List of duties an SEO agency performs

   If you’re looking to hire an SEO firm you want to know real details before you shell out several thousand dollars per month. But it’s often hard to get those details from an SEO firm. This isn’t because the SEO firm doesn’t want to tell you what they’re doing, but because it’s hard to know where to start without going into a two-hour long explanation that is sure to make your eyes glaze over. This post is an attempt to clarify, in some detail, exactly what an SEO firm does.

Initial Research, Audit, and Analysis

SEO always starts with research, audit, and analysis. Every client is different, every website is different, and every industry is different. This is why the best SEO firms are hesitant to make predictions or give guarantees--there are too many variables, and what worked very well for one client may not work nearly as well for the next. Good SEO firms don’t have a set formula for producing results, but rather are experts at solving problems and overcoming challenges. Like early explorers, they may not know exactly where they are going, but they know they’ll be able to figure it out. But as the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen prepared well for his successful expedition to reach the South Pole, a good SEO firm also prepares well so as to avoid doing a lot of work but never reaching the intended destination. Standard activities centered around initial SEO research, audit, and analysis include:

Keyword research. Identifying and researching keywords to identify those which will produce the best results for the client once good rankings are achieved. The ideal keyword is searched for a lot, is relevant to the client’s business, and is not being targeted heavily by competition.

Google Analytics analysis. Reviewing past performance through Google Analytics or another web analytics tool may reveal positive or negative trends and opportunities for improvement.

Google Webmaster Tools analysis. Likewise, being able to review a client’s history and current status in Google Webmaster Tools may bring opportunities to light, as well as potential technical issues with a client’s website, such as a penalty that could be negatively affecting rankings.

Link profile analysis. Many companies over the past several years hired SEO firms that promised to build hundreds, even thousands, of inbound links at low prices. This practice is now penalized by Google and for many companies the path to SEO success starts with cleaning up the spammy links pointing to their websites. Whether this link cleanup is necessary should be identified early on, because fighting against these negatives effects reduces the value of all other SEO services until the link profile is refined.

Site audit. Sometimes after the above research and analysis is complete, but often in parallel, an SEO company in Nigeria will perform a thorough audit of a client’s website. This audit will include various SEO factors such as website and webpage load speed, URL structure, internal linking, title tags, meta description tags, and content. Many SEO firms will also extend this audit to include factors that influence not just rankings but the metrics that ultimately matter like conversions and profits. These factors include usability, design, and messaging.

Initial Optimization

The results of all the above research, audit, and analysis work will lead to both one-time and ongoing SEO activities. Some of the one-time, initial optimization activities may include:

Website redesign. In the most extreme cases a complete website redesign is needed before beginning SEO services. A redesign is in order when the website is outdated, converts visitors poorly, has poor code, and the cost of fixing everything is greater than starting over from scratch.

Code overhaul. Even if a complete redesign isn’t needed, it may be necessary to overhaul the code of a website to make it more SEO friendly. How extensive this overhaul is depends on the details, but it can range from light cleanup of the existing code to a complete replacement of the code while maintaining the existing design.

Link removal and disavowal. If the link profile analysis reveals a large number of low quality, harmful inbound links, or worse yet, a manual penalty, then it will be necessary to remove as many links as possible by contacting webmasters, and then disavow backlinks that cannot be removed.

Link Building

While some aspects of SEO are one-time services that rarely or never need to be repeated, the bulk of SEO activities are ongoing in nature. Like your lawn, if you don’t maintain it, it will get out of control. Link building is one of those activities that never ends because Google likes to be fed a constant stream of new, fresh links to know that your website is still relevant and should continue to be featured prominently in its search results. There are many ways to build links and many activities related to link building, some of which include:

Link monitoring. Although rare, it’s important to keep an eye on links to ensure one doesn’t become the victim of a negative SEO attack. More to the point, it’s important to monitor links in case inbound links are created that could provide more value if the text of the link or the specific part of the website where the link is pointing were modified.

Competitor research. By monitoring competitors your SEO firm can see what links they have built and replicate their activities or get inspiration for other links that could be built.

Brand monitoring. Any mention of your company should include a link to your website, but when that’s not the case your SEO firm should find these instances, track down the person who has control of that mention of your company, and seek to get an appropriate link.

