Tag SEO

SEO

Unlocking SEO Success: How to Measure the Impact of Structured Data

admin 0 Comment

Is Your Schema Mark Up Working

In the ever-evolving landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), structured data has emerged as a powerful tool for improving website visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). By providing search engines with explicit information about the content of a webpage, structured data enables more accurate indexing and presentation of your site’s information. However, measuring the impact of structured data on SEO requires a strategic approach. In this article, we’ll dive into the key metrics and strategies for assessing the effectiveness of structured data implementation.

What is Structured Data?

Structured data, also known as schema markup, is a standardized format used to annotate web content in a way that search engines can understand. It provides additional context to search engine crawlers, helping them interpret the content and present it in a more informative and visually appealing manner on SERPs. Structured data can include details such as product information, reviews, events, recipes, and much more.

Test if your website has schema?
schema markup, structured data

Key Metrics for Measuring Impact

Visibility and Click-Through Rate (CTR):

One of the primary indicators of structured data impact is the change in visibility and CTR for your web pages. Monitor the performance of pages with structured data markup compared to those without. Tools like Google Search Console and third-party SEO analytics platforms can provide insights into impressions, clicks, and CTR for structured data-enhanced pages.

Keyword Rankings:

While not directly tied to structured data, monitoring keyword rankings can help assess the overall impact of SEO efforts, including structured data implementation. Look for improvements in rankings for target keywords associated with pages using structured data markup.

Traffic and Engagement:

Analyze the overall traffic and user engagement metrics for pages with structured data. Look for changes in bounce rate, time on page, and conversion rates. A well-implemented structured data markup should drive more relevant traffic and encourage user interaction with your content.

Rich Snippets and SERP Features:

Structured data often leads to the generation of rich snippets and enhanced SERP features like Knowledge Graph panels, Featured Snippets, and Rich Cards. Keep track of the appearance of these features for your website in search results. An increase in rich snippet appearances indicates the successful implementation of structured data.

schema mark up for products

Strategies for Measuring Structured Data Impact

Baseline Measurement:

Before implementing structured data markup, establish baseline metrics for relevant KPIs such as organic traffic, CTR, and SERP features. This provides a basis for comparison and helps attribute any changes to the structured data implementation.

A/B Testing:

Conduct A/B tests to compare the performance of pages with and without structured data markup. Implement structured data on a subset of pages while keeping others as a control group. Measure the differences in metrics between the two groups to assess the impact.

Continuous Monitoring:

SEO is an ongoing process, and so is measuring the impact of structured data. Continuously monitor relevant metrics and adapt your strategy based on the insights gained. Regularly review search engine guidelines and update your structured data markup accordingly.


User Feedback:

Solicit feedback from users regarding their experience with structured data-enhanced content. Conduct surveys, analyze user comments, and track user behavior to understand how structured data impacts user satisfaction and engagement.

Schema For SEO

Structured data is a valuable asset in the SEO toolkit, offering numerous benefits in terms of visibility, user experience, and engagement. By employing the right metrics and measurement strategies, you can effectively gauge the impact of structured data on your website’s performance and make informed decisions to optimize your SEO efforts. Stay vigilant, keep experimenting, and reap the rewards of structured data mastery in the ever-competitive digital landscape.

Get An SEO Expert

An SEO Specialist can provide maintenance to your website’s visibility, increase traffic, and gain more customers with measurable data!  Laced Media has the professional SEO experts to get your business thriving. Schedule a free consultation call today.

Schedule A Call
digital marketing for small business, is digital marketing worth it
SEO

Marketing Strategies For The Cannabis Industry

admin 0 Comment

How Can SEO Help Market Your Cannabis Business

While some cannabis businesses are flourishing, others might find it difficult to form a lasting enterprise in today’s modern environment. Indeed, now that cannabis is being legalized in states across the country, there has certainly been an influx of cannabis shops looking to sell a quality product. The best way to form a successful business, aside from having a killer product, is to embrace a proven marketing strategy.

