Is SEO dead? With so many companies shifting their marketing dollars and efforts from SEO to Social Media Marketing, some are left to wonder, is search engine optimization obsolete? In this day and age of digital communication via texts, Facebook, Twitter, and the likes of Instagram, building relationships with client and consumer hopefuls, can’t possibly be a bad thing if it’s done correctly. Right? It takes a dedicated and trusted social media manager, good strong strategies and proper management of the networks for social media marketing to really pay off.

Let’s assume you are performing social media marketing correctly and that you are building a good following in all the major social networks. You are babysitting the networks and responding to inquiries in a timely fashion and people seem excited. Are you converting these new “friends” and “likes” into sales? If not, why? Could it be that ALL of your efforts are going into social media and that you haven’t checked your website lately? Maybe your website is just not up to speed with what this technology savvy, social client base you’ve been diligently working on needs.

Guarantee: Times and strategies will constantly change. There are only so many hours in the day to complete all the necessary tasks of running and maintaining a business. One task that cannot be overlooked, ever, is SEO. Good, old fashioned, white hat search engine optimization. Fine tuning your content, titles and pertinent information on your website is crucial to an engaging website. With information on how the search engines utilize urls and meta-info being a bit sketchy, page titles, images and paragraph titles have to be engaging yet convey the correct information of the content quickly.

Might I suggest a Spa & Salon Day for your website? Spa & Salon Day? Really? Did a real live, experienced SEO/SMM strategist just suggest a spa day for a website? Yep. Sure did. Websites need a little love and pampering too. While social media marketing is an absolutely wonderful way to gain new clients, if your website can’t support your SMM efforts of traffic to your site, you aren’t going to ride the social revolution wave…at all.

Spa Day Specials for your website could be:

• Facelift: Does the content on your website need a facelift in order to utilize keywords representative of your company’s needs? Is the content of great quality? Is it engaging enough for the reader?
• Manicure & Tips: File down your titles and make them engaging, yet short. Are you page and paragraph titles suggestive enough to keep a visitor on the page?
• Soothing Eye Treatment: Does your website flash and blink and sliders make readers dizzy? Are images eye catching or distracting? Don’t forget some could be viewing on a mobile device.
• Microdermabrasion:  Scrub and remove that dead content that is no longer applicable.
• Full Body Massage: Does information flow in an easily navigable manner or do you have to “massage” it to get where you want to go? Do your menus and buttons still go where you think they go?

Spa Days can be expensive, especially when done right. But with regular website maintenance, hopefully you site can stick with spa treatments and not have to go the surgery route! Don’t forget….SEO IS NOT DEAD!

Melanie Ledbetter-Remy | Bizopia – Social Media Marketer

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Any small business owner understands you need to get your business in front of customers, but how do you do it on the web? You must first know where are the people on the web. The answer: Social Networks. To get in front of them, you must design your corporate website so social media platforms are integrated with your business website.

Interacting on social media has a dual purpose for a small business; first, to be where people are and second, to link back into your website to help your search engine optimization (SEO). The Google search engine indexes every tweet you make, so if you are talking about content that is important to you as a business on a daily basis via Twitter, Google is going to recognize you as an expert in that field. Social media engagement helps your ranking results for your website when you focus on keywords and that activity drives organic traffic back to your site.

Facebook is the first place for a small business to establish a brand presence and go social because Facebook is now the most visited site on the web, ahead of even Google. As a small business, you use Facebook to connect with clients and fans, spread your message, and differentiate your business from the competition. It is your opportunity to show the world why you are the best to do business with in your industry.

At first, our goal at Bizopia was to teach our Houston SEO clients to integrate their Facebook and other social media sites for their businesses themselves; however, we learned that most business people don’t have the time to get involved in social media for their company. Now, managing the social media for our Houston SEO clients is a fast growing part of our web design business.

We speak and interact on their behalf via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Blogs and Pinterest to spur their social media activity. It is amazing to watch their fans and influence grow across the Internet. This social media integration shows them online as the experts they are in their business and industry.

Just because a business has created a Facebook or Twitter account, doesn’t mean they’ve established a real online social media presence. You have to do it right. Your activity must be consistent and regular for people to take notice. Social media interaction must be timely to generate higher rankings and traffic on the web.

If you can’t find the time to incorporate social media for your business, let us show you how we can make your business more effective on the web.

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Gary Remy leads Bizopia as CEO, helping Houston small businesses get found on the web through SEO, Web Design and Social Media Optimization. Stay in touch with Bizopia on Facebook, following on Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or Pinterest.

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What is Search Engine Optimization?

SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the implementation of an online strategy to increase organic traffic from unpaid sources to the website. A successful SEO strategy achieves higher rankings for the site in search engine results.

How Does A Business Benefit From SEO?

