Tag Archives: SEO

What is SEO? An overview and definition

June 10, 2015 Andy Walker

…or said another way: What is Search Engine Optimization – if you don’t know what the acronym means

If you are unfamiliar with the term SEO – or if you have heard about it but not exactly sure what it is, then here’s an overview and definition so that you can understand what it is used for and even explain it to someone else, like an expert. (See reference site)

A search engine is a web site like Google or Bing or Yahoo. Its where you can find resources on the Internet by entering search terms. Simple terms like “organic dog food” or more complex phrases like “where in Tampa can I find organic dog food”.

The search engine will provide a list or web sites that answer that question and ranks them in order of relevancy. So the top site on the results page should be the best resource to answer your query. This is achieved by analyzing all kinds of criteria about each web site. The search engine scans web sites across the Internet and then indexes them based on the key words that they are about.

So what is search engine optimization or SEO for short? It is the process by which a web site owner customizes their web content pages – including the home page – to make them appealing to search engines looking for a match for specific keywords. And by creating appealing content that get’s shared and linked.

How is this done? There are three basic steps, although there is much more to SEO than just these, but they are the start of a strategy.

STEP 1: Research keywords

The first step in any SEO strategy is to identify what keyword or set of keywords (often called a “keyword phrase”) to optimize a web site and its web pages for. Learn more about seo linking strategy on our site ExecutiveSEOschool.com. Choosing the right keywords will result in large volumes of traffic arriving on the web site if they are keywords that are typed into a search engine frequently. LEARN MORE about keyword research

STEP 2: Optimize keywords on a page

This process involved editing text and programming code on a web page to help search engines recognize it as a good page to rank for a particular set of keywords and to list it in their search results. LEARN MORE about on-page optimization

STEP 3: Get linked

This process – also called in-linking – is the work done to get other websites to link to your web site. It can be done by listing a site on free directories, getting mentions in other peoples blogs, getting media mentions and in some cases buying links (although this can sometimes be ill advised) on prominent web sites. LEARN MORE about In-Linking

STEP 4: Track and analyze

This process is about evaluating what keywords you have been ranked for on Google and Bing and then looking for ways to improve these rankings through optimization and in-linking.

STEP 5: Create valuable content and continue to optimize

After an initial execution of steps 1 to 4, your ongoing job will be to create great content on your web site that positions you as an expert on the web in the areas that you specialize in an what to be known for. According to Atlanta SEO company specialists, this is critical to your success in SEO. If you want high rankings on search engines you MUST become a content creator and update the content regularly.

Of course these steps only give you a basic overview of what SEO is, but should now have a basic understanding of the process and why its important. To learn more, join our Ultimate Digital Marketers email list. You will receive a free copy of our ebook Digital Marketing Secrets Revealed ebook. To order it, CLICK HERE. There is a whole chapter dedicated to SEO in the book.

Want to learn more about SEO – we set up this SEO blogger site as a resource

How to pick the right keywords for SEO

May 29, 2015 Andy Walker

Picking the right keywords for search engine optimization is one of the most important steps you can take in SEO. It can lead to volumes of traffic arriving on your web site for free if you do it right. If you do it wrong you’ll end up with a trickle of visitors and a lot of wasted time and effort.

The best way to start your research is to make a list of the keywords – or more accurately “keyword phrases” you think a web search would type into a search engine such as Google or Bing to find your web site. Then search for them on Google and see what web sites and content come up. If sites that you compete with come up then you’re likely on to the right keyword phrases.

Quick Keyword Research Strategy

The next thing to do is to try combinations and variations on the keyword phrase and see what Google suggests in its pop out search menu. These are phrases a known to be searched on in Google index and likely have good traffic behind them. For example, start typing “dog food” and Google will suggest common searches that use that keyword.

keyword research on google — Use Google to see what keyword phrases are auto selected

For the time-pressed SEO, this could be all that you need to determine what keyword phrase could be valuable.

