SEO Audits

SEO Audits

Why should a company use a professional SEO audit service?

  1. Keep your existing SEO company, honest. Verify those traffic numbers and rankings from a 3rd party auditing service. Most SEO experts use black hat and/or fake traffic to fool unsuspecting customers into shady  services.
  2. Keeping your website up to date and cleaned of any excess issues helps you compete online. A search engine optimization audit will find any hidden errors that are causing rankings to stagnate online.
  3. Looking to and/or have recently redesigned your company website? A technical audit can save your existing SEO rankings from tanking after a site redesign. This is the most common issue we see at our offices.
  4. Looking to hire an SEO expert or company? Let us vet their expertise. 97% of the digital marketing companies we test, do not pass. Protect your company and investment dollars before signing a contract.

Learn more about our website auditing services by calling 775-870-0488.

Over 89% of digital marketing companies are not qualified to generate quality leads for their clients.

View our guide on the worlds best SEO experts here.

seo audit

We tested all of the top competitors in our local Reno market to see what keywords they ranked for in Google, and were SHOCKED to learn that over 97% of these supposed SEO companies did not rank for buyer intent keywords! How is it that a digital marketing company, that sells SEO services does not use SEO to acquire new customers?

Buyer beware. Even large, well known ad agencies are promoting their digital marketing services and do not use SEO either.

A quick search for the keywords that the agency ranks for will tell the truth of how technical savvy they are at their own marketing efforts.

Example report for a local Reno marketing agency where they rank for keywords, on page 7,8 or 9…where no one every goes!

seo stats

Some local companies do not even rank on the back pages of Google search. They use billboards and/or online ads via Google PPC in order to get SEO clients. Very strange indeed. More and more businesses are becoming educated in how these marketing scams work. It is getting harder to trick businesses into shady marketing services.

Eventually these fly by night marketing companies will fall by the wayside.

Quick tips to vet your SEO company

  1. Check out their reviews in Google. Why Google? Yelp and Facebook reviews are easy to game.
  2. Track the amount of keywords the marketing agency ranks for. What page do they rank in Google?
  3. Check the ranking stats of their customers as well.
  4. Hire a 3rd party vetting service.
  5. Make sure this company is actually located in the US. A number of foreign companies have front offices in the US, but all of the “work” is done overseas.

Arm yourself with the tools that experts use.

Invest in a company that has the experience and proven track record of successful wins for their own website as well as those of their clients. Always verify that data. There are ways that these companies can fake traffic and analytics. If you have been paying a company for marketing work and not seeing more sales, something is wrong. Do not trust their stat reports, verify with a 3rd party expert that will explain your real world rankings.

SEO Companies that reach out to you, unsolicited are usually in desperate straights (they can’t SEO their own company website) so they steal email addresses online and send out fake emails like the ones shared on the Worse SEO Hall of Fame WebSite here: https://www.claytowne.com/beats-digging-ditches/seo-marketing-spam-hall-of-shame/

Most small businesses get 3 – 5 sales calls a day from spammers trying to sell their Google ranking services. Think about it, if they were good at SEO, they would not have to call and harass you and your staff every day.

Calls from Google to Push Your Ranking a Fraudulent Indicator

Google will never call a business to assist them to improve their search engine rankings. Google provide various tools and knowledge bases to help web masters, search engine optimization experts and other information technology professionals understand the nature of SEO, but they never call businesses unsolicited.

Google has a support team, and customer service department that businesses can call for assistance, but never initiate contact with a business via telephone. source: https://themarketingfolks.com/seo-scam/

Those same small businesses receive several emails a day from supposed experts who just happened to stumble across your website and found some technical errors they can fix for real cheap. These emails are also scams. Never click on those links or call the sales number. They will automatically add your number to a spam call list, selling it to the highest bidder.

SEO is an investment, just like other forms of marketing.  Make sure to work with a vetted expert and try to not think that just by hiring a young person to do your companies SEO or Social Media Marketing will help save the day. More often than not, these people are grossly under qualified for the position and will do more harm than good to your rankings online.

