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How Does SEO Work?:
A Beginner’s Guide to SEO

How Does SEO Work?
A Beginner’s Guide

If you own a business and you have been on the web you’ve run into the acronym SEO a few times. This relatively new idea has become essential to marketing and outreach for businesses in the Web 2.0 age.

Before we go too far the question “what does SEO stand for?” needs to be answered. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the direct translation. More useful to you, it means relevancy in the easy to get lost in the online world.

The usefulness of SEO has been debated and tested. But, how does SEO work for you? It drives e-commerce by putting you in front of people looking for what you offer within an area.

Now that we’ve touched on the why, this beginner’s guide will explain the basics of what SEO does and how.

How Does SEO Work?

SEO, as a term, bundles several vital components of the way the Internet works into one label.

This guide will explain the importance of off-page SEO and on-page. Off-page takes the form of indexes, searches, and backlinks. On-page works through website optimization and internal links.

Indexes

Unlike a library, the Internet changes too often to let people just look at the shelves and find what they want. It needs something beyond an alphabetical system to coordinate information.

Indexes link websites to each other. The more websites that reference a site, the more relevant to users that site is deemed.

To provide you with a result that fits your needs, relevancy force selects answers.

Searches

Search engines try to deliver the best information they can. To accomplish this task, they need to understand the relevance of information in conjunction with specific, or key, words.

The more of the right keywords you have appearing on your page, the more likely the algorithm powering the search will find you.

SEO engineers the most useful words so they are identified by the algorithm and return the right result.

Backlinks

Backlinks help both of the above. These links between sites show that not only does your site get accessed but it also relates back to other sites. The more integrated a website, the more relevance it has.

Backlinks both lend and borrow relevancy. Think of a community, the people that help out the most get noticed. The miserly fellow on the hill that only helps himself gets ignored, no matter his power.

Website Optimization

SEO also covers WPO (web page optimization). This process creates landing pages that load quickly. They also display the needed information to algorithm creators.

A useful webpage is one that loads quickly and efficiently. A landing page that is little more than a directory gets rejected over a page that delivers the goods.

You wouldn’t want to be given directions to a place where you can get directions. You would rather just go where you are headed.

Useful sites like WPO aggregates publish results of changes to individual sites. These aggregates help SEO engineers understand how the algorithms work. They can then develop better content and return better results.

Internal Links

While backlinks provide relevancy for the indexing and spiders, internal links re-engage people into your own page. These links keep people on your website by showing them how much more you have to offer.

Good internal links flow naturally. Remember the last time you found that you just spent an hour on YouTube or Wikipedia just idly searching ‘one more’? That is internal linking at work.

Get Noticed

The basics of understanding the question of how does SEO work are really common sense. SEO is just a complicated way of explaining to a machine why it should pick you. The technical aspects take a lot of explaining.

The best SEO comes from experience and versatility. Check out our team to see why we get results.

Local SEO is Crucial:

Local SEO is Crucial:
Top 5 Benefits of SEO

How is it that your competition’s website is constantly bringing in money and seeing thousands of hits per day? You may wonder this especially when your website is lucky to have 20 visitors a week and none of which interact, share, or purchase items.

The secret that your competition may be privy to that you’re missing out on is the wonderful benefits of local SEO. You might not be familiar with this term or may have a vague idea of what it means, but chances are you don’t realize the great implications for your business.

We’re going to take a quick look at what SEO is, how it functions, and what it might mean for your business! Keep reading for more information!

What Is SEO?

Very simply, SEO stands for search engine optimization. Most people hear this grouping of words and get a horrified look of confusion. It’s not as difficult as it sounds.

Although SEO can get complicated quickly, it basically uses popular search terms to increase your website’s rank. A high-ranking website means that it will be seen sooner than others, making the likelihood of visitors increase.

The ranking system will help lead searchers or potential customers to the exact business they need by using algorithms. This eases the frustration of customers by showing them what they want and lessens the number of calls about services you don’t provide.

Increasing your traffic is one of the biggest benefits of local SEO.

Why Local Matters

Local SEO allows your company to be seen by the local people in your area.

For example, a local plumbing company will want to focus on local SEO strategies. This is because they do not provide services outside of a certain radius. That radius is their target market and is the main place customers will be found.

