You have an idea for a business. Maybe it’s an innovative new product or a needed service that you know people will love. You do all the things a good entrepreneur should do, register your name with the state, write up a business plan, order some business cards, tell friends and family what you are doing, hyperventilate, tell yourself 1000 times a day that your plan will work, argue with yourself in the mirror about whether you are crazy or not. Last but not least you build a website. You are sure this is going to be the difference maker for your business. You hope that soon thousands will flock to your website daily to hand over money in exchange for your product or service. Right before you launch the site you wonder to yourself if Red is a bit too ostentatious of color for the yacht you will soon purchase. You decided you can probably figure that out later and send your new website and business out into the world.

Cue the crickets.

You start to realize that your shiny new website isn’t getting much traffic and therefore your stream of customers to your new business is not the stampede you imagined. Looks like you’ll have plenty of time to figure out that yacht color.

Welcome to a hard entrepreneurial reality, people won’t visit your site or buy from you because your website is new or shiny. People don’t buy when you are ready to sell, they buy when they are ready to buy. So the key to driving traffic to your site and sales to your company is connecting with the people that are searching for your product or service. To do that you are going to have to learn about something called Search Engine Optimization commonly abbreviated to SEO. SEO is more of an art than science, a vast and constantly changing field where the focus is understanding what search engines want and how they serve search results to people. The goal of good SEO is to help your website be found by the people who would benefit from it by optimizing keywords and content so that search engines serve those results first. In the world of SEO, there are two very important streams to understand, Organic SEO and Local SEO. We are going to look today at the difference between Organic SEO and Local SEO and how you can combine the two streams together to form a mighty river of people visiting your site. Bye. Bye Crickets. Hello Customers.

What is organic SEO? What is local SEO? Which one do I need?

Organic SEO revolves around a website and keywords. It is not necessarily attached to a geographical location or focused on driving traffic to a brick and mortar location. It is focused on keywords and driving traffic to that website based on people searching for those keywords regardless of where the individual searching may be located. Organic SEO is essential for national brands, internet marketers, and online businesses. Local SEO is similar to Organic SEO but has a strong geographical component to it. It is focused on building signals of relevance for search engines to pick up on regarding a specific location. It’s focus is to drive traffic in a certain area to a brick and mortar location. The big difference is in what the two streams are trying to show to search engines. In Organic SEO the goal is to get search engines to find relevant and trusted content. In Local SEO the goal is to get search engines to find relevant and trusted locations.

So which strategy for SEO should you use for your website?

Life has tough choices, for example when choosing which ice cream. Chocolate or vanilla. Thankfully a genius invented the twist cone and I am forever grateful. Why choose chocolate or vanilla when you can have both?

Local SEO vs Organic SEO can indeed be a twist cone scenario. A powerful and comprehensive SEO strategy will combine both strategies to their maximum impact to drive new customers to the website and business location. We are going to look at some key components for both SEO strategies and how to combine them together in an effective way. The results of a well-executed SEO strategy can be delicious. You just might go get a twist cone to celebrate.

Ways To Improve Local SEO

Local SEO is focused on making sure search engines find relevant and trusted locations. A primary goal of local SEO is for the website to place high in Google Maps for relevant keywords. Not all keywords trigger a local map, typically only the searches that Google determines to have local intent. One important concept of local SEO is a focus on citatations, (no, not the kind the traffic officer leaves on your window). Citations are references to your name, address, and phone number online. Common places for business citations to appear online are on directory sites like Yelp, Yahoo! Local, Manta, and many others. The goal of local SEO is to create a strong citation profile that lets search engines know that your locations are trusted places to go for people searching for certain keywords.

Optimized Google My Business Page

Wondering how to find a new gym? Wondering when your favorite restaurant closes? My guess is that last time you had those questions you grabbed your smartphone and entered in a search and that locations google location page popped up on your phone. Having an optimized Google My Business Page is absolutely critical for good local SEO. Unfortunately, many business owners neglect this important step and don’t even set up a verified page with Google! Over the years many changes and improvements have been made to Google Location listings. Now google offers a variety of features to business owners including the ability to post offers, posts, pictures, videos, and other media to present themselves better to customers. Do not leave a good Google local page out of your Local SEO strategy.

