Marketing to Fort Lauderdale and the journey to page one.
We have been asked by many of our local Fort Lauderdale clients what it takes to develop an Online Marketing Campaign that is geared towards increasing a company’s web presence in our area. They want to know how they can reach a top ranking on search engines and get their business noticed by a local and national audience.
Checking out the competition
We sometimes have to start at a point where the company may have a website, but their search engine ranking is non existent, not noticed or just cannot be found. A lot of companies at this point are frustrated and going nowhere. They type in the keywords related to or describing their business, but all they see are competitors. This is when we begin to get their SEO house in order and create relevant content to drive up their ranking. Before we get down to the nitty gritty comes the research and it involves “checking out” the competition.
We take the first 10 websites listed for the multiple keywords and phrases that our client would like to rank under and perform a “Gap Analysis.” You’re probably asking what on earth is a “Gap Analysis.” Well as SEO Consultants, how we would explain it to a client is… “It is starting at the place (ranking) you are now, analyzing how far we have to go and what we have to do, to get you to the place you want to be (page one).” We aim for the best! For most companies the best is Google Page #1 and Rank position #1. As SEO Consultants we are able to supply our clients with this information and advise them after extensive research on their competitors and the local target market.
Comparing Content
Now whilst there are some things that cannot be overcome i.e. the age of a domain, there is a lot that can be done. Using a spidering tool such as screaming frog, we analyze the website for content, some examples: The number of articles or pages that exist on the site, images, links, tags and meta tags, we then check the website for compliance with web standards.
Using other web tools which investigate the number of backlinks and the “domain authority“, we create a comparative chart between you and your competition in Fort Lauderdale or your local area. You will probably see a whole lot of sites that you do recognize and some that you do not recognize, these are your competitors all looking for business and top ranking in Fort Lauderdale. After all the information has been compiled, there will be a number of websites that rank for multiple keywords and phrases, there is a 99% probability that those websites are under an ongoing SEO and content contract.
We take all this information and look at what the results tell us, the easy part is comparing the data. The likelihood is that the website is lacking in a number of areas, this gives us an indication of how much work, content, time and money will be required to get a favorable ranking and noticed by the target audience.
If this is not the case and the website volume and quality of content is up there, including backlinks, we advise building a new website on a better platform. This may sound extreme, however the reality is this, that by transferring the site and content over to a platform that is web standard compliant, it will make a world difference to the current and ongoing ranking in the search engine results or serps. This effectively presents the content in a way that is far more visible to the search engines.
Let’s chat first about the SEO
Before doing anything drastic, we consult with our clients and offer them the facts based on the information that is available to us. We approach these hurdles more as SEO Consultants rather than Web Developers, you may ask why? We don’t look at your website in the same way as a developer would. We take into context the visual and relevant content that puts you apart from your competition. The structure of your site is built to promote your brand and achieve the rankings you need to increase sales and traffic.
If you find yourself not knowing how to increase your search engine ranking, or feel like you are losing out on potential sales, please call us at Howzit Media Marketing. We are a full shop creative marketing agency with years of experience in resolving situations exactly like this in Fort Lauderdale and Nation wide. We can walk you step by step through the options and the costs involved, also offer a social media campaign solution to give your company the boost it needs to get to where it should be.
In the next article on Marketing to Fort Lauderdale we will investigate “CRO” or “Conversion Rate Optimization”, what it is and how it impacts your website.