Should your business use SEO or Google Ads? Or Both?

Should your business use SEO or Google Ads or just take the red pill and use both? Did you get our Matrix hat tip there?

Comparing SEO or Google Ads, previously known as Adwords, is like comparing apples to oranges – both are equally and incredibly important, and help to get your brand in front of prospective customers. 

What is SEO and Ads?

SEO works to get your site higher in the organic rankings so that you rank for customers typing queries to your content. With traditional marketing channels like print, radio, billboards, and TV you aim to reach a certain target market, but no matter how much research you do, you can never be sure. SEO allows you to target very specific customers by optimizing your website to appear in very specific search queries to very specific demographics, in very specific locations.

Ads allow you to target particular keyword phrases and then create an ad that promotes your site and content for those using those keywords. One of the biggest advantages of Google Ads is the platform’s enormous reach. A monopoly within the market, Google holds 90% of the search market and processes over 3.5 billion searches a day! What business wouldn’t want a piece of that action- that’s a lot of potential customers!

Both of these channels can help enhance your overall visibility in Search, but it is important to remember that trying to determine which is best you really just can’t compare either one over the other.

In a nutshell, a strong and lasting digital presence requires brands to use both channels and craft a strategy that can employ the two together to maximize the online potential of the brand.

What’s the different roles of SEO and Google Ads?

SEO and Ads have unique but complementary roles. The discipline of SEO management revolves around making your site appealing for customers as well as creating content that addresses their needs and engages them. This not only involves the material you write or the videos you create, it also involves optimizing site layout and design to ensure that it is user-friendly, easy to navigate, and moving users through your site in a logical way.

Google Ads on the other hand, are a form of online display advertising. It allows you to pay each time a person clicks on an ad you create. Your ad is displayed to users who type in particular keywords on the search engines. This allows you to target users interested in particular topics. Google Ads, therefore, can help you gain the visibility you want for important keywords, even before you have the site reputation and SEO rankings needed to see results from your organic efforts. When you combine both SEO and SEM to maximize that SERP real estate you’ll get that top spot every business craves. 

So, does Google Ads help with SEO?

When used properly, SEO and Google Ads can work extremely together. Brands that accurately track their rankings and organic traffic can strategically use Ads to increase visibility for important keywords, and drive paid traffic where they do not have the organic ranking to help get them on Page 1. 

Google Ads can also be used to test consumer response to particular keywords. If a user’s search keywords match the keywords on your site, your site will show up in the search results.

Brands can create ads for keywords that they are considering optimizing for. They can then track the customers who click on the ad and see how well they respond to the landing page and the rest of the site. Keywords that bring in visitors with higher conversion rates and more engagement will then take a higher priority to those that do not see as much success.

The keyword data from your SEO efforts can also be used to find the right opportunities for Ads. Uncovering keywords that have high search rates, but that also have high competition — meaning that it will be difficult for a site to earn a slot on the front page of the SERP — will likely be good candidates for Ads campaigns. 

As a brand builds a digital strategy, understanding the different roles of Google Ads and SEO in building a web presence is critical to success. 

Keep in mindâ€Ķ.

While Google Ads can immediately generate traffic to your website it is not wise to focus solely on a paid marketing method without bolstering your earned and owned media. This is where Search Engine Optimisation comes in.

The better a business can use these two different features together for their advantage, the better their potential results will be in search engines! 

Keep in mind though, that in order to optimize both SEO and Google Ads you need to structure your approach, conduct thorough analyses of the results, and keep tweaking your approach. Unless you’re a guru in these areas already, don’t risk wasting precious time and money trying to do this yourself. Instead hire a marketing agency to make sure your business gets the results it wants. 

Our team of professionals at ModFXMedia take tremendous pride in delivering an integrated array of marketing services to deliver bottom-line results that will help to skyrocket your business.

If you have any questions about SEO and google ads and you’d like us to help set up a plan for your business, let us know – we’d love to hear from you! 

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The Business Website Checklist.

What your business website needs to have in order to succeed!

