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MYM Internet Marketing Makeover: Soberg Windows & Doors (Part 2)

crushing the seo competition
Note: Last post, I showed you Part One of the amazing internet marketing transformation we performed for Soberg Windows & Doors.

That email focused on creating a compelling Identity and beautiful website for the company. Today, I’m going to tell you about phase two: SEO.

Here’s the story…

Crushing The SEO Competition

To create a dominating internet presence, a powerful website is only part of the equation. If you’re not performing SEO (Search Engine Optimization), your awesome site is useless.

Prior to joining Monopolize Your Marketplace, Troy had someone else handling his SEO… his ex-wife. And believe it or not, she did a solid job! “She did have us up in the rankings pretty well. Still, it was up and down. Inconsistent.”

That’s no surprise, considering search engines like Google constantly tinker with their search algorithms, making it practically impossible for SEO non-professionals to keep up. When we built Soberg’s new website and took over the contractor’s SEO, it took the normal four or five months to ‘kick in.’ But after that initial start-up period, Troy couldn’t be more thrilled with his SEO.

“With MYM, I’ve seen very, very positive SEO results. I’m pretty much on the first page for all keywords relating to windows and doors in my area. Now we are consistently where we want to be. Monopolize Your Marketplace’s SEO services have definitely helped produce a lot of leads.”

Soberg Windows & Doors SEO Progress Report
As of 10/28/16, 2016, 95% of Soberg’s keywords are in the top 10 on Google,
with many ranking in the coveted first two spots.

Unlike a lot of SEO companies—which tend to provide their clients with poor reporting and slow response—we insist on timely, clear, consistent communication.

“Regarding my SEO, I deal a lot with [MYM Digital Services Director] Katie Colihan. I can’t say enough about her. She is very personable, caring, and interested in what I do. Anything I need with my SEO, boom, she is right on it.”

Maintaining Internet-Marketing Dominance

Whether you’re a contractor in a small rural county or a huge sprawling metropolis, one thing remains constant: In today’s always-online world, you MUST have both a strong Identity and internet presence to succeed.

By powerfully branding Soberg Windows & Doors and getting them to #1 on Google for many of their keywords, we’ve helped the company become the big fish in a relatively small pond.

When people search online for windows and doors in Walworth County, the first link they see on the results page is for Soberg’s website. And when those prospects click through to the company’s site, they’re greeted with a strong Identity that conveys how Soberg is much different—and much BETTER—than the average small-town contractor. Prospects can’t help but fall in love.

In all, the synergy between Soberg’s Identity and SEO has produced great results for Troy and his company. “It took about four months for the SEO to ‘kick in,’ but we are now getting a lot of leads from internet searches and our website.”

On what it’s like being an MYM client, Troy says, “Marketing is tough for small businesses. It can be expensive and there’s so much involved. Monopolize Your Marketplace makes everything easy and has produced very positive results for my company. Becoming one of their clients has definitely paid off.”

Ready To Monopolize YOUR Marketplace?

If you’re interested in knowing more about becoming an MYM client, give us a call at 817-416-4333 or visit our website and use the Live Chat box.

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3 Magic SEO Pills That Are Really Search Engine Cyanide

SEO Magic Pills or Cyanide
Ever notice how there are approximately 129,347 different diets, programs, pills, products, and scams for weight loss?

Heck, you probably have someone on your Facebook friend list who’s become a “representative” for some multi-level-marketing company and the latest fat-loss fad product (stomach wraps, magical diet pills, etc.) they’re hocking.

Even though 99.9% of these flash-in-the-pan remedies don’t work, people buy ‘em up by the millions. The prospect of a getting a killer beach bod while exerting zero effort is just too tempting to pass up.

Deep down, though, everyone knows—but won’t admit to themselves—that there’s really just one simple three-step process to losing weight:

  1. Lay off the Big Macs.
  2. Hop on the treadmill.
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 until you get the result you want.

This method is GUARANTEED to work, but it takes time and energy. That’s why everyone always flocks to the latest bogus “solution” that promises instant results.

It’s the same with SEO.

Contractors don’t want to put forth the required time and effort to get good results. So they fall for all the gurus promising magic solutions that launch your site to the top of Google Mountain with no effort or time.

In the back of your mind, though, you know it’s a load of crap.

