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Marketing

Search Engine Optimization Solutions for Small Businesses

Though there are no shortcuts to dominating online with your business, there are many steps that small businesses can take to enhance their search engine optimization and compete in the digital world. Over time the importance of a web presence that is easily found has become critical to the success of a business, even a physical storefront. With the limited number of results on the first page, what can a small business do to compete with larger companies? Search engine optimization solutions can help small businesses remain competitive and increase the number of visitors that will find them organically through search engine results pages. To do this, it is important for small businesses to invest in building their online presence to rank higher. Here are some search engine optimization solutions for small businesses:

Get Your Business on the Map

One of the easiest, and most efficient, search engine optimization solutions a small business can complete is successfully “getting their business on the map”. If you have ever searched for a service in your local area, you likely saw different businesses placed on a map at the top of the Google search page. These businesses have utilized the power of Google’s FREE GYBO program. According to GYBO’s own statistics, a business that is online can grow 40% faster than the competition that isn’t. Furthermore, these businesses are twice as likely to create jobs as a result of this growth. Struggling to get through the GYBO process? Let us know, we can help!

Gather Reviews

After your business has successfully completed the GYBO requirements, you are now ready to start building your online presence. One of the easiest ways to do this is to ask your customers for reviews online. This can include multiple different platforms including Google, Yelp, Angie’s List, Trip Advisor or any other review site that meets the industry of your company. To specifically build your Google ranking, however, it is encouraged that you gather as many reviews as possible through Google’s own review system. Any reviews, good or bad, that you receive will be available to potential customers and attached to your business profile. For this reason, it is important to focus on providing the best customer service possible for your clients or customers to bolster your review status.

Get Social

Social media platforms have grown substantially recently. With targeted advertising opportunities on Facebook and other social platforms, you have the ability to pinpoint exactly who you are trying to reach. Finding these individuals and building a relationship with them through social media can help not only increase real-world visits but serves as one of the most powerful search engine optimization solutions as well. For example, say you have just completed a new blog that will resonate with your target audiences you have been growing. By posting this blog to your social media, you are creating shareable content that your customers will want to share because it aligns with their needs or wants. When this happens, more people can find your website and you will continue to grow.

Why Skynet Solutions?

You can always get in touch with the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your online business listing, website development, social media marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2017 your business’ best year yet. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Ranking Your Website in Competitive Markets

Businessman with boxing gloves

To ensure your website is successful it’s important to strive to reach top search engine ranking. However, some very competitive markets are seemingly impossible to rank in when pitted against conglomerates and other large-scale companies. Don’t let this discourage you, there are several strategies you can use to gather your share of the market!

One of the most common mistakes website owners make is tailoring their content to try and rank for general keywords. However, if you have a clearly defined niche audience you are attempting to reach, you could be ranking higher in their search results than large companies. To do this, companies have to understand what makes their product or services stand out from the large corporations and target those audiences extensively. To do this, smaller companies must be more concise with what market they are attempting to reach and focus on less competitive search engine terms.

Large companies have many resources and funding that small business owners won’t. Trying to be competitive for general keywords will likely only end in a hurt wallet and no increase in business. For example, the supplement industry is very competitive. With the wide variety of products available to consumers, it is important to find your niche and exploit it when crafting new, engaging content. Instead of saying just “protein powder”, a smaller business could experiment with more detailed phrases like “protein powder for CrossFit athletes” or “protein powder for muscle recovery”.

By following this strategy, the small business will likely rank higher for these keywords because the large company has dominated the more general term. Search engines function to provide the most accurate result possible for their users. By clearly targeting your audiences based on how they search and the terms they use, you will be more likely to achieve sustained organic traffic growth.

If you need any help keeping up with your blogging requirements or updating your content, call the content creation experts at Skynet Solutions. We can write interesting, fresh content for any industry or business, as well as handling your social media and other marketing needs. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Methods Used to Increase Website Traffic

White Button with Web Traffic on Computer Keyboard. Internet Concept.

If asked, most business owners would likely say they wish they had more website traffic. Website traffic can often directly translate to sales, increasing the revenue stream experienced by a business. These proven methods can help increase website traffic.

Advertising

Perhaps the most obvious method of increasing website traffic is engaging in paid search results. Paid advertising functions to build your brand and increase the amount of people that are being exposed to your site throughout the advertising process. To effectively increase sales, keywords should be scrutinized to have the biggest impact.

Social Media

Social media channels are undoubtedly the most effective free method of driving website traffic. Perhaps the most common way of doing this is to promote your content and services through your social media account with links that return to your website. Blog articles should contain an excerpt that will entice readers to follow the link to obtain more content.

Mobile Optimization

Recent studies have shown that nearly 56% of all web traffic to the leading US websites originates from a mobile phone. Smartphones now allow constant connectivity to the internet, meaning customers can find your business at any time. This is especially important for e-commerce sites to allow impulse buying without taking the time to find a computer.

Email Marketing

All businesses should have an email marketing list that is regularly being added to and updated. Email marketing allows customers who are already interested in products or information you offer to know when new content or products have been added to your website. Don’t be afraid to tastefully send emails to let members know this content is available.

You can always call the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your business listing, website development, marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2017 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our contact form to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Skynet Solutions Recieves Congressional Commendation

The team at Skynet Solutions was recently honored with a Congressional Commendation by U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine, in recognition of all the work we have been doing to educate, enhance and strengthen the small business community in Oklahoma. A Congressional Commendation is awarded by a member of Congress to officially recognize outstanding public achievement by those in their districts. One of the most rewarding parts of being an official Google Partner is all the events we get to host and speak at where Skynet Solutions marketing experts get to share their knowledge and interact with other local businesses.

