A study of 150 websites in 5 locally relevant industries (dentists, lawyers, restaurants, roofers, and mechanics) across 3 U.S. markets.
We analyzed what percentage of them have included certain “trust signals” into their site experience. Trust Signals are aimed to increase credibility among web visitors, many of which are prospective customers. Our findings are below.
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SEO is a tough business. Google keeps changing their algorithm. The rankings are not an exact science. There is a lot we don’t understand and that we can’t explain. Also the industry is saturated with self proclaimed experts who tout their own methods. It is hard to know what we should be doing to best help our clients.
With so many things screaming for our attention it can be easy to get overwhelmed. Here are 6 common ways that SEO’s go over the edge.
6 SEO Diseases and Disorders – An infographic by the team at Infogenix Web Design
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The irrational fear that your rankings will inexplicably fall.
“How the $*@#$ did I fall from 43 to 49 for ‘chelated mineral supplements for horses and other quadrupeds?”
Blindly following industry thought leaders.
“New post on SEOmoz, Must implement! Rand Fishkin – I want to have your babies!”
Downloading every possible tool available.
“I already have 10 site scraping tools, what’s one more gonna hurt?”
Spending all your time analyzing metrics.
“What can I do to make it look like I am doing a lot when I am actually doing nothing?”
The overwhelming need to update social networks.
“Must Tweet!!!!!! More tweets means better Rankings”
Obsessive Tinkering Disorder.
“If I can just find the one magical keyword then I am sure we can get you ranking everything.”
Blogs aren’t just for egocentric homebodies, modern adventurers, and opinionated loudmouths. If your business doesn’t already have a blog, you’re missing out on one of the simplest and cheapest ways to dramatically improve your company’s online presence. Here are 3 reasons you shouldn’t wait any longer to create a company blog.
1. Fresh, relevant content for the search engines. Content is king when it comes to succeeding online, especially as far as search engine rankings go. By definition, a regularly updated blog on your company’s site will be a large archive of fresh content directly relevant to your industry. By writing about your company, your services, and trends in your industry, your blog will naturally become a keyword-rich repository of helpful information—just the kind of content Google loves to rank highly in search engine results.
2. Engage your visitors and keep them coming back. Selling a product is great, but a good company blog allows you to go far beyond basic transactions. Do you get a lot of phone calls about certain products or problems? Write an informative blog post on the topic! Do you have a big sale or other company event coming up? Write a blog post about it! By utilizing a blog to its fullest, you can turn your website into a popular resource for your customers and anybody with an interest in or question about the industry. And here’s the best part: your blog readers will frequently and easily turn into customers.
3. Create a hub for your social media efforts. A blog is used best when supported by and used as a base for your company’s online social networking activities. By creating synergy among your business’s website, blog, Facebook page, and Twitter, you can create a broad and effective presence online and really create a community around your products and industry. When you post something to your blog, let people know about it on Twitter and Facebook! A well maintained blog gives you plenty of worthwhile things to create social media about.
You may be thinking, “Sure, that all sounds great, but it also sounds like a lot of work.” That’s the beauty of a blog, though: it’s so easy to build it up piece by piece, one post at a time. You won’t just automatically have a thriving online presence overnight, but by starting a blog now and posting good content regularly, you’ll soon find yourself with a very solid foundation for all your company’s online efforts.