But in case you don’t, I present 3 SEO “Magic Pills” that are actually poison for your rankings:

Magic Pill #1: Keyword Stuffing

Shoving a bunch of keywords and geographic locations on a webpage might get you immediate results, but your ranking will gradually decrease as Google realizes that no one likes your website.

Example: “We are expert replacement window installers for Dallas TX, Fort Worth TX, Richardson TX, Mesquite TX, Garland TX, Plano TX, Irving TX, Balch Springs TX, and Farmers Branch TX.”

Would you ever say this to a prospect face to face? No. They’d never buy from you.

It’s the same with your internet prospects. If your website reads like it was written by Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation, people will click away faster than you can say “Captain Jean-Luc Picard.” As a result, your rankings will sink at warp speed.

Bottom Line: Prospects who visit your website are humans, too. So don’t write for Google; write for PEOPLE (while tossing in the occasional keyword in logical places).

Magic Pill #2: Spammy Links

Having a ton of outside sources linking to your website SOUNDS like a great SEO-boosting strategy. But it only works if the places linked to your website are worth a dang.

Read the comment section of this webpage for an example of links Google hates. This is called “forum spam,” and Google will destroy you if they catch you doing it.

For a comprehensive list of link spam, click here.

Bottom Line: Quality links to your website = good. Spammy links to your website = bad. REALLY BAD.

Magic Pill #3: Emphasizing Quantity Over Quality

Having 400 blog posts on your website is useless if they are poorly written, boring, thin on content, and irrelevant to your market.

If you spend less time on your blog posts than it takes to nuke a Hot Pocket, you’re who I’m talking about. If you want a smorgasbord of examples, Google just about any type of service in your town. You’ll see a ton of keyword-stuffed blog posts with wafer-thin content.

Bottom Line: Google will hurt your rankings something good if they discover your webpage content is awful. (And Google WILL discover it sooner rather than later.)

To sum all of this SEO talk up:

To achieve true SEO success, you have to do things the RIGHT way.

There is no “magic pill” that takes you to page one instantly. If someone tells you otherwise, remember all of the worthless weight-loss products that deliver ZERO results.

The truth is that it takes at least 6 to 9 months to start seeing quality SEO results.

When MYM is in charge of your SEO, that’s about the amount of time it’s going to take. We do NOT promise you overnight SEO success. What we do promise is that we’ll use ALL of the right methods to get you to number one.

This means:

  • writing engaging content.
  • creating relevant back links (and Disavowing the bad ones!)
  • inserting the right keywords in the right places. “nerd coding” your website to take advantage of Google’s latest algorithms
  • ensuring your business listings are consistent, (and that duplicate listings are suprressed!)
  • optimizing your Google My Business page and other social media details are optimized
  • marking your website up with “schema” (a special language that Google reads on how to show your website in search results to get more traffic.)
  • auditing your website once per month to catch any broken links, broken pages, or error codes in your site
  • creating high quality service area landing pages so that you can rank for cities other than where your office is located
  • and so. so. much. more. (Here’s a mostly complete list of the things we do for our SEO Clients).

Sure, this takes time. But it’s the ONLY way to get the results you want.

The good news is that it takes no effort on your end—kick back and let us handle the hard work for you.

Check out more details about MYM’s Search Engine Optimization.

 

P.S. For some amazing client SEO success stories, click here, here, here, here, and here.

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Upgrading Your Website to an SSL | We Did It, Should You?

SSL Your Website

The quick answer: Yes. You should consider upgrading your website to have an SSL certificate.

The not-so-quick-but-very-detailed-answer: 

The Digital Services Team is always looking for opportunities to improve our offering to clients.  For Search Engine Optimization (SEO),  this includes staying on top of Google’s latest ranking factors and determining the best way of implementing those strategies into our clients’ SEO campaigns.

A few months ago, you might remember that one of our clients was suspiciously contacted by a potential phishing scam masked as a legitimate company. This made our already sensitive spidey-senses tingle and we knew we had to take the next step in protecting our clients (you!) as well as your potential customers.

That said, MYM will be upgrading all of our client’s sites that we host to include an SSL Certificate.

Why we’ve decided to do this:

  1. We highly value the security of our clients
  2. This is a move that can help your SEO Rankings

Wondering what the heck SSL is? You’re not alone. We’ve done our best to answer the questions that you might have below.

 

What is SSL?

An SSL (short for Secure Sockets Layer), is the most globally used form of internet security. It takes care of securing and encrypting personal information that is sent on a website, keeping consumers safe when doing business or submitting their personal information on a website.

