19 Tips for Building an SEO Strategy for Ad Agency New Business

January 4, 2012
SEO, ad agency blogs, agency new business

Photo credit: marciookabe

Having a search engine optimization strategy, or SEO, is important to support lead generation for ad agency new business.

Most agency business development directors have a marketing strategy and are becoming competent with an inbound lead generation strategy that has as its centerpiece – content marketing. Understanding search engines is an important part to content marketing and blogging. Therefore, it is important for business development directors to become familiar with how search engines work and keep up with what is going on.

Recent changes to Google’s search engine ranking algorithms are already having an impact. Google’s own site, www.blogger.com, has seen a 20% drop in search traffic. 

How do you become more knowledgeable, reduce the impact of these inevitable changes and create an SEO strategy for new business? 

1. By understanding Google’s bottom line. It is important that you be natural and authentic so you will be less likely affected by Google’s ongoing improvements to its algorithms.

Over 90 % of all Internet users are using search engines and they are the main sources of online traffic. The primary search engine is Google. Google’s goal is, they want their users to find specifically what they are looking for because if they don’t, they will be looking for alternatives.

“The perfect search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want,”  Google’s cofounder and CEO, Larry Page

2. You can also decrease the impact of these inevitable changes, as Google strives to get better, by focusing your content marketing efforts on the basic elements of SEO. These are the key elements of SEO that also will be less likely affected by Google’s changes.

Here are some basic blog SEO tips to help get you started:

  • Start with a benchmark. Know what your current page rank is and continue to monitor it with tools like Alexa and the Google toolbar.
  • Your blog’s theme/template can help or hurt your SEO, so review and choose carefully. Most designers are more concerned with good design and less concerned about SEO. The navigation structure of your blog’s template plays a critical role in how it is indexed and crawled by the search engines. Use a navigation structure that enables every page reached within three clicks.
  • Check your blog’s referer log regularly to track where your visitors are coming from and the search terms they are using to find your site.
  • Find your ‘niche’ key words. Choosing the most popular search terms will make it nearly impossible to get to the top spot in search. Instead use niche key words that are relevant to your target audience. Place these keywords throughout your blog site: your titles, content, URLs, and image names. Note: the title tag and page header are the two most important spots to put keywords. You can use Google keyword tool to find keywords relevant to your blog.  Just be sure not to overdo by stuffing key words, a Black Hat SEO technique that search engines do not approve and will get your site penalized.
  • You should make it standard to build internal links back to your archives when creating new content. I invite readers to check other articles that might be of interest, at the bottom of almost every post article that I write. Also remember to always link back to sources cited in your post articles as it is bad etiquette not to do so. You will build quality ‘back-links’ by creating link-worthy content.
  • Choose a meaningful title and add a descriptor statement that is included in the metadata and under the description title. Mine is “Fueling ad agency new business through social media.”
  • Pick the right domain name. Try to pick a domain name that says something about your blog site’s content.
  • The single most important thing you can do is to consistently provide high-quality content on your blog. Google has become good at weeding out poor quality web pages.
  • Add URL to Google. Improve your site’s visibility in Google search results. It’s free. To get started, simply add and verify your site and you’ll start to see information right away.
  • Be sure and send a Sitemap using Google Webmaster Tools. A site map is a page listing and linking to all the other major pages on your site and makes it easier for spiders to search your site.
  • Make your URLs more search-engine friendly by naming them with clear keywords.
  • Be sure to include the alternative text descriptions for all photos, images and videos. Spiders can only search text, not text in your images. Start with your image names: adding an “ALT” tag allows you to include a keyword-rich description for every image on your site.
  • Take the time to include blog post tags. Tags are one or two words that briefly describe what your article is all about. I also include any person, entity or publication mentioned in a post. Search engines use tags to index and find your posts faster.
  • SEO and social media marketing have become intrinsically intertwined so be sure you are utilizing social media. You should grow your social media community and using social media platforms and tools to ‘push-out’ new content and pull-in website traffic.
  • Your content should be fresh. Updating your content regularly and often is crucial for increasing traffic. The more recent Google update, dubbed the “Freshness” update, designed to rank newer content higher in search results.
  • Google has started adding Google+ brand pages in search results and some predict that Google will make it harder to do SEO without Google + . I would recommend that you get started by setting up your Google + account and take part.

It would be helpful for you to know how Google finds web pages matching a search query and determines the order of the results.

