Timothy Carter

SEO is all about increasing organic traffic to your site. So what do you do when your traffic suddenly plateaus? This is a common problem among many growing businesses. They see steady traffic growth for months and then all of the sudden it starts to flatline. Even if your SEO strategy hasn’t changed, seeing diminishing returns like this isn’t uncommon. The question is why. Well, many things can lead to a traffic plateau. In this article, we’ll go over the most common reasons and explain what you can do to fix them: 1. Increase SEO input As you probably know, SEO is a long game. You have to continually work on it to see steady results. SEO inputs fall into three main categories: Publishing quality content Earning quality backlinks Making technical on-page optimizations These are easier said than done, but they are crucial to long-term SEO. Without them, it’s practically guaranteed that your traffic will plateau or sink. So make sure you are working on them at a consistent or increasing rate. 2. Make sure content creation doesn’t outpace link velocity Another reason for traffic plateaus is content creation outpacing link velocity—the rate at which you earn backlinks to your website. If you keep putting out new content but few people are linking to it, that’s a signal to Google that your content isn’t that great, which means your impressions might drop. To fix this, you need to have a good link building strategy. Here are a few you can try: Help A Reporter Out (HARO)—This site connects industry experts like you to reporters looking for sources. If you get quoted, you can win a backlink. Broken link building—This involves finding broken links on other sites, informing the owner, and offering your site as a replacement link. Creating linkable assets—This means creating high-quality content like infographics, case studies, and ultimate guides to attract natural backlinks. Social media promotion—This means sharing link-worthy content on social media to attract more backlinks. Guest posting—This means offering to write content for another website so you can include a backlink to your site. And the list goes on … The key is to try out various strategies or engage link building services that work for you so that your link velocity keeps up with your content velocity. Source: https://bloggingx.com/link-velocity/ 3. Update outdated content Outdated content could also lead to a traffic plateau. It’s not enough to keep publishing fresh content. You also have to make sure your old stuff stays up to date. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. We recommend doing a content audit at least once per year and then updating anything that’s no longer relevant or accurate. This could be old statistics, incomplete information, or just an old date. For example, you might update the headline “Best SEO strategies for 2020” with the current year. 4. Resolve on-site errors & search engine penalties Your web traffic could also be slowing down from search engine penalties. Google penalizes websites for spam, duplicate content, unnatural backlinks, and more. They do this manually or whenever they roll out a new algorithm update. To see if your site has received any penalties, check Google Search Console under “manual actions” for flagged items. Among other things, you may need to delete duplicate pages, fix 404 errors, 301 redirect errors, disavow low-quality backlinks, or remove hidden text (aka keyword stuffing). 5. Improve site loading speed Page speed is also important to Google because it’s a major factor in user experience (UX). So if your website is slow, your SEO will take a hit. To check your site’s loading speed, type the URL into PageSpeed Insights or a similar online speed test. Keep in mind that websites naturally run slower as they develop with more pages and content. The same is true if your site has too many ads and pop-ups. So do whatever you can to clean up your site so that it’s optimized for loading speed. Also, make sure your site is optimized for mobile. Over half of web traffic comes from mobile devices these days. So mobile speed is becoming more important to Google as well. Source: https://www.daniloaz.com/en/5-most-important-reasons-to-increase-your-websites-loading-speed/ 6. Repair site structure Poor site structure will also make your web traffic plateau. If Google can’t understand how your site is organized, they’ll demote it in search rankings. So it’s vital to keep your URL structures, XML sitemap, and internal linking in good condition. URL structures and XML sitemaps help Google site crawlers make sense of your site, while internal linking helps spread domain authority equally across your site’s pages. As your site grows, it’s important to keep it organized. 7. Fix other technical issues Lastly, there are a lot of other technical issues that could be causing a traffic plateau. They include 404 “page not found” errors, improper redirects, server issues, unoptimized images, and more. To fix these, run your site through a broken link checker like the one by Ahrefs to detect broken outbound and inbound links, optimize images to render quickly, and run a site audit. Any technical issues should be addressed sooner than later. Fixing a traffic plateau Ultimately, coming out of a traffic plateau takes time. You can’t expect it to go away immediately. But if you check for the issues listed above and fix what you find, you’re off to a good start! And if you need a professional SEO audit, we’re here to help. We can look under the hood of your website to give you a comprehensive view of the top 200 on and off-site Google ranking factors that could be causing a traffic plateau. Contact us today for a free consultation.  

