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Author: Ashley Andreis

7 Facts You Need To Know About SEO

When it comes to SEO, there are many factors that determine the way your website is indexed and ranked by the search engines. That in mind, it’s obvious that by focusing on the right SEO techniques, you can maximize your marketing efforts and grow your business into a success.

But other than improving your visibility on the search engines, what else does SEO offer? 

Here are 7 facts you should know about SEO and why it’s so important for businesses when trying to take their brand to the next level.

1. Most traffic on websites comes from organic search

Organic search is currently the main source of traffic for websites. While you can direct targeted traffic to your website through paid ads or a social media marketing campaign, being visible on the search engines is always going to work in your favor. With organic search engine optimization (as opposed to pay-per-click ads) people will more easily find your website on search engines while they are looking for a product or service you provide. Making it more likely that they will convert from visitor to customer. No one searches for a product or service that they don’t want, so they’re already in the mood to buy. You just have to stand out among the competition. Additionally, when you rank on the front page of a search engine, you are showing potential consumers the legitimacy of your products or services because of your high ranking.

2. SEO is the best long term strategy to market your business

Results don’t happen overnight – organic search engine optimization takes time, patience, and consistency. While PPC or retargeting campaigns are great ways to reach your audience and sell more of your products, keep in mind that your ads will stop showing up the very moment you stop paying for them. With search engine optimization, that doesn’t happen. If your website is well optimized using the best SEO practices, it should continue to show up on search engines for months or even years to come. 

3. Good SEO is NOT expensive

Contrary to what many think, SEO is relatively cheap, considering the payoff. If you were reluctant to spend money to optimize your website for search, think of SEO as an investment. The sooner you invest in good SEO implementation, the sooner you’ll gain more visibility on Google and grow your brand for the long haul. 

4. SEO best practices are constantly changing

Did you know that ‘pausing’ an SEO campaign for too long can have a negative effect? While it’s true that SEO is a long term strategy to rank your business, what’s also true is that the search world is always changing. Google alone is known to make often algorithm changes. This means that, if you fall behind, getting back on track may be quite the challenge. 

5. SEO and User Experience are related

Few people realize that today, user experience is a big part of ranking well on search engines. Google already knows what a positive user experience looks like on a website and how to spot a negative one. The better your website is structured, the more likely it will gain more visibility. 

Google and other search engines take hundreds of factors into account when determining which pages rank highly in search engine results pages (SERPs). With that being said, today, elements of user experience have been rolled into SEO best practices. How easy is your site to navigate? Do you have quality content that makes visitors want to stay and engage? Is your site secure, fast and mobile-friendly?

Think of the partnership of SEO and user experience this way: SEO targets search engines and user experience targets your website’s visitors. Both share a common goal of giving users the best experience.

Some common website elements that impact both SEO and user experience are:

-headings

-easy navigation and site structure

-site speed

-mobile experience

6. Great rankings influence conversions

Customers today do a lot of research before buying something – whether it’s a product or a service. This is a big advantage! Not only does good SEO help you rank well in Google, but it allows you to send a positive message about your offer. Using this SEO best practice to outrank your competition will definitely have a positive effect on your conversions.

7. If you’re not on Page 1, you’re losing business

Obviously, if you’re not #1, someone else is! And that means you’re losing business… If you need assistance in improving your SEO, contact us at IFTS and we will help get you on the road to page number 1!

How To Get More Clients Using Facebook

The best social media platform by far that all small business owners should be on is Facebook. With over 2.6 billion monthly users, this social network absolutely dominates the online space. According to a study done by Pew Research Center, 74% of Facebook users visit the site every day, which is more than any other social network. Finding success with using Facebook to market your business isn’t hard, but it does take some time to figure out how to best utilize the platform to engage with your customers and drive more leads.

Running your own business can be very stressful on it’s own, but finding ways to get new clients and keep them coming in can be one of the greatest challenges. In this post, we will be sharing a few strategies that will help you get more clients through Facebook.

1. Create a Facebook page for your small business

It’s totally free to create a Facebook page for your business and it only takes a few minutes! Complete these 3 easy steps so you can begin to reel in leads and make sales!

2. What should I post on my business Facebook page?

Now that you have your page set up, what should you post about? Don’t be afraid to switch up your strategy and share different versions of written and visual content such as:

  • Tips and tricks
  • Blog posts you have written or from other relevant websites
  • Engage with other facebook pages and share their posts
  • Ask questions to engage in conversation
  • Share photos or videos that your audience would benefit from
  • People love to see what happens behind the scenes! Show them “a day in the life” or what it looks like when packing orders if that suits your business!

3. When should I post on my Facebook page?

Timing your posts depends on your audience and when they spend their time engaging on social media sites. You can post as many times a day as you want, but make sure to be consistent with posting at least one thing every day. The best way to figure out what the best time to post for your business is to test different times with similar content. Consistency with testing is going to accurately measure results so be sure to use the same or very similar content when it comes to testing so that your results are not skewed. If you want more information on specific times to post that may work for you, check out our Best Time to Post on Social Media blog. Here, we go into more detail on experimenting with your social channels to find the perfect time to engage with your audience and how to get started on the right foot!

