trooperlab

How to Maximize Your Landing Pages

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:56:01 GMT

How to Maximize Your Landing Pages

Your digital marketing campaign is incomplete without properly formatted landing pages aimed at attracting a specific audience to your business. Only a web design agency is based in Los Angeles can fully understand and appreciate what makes your business so pivotal to the community. Trooper Lab knows that more that goes into a landing page than you might think. In this guide, we outline the basics of landing page anatomy to ensure the largest return on your investment.

Headline and sub header are vital

While working in Los Angeles regions, we have observed that unless landing pages are quick and to the point, they are essentially useless. You only have 3-5 seconds to make a good first impression on your potential customer, so it helps to quickly assure them that they are at the right place.

For example, let’s say that you run the digital marketing for a new brewery in Los Angeles. You want to attract more customers to your brick-and-mortar location with an effective landing page. It is best to quickly grab your audience with a good headline and to identify your business with a tag like, “A Brewery’s taps are open for business!”

Directly underneath your tagline should be a sub header, which could be something like “Our new Los Angeles brewery providing a relaxed atmosphere, shareable finger foods, and the best beer south of Market Street.” In a matter of seconds, all viewers know exactly what your brand is, what service or product you provide, where your general location is and encourages them to read the rest of the page.

Imagery that reflects your brand

Any decent web designer should know that more and more users are making decisions based on visual cues. Things such as color scheme, shapes, and placement are all aspects to consider when designing your landing page. Placement is arguably the most important factor to consider because you don’t want the image to be in a position where it takes the user’s attention away from the main points. Instead, it should enhance the value of your headline, sub header, and call-to-action (CTA).

Let’s continue that brewery example from before; in this case, a video or series of professional photos (no, your niece’s cellphone photo won’t help) capturing the atmosphere you establish for your clientele and the products you serve would be ideal. In this case, if your audience sees a video or photos of your establishment, they might feel enticed to go based on the look and feel on your landing page.

Social media icons

Properly utilized social media sharing icons should be easy to see and they must be functional. Don’t miss out on hundreds of likes or retweets because of an incorrect URL in your href is incorrect. If people care enough about your brand to share it on social media, do not miss the opportunity.

Depending on your business, you likely have several different social media accounts. A carpentry business, for example, may not heavily rely on Twitter or Instagram, but Home Advisor and Yelp are crucial. On the other hand, a local band looking to expand their fan base should use Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat and skip Yelp or Google+. The header of the Trooper Lab Agency website has all our social media icons, making it easy for visitors to check them out with a single click.

Call to action

Give your audience a reason to move forward in the conversion process. A local newspaper or magazine might feature a form to sign up for their newsletter. Restaurants benefit from a button that links to special deals and coupons. A good call to action (CTA) needs to stand out. Avoid using dark colors like the blacks, whites, and grays. Make your CTA stand out with the use of bold primary colors.

The text inside your CTA should be prominent and aligned with the process. If the user is signing up for a newsletter campaign, have the link text say, “Subscribe to Newsletter” as opposed to just, “Submit” or “OK.” If your CTA meets these criteria, your local SEO will definitely improve.

Add value to your brand

Why should customers continue navigating through your site? If your landing page doesn’t answer this question, then it’s time to reevaluate some things. This is an often over-looked aspect, but it should not be ignored. In all honesty, it can be summed up in 3 or 4 short bullet points. Why should your customer do business with you instead of your competitors? Express to them that their satisfaction is your guarantee, or that you’ve been doing business in the community for 50 years, really anything that makes you stand out from the rest of the pack.

If applicable to your industry, even a few of your best testimonials would be a great addition. Potential customers seeing the words of satisfied clients can go a long way in an acquisition. No landing page is complete without a testimonial.

Landing pages are a critical factor in search engine optimization because they can astronomically expand your particular market if done correctly. Simply put, companies that create 10-15 dynamic landing pages see a 55% increase in leads. Keep in mind that if you are in the process of creating multiple landing pages, each one must contain unique content. Having identical content across multiple landing pages will result in a penalty from Google.

In essence, your landing pages should be concise, visually appealing, and simple to navigate. With only 3-5 seconds to make a good first impression, it is important to keep all of the above in mind when creating your landing pages.

Why You Need To Hire An Expert Web Designer and Developer

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:49:59 GMT

Why You Need To Hire An Expert Web Designer

You Are A Professional – You Need A Professional Website

So you want a new website for your business and you’re considering some relative’s kid who said that he could build one for you. If yes, then probably you do not know how catastrophic this decision can be for your business! In this article we will show you how to get a perfect website for your need without losing your money.

Hire A Firm Who Knows What They Are Doing

Many firms are expanding their businesses to the internet these days and sometimes they do not know about how to make this possible. So sometimes they hire kin’s people or some other inefficient people who don’t know how to make a user-friendly and optimally functional website. The thing here to know is that a website is much more than a mere arrangement of login forms and with a background. A fancy website with many colored buttons is good only for your child’s college project or to show off among friends; it won’t be good if you’re going to augment it with your business. Period.