Using proper SEO practices can help marketing for cannabis businesses raise awareness, sell more products, and prosper in a growing market. If you are looking to learn how to use SEO for your cannabis business, you are in the right place.

digital marketing for cannabis, cannabis marketing agency
Get SEO For Your Business

Cannabis Marketing: SEO 101

Where Can I Advertise My Cannabis Business?

The cannabis industry for online marketing — things can be a little hazy. Due to strict regulations set by Google, Adwords are not possible for cannabis products. Facebook has these same strict rules. Cannabis advertising is simply not allow.  This is why SEO is so important as it can be your biggest investment that will produce returns for your business. 

Cannabis Companies Need SEO

When it comes to creating a successful SEO strategy for your cannabis company — online presence is extremely important.

SEO focuses on getting organic traffic from search results. As we like to say, the “Free Section” of Google search. 75% of search terms will click on the organic portion of Google search versus the Ads anyways. If your website is not utilizing SEO, we highly recommend it as it’s the best way to get your company and products in front of the people looking for it.

Cannabis Content Is Key

If you aren’t running a blog or posting regular content on social media, you might want to think about starting to change your strategy. A social media page can be a great way to drive traffic to your business. Online sales are becoming increasingly important for companies large and small, and platforms like Instagram can help sell products.

Blog Relative Topics

As for blogs, the name of the game is ‘consistency.’ You’ll want to post regularly, link to your own website, and make connections with other cannabis platforms. There are also plugins available when blogging that can help you choose and properly distribute SEO keywords throughout your articles.

Stay Consistently On Social Media

While marijuana companies are becoming legalized per state, it’s also becoming socially accepted. What better way to educate people than on social media. When it comes to operating an SEO optimized social media account, it pays to look at your competitors. 

What hashtags are they using and how long are their captions? Focus on an SEO phrase that will help your company and then start posting some professional content.

Network

Finally, you’ll want to make sure your cannabis business is available on services like Yelp, Google, and Weedmap. The cannabis industry heavily focuses on networking — because before it was state regulated, networking was the only way to get your product moving. This will help people find your business online and drive traffic to your site. The best part is you don’t even have to do anything!

marketing cannabis products, marijuana marketing

SEO For Marijuana Companies

The above SEO tactics deal mostly with something called off-page SEO. That means that they can link to your website and increase traffic, but they aren’t a part of your business’s internet space. On-page SEO is the opposite. You can use search engine optimization to tailor your cannabis business to the consumer and bring more people to your website. This requires keyword research for your cannabis website to find high quality keywords and Technical SEO.

Keep in mind, too, that consumers only care about themselves. They want to know what your can do for them. For that reason, your business’s keywords should be focused on the products that you are going to sell. After all, that’s what most people are going to search for anyway.

Cannabis SEO Marketing

The most popular cannabis keywords currently used for cannabis companies are those that follow the rules I mentioned above. Consumers want to know what you can do for them. That’s why ‘cannabis edibles,’ ‘cannabis candy,’ ‘cannabis sativa,’ and ‘cannabis gummies’ are some of the most popular SEO keywords. 

Using these isn’t going to be extremely beneficial for your business if you are selling a more unique product. Instead, you should use them in moderation with your website and social media, but you should also focus on creating some keywords of your own the focus on your product too.

SEO does take time and dedication. With following these recommendations, you’ll be able to forge your own successful corner of the internet using SEO for your business. 

Types of Cannabis Businesses That Benefit From SEO:

  • Cannabis Dispensary
  • Cannabis Growers
  • Cannabis Nursery & Cloning
  • Cannabis Compliance
  • Cannabis Manufactures
  • Cannabis Products
  • Cannabis Retailers
  • Cannabis Laboratory & Testing

Get An SEO Expert For Your Cannabis Business

An SEO Specialist can provide maintenance to your website’s visibility, increase traffic, and gain more customers with measurable data!  Laced Media has the professional SEO experts to get your cannabis business thriving. Schedule a free consultation call today.