Of course it doesn’t tell you the best keyword phrases or the search volume you’ll likely to get by winning a top spot with this phrase. But this is a quick keyword research strategy that can be done in a few precious minutes.

Google’s Keyword Research Tool

Google has a nice free keyword research tool called Keyword Planner which is built into Google Adwords. That’s the search engine’s paid keyword ad suite and it is a good place to do your SEO keyword research.

Using it you’ll get a good sense of what a particular keyword is worth per click and what the search volume is for the keyword phrase.

To find it visit Google Adwords (click) then log-in with your Google account (a Gmail log-in will work) or create a new one because you will need this for a Google Analytics account and Google Webmaster.

After logging in to Google Adsense, click the “Tools” menu to the far right, then choose the research option you find most appealing. I like the “Search for new keywords using a phrase, website or category” option.

great free keyword research tool — Google Keyword Planner is a handy free keyword research tool built into Google Adwords

Paid Keyword Research Tool: WordTracker

At Cyberwalker Digital we like to use WordTracker, a paid that runs $27 to $69 per month depending on which plan you choose. The base plan works fine unless you plan to do international search engine optimization and need multiple country data.

WordTracker lets you input keywords to find related and suggested keywords that are getting good search volumes. Once you have identified a series of phrases you can use a secondary tool to determine search volumes. It also lays out for you several key indicators as follows:

VOLUME: This is the number of searches estimated for the keyword phrases per month.

COMP: This is competition rating. The higher the number the more competition there is to win a high ranking on this keyword. “Cars” has a volume of 1.2 million searches per month and a COMP value of 45.22. So that would be a tough keyword to win. Of course the pay off would be high. The keyword phrase “iphone 6” has more than 6 million searches but a COMP value of 35.65. This value is handy to compare similar keywords however. Use the volume and competition values to determine which is a better keyword phrase to chase.

IAAT: This means “In Anchor and Title” and shows how many web sites have the keyword phrase in their page titles and linked in inbound links from another site. It’s an indictor of keyword popularity and shows what you are up against. If the IAAT is a high number you are for some hard work to win ranking on the keyword.

KEI: This is Keyword Effectveness Index and goes up when the keyword popularity increases and goes down when there is lots of competition. You will never see a KEI larger than 100. You want high volume and low competition so a moderately rated KEI is likely to be attractive. Use it to compare keywords too.

paid keyword research tool WordTracker — Paid keyword research tool WordTracker

The Ultimate Keyword Research Strategy

So what to do? Design a keyword phrase portfolio that has a blend of low volume keywords that are easy to win and moderately high volume keyword phrases that you have a shot at with some effort.

You might want to add a few “golden” keyword phrases that would would love to win. Tracking these will give you an indicator of how successful you are against top competitors. In a niche these are fun because with time and with great content and persistence you can win them. They are the golden eggs you can attain. If you can win national single word keywords (like “cars”) then you’re doing really well.

Even a regional win like “cars for sale in Tampa” will take some effort. If your business has a local angle then its worth making this kind of keyword phrases of of your golden eggs.

Bottom line though: start with the easy stuff. Cut your chops. Learn what works and get more aggressive as you develop your skills. And be sure to celebrate every win as your organic search volume grows.

How to do on-page SEO yourself

March 17, 2015 Kay Svela

Here’s a quick tutorial that will walk you through how to do on-page SEO yourself. It will tell you where you need to place your seo keyword phrase to optimize your web pages for best results with search engines. If you want the full information and process, order our free 60-page book, called: Digital Marketing Secrets Revealed, at the bottom of this page. However if you really want to increase your online traffic with up-to-date internet marketing strategies without spending much money, webdesign499 offers Best Priced In South FL

How to do your own on page optimization

1. META and TITLE tag:

There are a series of tags in the header of each page – between the tags that contain information that describes the content on the page. The two tags you should focus on are the <TITLE> tag and the META DESCRIPTION tag.

The TITLE tag contains the words that show up at the top of your visitors web browser. They are also an indicator of page content. In other words, this is what people see when they pull up a description of your site. So, it’s a good idea to use language that’s enticing along with placing your keyword phrase here. Your page’s keywords should go in here.

