SEO Archives - Page 32 of 33

4 typical excuses I hear about NOT tracking keyword rankings. And why they’re terrible excuses

First. A Confession…

I’m not an SEO guy, never was, never will be. Even though I work for a company that makes an SEO & Social Media Toolset, I’m more of a marketing sort with an eye for the consumer. This means that when things get complicated, I’m the first person to raise his hand and say: “Hey! I don’t think this is simple to do. How can you expect our users to get this?” My personal attitude towards SEO is looking at it like Algebra – lots of doubt and suspicion but tempered with the grudging acceptance that it is useful once you understand it.

So that’s why when we were planning to revamp our existing Rank Tracker, I thought it’s a perfect time to poll our target audience and get their thoughts on rank tracking. And boy, was I in for a shock. Close to 35% of the businesses we polled didn’t track their rankings regularly or have a clue why they should. Another 25% said that they’ve attempted it – since everyone they’d spoken to said it’s terribly important – but didn’t really understand what to do with the data. The remaining 40% understood the importance of rank tracking but didn’t have time to do it themselves so hired agencies or SEO professionals to do it for them.

Summary:

Josh Josh Garofalo is a SaaS copywriter and conversion optimizer — a specialist in a sea of generalists. Before starting Sway Copy, he led marketing at a VC-funded B2B SaaS startup that went through AngelPad, the #1 accelerator (Forbes, 2015).

Today, he writes copy for SaaS companies and digital agencies with SaaS clients.

Summary:

Casey_1792 Casey Cobb helps organizations thrive by keeping founders focused on delivering value. Casey believes in testing assumptions early and often — and puts that theory in practice as a software engineer, inventor, angel investor, writer, and speaker. He has co-founded three companies, including web development agency Project Ricochet, and speaks regularly at conferences, accelerators, and companies on topics ranging from co-founder selection to his popular “Avoiding Accidental Evil” keynote.

He’s written 30+ articles on the intersection of technology and management, and gives back as an entrepreneur by advising several software startups. Casey lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and 3-year old son.

Summary:

Bala interviews Rodger Johnson, the founder of SociallyRelevant.us. Rodger is a social media consultant & a communications strategist. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate on this subject.

Rodger has moved from various lines of work to choose the field he loves now. He shares his story on how he started out and what he has learnt from this field of work. From various tips on how to run a Social Media Command center, to the important metrics that need to be measured in social media marketing, are shared in this interesting conversation.

lessons from a marketing agency entrepreneur

It’s no easy task running a successful marketing agency and doing so for 18+ years can take some genius.We spoke to Johan Hedin, the Founder of Marketing Ignite who has been a successful agency entrepreneur from 1998. He shares his perspective on marketing to clients & how to understand and deal with customers.

Have a listen to the podcast interview by clicking “Play” below. Read More

What it takes to run a successful Content Marketing Agency – Interview with Andreea

If you want to hear the podcast version, please click here.

A Brief intro

Andreea is the founder of the School of Content.
She has been in the content writing business for more than 8 years now and started off as a freelancer.
Has started a Content Marketing Agency focusing just on Romanian clients

Figuring out the right content strategy with each client

Understand needs and expectations of the clients clearly and evaluate whether the content is to be written for the purpose of branding, traffic, leads, sales, etc.
Do a thorough audit of all existing content assets and identify any content opportunities & gaps.
Research the market to see how competitors in the same or similar industries are going about their content marketing. Pick & learn from the best.

Formula to remember:

“Within the proposal, a lot of agencies are actually really bad in telling the potential client what they are going to get with their money. They’re not concerned talking about the results.”

“They [the clients] make money but they don’t know why they make money? Or how they make money?”

“There were huge holes in my business model. I really wasted a few months of time, doing that as opposed to going in the direction I am going now. ”

What are the common mistakes agencies make when pitching to clients? What are the common mistakes clients make when it comes to selecting an agency? Learn answers to these and a lot more in an insightful conversation we had with John Doherty, the founder of Credo, marketplace to connect businesses with the right marketing professional.

