Author: wedgeim

My name is Michael Chrest , I am the owner of MRC SEO Consulting  , I have been working with websites since 2005 and started with a technical background in IT. Having worked with hundred of websites , doing design , technical work and search engine optimization I know what is required to get your website ranking. I spend a lot of time learning new SEO practices to keep up with the constant change Google put in place. Give me a call and let me show you what I can do for you.

Match online to Your Business Type

Posted on by wedgeim

Matching your local SEO Services to your business type can become a simple and streamlined process, if you could follow some of the guidelines from search engines like Google. The first step starts with the keyword research and content preparation. You need to search for the standard keywords and phrases that have least competition and searches per month. Then you need to group them with relevance to your business, products and service categories. Then you need to create your content around these keywords and phrases.

  • Avoid too much of focus on keywords and concentrate on the content value.
  • Use only those keywords that are relevant to the content in the web pages. You could use the others in your blogs, social media pages and other content based links.
  • Avoid over-stuffing of keywords and balance the flow of information in the content.
  • Use the keywords in combination with the city ad street names in the content. Specify the address, phone and add the location map to the web pages.
  • Use synonyms to standard keywords around it.
  • Make the content conform to grammatical, contextual and relevancy standards of Google.

Google My Business Standards – Listing and Indexing

  • Web-Pages: Avoid filling all the information within few web pages. Your website could have as many pages as the number of products and services you offer. Make sure of adding pages for About, products (landing sub page), photo gallery, customer listing and testimonials, links to YouTube videos, service page (landing sub page) and the sitemap (most important page). You need to include the Name, Address and Phone (NAP) of your local business location in every page along with the link to the location map (preferably on the Contact page). Your home page should connect to all the pages and the sub pages may have interlinks with each other and to the home page. The users should able to navigate from the sitemap to every page and vice versa. You need to use Hypertext links between the pages apart from the drop down menu. This is because the search engines can’t see the menu in the web pages. Index the site on the search engines including all the pages with the sitemap. You could use XML coding and design for the sitemap and automate its updates whenever a new page is created or the content in the existing pages is edited. Make the pages responsive in design and conform to Google standards for text color, font, back and fore color, image size and clarity etc. The images should have main keywords relevant to the specific theme in the image Meta-data like title and descriptions. You could follow the same guidelines for the page title and Meta description.  Google says it has stopped looking into the Meta tags and back links. But still you could add them just to be on safer.
  • Keywords: Add relevant keywords to the product pages along with city name, street name and other related words and phrases. For example, you can add the keyword Italian Pizza + in + Great Western Highway + Sydney + Australia. You could specify the local address and phone number in the same paragraph or the next. Similarly you can use specific keywords for every product and service page in the same manner. This approach increases the page visibility and page ranking, since every page relates to the specific products and services of your business. The other key element you need to add is your business name at the beginning of the keyword. Include your business name in the Meta descriptions.

Content Quality – Relevance and Continuity

The content quality plays a key role in attracting your potential audiences. It is important to keep the sentences short, relevant and simple. Avoid exaggeration and use of too many adjectives. At the same time you need to project the uniqueness of your products and seo services.

  • Client Testimonials: Adding client testimonials to every web page (relevant to the context of the page) can enhance the readers’ trust considerably. They can attract more number of visitors to the specific pages. The page ranking and rating will naturally move up.
  • Images and Videos: The images and video links you add to the pages need to be relevant to the text content of that page. For example, you may write about the technical specifications of a washing machine in a page. Make sure the images show the genuine parts diagrams (or pictures) of your product. Avoid borrowing from stock photos and use genuine photographs. You may need to hire a professional photographer. Follow the Google guidelines for the image size, resolution, color, magnification levels and other parameters accurately. Follow the YouTube guidelines for your videos and make it look professional in its approach. You can also add a transcription of the videos on the linking page and insert the relevant localized keywords into that content.
  • Text Content: Break the text content into smaller and readable paragraphs. Add infographics and tables wherever required. Real time technical and statistical data can make the content relevant and interesting. You can expect the search engine ranking and customer rating to move up further on the scale now.