Schedule A Call
marijuana digital marketing, marketing cannabis products
SEO tips

How To Get Google Reviews

admin 0 Comment

Are Google Reviews Important?

Google has pretty much dominated the online search market, but how important are the reviews left on Google?

The answer is simple… extremely important! Google likes to use it’s own products to help in how well your business shows up in search. A great example would be Google Maps Listings.

Your Google Business Listing is directly attached to your Google Maps listing. This is were you appear in search locally. Don’t have a listing? We can help with Local SEO.

google map reviews, how to get google reviews

5 helpful Tips To Increase Google Reviews

Simply Ask – Ask and you shall receive, well sometimes. There is no shame in asking a happy customer to leave a review on Google.

Scan a QR code – Have a QR code created to go directly to your Google Review Page. Google requires a Gmail account in order to leave a review. Great thing about android users is they have to create a Gmail account in order to use apps. With android taking up 46% of the market, this is an easy way to get those users to leave a review.

Review Page – Have a page on your website with a link to your Google Reviews. This can showcase your excellent reviews as well as capture them. Don’t have a website? Laced Media can help. Get a web design quote

Email Marketing – Email blasting still exists so collecting customers information is still important. Follow-up emails, new products or newsletter. Don’t forget to ask in the email leave a review and provide a link to your Google Reviews Page makes it easy to do since a lot of people check their emails from their phones.

Friends and family – Asking your friends and family to leave a review is ok in the eyes of Google. Fake accounts can be detected and Google will know if they are fake and deem them as spam.

Build Your Google Business Listing

Google reviews tie into your Google Business Listings which show in organic search. Local business listing need optimization to be visible in search. Contact us to see how we can get your business visible.

SEO tips

Tips & Secrets for SEO

admin 0 Comment
seo tips, learn seo, seo company

Online Marketing is crucial to any type of business, big or small. If you are a fortune 500 company or a local dentist trying to get new patients, online marketing can take your company to a whole new level. Though there are many Types of Online Marketing, we will be focusing on SEO Tips, Search Engine Optimization.

Since every company is different, these tips for SEO may not work exactly for your business. For a complete evaluation of your company and how to improve your SEO, we offer Free SEO Evaluations.

Learn SEO – M.A.D.A.M.S.

Since there is so much involved in SEO, we will stick it to some of the basic. These SEO secrets can provide a great foundation for any starting website.

Metadata – Page Titles & Descriptions

Metadata is the text search engines use to index your page. Like categorizing a page about Poodle into the Dogs category. This is the place you can put relevant keywords targeting your page in order to be found in search. Titles are the most important element in the metadata. Metadata Titles influence the most when Google Indexes your website. Descriptions are supporting text to the page titles. It’s best to place some keywords here but make it readable so viewer know more clearly the subject of the page.

Architecture – Website Structure

Everything from your code to your content is crawled by search engines. Google looks at your website structure to determine what things are important and less important. Navigation hierarchy is a great example. Have a page listing in the top navigation indicates to Google it’s important to your website topic. Now if you had a page buried in sub navigations where people are less likely to find it, Google may take that as a less important page. Another great example of the proper structure is organization. Countless times I find website have these issues where rogue pages are out of place making it difficult for people to find them or even transition to other relative topics on your website. Which leads us into our next section, Creating a fluid User Experience.

Design – User Experience

Google takes User Experience seriously. From navigating the website to color contrast, Google crawls every bit of code and text on your website. When a website is not Mobile Friendly, more likely people are going to leave the website. On average, 46% of the population search using their phones. When they click on a site that does not display properly, chances are they will leave the site entirely. Every website has its own goal either gain leads, sell a product or educate. When building a website keep this in mind to serve your target audience better.