Watch or Listen to the full interview: (transcript and summary available as well)

Darrell Evans and Mondovo Interview - Agency 1 on 1

“We close 40% of the proposals we send. And for the 60% who didn’t close … I’ll tell you what, we didn’t close what is called the ‘Knowledge Gap’”

“We are ok with spending up to $2,800 for acquiring a customer”

“Networking is a great revenue source but it is not scalable and if you are planning to scale up your company, networking is not going to do it.”

What does it take to run a successful marketing agency? Are you pre-qualifying and filtering your leads before spending too much time on them? Are you educating your customers? How do you deal with clients that are not the right fit. Get answers to these and a lot more in an insightful conversation we had with Darrell Evans, the co-founder of a Las Vegas based marketing agency called Yokel Local.

Listen to the full interview: (transcript and summary available as well) Read More

What it takes to be a successful “Sales Funnel Consultant” – Interview with Stephen Esketzis

Interview with Stephen Esketzis - Mondovo

“Have done six figures in revenues with a few sales funnels.”

“Leads cost me between $100 to $200 for extremely qualified leads.”

How many conversions do you drive to your clients’ websites? Are your clients’ sales funnels optimized? Are you taking on clients that are qualified enough for what you offer or are you wasting your time with the wrong clients?

Lessons on these questions and more in a freewheeling interview with Stephen Esketzis, an experienced sales funnel architect.

Watch and Listen to the full interview: (transcript and summary available as well) Read More

How to effectively deliver bad news to your SEO clients and yet keep them happy?

Make SEO Clients Happy & Retain Them

This is the second post in a two-part blog series. If you haven’t already done so, do read the first part about how you can use the Rank Drop Quadrant to analyze why rankings have fallen.

If you are an SEO consultant or professional, it is an unfortunate but ultimately unavoidable situation: something goes wrong, the client’s search rankings drop and you then need to communicate the bad news to your client. After all, it is part of your job to manage your SEO clients expectations and to keep them happy. Retaining your client can be hard at such times, especially when you would be the first person they would blame for any sudden drop in their rankings/traffic. So it’s important and necessary that you deal with such situations tactfully and communicate such bad news carefully.

As we covered in the first part, if you are dealing with lost google rankings for your SEO client, you may first want to use the Rank Drop Quadrant to analyze what could’ve gone wrong. It’s good to be able to map the situation out in your head and know how bad (or not bad) the situation is before communicating such news to your client.

So, now that you have gone through the Quadrant and understood the possible reasons for the drop, it’s time we communicate this information to our client/boss in the right way. After all, the cost of losing a client is much higher than acquiring new ones.

1. Skip the Denial Stage

Imagine the situation: you go into the office on a Monday morning only to find that your client’s website has dropped for all keywords in the SERPs. What do you do?

The inclination is probably to tell everyone that if anyone calls, you’re not in the office. In truth, that’s the absolute worst thing you can do. You need to call the client before they call you. Yes, they might get very vocal about their level of disappointment and unhappiness but they will also appreciate the fact that you noticed straight away when things went wrong. Communicating bad news is always better when done as soon as possible, you then have enough time to deal with recovering from the situation instead of wasting time denying the situation. Read More

4 typical excuses I hear about NOT tracking keyword rankings. And why they’re terrible excuses

What it Takes to be a SaaS Copywriter – Interview with Josh Garofalo

Summary:

How to Avoid “Accidental Evil” In Your Agency Business?

Lessons from a Marketing Agency Entrepreneur serving 120+ clients globally

What it takes to run a successful Content Marketing Agency – Interview with Andreea

Why is it hard for agencies to get “Great Clients” & clients to get “Great Agencies”?

How this Agency closes 40% of its proposals, tripled its monthly retainers and doubled their annual revenues

What it takes to be a successful “Sales Funnel Consultant” – Interview with Stephen Esketzis