If you want to be one of the top-ranking websites for vital target keywords, you need to have a lot of informative content on your site. How do you know what to write about on your blog, though? Digging into keyword research is one of the most important things you can do to decide the topics to write about. But how will you know if you have missed out on some great topic opportunities? One way is to perform an SEO content gap analysis to discover some of the ‘holes’ in your site content. This process helps you come up with more content ideas that will attract more traffic, convert browsers into customers, and offer more value to your site audience. Below is more information about how to do a content gap analysis. Content Gap Analysis Overview The idea behind an SEO content gap analysis is simple: Find gaps in your site content (vis-a-vis your competition) and fill them in with fantastic content. The process involves finding missing pieces of content that align with what your audience wants to see. When they see that content and find it informative, they are more likely to purchase from your site. Reviewing and analyzing the content on your site lets you see what could be missing that could increase the chances that site visitors become customers. Some of the things you will check during the content gap analysis are: Site pages Blog articles Landing pages Ebooks and white papers Social media content Understanding Your Content Compared To The Buyer Experience All kinds of people come to your website, and only some of them are ready to make a purchase decision. Many visitors simply are there for information; they are in the information-collection part of their journey. Or, they may be shopping prices. The idea is to devise creat content for every part of the visitor’s journey to become a buyer. Serious companies big and small create the most informative content with blog posts to bring in a bigger audience. Then, they create effective site pages on their site to convert users to buyers. However, there still may be gaps in the content where people who are thinking about buying won’t because they don’t see the create content they want. As you do an SEO content gap analysis, you should pinpoint if there is content for these parts of the sales funnel: Awareness Consideration Decision Success Awareness Awareness focuses on keywords that relate to an issue or problem the visitor is facing. The content answers key questions that address this issue and offers critical information but doesn’t make the viewer a customer right away. Consideration During the consideration phase, people compare solutions to the problem they have. They could check reviews, ‘best of’ blog posts, and comparison site pages that compare one product to another. One way to address the consideration phase is making content that compares what you offer to what competitors offer. Or, show that your product or solution is one of several option in a blog post round-up. Decision This is when you will see many landing ‘money’ web pages. These pages sell and are the last stop before the person buys from you. This page has more branding than the awareness and consideration pages. Success This is the content that assures your customer that their purchase will address their problem and give them the outcome they want. You might make this as simple as a Thank You page. Or, consider an email follow-up that provides support, how-to information, or asks for a product review. How To Do An SEO Content Gap Analysis Doing an analysis is more than going through pages and posts to find if you are missing any hot topics. This is a simple process that will find gaps in content and fill them with new, informative content. Map The Visitor’s Journey What are the steps the visitor needs to experience to get to the point of purchase? Take time writing down questions your visitors have, the options they may look at, what they check before they purchase, and the calls to action that will make them customers. For instance: An automotive repair shop may struggle to get enough customers in the door and compete with big-name repair shops So, the business owner looks for how to provide better services at a lower price to automotive customers They find articles talking about the best ways to improve customer service in a car repair business Some of the tips involve purchasing business productivity and client resource management software The business owner does a search for best CRM software and one of them is yours The business owner buys your product to make their service department more efficient As you can see in this analysis of the buyer journey, there are several places whee you can write new content or shoot videos that provide better content. Market Research & Ahrefs Content Gap Analysis You can come up with original content ideas by asking people want they want in a market research survey. Some questions you can ask in a market survey are: What are the biggest questions you have about the topic? What are the biggest struggles and pain points you have with the topic? What are some products and services you have tried before? Why didn’t they work out for you? What are the biggest benefits you look for in a product in this area? Where do you go for solutions? Another form of content gap market research includes looking at Ahrefs content gap tool: Analyze Site Content Your company probably has content on several platforms, so you should be sure the content on the site is aligned with your visitor’s journey to becoming a buyer. So, crawl every page on the site and find if they are aligned with every stage of the journey. Then, you can decide if you lack content that covers the gaps between the stages. For example, if you are a personal injury

