Thursday, October 29, 2015

Local SEO Marketing: How To Influence Consumers

I know I am preaching to the choir, but at time it needs to be said. The purpose of a local SEO marketing company is to increase growth and viability for the organization that they serve.
The power of reputation marketing, when leveraged fully, probably has the best long-term ROI of any marketing in the world. 

How To Influence Consumers? Be The Obvious Choice

To win over more customers, you have to position your brand as the obvious choice. While design and features can win over hearts and minds, more and more consumers are relying on their B.S. radar to detect bad products, hyperbole, and the inability of a brand to deliver what they promise. 
Google's research into consumer behavior (The Zero Moment of Truth) found that online reviews, good or bad, have a big impact on how your brand is perceived before they ever call you or visit your store. 
A solid reputation, clearly and effective demonstrated within the media channels that consumers frequent, will always be a winning strategy. Let's look to 10 reasons why reputation marketing is crucial in positioning your brand as the obvious choice. 
1. Be where the audience is. Reviews are where tens of millions of eyeballs are at. Yelp, Google My Business, Trip Advisor, Angie's List, etc. is attracting ten's of millions of visitors per month. 
2. Reviews are channeling hundreds of millions of dollars in consumer spending, often switching consumers from one brand to another.
3. "Consumer generated content" (i.e. reviews) has a trust factor of 10X over paid ads.
4. In public relations, you cannot create a lasting effect without buzz being spread about your brand. Success stories are the ultimate proof of concept.
5. Online reviews is an area that 97% of brands are REACTIVE. When they become PROACTIVE, this becomes a distinctive competitive edge. 
6. A ongoing and positive ongoing engagement with online reviews gives a 8.3% boost to the brand's SEO and website ranking in search engines, per Moz.com. 
7. Positive reviews are the best content to repurpose on social media, the brand's website, email campaigns, videos, and within their blogs.
8. Reviews are evergreen. They last forever and continue to represent the brand 24/7. Paid advertising does not have that capability.
9. When great reviews are shared with your employees, stock holders and partners, it bolsters their morale and increases their pride in the brand that they represent.
10. When a consumer cannot choose one brand from another, because they are unsure or confused, peer-to-peer reviews (quality and quantity of) will typically be the deciding factor in which one they purchase. 
I help brands become the obvious choice.

Friday, October 23, 2015

The Best SEO Company Would Tell You This


According to StatCounter's Global Stats on browser usage, 56% of people are using Google's Chrome Browser to surf the web. That's an incredible number of people, and a mountain of data they can draw from to determine whether or not those users like the pages they land on.
It's not difficult to see how Google could connect the dots from Chrome to determine how people clicking-through from the search results are interacting with the pages they're clicking through to.

What Does This Mean?

What that means is that the best SEO company may be able to get a page ranked by building a large number of links to it, but if you want it to stay ranked it better perform well once it's there. That means that quality content is more important than ever before.

The days of being able to rank low quality content (or even just unexceptional content) and keep it ranked are all but gone, at least for keywords that get any search volume at all.
Does that mean it's harder to rank? That depends on whether or not you find it difficult to produce great content.

If what you're doing is a cut above what everybody else is doing, then getting your pages to rank and stay ranked is actually getting easier. But if you've been producing content that doesn't "wow" anybody, then yeah, it's becoming much harder.

The Best SEO Company Pushes for Content


The bright side is that if you are producing exceptional content and the other sites competing for the same keywords aren't, your ranking is starting to be based more and more on that quality of excellence and less on the sheer quality and quantity of links.

Getting links is still the most important factor by far that Google uses to determine whether or not your page should be put into the rankings initially, but once it's there the quality of your content (or, rather, how searchers respond to that content) is what's going to make or break your success in staying ranked.

That's what we all want anyway, isn't it? For Google to rank what's best rather than just what's "popular" (in terms of links)? That's better for the searcher because they get the best content available, that's better for Google because their searchers are happier, and that should be better for the best SEO companies producing content because we are freed to focus on creating great content rather than worrying about the mechanics of SEO.