Here at Skynet Solutions, we love being a part of the small business community and using our skills to help other local entrepreneurs succeed as well. Since fall 2015, we have been hosting and participating in “GYBO” (Get Your Business Online) seminars throughout Oklahoma to help small business owners get their businesses online. Thanks to our partners at Google, the REI Women’s Business Center, the Tulsa chapter of SCORE, area chambers of commerce and others, we have been able to help dozens of local business—like yours—improve their online presence in a variety of ways!

We’ve hosted workshops across the state, from Ponca City to Stillwater and Muskogee to Bartlesville and have covered topics ranging from how to use Google Analytics effectively to what S.E.O. is and how you can use it to amplify your business’ online presence. We also covered and held entire workshops dedicated to helping business owners get their business listed on Google Maps and other maps listing services, like Bing and Apple, and other effective tactics to make sure potential customers are able to easily find their business online. We have found maps listings to be one of the most effective ways to help a small, local business grow.

Skynet Solutions also recently co-hosted a special event in May to celebrate and promote National Small Business Week. Along with Tulsa SCORE, we created and hosted the inaugural SCORE Small Business Summit Tulsa, which brought together about 100 mentors, business experts and entrepreneurs from around the region to network and discuss all aspects of starting, owning and running a small business. Speakers from The Small Business Administration, Constant Contact, Tulsa Economic Development Corporation, the Tulsa chapter of SCORE, Skynet Solutions, REI Women’s Business Center and other local and regional institutions discussed everything from email marketing and small business taxes to bookkeeping for small businesses and social media marketing.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of a robust and up to date online presence for a local business; 50 percent of all mobile searches are conducted in hopes of finding local results, and 61 percent of those searches result in a purchase, according to Search Engine Watch. In addition to that, 56 percent of mobile searches are from users seeking local information, like business hours, directions or a physical address for your store—which is why maps listings are so critical. If your business can’t be easily found online, customers are going to go elsewhere. You also have to make sure your business website is mobile friendly.

With the majority of internet searches originating from mobile devices, not desktops or laptops, according to Google, the majority of people who end up on your business’ website are going to get there from a mobile search. The majority of customers believe it is easier to find information on a mobile-optimized site and 48 percent of people who visit a site that’s not friendly feel that the company doesn’t care about their business. That’s definitely not the impression you want to give off to your valued customers!

To learn more about all of the educational small business-focused events that Skynet Solutions participates in and hosts, you can keep up with our blog, follow us on social media or give us a call. In the meantime, you can always get in touch with the experts at Skynet Solutions for help with your online business listing, website development, social media marketing or anything else you need to help make your business succeed. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’ best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website to get started today. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn!

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Marketing

Content: What is the Optimal Length?

Digital Dictionary Blog Follow Like Concept

If you’re a regular reader of our marketing blog, you’ll have noticed that a few months back our blogs suddenly got a lot longer. That wasn’t an accident. Our marketing team had been doing some research into ideal content lengths for different types of online content and found out that we were a little under where we needed to be to be able to get in the top organic Google search results. So we redesigned our blogging strategy and the blogging strategies of many of our clients. Conventional wisdom had us writing blogs that were around 300 or 350 words long—short, easily-digestible, quick reads on various topics that were relevant to customers. We thought that this length, which could be read in about five minutes, was the right length. Then we did a little research. The best length for a blog post is actually double or triple what we had been writing. For a blog post to turn up in the top, organic Google or Bing search results, it needs to have between 700 and 1,000 words. Are your blog posts in that range? If not, that could be one reason why you’re not seeing the results you want from blogging. Since we started posting longer blogs, we’ve seen a lot more traffic on our site and our blogs are showing up higher in Google search. Inspired by this, we looked into how long the content should be on webpages and found out that we were coming up a little short there, too. Well, more than a little. Chances are you are as well. Check your website and approximate how much content is on each of your pages—100 words, 500 words, 1,000 words? Guess how much content you should have on each webpage for those pages to show up in the top, organic Google and Bing search results? Between 2,000 and 2,500 words. Your immediate reaction to that statistic might be to go post a bunch of random content on your website to increase the word count, but please, please resist that urge. Part of why Google likes content-rich sites is because people like content rich sites. And people show Google that they like content rich sites by linking to them—on social media, in other blogs, all over the place. So if you have a webpage that has 2,300 words of content, but 2,000 of those words are meaningless gibberish, then no one will link to your site and Google won’t prioritize it, even though it’s the right length. Same thing goes with blog posts. There’s no use in slapping up an 800-word blog post if 450 of the words are meaningless nonsense. Nobody will read it or link to it, Google will be able to tell that it’s not quality content and they won’t prioritize it in search rankings. Being high in Google search rankings is important. It is the most used search engine in the United States and in the world with 1.17 billion users. Those 1.17 billion users log over 3.5 billion searches each day. This might seem a little overwhelming (because it is) but the important thing to get out of it is this: most of your customers and potential customers are using Google search to find things—especially local goods and services. The higher your website and blog posts rank in Google search results, the more likely that customers searching for your or searching for a business with your expertise will be able to find you. When someone searches “dog groomer in Oklahoma City” they aren’t going to look through 75 pages of search results. They’re going to click on one of the top links that comes up. So if you want to be one of the top results to come up when someone searches “your business” in “your city,” it’s time to start prioritizing both the quality and the quantity of your content. If you need any help keeping up with your blogging requirements or updating your content, call the content creation experts at Skynet Solutions. We can write interesting, fresh content for any industry or business, as well as handling your social media and other marketing needs. Whether you’re targeting specific customers or just want to get the word out about your new business, we can handle it. We also have a talented development team who can build you anything from a basic website to custom software. With our diverse range of skills and experience, we are sure to have the tools you need to make 2016 your business’s best year yet. You can fill out our online contact form on our website. You can also connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+and LinkedIn!

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