Social Media Connections – Inroads to Local Audiences

  • Social Signals: Social signals are the views, likes, shares, reviews, comments and the ratings from the audiences in the social media. They could be related to the social media pages, blog content, website content, videos etc. Quality and relevance can generate more number of views. The audiences will share the links only when they like it. They may also write reviews and post comments. These parameters will naturally increase the page and site ranking in the search engines.
  • Blog Links: Create genuine blogs with original content for the products and services listed on your website. Make sure you write only about the technical perspectives and user experiences, along with links to and from authority web pages. Once this part is achieved, the local SEO automatically gets connected to your business type.

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7 Things You Need to Fire Your guy for doing

Posted on by wedgeim

The Negative Aspects That Is Best Avoided

calgary seo

There are always methods to how matters can be handled to produce quick results with SEO services and it is often possible to come across consultants that give results that are given by these fast methods too.  But as with any negative steps, it is possible that the quick ways of doing things can result in certain negative aspects as far as ranking of sites are concerned and it is often the better informed of webmasters that would refrain from using these techniques.  Handled in brief is the more common black hat techniques as they happen to be called as laid out below.

Stuffing of keywords:

This is a practice to use more keywords than is necessary in sites and the related works.  What happens with this technique is that the algorithms that search engines use would tend to have a high score for the keyword factor while searching for a subject.  It then would put the particular site at the top of the search results.

The more advanced search engines do look for patterns that there has indeed been an instance of keyword stuffing.  And cases that need penal action are acted upon.  It is more common to disguise the keyword stuffing to the Meta tags that usually form the article write ups and blogs and search engines are alive to this factor and are in the process of taking steps that would bring such instances to the attention of those concerned.

Use of inappropriate keywords:

keywords seo

In this method, the site uses a lot of keywords that would happen to be inappropriate to the situation or the particular site.  Thus when a search engine comes across a site, it does score rather highly in terms of keywords but for a good part the keywords are not suited to the situation.

This used to be a usual method to driving traffic to sites that was in use some time ago with those that operated in the darker parts of the web.  But the improvements in search engine technology that sort of weeded out the keywords that were irrelevant to the situation at hand have reduced this practice to a fair bit.  In most instances the irrelevant keywords are considered as just an ordinary word than of any particular significance.

Use of hidden text:

Used rampantly in SEO practices to drive up traffic and increase the hits to a site, the text is hidden among the content and mostly would be keywords themselves.  Often when keywords are not easy to integrate to the matter this method is resorted to.   So when a search engine does trawl a site it does get to count the keyword used but a person reading the content would never pick up the words.

It could be said that the practice of hiding text is convenient to have as it provides an easier system to follow to create good compelling websites.  Rarely is the mind needed to be applied to in coming out with a presentable content and at the same time can rank highly with the search results.

Purchasing links or one of mutual exchange:

Links to a website bring on a factor of greater acceptance of the matter handled by the site.  There is a practice of purchasing links or going in for exchange of links.  It is more of a quid pro quid practice that people resort to by providing links to neighboring sites on an exchange basis and that will directly have a bearing on the ranking of each site individually.

With the future looking features of most search engines, it is possible to reduce this aspect to bringing in a positive result by the use of very advanced algorithm that considers the subject matter of the site under study and to determine if the linked sites are indeed relevant to each other.  These steps are possible only with a better understanding of the working of systems and most is introduced with more advanced systems in place too.

The inappropriate use of social media:

People that use groups in the various social media would have come alive to the situations when others would try and promote sites by sending links to people in the very group.  There are instances when the links are sent under the guise of more acceptable sites than what the promoter truly stands for.

This practice was in use much earlier when the groups were in use in Google and Yahoo primarily.  It is just that there has been a change of livery so to speak.  There is a simple method that can be adopted to prevent this or at best curtail this practice.  That is to report the trouble maker links to the system or site administrator.

