SEO - cfagbata

New in The Startup Ecosystem? Check Why SEO Matters to you

SEO is a basic part of getting the website and by extension, the social media platforms of a Startup, to run successfully, from ground zero.

On the average, however, a number of Founders seem to have neglected this, rather, profitable business strategy, that is capable of making their businesses more visible to potential customers.

Every Startup requires a Search Engine Optimization, (SEO), strategy as a tool to, organically, drive traction, without necessarily bearing excessive weight on the budget.

An entrepreneur must take SEO as a priority, for the following reasons;

Delivery of Customer Behavior
At the first launch of every business, the data on your audience is insignificant, but the integration of SEO would aid you to gather ample information on them.

Startups can see the words used by their target audience while conducting online searches.

SEO finds out a significant amount of data, therefore, the more optimization that gets carried out, the higher the chances of getting informed on search terms, used by potential customers.

Higher Traffic and Conversions
Rather than expending funds on advertising, through social media, why not try out the option of building SEO and getting updated with the latest Google changes.

If you can rank for some particular keywords that are not yet ranking high and less competitive, then, you can start getting organic traffic.

Organic traffic from Google search has been proven to have a high conversion rate.

It’s Free
Google Analytics and Google Search Console, among others, are free SEO tools that you can leverage.

Google Analytics, especially, helps you to see the action performed by users, on your website, while the console, however, allows you to see what search lead to your website that is showing up, plus the identification of broken links.

Informed Business Decisions
Once you find your consumer, the next step is to go ahead in comprehending their behavior. Behavioral patterns of consumers help to decide, how your customers can get converted.

For instance, when you are aware of a customer’s demography, you tailor your business strategy, to shape the decision you make.

In addition to that, you could have a keyword that is driving traffic to your site. This appears great, but you do not relax at this point, you need to look around the word and create long-tail keywords from it, to drive greater traffic, hence more conversion.

Strengthens Consumer Trust and Value
If your business shows up high on search results, customers trust is created and you also build strong relationships with prospective customers.

Since your customers will not be getting to physically meet with you, you need to earn their trust, for respect and credibility.

Building a Long Term Audience
When an advert runs out, the traffic it gains tends to fade away after some time. That cannot be said for SEO, as it gives you time to build an audience, over a long period. With quality content, your SEO becomes stronger with back links to your site.

With all these, you still need to stay up to speed with changes in SEO updates, especially, as a business is still just picking up this year, so that the updates on its algorithm will not make your content invisible.

Startups that, probably, cannot afford a huge budget on an advertising campaign, should look into search engine optimization as an alternative to projecting their businesses, products, services, and solutions.

SEO Consulting in Nigeria via cfagbata.com

Importance of Social Media Marketing and SEO Consulting

One of the hardest part of writing a blog post is coming up with the right topic because a topic can either promote your post or kill it. So, it was a struggle coming up with a topic for this post, as I write I am not exactly sure if this is the most proper topic but follow me as I talk about SEO consulting and Social Media Marketing…… gracia 🙂

Lately, I have done SEO consulting for a good number of clients (including mine). Some of the brands I am currently working with are;

  1. Project *Develop – Google’s partner providing Nigerians professional websites at no cost.
  2. www.kasuwa.com – Nigeria’s largest online marketplace CFAgbata building SEO links for Kasuwa.com
  3. www.westmanquest.com – one of Nigeria’s fastest growing laundry brands
  4. www.meponline.org – a Mobile Entrepreneurship website
  5. Even blogs are not left out, www.wordmartnigeria.com owned by writing and editorial consultant, Earl Okezie,  is less than a month old but is gaining grounds online.
  6. There are at least a dozen others I really can’t disclose for a number of reasons; ranging from the fact that we are still at the initial stages of the project or they’ve signed up to our white reseller solution; which simply means we work for them without stating the details of their clients. So, what’s stopping you from work with me? Contact me now!

SEO Consulting in Nigeria via cfagbata.com

Why is Social Media Marketing and SEO Consulting becoming increasingly important?

Look all around you, the signs are everywhere. The Internet is becoming more important, brands are embracing social media channels more, there are more IT start-ups today than ever before, technology is replacing human beings in various sectors and here is the funny one; Google is advertising on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria 🙂

Do you know why this is funny? Not too long ago, Google’s Chairman, Eric Schmidt was quoted;

Google’s not doing anything like as much as it wants to on the continent, he admitted, because it’s just not possible. Africans, he says, are forced to cough up “20 to 30 times what we (i.e. Americans) pay for data.”

I really don’t know what has changed so much in less than 12 months because I am still paying heavily for data. Has Google suddenly realized Africa (particularly Nigeria) has huge potentials? That is a matter for another day……

Social Media Marketing and SEO Consulting offer to integrate the best of both worlds.

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a brand building opportunity for businesses; both small and big. I encourage you to fully tap into it’s popularity. Fortunately and unfortunately for me, I have less time to effectively run my various social media accounts as I delve deeper into SEO Consulting and Social Media Marketing for clients, still to God be all the glory.