They should also be the first words in the META DESCRIPTION, followed by no more than 160 characters. (Google doesn’t pay attention to anything past 160). You will find the tital tag and meta description tag on the back end of your WordPress site below the text box.

The META DESCRIPTION tag also describes the pages content and is used as a summary preview when the page is index by Google. Here’s what the title and meta tag would look like on the back end of this article.

Title Tag Example: <title>How to do your own seo</title>

META Description Tag Example <meta name="description" content="How to do your own seo? This quick-read article will give you the basics on seo.CLICK HERE." /> *Quick tip: Put the words “CLICK HERE” at the end of all your meta descriptions. It’s a call to action that emphasizes the web searcher click on the link and go to your site.

2. URL tag:

Make sure your keywords are in your URL or web page name. Keywords in a URL are a great indicator of the page’s content so Google will use this as a key indictor on ranking the page. On the back of your WordPress site you can edit your url by clicking on the edit button beside the permalink under the page or post title. See image below for placement. As you’ll see, the title of the post and URL have the same keyword phrase.

3. <H1> and <H2> tags:

Your seo keywords should appear at least in one set of the headline tags on your page using the <h1></h1> tags. Be sure to use <h2></h2> or <h3></h3> subheads through the article too and sprinkle related keywords in these. If you don’t know much about web code putting a phrase in h2 tags is easy.

And so you are clear what h2 tags do, if you look at the bold headlines in this article, for example where it says “how to do SEO yourself” above, that’s an h2 headline. You can size headlines easily and here’s how:

When you are in WordPress writing an article, flip over to text mode by clicking the “Text” tab at the corner of your text box (beside where it says” Visual” – top right of the screen). Then, locate the phrase you want to bold. Put the h2 tag code around it. That looks like this: <h2>How to do your own SEO</h2>

4. Image ALT tag:

Using one image for each page or post is essential for seo best results. Search engines look at the “ALT” tag description of the image. Your keyword phrase should be placed in the alternative tag box. This is what the back end of the image looks like on this post.

5. Body text:
Your keywords should appear three to four times through out the body text on a page. Feel free to use synonyms. Use this Keyword Density tool to ensure the density of your keywords is done. If you put too many keyword phrases in your text, the Google algorithm will penalize you. This practice is called keyword stuffing. A lot of seo’ers tried to trick the system, but Google’s been adapted to deal with this.

As you can see, it’s fairly easy to learn seo yourself. If you have any questions give us a call or order the book, which includes up to 30 minutes of free coaching.

If you’d like to learn more about SEO, order our 60-page ebook: Digital Marketing Secrets Revealed. Its free! To get your copy of the book now, click here:

How to optimize your materials handling website

March 16, 2015 Kay Svela

On-page optimization is the process by which you edit the content and the source (programming) code of a web page to ensure that a search engine identifies the page with the keywords that you want the page to represent.

When done successfully, on-page optimization will position a page on the front page of a search engine for the keywords optimized for.

It’s not necessarily a difficult process, but it does take a great deal of time. Especially, if there are multiple pages of content that require optimization. And, the more pages you optimize, the more you increase your chances of those pages landing in the top ranks on search engines.

On-page optimization requires some basic knowledge of HTML, which is the technical programming language that makes web pages work. However, you don’t have to be a web guru to learn it. If your site runs on a content management system like WordPress, then your knowledge of HTML can be nominal.

This article will show you how to optimize your materials handling website for search engines. It will also show you examples of how an article on RaymondHandling.com was SEO’d.

How to optimize your materials handling website for search engines:

There are six areas on a web page that can be enhanced and embedded with keywords to optimize that page. They are:

#1:H1 tags: One of the most important places on a page that needs to be optimized with the keywords or the keyword phrase you have selected is the H1 tags. H1 tags are reserved for the biggest and most important headline on a page. Any given page should only have one set of H1 tags. These tags should be wrapped around the headline, which heads the content on a page.