4. I don’t have much time to post on Facebook!

I know what you’re thinking; posting on Facebook one to three times a day can sound overwhelming.. Especially if Facebook is not the only social platform you are active on! This is where a social media management tool comes in handy to take care of posting for you. With a tool like Hootsuite or Sprout Social to name a few, you can schedule all of your posts in advance, saving you time to spend on other areas of your business. Check out our previous post where we go into detail about the top 3 social media management tools to help manage all of your pages and profiles in one place!

5. Use Facebook Ads!!

Facebook offers paid placement ads on their website and mobile apps where your content, special offers, website and posts can get in front of customers with a few clicks. What’s even better is you can target your ads to a very specific demographic. Now you may be wondering how much it costs to run facebook ads. The answer to this question depends on your budget and your goals but you can allocate as little or as much as you want per day. Although Facebook ads can reach a mass group of users, don’t put your entire marketing budget behind Facebook ads. Test with a small budget and scale up from there as you find out what works best for your business.

6. Actively participate in Facebook groups

Join facebook groups where you feel that your ideal client might be present. For example, if you are a graphic designer, you might want to join groups that include bloggers or small business owners as these are people who could benefit from your services. Now, you don’t want to come off as spammy or self promoting right off the bat, so what you can do is just be outrageously helpful when people ask questions in the group. Group members will take note of your expertise and hopefully check out your profile that should be linked to your business’s Facebook page. This technique does require some time and effort, but is one of the best ways to get leads from Facebook.

These strategies will help you to increase your engagement on facebook and generate leads that will hopefully turn into loyal customers!

Top 3 Social Media Management Tools

A strong social media presence can help your business in a multitude of ways, but keeping up with posting on multiple social platforms can be a chore. Thankfully, there are social media management tools out there to make the job easier and help you manage every one of your social profiles and pages in one place, so you can spend more time on other aspects of your business. These tools are designed to save you time and help you build an audience.

In this post we compare the top 3 social media management tools, Sprout Social, Buffer, and Hootsuite, if you need help deciding which may be the best fit for you.

What makes a good social media management tool?

Buffer, Sprout Social and Hootsuite all cater to a broad range of social networks. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn – the four most popular social channels are compatible with all 3 of these social media management tools.

People mainly turn to social media management tools for the convenience of scheduling posts which makes it extremely easy and convenient when coordinating multiple campaigns.

Given the ability to schedule and post across all of your social networks at once is going to save you a lot of time- especially when you wear many hats within a business. If the convenience of posting to all of your social accounts at once isn’t enough, you also have the ability to tag locations on Facebook and add hashtags on Instagram posts.

Top 3 social media scheduling tools

  1. Buffer

Buffer is the most straightforward tool to use for scheduling your social media posts and also allows you to measure your performance on social sites, create reports, and gain insights to grow engagement.

Buffer supports the 4 most popular social channels: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and Pinterest updates can be scheduled for pro users.

Buffer is great for collaboration within teams – but only if you are willing to pay for a more expensive plan.

Buffer’s free version includes one user, 3 social media accounts and 10 posts per profile. Their Pro plan is ideal for those who are just getting started. This plan is $15/month and includes one user, up to 8 social accounts and 100 scheduled posts. An option for growing brands would be the Premium package ($65/month) where you can add up to 8 social accounts, schedule 2,000 posts and have 2 users. Now, Buffer has an ideal option for larger teams coming in at $99/month that includes up to 25 social accounts, 2,000 scheduled posts and 6 users on the account.  

  1. Sprout Social

Sprout Social is a great all in one tool for managing and scheduling all of your social media accounts through one platform. 

Sprout Social stands out for its ability to handle team interaction. Several team members can collaborate on drafts and you can distribute permissions or request approval before posts are published. Sprout Social also makes it easy to assign tasks to other team members. Although Sprout Social is the best management tool for team-based social media management, you have to pay the monthly fee per user.

Sprout Social offers a free 30-day trial. After that, prices start at $99/user per month for up to 5 different social profiles. They offer additional plans that include more profiles and features.

  1. Hootsuite

Hootsuite is the best management tool for scheduling as well as analytics. With this tool, you can connect 35 social networks including the top 4 – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. 

If you are looking to make use of the analytics feature, Hootsuite is the tool for you. Hootsuite will help you understand the results generated from your social posts to measure your performance. From there, you can generate reports to use within your organization.

Hootsuite works great for individuals as well as teams. You can assign access to team members and customize permissions for each individual user. You can even assign specific tasks to your team members (like responding to comments or incoming messages), then approve the outgoing responses before they’re sent.

There are 3 different plans available that include unlimited scheduling, where the difference lies in the amount of users and number of social profiles that can be connected. Professional plan allows one user and up to 10 social profiles. Team plan allows 3 users and up to 20 social media profiles. Business plan allows 5-10 users as well as up to 35 social media profiles.

Which social media tool is best for you?

Hoostuite takes the cake at being the all-in-one tool that has the biggest list of compatible networks. It offers more analytical tools that go just beyond scheduling your own posts. The business plans are moderately priced, so if you’re looking to use it within a large organization it’s likely worth it. For no-frills social media management, Buffer is the most straightforward tool that focuses on sharing your posts while it allows for simple team interaction. Buffer is ideal for your typical business that is just getting started and doesn’t have a ton of resources to devote to social media. Sprout Social ranks #1 as it has the best collaborative features of the three but it comes at a premium price point.