Verified Listings

One great strategy for local SEO is to make sure your business information is distributed across a wide range of web directories and listings. This would be sites like Yelp, Yellow Pages, Manta and many others. It is critically important to make sure your business information is consistent and accurate across all platforms and directories. Make sure your address, phone number, email, and website are correct and the same across the web. When there are inconsistencies across your listings search engines are less likely to trust that your location is a trusted and relevant location.

Ways To Improve Organic SEO

Strategies for organic SEO include researching and choosing relevant keywords for a website that has high amounts of traffic and achievable levels of competition. These keywords are then used strategically in website content to send signals to search engines that the website is a trusted and relevant source for people searching those keywords. Keywords are often used in page and blog copy and also added to the metadata of the page and images. Citations are the focus of local SEO but links are the focus of Organic SEO. A website that is connected with a strong link structure is more likely to be shown by search engines. Both internal links and external links are important components of a solid organic SEO strategy.

Keyword Optimization

The first step to keyword optimization is choosing the right keywords to try and rank for in search engine results. You want to research a wide list of keywords relevant to your business and then sort them based on the amount of traffic that keyword receives and the ranking difficulty level. Certain keywords have a large number of people contending for search engine traffic so they are more difficult to rank high on and be found on the first 1-2 pages of search results. You want to choose keywords that have the best balance of traffic and achievable competition for ranking.

After choosing your keywords focus on consistently creating content for your website that includes your strategic keywords in an intentional way. Create blog posts or pages that have your keyword inserted into the content several times so that search engines will identify it as relevant content for people searching for those keywords.

Links! Links! Links!

Citations are the name of the game for local SEO but links are the creme de la creme of Organic SEO. A well-designed website should focus on both a well designed internal link structure and also high-quality external links.

Can Local SEO and Organic SEO be combined?

Yes!! Although it’s important to understand the difference between both SEO strategies a comprehensive SEO strategy for most businesses should include a hybrid approach that combines the best of Local and organic SEO techniques. You should focus on both optimizing your site for the best keywords and also making sure that your business location is well verified and found by search engines as a trusted and relevant place. Combining the best of local and organic SEO techniques can be a powerful way to drive traffic to your site and new customers to your business.

The post Understanding SEO vs Local SEO first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

They may have claimed that they can scan your site and provide you with information that only experts can provide. They also may have claimed your website not being up-to-date, missing information, or lacking speed. These emails or calls may be full of promises about your business being able to leverage this success overnight and gain a large quota of sales quickly!

Tempting.

We know.

These scare tactics can convince anyone to jump in on the investment, but before you hand over any private or financial information we wanted to provide you with some valuable tips to help you recognize spam, as well as reasons as to why you should stick to the experts.

How to recognize spam:

• Unsolicited emails and/or comments left on your website from random companies or contacts that you have never had contact with before. These are often full of exaggerated promises that seem too good to be true – because they are.
• Consider the email address. For example, are they sending you an email from an unprofessional email address or a free service such as @gmail.com or @hotmail.com?
• Research their company and consider the professionalism or the lack there of, their website, social media accounts, and email addresses provided.
• Requesting private information too soon. For example, are they requesting your private or banking information simply after your first interaction? If they seem pushy at all – RUN.

Why you want to use SEO experts instead:

• You will be better off because the experts are not out to trick you, but actually want to see your company succeed. Our success is directly correlated with your company’s success!
• You will save money by not trying to find a quick fix that doesn’t work and results in you needing to start ALL over again. Invest your money the right way the first time and avoid detours along the way to your SEO success.
• Your company will grow when you avoid the shortcuts.

Bottom line, trust your SEO success with the experts. SEO isn’t an overnight fix. It’s about promoting your site and overtime beating your competitors in the Google race.

Remember: slow and steady wins the race.

The post SEO Spam: How to Recognize and Avoid It first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

1. What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. No, that doesn’t mean making the search engines on your computer work better (that’s not really a thing). But it does mean making search engines work to your advantage.

Search engines, like Google or Bing, are web functionalities that help people find things on the internet. If you’re in business, this is really important. You want people to find you.

What search engines do

When a customer searches for businesses like yours, they see a list of choices. Search engines direct people to websites. But they also rank these results. They use hundreds of factors to perform these functions. However, they can be distilled into two ideas; relevance and popularity.

How relevant your site is to a search will affect your site’s query ranking. But popularity is also important. Search engines work on the idea that popularity corresponds to accuracy. So if a site is more popular, it is more likely to be of a higher quality.

