Our Digital Marketing Shop

Tracking your Google rankings can reveal a lot about not only the competition within your industry but about how Google ranks websites. We use a few different tracking softwares (We love Sem Rush & Nightwatch) and it gives you a wayyyyy better picture of your rankings over time (as opposed to just googling your business every day 🤣)

🖥️Once you begin to track your rankings over time, you'll learn that ranking on Google isn't an exact science. Rankings can change based on location and day. In our example, you'll see rankings that have held first place in Google maps for an extended amount of time. These rankings are consistent and predictable.

In our second example, you'll see that Google can be really volatile. This is over a two week period of time. These are also for brand new keywords that we're trying to rank for, which means it takes time to climb the Google ladder.

The one thing that you should take note of is the large jumps both up and down in rankings. They're unlikely to happen to established rankings, but for new keywords that you're trying to rank the jumps can be huge. Large movement up and down in rankings is normal, but you should see an upward trend over time when you're trying to rank a new keyword.

What does all this mean? I mean buckle up and enjoy the ride! (I know that's easier said than done 🤠) When professional SEOs say that ranking takes time, this is what they mean. SEO is work that builds on itself one ranking factor at a time until you get to the first position!

Let's talk about something that can be both embarrassing and frustrating - Google My Business Suspensions. But before you start to panic, let me reassure you: the majority of Google suspensions are fixable. Secondly, it's crucial to understand that the suspension isn't necessarily a reflection of your business practices; it's just Google being Google.

Over the past year, Google has unleashed a barrage of suspensions, leaving many scratching their heads. Most of these actions are aimed at ensuring location accuracy and combating issues like mailbox addresses and duplicate listings. While it's frustrating, these efforts are ultimately aimed at improving user experience.

While the intent of Google's business profile crackdown is to improve user experience, Google's ex*****on is lacking. Google is now only offering phone support for Google Ads clients. You're restricted to only using email to communicate with a representative now, which can be especially frustrating small business owners with complex account details.

However, the impact on businesses can be significant, not to mention the emotional toll it can take. Even a seemingly innocuous change in your location can trigger Google's scrutiny, leading you to have to reverify your location and potential listing suspension.

But don't worry, you're in good company. A lot of honest business owners are getting suspended and there's definitely a way to move forward and fix the suspensions. Here are some tips that we used to fix suspensions for our clients:

✅Double-check your business details for accuracy.

3️⃣Ensure your business category is correctly selected. (We suggest 3 categories or less)

👯‍♀️Resolve any issues with duplicate listings promptly.

🖥️Submit a reinstatement request directly with Google: https://support.google.com/business/troubleshooter/2690129?hl=en

🙏And remember, patience is key; reinstatement may take time, but it's achievable

Hang in there! If you can't figure out your suspension on your own, don't hesitate to reach out.

The Do's and Don'ts of AI in Your SEO Strategy / / Remember, it's your sidekick, not the superhero 🦸🏼‍♀️✨

AI can be an incredible tool in helping you do some of the heavy lifting when you're producing content for your business's website. But if it does too much of the lifting, Google won't see it as valuable. Keep in mind that Google (and the browser most importantly!) wants to see unique and relevant content. Unique content can't come from AI.

✅ DO use AI for insights on trending topics and understanding user intent. It can aid in keyword research, but you should still have a human look over the keyword data first and competitor analysis of the search results.

❌ DON'T rely on AI to completely write your content. It's smart, but it doesn't have your brand's personal touch. And it can't create completely new content, it's just gathering content that already exists and reformatting it.

✅ DO use AI for grammatical checks and content optimization. It's like having a meticulous editor who never misses a comma! 📝✔️ (This one is my favorite!)

❌ DON'T forget the human element. AI is cool, but it can't replace the uniqueness, creativity and empathy of a human writer. ❤️

✅ DO use AI to analyze data and track your SEO performance. It's like having a personal SEO analyst on your team! 📊

❌ DON'T ignore AI's suggestions, but take them with a grain of salt. It's a tool to aid your strategy, not dictate it. 🧂🛠️

✅ DO use AI to help create lists and variations of previously written content.