Need Help Building a Website? We build websites tailored for you. Your success is our success! Contact Us Today

Authority – Link building – Directories – Business Listing

Building authority for a website is not easy. The best way is to encourage Google to trust your website. Here’s how…

Directories are great since they act as another venue to discover a business through search. Though in many cases, the information can be inconsistent. Making sure the information is correct will help Google trust the information it finds on the web. Link building is much like building friendships. Creating a referral to the website in order to increase traffic and authority. Lastly, and the most important… Google Business Listing. If the business doesn’t have one, hasn’t claimed or verified it then they are already losing customers. Zero-clicks means people find the business before even entering the website, most times through a Knowledge Graph. We can help you create, optimize, claim & verify your business listing. Contact us about SEO Services.

Make it your own – Content – Relevant – Unique

In the SEO world, content is gold. Always create content that is written for your audience and is relevant. If the business is not able to provide content in their own words, SEO content writing is available.

Copying content from the internet or Web Design Marketing Agencies who use the same content for all their clients can seriously hurt a business’s website.

Site Speed – Loading

A fast loading website is a productive website. 56% of all online traffic is done through mobile phones. Which is why Google decided in 2018 to crawl mobile-friendly websites as ranking factors before the desktop version. Here is why site speed is important. 53% of mobile users abandoned a site if the mobile site takes longer than three seconds to load. Every one-second delay in site load time can decrease conversions by 12%.  Making sure the websites mobile load time is 3 seconds or less to prevent losing customer.

Hiring an SEO Company

Though you may feel confident to do SEO on your own, these are only a few tips in best practice SEO. Unfortunately, there is no “cookie cutter” way to SEO as every business is different and has different needs. When hiring an SEO Specialist or SEO Company makes sure the goals are realistic. I see countless companies promise “Rank 1 guarantee” when realistically there is no guarantee with SEO.

Basic SEO - What Every Business Needs To Know

Online Marketing is crucial to any type of business, big or small. If you are a fortune 500 company or a local dentist trying to get new patients, online marketing can take your company to a whole new level. Though there are many types of Online Marketing, we will be focusing on SEO Tips, Search Engine Optimization.

Since every company is different, these tips for SEO may not work exactly for your business. For a complete evaluation of your company and how to improve your SEO, we offer Free SEO Evaluations.

Why Can't Customers Find My Restaurant?

When someone is looking for lunch or dinner, customers typically resort to searching on Google or Yelp for good restaurants in the area. That means SEO for restaurants is no longer optional but nessecary to bring in new customers. Local SEO is extremely important to restaurants because its what customers see first when seaching for restaurants near me. Let’s face it — we are visual animals and customers skim quickly through web pages to find what they want. Having an appealing website with eye catching photos help gain attention and look professional. To get more customers, you will need a well designed website that is fully optimized to deliver results. 

Did you know that ordering online for catering services is now the most fashionable thing in the restuarant industry? Most organizations and individuals have invaded the online market to search for catering services as well as place orders for different foods and meals — all conviently located online. Coming in to order is the way of the past with delivery services and online ordering.

Upgrade Your Restaurant's Website
marketing for restaurant, get more customers in restaurant

Benefits Of SEO For Restaurants

Increasing Traffic to Your Website

When you invest in your website with SEO, you will increase the digital traffic to your website. More traffic to your website means more oppurtunities to gain customers. It also create more awareness of your restaurant and the services you offer. Imagine delivering pictures of your mouth watering dishes to hungry people searching for dinner. SEO can help get your website in front of those hungry people.

Building Brand Awareness

New restaurants can really benefit with SEO by creating brand awareness in your area. even if your a seasoned restuarant, search engine optimization can launch your business to greater heights if done by an expert. SEO experts in restaurants know what content to include and how to identify the right keywords for your restaurant. SEO websites for restaurants must contain the right content so Google can correctly and positively give it a high ranking.