What SEO does

So SEO helps you make sure your site appears in the correct search queries (relevance). Then it helps you push your site to the top of those queries (relevance & popularity). In short, SEO is how you get seen online. If Google is a field of billboards, SEO makes your billboard taller than anyone else’s.

2. How does SEO work?

But how is this accomplished? Well, for starters, keywords. These are the words that are most relevant to your business.You need the right keywords on your site. And you need them to occur often. This is the simplest function of SEO.

Search engine bots accomplish this by scanning your sites content. They make sure your keywords match your business. They make sure your keywords match your market. And they make sure your site follows the rules of the search engines.

Beyond keywords

But keywords are just the beginning. In the old days, search engines only looked for words. Therefore, search results were often of little value. But now search engines are much better and much smarter. But this also makes them much, much more complex.

Search engines now look at hundreds of factors to determine the rank and relevance of your site. Knowing which of these factors is most important to your business is a major function of good SEO. This helps keep your site from blending into the noise of the internet.

SEO experts

The algorithms used to do this are complex and constantly changing. For that reason, SEO has become an industry in itself. SEO experts work hard to keep up with the changing metrics of the major engines. They analyze search engine rules and site content. Then they make them work well together.

3. Why do you need SEO?

I think we sometimes have the idea that putting a website online suddenly gives us an online presence. But it doesn’t always work that way. The internet is huge. After all, it’s called the “world-wide-web” for a reason. So when someone searches for “Mufflers Tulsa, Oklahoma,” they might not find your Tulsa muffler shop at all.

Avoid Search failure

Who’s had an experience like this? You’re looking for–say–ok, mufflers. You type in “Mufflers Tulsa Oklahoma” and you see several that look familiar. Scrolling down a bit, you see one that catches your eye, Tony’s Muffler Shop.

You click on the website. You chat online with an expert. Nice site! Great experience! You might even book an appointment. Then you find out they’re in Munsey, Indiana! (or some other random location) How did this happen!?

The top few on the list were most likely local. But you, like many others, rarely choose the top result unless it’s the specific name you were searching for. So you scrolled past the obvious choices. And not far down the list, you found your Munsey muffler shop with the great site.

Why was he there? Well, there are a lot of possible reasons. But more importantly, why did so many Tulsa, Oklahoma muffler shops not get seen in that search? SEO. Or rather, the lack of good quality SEO.

Get seen.

Without good SEO, you have no idea who will see your site, or if anyone ever will!  You work hard to make your business the best. And you probably paid good money for your site. So you need to make sure that site doesn’t get lost in the shuffle.

SEO helps you make sure your site meets the complex criteria for search engine rankings. You need to know that when someone searches for a business like yours, you at least have a chance! SEO gives you the peace of mind to know you’re not invisible.

Get seen by the right people.

Expert SEO not only makes you visible online but also makes you visible to the right people. You need to know that you’re showing up in search queries. But you also need to know you’re showing up in the right search queries.

By fine-tuning keywords, link structure, and other key elements, professional SEO targets your customers. You wouldn’t spend your money on a magazine advertisement in a place you can’t do business, would you? Well, without good SEO, you might be doing just that. The internet is huge, and good SEO helps shrink it down to size.

Tulsa & Broken Arrow SEO

At McWilliams Media in Broken Arrow and Tulsa, Oklahoma, we specialize in professional, customized SEO for your business. Call us today to see how we can maximize your website’s impact! We will work with you to make sure your business gets seen–and that it gets seen by the right people!

Our team are experts in all phases of digital marketing. From web design and branding to videography and social media, we are here to help you succeed! We are passionate about helping our entrepreneurs build their dreams! Call us for a free consultation today!

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

The post SEO-What it is and Why you need it first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

The Google-net

How did this happen? Seems like Google owns the internet! I thought the whole idea of this thing was that no one could ever do that, but here we are! I know, technically, the internet is still free and owned by everyone. However, sometimes it feels like it’s the “Google-net.”

Part of that is the “Kleenex factor.” Even when people are searching on Bing or AOL (yes, that’s still a thing…I just looked it up!), they say they’re “Googling” something. So other search engines do exist. But the reality is that if you’re going to get seen by the most people possible on the internet, you have to be seen on Google.