While it can be assumed that all traffic is good traffic, traffic that will lead to sales is ultimately desired. This is why a local SEO strategy matters — your market is seeing your website and services, calling you first — before your competition!

Breaking Down the Benefits of Local SEO

Now that you have an idea of what and how SEO works, let’s look a little deeper into why your business needs it.

1. Local SEO drives website traffic. Increased traffic means increased exposure in your area.

2. It’s free or very low-cost. If you don’t have the time to use online tools, hiring a company to produce your content and optimize your website will yield the same, if not better results.

3. You’ll have a wide reach. When was the last time you used a phone book? Probably not in the last 10 years. Instead, you use your phone, tablet, or computer to research any service you may need. Your customers are doing the same.

4. You will see increased conversion rates. As mentioned, you can easily attract people from all over the world to your site — but why does that matter if they’re not your target customer? You will reach new local customers and convert them to loyal customers with a few simple strokes of your keyboard.

5. Aside from being low-cost, implementing a local SEO strategy is easy!

Taking Advantage of SEO

Having an idea of how SEO works and why you should use it is great. However, finding the time to create the content you need or use the right keywords can be confusing at first.

Instead of worrying about how you will find the best search terms, think of some compelling ideas for content. Speak with an SEO and digital marketing agency to find out how the benefits of local SEO can take your business to the next level.

The ABCs of eCommerce SEO:
The Top eCommerce SEO Tips

The ABCs of eCommerce SEO:
The Top eCommerce SEO Tips

Ecommerce is growing. Online sales accounted for $2.842 billion in revenue in 2018. That number is anticipated to rise to $4.878 billion by 2021.

Ecommerce has been seeing an increase of over 20%, year after year. It doesn’t show any signs of slowing. In fact, it’s speeding up. Ecommerce is predicted to make up 17% of all retail sales in the United States by 2022.

With so much money to be made, it’s no surprise that there’s a lot of competition for eCommerce sales. So how you can you help your business stand out from all the other eCommerce companies out there.

eCommerce SEO.

SEO is always important to keep in mind when you’re counting on search engines to bring you traffic. There are some things that are particular to eCommerce SEO, however.

Let’s look at a few of them.

What You Need To Know About eCommerce SEO

At the end of the day, your eCommerce site is set up for one purpose – to make money. Making money online is a little different than selling physical products in a brick-and-mortar shop, however.

Write Great Product Descriptions

One thing that’s unique about SEO for eCommerce is your catalog and your storefront are the same entity. That means you need to bring your copywriting A-game to your site to show up in the search engines and convince customers to make a purchase.

First and most importantly, you need to make your products sound appealing. Use exciting, actionable words and phrases that entice your customers to click. Or you could solicit the services of eCommerce SEO experts who are masters of this kind of enticing language.

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It’s just as important to consider the search engines when you’re constructing your eCommerce SEO strategy. You need to think about what words and phrases people will be looking for when they’re searching for your products.

Work that phrases into your product descriptions in an organic way to show up in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

Include Product Names in URL and Page Titles

SEO is a technical discipline as much as a creative one. You need to think about things like web crawling and site maps as much as writing engaging copy or having great photos of your products.

Top-level domain data, such as page titles and URLs, are the first thing that Google looks for when assigning SEO ranking. Bonus points if you’ve submitted a sitemap, which serves as a road map and guidebook of your site to Google.

You want to make things as easy as possible for search engines and consumers alike when considering eCommerce SEO best practices. Once you get used to thinking along these lines, it becomes second nature. Then you can create new content and copy in accordance with the current state of SEO.

Looking For eCommerce SEO Services?

At Fusion SEO, we specialize in all forms of SEO. We keep tabs on the changing state of Search Engine Optimization to bring the latest, most cutting-edge SEO best practices to you and your clients.

If you’ve got an eCommerce business you’re looking to grow, check out our list of eCommerce SEO services. We’ll handle the SEO so you can focus on growing your business and satisfying your customers.

Hyperlocal Marketing Tips: How to Make it Work for Your Business

Hyperlocal Marketing Tips:
How to Make it Work for Your Business

“Near me” searches are 34 times more popular today than they were in 2011.

If you are a business operator, you would be foolish not to take advantage of the trend toward local search activity.

