by Jonathon Hyjek | May 21, 2015 | Mobile Development, Website Design
Society changes, habits change, the way that we do business changes and of course within the area of technology, changes happen at warp speed. For over 2 years now there have been consistent warnings about the increased use of mobile devices to surf the internet . If you’ve been keeping an eye on your Google Analytics account, you likely noticed that year over year traffic coming to your website from smartphones or tablets has increased dramatically.
The warnings from Google and other notable SEO’s to get your website ready for the day search engines will use mobile friendly design as a search engine ranking factor finally came true on April 21st, 2015. This was the day that Google announced that would see mobile-friendly design become a ranking factor.
After April 21st, 2015 visitors searching from a Smartphone will be far less likely to find your website.
What Now?
If you’re having a new website developed, make sure that it’s mobile-friendly. This can be achieved in 2 ways:
#1. Build a website that is “responsive.” The term responsive basically means that no matter what size of screen the website is displayed on, it will shrink and morph into a fully usable website.
#2. Build a mobile-friendly version. In a sense, this is like building a second version of your website. When a visitor from a mobile device goes to your website, the server is notified and displays the mobile-friendly version instead of the full desktop site.
Our preference is to build a responsive website that allows for a consistent browsing experience.
If you already have a website, you also have 2 options:
#1. Convert your current website into a responsive design. Depending on the structure of your website, this could be fairly time consuming.
#2. Build a mobile friendly version of your site and leave your “old” site alone. If budget is the main objective here, this could be your least expensive option.
If Mobilegeddon has come and gone and your website is old enough that mobile design was an afterthought at the time, it’s likely time for a new website anyway. By 2012, most website designers and developers were already building websites to be mobile-friendly. If the life cycle of website is 2-4 years, it might be time to think about redesigning anyway.
A website is an investment, not an expense – Like a silent salesman
Long before you meet your prospective clients or customers in person, more than likely they have visited your website and made some assumptions based on what they see. Your website is like a storefront that’s open 24/7. When your prospects are looking at your website on their mobile phones while waiting for a doctor’s appointment or waiting to pick their children up at school, they are making decisions about whether they want to reach out and ask you a question, ask for a quote or dial your number. It’s during these times that clients are making decisions based on their experience surfing your website.
Is it easy to navigate from a mobile device?
Does it load fast on their iPhone?
Can they find the information they need?
If you weren’t able to answer yes to all 3 of these questions, it’s time to think seriously about a responsive website re-development.
by Jonathon Hyjek | Jun 21, 2013 | Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
For many small business owners, cost-effective marketing is crucial to the success of their business. Thanks to technology, marketing for small businesses has become less and less expensive over the past few years. Investing a few hundred or a few thousand dollars can go much further than it did in the past.
Unfortunately there are still a lot of small business owners who aren’t embracing the new trends in marketing and specifically online marketing. Almost everyday, I talk to small business owners who don’t yet have a company website, a company Facebook page or any other online presence.
Here are just a few of the most common mistakes that I see in dealing with small business owners in various industries.
“Investing” in Online Yellow Pages Services – We all know what the Yellow Pages are, but when was the last time you opened the Yellow Pages phone book or went to the Yellow Pages website? At home, we haven’t had a Yellow Pages book in more than 5 years. I don’t even know where I would find one! The Yellow Pages website ranks well in various industries, but I would “assume” that not many people actually go to their website directly to look for services. Yellow Pages offers services to help you get on top of their listings, but the problem is that people have to go to their website first, before they can get your business in front of a client or customer.
I know from speaking with a number of people who have dealt with YP, that they employ very good salespeople. The trouble is that for most small business owners, the prices that they charge for the services are astronomical. If someone is asking you to invest $1000+ per month in their services, they better be generating A LOT of business for you! I would suggest that for a small business, there are many other places that you could be investing your money.
Neglecting Social Media – I understand that not every small business owner is tech savvy and understands social media, but just because you don’t understand it or use it personally, doesn’t mean that you can ignore it completely. Your business can benefit from being on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Linkedin, just to name a few. If you don’t know where to start, use the services of a company that can help you with Social Media Marketing. Social media is a great way to get in front of your prospective clients and customers and to keep top of mind for your current clientele.