You can save money by doing a lot of it yourself, but you should plan to spend at least 1-2 hours per day marketing your company, writing content, engaging with your audience, and building online relationships.

A good budget for a national business or a competitive local business is typically in the $2500 – $5000 per month range depending on the competitiveness of your industry. For a quality company that isn’t looking to make massive profits on you, that kind of budget should produce good results. You may not reach all of your goals depending on the competitiveness of your industry or if there is additional work that needs to be done (site design, etc) but you should see measured improvement. source: https://moz.com/ugc/how-to-avoid-seo-digital-marketing-scams

SEO is still in the early stages of development. Most businesses do not even know what it is and how it can help or harm their businesses. This opens up room for sharks to surf in and make a lot of easy cash.

I once heard a meteorologist admit that forecasts that predict the weather beyond three days are essentially just guesses. “Then why do you still offer them?” the interviewer asked. “Because the audience demands them,” he answered. Left unsaid was “Because the audience doesn’t know any better.” That’s where SEO is now. The public is still largely ignorant of the truth about Internet marketing, and the stakes are so high that there are more than enough dupes willing to pay for SEO that doesn’t work.

It takes many forms. Fast talking consultants pitch SEO campaigns that cost $50,000-$75,000 to medium-sized businesses, and even though the business owners are skeptical, they often pay because they don’t know what else to do. Web development firms charge small businesses $500 a month for ongoing SEO maintenance, which means precisely collecting $500 for doing absolutely nothing. Marketing companies charge you to enlist popular bloggers to link to your site despite the fact that their blogs have nothing to do with what you’re selling. SEO “experts” charge you to submit your site to hundreds of fly-by-night Eastern European web directories in the name of link building. Most of these experts won’t explain to you what they’re actually doing, and almost none of what they do works. In fact, they’re more likely to get you penalized than to actually help you. source: https://techli.com/2013/12/the-truth-about-internet-marketing-part-2-seo-is-a-scam/

How to spot fake reviews on Amazon?

Fake reviews are one of the biggest hurdles in the way of a good online shopping experience. Like all other online shopping sites, the menace of fake reviews also plague the e-commerce giant – Amazon.

Though Amazon tries hard to weed out the fake reviews, however as a buyer, we need to play our part. Spending a few minutes before making a purchase is all it takes to not get scammed by those glowing 5 stars.

So in this post, I’ll help you identify fake reviews with a few tricks that help me make sound shopping decisions.

Note: As an example, I will be using this new MaxBoost Google Pixel 2 case that my analysis (and my gut) tells me has fake reviews.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/identify-fake-reviews-on-amazon/

Marketing Budget Calculator

Marketing budgets can be a bit tricky. We have put together an easy marketing calculator for you to use. Enter your monthly sales and an estimate of how much of those sales were generated from your website. You will have a close budget range to start your digital marketing plan.

[custom_marketing_calculator hourRateSEO=150 minimumSEOBudget=1500 ]

Need more information? Call or text Sandy at 775-870-0488.

Who is the best SEO expert in Reno?

Who is the best SEO expert in Reno?

Who is the best digital marketing expert in Reno as well as Nevada?

Sandy Rowley is the best SEO Expert in Nevada

Top SEO and Digital marketing strategist, Sandy Rowley, continues to lead the way in Northern Nevada for those looking to rank their websites high in search engines.

Her down to earth attitude has won the hearts of many local Reno businesses as well as world renowned brands.

“She is candid, funny and really knows her stuff.” Brittney S. Hi Line Travels

“With Sandy’s expertise our company sky rocketed up the search engine list. Her professionalism, SEO skills and customer service is second to none. Thanks to her the Pure Glow Salon has experience a substantial increase of web hits, phone calls and most importantly dollars to our bottom line. If you are looking to do the same for your business the only option is Reno SEO, Marketing & Design.”