Outreach. There may be hundreds of websites that are relevant to what you do. Your SEO firm will reach out to these targets in order to promote content and generate links. Part of this service may include guest blog posting which, despite statements from Google’s Matt Cutts, is still a viable form of link building when done properly, as my fellow Forbes contributor John Hall details in his post Guest Posting Isn’t Dead: Google Just Raised The Quality Bar.

Online PR. As the worlds of public relations and SEO merge, SEO firms seek to build links on top tier news and information websites that will never be mistaken by Google as the kind of low quality link the search engine should ignore or penalize. SEO firms perform this kind of online PR by reaching out to journalists, seeding infographics, video, and other content, and managing social media campaigns designed to attract attention, and links.

Content Creation

There can be substantial overlap between link building and content creation because in many instances the way one builds links is by creating content that attracts links. But your website will receive many SEO benefits by creating content even without the inbound links that may follow, and creating content, even if you don’t receive direct SEO benefits, can bring traffic to your site that will generate leads or sales just as well as the traffic that comes from SEO.

Content marketing. Broadly stated, if you create content as part of your marketing activities then you’re engaged in content marketing. More specifically we use the term when we talk about creating articles, blog posts, infographics, and videos to attract attention. Depending on the level of service you’ve signed up for with your SEO firm, they will be creating content for your website, as well as on other websites, designed to drive traffic and links to your website. If your SEO firm needs some inspiration in this area, or you’re inclined to help out yourself, read Jayson DeMers’ article 50 Content Marketing Ideas For Your Website Or Blog.

Blogging. All content creation could be called content marketing, but blogging deserves to be highlighted by itself. If you don’t have a blog for your website your SEO firm should help you create one, and then either create content themselves or coach you on how to create content for it yourself.

Content expansion. An SEO company in Abuja will help you to expand or refine the existing content on your website. This becomes a critical function for ecommerce websites, but is important even on smaller corporate sites. New content can be added to a site such as a FAQ section, or pages can be extended to include more long form content. There are many ways in which the content on your website can be built upon to provide more value, and your SEO firm should be walking you through this process or managing it entirely.

Ongoing Analysis

As your SEO firm provides the above services they will also be analyzing the results to make sure they are working. SEO firms use tools like Google Analytics, MySEOTool, Moz tools, Majestic SEO, and many others to measure their activities and gain insights into where they can improve efforts for their clients.

Other analysis may come from A/B testing or split testing, in which your SEO firm creates two versions of a certain page on your website and drives 50% of traffic to one and 50% to another, and then measures the results to see which performs better. For a great case study on A/B testing see what Basecamp did to improve signups for their contact management software.

Reporting

Although many SEO firms produce good results, the hallmark of a great SEO firm is their process for communicating with clients. I’ve learned the hard way that an SEO firm that attains great results can still get fired if it doesn’t communicate well enough with clients to let them know about those results. Most firms I’m familiar with provide a full set of reports once each month, although special circumstances may require more frequent communication, especially at the beginning of a client engagement when lots of different tasks are being worked on. At a bare minimum these reports should include details on:

• Visitors. How many, when, from where, and why.
• Rankings. The good, the bad, and the ugly, along with explanations about why some have gone up and others have gone down.
• Inbound links. What’s new, and if you're in the process of link removal, what’s gone.

A good set of reports is not generated solely through an automated tool, but includes analysis and commentary from the SEO firm. You should not only be able to see that plenty of work is going on, but you should be able to understand the work that is going on. But if not, let your SEO firm know that you need reports that offer more clarity. Your SEO firm may be staffed by geniuses who are pros at SEO, but lacking when it comes to interpersonal communication. If you help them know what you need you’ll be able to improve results together and develop a great working relationship.

This is not a comprehensive list of everything an SEO company in Lagos can or will do for you. Different situations require different strategies, tactics, and services, and your SEO firm will modify its approach depending on what is best for your specific situation. Now that you have a better idea of what goes on behind the scenes, you can work with your SEO firm to get the results that will help both of you to grow your businesses.