Neglecting SEO – When it comes to online marketing, the term “just Google it” comes up time and time again. Any time I want to know about anything, including the products and services of small businesses in my area, I just Google it. Usually I glance through the first page of results and hopefully find what I’m looking for. The businesses that are on the front page end up being the winners. If your are the owner of a small business and your website isn’t anywhere to be found when you search for terms related to your business, you need help! Think about it: What’s it worth for you to get one more customer? or better yet – how much does it cost you to lose a customer because they couldn’t find you easily? It’s time to invest in SEO to get your website in front of your prospective customers and clients.
The Bottom Line
Online Marketing for small businesses is a powerful way to generate leads for your business. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to have a big impact. If you don’t know where to start, hire the services of a social media marketing or SEO company. Online marketing isn’t going away and it’s your best ally when it comes to marketing your business on a budget, so it’s time to embrace it!
by Jonathon Hyjek | Jan 10, 2013 | Search Engine Optimization
In the process of learning SEO, I have tried many different tactics to improve rankings as I am sure other SEO companies have also done. There is some trial and error as it relates to SEO and figuring out what works and what doesn’t work.
However…
There is a big difference between doing testing and trial and error on your own websites versus those of a client. I learned SEO through building and doing SEO on approximately 50 of my own niche websites. Some were successful and ended up earning me some money, some where not, but I had nothing to lose and everything to gain by learning the SEO business this way. If I messed up, I was only hurting myself.
Unfortunately not all SEO companies are created equal. It would seem that many SEO companies are still using techniques that are old and out-dated and are more likely to get your site de-indexed by Google, rather than get it onto the front page.
Two scenarios come to mind when I think about all the different problematic SEO tactics I have seen used by SEO companies in the past 5 years.
1. A few years back I owned a few article directories. This was when article marketing was at the height of it’s effectiveness for SEO. Day after day I would clear out hundreds of spammy articles, written by offshore writers for some pretty reputable companies. Time after time I would see the same poor quality article, submitted to all 4 of my article directories. Spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes and often they just didn’t make any sense whatsoever.
A few times I was tempted to contact the owners of the businesses being represented in the articles to let them know what their SEO company was up to, but I never did. It would have been a full-time job in itself. I think it’s safe to say that they had no idea what their SEO company was doing to get them higher rankings.
2. A few months ago I was doing some SEO work for a client. When I logged into the control panel for their website, I noticed that their website had hundreds of blog posts about various topics, which in no way related to their business. It would seem that their SEO company had signed them up to some sort of private blog network which allowed other people to post articles on their website (unknowingly) everyday, linking to various websites. None of the posts were accessible through the website’s main navigation, so customers weren’t seeing these articles, however they were there. Google was indexing these articles and many were about gambling, online poker, online dating and prescriptions drugs.
What’s My Advice?
While you don’t need to know every detail of your SEO company and what they do to get your website to the front page of Google, you need to be able to trust them. If you don’t get the sense that you can trust them, don’t work with them. It’s that simple! Get to know your SEO company or SEO expert, ask them questions, learn about their integrity (if they have any) and then move ahead with the business relationship. You don’t need to choose your SEO company overnight either. Choose carefully and make sure you are going to be comfortable working with them since this is not a one-time transaction.
A word of advice though: Don’t breathe down their neck. SEO takes time and sometimes, LOTS of time. If you hire an SEO company today, don’t ask them in 3 days why your website isn’t on the front page of Google. It takes time. Most likely they will want to work with you ongoing for several months to start and at first, you may not see a lot of results. Rest assured that a good SEO company is building a foundation and that over time, you will see those rankings improve.
by Jonathon Hyjek | Nov 4, 2012 | Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
If you operate a business, it’s important to build a strong online profile for you or your business. Your online profile is like a trail that leads right to your business and will show prospective clients and customers that you are serious about doing business online.
What Do I Mean By Online Profile?
Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers or clients. They will fall into two different categories when searching for information about a business:
1. They don’t know who you are, but they are searching for keywords related to your company’s activities.
2. They know who you are and they’re searching for your company, using search terms like your company name.
SEO most often deals with the first scenario. We help our clients get found in search engines by keywords that customers are searching for. For example, in my business, it’s important for me to be found by the terms “SEO company” or “London Ontario SEO Companies.” Those terms are of value to me and I optimize my website and try to build backlinks to my website with those terms in mind.
Scenario number 2 seems to get overlooked by far too many people, but it is equally as powerful.
Imagine that your customers have been referred to your company by a friend or family member and they decide to search for your company name. First and foremost, you hope that your company website is the first website that appears. If that’s not the case, you have some work to do.
After your company website, if you have spent any time online building your online profile, your customers will find other profiles about your company. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Quora, Weblocal, Manta, Yelp and the list goes on and on.
The goal of this second scenario is to fill up the first page or two of the search results with your company.
Why would you want to do this?
Because it makes you look like a large company, with plenty of reach. If someone searches for my company name, Jonathon Hyjek, the first two pages are filled with my profiles on various websites. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, Quora, Manta, Yelp and so on. If they don’t go to the first option, which is my company website, there’s a good chance that they will still end up on my website eventually by choosing any of the other links associated with my company.
While this isn’t rocket science, it gets overlooked and it’s too bad. Some of these websites can also offer valuable backlinks to your website, which will help improve your organic search results as well.
What’s the Final Word?
Seek opportunities to build online profiles and accounts on social media sites, local directories and more. Just be careful not to build these profiles too quickly and make it appear that you’re spamming the search engines. Just be diligent and serious about growing your reach online and making sure you’re everyone that your potential customers are.
by Jonathon Hyjek | Oct 25, 2012 | Online Marketing, Search Engine Optimization
Updated June 2024: I wrote an in-depth guide to help you decide between SEO and PPC.
Should you spend your online marketing budget on Google Adwords (PPC) or SEO (Organic Search)
This is a question that every business with a website must ask themselves when they start to look at how to spend their online advertising dollars.
On one hand, a business can use Google Adwords and set their investment at any amount that they can afford and get almost instant leads (in a perfect world.) A simple text ad can produce great results and your traffic can skyrocket overnight, if you can afford it.
One the other hand, a business can invest in SEO by committing to a monthly SEO package with an SEO company and their rankings will increase over time in the natural search engine results pages.
So which one is a better use of your marketing dollars?
This isn’t an easy question to answer because every business is different and every scenario is different.
Again, in a perfect world, you could start a Google Ads campaign and for example, spend $1000 per month on those PPC ads. If your landing page (the page you point your ads to) is optimized properly, you may end up with quite a few leads or conversions, but in order to keep those leads or conversions coming in, you have to keep paying Google, month after month. Obviously plenty of businesses are doing this since Google is reportedly generating over $100 million per day in Adwords revenue!
This is a great way to generate leads, but it can get expensive because it never stops. If you stop paying, your leads or conversions stop.
Hiring an SEO company to increase your search engine rankings offers you another option. If you invest that same $$500/$1000 per month (or whatever that cost is) in SEO services, over time your website should end up on page #1 of Google in the organic (free) results pages. Once you’re on page one, you should be getting plenty of traffic and you don’t have to keep paying for it. As long as you don’t do anything drastic from an SEO standpoint, a small monthly maintenance fee by an SEO company should keep your website in a high ranking position.
With Organic SEO, you get FREE traffic, day after day, month after month.
In my opinion, if you don’t want to keep paying for an Ads campaign, investing money in organic SEO services is your best option. The downside of course to spending money on Organic SEO is that your rankings will not change overnight. It could take several weeks to several months before you see the results. In this case, SEO services are front loaded with costs and then it will ease up once you are in a good position, whereas Adwords continues to cost, day after day, month after month.
The other challenge with SEO as a single strategy is that Google can (and does) change their algorithm frequently. What worked last year, may not work today – and websites have lost 80% of their organic traffic overnight from one Google update. This can be catastrophic for a business so in my opinion – in 2024 – you should look at both organic SEO and pay per click.
Ultimately you need to decide what’s best for your organization and your current situation. One good option for many companies would be to split your investment between the two. This way you get the best of both worlds; You get leads or conversions immediately while building your rankings for future leads or referrals that come in free of charge.