Harness AI wisely in your SEO, and watch your strategy soar! 🌟

🚀✨ SEO in 2024: Hold Onto Your Keyboards 🎢

Strap in, folks! 2024's SEO ride is going to be wilder than trying to explain TikTok to your grandma. It's not all doom and gloom though; think of it as a rollercoaster where the ups are way up! SEO isn't just showing up to the party; it's leading the conga line for organic growth and success.

Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE), is the new kid on the block, shaking up how Google plays nice with AI. If you've got your SEO strategy game strong, you should be able to ride out the shake up, but it has the potential to drop a lot of website traffic. We'll be waiting to see how it affects organic driven revenue for businesses in the long run.

So, what's the takeaway for you? Simply put, if your website isn't already leveraging effective SEO and content management strategies, now is the time to start. This change is likely to create a stark divide: businesses with the resources and commitment to SEO are set to thrive, while those without may find organic traffic dropping.

The message is clear: In 2024, SEO isn’t just an option for businesses who want widespread visibility; it's a necessity for staying competitive and relevant in the digital arena.

Here are some other key SEO takeaways for 2024:

1️⃣ AI-Driven Content Optimization: Say hello to smarter, AI-powered tools that are revolutionizing how we create and optimize content! 🤖✍️

2️⃣ Voice Search Optimization: With voice searches soaring, SEO in 2024 is all about optimizing for conversational queries.

3️⃣ Visual Search Enhancements: Visual content is king! The latest SEO algorithms are geared towards better understanding and indexing images and videos.

4️⃣ Local SEO Evolution: Local searches are getting a turbo boost. Enhanced geo-targeting capabilities mean your local SEO game needs to be on point. Local businesses, it's your time to shine! 📍🌆

5️⃣ E-A-T Principle Expansion: Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T) are more crucial than ever.

6️⃣ Mobile-First Indexing Dominance: Mobile optimization isn't just important, it's essential!

When is the best time for SEO? / / The answer is simple: anytime is the perfect time to kickstart your SEO efforts! Hear me out - in SEO we really value progress over perfect. 🖥️✨

A lot of people wait for the "ideal" moment, but taking action is really important. You can implement SEO strategies effectively, whether you're launching a new website or optimizing an existing one.

Starting SEO Before Building Your Website:

If you're in the early stages of website development, It’s actually incredibly important that you integrate your SEO right from the beginning. By incorporating keyword planning and structuring URLs during the site's initial design phase, you set a solid foundation for SEO success. This proactive approach ensures that your website is optimized for search engines and user-friendly from the start. And a lot of SEO work in the initial stages of your website, can overlap with website building duties. 

Already Have a Website? 

If you already have an established website, don't worry. The perfect time to begin your SEO journey is right now! The first step is to develop a strategic plan and scope for your SEO project. This plan will outline the content you need to add each month and the timeframe for implementing technical SEO aspects. Remember, you don't have to prepare all the material before launching your campaign. Google prefers to see gradual changes over time, as it indicates an active website consistently making improvements.

Continuous Progress Over Perfection:

Rather than aiming for perfection all at once, focus on making continuous and consistent changes over time. Google values websites that demonstrate ongoing improvements and updates. This approach builds credibility, shows commitment, and enhances your online presence in the eyes of search engines. So, starting now and making steady progress is more effective than waiting for an elusive "perfect" moment.

What's the real value of SEO? People talk about search engine optimization as a service without talking about the tangible benefits of it.
✨💻✨
SEO is a revenue generator. Each search term that we work to improve can be assigned an estimated dollar value.

Sometimes we don't always know that dollar value until after we rank for the term, but we can always assign an estimated value. And from here we work with our targets to make sure that our SEO efforts are going into profitable areas.

We have search terms that can generate anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 a year in revenue on the low end of the scale depending on the industry. We also have clients that ranking anywhere from first to third position can bring them in an additional $100,000 to $250,000 in revenue. It all depends on the market that you're trying to achieve rankings in!

What is SEO? It's like a blind date, but instead of romance, you're hoping that it will bring you more traffic and sales!

Many people who try SEO out themselves and decide it isn't a good fit may get frustrated before it has time to work. Let me tell you - It might be profitable to give SEO a second date.