And not just your relatives, you should also maintain distance from unprofessional people who claim to be “expert web designers”. A website comprises of a back-end, and a front-end. The front end is the interface which the user sees when he opens any website. So a designer with a creative mind and good knowledge about SEO and human psyche is required for this purpose. Although a good programming knowledge is not required to be a designer, just a good experience of HTML and CSS would do the job. Now, for the back-end, a web-programmer is needed. He is the guy who does all of the real work from adding functionality to buttons, implementing a payment method and last but not the least: making your website secure. But here is the twist: Sometimes the designers, out of different reasons (like money), claim that they can create a complete website for you. And the result you get is a good looking web site with very poor response and many security hazards.

Downsides To Using Freelancer

Now there is also a big hype about freelance web designers in Los Angeles these days and the good thing about freelancers is that you can see their previous works before you hire them. Although there is also a major drawback in this path, most of the freelancers on these freelancing sites are the people that do not know anything about the work and they’ll just wait till you give them money so that they can run away with it. It’s true that you may find experienced but not expensive services from different parts of the world like Asia, India etc. but the result product would not be as effective as you’d want due to the communication barriers.

A 5-6 page website nearly costs thousands of dollars and you would feel really bad if you waste this much money on some “experienced professional” who couldn’t get the job done and runs away with your money. So it is better, and far safer to hire a web firm for this purpose. A web firm at least has one front end and one back end developer, plus sometimes a business planner. These people know what they’re doing and you surely will see the difference in the work. If you have any web design or SEO related query then feel free to contact us at 213-254-7001. Excellent work and client satisfaction is guaranteed!

Negative Effects on Cheap SEO Services

we@growthcapitalfirm.com (Euna Avezov) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:47:20 GMT

Negative Effects on Cheap SEO Services.

You can easily get Google results for 60-70 or more SEO Agencies, or nearby “SEO/Internet Marketing specialists” and many that offer month to month SEO/Web Marketing services in Los Angeles.

Every one may offer something purporting to be unique and diverse, however there’s constantly one prime principle to consider that clients and customers use to base the decision of which SEO firm in which they finally choose to ultimately work with.

The Cost of Digital Marketing

While cost is critical in choosing to employ a SEO agency or SEO professional, remember the old saying “you will get what you pay for” will continually seem to be right on point. In the event that you went to a SEO and one firm charged a significant lesser cost for service, would you be suspect?

What about a house that is selling in a neighborhood for $300,000 versus one that is on selling in the same market for $100,000? Which would you hope to be the better property to move right into with no foreseeable issues, repairs of long term problems?

As detailed in an overview on MOZ.com, the normal SEO organization charges in two methods mainly: by the hour, or a month to month retainer. The normal going hourly rate ranges from $50 to $350 an hour, and the month to month expenses can be all over the place dependent upon many different components.

In this example, let’s suppose we’re at a $100 an hour rate, and you’re paying $99.00 a month. What might they be truly able to accomplish for 60 minutes a month that would be justified and see results, despite all the trouble?

Here are 3 drawbacks to Low Cost, Low Value SEO

Quality – The SEO office in the city charges $2000 a month only for the fundamentals. The other fellow on Craigslist will do it for $300 a month. At that point there’s all the “yellow book” related companies that offer marketing bundles beginning at $99 a month. Disregard the $200 a month organization, who are they trying to scam?

Really, it’s the other marketing companies that are messing with you, and messing with your cash. What amount do you make 60 minutes? Now, go ahead and duplicate that by the measure of hours you work a day, week or month.

Imagine a scenario where your manager came to you and said we came across somebody to carry out your job tasks for a quarter of what we pay you, would you be glad? Likewise, imagine a scenario in which you were a manager and somebody made that offer, yet said rather than 40 hours a week, they’d work for less cash, but they’d just be working 2 hours a week. Not really all that tempting, is it?

When you cut internet marketing expenses, you cut the measurable time that goes into your site. On the other side, it can likewise mean outsourcing the work to a lower expense specialist abroad. Along these lines, now you’re site is being taken care of in the Philippines or India and the quality is everywhere but great. Without a doubt your expenses are down, and so is the quality.

Results/Return – How about we stay focused for this after quality. So now saying you’ve ran with the less expensive SEO firm or professional in light of the fact that they have an awesome, affordable cost.

They’re currently doing an astounding 3 hours of work a month on your site. That incorporates the time it takes to email you (logged and deducted), time to run reports (logged and deducted), perhaps a telephone call or two (logged, logged and deducted) and where does that really leave you with real Website improvement and Web Advertising work done? 1-1.5 hours? I know we have telephone calls with customers that take up 2-3 hours a week included, so would that be reasonable to pay just to converse with your SEO agency?

This implies next to zero results happen for anything huge. Now relax, don’t stress. Iin light of the fact that the “shoddy SEO” organization officially incorporated that with their business pitch, with the guarantee of landing 1 key term or keyword on the first page of Google in 9-12 months, or “it can take up to a year to see the second of third pages even!”

Your outcomes are going to reflect what has put into the work. Low quality, low involvement work means low quality results.

