Believe it or not, links are still incredibly important for SEO. Although they are one of the oldest ranking factors, they are still a great indicator of quality and authority.
The rule is simple: if enough brands and websites that are already well-regarded and respected are linking to your site, then yours will start to be considered high-quality too.
Not all links are created equal though, and some can even hurt you tremendously. Back in the early days of SEO, you could use an automated tool to quickly generate thousands upon thousands of spammy links and point them directly at your website.
This would rank your site quickly and very easily. However, Google quickly discovered how to beat this tactic and updated their algorithm accordingly.
Link Building in the Modern Era
Nowadays, less links that have a high domain authority and page authority will trump thousands of junk links.
The key to getting high-quality links is through producing stellar content that a person or company will find helpful, want to link to, and share on social media or their own website.
Once you’ve created this piece of content, you have to promote it. This is usually done by email outreach, social media, forums, or commenting on blogs.
Make sure to follow Google’s guidelines and never offer money, a product, or gift in exchange for a link.
Other ways to get links involve guest blogging on other people’s websites. While getting a link from a photographer in your area could help, it's better to stay within your niche. This can be especially helpful if they are willing to give you a link within the body of the content instead of just an author box. These days (in 2018) this is considered a better and more powerful link.
It’s critical to get links to your website if you hope to be able to get to the top of Google. Getting the top of Google is vital because almost all online experiences begin with a search and almost no one views the second page of search results.
The Reality on the Ground
That means only 10 websites have a shot at getting seen and most of the time people go directly to the first, second, or third search result unless the meta description and/or title are more enticing.
If you hope to build your business in 2018 and generate more leads, SEO and digital marketing are a must.
Without them, you’re leaving money on the table and missing the boat.
The Internet is being viewed by more people than you can ever imagine and getting your site to the top of search engines can improve your ROI tremendously.
Although SEO can be expensive, it is far cheaper than radio advertising, billboards, and other forms of offline marketing. Not only that, but it also allows for people to find you instead of making you go out and find them.
Imagine being able to wake up in the morning to leads who actually want to use your services instead of having to cold call people all day long.
That’s the power of digitla marketing (i.e. inbound marketing) and SEO is the driving force behind it.
Today we're going to focus on how businesses from any niche can go out and get new clients with SEO and online marketing.
Whether you’re an app developer in Austria or a doctor in Delaware, you need to make sure you’re marketing to the right clientele and through the right channels.
Why Baltimore SEO?
First and foremost, if you don't have a website yet, you have to make one. Without it, you'll never be able to show off your best work, build your brand, or effectively market online.
Remember, as with most industries, people are going directly to Google to find the companies they want. The one who has the best looking videos and images on his or her website, the best reviews, and a robust blog usually gets called over the company who neglected their online presence and only has a website with a one page landing page that looks like nothing more than a glorified business card.
Next, invest in search engine optimization (aka SEO). Baltimore SEO, when done right, helps get your website on Page 1 of Google for the keywords and phrases your potential clients are searching for. It has the power to bring in a ton of traffic to your website and power your entire digital marketing.
Without SEO, your website could end up invisible to the greater population. Not many people click page 2, so be prepared to hire a professional to help you get on Page 1. (In fact, research shows that 95% of people never search past page 1 of the results.)
Be careful though. Not all SEO companies are good, and some actually hurt your site while pretending to help it. Make sure you thoroughly vet an SEO company before hiring them and find out exactly what they plan to do to your site.
Also, if you don't have tremendous people skills, now is the time to cultivate them. People want to hire a professional who is friendly, funny, down to earth, and likable overall. If you’re uptight, you better do perfect work every single time. Otherwise, you might want to look for a different profession or learn the art of flexibility.
Believe it or not, timeliness is a big deal to many people too. If you’re late for a meeting or waste your potential customer's time, they’re going to get really mad and really quickly. Usually, they will be paying for your time, not just your photos, so be sure to give them your undivided attention.
Getting repeat business is not merely a function of how great you are at what you do. Make sure to provide incredible customer service too. Send follow up emails offering coupons. Remember special occasions and send out personalized cards. If you can hand write them, even better. Provide special offers to prior customers. Remember to be professional at all times. Avoid saying or emoting anything negative. All of these things make up the keys to getting repeat customers.
Ultimately, owning your own business can be really tough and downright challenging at times. Make sure that you're doing everything you can to keep up with your competition, improving your marketing strategy, investing in SEO, and having great customer service.
What Kinds of Baltimore SEO are There?
In the SEO world, there are two kinds of people: those that try to game
the system and dupe Google and those who try to work within the Google
guidelines and framework to help their clients.