How does Google find web pages matching your query, and decides the order of search results? Check out this helpful summary of Google Basics. Another helpful resource is Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to help Google find, index, and rank your site. Here’s also a handy, downloadable Search Engine Optimization Startet Guide. Look up unfamiliar SEO terms using the  Search Engine Marketing Glossary

This is an excellent guide for WordPress bloggers: Must See SEO Guide for All WordPress Bloggers

Additional articles that might be of interest:

Photo credit: marclookabe

6 Comments | Content Marketing, New Business Tips, SEO, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

Study: 69% of Businesses Increased New Business Leads Through Blogging

September 30, 2011

Blogging greatly improves search engine optimization, which has proven to be a key lead generating factor for new business.

How new business is being acquired for ad agencies is currently undergoing a paradigm shift; instead of pursuing clients, it’s now more important for your prospective clients to find your agency. Blogs make their search easier.

2011 HubSpot ROI Study

In a recent 2011 HubSpot ROI Study,  69% of businesses surveyed said that blogging attributed their lead generation success. The study also found that 75% of businesses believed SEO was a primary factor. The study shows companies that blog attract 55% more website visitors than non-blogging companies.

Blogs generate far more visitors by:

  • Search visibility – blogs are organized to be search engine friendly. Plus the more content you have (well-linked) the more chances there are of attracting search traffic.
  • Click-through traffic - through posting interesting articles a blog gives a reason for other people to link to you.
  • Repeat traffic – regularly updated content and comments bring visitors back … and back … and back. Most agency websites are not conducive to repeat traffic, particularly if your website hasn’t been updated in 5 years.
  • Personality - create a blog around your agency’s culture and let your personality shine through. People will be attracted to you. People like to associate with people they like. It’s hard to make friends with a business, but easy to warm to an individual with a welcoming personality.
  • Viral effects – you create something cool and visitors tell their friends, who tell their friends … and so on.
  • Authority/credibility – blogging allows you to become an expert in the minds of your prospective clients.

Ad Agency Website | Blog

Your agency’s website functions well as an online brochure, a place for agency credentials and credibility. A website doesn’t have the potential that an agency blog has for significant online traffic and provide prospects a reason to visit often. A blog can be the gateway to your agency. Through content marketing, focused toward a specific target audience, an agency’s blog can become a great lead generation tool for new business.

Your agency’s website is about YOU but your blog should be about THEM. Blogging keeps your agency focused on what is important to your prospective clients. It forces you speak to their benefit instead of agency credentials and capabilities. Blog content, if developed correctly, will have more appeal to your prospective client audience because it is focused on their marketing needs and challenges.

15 Comments | Agency Blogs, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

25 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Ad Agency’s Blog

April 9, 2010

 

Your ad agency’s blog should be a central component to your social media strategy for new business. It is the site that you want to bring your prospective client audience to, the gateway and face of your agency.

“Build it and they will come,” is not the answer to generate traffic to your agency’s blog. You must employ proactive tactics to create awareness and interest among prospective clients. The more traffic that you can generate, from among your target audience, the more inbound new business leads that will follow.

Denise Wakeman, Online Marketing Advisor and Founder of The Blog Squad, has created an excellent list of tips to generate traffic to you blog. I would encourage you to create a list of “to dos” from her suggestions. For more details, be sure to check out her article,“19 Tips for Driving Traffic to Your Blog”

Here are the 19 tips:

  1. Publish as frequently as possible
  2. Pay attention to the headlines (blog post titles)
  3. Send an email broadcast
  4. Add a link in your email signature
  5. Include multiple subscription options on your blog
  6. Try article marketing
  7. Comment on blogs in your industry
  8. Do some guest posting
  9. Conduct surveys and polls
  10. Submit your blog to directories
  11. Make a Google profile
  12. Syndicate to Twitter
  13. Syndicate Facebook
  14. Syndicate to LinkedIn
  15. Use Hootsuite
  16. Distribute your video
  17. Add the retweet button to your posts
  18. Consider share buttons
  19. Use social bookmarking

Denise’s list isn’t an exhaustive list of tactics but these are the core that you need for your own list. Just be sure that someone from your agency is charged with implementing it.