But Google’s dominance is not just helping them, it’s helping us, too! Their analytics, AdWords programs, and other goodies can be invaluable tools to grow the exposure of any business! And one of the best tools out there is Google reviews.

Why Your Business Needs More Google Reviews

Well, the most obvious part of the answer is just that. We live in the age of Google. But what does a Google review do for you exactly? The first is simple: it’s a review from an actual customer.

Reviews, in general, are the most powerful type of advertising available. Which would you rather have, a postcard in someone’s mailbox, or a neighbor telling them how great you are? Of course, you’d rather people hear about you from someone with personal experience! That’s the power of reviews. Online reviews are no different.

Online customer reviews are the new neighbor conversations. Your customers go online and “tell their neighbors” about you. And it really, really works! Here’s what current research says about your prospects and online reviews.

• Up to 90% read online reviews before visiting a business.
• About 88% trust them as much as personal recommendations.
• They spend about 31% more on businesses with “excellent” reviews.
• Over 90% will use a local business if it has at least a 4-star rating.
• Over 70% will take action ONLY if they find positive reviews

Getting Google Reviews

Online customer reviews are now one of the most powerful tools we have for converting prospects to customers. Over 70%…that’s the number of people who WILL NOT click through, call, or visit unless they read a positive review! So how do you get reviews on Google? And how do you keep them fresh and positive?

According to Google my Business Help,

“Reviews on Google provide valuable information about your business to both you and your customers. Business reviews appear next to your listing in Maps and Search, and can help your business stand out on Google.”

How to Keep the Reviews Coming

Encourage your customers to spread the word about your business. Here are some tips on how to get them sharing!

• Verify your business so your information is eligible to appear on Maps, Search, and other Google services. Only verified businesses can respond to reviews. Learn how to verify your business
• Remind your customers to leave reviews. Let them know that it’s quick and easy to leave business reviews on mobile devices or computers.
• Show them How! Yes, in the digital age, there are still lots of people who don’t know how to leave reviews. Become an expert at it and help your customers get started. Learn how to leave Google reviews
• Create and share a link that customers can click to leave a review.
• Reply to reviews to build your customers’ trust. Your customers will notice that your business values their input, and possibly leave more reviews in the future. Learn how to read and reply to reviews

What You Shouldn’t Do

According to Google, “Reviews are only valuable when they are honest and unbiased. (For example, business owners shouldn’t offer incentives to customers in exchange for reviews.) Read more in our review posting guidelines.”

While you don’t want to violate their policies, and you certainly don’t want to be dishonest, you can do some things to protect yourself from negative reviews.

How to Keep the Reviews Positive

• Read all your reviews. Or have someone do it for you, at least once a week if not more! This may not be a good practice for an actor, but it’s indispensable for a business owner. You must know what your customers are saying.
• Remove inappropriate reviews. If you see a review that’s inappropriate or that violates Google’s policies, you can flag it for removal.
• Reply to reviews to build your customers’ trust. Your customers will notice that your business values their input, and possibly leave more reviews in the future.
• Respond immediately if a review is negative! We all make mistakes, and sometimes customers just aren’t happy for some reason or another. Responding quickly to a negative review is the best way to correct the situation. Learn how to read and reply to reviews

So let’s get going! Whether it’s managing reviews, social media, SEO, or website design and hosting, McWilliams Media is here for you! We are passionate about helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses! Our expert team can give you everything you need to thrive in the online marketplace! Contact us today for a free consultation!

The post Getting Google Reviews: Why & How? first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

Never Having to Say “I’m Sorry, We’re Closed”

It’s February, the month of love! In this season, I am reminded of a strange old saying: “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.” Well, I’m not sure how I feel about that one. However, here’s one I know is true and I’m sure you’ll agree; in business, love means never having to say “I’m Sorry, We’re Closed!”

Because business now takes place not only face-to-face but also in the digital world, you never have to close! You can always have access to your customers and prospects. More importantly, they can always have access to you! 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, you can be always open!

So with all this access, you’d think success in business would be easy, right? Not so. Although the internet is an incredibly rich marketplace, its sheer size makes it a challenging one. If you really want to be “always open,” it’s not enough just to have a website. You have to have the right website and the tools to go along with it.

Businesses That Never Close

To make your digital presence effective, to actually “never close,” here are some things you must have.

1. A Great Website

Your Personality
Design your website around who you are and who your prospects and customers are. That’s the personality of your business. Get this right, and you’ll naturally stand out in the marketplace.