When you write your headline there are important things to keep in mind:

1) The phrase you are optimizing for should appear as far to the left of the headline as possible. Said another way, the keyword phrase should consist of the first part of your headline.

2) The headline needs to be human readable. Anyone reading the page should not have to think that the headline is written in poor English. It should be a perfectly formed phrase that reads naturally. Failure to do so, will produce weird looking web pages that people will hate reading and search engines won’till like. However, this strategy will backfire over time.

#2: Keywords in your web address or URL: Google puts high emphasis on keywords that appear in the web address of your web page. If you have a web developer that manually creates the name of the HTML page make sure those keywords are part of the HTML file name. Each word should be separated with an underscore or a hyphen.

If your company uses a content management system such as WordPress, it automatically turns your headline into the name of your HTML file and this becomes part of your web address or URL.

The URL for the article featured in the previous example (Figure XX) titiled: “Best racking for my warehouse operation”, would be:

http://raymondhandling.com/best-racking-for-my-warehouse-operation

#3 – Body text: When a search engine crawls your page it will look for keywords in the body text on the page. The keyword phrase that you select for this page should appear several times in this text. The rule of thumb is to ensure that it appears at minimum once and preferably 2 to 3 times. One school of thought is that one of these instances should also be bold faced to show the search engines that it is important text for the page.

Watch out for SEO companies that aren’t reputable. They often engage in a practice called keyword stuffing. If the body text contains the keyword phrase too many times it can work against your site. If the Google algorithm detects this is the case, it will penalize you for the behavior.

It’s always a good idea to use synonyms. Google’s algorithm picks up on variations of words.

#4 – IMG tags: <img> tags are an HTML code used to define images embedded in your web pages. This tag tells a web browser where the image file is located on the server, as well as, its height and width and any styling information on how to treat the image on when it is displayed.

An often overlooked parameter in the IMG tag is called ALT. This parameter is used to describe the image in the event that the image can’t be displayed. It is also used by screen readers for the blind to help describe the image.

#5 – Title tag: In the header of your HTML file all pages typically have a tag set called <title></title>. The words between these tags will show up at the top of your browser window. Or, in the case of a browser window with tabs, it will appear as the tab title. Google and Bing play close attention to the contents of this tag so you will want to ensure that your keyword phrase appears as the first few words. One top SEO expert suggests that failure to put your keywords here will guarantee that your website will not rank on Google’s first page of results.

You will also want to ensure that you use no more than 60 characters in this tag. Google ignores anything after 60 characters. So, keep your title tags short and sweet.

The content of your title tags also shows up as the headline used to describe your site listing in Google results. If the title tag is not clear, Google has been known to rewrite it for display results.

#6 – Meta description tag: This tag also appears in the header section of your HTML file. The contents of this tag are used to describe your web site in search engine listings. If this tag is not defined Google will usually take the first 10 to 15 words of the first paragraph of your body text and use that as a description in the search engine listing. You have 160 characters to play with here. Your keyword phrase should appear as close to the beginning of this text as possible.

The killer SEO tactic the experts use: In-linking:

In-linking is perhaps the most important and perhaps the most overlooked technique in SEO. The top experts know the power of in-linking and use it to great effect.

It’s the practice of getting other web sites to link to your web site. This is really important because Google and Bing use these links to calculate the value of your web site and web pages.

A link to your web site from another site is a vote of confidence. You can think of in-linking like this: A link is like a restaurant patron that says they will return to a restaurant. Would you eat at restaurant where one customer provided a recommendation or that 50 customers recommended?

It is important that you spend some time getting third parties to link to your site. This is especially true when it comes to highly competitive keywords.

Here are a few quick methods for generating links:

1. Find similar sites: Search for sites in Google that match keywords you want to be ranked for. Email them and suggest your content. Offer it to the them for use on their site in return for a link back to yours. Or suggest where they can link from their site directly to yours. Obviously competitors won’t link to your content, but others might.