Greg Enholm

best seo expert

Winner of two honorary Webby Awards, Rowley brings more than digital marketing expertise to the table, she is a world wide acclaimed website designer with clients like Patti LaBelle, David Wolfe and Gwen Stefani just to name a few.

Although she has helped some of the worlds leading brands, her love is to help small businesses, like herself, out rank the big guys.

“A true SEO expert will be able to prove their skills early on. If you have any doubts whether your SEO expert is actually helping your company rank well in Google, then you have a problem.” Sandy Rowley Voted Best SEO Expert

Schedule a free 15 minute phone consultation with Sandy Rowley, leading digital marketing pro by calling 775-870-0488.

A real SEO expert, Sandy Rowley, goes above and beyond what your typical ad or advertising agency will do for most clients. Traditional marketers are late to the online marketing game. Most of them outsource their SEO because they are lacking in those skill sets. SEO strategy is a skill that takes years to master.

Most of her SEO clients come from Google search, social media and referrals. Usually a company will hire the largest or most well known ad agency in town, trusting that this old school marketing agency also understands technical SEO. The shocker comes many months later and after spending thousands of dollars for nothing.

the best seo expert in reno

View verified 5 star reviews on Sandy Rowley and her SEO services on Google.com here.

Reno Marketing Calculator

Simple formula to determine ideal marketing budget online.

What is your desired increase in revenue for the next 12 months?

$500,000.

What does it cost to acquire one customer?

Most companies spend anywhere from $25 – $300 per customer.

Take your revenue goes and divide by cost to acquire one customer. This will be your marketing budget.

Or another, easier way to determine the best marketing budget is to do the following:

10% Percent of Gross Revenue is a good starting point for a marketing budget for most companies.

How to Create a Killer Digital Marketing Plan for Your Business

How to Create a Killer Digital Marketing Plan for Your Business

digital marketing plan reno

Every business needs to think about their marketing efforts. There are many things businesses can do to ensure the success of their marketing plans such as SEO, paid advertising, social media, and more.

But before business can put any of these things to work, they need a clear digital marketing plan.

In this article, we will show you how to get yours in motion. Let’s get started.

reno marketing

RSVP for our Reno Nv Marketing Workshop here: TBD. Follow us on Meetup to see our next marketing support groups, networking events and live digital marketing workshops.

Know Your Audience

Before you begin your marketing strategy, you need to identify who your audience is. Different audiences respond better to certain tactics, so a marketing strategy is not one size fits all.

Both need to work hand in hand to determine what your target audience will respond better to.

For example, if your audience is women in their 20s and 30s, your campaign should include more social media tactics. On the other hand, if your audience is men in their 60s and up, you wouldn’t focus all your efforts on social media.

Set a Clear Objective

After you’ve identified who you want to target, it’s time to set clear objectives.

Answer the question, what do you want your marketing strategy to achieve? In order to effectively answer the question, you need to have a defined mission and objectives.

Measure the Effectiveness of Your Plan

You need always to measure the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. How can this be possible?

It can be done by choosing monitoring tools and keeping a close eye on them.

For example, at the beginning of your strategy, you might want to set KPI’s and measure their effectiveness.

Whatever other tools you should measure the effectiveness of your strategy, you need to ensure you keep an eye on it.

Learn From the Past Mistakes

Unless your business is brand new, chances are you’ve created a marketing strategy before.

And while you might be tempted to carry on some of the tactics that worked for you before, you must also learn from your past mistakes.

Knowing the previous failures of your marketing strategy will help you identify what not to do in the future.

The more information you make, the more successful your new strategy will be.

Set a Budget

This one is one of the most important tips to keep in mind. When coming up with a marketing plan, you need to always stick to your budget.

If you’re going to outsource to a marketing agency, make sure you discuss the budgets in the early meetings.

Determine how much you want to spend on paid promotion such as banners and pay per click.

Make a Plan but Allow for Detours

Finally, while it’s important you make a plan from the beginning, allow for some flexibility.