Cost/Expense – Yes, we specified cost being a component, yet here we’re talking expense. The businessperson at CHARMLESS SEO sold you an extraordinary SEO program for $200 a month. Much less expensive obviously than the other organization offered for $1000 a month, or the other who needed $1500. You simply saved a huge amount of cash!

Reality? Say goodbye to your money because no, you didn’t.

How about we take $200, include 12 months. That is $2200. You were sold something on just cost, not an actionable plan and tasks, and definitely not advantages or results – but its all good, it cost less.

You even arranged a cheap, highly affordable cost to get that $200, which was effectively met by the excited sales guy needing your business to make his quota. Yes, you’ve become a quota and a line item.

Presently, the other agency laid out all that they would do, what number of keywords, terms, content , Google and Bing, all the right words. $1000 a month, and 3 months in, those customers, probably your competitor, are seeing leads and calls in light of the fact that they put the energy into Local SEO, Google+ and focused pages, incredible new site content and new on page SEO.

The other organization?

That isn’t even a portion of your campaigns program!

Over the long haul, expense isn’t measured Day 1. Web Marketing is a nonstop, ever evolving process. SEO is an everyday series of tasks that you have to do. What you spare now, you may lose tomorrow. What you put out today may be returned five or even ten fold in a just a couple of months.

Make sure you’re paying the right cost for the right SEO professionals, not something that just sounds great and doesn’t cost much. Did you like the salesperson? He seemed like a great guy. Guess what? Once you close the deal, you’ll most likely never hear from him again. If he is also the SEO person – who is doing the work while he is on the phone and in meetings selling?

There’s a reason the best SEO costs what it does, and that is basically in light of the fact that it’s a technical industry with individuals who are highly and continually educated and experienced in what they do, and in an industry that evolves day by day. SEO in 2012 is tremendously different than in 2015, as it will be in 2016, 2017 and on.

Penny savvy, dollar foolish.

Your site, and your business, is your employment, and you ought to keep it in the best hands and with the best organization overseeing it that you can handle. In the event that you can’t manage the cost of SEO, then you most likely ought to be attempting to do it all yourself in-house, or not doing it at all.

Site design improvement and promoting all take investment to do right. Numerous organizations – the smaller business to the larger corporate businesses contribute at least 1-2 hours a day on their Web Marketing. A few organizations, by and large, have a group of devoted in-house staff working with administration and different divisions to actualize the procedures.

SEO isn’t something that is done modestly or that ought to be done economically. More harm can originate from low quality, awful work than is justified regardless of the apparent funds. On the off chance that you can’t bear to pay a committed SEO pro or an Internet Marketing agency to handle your business, it’s ideal to put some investment into some SEO books on Amazon, or utilize your cash shrewdly somewhere else, or contact a SEO Specialist or Agency to instruct you on best practices so you can keep up your own particular activities and endeavors proficiently.

NO CHEAP SEO!!

Why Choose A Local Website Hosting Company

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:43:49 GMT

Why Choose A Local Website Hosting Company

There are many local companies that choose to have their website hosted and manged by a web design firm. There are many advantages to having someone else mange your hosting account. For example, a web design company can make sure that your website will not go down due to technical glitches or deliberate attacks and attempted hacking. In today’s age it is best to leave such technical aspects of your business to the experts. Here are some simple reasons why you should have your website managed by a web design company – a local web design company.

Better Uptime

There are many issues that can lead to an outage or downtime on your website. Most issues are non-intentional such as glitches or automatic updates that cause some level of incompatibility. Most reputable web companies have some level of automatic monitoring of any websites that they manage. This kind of monitoring will alert you and the web company that your website is no longer responding as soon as it happens. These type of alerts allow the developers to get on the issue right away and get the situation fixed immediately.

I mproved Security Measures

Our developers are constantly monitoring and tweaking the security measures on our clients websites and the servers that they are hosted on. Everyday there are new security threats being discovered and our staff is always reading up and adjusting their websites appropriately. For example, when the WordPress XSS vulnerability was disclosed back in April, our staff immediately sprung into action looking for fixes. Fortunately, we found a solution that worked and quickly secured all of our clients sites.

Redundancy, Redundancy, Redundancy

In some cases, servers at the hosting providers may go down which could result in downtime if your site is not configured properly. Does your current web hosting company have a backup plan if their servers go down? Well for all of our clients, their sites are backed up via a CDN or Content Delivery Network. This ensures that if the primary server goes down, a secondary server will pickup and keep the website live for our clients customers. Down time is lost money in the online market.

Better Performance

How does your website perform against your competition? If your website is running slow because of poor coding or because of hosting server location. For example, if you are on the east coast why would you let your website be hosted on the west coast. It many only take an extra second or two to reach the west coast but that can be the difference between turning a visitor into a customer or an abandoned shopping cart. When was the last time you asked your website hosting company about the hardware your site is hosted on? Is your website hosted on a Solid State Drive or a traditional moving parts drive. The same website hosted in the same location will launch 200% faster on a solid state drive then a traditional moving parts drive. By the way – all our websites are hosted on the east coast and on solid state drive. Once again, just a shameless plug.