Prospects in your area are looking for a criminal defense attorney right this very minute, but they won’t call you unless you’re on the first page of Google. Instead, they’ll call a competitor law firm – the first one they find. People who need a lawyer don’t have time to sift through multiple pages of search results. To capture criminal defense prospects, you need to get your law firm SEO on point, so you rank on the first page of Google. Achieving this goal requires a strong SEO and digital marketing strategy. Here’s what you’ll learn in this article: What is SEO for law firms? How your criminal defense law firm benefits from SEO The SEO components that get results for law firms How to implement a solid criminal defense SEO strategy SEO for law firms explained Search Engine Optimization, also called SEO, involves optimizing your website to make your web pages appear as high as possible in the search results for various search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. In other words, when users search for keywords and phrases related to criminal defense, they’re given a list of websites they can choose to visit. SEO helps your website rank closer to the top of those search results. When your web pages rank higher in the search results, you’ll generate more targeted traffic to your website, which will help you generate more leads. How SEO for law firms works Generally speaking, SEO works by optimizing your content to be what search engines consider relevant to what users type into the search bar. For example, when a user types in “criminal defense lawyer near me,” Google will provide several pages full of websites it deems relevant to that phrase. These pages are called the Search Engine Results Pages, or SERPs for short. Your goal is to optimize your content so that your webpages on the first page of the SERPs for the key phrases users type when looking for a criminal defense attorney. For users searching in Google, there are four ways you can become visible after a user’s search: Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business), Featured Snippets, PPC ads, and the SERPs. However, SEO only applies to Google Business listings, Featured Snippets, and the SERPs. PPC ads are entirely different. Before continuing the discussion on SEO, it’s important to understand why PPC ads aren’t part of SEO even though your ads will appear on the same page as search results. What’s the difference between SEO and PPC ads? You might already be running pay-per-click (PPC) ads on platforms like Google and Facebook. If you’ve been running ads, but you’re new to SEO, you’re probably wondering what the difference is between these two strategies. Both PPC ads and SEO will drive traffic to your website, but you pay for each click/lead with PPC ads. Professional SEO services aren’t free, but you don’t pay per lead. SEO is an ongoing process of optimizing content that perpetually generates traffic to your website, so long as you’re still visible in the search engines. You might pay to have content written and optimized, but once that content is completed, it will continue generating leads for free. SEO for getting your webpages in the SERPs Getting your webpages in the SERPs is the traditional and original way to utilize SEO. Known formally as organic search results, this is where you’ll encounter most of your competition. Although competition can be fierce, if you’re a small criminal defense firm, you can focus on local SEO and narrow down your target market to avoid competing with national law firms. Although national law firms also target local SEO, a professional SEO agency will help you get past this. There was a time when organic search results were the only pieces of content that showed up in search results. Today, that’s changed and there are two more types of content: Featured Snippets and Business Profiles. Let’s look at how SEO impacts each of these. SEO for your law firm’s Google Business Profile In addition to using SEO to get your web pages to rank high in the SERPs, you can also use SEO to get your Google Business Profile to show up on the first page of search results. Google Business Profile listings are shown above organic search results, which gives you an advantage in capturing prospective clients who may not scroll down. Sometimes this is easier than getting your webpages to rank, especially when you’re competing against large corporate law firms with million-dollar budgets. In other words, if you don’t have a large budget to rank your individual webpages above your corporate competitors, you can still rank your Google business listing and come out on top. Business listings show up in the SERPs in groups of three. If your listing comes up for a user, they will see a map showing the location of all three businesses, including yours. The more you optimize your listing, the higher it will rank in the list. You can also optimize your chances of getting clicks through positive ratings and reviews because your business listing will display your rating (1-5 stars) along with the number of reviews you’ve received on Google. The higher your rating, the better chance you have at getting leads. SEO for Featured Snippets Often referred to as position zero, Featured Snippets are brief snippets of text that accompany a search result at the top of the entire first page of results. These results are formatted in a variety of ways, including numbered and bulleted lists, standard paragraphs, and sometimes even tables. When you can get your web pages and content to appear in the SERPs as Featured Snippets, you have a better chance at getting leads because your content will be the first thing people see. You may have also noticed questions with collapsible answers in some Google searches under the heading “People also ask.” This is a beta feature in Google, and is similar to, but different