12 Best Reasons Why Digital Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Business

   

With the change and evolution of modern technologies, small and medium businesses are doing everything they can to keep up, which can be said true for the rest of human society. Brick-and-mortar businesses are either changing their business models to an online one, or beefing up existing marketing efforts with digital marketing strategies – in an attempt to capture a growing and very lucrative online marketplace.

For it is the process of attracting targeted audiences online that will spell the difference between a successfully thriving business – and a failed one. Even if you receive tons of daily traffic to your website, they would not amount to anything unless they convert to leads or sales. In the digital arena where business and commerce are heading to, Digital Marketing tools and techniques provide business owners the best chances for competition, survival and even business growth.

The following 12 reasons will show you why the use of digital marketing is not only investment-wise decision but also an effective marketing channel that can help you grow your business.

The Infographic:

1. Because Digital Marketing Levels the Online Playing Field

Gone are the days when business owners still welcome the notion that Digital Marketing is only for the likes of multinationals and large corporations that have the sufficient resources required to mount an online marketing campaign. Digital Marketing actually levels the playing field, providing small and medium enterprises the chance to compete against the big boys and attract their share of targeted traffic.

With digital marketing, small companies now have the resources to perform sales and marketing processes that were previously available only to large corporations. Without a call center, small businesses can engage effectively with multiple customers, even to customers from any parts of the world even if they don’t have physical stores or branches in these locations.

2. Because Digital Marketing Is More Cost-Effective than Traditional Marketing

Small businesses have very little resources and even capitalization. This is why Digital Marketing provides them with a better and much more cost-effective marketing channel that delivers results. Gartner’s Digital Marketing Spend Report highlighted that up to 40% of respondents claimed getting considerable savings by using digital marketing methods of promotion for their products and services.

That is why according to the Gartner survey, 28% of business owners surveyed will shift marketing budget allocations from traditional media channels and invest them into digital online marketing tools and techniques. HubSpot confirms this as shown in the chart below that confirms how digital marketers get better Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) compared to other marketing channels.

 

3. Because Digital Marketing Delivers Conversion

Businesses marketing products and services online measure success by the percentage rate of incoming traffic gets converted into leads, subscribers or sales, depending on the intended purposes of your website. Without conversion, all your traffic would mean nothing and all your marketing efforts will simply go to waste. That is why business owners are streamlining their digital marketing campaigns towards conversion optimization, making it a top priority above everything else.

 

 

 There are several tools and techniques that you can use for your digital marketing campaign such as Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing and email marketing. As seen from the chart below from HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report, these three that generate quick and effective communication and interaction with targeted audiences will deliver better-than-average results in terms of higher conversion rates.

 

4. Because Digital Marketing Helps Generate Better Revenues

Higher conversion rates generated by effective digital marketing techniques will deliver loads of profitable benefits for you and your business in terms of better and higher revenues. Google confirms this in a study with IPSOS Hong Kong, claiming 2.8 times better revenue growth expectancy for companies using digital marketing strategies to those who do not.

With better revenue growth expectancy, small and medium enterprises using digital marketing techniques will have 3.3 times better chances of expanding their workforce and business – opening their doors to better, larger and farther reaching markets both locally and abroad. Google’s Asia-Pacific Head of SME Kevin O’Kane describes the Internet as rocket fuel for growth for small and medium enterprises.

5. Because Digital Marketing Facilitates Interaction with Targeted Audiences

One of the reasons why digital marketing is taking over traditional marketing channels is the ability of Internet marketing tools to interact with targeted audiences in real time. Engagement in any form is what your customers expect to receive when interacting with your brand or business. How your business handles such engagements and interactions will spell the difference between business success and failure – just like what eMarketer’s report Key Digital Trends for 2014 is saying as shown below.

 

Interacting and providing your customers with proper engagement points can give you an insight of what your targeted audiences want. This vital information will steer you towards making the right set of next moves, provide your customers with an even better experience, develop good relationships with them – gaining their loyalty and trust that you will need when your business begins to grow.

6. Because Digital Marketing Caters to the Mobile Consumer

Undoubtedly, mobile internet will be the next wave of information dissemination and communication channel, brought about by the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other internet-enabled devices. These mobile devices have become a central part of American life that 91% of adults in the United States always have their devices within reaching distance.