It is only natural that the increasing use of social media and the ease of communication between people in a group only aid in the further propagation of this type of scams as such.

Cloaking of sites:

– In the very common form, cloaking is when sites present a particular version of the site to the visitor but using another version to present to the search engines.  It would so happen that the second version of the sites being presented to the public would be more coherent and more readable than the prior version.

Cloaking is rather an expensive method to improve ranking and it is only resorted to when the results do justify the means.  In a number of cases of ecommerce sites when a potential visitor could mean more business generated, this could be a viable turn of events.

Spinning of content:

Here the content instead of being regenerated or renewed is recreated by using software that can suggest and replace the words in the content bring under consideration.  This is often a very cost effective method that is resorted to when budgets are at a premium.  Most webmasters do not consider this a good option for the feel of the content produced by spinning software that usually stands out for the lack of a smooth flow of words.

MRC SEO Consulting

4911 30 Avenue Southwest Calgary, Alberta T3E0V4
Phone: +1 403-386-7427

Looking for a new MRC SEO Consulting Calgary SEO – SEO firm to handle your business and prefer a local expert? We are a local Calgary Search Engine Optimization Company that helps business in Calgary Alberta and area grow through online marketing and SEO.”TRAFFIC = SUCCESS. Let us help you get the traffic you need to grow your business. We are Calgary SEO and we specialize in Internet Marketing. You probably found us on the first page of Google, let us do the same for you. Our proven SEO (Search Engine Optimization) methods will help you get to the front page of Google, exactly where your customers are searching. Our methods include a process of 1. Analysis 2. Research 3. Implementation 4. Continual Reporting. First we take a good hard look at your current website and we make specific recommendations how to make it more profitable for you. Then we research your market and make even more specific recommendations as to what key words will work for you to enhance your positioning.We then link your site to other authoritative sites, implementing your new strategy. Finally we review how these new actions affect the dominace of your website and use tools to not only grow your site but monitor your ongoing success. Give a call today or send us an email so we can get started on placing you above your competitors.”

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Posted in SEO

7 Effective Headline Writing Tips

Posted on by wedgeim

According to a study by CopyBlogger, only 20% of people who read your headline will read the rest of the article. So, if you want your posts to perform well, an effective headline is a must.

Fortunately, using a few simple technique, you can write headlines that will generate thousands of visitors.

In this article, you’ll discover seven headline writing techniques that will boost your search traffic, rankings and social shares:

1. Begin With Numbers

Number Headline

Headline containing specific numbers and data perform far better than other types of headlines. According to one study, headlines with number generate 73% more social shares and engagement. This is because list posts are easier to read.

You can use low numbers to illustrate the conciseness of your article. Or you can use high numbers to illustrate the comprehensiveness. Just try not use too high of a number. People might think the article won’t be easy to read.

All kinds of number work well in the headline. But odd number tend to work better. They appear less conventionally packaged. The odd number 7 works best. According to one study, click-through rates increased by 20%, when a headline was tweaked to include the number 7.

When you are writing a headline, don’t type out the number. Use numerical numbers. So, instead of writing “Seven Steps To Start A Blog”, write “7 Steps To Start A Blog”.

2. Highlight Value

Highlight Value

Make the benefit of reading the article clear and direct in the headline. This is why How-to headlines always work well.

The general format is:

How to + Action (do something) + Unique benefit

“How To Fall Asleep No Matter Where You Are” is a good example. Here, “Fall Asleep” is the action. “No Matter Where You Are” is the unique benefits.

Many people don’t add the unique benefits in the headline. This makes for a boring headline. “How To Fall Asleep No Matter Where You Are” is much more interesting than just “How To Fall Asleep”.

People distrust outrageous claims. So make sure your unique benefit is believable.

3. Pique Curiosity

Headlines with question arouse curiosity. It can be effective if you can compose them the right way.

The best question the one that the reader can relate to or would like to see answered.

Ask the question directly to your reader. Don’t just ask:

What’s the best way to generate traffic?

