A company can have the best business model in the world, but it won’t matter if it doesn’t get discovered. To that end Konstantin Stoyanov launched 411Locals, an Internet marketing company that helps small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) get discovered online.

Entrepreneurs who are launching startups know that a solid web presence isn’t an option. Many brick-and-mortar business owners who once relied on newspaper advertising and direct mail promotions are awakening to the same realization. If a business can’t be discovered on the web, via multiple channels, then it’s losing its competitive advantage.

By now, almost all entrepreneurs are aware of the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). It’s a means of optimizing a website so that it ranks highly in the SERPs.

However, one often overlooked flavor of SEO is Local SEO, or SEO that’s intended to reach an audience within a relatively small geographical area. It’s especially important for small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) that don’t cater to a worldwide audience.

I sat down with Stoyanov to discuss with him the challenges that face businesses today and how his company offers solutions. (more…)

There are many discussions online over the ways to measure SEO success and it seems that the toughest question is how to choose the right KPIs for local SEO. As you might already know, local SEO is a very dynamic sector of the online marketing industry. Things change rather quickly and unexpectedly, forcing SEO professionals to adapt on the go.

For many years search rankings were considered a crucial indicator for SEO success, but let’s look at it from the perspective of the business owner. They don’t profit directly from being on the first page of Google, so what they really need is more customers.

Tracking SEO Results (more…)

Maybe, at one point, something will happen and render keywords irrelevant. Until then, they will determine the rankings and SEO strategy of every business that tries to establish a successful online presence.

The misleading obsession with keywords and high rankings has become very unhealthy, especially in the recent years when it is common knowledge that the term “Search Engine Optimization” is currently the exact opposite of what it was in the beginning.

Keywords certainly give a relatively accurate measure of progress when it comes to how our website is doing in terms of SEO. However, the real problem is that apart from localized rankings for business listings, keyword ranking is practically useless.

Let’s explain why.

Are you stuck with your keyword strategy from 2005? Wake up because it’s 2015.

SEO was a very straightforward process back when search engines were mostly one dimensional because you would get basically the same results for a given search, wherever you were in the world. Under these conditions, rankings for keywords were quite simple as a metric, even transparent. (more…)

When different social media platforms were being born and started rising, we saw that groundbreaking changes and even more hype was surrounding each of the newest big names on the web.

These are the tools that determined the next phase of our evolution as web users, and the reason behind that is the lightning speed at which they allow us to expand our audience. However, this creates another type of competition, a battleground where you have to adapt instantly if you want to compete with thousands of competing messages flying from side to side at any given moment.

Today’s article is another one about copywriting, and more about smart content that experienced marketers use for advertising throughout social media. We will also cover the necessary limits we have to establish in order to save the time that is so easily wasted once we get immersed in online social networks.

To emphasize on the actual impact that social media has made on businesses lately, check out the numbers conducted from a research made by MarketingTechBlog:

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The Essentials of a Profitable Business

What are the first things that you think of when someone says “online marketing”? Even if you are not familiar with the industry yet, the first two things that may come to mind are blogs and social media. And, of course, pay-per-click advertising.

But did you think about email?

Yes, it is so old-fashioned, so yesterday and out of touch. Unless you also think that profiting from your business and enjoying every bit of are too outdated as well, then this article might not be for you.

The more intimate nature of email

The public nature of social platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Google+ can be a bit too intimidating for some. Besides, they are also flooded with advertisements of all sorts.

In email, people connect solely one-on-one.

When you try to engage multiple people in social channels, it is a little like shouting out to them across the crowded marketplace. The chance you will be heard is desperately low. On the other hand, a carefully thought out email program will much better help accomplish that goal because of its explicitly personal approach. (more…)

5 Examples of mistakes in the logic of content marketers

The demand for content in all of its variations is constantly increasing, and it has never been as high as it currently is. For that reason, content creators are sometimes forced by circumstances to fill that demand with not-so-awesome results because of the heavy publishing schedules and the decreasing variety of different topics.

This often leads to falling into deception and delusion about what is reasonable and what isn’t. Dilemmas like that can be quite frustrating, and when combined with the nagging schedule, the resulting produce is not so promising. The outcome is that content creators start looking dull and sometimes even inexperienced in what they do, which in turn leads to mistrust with the audiences.

There is no argument that producing logical content with no compromise and inconsistencies will always define the writer as a real professional, ultimately setting him or her apart from the spammy and thoughtless content marketers.

Let’s check out some of the mistakes often seen in such cases:

1. Making hasty assumptions

This is an often occurrence, and it’s there for a reason. However, when we add the speed of which we are forced to write into the equation, content creators are usually guilty of that because of the whole impatience surrounding the writing process.

The results we use to create our arguments and publish the final content are often based on limited research, using small samples of the issue being discussed and inconclusive articles that always leave more to be answered. This is quite limiting and preventing from reaching a meaningful end to the subject. (more…)