 

Why do I need my site to be SSL?

The majority of our remodeling and contractor clients don’t do much in the realm of e-commerce or collecting credit card information directly from their website. However, 99.9999% of our clients do collect personal information on their lead forms. (Name, Address, Telephone Numbers…etc.) This is all personal and confidential information that put in the wrong hands (Phishers!) can cause a lot of damage.

Google knows what the Phishers are doing. They hate it.

SSL gives your website an extra level of consumer protection and shows your potential customers that you care about their security.

 

What does this mean for me?

If MYM hosts your website, then this means that we are offering you the option to upgrade your site’s security to SSL at a reduced cost.

If MYM does NOT host your website, we suggest you check with your website host to see what your options are for upgrading your website to an SSL. You can feel free to give me a call, and I can help you get in touch with the right people at your hosting company.

 

Why didn’t you make this change sooner?

Although, it has come up in many of our meetings and is almost always on our Quarterly SEO Review agenda,  we honestly didn’t see the need to make this upgrade up until now.

One of the things that  goes along with the SEO world is filtering out the noise. In a world where everyone is a “guru” “expert” or “enthusiast” about SEO, it’s hard to know who to trust and what to believe.

We do our best to mute the noise and only bring you things that will  help you grow.

It’s our job to figure out what strategies are best, test them out, and then pass the ones that are valuable onto our clients. We put the others on the back burner until it makes the most sense to implement them.

SSL is being brought up from the back burner. It’s time.

 

Is this upgrade optional?

As of right now, upgrading your website to an SSL is optional. However, it’s only a matter of time before it’s required and Google starts penalizing sites for not having an SSL certificate.  We highly recommend that you make the transition to an SSL website as soon as possible.

 

What happens if I decide not to upgrade my website to an SSL? // Will not upgrading negatively affect my SEO?

Not getting an SSL Certificate will not negatively impact your SEO – that is, you won’t be at risk for a manual penalty. Yet.

However, it also won’t help your SEO. Google has been saying for quite some time that they use SSL as a ranking factor for Search Engine Optimization.

Here’s what Google had to say back in 2014 about SSL as a ranking factor:

For now [SSL is] only a very lightweight signal — affecting fewer than 1% of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high quality content— while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS. But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we’d like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web.

“Lightweight Signal” back in 2014… and it’s only gotten stronger over the past 2 years where online commerce has become so commonplace.

How will this affect my ranking / how quickly will I see results?

Google openly admits that they rank sites higher who have an SSL Certificate.

As far as how quickly you’ll see results – within a few days.

The immediate results you’ll see are:

– a change to the beginning of your web address. It will go from ‘http’ to ‘https’.  The ‘s’ is for ‘secure’
– a lock icon will show up next to your web address in the search bar

https secure connection

The results you’ll see over time are:

– an increase of your SEO Ranking
– an increase of your click through rate (CTR). When searchers see that your website is secure, they’re more likely to click on your website over an unsecured one.

 

Will I experience any website downtime?

Nope! We’ve already tested this on our own website and we experienced zero downtime.

 

How much will this upgrade cost?

If you are on a premium SEO plan with Monopolize Your Marketplace, we will be absorbing the cost of this for you by exchanging 1-2 pieces of content in your monthly SEO Package.

If you are getting the basic level of SEO that is included with your bundle package with MYM, we will still offer you the discounted price, but we will not be able to substitute content to cover the fee.

Why?  In order to cover the fee for obtaining the SSL Certificate, we’d have to eliminate 100% of your content for 3 months. This would be detrimental to your SEO, and you will see negative ranking results from this.

We only do SEO that works. This strategy would not work.

If you are one of our bundle SEO clients and want to upgrade, give us a call. We’ll get you taken care of.

Why do I have to pay for this upgrade? Shouldn’t MYM cover this fee?

We wish upgrading was free.

Every single hosting site charges for an SSL upgrade. We did negotiate a lower price for our clients and we’re happy to be able to pass that savings down to you.

In a day in age where internet security is on the top of consumers’ priority lists when browsing the web, Google has made it all but required that you have an SSL Certificate on your site. As of right now, this is optional. However, it’s only a matter of time before it’s required.

If you have any other questions about upgrading your website to an SSL, or any aspect of SEO, don’t hesitate to reach out. We’re always here.

We are thrilled to be able to continue to help you grow your business.

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