The great thing about having a website for your business is that it is accessible to anyone, anywhere and anytime.

Keeping your website updated and functioning properly with the latest features can be a time and money consuming process. After being frustrated that your current site isn’t performing the way it should you’ll be confronted with 2 options- either revamp it to make it more effective or recreate it from scratch. 

No matter which option you decide to go with, you’ll definitely want to have this business website checklist to make sure that your new site has what it takes to effectively compete in the online marketplace.

✔ïļ Calls to Action (CTAs):

No website is going to convert visitors into leads without calls to action (CTAs). 

CTAs take the form of a button or hyperlink with text prompting a specific action. They should appear in intuitive places on your site, like above the fold line or at the bottom. You can place it at the top right corner or across your banner image on the homepage. 

The idea behind a CTA is to catch a person’s attention with something exciting! A successful CTA button can vary in size and style, but always results in a conversion of some sort. The CTA is foundational for the success of any marketing initiative because it gives you the chance to motivate a visitor to take the leap towards becoming a customer or client.

Here’s a list of the typical call to action phrases you could use when designing your website:

  • Sign-Up
  • Register Here
  • Subscribe 
  • Try it Now
  • Buy Now
  • Order 
  • Download Here
  • Click here forâ€Ķ
  • Add to cart
  • Free trial

Get this one rightâ€Ķ.

✔ïļ Landing Pages:

A landing page is a single webpage that serves a single purpose—usually to drive conversions. Unlike your homepage, which might list all the services your business offers, a landing page encourages users to take one, specific action. They’re useful for directing visitors to content or actions that you want them to see.

Make sure when designing your landing page that you keep the layout simple. A good landing page design is minimalistic and attractive. To avoid sidetracking people with too many visual elements, use a clean, simple design with plenty of white space that keeps people on your product and call to action. 

Choose a big font to make it easy for visitors to read and understand what your landing page is all about, and have well-structured content to increase the conversion rate.

⭐ïļRemember, every detail matters, as it has an impact on the visitor. The simpler and neater a landing page, the better the chance it will convert users into leads.

Lastly, when designing your landing page make sure to add all the trust signals, marks and badges you can to show visitors that your offer and brand are reliable.

Examples of trust signals you could add:

  • Show renowned brands you’ve worked with
  • Show endorsements and recognitions you’ve received 
  • Show groups and coalitions you’re a member of.
  • Testimonials (Testimonials are considered a classic trust signal that reassures visitors)

All of these stamps of approval will give your customers more confidence in your brand.

Next upâ€Ķ.

✔ïļ Great Images:

When it comes to designing your website, your goal is to make a great first impression on customers. 

So much of what we respond to nowadays is image-based- we’ve all heard the saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’; and as cliche that saying is, it’s true! 

When designing your website you need to have great images to compete. Your website represents your brand, service or products so don’t just add a bunch of stock images. Your best bet is to add as many high quality, professional images of your facilities, products, processes, and your team.

Hiring a professional photographer will ensure that your products and services look high quality. Using low quality, unprofessional photos on your website will communicate the same about your organization and the products and services you offer. 

So in the end when it comes to either hiring a professional for your website photos or adding a bunch of stock or camera photos- always choose to go Pro! 

Let’s not forget aboutâ€Ķ.

✔ïļMobile-Responsiveness:

It’s 2022. You need to make sure your website is mobile-responsive.

Responsive web design refers to a design strategy that creates websites that work well for mobile, tablet, and desktop devices. In a nutshell, if your site isn’t mobile-friendly then you’re missing out on a ton of traffic!

When adding a mobile-responsive design, make sure you think of touchscreens. Mobile devices (phones and tablets) are equipped with touchscreens along with a good amount of laptops; so you need to make sure your website offers some touchscreen and keyboard functions. Naturally, a responsive website will have to calibrate itself for being accessed via touchscreens. 

So how do you design your website to be touchscreen responsive? 

For example, let’s say there is a drop-down menu on the homepage you can

  • On desktop view, each menu item must be large enough so that it can be pressed with a fingertip of a touchscreen.
  • On mobile screens, smaller elements like buttons should also be easier to detect and select.