Are you looking to generate more organic traffic and improve your conversions? Start paying attention to and optimizing for your branded keywords! What is Branded Search and Why Care? A branded keyword search query is the one that contains your own brand name. This sounds easy but in reality it is huge. Imagine the situation in which a person starts typing your brand name into the search box: What’s their reasoning behind that? First and foremost: They know your brand. And this is where it gets so fascinating: These people may have already done their niche research and something prompted them to choose you. Or these are your branded ads target audience you invested your money into reaching on Facebook or elsewhere. Chances are, these people are willing and ready to buy from you. All they need is the final incentive. The pressure is real: Will your branded keyword search results incentivise them to deal with you or scare them away (or distract them by suggesting your competitors). And let’s not forget that many of those searches were supposed to be direct clicks. Not many marketers or business owners realize that major browsers today urge people to search when they are simply trying to type the domain name to get to a site. Both Safari and Google Chrome serve Google’s search suggestions when you simply type a domain name/company name in their address bars: [Google Chrome address bar urges you to perform branded search when you type a domain name] No wonder branded search is such a big deal: Lots of people land on branded search results trying to get the site. Others feel like researching a product they saw in an ad or in an article before making a purchase. In both cases: These are your hard-earned traffic that you already invested money and/orSEO  efforts into attracting. And now it all comes back to digital marketing search engine optimization( SEO) again: Whether that searcher becomes your actual customer or not depends on how positive and encouraging your branded SERPs look. Your branded keyword search is your biggest asset, and there’s no 100% over that asset. How to Optimize for Your Own Branded Search? Now that we know how crucial branded search is, let’s prioritize: Your brand’s name is your #1 priority Your branded Google suggestions are your core brand keywords to monitor closer. Everything else should be tackled when the above two are handled. Your brand name as a keyword What happens when anyone searches Google for your brand’s name? What do they see? When it comes to generating brand-driven SERPs, Google blends different search engine results (images, videos, People Also Ask, etc.), adds knowledge panels and imports results from social media (Twitter). As a result, no brand-driven search engine results page is identical to a different brand’s search result page. So, your first step is searching for your name (but I am sure you’ve done it already). From there comes your to-do list, for example: Claim your knowledge panel Answer questions from “People Also Ask” boxes on your site Link your site to your official social media accounts for Google to be able to find them Work on your brand-driven pages (mainly “About” page) Link to your brand-driven pages sitewide (e.g. Include a link to your reviews from the main nav) Your branded Google suggestions Your next step is understanding what Google suggests people search when they are typing your brand’s name in the browser’s address bar or Google’s search box. Obviously, Google’s branded suggestions are crucial on two levels: Most importantly, it can impact your buyers’ journey (your customers getting curious and going on a searching journey instead of going directly to your site) They signal your most popular branded searching trends Your branded keyword search suggestions may reflect: Navigational issues New potential customers willing to convert ROPO branded queries: People willing to research before buying Search for each of these keywords and create your plan of action for each one: Create a page on your site that targets each of those keywords Include a FAQ section and a FAQPage schema on those pages for those search snippets to stand out Create images and videos to optimize for blended search results (image and video carousels). In fact, you can easily convert your images into videos and optimize for both. It is also a good idea to create brand-driven lead magnets (e.g. a company story in an infographic format) as those rank well and attract links and press inquiries. Set up and customize your Youtube channel. Youtube videos rank incredibly well, so it can become your branded search optimization goldmine. Pay close attention to web pages that get featured for your branded keywords. You need to make sure you are featured for your track branded keywords search queries. Here’s a solid guide on how to get featured snippets for you to follow. Promote articles that speak of your brand and products in a positive manner. You want those to show up for your branded keywords search. Promoting your own assets that you can control is generally the best approach but you cannot have the whole top 5/10 positions owned by you, so adding other pages is a necessity. In some cases, you may have to create satellite mini-sites to control even more brand-driven results. These can be community-driven sites for your customers to talk to each other, sites featuring your customers’ feedback (in diverse formats), etc. You can create a separate website to curate your press mentions and connect to journalists. You can even register a .press domain for that using Namify. Your branded keywords Now that the two most crucial steps are being handled, look at the broader searching habits of your customers. What else are people searching when investigating your brand online? At this point you can treat your brand’s name as just about any keyword you are researching: Put it into your favorite keyword research tool and let it expand it based on searchable keywords people are