The Best-Case Scenario for Your Brand


That, of course, is the best-case scenario. Google isn't completely there yet, but they are working hard at getting there, so if you haven't been focused on adding incredible content to your site, now's the time.

If you want to stay on top of what's working now (and not just in Google), I recommend you join brands from around the world that are taking advantage of the Premier Expert marketing program. I and my top staff members will personally guide you on your path to business success.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Yelp Reviews: The Secrets to Better Reviews



Yelp Reviews: You either live by them or curse them. Here are some quick "insider tips" on how to generate better, 5-star reviews, as well as improve your ranking within their online ecosystem. 

Step Zero: Ensure that ALL your data on your business profile is complete and correct. Add as many relevant photos as needed. Empty fields on your page will lower your rankings. Key point: Add the Yelp button on your website to your Yelp page. This "backlink" gives an important signal to Yelp that you are being transparent and encouraging engagement with your customers. 

One: Deliver superb service. Ask happy customers if they would be willing to volunteer their great experiences on Yelp. I have one client of mine who asks, "Would you be willing to say that on Yelp?" every time she hears a compliment about her business. 

Two: When you see your customers on the mobile devices, ask them to check-in on Yelp. Offer them some type of incentive to check-in on Yelp, but do not offer incentives to leave a review. The more check-ins, the more likely Yelp is to see that activity and thus increase your rankings. 

Three: Respond to ALL reviews, good or bad. After all, Yelp is social media. So the more you interact with your clients, the more likely you are to earn some kudos from Yelp. Moreover, share the better reviews on social media. Activity = Life. 

Four: Engage with "Elite Members." Even one review from an Elite can dramatically improve your reviews. Here is how to find them: http://www.yelp.com/elite

Five: Throw an event for Elite Members. 

Six: Make review marketing, with Yelp and Google My Business, a routine activity. Check out LimeLight on how they can help: http://limelightspark.com/

Seven: Leveraging targeted keywords for a website helps increase higher rankings, but this is also applied to Yelp. Optimizing your Yelp business listing is the same as optimizing your website for search engines. The difference being taking out the technical on-page elements and adding linking to earn backlinks through any guest posts, PR.

You want to utilize keywords in your business listing that applies to your business, and try to earn backlinks (from reputable sources) wherever you can, either through guest posting, press releases, or other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. If your business is known for a good “brunch” for example, encourage customer/reviewer to write about it as the reviewer is rating a proven service or product. Example: If you type in “Brunch Food” or “Best Brunch.” (Tip: use the free Google AdWords Planner to research top keywords searchers are using)

Eight: Get some good backlinks to your Yelp Page. Backlinks to your Yelp business profile can help your ranking on both Yelp and other search engines. Link to your Yelp profile on all of your business's social media profiles, websites and any time you create new content or blog posts. If you can, get other high-quality websites to link to your Yelp profile. You can ask other website owners for links by creating guest posts or by offering something in exchange. If you offer to link to their website or Yelp profile in return, other businesses may be more willing to help you. Include your Yelp URL on any correspondence you send out to customers. 

Social Bookmark your Yelp page with your keyword in the title and description. 


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Best SEO Practices for 2016 & Beyond


The best SEO practices for 2016 and beyond will require a strategic mindset, as well as a detailed plan on how to leverage what I am about to share in this post. In theory, the best SEO practices are quite simple and straightforward. Yet, the deployment will be complex, as well as require persistence and organization. 
"It is a little-known secret that Google and other search engines are making a shift from traditional SEO to a focus on quality and authoritative content. While it is still important to optimize your meta data and remain on top of relevant keywords, it can no longer be denied that when it comes to generating organic search results, quality content with a strong focus on authority is now leading the pack." - Entrepreneur (Jan 6, 2015) 

Best SEO Practices Checklist

  1. Discovering and targeting additional verticals.
  2. Conducting thorough keyword research for those verticals.
  3. Creating high-quality content for each keyword. This would include in-depth copywriting.
  4. Distributing this content on a continually basis. (Email, social media, PPC, native advertising, etc.)
While this is a simple list, each one can require an extensive amount of time, effort, and resources. Fortunately, these four actions are scalable for any business, including a solopreneur with practically no budget. 