Other ways you can design your website to be mobile responsive are:

1)Choose a mobile-responsive theme or template

2)Change button size and placement

3)Space out your links

4)Use a large and readable font

5)Optimize Image Size

This one’s important!…

✔ïļ Fast Load Times:

If your site takes too long to load your design won’t be effective. In fact, most mobile users expect a website to load in less than four seconds. I know, we’re so spoiled nowadays! 

It’s also important to keep in mind that a slower loading website can affect your SEO, not to mention that Google penalizes websites with a low page load speed. 

More importantly, customers or visitors will stop returning to your website and new customers will simply just bounce (meaning the visitor will just leave right away) when your website page takes too long to render. This will result in the loss of potential customers and revenue for your business. That’s not good!

To keep load times fast when designing your website you can try: 

  •  enabling browser caching
  • optimize your images and CSS 
  • control when the external Javascript files load.

You can’t leave this one out!…

✔ïļ Blog:

A good website without a blog isn’t going to do well. Why? Because content is one of the main ways to drive organic traffic from search engines to your website.

Keep in mind, it’s not enough just to have a business blog on your website, it should address the specific problems, challenges, and stages in the buyer’s journey that your ideal clients are experiencing.

If you produce enough informative and engaging articles then you will also find that other sites may choose to link to it, thus expanding your reach with no extra effort. And if a reader likes a particular blog piece, they may choose to share it on social media channels, expanding that reach even further!!

5 more reasons why adding a blog to your website it important:

1)It drives traffic to your website

2)It increase your SEO/ SERP position and puts your business as                     the leader in your industry

3)It allows you to develop better customer relationships

4)It creates content for your social media profiles.

5)It generates leads!

The IMPORTANT factor!…

✔ïļ SEO-Friendly:

Your website should also be SEO-friendly. SEO (search engine optimization) is another critical factor in getting your website ranked by search engines and appearing in organic search results for your desired search terms.

Whether faced with a redesign or building your website from scratch, SEO should always play a major role in your strategic approach as it’s one of the most essential marketing channels for acquiring customers. 

A few ways to help build your website SEO: 

  • Analyze all of your website data and do that regularly.
  • Conduct a thorough keyword research.
  • Produce great content (look to see what your top competitors are posting)
  • Optimize for on-page SEO. 
  • Optimize for off-page SEO. 
  • Optimize the website for mobile. 
  • Speed up the pages
  • Get quality backlinks

What is the ultimate goal?

By having one of those top spots we talked about in search engines, it will improve your business’ lead generation and makes it easier to sell products/services when people trust your brand. 

So in the end, when you decide to revamp or redesign your website, you need to make sure you add all the ‘good stuff’  we talked about above so your website will read, look and run perfectly! Because in the end, we all know what the ultimate goal is- Gaining more consistent customers which in turn will make your business more successful!

ModFXMedia builds Websites that bring results!

We are in a time where there’s lots of competition out there. Having a website that gets things done is a huge deal. Let us help you build your empire and establish your dominance on the web. As we’ve established, it’s not enough to just build your wesbite: You need to have great CTA’s, a good directing landing page, eye-catching professional photos and videos, fast loading times, an informative blog and SEO with a purpose! 

Doing all of that on top of running your business can turn into a full time job in itself which is why hiring a professional marketing agency is your best bet. At ModFXMedia, we’ve helped countless businesses get to the top and we can help you too. Based out of Jacksonville, Fl., we work with local businesses and businesses that stretch all over the US. 
Engage with us on a strategy to get you a website that does the work for you! Contact us today for a quote or call us directly at- (904)-673-7587

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Why hiring a professional SEO agency for your business is Money Well Spent!

SEO, this term is short but it can have so much impact on your website and business. You can either improve your website or cripple it, all depending on your SEO strategy and how you utilize it. With so much information available online, it can be hard for a business to stand out and be seen by potential customers; and let’s face it, traditional marketing tactics just can’t cut it alone anymore. That’s why hiring a professional marketing agency with SEO as one of their top services is money very well spent!