Ask them directly:

Do you know the best way to generate traffic?

Directly asking them often make them seek an answer.

Also never answer the question in the headline. If your reader already knows the answer, they will see no reason to read the article.

4. Stay Away From Positive Superlatives

We always try to be positive in our conversation. But being positive isn’t an effective idea when it comes to headline.

A study by OutBrain found that the average click-through rate on headlines with negative superlatives ( such as “never” or “worst”) was a staggering 63% higher than that of their positive counterparts (such as “always” or “best”).

Headline with positive superlative, in fact, worked worse than headlines with no superlative. They had 29% less click-rate. One reason this happens might be the overuse of positive superlative (such as best, fastest or cheapest) in marketing. People now ignore them.

Negative superlative on the other hand are more unexpected and intriguing. People are more likely to see them as authentic and genuine.

5. Add Adjective & Unique Rationale

The adjective is the part of speech that describes or qualifies a noun or pronoun in a given sentence. Unlike positive superlatives, correctly used adjectives can create interest.

Here are 30 powerful adjectives you can incorporate in your headline:

  • Absolute
  • Advanced
  • Bold
  • Brilliant
  • Brutally Honest
  • Controversial
  • Daring
  • Dazzling
  • Delightful
  • Effortless
  • Enduring
  • Exceptional
  • Eye Opening
  • Fascinating
  • Forgotten
  • Generous
  • Humorous
  • Idiotic
  • Irresistible
  • Magical
  • Obnoxious
  • Painstaking
  • Proven
  • Provocative
  • Refreshing
  • Sensational
  • Spectacular
  • Staggering
  • Thrilling
  • Witty

These adjectives will grab your reader’s interest and intrigue them enough to read your article.

The definition of rationale is: a logical basis for a course of action. Here are some unique rationales you can use that will guarantee a boost in your click-through rate:

  • Tricks
  • Ways
  • Reasons
  • Lessons
  • Secrets
  • Strategies
  • Ideas

6. Use Punctuation

According to a study conducted by Content Marketing Institute, simply adding a hyphen or colon increases headline click-through rate by 9%.

It’s an easy technique to use. Here are some examples:

“An Editor’s Rant: 7 Questions Every Writer Should Be Asking”
“Creating a Brand Identity: 20 Questions You Must Ask Before Starting”

7. Use Proven Formula

How To headlines are used a lot. And they work well. We already mentioned one formula. Here are some other common examples:

How to [Achieve Something Specific]

How to [Achieve Something Specific] and [Do Seemingly Impossible Thing]

How to [Achieve Something Specific] without [objectionable action]

How to [Do Something] like a boss.

How [I/We/Company X] [Achieved Something Specific] in [Time Frame]

There are also some that defy classification but works well:

(The) [Famous Group/Person’s] guide to [Blank]

What [Group or Celebrity] can teach you about (Industry)

[Number] little-known factors that could affect your [Blank]

All you need to know about [Specific Topic]

The [Adjective] Guide to [Specific Topic]

Behind the Scenes of a [Profession/Hobby]

Warning: [Blank]

Why [x] trumps [y]

Conclusion

New content marketing strategies are emerging every day. So it’s very difficult to figure out what works and what doesn’t. But these advice are evergreen. They always work.

After you complete writing a post, write 10-12 headlines. This may sound a lot, but the more you write, the more options you will have to choose from. Some will be terrible. Some will be better. Go with the one that sounds best. If you can’t choose one, share them on social media. Go with the one that gets the most traction.

There are also many online tools that you can use. Inbound Now has an automatic headline idea generator. Sharethrough’s analyzer tells you how engaging your headline is. CoSchedule has a brilliant data-backed tool that will score your headline’s overall quality.

It is true that a great headline can make a difference. But writing a great headline isn’t enough. You need to give equal effort to write better content.

The Top Methods To Grow Your Business Using Facebook Ads

Posted on by wedgeim

 

Facebook is the digital giant in the online marketing world; it is where your customers spend their time and utilized properly it can be the perfect place to invest your marketing and advertising budgets. Unfortunately, as with many things in business, it is not as simple as placing an advert on Facebook. You need a strategy to stand out from your competition and ensure you generate a satisfactory return on investment.