Let's go back to the beginning - what exactly is SEO? Search engine optimization is the practice of improving your website to increase your rankings on the search engine results pages for a particular search phrase or keyword.

What's so great about rankings? Because when done right those rankings (and traffic!) can mean revenue.

How is SEO done? We like to focus on adding content to your website. Content can be a lot of things like images, writing videos, etc. But the best type of content is web copy or written website content. Those written words on your website.

Now that you've heard so much about SEO, is it right for your business? Here's some questions that will help you determine if it should be a priority:

⚜️ Are people searching on Google/ search engines for your business?
⚜️ Do you sell a service or product that is already understood or widely used?
⚜️ Is your service or product need based?
⚜️ Do you use your own website to sell your product or service?

If you can answer yes to these questions, then SEO may be a really profitable solution for your website! If not, then SEO may be something that you prioritize later, when your business is established, or not at all.

Ok, I'm back! Now, more on our upcoming classes and SEO training.

SEO classes and training have been a passion project of mine for a while and I'm so excited that it's all coming together.

I've always strived to educate business owners and professionals about SEO. We've offered free seminars or I try to go into the nitty gritty details during consultations. There's so much conflicting information that can be overwhelming for individuals at the beginning of their SEO journey.

We're going to be offering three different classes. Intro to SEO is a free class that gives you a broad overview of SEO to make sure it's the right fit for your needs. We're also going to offer a SEO to Profit mini course for beginners and a SEO to Profit Masterclass for those wanting to master the subject & practice of SEO.

We also offer live 1:1 training for individuals and office training.

In the coming weeks I'll be announcing enrollment and details on how to sign up for our program.

I love all types of digital marketing and they all have a place in a healthy marketing program. SEO has a particularly special place in my heart because over time It takes the burden of lead generation off of the cost per action model and organically generates leads.

We've been a little quiet over the past few months. We've been doing some work on our program and totally reworking our products and how we offer them 🤯

And we've got exciting news! We're finally releasing our SEO classes 💻

More on that in a minute.

Let me tell you who I am and what Our Digital Marketing Shop is. My name is Mac and I'm an expert in search engine optimization. I specialize in helping professional service providers grow profits through search engines. We've got three locations where we service our clients. New Orleans, St Louis & Chicago.

Now what in the heck is Our Digital Marketing Shop? Well..... It's a shop.. that offers digital services and products. Our local service clients use them but they're also for everyone! Any business owner can use these services.

What are they? We offer website editing by the hour, monthly SEO projects, Google ads setup, and so much more.

Our Digital Marketing Shop is really just a platform for businesses to be able to purchase marketing services à la carte! We wanted a way to offer the services without giant retainers that some people couldn't afford.pr frankly, didn't need.

Keyword selection can be daunting. Many people don't want to make mistakes and they feel overwhelmed by the process.

Our process for keyword selection most easily applies to local or professional services.

You start with your main keyword or service and work out from there.

We're trying to set keywords for an attorney. Here are the questions that we ask and define:

What type of attorney?
What are their areas of expertise or service?
What's their service radius?

From the base keyword we expand out as much as we can. Typically the longer the keyword, the more focused your potential customer is and we typically see better conversions.

We had a great time teaming up with the St Bernard Chamber of Commerce for an SEO Seminar on how to grow your profits online!

We'll have our free seminar, Intro to SEO up on your website soon for business owners and anyone interested in learning more about SEO!

What skill set is the most important when you start your own business? Bravery & Courage.

You can learn the rest along the way ✨

Most people don't start because of fear. Fear of failure and fear or rejection. And sometimes these things are true. You may fail and your community may not support you. Through all of that you could succeed and change your life. Owning your own business can be difficult but the freedom to make your own choices and go in the direction that you want is priceless.

Remember you can outsource every skill set except for courage. ❤️

Are You Ready To Grow Your Business & Increase Profits? / / We have a free seminar that's just for you! Watch our Keys to Digital Marketing free seminar and learn how to build a digital marketing strategy that's customized to your business!

Our free seminar, Keys To Digital Marketing, will help you set up a marketing formula and choose the best digital marketing strategies that are best for your business or brand.