Your Functionality
Create a site that does what you need it to do. Make it interactive. Make it sell. Make it easy for your target audience.

Free website consultation
Even if you have to hang a sign in the window occasionally, your business can always be open if you have a great website! Just because you’re not at work doesn’t mean that your website isn’t at work for you. Call us for a free consultation on what a new site can do for your business!

2. Great SEO

Effective SEO
Search engines can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Effective SEO keeps you at the top of the list as much as possible. This may be the most valuable service we offer.

Dynamic SEO
Just saying you have SEO may not be enough. Engines constantly change and update their rules, so your SEO has to be able to keep up. Make sure your SEO is dynamic, that it is performed regularly and stays up-to-date!

Get 3 Months SEO—FREE!
Once you have a great site, you need to make sure it gets seen! This month, for qualifying new website sales, you get three months of SEO (or 3 months of Facebook posting) FREE! Call us today!

3. A Great Social Media Strategy

Engaging
Make sure you’re posting content that gets people responding to you or better yet, talking to their friends about you!

Targeted
Design your posts around who you want to talk to, not just what you want to sell. Target your audience!

Consistent
It’s important to post often enough to keep people thinking and talking about you and your products and services. Posting that is too frequent or sporadic tends to be much less effective.

Get 3 Months Facebook Posting—FREE!
Because over 70% of the population is on Facebook, that means 70% of your potential clients are there too- that’s why you need a strong presence on Facebook. Get 3 months of Facebook posting (or 3 months free SEO) FREE with any qualifying website purchase during February.

At McWilliams media, we specializing in helping businesses “never close” by creating great websites, performing great SEO, and providing great social media strategies. Call us today and take advantage of these special FREE offers this February!

The post Never Having to Say “I’m Sorry, We’re Closed” first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

Whether they are new to the solution you present or to your entire industry, these people may not know the fastest and most direct way to search for your business on the internet.

Many business owners assume their customers know how to search for their business. However, many analytics reports show that customers are searching for businesses in inefficient ways. It’s not that potential customers aren’t searching for you with the search terms you have in mind – it’s that there are so many other keywords they’re using – keywords you don’t want to miss out on because you’re only focused on a few main ones on your website and SEO efforts.

It’s important to constantly be coming up with new keyword ideas to attract visitors to your site in a more productive and straightforward way.

I’m going to break down five points to consider when brainstorming new keyword ideas. To bring these ideas into the real world, I’ll provide a couple of examples of mock companies to illustrate each of these categories – a dog grooming company and a bicycle shop.

1.  Products & Services

This is the most obvious category of keywords, and more than likely you are already targeting these keywords.

Some examples of these keywords for a dog grooming company would be:
–     Dog groomer
–     Dog grooming service
–     Puppy bath

For a bicycle shop, these keywords might be:
–     Schwinn bicycle
–     Buy a bike
–     New bicycle seat

Hint: If you’ve added new products or services since your website was last updated, it might be time to add some fresh content targeting keywords to describe your new good.

2.  Problems

If you’re in your ideal prospect’s shoes, what problem are they looking to solve? The truth is, people have a variety of problems that your products or services can solve. That creates a wealth of new search terms you can utilize to bring them to your door.

Going back to our two examples here, these are some possible problems a user might be trying to solve by looking for a dog groomer:
–     Stinky dog
–     Dog nails scratch
–     Puppy fur matted

And in the example of the bicycle shop, here are some problems users might be trying to solve:
–     Exercise for bad knees
–     Alternatives to running
–     Stubborn fat

If you were to break down each and every product or service you offer, starting with one that is the most important or lucrative for your business, you could make a list of problems your customers might have that would lead them in your direction. You could then target each and every one of those problems with fresh content.

3.  Benefits

To flip the above scenario, what benefits would a searcher be looking for?

A dog groomer might offer benefits like:
–     Clean dog
–     How to make puppy smell good
–     Cute labradoodle haircut

Whereas a bike store might offer benefits like:
–     Bicycle coupons
–     Soft bike seat cushions
–     Lose weight without dieting

Similar to the problems above, you can probably think of a number of benefits for each of your products or services. With content focused on these benefits, you’ll meet your customers where they first start looking for help.

Most often, people are looking for general help rather than specifically looking for your product to solve their problems. By putting your company in front of them as soon as they start their search, you maximize your business opportunity.