But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here.

First…

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process by which strategies, techniques, and tactics increase a website’s traffic through gaining a high ranking in the search results page of a search engine such as Google. Basically, in layman’s terms, SEO makes your site more visible on search engines. 

You can improve SEO through the strategies and techniques of keyword searches, page optimization, meta descriptions, content marketing strategies, and link-building both internally and externally. The higher your rank, the more likely you are to attract users to your website. 

SEO has changed!

Many people understand the basic principles of SEO, but a lot has changed in the last decade. 

The SEO that we know today is Not the same SEO that we knew and loved (or hated) 10 years ago. That’s why SEO is something that a business owner should turn to a professional marketing agency for. Because let’s be honest, these professionals are always continuing to define, and redefine the best SEO practices out there, and that means better business in the end for Your Business!

Why SEO is so important anyways?

Whether you’re a large business or a small local business, better ranking surely increases the authenticity of your business. 

With so many different digital marketing tactics out there, great SEO is the one that will make your business really stand out.. and we mean Literally!.

When you update your website, or post a blog or an ad on google, you’re targeting people who are already interested in your content with the goal in mind of having greater visits, clicks, and shares. But, data shows that web visitors think the first few websites at the top of the SERPs (search engine results pages) are the most authentic businesses in that industry. Basically, having great SEO is a psychological game that gives your business the advantage. But, being on top may become quite difficult if you have enormous competitors and you don’t know all the ins and outs of great SEO.

Does every business use SEO?

No, but every business absolutely needs to!

Majority of businesses of all sizes likely already use SEO to some extent. 

Some business owners try to learn SEO as they go or figure they don’t need to invest in a SEO professional.

Why Hiring a Professional Agency to run your SEO is Money WELL Spent!

Rank Higher On Google

An SEO agency can thoroughly optimise your website for search engines on your behalf. Running a business is time consuming. Hiring a professional will give you back the time in the day you need to run your business instead of worrying about the aspects you’re not 100% familiar with.

Get More Website clicks

Since a professional SEO agency knows all the ins and outs they’ll know how to get you more clicks. The more people that see and click on your website the more chance you’ll have at making more sales! And the icing on the cake is more clicks leads to higher search engine rankings.

You can focus on your business

When you hire a professional you get more time to focus on what you do best; running your business! If you don’t have time to continually learn the latest SEO techniques and implement them correctly, you’ll just wind up hurting your business in the long run.

You’ll become the Trust Worthy business in your niche.

Remember when we talked about earlier how people trust the businesses that rank the highest on google? Well, hiring a professional agency can help you establish that trust with your target audience.

You’ll have more Brand Awareness!

If your site is optimized for search engines, more people will see your business name and brand, whether they click through to your site or not. This will increase brand awareness, making purchases more likely.

A SEO Agency Will Bring You Targeted Traffic

Lots of traffic that is not targeted won’t be much use for sales. You need targeted traffic to reach people who actually have an interest in your products or services so you can lead them through the sales funnel. An SEO agency will make sure that you are ranking for relevant keywords to your website. This way, you only get relevant traffic from people searching for that keyword or term.

So as you can see there are LOTS of reasons why you should hire a professional agency to do your SEO!

SEO services can take your business to the next level. It’s the most effective way to reach your audience, increase brand awareness, and boost your visibility in search results. Plus, the results can last for years.

Your competitors are already using SEO to drive traffic and sales. What are you waiting for? 

At ModFxMedia we elevate your search engine rankings to create an optimized experience for your customers enabling you to reach the top spot on Google to grow organically. Our cutting-edge, targeted solutions help you attract the right customers, convert leads and grow your business. We create measurable marketing campaigns — tracking every click, every call, every lead — so you know that your advertising dollars are working hard to bring you more business. 

So, could you do SEO on your own? Yes, but why would you want to after reading all these Pro’s. In the end it’s definitely money Very Well Spent! 
To learn more about how the professionals at ModFXMedia can help you with your SEO strategy contact us today!

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