Search engines, such as Google, Bing and Yahoo drive 85% of all website traffic.  Studies show that 79% of search users do not look past the first page of search results and 42% visit the top result only. In essence, to be found today online, a business needs to appear at least on the first page of search results for their keyword or main topic.  Using SEO strategies increases your chances of being noticed by organic search engine traffic and putting your business at the top of search engine rankings.

How is Search Engine Rank (SER) Determined?

The most popular search engine, Google, uses a custom algorithm to return search results relevant to the keyword.  Though the exact criteria used by Google to rank sites is a closely guarded secret, your leading Houston SEO firm, has developed our own SER criteria that moves customers to the top of the search engine results for specific keywords or topics.  We constantly adjust our custom strategy to reflect any changes in the ranking system made by Google, as they accommodate new technology and developments.

Can I Successfully Implement An SEO Strategy On My Own?

The basics of SEO are online for you to attempt and the SEO do it yourself approach can make an improvement in your SER. Many businesses quickly learn that SEO is not a one time set up or design, but requires an ongoing strategy to navigate to the top of SER and maintain that high position.  This requires specialized knowledge and dedicated time to react to the private, frequently adjusted algorithm used by Google.  When SEO is done poorly or incorrectly, Google may disregard the site entirely, leaving your business lost online.

Hiring someone to manage your SEO dramatically improves the online brand visibility of your organizations, which in turn drives potential customers to your brand and site.

How Do I Know The SEO Strategy Is Successful?

Before beginning, we conduct research to create a baseline for organic traffic, develop a strategy and target SER for later comparison.  After the SEO strategy is developed and implemented, the SEO firm tracks the search performance to assess the success of each step.  With the use of advanced analytics, frequent research and other custom tactics the results of the SEO strategy will be measured and tweaked every step of the way to reach that coveted first page or top SER.

How To Get Started?

SEO begins with an evaluation of current SEO strategies for the business including measuring any current success from which a custom SEO strategy may be developed. Once the website is created or redesigned using SEO strategies, other online activities may be recommended, including, link-building, pay per click ads, engaging on social networks, press releases and blog writing are implemented to increase the effective return of SEO.

Bizopia, the perfect place in Houston for web design & SEO, offers free website evaluation to get your business started with a new SEO strategy.

Lisa Jones

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When I am talking to business owners about their website, and why it is not ranking, many times I get the question, “ In order for your Search Engine Marketing services to work do I need to re-design my website?”  The short answer is no, but would you take a golf cart to Le Mans?  You don’t have to completely re-design your website, but we wouldn’t be talking if you were pleased with your website’s results so let’s take a look at the car (website) first before we discuss the fuel (Search Engine Marketing.)  Most business owners I meet with think they have addressed their website marketing needs because they have a website.  It may not get them business or drive much traffic, but the simple fact they have a website allows them to check off that task and wonder why their business isn’t growing. Many times their first website was built by a friend, child or part time web designer that has no clue about Search Engine Optimization.  The website may look good and talk about the products and services of the company, but without SEO architecture and content focus, the site will never rank in the search engines or on the clients preferred keywords.

So when you begin SEO marketing activity, it will improve the ranking of the website, but the results will not be near as successful if the website was built for SEO.  I like to compare it to putting high octane performance fuel in a go cart.  At the end of the day, it helps, but doesn’t get you there very fast. So my recommendation in most cases of a website re-design is to completely start over.  Build the website focused on the key words you are going after with a clear, focused, call to action.  The goal in any website is to have a visitor do what you want them to do, but they will never get that chance if they don’t find your website.  By building your website with the basic architecture of SEO: Keyword focused Title Tags, Keyword focused Header Tags, SEO Copywriting, Sitemap, etc. you can create a website or performance car ready to fly with online marketing activities.

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Welcome to Bizopia! The perfect place for website design, search engine optimization, and social marketing! The highly focused, Houston management team at Bizopia has been in the web design business since 1993, and has continued to grow with all the changes in the internet. With the advent of search engine optimization, and social marketing sites like Facebook and My Space, proper web design is a MUST!

Bizopia follows Google and Yahoo design strategies, and strives to keep all sites up to date through our SEO program on a continuous basis. Anyone can build a website today with all the software available, but not everyone can do it properly and guarantee you traffic to your site, thus increasing your visibility on the world wide web.

Bizopia offers packages with professionally designed, custom websites complete with blogs, search engine optimization programs, link building, pay per click advertising, social media optimization and old fashioned face to face contact with the people designing your site. If your website is your company’s face to the world, why wouldn’t you want a personal relationship with your website design company? Using a company that has proven search engine strategies for internet marketing purpose, pays off. We’ve been doing this in Houston for a LONG time!

Call today and see what Bizopia can do to help you GET FOUND and be successful on the internet!

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