What's coming for Local SEO in 2017?

When you talk of local SEO, it is important that you need to optimize your website for local SEO or strategies for clients and customers who may be searching for your local business. Local competition is gaining importance, and if you are not on top of your rankings, you can always find your competitors there. In today’s world, local SEO services gives an incredible opportunity to grow your business.

*Statistics provided by 2017 Moz Local Ranking Signals Report

In this article, we will explore the five important local SEO tactics you can use in 2017 to help your business rank higher for local search terms.

1. Title and Meta description tags – The title and meta description tags are important for any local SEO. These tags are HTML element reflect the content of your web page. The text of your title and description tags is displayed in search results. Generally acceptable length for title tags range from 50 to 60 characters, and description tags can be approximately from 160 to 200 characters. If you want to reach local customers, include the name of the city your business is in and/or the area your business serves (e.g., “Serving the suburban of Mumbai City”).

2. Online directories – Research says that four out of five consumers use search engines to conduct local searches. It is important that you get your business listed correctly and consistently on online business directories. You have to always make sure that your company’s Name, Address and Phone no. is consistent on these directories as possible. Discrepancies like misspelling will display incorrect information or not show your business at all in search results.

3. Online reviews are important – According to a recent survey, it was found that 84% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation and seven out of 10 customers will leave a review for a business if asked by any other business house. Respond to a review, be it positive or negative. This shows that other people reading the reviews that you, the entrepreneur, care what your customers think. You should focus on your business’s Facebook page and Google My Business page for the reviews.

4. Use local structured data markup – Structured data markup is often referred to as schema markup or schema.org markup. It can be added to your website’s code to provide search engines with more information about your business, like the products you sell, reviews you have collected, services you offer and so on. It is found that only 31.3% of websites are using this markup. You can make your local business stand out if you add structured data markup to your website.

5. Claim and optimize Google My Business – It is important for any local business to claim their Google My Business(and Bing Places for Business) page. It is free and can get you incredible exposure if can optimize to show up in Google’s local pack.

There are hundreds of ways to build your local seo for your firm. Focus on strong and sustainable strategies. If you want to do it right, there aren’t any shortcuts.

7 Most Effective Digital Marketing Strategies that Work Best for Startups

With the support of technology, communication is now just the job of a click. The big world has actually shrunk to the distance of few milliseconds from one person to another. Using this side of technology, any sort of business enterprise can be made to flourish and boom. Especially the startups as they emerge in the competition of trade require a huge advertisement and marketing and that too at a low price. Digital marketing is a thoroughly productive option which can be used to popularize a startup right away.

In the opinion of the marketers, the course of marketing has changed to a huge extent over the past years. Some even say that it has changed more in the immediate past of two years than even 50 years before that. Most startups have opted for the options provided by the digital marketing nowadays, yet some are comparatively more successful than the others. This is because of the fact that marketing requires tricks and skills that succeeds only with proper strategy. Here, the digital marketing services are discussed in details. Read on to get your success mantra.

1) Email Marketing
This strategy is most useful when the goal is to target specific individuals or bodies. Despite what was foreseen as the fate of email that they won’t find much value in the world of marketing, the reality seems to be quite the opposite. The emails are much on demand for its high margin of return on investment (ROI).

They rank the most profitable among other digital marketing schemes and their return on investment rate is as high as 122%. These data were given by the Demand Metric and the Data & Marketing Association (DMA). They conducted a recent survey where they concluded this.

Some tips are presented here that helps make your email marketing services crisp and attractive enough for customers to click on it. These are:

• The subject line is the primary point of communication. It should be eye catching, engaging and also should seem useful to the customer.
• Use as simple language as possible. Certain terms that might be typical or specific to your domain of work, does not necessarily stir up interest in the customer.
• The email should be well presented with a clear content of what is to be offered.

2) Social Media Marketing
This is another powerful digital marketing tool of the present times. According to a Social Media Examiner’s report, 90% of the total number of marketers was confident about the importance of social media marketing for their business. Also, 89% of the marketers said that the use of social media has allowed more exposure to their company and thus expanded the business.

Social media marketing services can be regarded as the second best digital marketing strategies for the startups. Some benefits of this strategy are listed here:

• Social media marketing provides a platform that helps increase exposure and traffic.
• Searching is easier in social media that facilitates quick sales.
• It generates leads & sales.

3) Pay Per Click Marketing (Google AdWords)
Pay per click or PPC management services are quite a time saving strategy in digital marketing. The crux of the matter is using the search engine advertisements for directing the users to your website. For example, if you type “apple cider vinegar” in the search bar you will be shown the top results. You must make sure that the top most result or one of the top results should show the name of your company. So basically, pay per click is an indispensible tool for a company that is relying on digital marketing strategy.
The benefits of pay per click are as discussed:

• Customers can be easily reached to with the right ad and just a click.
• The return on investment rate is lucratively high as the payment is done only each time someone clicks.
• Control over how much you want to spend
• You won’t have to wait for results

4) Search Engine Optimization
Application of SEO services is in a way, making your data gel well with the searching norms of the internet. Search engine optimization plays a deterministic role for content of the internet. Your content will be displayed to users as much as optimized you make it for the search engine. So, this is of utmost importance if you have a motive to actually reach out to people. Search engine optimization is a must for every startup. Just be sure to follow the best SEO practices for your website.

5) Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing services are currently a quick spreading trend in the market. A study in the recent past has shown that 84% marketers look forward to launch a campaign for influencer marketing in the coming year. Another survey concludes that 94% of the marketers think influencer marketing is an efficient tool to boost business. It is also a cost effective method unlike the other strategies.

6) Content Marketing
This digital marketing strategy involves a little more cost compared to the other alternatives. Content marketing services involve creating and sharing relevant online materials such as videos, blog posts and so on. However, content marketing is more popular and important for the B2B and B2C domains. According to a fairly recent study 90% of the B2C organizers absolutely rely on content marketing, and 88% of the B2B marketers strongly agree to the point that content marketing is a highly important part in their marketing programs.

7) Retargeting Ads
Retargeting, also known as remarketing is a category of digital marketing that showcase your goods and services. These ads are displayed to the people specifically after they have already visited your website and viewed your products or services.

Research says, only a 2% of web traffic turns out as prospective in their first visit. This is a strategic trick applied to nudge the customers, who takes time and effort to decide to buy your products or services.

Conclusion
Startups demand a lot of effort to flourish as a successful business. However, the right marketing strategy or even the right combination of strategy helps you excel amongst other competitors.