Hyperlocal marketing is the art of targeting specific customers within a very narrow geographic area.

How can you make the trend work for you? Let’s take a look.

1. Get Googlin’

Over 81% of phone users are doing local searches. People are out on the town and looking for a local establishment where they can grab a cup of coffee or mail a letter.

It has also been found that folks are beginning to expect that Google will automatically bring up results that are within their geographic area without their having to add keywords such as “near me” or “close by.”

If you are a small business owner, your goal is to take advantage of this trend and drive more foot traffic toward your doorstep.

The first step you should take is to have a comprehensive Google My Business Page.

You will want to be certain that your business address, phone number, and hours of operation are correct. It also helps to have a high-quality photo that prospective customers can view. In addition, your My Business page is a great spot to take advantage of third-party services, such as reservations through Open Table.

2. Time To Review

Many people looking for a new local business, such as a take-out hotspot, will read reviews before jingling the bells above your entryway.

Reviews also account for 13% of how Google decides to display your results. It is a leading factor behind distance, relevance, and prominence.

The best way to get awesome reviews is to build the best possible customer service experience. Be sure that they all walk away from your counter smiling and fulfilled.

You can also ask your staff to encourage customers to leave reviews or hang up a few tastefully-placed signs requesting that patrons write reviews about their experiences on Google.

Respond to as many reviews as possible to increase their visibility.

3. Use Google Ads

If you have a Google Ads account, you can make it work for you with hyperlocal targeting.

Simply click on the “settings” tab under your Google Ads account. Go to “advanced search” and choose the central part of the radius you would like to target.

Using the physical location of your business as your center point, choose a much smaller radius than the default 20 miles. Consider using a radius between one and five miles to get a lot of local searchers. Think carefully about the keywords that people might be using when searching up businesses such as your own in your area.

4. Fun With Facebook

You can also use Local Awareness ads on Facebook to select the age and gender of customers you would like to target. The Local Insights feature will let you know how well your ad is doing. It will tell you the number of people with mobile devices within your radius, and how many of them have seen your ad.

Hyperlocal Marketing

Long before the days of electronic marketing, business-owners made local advertising work for them by targeting local customers who were looking for services that were only a short drive away. Today, hyperlocal marketing allows businesses to use Internet searches and social media to encourage customers to honor them with their business.

For more information on local searches, read our blog today.

Finding the MVP of SEO: How to Choose the Best Local SEO Agency

Finding the MVP of SEO: How to Choose the Best Local SEO Agency

Interested in hiring an SEO company? Good idea!

Building your SEO and focusing on your website is a great way to grow your business and expand your companies reach. We’ve finally entered a time where ignoring SEO could be detrimental to the success of your business.

But how you do you choose the right SEO agency and what should you be looking for when making your selection?

Read on to find out how to pick the MVP of SEO so your investment pays off!

Be Realistic

Any agency who promises you the world is probably exaggerating and may come up short.

Managing your expectations and being realistic about what they can do for you is the number one job of an agency during the beginning of the interview process.

If they’re honest and realistic about what they can achieve and the time period in which they can achieve it, they’re probably good on their word and are sharing this information based on their experience with other clients.

If an agency is promising huge growth in a short period of time, they’re likely just saying this to earn your business and won’t be able to back it up with real productivity.

Do They Get You?

It’s important your SEO agency understands your business, what you do and where you want to go.

They need to have a strong grasp of how your company functions and even have an interest in the goals and aspirations you have for your business in order to work best for you.

If an agency doesn’t understand the ins and outs of your business, how can they possibly optimize your site and strategize to increase your ranking?

Content Plan

Speaking of strategy, any agency you hire should have a plan of attack when it comes to content.

A strong contender will have done research on your site to familiarize themselves with your brand and how your site functions prior to your first meeting.

In doing this, they should come up with an approach and a content plan to present you with moving forward.

Check out the agencies website beforehand. How does their content appear? How is their site structured and is it impressive? If not, how can they possibly do it for you?

Communication

How does the agency communicate? Has your correspondence with them so far been easy and clear? If not, you may want to move on as this can be an indicator of what’s to come.

They should be easy to reach, available and quick to respond to emails and calls. This is the sign of someone on top of their game and eager to please their client.