Social media marketing is a long-term strategy that deals with brand promotion using the various available social media channels such as Dynamic blogs (notice I used the word “dynamic” there is no need to have a blog, if it would not be updated), YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Also, the recent rise in the popularity of social media sites has made it possible for search engines to recognize the importance of a website or brand or individual with good social media following. Before now, that didn’t count but not anymore as long as the foundation of your site is correct i.e.

  • You have more good quality links than bad ones pointing to your site. (Your site can actually have bad links through no fault of your own)
  • You take time to develop high quality content.
  • You are not involved in any form of blackhat (bad) SEO.

If the above applies to you; then you can be sure that when you content gets shared by your readers or followers, your website will receive some link juice which might help it rank higher.

Building links and content development

Link building has always been and still is a very popular way to increase the value of your website in the eyes of the search engines

Quality content that is constant and timely tickles the search engines which makes it an extremely important aspect of SEO consulting. I usually tell my clients to make content generation a key aspect of their web presence management strategy because success can hardly be guaranteed without it. The truth is that you don’t have to generate content yourself, you can hire the likes of Earl Okezie or CFA to write for you or have us help you do a comprehensive keyword research as well as come up with a content development strategy.

Hear me and hear me well; even if you spend $1,000,000 on Facebook ads alone, you are not maximizing that opportunity, if you don’t have quality content that will keep visitors to your website engaged.

Finally…..

Yes. I am an SEO services provider and I achieve more through it, however, I recommend a combination of various strategies in your marketing plan. Rather than do just SEO (which should be at least 50%), I recommend you also include the following;

  • Social Media Marketing
  • PPC Advertising
  • Email, BBM and Personalized Bulk SMS Marketing and
  • Other forms of off-line advertising i.e. business cards, Newspaper ads,

Before you start any form of website promotion, please ensure that you get the basics right – good website navigation, look and feel and other on page SEO factors.

Now it’s your turn 🙂

Share your online experience as regards SEO and Social Media Marketing with us. I am certain you have better ideas or suggestions, so let’s hear em below.

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Google takes down Millions of Websites starting with Popular buildmyrank.com

Google Inc, the godfather of the Internet has once again proven that the web as we know it today is majorly controlled by them.

Last week, there were rumours of a pending Google algorithm update but unknown to many big G had already begun rolling out the changes by delisting very popular sites from her search engine index. The impact of this was so great that a site as big as buildmyrank (BMR) had to close down their services immediately.

In the case of BMR, they were a very popular website with a huge network of blogs, so it was easy for anyone who signed up with them to rank very easily for various keywords. Google

See what they posted on their blog;

On a daily basis, we monitor our domain network to check metrics like page rank, indexed pages, etc. As with any link-building network, some de-indexing activity is expected and ours has been within a permissible range for the past two years. Unfortunately, this morning, our scripts and manual checks have determined that the overwhelming majority of our network has been de-indexed (by Google), as of March 19, 2012. In our wildest dreams, there’s no way we could have imagined this happening.

It had always been BMR’s philosophy that if we did things a bit different from other networks, we would not only have a better quality service to offer our users, but a longer life in this fickle industry. Sadly, it appears this was not the case.

Google did not only delist them but went a step further to also delist every single blog on their network. It is reported that Google is also going after other sites that run this sort of networks.

Confession time

I have a confession to make; “forgive me for I have sinned.” Being a member of the SEO industry, I was aware of BMRs growing influence that I actually tried to add CFAgbata.com to their networt. What prevented me which I now count as a blessing was the fact that paypal was the only advertised means of payment.

I even had to contact their support back then;

Google

Where would I have started from if this blog was delisted from Google? I honestly don’t know……

Tips to avoid the negative effect of any future Google updates

  1. Do 100% white hat SEO.
  2. No one can guarantee you the no. 1 spot on Google, so avoid anyone who says they can because they will end up getting you in trouble.
  3. Avoid using fake (black hat) SEO companies. CFA Leverage is an affordable SEO services company you can trust.
  4. Don’t sell links. Too many links on each page of your site looks spammy.
  5. Update your website regularly with fresh content.
  6. Create a content mix i.e. Instead just posting text, publish images, upload audion and videos as long as you go for quality because quality content is king.
  7. Add a blog to your website, if you are yet to do that because Google loves blogs.
  8. When confused about any update for your website, seek wise counsel. Although, I consider myself quite experienced in SEO, I still seek for advice when necessary, so as to avoid any negative penalties for my actions.

The truth is that as the competition on the Internet grows, so would people and companies try harder to beat the system.

One assurance, I can give to anyone who decides to order services from CFA Leverage is that your site will never be delisted as a result of our activities because we are 100% white hat 🙂

internet marketing

4 Internet Marketing Strategies you can Implement this Year

Internet Marketing has grown so huge today and I wonder what 2012 has in store? I am amazed at the opportunities and possibilities available to anyone online.