Black hat SEO
focuses on finding cracks and holes in Google's algorithm in order to
quickly rocket a website to the top of Google. Many times, Google
discovers these hacks or technical loopholes quite quickly and
de-indexes the site only a month later.
Most people utilizing
black hat tactics understand this, so they employ a tactic called rank
and bank to beat it. Rank and bank involves using whatever means
necessary to rank a particular site that is selling a product of
service.
Whether that means pointing tons of spammy links at it
or using link farms and prohibited networks, they'll do it. The idea is
to get the site listed on Page 1 for the sole purpose of selling as many
products as possible before Google penalizes it and delists the site
permanently.
After this happens, the black hat SEO will simply
migrate the site over to a new site and employ the same tactics on the
non-penalized site.
This approach generates sales temporarily and will be caught by Google very soon.
Consequently, it's much more advised to implement white hat SEO tactics.
White hat SEO involves giving searchers what they actually want,
earning links properly instead of buying them, or making fake spammy
ones.
White hat SEO is all about making incredible content that
will naturally become number one in Google and employing ethical methods
to help optimize for it.
White hat SEO is permanent and will
never get you penalized by Google. It's the future of SEO and the way
all people should do SEO.
When you try to make your site
authoritative and trustworthy, you'll naturally earn the respect of
other sites as well as powerful links that organically improve your
search ranking.
Not only that, black hat SEO is extremely risky. If you try to game Google, you'll likely lose sooner or later.
Even
the heavy hitters end up having entire sites go down. Do you want to
explain to a client or a friend that they don't even rank for their
company name anymore?
White hat SEO is the way to go. It's the
best and safest way to grow your business in 2016 and likely will remain
that way forever.
Think about it, the only time you face a
Google penalty is when you’re violating their search guidelines and
utilizing tactics that wouldn’t pass the red face test.
White hat
SEO never does this. It focuses on making incredible content that
adheres to the guidelines and optimizes a site for all of the key
ranking factors that can help it do best.
Remember, whether you're a high-powered lawyer or a local photographer, you're going to need SEO to improve your search ranking.
Ultimately,
whichever route you go, there’s no denying just how crucial it is to
implement SEO for your business. These days everyone is searching online
for products and services and are clicking only on what they find on
the first page.
Good SEO companies are constantly learning more when doing work for their clients.
Most
of the conventional wisdom out there is to create high-quality content
and earn links from high-authority websites if you want to get on Page 1
of Google.
These sources also tell you to make sure to have highly original content, attention grabbing headlines, and to sprinkle your keywords throughout the body of the content.
Don't
forget about email outreach when it comes to garnering backlinks.
Sometimes all you need to do is find the right person or company and
send them a quick email with your content.
When you do, tell them
you created a resource that their audience would love, and it might
even be worth a mention on their site.
No need to ask - or worse - beg for a
link. If your content is good enough and you reached out to the right
person, you’ll probably get a link.
If you're a contract lawyer in MD or even an accountant
and you want to rank in towns like Baltimore, Owings Mills, and Towson,
local SEO can also be crucial. Make sure to get listed in local business directories like
Yellow Pages or Yelp and get positive reviews on them.
Don't forget to create an XML sitemap too. Without one, Google will have a really hard time finding and
indexing your site. So this piece can be super crucial.
If
you’re wondering what types of links to build, try to get links from
people in your niche who would appreciate your blog or website. Make
content that is helpful too. People don’t want to be sold, they want to
be informed.
If you keep them in the loop and give them what
they want, they’ll trust you even more. It also builds rapport and makes you
come across better.
Baltimore SEO Can Help Your Business
A good rule of thumb is to avoid
marketing-type language in the body of your content. Feel free to use a
call to action at the end or lead people toward contacting you, but
in-text advertising is usually frowned upon. Tons of websites do it, but
not as many are successful with it.
SEO is a big frontier and it’s
here to stay. Learn it well, and you’ll succeed big time in building
your brand, growing your business, and getting more customers.
Ignore
it, and you’ll soon see just how much money you’ll lose and how many
customers you’ll be missing. Don’t be foolish, start discovering how
important SEO is to businesses.
SEO is constantly changing and
evolving, so you need to keep your finger on its pulse and ride the wave
of new changes and updates that constantly come out. Remember: yesterdays quick win, is today’s Google penalty - so don’t blow it!
Find
webinars online, read articles to help you rank well in Google, take a class on Lynda.com,
etc. Do whatever it takes to learn the ropes, educate yourself, and
become an SEO pro today.
That’s all for
now, but stay tuned for future posts on how you can better do Baltimore SEO for
yourself and become the online marketer you always wanted to be.
We’ll try to update this blog relatively frequently, so please check back often. Looking forward to helping you climb the rankings!