SEO Audit

The right company should be able to do an overall audit on your site to determine problems, quality of content, duplicate links and more.

When you meet with them, they should have done an initial pass at your site and be able to explain to you ways in which they would improve it.

One of the first steps any good company will do once they’ve been hired is complete an SEO audit before making any additions to the site since problems within the site itself could be one of the reasons you’re not ranking.

Select the Best SEO Agency

With the tips above, you’re on your way to finding the best SEO agency for your company.

Watch for signs of overpromising and underdelivering and be sure they see your vision, understand the mission of the company and can make your goals attainable with their expertise.

Contact us for a free SEO consultation and be sure to check out the rest of our blog for more tips today!

Interested in chatting with one our specialists?

Local SEO Tips:
Improve Your Results with Our Help

Local SEO Tips:
Improve Your Results with Our Help

Search engine optimization (SEO) currently drives business success in our high tech world.

In fact, about 33% of traffic clicks on the top search result, and the percentages decline rapidly as you move down the list! Optimizing your website means making it desirable for the search engine to bring it up on the list when people search for specific words and phrases.

Do you need local SEO tips to boost your business page? Learning a few tricks can help you put your website in a better position. Let’s take a look at how you can do this!

6 Local SEO Tips

SEO takes attention to detail. Here’s how you can improve your digital marketing campaign with local SEO.

01

MOBILIZE YOUR WEBSITE
Have you ever clicked onto a link from your phone only to find a jumbled page? The search engine dislikes when that happens as much as you do. A 2016 statistic estimated that nearly 60% of Google searches happen on mobile devices. This makes creating a mobile-friendly page imperative if you want to keep your business in the game.

02

CATEGORIZE
In the back office of your website, you will see the option to categorize your content. Do not pass this up or take it lightly. The more relevant categories you choose, the more the algorithm will consider your page for different searches. However, Google will penalize you for choosing irrelevant categories, so don’t try to cheat the system. Do your homework. Look to see what categories your closest competitors use. This way, you know what direction to go in.

03

SIGN UP FOR GOOGLE MY BUSINESS
Do not pass up the opportunity to create a Google My Business profile. This free tool makes you more searchable, increasing your exposure to potential customers. This tool allows you to create a searchable profile for your business to tell your customers a little bit about what you offer. It also makes interactions easy via any device.

04


RESEARCH KEYWORDS

Choosing the best keywords will make a world of difference to the search engine. Your keywords must relate to your topic. The more closely they do, the better Google will rate your site. You also want to choose keywords and phrases that people actually type into the search bar. This takes research. Think like the customers you are targeting. Use Google’s keyword checker to see how the words you want to use rank.

05

BUILD A BLOG
Building a blog for your site allows you to organically create constant content. The algorithm loves sites with fresh, relevant content. It provides you with a passive advertisement that people will find useful and therefore pay attention to. Blog posts also give your customers something to share on their social media.

06


LINK UP

Create external links on your website or in your blog to non-competitive businesses. Links will both build a friendly rapport with other companies, but it also makes you more important in the search engine’s eyes. You can easily add them in on a blog post when writing something relevant to what they offer. Google also pushes up pages that are linked to by reputable sites. So, find ways to get your business link to another site, because this is how to do local SEO the right way. You can do this by asking them to share news as a trade-off for sharing their news. Or you can hire a company to write a guest blog post for their site, that you pay for, with a link to a page on your website that you want to highlight.

Hire an SEO Company to Help

Using these local SEO tips will most definitely help your business rank higher. However, they require time, effort, and compliance with the silent rules.

Most companies find this difficult to take on alone. We want to help! Contact us for a free consultation.

Local vs. National SEO:
What’s the Difference?

Local vs. National SEO:
What’s the Difference?

Need help in understanding the difference between national and local SEO?

Wondering what type of SEO is right for your business?

If you’re new to search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, you may not fully understand what the difference is between local and national SEO. While many things are similar between the two, there are also some key differences that you’ll need to know about.

It’s important to understand these differences so that you don’t waste your time, energy, or resources on implementing SEO techniques that won’t help move your business forward.

Ready to learn more? Below we’ll explain the key differences between local and national SEO.

The Target Audience

One of the biggest differences between the two types of SEO is the audience you’ll be targeting.

