever-changing and rapidly shifting of any major traffic generation tool you’ve ever seen. Nearly every single day Google and the other major search engine networks make changes to their algorithm, meaning that the things you did to rank yesterday could very well be the things that send you into the oblivion tomorrow.
online-marketingAll of this change means that you’ll have to spend and almost unfair amount of time just seeing what kinds of curveballs these major companies have thrown you now (which is why it’s mission critical to hire a professional SEO firm – but now’s not the time to go there). You know, the kind of time that you just don’t have as a smart and savvy business owner.

The good news is, that most of the foundational elements for what works in the local SEO arena hasn’t changed since day one. This means that you’ll be able to lay down a solid bedrock of SEO efforts, and enjoy real rankings almost from day one. You’ll be able to skip out on the hot topics of the SEO world unless you really want to get into them, giving you the chance to shortcut your online success.

Conclusion

All in all, mastering local SEO is the number one tool you can use in your marketers toolbox to build your business into the kind of success you’ve always dreamed of. You’ll be able to specifically target hot prospects that are likely to convert into paying customers, all while not having to fight with everyone and their brother who is trying to do the same thing on a global scale. Mastering the local SEO game is essential for modern business success, but it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg – or any of your incredibly valuable time – to pull off.

3 Important Steps to Take Before You Hire an SEO Company

By

Most businesses aren’t going to always be able to hire an in-house SEO expert to handle their online content all the time— which makes outsourcing their SEO services an increasingly attractive offer for their practice– but there’s a catch.

 

1. You Need to Understand the Basics.

a seo concept with key

SEO is a tricky industry that requires a deep understanding of both the business the SEO specialist is trying to promote and the SEO
industry as a whole. This can make hiring an outsourced SEO professional rather tricky; and the best way to insure that a business isn’t going in blind is just to make sure that that business has at least a decent understanding of the SEO industry as a whole– they don’t need to be an SEO expert (they wouldn’t need to hire a professional SEO firm if they were experts)– but businesses should understand some of the concepts of SEO before attempting to jump into the industry. I recommend hiring somebody that specializes in your industry as each industry has different nuances. At Titan Web Agency, we specialize in SEO for Dentists, Doctors, and other healthcare professionals.

 

2. Understand What ‘White Hat’ and ‘Black Hat’ Mean

 

The first thing you should keep an eye out for is the distinction between whitehat and blackhat SEO– if those two terms mean nothing to you, then you need to research them before you continue on in your business’s SEO endeavors; it’s important.

There are plenty of authoritative sources of what the difference between those two – and their respective definitions actually are – but the general distinction is a distinction of ethics. White hats are the good guys who follow the rules as they were meant to be followed and do things “legitimately”– but black hat SEO’s are people who understand how to play the system and get the highest volume of traffic through abuse of how search engines work. They use shady tactics and can go unnoticed, but when they get caught (when), they can leave a website or campaign in a worse-off position than it was when it started.

However… most people fall within some form of “gray hat” classification in this area. The whole purpose of SEO is to get you ranked higher on search engine results pages; and you wouldn’t be able to achieve that if you didn’t read the rules and were willing to bend your content at least a little just to get that extra boost in search engine ranking. Generally go with a white hat; but understand that anyone who calls themselves a white hat isn’t being entirely honest about it.

3. Understand The Premise of Backlinks

Utah SEO ConsultantBacklinks, or simply links are also another thing that you want to be sure to understand. Links are like a referral or reference from one site to another. If an industry leader in your space mentions your business and ads your website address to their site, that’s a good think! That would be considered a good link.

Links play a heavy role in how a website is ranked by search engines. While links are generally a good thing, bad links are definitely a bad thing. Links should only be made if the thing they are linking to is definitively relevant to the central theme of the website to begin with. Spam-links are a sure-fire way to get downranked from search engine results pages.

The nature of SEO in general is to have frequently-searched text in the content of your website while still maintaining that every portion of your website be consistent with an overall topic. A website should have a theme, and should have relevant links and content relating to that theme– anything else is to be avoided.