I would add at least six additional tips:

  1. Make your target audience crystal clear. If you can’t clearly and narrowly define your audience you wont build significant traffic.
  2. Optimize your posts content for search. Identify and dominate a few key words that your target audience will most likely use to find you. Use these words consistently in your posts titles and copy.
  3. Knowledge is power. Get in the habit of checking your blogs analytics frequently. Keep it simple, but know at least daily the number of unique visitors, page views, top posts, how people got to your blog, search terms and incoming links.
  4. Don’t be afraid to repurpose older  blog content through multiple social media channels. Posts that I’ve written 3 years ago is still pertinent and continues to generate traffic to my blog.
  5. One thing to not do that will impact traffic. Don’t sell! The moment you start to sell on your blog is when you will most likely LOSE your audience.
  6. Identify who your audience is in your post titles. This is especially helpful when you repurpose your content on Twitter and an important part of SEO for your blog.

Here are some resources to help you further create an agency blog for new business:

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5 Comments | Agency Blogs, Agency Leadership, Metrics, New Business Tactics, New Business Trends, SEO | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

8 SEO Writing Tips to Help Prospects Find Your Ad Agency

August 15, 2009

Positioning your agency to be found is an important component to generating new business.

I’ve previously shared a number of times that we are experiencing a new paradigm shift for how agency new business is acquired. It’s now even more important for prospects to be able to find your agency than it is to chase it. Creating an appealing online footprint, for your best prospects to be drawn to your agency and its services.

That makes SEO among vitally important as a new business component to your agency.

An element in SEO is optimizing copy for such things as your agency blog and online articles. If you want your content to be become a magnet for new business, it must be searchable. You need to understand what your target audience is interested in, what they are searching for and relate the content you offer to them.

Mequoda Daily, which offers consulting services for publishers on content marketing, published a sensible article with a checklist of eight SEO writing tips for search engine optimizing your agency’s blog post and or/online articles.

  1. Put primary keywords in the title.
  2. Don’t leave your meta title blank
  3. Put secondary keywords in the subhead
  4. Use your subhead as your meta description
  5. Include keywords in your URL
  6. Optimize your tags and meta keywords
  7. Only use keywords 10% of the time
  8. Use titles or keywords in every hyperlink
Use this simple list to optimize every new blog post or online article you write. Click on the following link to read the entire article by Amanda MacArthur, SEO Writing for Blogs and Online Articles .

2 Comments | Agency Blogs, Best Practices, Content Marketing, Digital, Metrics, New Business Trends | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass

10 Blogging Tips for Ad Agency CEOs

February 27, 2009

parkhowellThe tips below are going to differ considerably from other recommendations in the blogosphere. But please be reminded that they are intended primarily for agency principals of small-to midsize ad agencies and given entirely from a new business perspective. Agency principals have to “get” social media. You can only “get” it by being a participant.

A personal blog will provide you with a direction, focus and professional enrichment unlike anything you have ever experienced before. Your personal networks skyrocket giving you the opportunity to generate the right kinds of new business leads that are a better match for you agency. Plus, you wont have to be constantly chasing after new business, your new business pipeline will always remain full.

As important as a website was for your ad agency a blog is now as equally important if not more so. It should become the gateway to your agency.

So with those things being said, here are my 10 tips for the development of an agency blog for new business:

1. Before you start to write learn to listen.

Identify and read other online resources that would important to your target audience. Read blogs of competitors. Subscribe to blog RSS feeds through Google Reader or the feed reader of your choice. Using a feed reader will greatly help you  to strategize and organize your online reading. Get a feel for how blogs are written. Writing a blog post is much different than writing for print. People tend to scan for information online rather than reading word-for-word. You’ll gain lots of ideas for your own posts from your online reading.

2. Do not incorporate your blog into your agency’s website.

You will need to allow your agency blog room to breathe and evolve apart from your current branding. As you interact with your target audience, your online focus group, they will become the decision makers as to what information resonates, what messages are appealing, what their marketing challenges and obstacles really are. You may think you know what they want but you will continually be surprised as you receive their input, reflect upon your blog’s analytics. What you gain from this experience will help you discover an “appealing” position and proper branding for your agency from your prospective clients perspective.

3. Blog posts should written by the agency’s principals.

Social media is personal and you are the face of your agency. We are in a relationship oriented business and clients want to work with someone that they know, like and trust. Therefore agency principals should lead the way.

Another reason I advocate that the blog post be written by the agency principals, is that they are the least likely to leave the agency. Therefore equity isn’t lost if a staff member chooses to leave for another agency.