Now would be the best time to have digital marketing campaigns intended towards mobile consumers, paving the way for them towards achieving better growth and faster expansion. Mobile gadgets have evolved from being mere alternatives for laptops and personal computers, into something that is influencing their purchasing decisions as confirmed by another report from eMarketer.

7. Because Digital Marketing Builds Brand Reputation

The power of digital marketing lies in its ability for attracting targeted traffic. These types of audiences for your content are most likely already ready to know more about your brand, products or services and may be interested enough to purchase what you have to offer. Delivering on what you promised will help you develop a better relationship with your targeted audiences, help them transition into paying customers that will go back and interact with your site some more – on a regular and continuous basis.

This will prove beneficial for your brand reputation, as satisfied customers will most likely tell other people about their experience with your brand, product or service. Your brand reputation will go viral as expected, further opening new doors of opportunities for reaching bigger markets and attain business growth.

8. Because Digital Marketing Provides better ROI for Your Marketing Investments

With better revenues and better branding, Digital Marketing can provide a better Return of Investments (ROI) than traditional media and marketing channels. With traditional media, the cost is too exorbitant for small and medium enterprises to leverage on, and the results received are somewhat vague and difficult to measure.

Digital Marketing on the other hand can easily be tracked and monitored, with results immediately realized and measured as soon as targeted audiences provide contact information, subscribe to a newsletter or training program, or make a purchase. The key to success in Digital marketing however, is to generate a steady flow of targeted traffic that converts into sales and leads. The more your business generates this kind of traffic, the faster you can realize your ROI.

9. Because Digital Marketing Earns People’s Trust

Digital Marketing rides on the current online trend that focus more on social media signals resulting from direct and more personalized interaction between a brand or business and their targeted audiences. In the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey that involved 25 thousand consumers coming from at least 50 countries, 90 percent of respondents claimed they would trust information about a particular brand, product or service if the data comes from people they know.

Digital Marketing leverages on social media signals, social proof and testimonials from actual consumers who have previously purchased, joined, or availed of a product or service marketed by a particular brand or business. The more reliable these social signals are, the higher the trust rate it can generate from targeted audiences – most of which can be potential customers.

10. Because Digital Marketing Entices People to Take Favorable Action

While social signals and testimonials help earn trust from targeted audiences, Digital Marketing makes use of effective strategies that will entice people to take a favorable action your brand or business intends them to take. Conversion to leads or sales is still initiated and under full control by the website visitor. They are not compelled to do so but digital marketers can make use of clever and innovative ways to entice conversion using Calls-To-Action.

Calls-To-Action specifies what your web visitors should do next – either to sign up, like, download something, call or buy – specific steps that will entice them to perform a favorable action. Innovative forms, buttons and texts are optimized according to copy, color scheme, graphics and even positioning on the page to generate the best results in terms of generating favorable action.

11. Because Digital Marketing Makes You Ready for the Internet of Things

The “Internet of Things” is a global ecosystem of interconnected devices – tablets, smartphones, gadgets, appliances and more – that can interact with each other through the Internet. Sounds like something from a Sci-Fi thriller, but this is what the projected 24 billion gadgets by the year 2020 will actually head to. Digital Marketing will prepare your business towards this eventuality, an interconnected ecosystem that will permeate through every aspect of people’s lives. Survival for your business in the era of the “Internet of Things” means inclusion in this interconnected grid – giving you an access window to reach out to targeted audiences belonging to this online grid.

12. Because Digital Marketing Ensures Business Survival Online

It is a normal occurrence for brick-and-mortar business establishments to encounter visitors entering their store, skimming through and inspecting products, then leave without buying anything. Many kinds of people like these come and go, but a targeted few will actually make a purchase and if satisfied, will come back for more on a later date. If you get less of the later and more of the few, sooner or later your brick-and-mortar business will cease to exist.

Your business can be likened to this. Even if you have tons of website visitors but none of them ever convert, your  business will also cease to exist. Digital Marketing helps you make use of proven strategies and techniques that attract not necessarily more traffic – but highly targeted traffic that delivers results. Targeting the right kind of people that delivers the right kind of results is what Digital Marketing is all about – ensuring survival for your business.

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