If something doesn’t seem to be working out, go ahead and change it.

Create a Digital Marketing Plan: The Bottom Line

Now that you know more about creating a digital marketing plan, you can get started and give it a try.

Remember to identify your audience, set a budget, and make a plan.

If you enjoyed these tips and would like to learn more about marketing tips, visit the marketing section of our blog.

5 Essential HTML Text Codes for Boosting Your Website’s SEO

5 Essential HTML Text Codes for Boosting Your Website’s SEO

Did you know that 93% of website visits begin in a search engine? Organic results get 70% of the clicks too. If you want a piece of that pie you better make sure your website shows up and performs well.

How?

Optimize your website with HTML text codes that the search engines love. Keep reading to learn the best SEO code to use.

HTML Text Codes: The Page Head

Meta tags are in the section of your websites HTML code. Google reads both HTML and XHTML meta tags.

They inform search engines and users what to expect from your page. But keep in mind, Google ignores tags that it doesn’t understand.

Here are the meta tags you should make sure are in every page’s HTML code.

Title Tag:

The title tag is one of the most important HTML codes for increasing your visits. The title tag shows up as the main title for your page in search engine listings and on social media shares. It’s your page’s first impression; make it count!

You should include the keywords that you’re targeting with that page in the title. Get creative with this so that it also draws the searcher in and nudges them to click it. Knowing a little psychology helps with writing title tags that work hard for your business.

Keep your title tag around 50 to 60 characters because any more than that will truncate in Google. You’ll also want every title tag to be unique.

Meta Description:

The meta description tag contains the content that’s shown in the snippet on search engine results. Keep your description to 150 to 160 characters, about two sentences. Include your target keyword again.

A well-crafted description should let consumers know that your content can answer their question. Matching search intent will get you higher click-through rates and lower your bounce rates.

Speaking of bounce rates, keep them low by making sure that your page content delivers what you’re promising in the title and description.

Content Header Tags:

People often confuse the terms that refer to the main title of a piece of content with the head tag that appears in HTML code. It’s not hard to understand why, since they’re both called header tags.

However, the H1 tag here refers to the bold, enlarged title at the top of a page containing content underneath. There is also H2 tags, H3 tags, and so on. Each descending tag ranks as less important and appears a bit smaller.

Content header tags provide visual organization of content and increase usability. Google factors usability into rankings. H1 tags also signal to search engines the most important piece of information on a page.

Image Tags:

Describe what your image is with image tags. They’re an important indicator for screen readers, increasing your accessibility factor in search engine rankings. They also help image spiders learn what the image is.

If you’d like your graphics to rank in image results, include the alt and title tag in your HTML code. Use your relevant keyword in the image tags, as well as in the image name.

Avoiding Duplicate Content:<rel=”canonical”></rel=”canonical”>

If you have pages that are similar in content, set one of them as the preferred version with a canonical tag. Doing so avoids a potential duplicate content penalty with the search engines.

A canonical URL is also used to consolidate page ranking for websites that syndicate their content.

What’s Next?

Get started going through your code page-by-page and applying the HTML text codes above. Keep track of your changes and ranking results so you can see what’s working.

If this all seems overwhelming and you’d like some expert help with it, contact us for a free SEO audit.

SEO and SEM: What’s the Difference and Do I Need Them?

SEO and SEM: What’s the Difference and Do I Need Them?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is fast becoming a US$80 billion dollar industry.

Search ad revenue – the major component of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – may only be around half that amount, but $40 billion is nothing to sneeze at.

Yet despite how monumentally massive these industries are, there is still a lot of confusion around what these terms mean.

Let’s take a brief look at SEO and SEM, their differences and the definitions of each.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO is a method of optimizing a webpage so that it will attract more organic traffic. By organic traffic, I’m referring to users who find a website through a search engine.

Technically, SEO caters to all search engines, including Duckduck Go, Yahoo, and Bing. In reality, however, virtually all SEO focuses on the kingpin: Google.