Lower Costs

Having a website hosted and maintained by a web design company can save you a lot of money over a year. A website going down could cost you hundred of dollars. Having a website under contract acts as an insurance policy for your company. We know that most people are worried about having to spend a lot of money to put their website under a protective contract. The good news is that companies like ours do not charge you an insane maintenance fee. We have a base maintenance fee of small amountt, which guarantees up time, speed and redundancy.

We are sure that you have many questions, comments or concerns about your website hosting. Luckily, we offer a free no-obligation survey of your current hosting setup to determine if you have the appropriate security and redundancy installed on your website. Contact Trooper Lab today!

SEO vs PPC: How Paid and Organic Best Work Together

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:35:51 GMT

SEO vs PPC: How Paid and Organic Best Work Together

SEO and paid search, pay-per-click, can be used in different ways to get visitors to your website. However, they should be used in ways to get the best out of both worlds. Paid search, PPC, can almost yield immediate results, but the efforts can end up being expensive if things aren’t done correctly. On the other hand, SEO is free to engage even though optimization & digital marketing efforts may take longer. Both methods can yield insights and favorable results for effective keyword rankings. Until recently, many companies approached these tactics separately.

Today, more and more businesses are realizing the wisdom of a unified approach to overcoming the challenges of helping clients find their site. Both disciplines depend on keywords. So, it makes sense that your company should look at both approaches through a similar lens. Consider the following ways that your business can successfully integrate the two.

Integrate Paid Marketing and Search Engine Optimization

1. Research and expand your keywords – Google provides some amazing tools for taking on the task. Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics unmasks the mystery about keywords that drive traffic to sites. These tools, if not already being used in your campaigns, can easily be added. Your Google Adwords tool can reveal if it’s worth the cost of adding those keywords. High-converting paid terms can also be used to rank organically.

2. Keep an eye on paid and organic links – Where both paid and organic links are together, users tend to click on either link because both are present. Just make sure that you rank well organically to begin with. Top page rank for organic searches, along with paid ads, can sometimes provide up to 50 percent incremental clicks. Your goal is to make sure you aren’t leaving clicks on the table.

3. Brainstorm compelling content ideas – Content is still king. Paid search allows you to develop content around keywords people are likely to search for. If your keywords convert well in paid search, there’s a strong likelihood they’ll also perform well in created content. You can also use compelling copy that performs well in click-throughs and add effective keywords to headlines, title, and meta descriptions.

4. Pay-per-click reporting can also help identify your competitors – You may find these are businesses that were never on your radar. Anyone business utilizing your desired keyword, or set of keyword phrases is, in essence, a competitor.

5.Snippets and Google Ads have a similar way of being presented in SERPs – By any means, you should always make sure that you optimize your snippets and ads to the best of your ability. They can both offer tailored results to a query. Remember, the goal is to utilize tools and ideas that can help maximize keyword rankings and local search engine optimization efforts.

SEO vs PPC should never end up in a dual. The two disciplines can work together with the right strategies. At Trooper Lab , we breathe and eat search engine optimization, PPC, Google Adwords, and Google Analytics. We’re conveniently located in Los Angeles, California. Trooper Lab employs a team of professionals who can help you grow your business through Web design, SEO, social media marketing, video marketing, and much more.

We can help you overcome the mystery of SEO vs PPC and help you optimize your campaigns. Contact us today for additional information.

3 Tips for Local SEO

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:35:50 GMT

3 Tips for Local SEO

By now you probably know what SEO stands for, but just in case you have been living under a rock, SEO stands for search engine optimization. When a consumer makes an internet query, a search engine like Google produces a page, ranking the results based upon a number of factors. SEO takes these important factors into account and increases the likelihood that a business will rank at the top of a search page. The top results usually are based upon relevance to the search, distance to the searcher and prominence or popularity of the product or services.

For many small businesses, kickstarting a local SEO plan can seem daunting, which is why there are individuals that specialize in this very important industry. For example, an online search shows that there are dozens of SEO and web design firms in Los Angeles California, but most consumers will only ever click on the top three names listed on a search results page. It is the same in almost every industry, a consumer has dozens of options to choose but will only click on top results. This illustrates the importance of improving your result ranking to get your business noticed by people searching within your area. If you are not at the top of the search results page, you risk being missed.

Here are three crucial ways that a local SEO plan orchestrated by the experts at Trooper Lab can benefit your business:

More links and more links and more links

At Trooper Lab, we use tools to track trending keywords and links to develop an understanding of the current online ranking for your business. We look at website links to your business and develop strategies to improve existing links as well as create new ones.

There are three types of links and citations that we look to identify, explore and expand upon. For example, if your business sponsors a local little league team, the team’s website probably mentions your business’ name. We will reach out to the team and ensure that every mention of your business contains a link to your website. We refer to these types of links as “sponsored links.” These links are similar to advertising, in that you receive them because you are supporting the team, not simply because the team endorses your website or product.