How To Create Quality Content

While this topic could take up an entire book, of which there are many on creating great content, this is a short summary of what almost any brand can deploy with existing resources.

Once the additional verticals are identified, as well as conducting the best keywords associated with those verticals, one must create the content. Each keyword must require great and extensive content if that content has any chance of ranking high in search, as well as being shared. 

Video will be your best content. Per Cisco, within two years 84% of all internet content consumed will be video content. With tools such as Google Hangouts on Air and Blab, both of which can be uploaded as YouTube videos, there is no reason why any brand or entrepreneur cannot create effective, engaging video content.


Step One: Storyboard

To create great content, you must not only know the verticals and keywords to target, but the questions and interests that people have regarding these verticals. A great resource is to read industry journals and forums to see what audiences are saying in real-time. Based on this research, one can create a storyboard of the content one is to create.


Step Two: Choose Your Platforms

Now that you have your story, we need to determine how we will tell it and share it. Will it only be a stand along video on YouTube, or will it also be repurposed into a blog post on your website? My suggestion is to do both. You want to create long, detailed content as this study shows clearly that long content has a better chance of ranking high. 

Next is determining how those videos will be created. You have many options today, from costing to almost nothing, but your time, to hiring competent and costly video production teams. For those with little cash to spend, I suggest leveraging Google Hangouts On Air. With a few hundred dollars, one can easily upgrade one's video and audio technology to make it look great. 


Step Three: Deployment 

One should have a schedule, such as once a week. Creating and distributing content on a continual basis is key. A crucial component to branding is CONSISTENCY. Consistency is a key factor in building trust and respect. 

As part of the deployment is to ensure that best SEO practices are taken into account for one's blog post (Yoast plugin) and one's YouTube videos (Tuberank Jeet). 

Another important deployment strategy is to repurpose your content. Transcribe your videos into long blog posts, leveraging the same keywords as your videos. Create ebooks, or even an actual book, from multiple videos. There are other ways to repurpose the same content, such as:

  • Infographics
  • Podcasts (audio portion of your videos)
  • SlideShare
  • Brochures
  • White Papers
  • FAQ Pages

Step Four: Distribution 

Creating content is half the battle. Factually, it will require just as much effort and time (and finance in some cases) in seeing that your content is distributed, thus reaching its intended audiences. Here are the top methods for sharing content:
  • Social Media
  • Email Lists
  • Partner Marketing - having other brands feature your content to their audiences
  • Guest blogging
  • Google Ads
  • Facebook Ads
  • YouTube Ads (for your videos)
  • Press Releases
  • Native Advertising
  • Influencer Marketing 

In Summary

There is no such thing as SEO without content. You need words, articles, substance, keywords, verbiage. It’s true: Content is king. We don’t argue about that anymore. It’s a truism of the SEO industry. Content content content.
And what is content marketing all about? It’s about content. The practical application of SEO (content) is the very substance of content marketing.

This YouTube Video gives you additional insight.
Contact me on how we can create a powerful Content/SEO strategy for your brand. 

Monday, October 5, 2015

Best First Time Home Buyer Loans





First Time Home Buyer Loans | First Time Home Buyer FHA Loans

Many federal, state and local agencies administer programs to assist people who need help buying a home. Some of these are loan programs; others provide assistance with down payments or with building a home.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage loans.

These mortgages, administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), are government-insured loans that offer very low downpayments, which may be borrowed from relatives. Rates are often lower, and qualifying is easier because credit is not as large a factor. These loans are often assumable, meaning you can take them over from the previous owners or allow a buyer to take it over from you. Refinancing is easier, and there are other products and services available. There is, however, a cap on how much can be borrowed. Processing may take longer and appraisal guidelines may be strict; the house must be worth the selling price. FHA mortgages are not restricted to first-time borrowers.

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Home Loan Guaranty Service.

VA mortgages are government-guaranteed loans available to veterans of the armed services, those currently on active duty or in the reserves, and widows or widowers of veterans. Like FHA loans, VA loans have guidelines that allow more people to qualify. In addition, some VA loans require no downpayment at all. There are limits on the size of VA loans, but usually they are large enough to cover the purchase of moderately priced homes across the country. VA-guaranteed home loans are made by private lenders. The guaranty means that VA will protect the lender against loss if the veteran or a later owner fails to repay the loan.