Google is notorious for changing their algorithms in a tireless attempt to make the searching experience as effective as possible for the end user. As a result, SEO techniques are evolving rapidly.

Two things remain constant, however: The concepts of on-page and off-page optimization.

What is On-page Optimization?

As the name suggests, on page optimization is undertaken within the website itself. Essentially, these are tricks of the trade that SEO savvy content writers and web designs use to improve the Search Engine Results Pages (SERP) ranking of their article.

  • Using targeted keywords in the title and headings of their article.
  • Peppering secondary keywords throughout the article in a natural way.
  • Achieving the highest possible page load time.
  • Including photos which have been SEO optimized by way of file size, file name, and alt tags.
  • User-friendly formatting with ample white space.
  • Social media sharing plugins.
  • Quality content that provides real value for the reader.

What is Off-page Optimization?

Off-page refers to techniques undertaken outside the website. Behind the scenes, if you will.

  • Link building by obtaining inbound links (backlinks) from other reputable websites.
  • Driving traffic through social media, A.K.A social signals.

What is Search Engine Marketing?

SEM is when a marketer pays a search engine (almost always Google Ad Words) to promote their product to a wider audience.

You’ve probably noticed results at the top of Google marked “[Ad].” These are an example of a pay-per-click (PPC) or cost-per-click (CPC) advertisement, which is a critical component of SEM.

SEM once referred to both SEO and PPC advertisements, although these days there is a clear distinction between the two.

Other aspects of SEM include:

  • Targeted advertising campaigns.
  • Advertisement groups with a focus on keyword variations.
  • Writing keyword rich ad copy.
  • Monitoring marketing metrics such as click-through rates and average costs per click.

SEO vs. SEM: Which is Better?

Each excels at different things.

SEO is more of a long game. The practice may not see instant results, but if done correctly, it can result in a considerable amount of organic traffic over time.

SEM, on the other hand, is capable of earning a website fast exposure which is great for short term campaigns or new companies looking to start trading with a bang.

Big online businesses incorporate both, as the two complement each other nicely.

SEO and SEM: Do I Need Them?

SEO is an essential practice for anyone looking to make money through a website. After all, if you can’t hit the front page of Google, then do you really exist?

SEM is a little more variable. If done right, it can drive massive short-term traffic to your business, but for a price.

Who Can Help Me Create an SEO/SEM Marketing Strategy?

Reno Web Design are experts at both SEO and SEM marketing. Get in touch with them today to discuss an affordable and effective online marketing plan for your business.

Reno Marketing Event : Association of  Realtors

Reno Marketing Event : Association of Realtors

Tuesday, October 2, 2018
8 am to 5 pm / 5650 Riggins Ct, Reno, NV

Vendor Meetup/Coffee and Donuts
Facebook Marketing with Leading Online Marketing Expert, Sandy Rowley
Use Big Data to Develop Quality Leads
Transform the Way You Do Business with Cloud Agent Suite
Break / Raffle
Get More Leads…
Grow Business Pipeline / Manage Client Relations
Box Lunch / Raffle
Up Your Game
Perfect Pricing with Easy, Accurate CMAs
Break / Raffle
Save Time and Generate More Showings
Using the Parcel Map for Fun & Profit
Break / Raffle
Advertising in Compliance with RED
Video Marketing Tools & Techniques
Wrap Up / Questions / Vendors Available until 6 pm
Sandy Rowley
Remine
Alice Heiman
Homesnap
Nobu Hata – Keynote Speaker
Realtors® Property Resource (RPR)
ShowingTime
CRS Data
Scott Beaudry & Jan Holle
Scott Beaudry
Conference Agenda
Time Topic Speaker/Vendor

If you have not yet registered for this Conference and would like to do so, please visit:
https://www.rsar.net/Events/100218_TechConf_Registration_editable.pdf

Makers of
W+R Studios: Cloud CMA, Streams & CMA