We will also scour the web to locate media mentions of your business, including press releases or news in your industry, hunting for links from media back to your business. We refer to these as “promotional links.” These links are highly coveted and getting backlinks from major news sources like these can be a challenge but is not quite as difficult as many people have made it out to be. Here at Trooper Lab, we know the tactics that get your business noticed, like a well-written press release is always a part of an ongoing SEO strategy. Press releases are great pieces of content that tend to get more attention and create more opportunities for promotional links.

Finally, we look for the “informational links,” ones you can trace to local discussion groups, blogs on websites and those by shared by folks within your industry. These links are shared because your content is unique and has something important to say. They are often generated by a blog post that people naturally want to link to when they find it. There is no shortcut to these types of links, they are generated solely with the creation of stellar content. And that brings us to our second important point:

Content is king

Content is still the number one boost for local SEO and its importance cannot be overstated. Blog posts, infographics, videos and tutorials are all content critical to the success of your SEO plan. Content marketing requires adequate planning and creativity and is not a matter of simply throwing together a few paragraphs filled with keywords relevant to your industry. On the contrary, your business must ensure that your content invites interaction with an audience and that the posted content is of good quality. If your content is well-written and nicely structured, chances are much higher that readers will actually stay on your site to read your post. Slap up some poorly written gibberish, and coveted customers will bounce right off your page and onto a competitor’s page.

2017 looks to be a year where content marketing skyrockets, which means now is the best time to maximize your content, and specifically, the reviews and testimonials listed on your website. Remember that most consumers decide to make an online purchase based on the posted reviews. Asking your customers for reviews is a great way to generate the type of website content that helps convert internet searchers into paying customers.

Still not sure how to create content that gets you noticed on social media? Contact us! Trooper Lab can craft your content, request and organize your reviews and ensure that everything on your website is of high quality and gets the attention of consumers and search engines alike. Which brings us to our final point:

We can manage your online presence

How does your business rank on a results page? Are you at the top of the food chain or buried 5 pages deep? If you are not where you want to be then it is to your benefit to make improvements. Your business may have crucial pieces of misinformation online and you do not even know it. Trooper Lab uses tools like “Google My Business,” to request information like name, address and phone number, ensuring your most basic business facts are relevant and reliable.

Ultimately, you want to ensure that your business is highly visible to consumers searching online in your community. Imagine what you could do with a top search engine ranking in your immediate neighborhood or in the closest city? Your business would be an impressive illustration of the power of SEO and the success that comes with high visibility.

If you want to be at the top of the results page but you aren’t sure where to start, give us a call at (213) 254-7001. That’s what we do. Our mission is to help your business dominate the internet.

Powerful Local Marketing Guideline

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:28:43 GMT

Powerful Local Marketing Guideline

What is localization strategy?

It’s marketing with a focus on attracting customers from a specific location. Every business can benefit from a powerful, local marketing strategy. It’s as true for large corporations as it is for local ‘mom and pop’ operations. Consider the example of A Company. It’s one of the largest plumbers in the United States, and has more than 30 locations.

Now the plot twist. If you didn’t know this, and heard one of their famous radio commercials, you’d think they were a locally owned company. That’s because the owner and founder Thomas A localizes every commercial by providing hour and location information of the stores located in that region. The technique is used to drive local customers to those locations. There are other reasons to market locally as well:

You can connect with your audience in ways that larger competitors cannot.

You’ll have a better chance of landing in Google’s local three spots.

You can seamlessly combine online and offline marketing efforts.

To get local marketing to work for your business, try some of these powerful techniques.

Prepare Yourself For Local Online Search

Some of the most lucrative searches are local. When people are prepared to spend money, or find other ways to move through the sales funnel, they’re more likely to search out local businesses. Being prepared for local search is part of any local SEO and marketing campaign. You can take the following steps to do that:

Complete your Google my Business profile.

Include all of your location and hour information on your website, and make it easy to find.

Complete your company’s social media profiles and include location and contact information on those as well.

Maximize Local Events

Most communities have at least a few major events throughout the year. These include sporting events, concerts, charity events, and festivals. If you can find a way to tie your marketing to these, you can really strike gold. Some event localization strategy examples include:

Contact event organizers about sponsoring the event.

Set up a booth or find another way to be present at the event. Give away swag and use it as a reason to collect email addresses.

Hold event themed contests and giveaways.

Donate gifts or food.

Make your team a visible presence at charity events and volunteer opportunities.

Write content about local events for your website and blog.

Write Locally Focused Content

Content localization is a key component of any local marketing effort. One of the most important things you can do in your localization marketing efforts is to write content that is optimized for local keywords. It can help to create a list of locally optimized, long tail keywords to focus on in your content. This can be as simple as incorporating city and other location names into your keywords. Think of the ways that you search for local businesses, and apply the same strategies to your own content.

It’s also important to create content that is relevant to your local audiences. Learn what topics your target customers care about, then create content that meets their needs. If you’re trying to reach local audiences in markets outside of your own, this is the time to consider localization services.

