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In a global economy, competition is a lot bigger than what your grandparents faced in their time. Currently, there are over 400 million small businesses that compete for attention all over the world. Actually, we don’t know the exact number and can’t possibly find it, simply because an official number would not consider how many people start their businesses in their basement or their backyard shed or kitchen table and just go for it before even registering. In some countries, that can be the majority of people!

How many small businesses are in your town or city? What about your region, state, province? It is a difficult number to quantify, but we are sure you know of at least 10 competitors in your own industry. In this situation, is difficult to hide from the fact that even though there are millions of searches every day, there are millions of businesses competing for the prime spots and clients’ dollars.

As stated above, you may be aware of at least 10 other local businesses who you compete with. And these are just the ones you know of, there are many more that don’t pop up on your radar!

Now, you just got your website created and is finally live. Also, you have someone promoting your business and services on social media, perhaps a marketer or even just nehpew Joe who just did a course in school or is good with computers. But that is not enough.

Because competition keeps growing every day, you need to look into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and consider at least getting your own Google My Business profile.

But, what is Google My Business you ask? It’s a flexible tool that allows small businesses to create a profile and be found by Google local searches..

For example, someone may search “home renovators Kitchener” or “psychologist Oakville” and if your business is related to the search and top ranked it will show in the first places.

If you have a renovations company in Kitchener or are a psychologist in Oakville, having your Google my Business profile will help your business show up among the first search results as well.

The results are easy to see, you will get more clicks, leads and sales.

Seeting up a Google my Business profile is simple and quick. So, what are you waiting, get your profile as soon as possible and start getting all the benfits of being listed.

It is possible to get more organic search traffic without increasing your google rankings.

When users look for a service or product online, the results from Google all compete against each other for attention. Since the use of images in search results is limited (or non-existent) and all you have a words to compete, these words are the most important asset. The information that Google displays on search results is called the “search snippet”.

What is click-through rate optimization?

CTR (click-through rate) optimization is a process getting more clicks from search impressions by making your search snippet more attractive and appealing. It doesn’t always mean adding more words or 5 exclamation marks. (more…)

The construction market is an important pace maker for the economy in Canada. A healthy housing market means that the economy is in good condition and consequently, this is reflected in the renovations market. When people are interested and can afford home renovations companies that offer kitchen, basement, bathroom or other similar reno services should take notice. Even though your business may be successful now, ensuring that you take every opportunity to continue to grow is the best way to protect your business for years to come.

Doing online marketing for your home reno business is not only smart, but an important decision that will keep your business going even when those bad times come.

From our blog, we review some cases in which online marketing has been an important part of their success be it directly or indirectly. (more…)

The very first step in search engine optimization is always keyword research. It is not advisable to start SEO without having done a proper analysis of the keywords we want to target. Running an SEO campaign without keyword research is like driving a car with your eyes closed. (more…)

The internet is a world where many believe that by simply setting up a webpage or a basic ecommerce website all the awesome benefits of online marketing will happen in a few weeks. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, you may be wondering, why is my ecommerce store not selling?

This type of thinking is usually not associated to the offline world, where most people believe (to varying degrees) that it is necessary to invest in paying your retail location’s lease, setup distribution methods and provide products that relate to market needs. Most understand that to start a business you have to invest in a physical location, setting up shop and doing some traditional promotion. Furthermore, most agree and accept the costs of traditional media. Not so much with digital media.

This is why the starting point of all marketing is always the same fundamental principle. More than once have we heard from business owners that they expect to invest as little as possible (‘I don’t have much to invest’), without understanding what is required to attain the level of success required for their business (‘I don’t believe in online marketing, but everyone is doing it’), asking for the minimum and expecting the best. It should be no surprise that many of these businesses end up struggling. (more…)

The internet has become one of the main business drivers for small business owners. It is so, that one of the first things that people think about when setting up a business is having an online presence that represents their brand’s identity. The ease and convenience of using the web to find out information or make purchases without having to go out or listen to a sales pitch are some of the big reasons why the internet has become such a powerful global economy driver. (more…)

Small businesses and independent professionals (like consultants) are experiencing a rapid presence growth in the web. This is particularly true if we talk about professionals related to the health markets.

Doctors, dentists or simply businesses that related to the medical field like plastic surgery or even ophthalmologists have learned how to take advantage of the web to promote their services to prospective and real clients.

In the case of counselling, it is one of the health services specialties that have the great benefit of connecting potential customers with providers through the internet. Lets review on specific examples of how to have website of this type and how to improve results.

What should a Counselling services website have?

A website about counselling services should of course have the basic elements of the rest of websites should have. Information should be clear, specially information related to the people who are behind the website, including contact information, office address, phone number and ideally, the name and professional background of the person offering counselling services. Web design Guelph trends should be kept in mind while designing for its target audience.

Colours are important. White backgrounds with green or blue elements, preferably pastel tones would be the most adequate for this type of websites. White, greens and blues are colours associated with health professions and well-being.

Once established the previous elements, it is important to present the specialties and services offered. If the site is about family counselling Guelph or online counselling, it is important that the home page have direct access to that information.

Important: Where is the counselling provided?

If it is about counselling Kitchener or Guelph, it is important to provide this information to the users and visitors right away. People will want to know if the services are within their travelling distance or if an alternative like online counselling is available.

Fot this, we have several options that Google provides, which means that getting good ranking would be essential. It is convenient to have an SEO agency create a plan or strategy to achieve those first page rankings when someone is typing the search keyphrases related to counselling Guelph or counselling Kitchener.

This way, we will not only have a great website for this type of services, but we will also be available and easy to find by those prospective clients who are searching for the services.

As in many industries, it is all about location, location, location. Where do you put your calls to action? What is the service area? Where is the office located?

Planning is the best way to ensure the results are what is expected. Starting a project without any planning or at least some basic research is a risky endeavor that should be avoided.

We online marketers and web world people like to think our language is as universal as music. However, majority of people, even people who use the internet fairly regularly, have difficulty understanding the whole concept of “online marketing” or ideas like “SEO“. But what are these concepts really? (more…)

Don’t wait until your competition out-ranks you, get SEO right now!

Really. SEO is an extremely important element for your website. Back in 1994, when there were a handful of websites, SEO was meaningless (doubt if it even existed beyond getting the proper domain name). In 2011, launching a website that is not search engine optimized with clean code, proper tagging, well written, etc, will only mean you are spending money to have a pretty brochure that only the people you give the domain address will see. Its not bad, you can use it in your printed materials to give people more information online. However, most businesses want their websites to be a strong sales tool that gets them prospects and customers. (more…)