2. Share on social media: Share great articles on social media. People who appreciate the material may link it to their sites or blogs.

3. Business listings: List your site on business listings sites.

4. Press releases: Issue press releases about new products and services to press release services. They will link to your web property. Often search engines will pick this content up and list it.

5. Media coverage: Provide your expertise to media in your industry -– trade publications or blogs or business sites. If you are interviewed, ask for a link to your web site.

6. Link bait: Link bait is content on a web site that is hard to find, provides rare information and that people naturally share. This content will get linked to from other web sites, when it is discovered.

Want to learn more about digital marketing? Order a free 60-page book (and ebook): Digital Marketing Secrets for companies in Materials Handling. CLICK HERE NOW or click image below:

SEO keywords for materials handling companies

March 16, 2015 Kay Svela

Keyword research will help you determine the keywords that your materials handling company should optimize your site for to produce the most traffic. SEO experts spend hours doing keyword analysis. This helps them determine which keyword phrases are best for optimizing a specific page on a site. It also ensures that the effort put in around optimization doesn’t result in unreasonable amounts of time and effort.

Optimizing your web site for high-value keywords can be a waste of time. Especially, if you are not a national brand. People are searching fo regional information and Google sorts content based on the searcher’s location. This is especially true when it’s a mobile search.The next section lists things to keep in mind when selecting the best keyword phrases.

SEO keywords for materials handling companies:

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you are selecting keywords for that will best attract the right demographic within the materials handling industry:

Optimize for local. That means cities, counties and states (or provinces) that your web site serves by including the add on “in Chicago” or “in Montana” or even in a neighborhood like “in Haight Ashbury” for local businesses. If you are a national brand be sure to provide regional information, such as store locations, regional offices and the like. People like to deal with local. Support your regional reps and drive traffic to them.

Think like a searcher. Pick keyword phrases they may type in to find your product or service. Poll your local barista, your neighbors and your potential customers to help you understand how they would find you if they were searching online.

Don’t chase single word keywords. That is, unless you are patient and have a huge budget to put behind content development. And remember: No content related to that term? No traffic!

Google rewards content-rich web sites. Sites rank higher if they generate voluminous and helpful content that demonstrates that they are the topic expert. This strategy will guarantee that over time you will earn traffic from Google for all kinds of keyword phrases.

Research how difficult a keyword phrase is to win. Use a tool like Wordtracker.com. Don’t chase the hard to wint keywords. Optimize for the low-hanging fruit first then work on moving up the ranks on the more competitive keywords and keyword phrases.

A handy free research tool is Google Adwords. It can be used to find related phrases and keywords to the most obvious keywords and keyword phrases. You don’t have to buy ads to use it.

When you understand how to select appropriate keyword phrases you can share this information with your SEO agency.

Want to learn how to do SEO yourself? This free 60-page guide will teach you: Digital Marketing Secrets for companies in Materials Handling. CLICK the button below to get yours now:

Materials handling websites: SEO

March 16, 2015 Kay Svela

Why you need SEO:

Sales experts agree that warm leads are easier to sell to. It’s better to invest time and money into generating warm leads than to spend your time prospecting, making cold calls, and attacking cold leads. The idea is to make people who want your services and/or products come to you.

At CWD, we believe it is the No.1 way to grow your business. 70% of our business comes from SEO, while the other 30% is from referrals and other methods.

You can use SEO to bring traffic to your web site for free (if you invest the time and energy to learn it and do it yourself) or for a nominal monthly fee if you outsource it. Most agencies charge per number of keyword phrases. Prices ranges from $500 to $2,500/month or more, usually with a one-time upfront setup fee for initial implementation.

You can appoint someone on your team to do SEO. However, it’s important they have the time to devote to the task. They also need to understand how to do it properly. The rules for SEO change frequently, because search engines like Google change the rules about how they rank web sites often.