Localization professionals understand the traditions, culture, and needs of people living within a specific area. They can help you tailor your social media posts, web pages, blog posts, ads, and other content so that your messaging is appealing to locals. The best way to connect with localization services is often through review sites such as Pick Writers where you can learn more about these companies before selecting one.

Connect With Local Media And Influencers

Influencers can be extraordinarily helpful in connecting your business with a wider audience. The same is true for local marketing. The only difference is in who you choose to work with. If you can identify local bloggers, writers, reporters, even other locally owned businesses, work to create relationships with those folks. If they’re willing to partner with you in some capacity, that can carry quite a bit of weight with local audiences. Some influencer, localization strategy examples include:

Searching for local HARO requests.

Guest blogging.

Writing articles for local publications.

Contacting local media with press releases and pitches.

Use Geo Targeting in Your Ad Campaigns

Both Google and Facebook have location targeting options if you decide to use their paid advertising services. This way, not only can you create marketing and advertising content that is locally optimized, you can ensure that it gets to the people who are in that location. Keep in mind that this doesn’t only include people living in a certain area. You can target people who travel to your area, work there, or who have recently visited.

This helps you to create a personalized marketing experience for your locally targeted audience. Your content will seem that much more relevant to your theme, and will be more likely to drive traffic to your landing pages.

Promote And Solicit Local Reviews

The one thing that is more likely to influence your audience than your own content is the word of your own, satisfied customers. Fortunately, customer reviews tend to be very locally targeted by their very nature. They usually include location and contact information as part of their metadata. Customers tend to use locally relevant keywords in their writing as well. In addition to this, many review sites organize reviews according to location.

You can capitalize on this by quoting local and linking to local reviews on your social media pages, landing pages, and web content. You can also encourage satisfied customers to leave positive reviews as part of your local, target marketing campaign.

Final Thoughts

Whether you’re a local business that needs to connect with your target audience, or a global operation trying to gain traction with communities around the world, you need a local marketing strategy. By applying the tips listed above, you can increase your chances of connecting with local audiences through your marketing efforts.

4 Key SEO Considerations to Focus on 2019

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:28:40 GMT

4 Key SEO Considerations to Focus on 2019

The passing of each year brings new search engine algorithm updates and other changes to SEO, and 2019 is no exception to this. This always begs the question, near the beginning of each year, of what aspects of SEO you should concentrate on in order to maximize your results. When it comes to staying above your competitors on search engine results pages (SERPs) and maximizing your impression to people viewing those SERPs, the following pointers should be helpful.

1. Focus on What Actually Appears on SERPs .

This could be called on-SERP SEO and is also known as no-click searches. Anytime you type a search into Google, you don’t just get a list of links comprised of a few words. You’ll see a link, and then you’ll see a short blurb mentioning information about the link related to what the person searching typed into the search engine. Sometimes this little blurb on the SERP actually answers the searcher’s question, so they don’t bother clicking on the link to go to your site. Depending on what you’re searching for, Google will even appropriate content from websites and put it at the top of the SERP so searchers don’t even need to scroll down to see your listing. This doesn’t help you since you’re trying to get people to click through to your website where you’ll sell them on your product or service. To counter this trend, you need to increase the amount of real estate your listing gets on SERPs and make them more compelling. If you’re advertising a physical store, you might try using Google My Business and manage your locations along with ensuring the consistency of your NAP information. You also want to target answer boxes and making video content can only help. If you have a local business, using Google Posts is another good idea.

2. Keep Writing Quality Content That Helps Your Customers.

This is not exactly new advice, but it’s more critical than ever today. You should emphasize the creation of content that answers questions and solves problems that potential customers may have. Perhaps they won’t click through to your site on this particular search because your content on the SERP may answer their question. That being said, they may see your website linked at the bottom of the answer they were looking for, and this will increase your authority and credibility in your field and the chances that they will go to your site at some point if they need more information.

3. Make Sure Your Site Is Technically Sound.

Even with the best content, you may still be deprived of the top spot on a SERP featuring your best performing keyword if your website is not as technically optimized as possible. This means making sure your webpages load quickly, ensuring mobile-friendly pages, handling any Javascript rendering issues and making sure your site is easy for Google to crawl. You should invest in a tool, such as Screaming Frog or DeepCrawl, that examines your site for errors regularly and then stay on top of fixing them.

4. Webpages load quickly

Voice Search Is Overrated for Now. Voice search has been all the rage recently, but it has one big problem. Let’s say you’re the marketing manager for your company. There are analytics tools that will show you the return-on-investment (ROI) that you’re getting from just about any type of marketing efforts you undertake. The problem is that there’s no such reporting yet on the effectiveness of voice search optimization. When your higher-ups ask you about the ROI on your voice search marketing spend, “I don’t know” is probably not an answer they want to hear.

Utilize Schema Markup for your Website

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:27:22 GMT

Utilize Schema Markup for your website.

Schema markup is critically important if you want people to see an enhanced description of your webpage that appears in search results. The markup utilizes a unique semantic vocabulary in microdata format. Believe it or not, the big three (Google, Bing, Yahoo) collaborated to create the informative and helpful community of Shchema.org. Even the Russian company, Yandex, pitched in. With respect to Hummingbird and Rank Brain, Schema markup is a must when it comes to search optimization and digital marketing for local search.