First Time Home Buyer Loans | First Time Home Buyer FHA Loans

Best Content Marketing Strategy - Premier Expert


The Premier Expert, a “done-for-you” digital marketing program, was designed with a singular purpose: To position you as the “go-to” expert within your field. By achieving such, more and more people will seek you for your products and/or services. This content-marketing program hits the sweet spot between branding and proven SEO strategies.


The word Authority is derived from the word Author. When you author and distribute comprehensive bodies of work, such as informative videos, blogs, ebooks, or a book, people will regard you as an authority within your field.


The Premier Expert “done-for-you” marketing program has an incredible benefit that most other content-marketing strategies and SEO gurus are completely unable to achieve. The Premier Expert “done-for-you” marketing program creates up to one year’s worth of professional video and blog content for you... in a matter of days.


Imagine having dozens and dozens of targeted, highly optimized videos and blog articles waiting to be deployed, each and every week, for the next six months to a year. Moreover, your branded content is created purely on in-depth consumer research so that they are discovered when online search queries are occurring from your target audience.


“Content Is King” - Bill Gates


To win in internet marketing, your brand must be creating and publishing high-quality content on a routine basis; otherwise, your website and your brand are stagnant in the eyes of your audience and Google. As a rule, Google rewards brands that consistently publish high-quality content, with higher rankings.


Create the type of information your buyers actually want to consume. Marketing with valuable content is a win-win for your company and its customers - your potential clients get the information they require and you get to demonstrate your expertise and usefulness.
Valuable content will help you sell. It helps your ideal clients find you and makes it easier for them to buy from you. It’s an opportunity to position your company as the “go to” place to turn to, when the time comes to buy.
Content-marketing is the undisputed king to winning the internet marketing game. As New York Times best-selling author and marketing guru, Seth Godin, stated:


“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make               but about the stories you tell.”


Video is the most effective storytelling content that any brand can produce. In fact, video will represent 84% of the internet content consumed by 2018, per Cisco Systems, Inc.


Also, Forbes recently predicted that video marketing will become the number marketing strategy for 2016. Evidence and reports grow by the day: Video marketing is the primary content to capture  audience attention and to convert them into paying customers.  


Brands that do not produce professional videos to be found within their websites, as well as through Google and YouTube searches, will lose massive amounts of business and revenue in the near future to those brands that do market effectively and consistently with video.


And what is best, all your videos and blogs are EVERGREEN, meaning that your content is alive online, 24/7, for years to come. Great content has no expiry date. Videos and blogs from years ago are still being found online and driving new business and revenue for top, global brands.


The Premier Expert program is about creating educational and informative videos as well-written content concerning your brand, and then optimizing that content so it is found on search engines by your ideal online prospects.


This strategic-marketing program is based squarely on connecting the thousands of searches that are occurring everyday directly to what you have to offer as a brand. This is what is now commonly referred to as “inbound marketing,” because audiences are searching for great content, and once they see your expertise, they will want to contact your brand.


When audiences are actively searching the internet for exact content that fits their needs, or answers their questions, they develop a trust with those brands that provide them with valuable content. In other words, sales leads begin coming into you, because you have provided the content that fulfills their curiosity, earning their trust in the process.




Step One: Determining What to Brand and Market
How do we start? We begin by listing out the specific services and/or products that you most desire to sell, or which you want to newly introduce. You could be a real estate agent who sells houses in a particular neighborhood, or you could be a doctor who specializes in dealing with specific health issues. We narrow down the top dozen or so products or services that you want to market more of to your community.


This is the entire objective of online marketing: To have your brand be found and be regarded as the expert and, most importantly, to grow your business with more new customers and higher sales.


Step Two: Detailed Keyword Research
We take your dozen or so services and/or products that you most want to market and we begin to meticulously match those products/services with how people are searching for them online.


We want to know how they search for them - right there in your own local area or targeted niche. In other words, we find the exact keywords and phrases (long-tail keywords) that people are typing into Google or YouTube. We know that they are looking to find information or businesses that specialize in those specific products, services, or topics.