We've now made this webinar available on demand! I used to run live seminars and we finally (finally 🎉) recorded it so you can watch it from the comfort of your own home and on your own time!

Watch here: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/y6nbC-9vGaig91n2js6THD03pkTk0680xRa5YbqvG1l5Gz1NIgjxzy5p9Q7DBqjf.FNOabAckYeT7Ms-L?startTime=1649636561000

Choices, Choices / / It feels like that's all small business owners do these days. They make difficult choices all day long. Choosing a platform can be daunting for small business owners. Most of our consultations that come to us don't know where to start and don't understand the difference between website platforms as well.

For a lot of local service businesses we want to choose a drag and drop builder that's easy to maintain and has a low maintenance cost over the life of the website. This typically excludes WordPress unless they have the budget (& time!) to maintain the platform.

There are so many drag and drop website builder options out there. The one that we recommend most for small businesses is squarespace. You can easily optimize it for search engines (which you can't do as well on some other platforms) and it's incredibly user friendly.

We designed custom squarespace websites for clients that are fully optimized and ready to use. We also really encourage others to dive into squarespace and make their own!

What are keywords? / / This is one of the most common questions in our intro to SEO class.

Keywords are search terms that browsers type into google. They're also topics (words) that define what your content on your website or platform is all about!

Keywords are the foundation to Google search. Defining keywords, as the pros do, will expand and clarify your target customers. Properly defining your keywords is the first step in any SEO and content marketing journey - As well as writing basic website copy.

Our digital marketing shop provides keyword research reports and more for small business owners looking to begin their SEO journey!

Tackling digital marketing can be challenging, even for experienced business owners (so don't be hard on yourself!)

Our most frequent service area for small businesses is PPC setup & ad placement. Why? Because ads can immediately alleviate stress through focused lead generation.

Which area of marketing do you think is the hardest for your business?

Happy Holidays 🎄 from our team to yours!

We offer one-time services for businesses of any size.

These services include:

1️⃣ Consultation/Strategy Session
2️⃣ Conversion Optimization
3️⃣ Google My Business Optimization
4️⃣ Complete Intensive Website Audit & Digital Marketing Strategy Session

Google My Business

Offered as a one-time service, we will create or optimize your current listing with Google.

The benefit? Better Google Maps rankings as well as integration with your website or brand.

Swipe for Tips: How To Maximize Pay Per Click Advertising⁠
⁠
✔️There are different types of ads to invest in: Search, display, apps, video and more⁠
✔️Before you run your ad, determine your budget⁠
✔️Create a custom target audience. This can include location, keywords, interests, age, and more.⁠
✔️Your campaign should include "negative" keywords which will help avoid irrelevant traffic.⁠
✔️Track and analyze conversions vs. sales

How To Maximize Pay Per Click Advertising

✔️There are different types of ads to invest in: Search, display, apps, video and more
✔️Before you run your ad, determine your budget
✔️Create a custom target audience. This can include location, keywords, interests, age, and more.
✔️Your campaign should include "negative" keywords which will help avoid irrelevant traffic.
✔️Track and analyze conversions vs. sales

Build your marketing campaign at your pace, at your budget.

Our Digital Marketing Shop offers pay-as-you-go digital marketing products that making building your campaigns that much easier and affordable.

Not every business has the budget of a large corporation. With our pay-as-you-go services and products, you can add on exactly what your business needs to grow and find success, whether that be SEO, PPC, or SMM.

More conversations, conversions and cocktails. We’re here to offer products and services that make your life as a business owner easier. All to help you hit your goals in time for happy hour. Schedule your 30-minute consultation to learn how our digital marketing services can be your solution to success.

Daylight Savings reminder! Don't forget to set your clocks back tonight.

Sit back and we’ll handle the rest with our Social Media Profile Posting subscription. This service includes:

• Posting to Facebook & Instagram
• All graphic design and use of your brand photos or stock photos
• All writing and hashtag research
• All material approved before launch
• Scheduled and reviewed at the first of the month
• One week setup time & access to accounts
• Once monthly meeting/ review

We can also setup ads at no additional charge (paid directly through Facebook by customer)