Rank Brain is an AI program created by Google to help process search queries. An amazing amount of written language becomes mathematical entities and vectors that computers can understand. Hummingbird, on the other hand, has the ability to sort through an infinite amount of data and return the results that are most relevant to the search query.

Boost Your SEO with Schema Markup

Internet search constantly evolves, and markup is that latest evolution. It also happens to be one of the least used, most powerful, forms of search engine optimization available to website owners. Once your company solves the mystery of the markup, it’s becomes far easier to rank higher when people search for your product or service. According to industry stats, less than one-third of websites use Schema markup codes. This is good news for your company, but bad news for competitors. Think of all the websites that you won’t have to compete with.

An important fact about markup is that it goes beyond merely explaining what data says—it explains what data means. This is why site owners should step back, size things up, and take control of how the business is being understood by search engines. You have to learn how to talk to search engines in a language they can understand. Translating page content into a markup that search engines will understand includes the following.

1. First, you must produce the best page content. Then choose a markup class describing it as a standard group of properties.

2. Your markup codes will come in several formats including microdata, JSON, and RDFa. JSON, Javascript Object Notation) is the syntax for exchanging information that humans can easily understand.

You’ll become familiar with the term “rich results”. The terms rich cards, or rich snippets, are previous descriptions. Effectively using the markup rewards your site with results like right-hand side locations on the screen, local business information, and specific actions or panels on the right-hand side of the user’s screen. This works, especially, for local business SEO.

You can always count on Google to lead the way in making sure that users have the best online experiences possible. As such, Google has announced more than 10 elements that include best features and health graphs. Google also added documentation and a Schema.org vocabulary. In fact, Google bases its entire search documentation on structured data. Google has also recently offered several search features that include, but not limited to, movies, local restaurants, learning courses, recipes, image search badges, and job postings.

These are all based on structured data. Here’s what you may have already guessed! Google considers markup in its ranking and indexing algorithm. It all goes back to the fact that Google continually mixes things up to make sure that site owners provide the best experiences possible for site visitors.

Trooper Lab is committed to helping small businesses grow through SEO, Web design, video marketing, PPC/Adwords, social media marketing, and much more. We typically design websites using WordPress, and there are several rich-snippet plugins that we can build that yield the best results for multi-page websites. Contact us to learn more about what we can do to help your business thrive.

Critical Components of PPC starts with your Website Design.

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:16:05 GMT

Critical Components of PPC starts with your Website Design.

When many of us think about how our website design affects our success on the internet, we typically think in terms of its impact on organic search engine results. While this is certainly true, you should not neglect the importance of certain aspects of your website design when it comes to pay-per-click (PPC) listings as well. When you start a PPC ad campaign, your priorities may be figuring out what keywords to advertise under and how much to pay for each click under them as well as ensuring you have targeted ads for specific keywords. These are certainly critical factors, but you should also check the following design elements of your website to ensure they are not holding back the success of your PPC campaign.

Website Responsiveness

You may already be aware that having a responsive website is critical for ranking well under keywords in organic search results. Google’s algorithm has been checking websites for compatibility across a variety of internet devices for years now, and they like sites that also render well on mobile devices.

That being said, you’re paying for each click on a PPC ad. If the visitor initiated this click on their smartphone and your site isn’t responsive, they may be greeted with an awful jumble of text and images on the other side of their click. In other words, you more than likely wasted your money on that click.

Fast-Loading Webpages

When people click on a link to be taken to your website, it’s because they are looking for information or for a product or to have a question answered, and they want that information, product or answer now! On average, visitors will wait about 3 seconds for a website to load, and if it doesn’t, they click that back button and go back to the search results page to click on another listing and to give that other website their money.

Sound Technical Structure

If your website has technical problems that are giving visitors error messages when they’re trying to navigate to the information they want, this will only serve to frustrate them and make them go elsewhere. If customers report problems to you when trying to use your website, you may want to have a developer check it out from top to bottom for code errors or other problems that will hamper the user’s experience and, therefore, your success.

Appearance and Operation

When you look at your website, do you think “the year 2005 called, and it wants its website back?” If your site looks dated or amateurish, that won’t give people any confidence in doing business with you. A modern, professional looking website that projects the saying that “you only have one chance to make a good first impression” is critical in the incredibly competitive online world today.

Ease of Navigation

When people get to your website, they want to see a layout and navigation that enables them to promptly get to the information, products or services that they desire. Confusing navigation or too many clicks required to get where they need to go will result in them going somewhere else.

Why you need a website. Not just a Facebook page.

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:13:14 GMT

Why you need a website. Not just a Facebook page.

While working with Trooper Lab, the designers and developers, are commonly asked:

Why do I need a website?

To answer your question, we have provided some helpful information as to why you need a website and not just a Facebook page in order to have a better relationship with your target audience.

Why you need a website?