Right now, I am writing from my home town in Awka, Anambra state and by the time I hit publish, what I have to say goes out to the whole world. Isn’t this fascinating?

Why do I love Internet Marketing?

Internet Marketing

The simple reason can be found on the image above. CFAgbata is reaching thousands, if not millions without spending heavily on advertisements 🙂

Use of the Internet is now becoming widely popular amongst small business enterprise (SME) owners that usually don’t bother about I.T. If you ask me, I would say that Internet Marketing has toppled all other marketing trends so far.

Note: Internet Marketing is also known as Web Marketing, Online Marketing or E-marketing.

There are so many Internet Marketing strategies which can be implemented either individually or in combination, and they can help take your small business to the next level.

Note: You cannot implement these Internet Marketing strategies without having your own website or blog. Not just any website but an SEO friendly website that is managed by an experienced website consultant or SEO company.

As an experienced Internet Marketing

Coach, I can tell you for sure that the below strategies will work if you implement them consistently. Remember, the websites and blogs online are nearing the 1 billion mark which simply means more competition – so be consistent.

4 Internet Marketing Strategies I recommend

1. Do more SEO

Are you currently doing SEO?

Without SEO your internet marketing hopes will be dashed big time especially if you don’t have a big budget for PPC i.e. Google adwords or Facebook ads, so I recommend that you learn basic SEO (use the search button on the sidebar to search for SEO related topics).

SEO is rather difficult and time consuming so I suggest you outsource it so you can focus on your core. SEO Optimization Services entail a daily implementation of one or more online or offline strategies.

Let me say this again, I prefer SEO over PPC because of its long term benefits.

2. Give out Freebies on your website

This is one of the best strategies that works not only in Internet Marketing but also in general offline marketing. Gifts can come in the form of audio clips, PDF Files, newsletters, free coupons, free tickets etc.

To make this beneficial to you, you can set up an email sign up option which would help in expanding your existing list of potential clients.

For example, CFAgbata is reaching thousands, if not millions without spending heavily on advertisements.

3. Be Active on Social Media

Social Network Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Tagged etc. are key components of a well designed Internet Marketing plan.

It is important to engage the services of a website consultant with Social Media Optimization services. I suggest that every small business owner takes a Social Media For Business course like the one we are currently working on.

Social Media has become a major factor in both SEO or Internet Marketing, today, SERP results are heavily influenced by the social media influence of the website.

4. Email is still powerful.

I have often heard the argument that social media will kill email. I disagree with this assertion, I believe that emails will be here for a long long time. On the other hand, I think that mails will be accessed differently in future i.e. probably through a chip embeded into our bodies 🙂

I suggest you should use emails more frequently this year. You can even automate your email procedures like I have done, if you are confused how to ge started then I suggest you sign up for my Free course on setting up autoresponders.

These are some of the Small Business Marketing Solutions that I use and my belief is that you can achieve greater results if you innovate while implementing these Internet Marketing strategies.

Published by CFA using WordPress for Android

SEO

How to build up your online business using SEO

Building any new online business and bringing it to success is a very tedious task if you do not invest properly in SEO. It is even more tedious if you are new to the emerging internet marketing technologies. Just by building an attractive website with nice images and good content alone is not sufficient to attract customers to your website.

The SEO industry is indeed emerging and becoming more relevant as the Internet becomes more competitive.

There are lots of techniques involved that you need to learn and apply in order to increase traffic to your website. Usually when people want to explore about something, what they do is search using related keywords in one of the popular search engines. So, your aim should be to get your website to the top of those search engine results. This process is generally called search engine optimization technique or SEO.

There are many strategies used in SEO to achieve this aim and also to increase traffic to your website other than this using many other techniques. If you are not very familiar with these techniques it is better to approach a professional to get this job done for you because it is not as simple as it sounds. You have to remember that every single website is targeting the same to get to the top of that search engine results. So, the competition is high and unless you do all that is required you would end up with a very good website with less traffic resulting in poor business. There are many professionals like Conditioned for Accomplishments who are experts in this field with their experience and technical expertise to increase traffic for your online business.

Below are different methods of Internet Marketing used to improve your website:

  1. Email marketing
  2. Publishing newsletters
  3. Banner advertising
  4. Social Media
  5. Article writing
  6. PPC advertising
  7. Link building
  8. Forum postings

It is difficult to point out a single technique that will bring success for you because different businesses have found success using different techniques and it is better to resort to multiple methods than sticking with one.

There are many ways of doing Search Engine Optimization or SEO and using right keywords in the content, using it for the right amount of times in the content and in the meta-tag, etc. are usual methods employed by professionals.

They have techniques to find out which keyword should be used and how many times should it be used. It is difficult to know all these techniques for someone who is not an expert and it is always better to take the help of any of the good internet marketing professionals such as CFA to effectively manage the marketing of your online business.