Building a successful SEO or marketing agency is highly dependent on scaling. In fact, that’s the name of the game. In order to grow, you have to keep adding new accounts. If you’re like most SEO agency owners, I bet you love to nerd out on SEO, algorithms, link building, content strategy, and all of the creative and technical components of SEO. But I also bet you don’t love sales. Sure, you love the actual sale (noun), but you don’t like to sell (verb). It can feel awkward, uncomfortable, and frustrating. However, it’s a necessary ingredient for growth. So, in this article, I’m going to share with you several of my favorite tips for winning more SEO clients using organic traffic strategies (or at least semi-organic) that don’t require cold calling or pitching random people. Think of this as SEO sales made eas-ier. Unique (and Effective) Strategies for Winning More SEO Clients Before you shift your focus to winning more clients, I’d ask you to pause and consider how many clients you want or need in order to accomplish your goals. The best way to do this is by setting your target revenue from client retainers and to work backward. For example, let’s say your goal is $30,000 per month in revenue. If you charge $1,000 for an average client retainer, that means you need 30 clients per month. And if you already have 20 clients, that means you need to add 10 more clients. Knowing that you need 10 new clients, you can set a time goal. Maybe it’s five months? That means you need to add two new clients per month for the next five months. In fact, that’s probably a solid goal to have indefinitely (if the goal is to keep a steady list of 30 clients). After all, you’re probably going to lose somewhere between one to two clients each month as accounts shuffle in and out. So the question becomes, how can you consistently add two new clients every month? (Or maybe that number is more aggressive for your agency. It could be five, 10, or even 15 new clients if you’re trying to scale a massive agency.) Whatever the case may be, you need a diverse toolbox that you can reach into to find new clients without having to be reliant on paid ads and cold calling. What follows are some highly-effective techniques that typically generate a pretty healthy ROI. Offer Free SEO Audits Providing an SEO audit service free of cost is a really simple and effective tactic that can be used to simultaneously identify the prospect’s needs and showcase your skills in a low-risk way. Assuming you have a process in place for auditing a company’s site, it shouldn’t take you more than 20 minutes to conduct a fairly in-depth analysis with flashy charts and graphs on things like SERP rankings, keywords, domain authority, backlinks, and errors. Ideally, you get the prospect to agree to meet with you for a 30-minute consultation where you go over the results and provide some commentary on the audit results. This also gives you a chance to build a relationship and potentially sell the client on ongoing SEO services to address the problem areas that were exposed in the audit. In reality, 90 percent of people who take you up on your free SEO audit offer aren’t going to become clients. However, that 10 percent can really make it worth your time. If you’re able to do 10 audits per month (roughly two to three per week), you can expect to add at least one new client per month. Hold Free Local Marketing Events In a day and age of online events, you can really stand out by hosting a local in-person event. This isn’t something you’re going to do every week (or even every month), but you may consider hosting one or two free local events each year. The key to these events is to make them about more than SEO. (No business owner wants to attend an SEO event.) Instead, make it about something more expansive and attractive – like marketing, branding, or lead generation. Invite a couple of other speakers or local entrepreneurs who aren’t direct competitors and host a half-day event where business owners can attend, ask questions, and network with one another. Win SEO Clients With LinkedIn LinkedIn offers fertile ground for SEO agencies and business owners. Yet very few are using it effectively. The problem is that most people treat their LinkedIn profile like a resume, rather than a sales/branding tool. Stop focusing on your LinkedIn “company page” – which nobody cares about – and start focusing on your own personal profile. (People connect with people – not businesses.) There are four main areas of your profile to focus on: Headline Most people simply put their job title here (like “Owner of My SEO Agency.” But here’s a pro tip: Use this space to display your own Unique Sales Proposition (USP). For example: “I help small business owners increase website traffic by 25% using my 29-point SEO checklist.” About Don’t use your About section to tell your autobiography.(The truth is people don’t care about your story right now – they care about how you can help them.) Use this section to communicate how you help your target audience. Start by painting a picture of the type of clients who come to you (including the pain they experience and the desires they have). Then focus on the benefits they enjoy after working with you. This creates a transformative narrative in the prospect’s mind. Banner You can think of your banner as your own personal billboard. It should complement your headline/USP. It’s a great place to include logos of past clients, a call-to-action, or even a QR code to a webinar or squeeze page with a lead magnet. Profile Picture It’s time to ditch the picture of you at your best friend’s wedding wearing a tux and a boutonnière. (You know…