More Money

More traffic to your restaurant website means more conversions. More conversions mean more money for your restaurant. This is why many restuarants are now seeing the nessecity for search engine optimization to help their business grow.  Competition in the restaurant industry has become fierce — don’t get left behind.

Increasing Customer Engagement

Good content is engaging and informative. People are becoming hungrier for good content and Google uses it as a ranking factor. Keep customers engaged with content they want to see like healthy cuisine, how to cut weight while eating healthy and other informative health news. Relative and unique content acts like magic and soon you will find your website flowing with more and more of visitors.

While content is extremely important, including a good keyword strategy to your web pages is also crucial as Google and other search engines use it to rank your website.

busy restaurant, digital marketing, local SEO

SEO Tools For Restaurant's Websites

Keyword Planning Roadmap

You should incorperate target search terms that will give your restaurant website ranking with search engines. Some restaurant websites have become very prominent online with simple keywords such as ‘Chicken Wings’ or ‘Pizzas’. A keyword plan with the right target can boost your restaurant business to greater heights in the long term.

Local-based SEO

Your restaurant serves customers within a certain range of your business location. Location-based SEO helps restaurants reach their goals through local SEO for restaurants by optimizing your Google Business Listing and geo-tagging. Local SEO ensures that your restaurant features prominently to customers searching for “food” and “restaurants” within your proximity.

List Your Restaurant On Review Sites

When your restaurant receives positive reviews from existing customers — it can propel your business even further. Word of mouth and online reviews are like stricking gold. They can make or break a thriving business. Make sure your restaurant is listed on Google My Business, Yelp, and Facebook. Reputation management is another key element in maintaining great ranking online. As hard as we try, every customer may not leave happy, so make sure to respond to reviews online — whether they are good or bad.   

Get Relative Websites To Link To Your Restaurant’s Website

When your website appears on other websites related to your business, it builds trust. Google uses backlinks as a ranking factor and can help improve your visibility in search. A great example would be a blogging customer tries your restaurant, writes a compelling post about it — then linking to your website. Not only do you gain a backlink but also referral traffic. Another way to discover your restaurant in search which means more people will visit your website and may become customers.

Online Ordering System

One of the biggest adjustments due to the pandemic is the importance of online ordering for restaurants. One of the many industries hit hard from Covid was restaurants and hospitality. The online ordering system is another SEO tool for restaurant to perform better. Many visitors now resort to online ordering and delivery services to get their favorite dishes and drinks. Even after Covid dissipates, online ordering will more likely be nessecity and be expected by customers to use. 

Mobile-Friendly Website 

And finally, make your restaurant website mobile-friendly. 75% of searches now happen through a mobile device instead of a desktop or laptop. Google recognized this and now ranks web pages based the user experience through a mobile phone. Not sure if your website is Mobile-friendly? Try Google Mobile-Friendly Test.

Get An SEO Expert For Your Restaurant

An SEO Specialist can provide maintenance to your website’s visibility, increase traffic, and gain more customers with measurable data!  Laced Media has the professional SEO experts to get your restaurant thriving. Schedule a free consultation call today.

Schedule A Call
digital marketing for small business, is digital marketing worth it
SEO web design

Why is SEO Important in Santa Rosa

admin 0 Comment

Santa Rosa, CA to some may be on the smaller size for a city, but it’s actually fairly large in competition.

When researching a cities competitive nature, a few things go into the equation:

  • Population
  • Competition
  • Consumer Behavior

Population 

With a large Population, the reach is much larger.  Imagine talking to an audience of over 100k people, without a microphone. The first few rows might be able to hear but anything beyond that probably won’t. Having a website without SEO in a larger city is like not having that microphone. You’ll reach some but will fall short after a certain point. Get SEO on your website to expand that reach.

Competition

Competition plays a factor since other business may offer the same services. Competition helps drive consumers to do research about products or services before purchasing and discover you online.

Don’t get stuck behind. We offer SEO Packages that can fit your business’s needs. Get SEO and back in the competition.