4. Keep the design simple.

Limit your creative and interactive staff’s involvement in the design process unless you want to greatly slow the process down. The design of your blog should be nice and clean, not the place showcase your agency’s creative capabilities.  Here content is king. I personally recommend using either WordPress.org or WordPress.com as your blog platform. These are simple blog platforms that are relatively easy to use and provide just the right bells and whistles.

5. Own your domain name.

I have seen a number of agency blogs with a wordpress.com or blogspot.com in their URL. Be sure to own your domain name.  That way, if you ever change blog platforms, you wont lose traffic to your site. I

6. Create a simple written plan for your blog.

From my perspective, the objective for your blog is to generate leads and new business for your agency. To reach this objective you will need to identify your target audience, who you are writing to. What are their advertising/marketing/communication challenges?  In what ways can you become an invaluable resource and help? You’ll need a name for the blog. An appropriate tag line that states what this site is about. Park Howell’s tag line, “Creating a deeper shade of green marketing” says a lot. Mine, “Fueling ad agency new business.” Identify the categories that you will be writing to. I would suggest limiting the categories to 10 or less. Mine are new business, tips, tactics, tools talents and trends.

As you begin your blog remember, you cannot be everything to everybody and the more general your blog is the less traffic you can expect. Within 10 months time I’m generating 16,000 page views to a very specific target audience, small-to midsize ad agencies.

7. Keep a list of blog post ideas.

I’m often asked “don’t you run out of ideas when you are primarily writing about new business for ad agencies?” The answer is no.  Every morning I start the day by opening my Google Reader. I have RSS feeds from about 16 of my favorite blogs. I scan quickly through the list of post titles, when one catches my attention I open it up and read it. It often sparks ideas for my own posts or is information that I can site and link for my readers. I use a browser bar tool called “Press This” that allows me to post a draft of that article in my blog. I have some 270+ posts that are published and over 45 drafts. I often peruse through my drafts for a post to flesh out. I also keep a list of post ideas on my DeskTop.  I never find myself lacking for something to write about that wont be of some help to my audience.

8. Set a goal for the number of posts to write per week.

I saw a dramatic change in my blog traffic and audience interaction after I reached the first 50 posts. That seems to be a magical number not only for me but for clients as well. I actually put principals on a schedule and help coach them to write their first 50 post within thirty days. By the end of the thirty day period they have developed some helpful habits, understand how to write for web and find their own style. I have a goal of posting five times a week. The feedback that I gain is what motivates and excites me.  My readers are very loyal and I don’t want to disappoint them by not having fresh content.

9. Repurpose your blog content.

With over 270 posts I have lots of material to utilize through other new media tools. Your blog posts can actually be turned into a book, that was one of my earlier goals and I am close to the content needed. You can also create your own ebook, white papers, EzineArticles, informational press releases from your content. I can use my blog post content for an email newsletter that is sent every other week. It takes literally minutes to create the newsletter which in turn generates a lot of traffic to my blog. I use a tool called Tweetlater, to automate posting on Twitter which is now the leading traffic generator for FUEL LINES. You will find all the effort you’ve put forth in your writing for your blog can be repurposed in lots of different ways through a number of different online channels and will have a long, long shelf life.

10. Learn how to generate blog traffic.

The current communication revolution makes it critical that you know this stuff so that can provide better direction for your agency and for your clients. Park Howell, president of Park & CO, an ad agency in Phoenix, AZ, created a Film Festival contest among his staff with the winning team receiving $1000. Each team had to create a video, upload it to YouTube and create an online campaign to drive traffic to it. He was helping his staff learn by doing. That is what having your own blog can do for you. Learning how to generate traffic to your blog is an eye opening experience. You will better understand SEO, web analytics, RSS feeds, email campaigns, HTML, etc.  Plus you will know the importance of and learn how to use tools like FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Delicious, Technorati, Digg and StumbleUpon just to name a few.

Understanding social media is not for a specialized department or group within the agency. Every staff member needs to understand it. How will your agency be able to integrate social media into the marketing mix for your clients if you and your staff really don’t understand it. What better way to learn than to use these tools than to generate new business for your agency through social media.

Social media is permanently revolutionizing our industry. It isn’t an option to not participate. If your agency is to survive you’ve got to “get it.” Only as a participant will you genuinely come to understand what a valuable tool it is for your agency and for your clients.

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18 Comments | Agency Blogs, Content Marketing, New Business Trends, Social Media | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Michael Gass