Local SEO citations and link building strategies are essential for generating more traffic to your website. The right links can dramatically improve your search engine rankings, which in turn will help you grow your online business. In this article, we’ll share 50+ local link-building and citation strategies that can deliver massive SEO growth. Ultimately, you want to fulfill search intent for local searches. What is Local Link-Building? Local link-building is a process of building links to your website from other websites in the same geographic location. This kind of link-building can be extremely beneficial for local businesses because it helps them rank better on Google Maps and listings, which could increase traffic by bringing more visitors to their store or place of business. Link Citation Strategies: Link citation strategies are about making sure you’re not only getting links but also adding local citations back into the web so that Google and other search engines see those as authoritative sources linking back to your site and will index your pages higher up in local search results accordingly. Some types of ways you can create these local citations include providing information online such as reviews, testimonials, forums discussions, etc. Why are Local Link Citations Important? Local citation building is important for two reasons: first, it can help with your local search rankings in Google Maps and other listings services. Secondly, links that come from sites geographically close to yours will have a higher chance of being indexed by Google than more competitive international keywords. This means that if you’re running an online retail store in Detroit, Michigan, and are trying to rank better on search engines so more people find your site when they type “Detroit clothing,” then creating links from websites located within Wayne County (where the county seat is) would be most beneficial. Likewise, if you own a restaurant in Queens Village but live elsewhere outside of New York City like Manhattan or Brooklyn, local link-making should include web pages that are based in all of these areas. 1. Enter the Running for Local Awards If your business is located in a specific city or town, enter the running for local awards. This will allow you to create links from other sites that are also based in this area and eases the process of getting those websites to link back to yours. To find out what kind of events are happening near where you live that would be appropriate for entering into running for local award contests, check with your Chamber of Commerce or Google “Your City Name + Events.” Contact these event organizers via email and ask if they have any upcoming competitions scheduled; many may be happy to take either an entry fee (which can go toward their fundraising efforts) as well as a link on their website mentioning which category you’re participating in. 2. Get Local SEO Citations from Local Influencers Another great way to get local links is by discovering and reaching out to local influencers. You can find these people through social media, Google Earth, or aggregate websites. Whether you’re looking for bloggers in your industry that are posting about topics related to what you offer or other businesses nearby with a large number of followers on their Facebook page who could help share your content, it’s worth trying this local SEO strategy if you have the time. 3. Write a Review of Your Favorite Local Business Do you love a restaurant, store, or other local businesses? If so, then write them a positive review online and be sure to ask for permission first before posting it. There are many websites that offer “reviews” of local businesses like Yelp – but don’t just insert the link with no context; if possible, find out what kind of information they’re looking for in their reviews and provide contextual, local links relevant to your experience at this place. Who knows? Chances are, that business may enjoy the free publicity and link back to your local article. 4. Create a Local Resource Page on Your Website Another one of the great ways to get local links is by creating a “Local Resources” page on your website. This can include information like nearby businesses or services in your area that people might be interested in, such as restaurants, auto mechanics, pet groomers, etc. If you link to any of these places and they mention it back on their site – not only will this help with search engine rankings but also create more business for them from customers who find out about them through your website. 5. Browse Local Online Mentions You can do your own research to find these mentions or use sites like AllTheRooms, which will allow you to enter an address and see what other businesses are nearby – as well as some information about their rankings on Google Maps. If the site has reviews from others that have been posted for this business, then it could be worth following up with them through email if they’ve linked back to the review so you get those links pointing toward your website too. You can also check online mentions and ask business owners to link back to your website for a simple backlink exchange. 6. Get Local Citations from Local Guides Another way to get local SEO citations is by creating an account and adding your business information to local guides. This includes sites like Yelp or Google Business Profile, where you can create a listing for free; in addition, read the next sentence about how this strategy works well if there are already listings for other businesses that have their own website but no page online. If another business has one of these pages that they’re not using anymore – ask them politely if it’s alright with them if you use this existing webpage as your site’s main source of exposure (with permission) instead of investing time into building up a brand new URL from scratch.