With national SEO, you’ll be focusing on reaching anyone and everyone that you can, even if they aren’t likely to walk into your physical business location anytime soon. With local SEO, you’ll target people who are in the same regional area or city that your business is.

A small local business that doesn’t sell products online will be wasting their time and effort if they attempt to target the entire country. Likewise, an e-commerce shop that ships all over the country will most likely want to target a national audience with their SEO efforts instead of people in a specific city.

The Keywords

The keywords you’ll choose to use with local SEO and national SEO will also differ quite a bit.

With national SEO you’ll create valuable content and target long-tail keywords that relate to your industry, your products, your services, and your area of expertise. With local SEO, you’ll do the same. However, you’ll also want to add in geographically relevant keywords as well, such as the name of your city, your state, or your region.

Geographic keywords and locally-optimized content will help serve as a signal to Google of where a business is located and what visitors they should send to it. Without these keywords, a local business may get visitors who are looking for their products or services but are on the other side of the country.

What Is an SEO Site Audit and How Can It Benefit You?

What Is an SEO Site Audit and How Can It Benefit You?

Usually, when you think of auditing, you think of tax audits – a very stressful and often unwelcome process. But what if we told you an audit could be voluntary and beneficial to your website or small business?

SEO audits are a prime example of that. “What is an SEO site audit,” you ask?

It’s a way to completely revolutionize your website and how people find and view it from the outside. It could turn a drab website that no one’s heard of into the next big thing ready to be shared and talked about.

Today, we’ll take a look at how this type of audit could turn your website around, gain you new customers, and boost your business!

What Is SEO and Why Do I Care?

First, we should probably cover the benefits of SEO in the first place. After all, if you don’t even know what it is, why should you even care about auditing for it?

SEO is “search engine optimization.” A website that excels in SEO is easily discoverable by individuals who are searching online for a particular thing:

KNOWLEDGE
PRODUCTS
SERVICES
ENTERTAINMENT
ETC.

Good SEO means that you appear higher and more prominently in online search results. This means you get more traffic to your website and a better reputation with big names like Google.

This is how you become more trusted and credible in the eyes of your viewers. 

What Is an SEO Site Audit? 

So if we know SEO is a good thing, what is an SEO site audit exactly?

An audit is an examination or inspection. It’s like quality control, and in the case of SEO, it means making sure that everything is on the up and up.

SEO professionals have been making websites more search friendly for years now, and they understand the little details. For example, they know how to focus on local search results and make websites more mobile friendly for usability. 

How Can an SEO Audit Benefit Me?

When a professional performs SEO site audits, they look for a number of important things:

KEYWORDS
SEO-FRIENDLY CODE
USABILITY AND DESIGN
STRONG CONTENT
CURRENT ISSUES

ETC.

Through various techniques – from keyword research to entire website overhauls – an SEO audit will be able to increase your revenue and even find new sources.

For example, an audit can reveal peak traffic times, whether it be days of the week or time of the day. This can be valuable information for you to fine-tune your content release schedule.

Adjusting your website’s structure can also help keep the flow of information smooth and intuitive. This can keep users on your website for longer increasing minutes per visit and leading to conversions – or sales, leads, etc. 

Choose to Be Audited and Improve Your Website

Auditing generally has a pretty negative connotation. We don’t want to be forced into it, but voluntarily auditing your website can greatly improve traffic, viewership, sales, engagement, etc.

If you’ve been asking yourself, “What is an SEO site audit,” then hopefully you understand how much it could potentially benefit you. If you’re interested in boosting your website’s search results, ask us about a free SEO consultation to get started! 

Using Social Media Promotion Services to Your Best Advantage

Using Social Media Promotion Services to Your Best Advantage

Are you one of those people who often wonder what you should do to increase the number of likes or followers on your business page? Well, no need to look any further!

Today, we’ll let you in on the secret to how you can use social media promotion services to your best advantage, and also how these services can help you achieve that goal of hitting the 1 million follower mark.

Marketing Across Platforms

Right after you set up your business online, you ask need to first ask yourself: how to bring more attention to your website? The answer is, of course, social media. But not just one, you need to tap into several if not all social media platforms intelligently. Despite the common misconception, only being on Facebook is not enough – even though it sure is a good first step.