4.  Features

It’s common knowledge in marketing to not sell on features, only on benefits. But when people are searching online, searching by features can be a sign that they’re much closer to the sale. It might be a good idea to target feature-based keywords for your business.

Features for a dog groomer might be:
–     Dog grooming service near me
–     Labradoodle groomer
–     Show dog groomer

Whereas features for a bike store might be much more specific:
–     Tango Tandem Schwinn Cruiser
–     Blue cheap bicycle
–     26” bicycle wheels

It’s possible there are key features of your products that aren’t already represented on your website.

5.  Competition

More than just trying to edge out your competitors, there are ways you can use competition to your advantage.

Rather than trying to beat Wal-Mart’s prices on dog shampoo, write an article that shows how time-consuming and expensive washing your own dog is compared to bringing them to a doggie salon.

And if you sell Schwinn bikes, you might not be able to convince someone who’s only concerned about price that yours is the best bike for them. How about tackling competition like a treadmill instead? An article titled, “Why Biking is Better for You Than Running” is likely to pique interest from someone who may not even have realized they were in the market for a bike.

Finally, you might want to search on Google for descriptive keywords about your services. You can take a look through the top results to isolate your biggest competitors. Then you can see what they’re doing that’s working in terms of keywords, headlines, etc.
Don’t have any real competitors in your area? (Lucky you!) You can step up your research a notch by selecting a highly competitive market like Los Angeles or New York City to conduct your searches on Google. By doing a quick examination of these top competitors’ sites, you can start to see trends and successful actions that you can perhaps expand on, to show potential customers why your products and services are their best choice.

The post How To Find The Best Keywords For Your Site first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

McWilliams Media has a hand full of these awesome people that are continually using their entrepreneurial skills for you. We’re always coming up with innovative ways to make your business succeed. Here’s a look at what we do for our clients.

Web & Graphic Design

First and foremost, we are a website company that designs, maintains, and hosts WordPress websites. We start with a blank slate and build the site from the ground up to ensure that our clients get exactly what they want.

Once the site is built, we do training with the client on how to use their site and make their own updates. In many cases the client has no desire to do any work on the backend of their sites, so we do that for them as well.

Our graphic designs can be as simple as a graphic for a newsletter or as complex as an entire promotional set for an event. We produce high-quality graphics you can use online or for print. Need a logo? We can do that. Need a baby shower invitation? We can do that too. Need a banner for your store’s grand opening? Yep-we do that too.

Online Marketing

Marketing is a vast subject. Although we mainly specialize in the online aspect of online marketing, we will help with anything to make your business succeed. Let’s touch on a few types of marketing that we focus on.

Social Media

When we say social media, that’s what we mean. A form of media that is social in nature. It’s relational, informative, and generally a quick-hitter. There are tons of platforms you can “be social” on, but we focus on the most commonly used ones. We’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, and YouTube. Each platform has its own unique audience and companies can make great connections on the appropriate platforms.

Not only do we start each of these media channels for our clients, but we can also maintain them on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. If our clients prefer to do their own social media we train on the best practices for their type of business.

Why is social media such a huge part of our client’s success? Because “everybody’s doing it.” Last time I checked the stats, 88%* of your potential clients are online, and that’s just in the USA. Guess how many of those people are on social media? We’re talking over 70%*. That’s a pretty big market. And you can reach them all from your computer in your PJ’s.

The key to social media success is consistency. That’s proven to be rather difficult when our clients are entrepreneurs themselves. McWilliams Media has people on staff that are designated to be on social media all day for our clients.

Newsletters

This online marketing tool is a good fit for both current and potential clients. In some cases, a newsletter carries more weight than other marketing avenues because people voluntarily gave you their email addresses as a way of saying “I’m interested in you and your product.” You know they are already “all in.”

Our team creates email marketing campaigns for our clients. We can put together the entire newsletter or design a template that the client can use to plug in their own info. Either way, we’ll help capture more emails, design an eye-catching newsletter and stay consistent with our clients’ branding.

Search Engine Optimization

Let’s face it, if people can’t find you online, you’re not making money. You might have the best invention ever made or a product that will save people a ton of time, but if they don’t know you exist, it’s not helping anyone.