Social media and in this case, Facebook, should be an extension to a greater digital marketing plan. While Facebook can provide beneficial information about you, Google is the primary source people use to find you. Consider your website as a home base that provides key information surrounding you and your business. With this information, Google’s search engine uses crawlers to locate keywords and links to track your website.

How to make a website

A website’s structure is another important factor we want to discuss. Every business is unique, and because they are unique we like to cater to each target audience differently. Here are three important factors you should know about making your website.

1. It should be easy for the user to understand.

2. It should provide information about how users interact with your website and its pages.

3. It should effectively and creatively represent your brand.

4. Landing pages should convert your customers, not defer them.

How Small Business Owners Benefit

With the right strategy your website will be able to define your brand more effectively than using just a Facebook page. Websites have many options to choose from creatively. Plus keeping a blog on your website gives you more content to benefit your customers and provides google more material to track your website with.

Keep in touch with site visitors and boost loyalty

we@growthcapitalfirm.com (Euna Avezov) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:03:37 GMT

There are so many good reasons to communicate with site visitors. Tell them about sales and new products or update them with tips and information.

Here are some reasons to make blogging part of your regular routine.

Blogging is an easy way to engage with site visitors

Writing a blog post is easy once you get the hang of it. Posts don’t need to be long or complicated. Just write about what you know, and do your best to write well.

Show customers your personality

When you write a blog post, you can really let your personality shine through. This can be a great tool for showing your distinct personality.

Blogging is a terrific form of communication

Blogs are a great communication tool. They tend to be longer than social media posts, which gives you plenty of space for sharing insights, handy tips and more.

It’s a great way to support and boost SEO

Search engines like sites that regularly post fresh content, and a blog is a great way of doing this. With relevant metadata for every post so search engines can find your content.

Drive traffic to your site

Every time you add a new post, people who have subscribed to it will have a reason to come back to your site. If the post is a good read, they’ll share it with others, bringing even more traffic!

Blogging is free

Maintaining a blog on your site is absolutely free. You can hire bloggers if you like or assign regularly blogging tasks to everyone in your company.

A natural way to build your brand

A blog is a wonderful way to build your brand’s distinct voice. Write about issues that are related to your industry and your customers.

7 Reasons Designers Should Be Fluent in SEO

Tue, 15 Oct 2019 19:03:35 GMT

6 Reasons Designers Should Be Fluent in SEO

A basic understanding of the factors that are important to having a website perform well on search engines is a prerequisite for a successful web designer. While having a nice looking website is certainly critical as well, many of the elements that search engine algorithms look for in judging where to rank a website are integrated into the design, structure and content of the site. The following are some real-world reasons you should be well versed in SEO if you expect to be at all proficient in successful web design.

More Traffic From Mobile Users

For a while now, Google has insisted that websites be responsive in order to rank well. This means responsive to different devices such as smartphones and tablets rather than just desktops or laptops. Anyone who’s not building mobile-friendly websites in 2019 is really behind the eight ball and is not someone you want designing your site.

Superior User Experience

We’ve all been to websites that have a clunky interface or that have pages that take forever to load. Perhaps it has a clumsy navigation structure that makes it take longer than necessary to navigate to the information you’re looking for. All of these types of issues add up to a poor user experience, and this makes potential customers abandon your website, which means less visitor engagement.

Greater Engagement

Search engines reward websites that people want to hang around on longer with higher rankings. This is the subject of visitor engagement. If your website has compelling content combined with the other elements already mentioned for a superior user experience, they will want to stick around and explore to have their questions answered or find out more about what you have to offer. Pages that people spend more time on are seen as having higher authority within their field, and this is why they’re higher than other pages on SERPs. This is why tactics from years past of simply loading pages up with keywords to spam the search engines no longer work.

Enabling Small Business to Compete

If you’re a small business, it’s hard for you to compete in most ways with larger companies that have more resources to bring to bear. You don’t have the endless budget to pay A-list celebrities to endorse your products or to take out national TV ads. It takes fewer resources to compete at creating an SEO-friendly website, however, and it can make you look like one of the “big boys” online. If you can’t hire a full-time staff to do this for you, you can work with an SEO agency that specializes in this.

High-Quality Traffic

Your end goal as a business is to get new customers to sell your goods or services to. First, you need high-quality prospects to communicate with so that you even have someone to try to make the sale to. A well-designed website that incorporates SEO elements will not only bring more traffic but will bring more targeted traffic that is likely to convert into a customer.

Higher Rankings

This is, of course, the end game of a successful SEO campaign: Higher rankings under those keywords that bring in high-quality traffic. A technically sound and SEO-friendly website that delivers a superior user experience with fast-loading pages, simple navigation and compelling content will come together to do this for you.

Stick out From the Crowd With Professional SEO

The above reasons for web designers to be proficient at search engine optimization have been brought to you by Trooper Lab Agency. We are based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania but have clients around the nation. If you are looking for a competitive advantage to boost your bottom line, that’s exactly what we are. We provide cutting-edge web design services that incorporate all the critical elements of SEO, so you are getting the type of traffic that grows your business. We can also handle all your other digital marketing needs, and we do so for budgets that are friendly to small businesses.