Now, managing multiple social media channels is certainly not easy. Engaging an expert will probably lead to more gains in a shorter period of time. An expert is able to determine which social media platform will be ideal for the promotion of your business and its industry.

For example, LinkedIn is mostly used by businesses and professionals. Snapchat is Generation Z home ground. It is up to you to decide which platform will be most beneficial for your industry.

Establishing Your Marketing Goals

To start posting content and updates right out of the bat is not a wise decision. It is vital that you decide your marketing goals well beforehand. Whether you want to generate sales, build your brand image, or engage customers, you must think of social media management as a marketing strategy.

Your approach doesn’t have to be focused on just one goal. But a multi-pronged approach may not always yield dividends either. Once you are sure what goals you want to target, it will become easier to come up with relevant content.

Approaching the Target Market

An interesting feature that Facebook offers is limiting advertisements to a specified audience. If you own an online business of say statement jewelry items, it makes sense that your target market will be young women and girls. Not only can you sort by age and gender, but social media platforms also allow in-depth customized targeting which includes demographics, geography, and even behavior as limiting factors.

Going after a specific target audience makes sure that your ad reaches as many relevant people as possible. If you have paid to market your product but it’s not reaching the right people, chances are that you’re just wasting your money. A knowledgeable social media specialist is able to market your site to the best possible demographic.

Visuals, Discounts and Loyalty Programs

Once you set up a social media campaign with a purpose in mind, you must decide what your content will look like, what the pitch will be and what call-to-action to go for. Social media users are impatient and you have a mere second to grab their attention before it shifts on to something else. Appealing to them visually by using striking images and bold colors is imperative.

Another good tip to retain this attention is to offer discounts and loyalty programs. This gives consumers a good reason to follow you and associate with your brand.

Social media marketing is all that it is said to be. If you’re unable to leverage it to your benefit, perhaps an expert set of eyes can help. Keep these directions in mind, and opt for a marketing firm that is aware of the latest social media trends.

Exploring Keywords: How to Add Keywords Naturally in Your SEO Blog

Exploring Keywords:
How to Add Keywords Naturally in Your SEO Blog

Whether you have a new blog that has not been receiving much attention online or an old website that has not been updated to maximize search engine traffic generation; using efficient SEO methods can change all that.

One of the best ways to use SEO is by using appropriate keywords within the content on your website. Whenever a user searches for the particular keyword that describes your content, ten different pages show up just on the first page. If you are not dedicated enough to use SEO techniques to make sure your website ranks in the first few search results… well, let’s just say no one goes to the second page of Google search results.

Read this article to understand everything you need to consider when adding keywords in your SEO blog.

Keyword Research

If you are new to SEO blogging, you must do your research in detail before launching into a project. The keywords you use should be able to represent your content in the best possible way. However, simply selecting keywords of your choice is not enough.

Search volume and competition play a very important role in your prospective success in the SEO world. This is the number of times a keyword is looked for on search engines in comparison to others.

If you choose a keyword that has a high volume of searches, you will find plenty of competition. It may even be so competitive that your website ends up not showing in search results at all.

That is why choosing keywords is all about balance: the search volume against the competition.

Getting Rid of Old Ideas

It’s a misconception that the more keywords you have, the better you fare in the SEO world. If you have looked into keywords even a little bit, you will have come across the term ‘keyword density. This is an outdated concept, and your keywords should flow in your content organically.

If your blog is too stuffed with keywords, your website will automatically get bumped down in search results. Do not increase word count just for the opportunity of adding more keywords.

Quality Content Trumps Everything Else

The most important aspect of SEO is to write quality content that engages and offer value. Your keywords should not look like they have been placed out of context, but should organically meld with the content as one.

Keywords can bring a reader to a website, but they will not be able to make them stay for long if your content is substandard. Your search engine optimization plans should not affect the quality of content your use.

Using keywords is the backbone of SEO and no matter how many experts say it is useless, take it from us that keyword research and optimization is vital if you want your content to rank. But, the strategy can backfire if you look for shortcuts. So make sure you look into all these prerequisites before setting out to explore and use keywords! You can also an SEO firm to assist with this on a monthly basis.

FusionSEO

300 E. Lombard Street, STE 840
Baltimore, MD 21202

Old Bridge, NJ 08857
Phone: (866) 349-9099