Search Engine Optimization or SEO, is what makes sure you’re being heard in a world of online big-mouths. We hear things like “we need to be at the top of Google,” or “we want to show up when people search best spas in Dallas.” It’s our job to make that happens. Our team spends hours of behind-the-scenes time working a multitude of avenues to ensure that happens.

Blog Creation

Blogging is no longer for the stay-at-home-mom who wants to share tips on how to keep a clean house. The reasons for business blogging are quite vast these days. Blogging helps drive traffic to your site, it increases your number of leads and increases your area of influence in your niche market. This article is a good read on why blogging is so important in business.

Our writers stay in communication with our clients and come up with excellent content that reflects our clients’ brand and message. McWilliams Media can handle all the aspects of blogging for our clients or simply set them up with a template and they do the rest.

Odds & Ends

Video

As I stated earlier, we are a Jack Of All Trades when it comes to the online world. We offer other services that complement what we do. For instance, a client may ask for a testimony video for their website. In that case, we will shoot and edit a custom video to enhance the site. We’ve done commercials and full TV shows for some of our clients too.

Audio

A church in Illinois contacted us to set up their website and create a page where they could put their messages online. Not only did we do that, but we also went on location to set up the audio and train their volunteers on how to use the equipment, as an added bonus we also got to see their beautiful church building and grounds.

Event Promotion

We helped in planning a community Easter Eggstravaganza for one of our clients. We did everything from door hanger invites to videos for their event. You can see the promotional set here.

Email Integration

A great way to market and have more continuity in your company is to have email addresses for your employees. An email address for Landscaper Pros that looks like “sambarnes@yahoo.com” doesn’t carry near as much weight as “sambarnes@landscaperpros.com.”

McWilliams Media is ready to take you and your business to the next level. And when it comes to cost, you’ll find we’re very reasonable too. For a free quote that is customized to your business, contact us any time.

*Reference links
http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/us/
http://www.statista.com/topics/1164/social-networks/

The post Yes, We Do That first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.

It’s true. Having a top-notch website doesn’t automatically mean you’ll get traffic.

Let’s go back a few years (ok a little bit longer than a few!) and talk about the home telephone.  The telephone company assigned a number that was unique to you. But just because you had a phone number, didn’t mean people were going to call. I mean come on, we all know how cool you are and what great stories you tell, but unless people call you, there’ll never hear it. The only way your phone is going to ring is if people have your number.

There’s a lot more to getting “out there” on the world wide web than just owning a dot com.  They way it works is through SEO.  You’ve probably heard SEO before and wondered what it really meant.  Those 3 little letters is the ticket to get “out there” on the web.

Let’s Make Some Sense Out Of SEO

What does SEO stand for?

Search Engine Optimization

Do I need Search Engine Optimization?

Probably, but you need to find out. The fact is that there is no ‘One Size Fits All’ answer to this question – some businesses stay visible with very little SEO work, but most lose out by choosing to not implement SEO.  SEO equalizes the market-place so small firms can compete in the same space with much larger ones.

How do search engines find my site?

It’s found by the web-crawler robots and spiders that the search engines send out. They notice the number of links that other websites have to your site and determine that the more links there are, the more important your business site must be.

How is page rank determined?

As well as links, robots look for other elements too, and the more of these they find the higher the ranking. The higher the ranking, the higher the display-position in a search.

How can I increase my page ranking?

That’s simple- fill your website with the links and elements the robots are looking for.

What are the Benefits of Using an SEO Firm?

By hiring an SEO firm you’ll have the best chances of being found at the top of searches, and the best chances of staying there.

How Do I Choose a Reputable Firm?

First, listen to their answers – you want to hear specifics and more specifics! Have them spell out their strategy for visibility today, as opposed to 6 months ago – this will show they have working knowledge from current clients, rather than using you as the guinea pig! And ask for client referrals – from those who have gone from page 7 to page 1 on Google, etc.

Secondly, have them spell out exactly how the money will be used, eg. how many hours a week, what they will do monthly, and what they will do every 6 months. Lastly, beware of two things. One, firms that guarantee rankings – something no one can do and, two, anyone offering you overnight success.

Either this article has helped clear up your questions about SEO or caused you to ask even more. If you want to know more about SEO for your site or want to see what an SEO package would look like for your business, contact us at 918-289-6359 or by email.

The post Making Sense of SEO first appeared on Website Design | McWilliams Media |Broken Arrow, OK.