Consumer Behavior

Lastly Consumer Behavior can be a large reason to get SEO. Statistics show consumers do research 3 times before they make a final purchase. This means a company can be searched for multiple times in order to close a sale. Where do people search? Google. What influences Google Search Ranking? SEO.

The Facts About Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa has a population of 175k people with 56% white, 30% Hispanic and the rest make of Asian, Black and mixed. This is your local reach in Santa Rosa. Building a marketing strategy that caters to this demographics is ideal since these are your potential customers. Demographic research is a huge part in Local SEO for Businesses in Santa Rosa. Find out how well you rank in your local market with a SEO Audit. It’s Free.

SEO web design

Page Speed, Waiting to Load

admin 0 Comment

Waiting For A Website To Load

Have you ever sat staring at your phone waiting for a website to load? Clicking the refresh button in frustration. It’s not your WIFI, its the website. On average, a user will look at their phone a total of 5 hours a day! The way people use their phones now have seriously changed within the past 10 years and is the vessel of obtaining information.

So Why Does Having a Fast Website Matter?

Users tend to be impatient in a world of instant gratification. Web pages that take longer than 6 seconds to load are prone to loss their audience. 1 to 3 seconds could lose 30%, 3 to 5 seconds may lose 95%. If your website is taking longer than 6 seconds, you’ve more likely lost a potential customer.

70% of phone connections will be at 3G or slower thru 2020 (information provided by thinkwithgoogle.com)

Website Speed Test

Check your website for Desktop and Mobile PageSpeed: Google PageSpeed Tool

If your website is producing some low numbers, you may consider a website redesign. Laced Media offers many types of packages that are affordable and specific to your business goal.

Website Speed Test

Users tend to be impatient in a world of instant gratification. Web pages that take longer than 6 seconds to load are prone to loss their audience. 1 to 3 seconds could lose 30%, 3 to 5 seconds may lose 95%. If your website is taking longer than 6 seconds, you’ve more likely lost a potential customer.

70% of phone connections will be at 3G or slower thru 2020 (information provided by thinkwithgoogle.com)

SEO tips

Googling Your Business Can Hurt It’s Ranking in Google Search

admin 0 Comment
SEO cloud, web search, search engine optimization

Learn How Customers See Your Business In Google Search

Many companies want to know how well they rank in a Google Search for services and products they offer. A majority will Google themselves to see where they rank — and can be very disappointed. Google uses a wide range of factors to deliver customized results with every search. Googling yourself will not give reliable results on how customers see your business in Google search based on customized search.

Customize Search To Answer Your Questions

Google’s has refined their search results in such a way that it uses data you never thought it would. The goal for Google search is to deliver an answer to a questions or provide the best possible result to a search. So, Google will use information it has collected over time and include it in any of the future searches. Keywords Googled, phrases, or even websites visited.

How Does Google Know...

Google search has an extremely complex algorithm. Its purpose is to index (record and categorize) the world wide web. There are a lot of variables that go into how Google will return a search results list. Google is very hush hush on their algorithm though sometimes someone spills the beans. Here are a few examples of what may impact page rank in the search results for search queries:

  • Metadata, Descriptions, Headings and Titles
  • Previous searches and relative keywords
  • A well structured website with link building
  • Geolocation in reference to what is searched
  • and endless more factors…

What is An Algorithm?

Google algorithms is a computer programming that is set to deliver information in a very complex and specific way. Google’s search engine returns millions of results for you to choose from but how does it know what to list and what order to list it in? An algorithm.

Tips On Finding Your Current Position in Ranking

When Googling yourself, try using a Private Window or Incognito. This will eliminate some factors Google will typically use in search to make the results more relevant to your previous searches. Though this is not an indefinite way to see how you truly show for your potential customers, it’s closer to what they may see when Googling services you offer.

Need SEO on your website? Get a free SEO and website audit