For example, a local chiropractor already knows that low-back pain is the number one reason why people come into his practice. Through intense research we find that there are five high-ranking keywords about low-back pain that his local online searchers are typing into Google’s and YouTube’s search bars. In other words, we discover the exact words and phrases that his potential customer uses within these top search engines.
For instance, these could be:


  • Best doctor for low-back pain
  • Top specialist for low-back pain
  • Best chiropractor in (local city) for low-back pain
  • Natural relief for low-back pain
  • Fast pain relief for my low-back pain


We know that when people search for advice or help they search in different ways. And Google and other marketing companies have intricate and accurate software for analyzing what terms people most often use when searching online.


Based on these best keywords and phrases, we determine how we will precisely match these phrases up with your products and services that you really want to market and sell.


Your Brand’s Offering + Top Keyword + Quality Content = SUCCESS!


This is the first step in how the Premier Expert program hits the sweet spot between branding and proven SEO. We are marketing your brand’s best services and products and then exactly match them up to how people in your area or niche search online.


Depending on the size of your selected program, we can target 10 specific keywords all the way to 50, and higher if requested.


Ranking High In Organic Search Results


Ranking organically online, versus attempting to have your content seen through paid online ads, is extremely important for many reasons, the most obvious that one does not have to expend large amounts of money in advertising. But, this is simply the most obvious reason.


There are some other important factors on why ranking high in organic search is so important:


  • Moz.com is a well-respected authority in the area of SEO and online marketing. They discovered that organic search results are 8.5X more likely to be clicked on than paid search results.
  • Ranking on Google’s first page is an SEO top priority, so it is difficult to ignore the 2009 Forrester study that says, “Pages with video are 53X more likely to rank on the first page of Google search results.”
  • In another Forrester study, Dr. James McQuivey said, “A video is worth 1.8 million words.”
  • Gareth Davies at WordTracker, another leader in online marketing trends, stated that as much as 80% of the video content served up in search engine results are, “informational videos.”
  • An AimClear study shows that search results with video have a, “41% higher click-through rate than plain text.”


The Premier Expert “done-for-you” marketing program exploits all these factors to rank your videos, and corresponding blogs posts, very high within organic search results.


Step Three: Storyboarding Our Marketing Strategy
Now that we know how to match up your brand’s best products or services with searcher intent, we have to create professional-quality content. This process begins by creating a storyboard that will lay out how we tell your brand’s story.


We understand that most people do not purchase from a brand using their analytical powers, but with their emotions. Storyboarding lays out not only how we fulfill consumer demands with content, but also how we weave in the emotional appeal and uniqueness of your brand.


We are not creating your story and content for Google, but to satisfy the needs and emotions of your audiences. We need to ensure that we are not trying to trick search engines into better rankings and leaving searchers unimpressed with poor content.


No, we want to deliver the best quality content so that people consume it, become inspired by it and then take ACTION with your brand. Moreover, we want these people to SHARE your great content with others via social media.


This is the new word-of-mouth marketing model in the digital age. The Premier Expert marketing program instigates brand awareness, creates more sales, and ensures the social sharing of your content.


We take all your targeted keywords and we storyboard around an event or an interview-style setting, or even a bit of both. Since every brand is unique and so is the brand’s story, we capture and tell both with some creativity and genuine personality.


By staging a pre-planned event with a participating audience, or a one-on-one interview in which you (or a designated representative) speak, we tell your brand’s story around the topics and keywords that we have storyboarded and chosen to target.


Some of our video shoots are conducted with an audience in attendance, such as a workshop. This is a powerful visual component, as online audiences see that you are respected and listened to as an authority.


One-on-one interviews are also powerful. These give a more intimate feel and an insider’s look into the brand and speaker. Often, we do combinations of both event - video shots with some one-on-one interviews.


It is the high-quality video content and written blogs created around your keywords that will propel your brand to rank high in Google and YouTube. And because the content will be on-point, well-produced and engaging, people will want to contact your brand, as well as share it with their friends and family through social media.