Learning SEO is a moving target. What is true today may not be true tomorrow. Or, next month. And, certainly not next year. Search engines like Google and Bing set the rules. (And, if you are wondering about Yahoo its search engine is managed by Bing)

By using SEO, within 90 days, if not sooner, you’ll be getting a flow of free traffic from search engines to your web site. That’s if you execute properly.

Materials handling websites: SEO

Hiring an agency to do SEO for you:

A reputable SEO firm will do the following:

1) Identify keyword phrases for you and explain to you how and why this is important

2) Know the difference between responsible SEO practices and poor practices, such as keyword stuffing (explained in the next section)

3) Provide you with performance assessments that show results. You’ll know if your agency is doing well if you do a search using the phrases your company has provided and you find your company on the first page of Google and Bing.

4) Get you tons of business from the web!

SEO basics: What you need to know about SEO even if you outsource it

SEO strategy is broken down into three areas:

1. Keyword research

2. On-page optimization

3. In-linking

These three magic concepts, when understood and applied, will start to produce free traffic from search engines to your web site.

To learn how to SEO your web site, order our free 60-page book: Digital Secrets for companies in Materials Handling. You’ll also received a ebook version. CLICK the button below:

SEO keyword selection for cosmetic surgeons in Orlando, FL

January 21, 2015 Kay Svela

In today’s digital world, many of your potential patients begin their search for you on the web. They type in specific keywords phrases like “cosmetic surgeons in Orlando, FL” to find you. And so, if you’ve SEO’d your site properly, potential patients will find YOU at the top of the search rankings. That means, they are likely to visit your site and come to your clinic versus competitors in the area SEO is the #1 thing you can do to drive new business to your practice.

However, it takes knowledge and time to do it effectively. While you can do it yourself, if you’re not an expert or don’t have have the time, your best bet is to hire a professional agency to do this work for you.

Whichever route you choose it’s important to know a few SEO basics. Here are seven tips that are critical in learning SEO keyword selection for cosmetic surgeons in Orlando, FL:

1) Optimize for local. That means cities, counties and states (or provinces) that your web site serves by including the add on “in Orlando” or “in Orange County”.

2) If you are a national brand be sure to provide regional information, such as store locations, regional offices and the like. People like to deal with local. Support your region reps and drive traffic to them.

3) Think like a searcher and design keyword phrases they may type to find your product or service. Poll your a barista, your neighbours and your likely customers. Taxi drivers, if you sell to consumers, are always good for consumer research.

4) Don’t chase single word keywords unless you are patient and have a huge budget to put behind content development. No content related to that term, no traffic.

5) Google rewards content-rich web sites with high rankings if they generate voluminous and helpful content that demonstrates that the they are the topic expert. This strategy will guarantee that over time you will earn traffic from Google for all kinds of keyword phrases.

6) Research how difficult a keyword phrase is to win. Use a tool like Wordtracker. Don’t chase the hard to get keywords. Optimize for the low-hanging fruit first then work on moving up the rankings on the more competitive keywords and keyword phrases. 7) A handy free research tool is Google Adwords. It can be used to find related phrases and keywords to the most obvious keywords and keyword phrases. You don’t have to buy ads to use it.

SEO keywords for cosmetic surgeons in Fort Lauderdale, FL

January 20, 2015 Kay Svela

In today’s digital world, many of your potential patients begin their search for you on the web. They type in specific keywords phrases like “cosmetic surgeons in Fort Lauderdale, FL” to find you.

And so, if you’ve SEO’d your site properly, potential patients will find YOU at the top of the search rankings. That means, they are likely to visit your site and come to your clinic versus competitors in the area

SEO is the #1 thing you can do to drive new business to your practice. However, it takes knowledge and time to do it effectively. While you can do it yourself, if you’re not an expert or don’t have have the time, your best bet is to hire a professional agency to do this work for you.

Whichever route you choose it’s important to know a few SEO basics. Here are seven tips that are critical :

SEO keywords for cosmetic surgeons in Fort Lauderdale, FL

1) Optimize for local. That means cities, counties and states (or provinces) that your web site serves by including the add on “in Fort Lauderdale” or “in Ft. Lauderdale” or “Hollywood, FL” or “Dania Beach”.

