Organic SEO & Paid Links (PPC)

There seems to be a stigma that organic SEO and paid links, or PPC, are enemies. Some may believe that these two search engine marketing techniques would clearly be rivals, they are actually teammates.

In order to understand this concept, for the novices out there, let's talk about what these two are, first.

Organic search engine optimization: Organic SEO is the usage of blogs, articles, inbound links, and other "natural/free" means to appease Google and get ranked for keywords. This route takes much longer to succeed at than PPC. As long as you are doing good SEO, you stay in good rankings.

PPC: You pay search engines, such as Google, to put your site on the f
irst page. You get on the first page right away.  You stay in good rankings until your daily budget runs out.

So seeing how they might be enemies seems logical, natural vs. purchased success. However, if you really want to get seen on the web, your tactic should be to use both. See, organic SEO takes time to get going, anywhere between 2-6 months before you see anything (depending on a variety of factors). In the meantime, while that builds up, you can do PPC and be on the first page while your sustaining rankings come to fruition.

Do you want to be on the first page of Google, Yahoo, or Bing? Then hire Integraphix to be your SEO firm! We work with both organic SEO and paid links.

How to & Why You Should Set Up Goals on Google Analytics

Directing more organic search traffic to your website is the main goal of your search engine optimization, but driving more to your site only really matters if it is the right kind of traffic. The right traffic matters because it is what will convert the web traffic into customers!

Remember, the first time someone goes to your site, they are likely not ready to convert; a web visitor might need a few visits to your site before they decide if they want to
buy from your or not.

There are a lot of micro-conversions you can keep track of to see how well you are converting your web traffic. One way to track the micro-conversions is to set up goals in your Google Analytics account. Setting up goals allows you to measure how well visitors complete actions that you want to measure. Want to see how many web visitors click on your "contact" page? This is something you can measure with goals.

Analyzing and tracking your goals will allow you to see the quality of your organic SEO visitors versus the quality of the direct traffic, social referrals, etc. You can see which of these traffic sources has been giving you the best conversion rate.

Don't be surprised if the organic search traffic is the smallest traffic source your site has. That is rather common.

Viewing this data will enable you to show your boss just how valuable SEO is. Due to info like this, a client might just decide to increase their search engine marketing budget! One can hope, right?

Our Chicago SEO firm always makes sure to set up goals in Analytics because it allows our SEO specialists to view info that cannot be seen otherwise. It just makes sense.

Does your SEO company set up goals for you? Or, if you do your own, do you set up goals? Maybe it is time to discuss this tactic with an SEO firm that knows how to do it and get you data you need to win the SEO battle. Contact Integraphix about our SEO services and get noticed on the web!

How to Do Well in Local SEO in 2015

Can you believe we are almost done with 2014? Crazy! I just started writing 2014 on checks without having to remember the year… No, I kid, but it is funny how fast time flies.

That being said, it is time to consider the things we have to do in 2015 to dominate local SEO and get noticed in local web searches. One of the big things to do is take a long, hard look at your website and make a checklist of these "bad SEO practices" and then fix what is not right.

• No content on the home page. If your home page is barren, then you need to add content to it. Consumers and search engines want to know what your site is about, so not having content on your home page is hurting that conclusion, even if you only have a slider/banner photos. As a Chicago SEO firm, we can tell you that having a banner or slider is nice on your home page but there needs to be more than that. 
• Having a few sentences on your pages. Each page of a website needs at least 400 words, if not more. Those consumers and websites need to know that your site is useful and full of relevant info. 
• Spam keywords. If you have a paragraph listed on your website that is simply keywords, that is not going to be helping you one bit. Sprinkle those keywords throughout your content! It is just great SEO. 
• Bad title tags. Your title tags need to be set up a certain way --> relevant keyword | page or another relevant keyword | company (don't italicize the title tags, though). They should be between 50-60 characters, so don't put a sentence as your title tag or a long, keyword-packed description up there. 

Those things will really be good for optimizing your site, if you want to make it great for local searches, then add in your city/state to those things. Put your city (and maybe state if it's a small city) in your title tags, H1 headers, content, alt tags, and URLs. 

Optimizing your site can take some time and effort. We understand not every business, big or small, can take the time to do this or they just don't know how. If you fit into one of those two labels, then contact Integraphix, a Chicago SEO company.  

How to Create Blog Post Titles That Are Attractive

When it comes to blogs, having a post title that gets people to read your post can be a little difficult when you are not an experienced writer. On average, 8/10 people who see your blog will only read your title and then move on; only 20 percent of the people who read your post title will stick around to read your whole blog.

As an SEO firm, we write lots of blogs and yes, we do employ these techniques.

So how do you get people to find your title intriguing enough to care to read the whole blog? Consider these tips:

• Use lists. "5 Ways to…" Use a number to get the person to understand how long the post is (they are usually easier to read) and give a good solution. Also, try to keep the number towards the beginning of the post. 
• Unique info. When you have information that no one else has, that is great. For example: "Lessons you have never heard before…" or something to that effect. 
• Give solutions to problems. "How to fix this problem with easy solutions". 

If you are going to put keywords in your post, which is a good idea, make sure to insert them naturally. Don't put keywords in your titles and shove them in there awkwardly. One great way to accomplish this is to have a keyword in mind when you create that sentence or perhaps the post as a whole. 

A main thing to remember with titles is to keep it short and sweet (K.I.S.S.). You don't want to have a blog title that is as long as the post itself. Everything in moderation. 

Writing a good blog can be difficult. However, every business needs a blog for many reasons (authority, fresh content on the site, etc). If your business does not have the skill or the time to write a blog, then contact Integraphix and talk with one of our professional copywriters.