Blogs articles are quite popular with Google because they can contain extensive and detailed “how-to” information - the very information that audiences want to discover when they use their search engines. And since Google owns YouTube (the second largest search engine in the world), YouTube videos also rank extremely high within Google’s organic search results.

Step Four: We Video Your Event
With our storyboard in hand, we begin the setup for videoing your event and/or interview. Days before the video shoot, we review the storyboard and sequence with you to ensure that we have the right sequence organized, your notes to hand, and any audio/visual aids that you may be using, such as a PowerPoint presentation, all set up.


Even though the storyboard provides an organized outline, we want you to speak naturally and freely about these topics. Reading from a script will come across as unnatural and will not connect with people, thus not creating an all-important transparency and trust.


The entire shoot is usually begun and completed on one full day. In some instances, we can have the shoot completed within 2 days.
Step Five: Post Production
Once we have the entire event “in the can,” we begin post-production.


The overall event and any interviews are now edited and paired up with their accompanying keywords and targeted phrases. Depending on the number of videos you secured, we collect and curate your individualized content into a whole body of work.


We then take the entire event and interview video and cut them up into 5-10 minute videos, each one synchronized with its exact corresponding keyword. This editing process typically takes 30-45 days to complete and be send to you, including all video files, via Dropbox.


Videos will contain:


  • A branded “intro” at the beginning of each and every video. This gives it a distinct and professional look as a brand.
  • A distinctive watermark of your logo in the lower right-hand corner during the entire video presentation.
  • A branded “outro” at the end of each and every video. This continues the branding with a strong ending.
  • A slide at the end of the video which displays any requested contact data, such as address, email, phone number of social-media addresses.


Each and every one of your branded videos are yours to keep, and upload  to your YouTube channel and Facebook page feed; imbed into blog posts, place within any of your websites or landing pages, and share across all the major social media and social-bookmarking sites.


Step Six: We Transcribe Each Video into a Blog Post
To double the content and SEO power of the Premier Expert program, we also transcribe the entirety of each and every video. These transcriptions can be leveraged in several powerful ways:


  • Polished up and then turned into an individual blog post for its designated keyword phrase. (*We strongly recommend that you use the Yoast Plugin within your blog to help maximize the SEO power of each of your blog posts.)
  • The content used in full or in part for the text section of your YouTube videos.
  • Placed within your FAQ page, when it appropriately answers questions or gives advice.
  • Repurposed into an ebook, a book, or even a white paper.


By leveraging your written content as above, along with the videos being individually optimized, you will possess a powerful body of content that can rank high in search engines for years and years, thus driving in more leads and sales.


Step Seven: Consultation on How to Optimize & Distribute Your Content
Ok, so now you have an entire body of professionally produced content that is not only highly optimized for search engines, but also completely engages and motivates your target audiences to consume and share your brand!


And again, all this content is EVERGREEN. It can be used for years!


Now you can “drip feed” this content over the coming months or year to your email database and social-media contacts, as well as alert Google and the other search engines that you have plenty of fresh, consistent content.


This increases your search-engine rankings and social shares that reach and build an ever-growing audience, as well as build links from other sites that find your content highly valuable.


This is modern day SEO and online branding at its best!


We provide you with checklists and hours of consultation to ensure that you properly understand how to:


  • Optimize each video on YouTube with TuberRankJeet.com.  
  • Optimize each blog post with the Yoast plugin.
  • Leverage every piece of content through email.
  • Leverage your content for websites and landing pages.
  • Repurpose your content into a white paper, ebook or book.
  • Use the power of social media to have your content found by new audiences and shared by your existing contacts to their friends and family. (*We recommend that you work with a social media expert/consultant or have someone within your company handle your social-media functions on a routine basis.)


In Conclusion
The Premier Expert “done-for-you” marketing program is a powerful strategy to enable your brand to rise above the noise and to position you as a thought leader within your industry. It will undoubtedly be your competitive edge that will increase brand awareness and generate many more inbound leads from online seekers.

Contact me for a free discovery call to see how the Premier Expert, “done-for-you” marketing program can leave your competition wondering why you are growing so fast with more inbound leads and higher sales.

Best, Edwin Dearborn
Author of Power Branding Secrets