4) Don’t chase single word keywords unless you are patient and have a huge budget to put behind content development. No content related to that term, no traffic.

7) A handy free research tool is Google Adwords. It can be used to find related phrases and keywords to the most obvious keywords and keyword phrases. You don’t have to buy ads to use it.

SEO keywords for cosmetic surgeons in Miami FL

January 19, 2015 Kay Svela

In today’s digital world, many of your potential patients begin their search for you on the web. They type in specific keywords phrases like “cosmetic surgeons in Miami, FL” to find you. For this reason learning about SEO keywords for your business, in this for case cosmetic surgeons, is crucial.

If you’ve SEO’d your site properly, potential patients will find YOU at the top of the search rankings. That means, they are likely to visit your site and come to your clinic versus competitors in the area

Whichever route you choose it’s important to know a few SEO basics. Here are seven tips that are critical in learning:

SEO keywords for cosmetic surgeons in Miami FL

1) Optimize for local. That means cities, counties and states (or provinces) that your web site serves by including the add on “in Miami” or “in Miami-Dade County” or “Little Havana”.

4) Don’t chase single word keywords unless you are patient and have a huge budget to put behind content development. No content related to that term, no traffic.

7) A handy free research tool is Google Adwords. It can be used to find related phrases and keywords to the most obvious keywords and keyword phrases. You don’t have to buy ads to use it.

How to drive digital leads to sales teams

August 25, 2014 Andy Walker

Few corporate leaders know how to turn their company web site and mobile apps into a lead generation tool that drives digital leads to sales teams. Here’s a checklist to see if your company is doing what is needed to produce the leads that are there for the taking.That said, here is how to drive digital leads to sales teams:

1) Type in five terms that relate to your business that your potential customers might type into Google. Does your web site come up in the first 3 results? The first page? How far do you have to click into the results before you see your company name?

ACTION: Check if your competition is doing a better job. Audit for search engine optimization. Put in a plan.

2) Are you sending frequent emails to your customer list that has massive value? Send them helpful, expert info. Send them tips on how they can do their jobs better. Sell to them rarely and only offer exclusive, limited time offers that are available nowhere else.

ACTION: review and update your email marketing practices. Put in a strategy. Give them a way to interact with you back. Measure it all an capture real time actionable leads.

3) Is there an easy way for visitors to your website to interact with your company? A contact Us page is not enough. Are you engaging them with free reports, downloads and other assets.

ACTION: Develop an email capture program and build your list with great content.

4) Does you web site contain articles and blogs that contain “how to” content and helpful strategies and tips. Content that is useful not blatantly sales-motivated?

ACTION: You need a content library that will attract customer with problems that need to be solve with your company’s expertise.

5) Can you buy your products or services on-line? If you have products or accessories that can be sold through the web, you should be selling them online. Digital sales makes it easy for your customers to find what you are selling. A digital store can produce inbound traffic that can be closed by a live sales person. It can also take the load off sales people for the smaller commodities they sell. And it can be a good source of lead generation when a new customer buys a smaller item and can be upsold later to larger purchases.

ACTION: Ask your sales people if they are bogged down by small commodity sales. Develop a plan to sell online.

6) Is your company visible on social media? Do you know its Klout score? And is it over 50?ACTION: Use your online content to drive visibility on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and more. Find a young staffer that knows social media and engage them. And get strategic help as needed from the outside.

7) What does your company website look like on your tablet or smartphone. Do you know that 33+ per cent of web visits come from mobile devices today?

ACTION: Do a mobile audit and get a mobile friendly version of your web site live.

8) Get strategic help. You may not have the internal expertise to do any or all of the above items. A designed strategy lead by experts is key to success. ACTION: Find an agency that does it all and start a conversation. (Hint: contact Cyberwalker Digital)

Andy Walker is a digital marketing strategist specializing in sales lead strategies using digital assets. He is based in Toronto and Tampa. Contact him here