The good news is that here at MRC SEO Consulting,  we have developed a strategy that works consistently when it comes to Facebook advertising, and today we are going to provide you with some of our ideas and concepts. If you actively implement these methods, you should notice a significant improvement in your success rate.

 

Use The Facebook Pixel To Track All Of Your Visitors

Regardless of what anyone will tell you, there is not a marketer on the planet who gets every promotion correct, first time, every time. It is essential to track, test, and evaluate every aspect of your Facebook marketing campaign constantly, and by using the Facebook Pixel, that’s exactly what you can do. Not only will you gain a deeper understanding of your marketing efforts and the visitors to your page, but you can also use the opportunity to build an email list, of people who are interested in your niche. This enables you to send out targeted follow-ups to an ever growing list. Provided you deliver constant value this list can be nurtured into the most valuable asset of your business.

Never Underestimate The Importance Of Graphics

Regardless of the location of your advert, be it Facebook, Google or even email marketing, it is essential to grab the attention of the reader. That after all is the whole point of your advert, and the simple reality is that graphics will always perform better in this regard than text. If you are investing in ads, then do not skimp on the graphics, as research consistently shows that a great graphic will increase your click through rate. Although this report focused on email marketing, it still demonstrates the point that a good graphic increased the response by 42%. That is a hugely significant statistic and one that many marketers fail to take advantage of.

The Text Of Your Ad Needs Careful Thought

While the graphic will hopefully get the attention of the reader, it will be the text that convinces most people to pursue their interest. Many people forget that the point of an advert is to generate interest in their page, rather than be a full on sales pitch. In fact, the less your ad sounds like an ad, the more likely it is to convert. People are naturally wary of the hard sell, so it is critical that you pay close attention to the wording.

Target, Target And Then Target Some More

One of the key benefits of Facebook is the granular level to which an advertiser can go to, to target their audience. This,ofcourse, is only beneficial if you have a picture in your mind of your ideal customer. Take the time to sit down and really work out who your target market is, and then write all of your adverts with that person in mind. Imagine you are sitting in a room talking directly to that person and create your advert that way. Then, once it is written make full use of all of the Facebook features. Visit and experiment with your Ads management panel. You can target location,age, sex, language, interests even political persuasion. This might seem a long and laborious task, but that is exactly why it is worthwhile. Ninety-five percent of your competition will not bother with this, as it is simply too much hard work. That gives you a distinct advantage and will ensure you flourish at your competitor’s expense.

The Placement Of Your Adverts Should Be Dependent On Your End Goal

Many online marketers will tell you that mobile is everything and desktop is nothing in today’s marketplace, but that’s simply not true. Mobile is superb for generating likes, and for anything that is a quick and simple transaction. If you are purely trying to increase the number of likes on your page, then mobile is the far superior method. If on the other hand, you want proper customer interaction, and you are aiming for either signups to your list, or perhaps even a sale, then thedesktop is still king. Hopefully, you are beginning to understand that every little aspect of your advertising plan needs to be considered in minute detail.

Consider Hiring A Professional To Do Things Properly For You

Let’s be realistic here, the reason you are reading this article is to try and improve your online success. Perhaps you are a plumber or an electrician, would you feel confident letting someone change a fuse board having watched a couple of videos on YouTube, or read a couple of articles? Clearly postingFacebook ads doesn’t come with any physical risk, but there is a lot of skill and expertise involved in the process. There is a reason why some of the biggest brands in the world employ the services of an ad agency because the reality is that advertising is a field of expertise in it’sown right. The key to success in any business is to maximize your time performing the tasks that generate you the most income. It may be much more beneficial in the long-term to employ as anexpert to design, develop and implement your Facebook advertising strategy, while you deal with the subsequent orders. Here at MRC SEO Consulting, we implement successful Facebook advertising campaigns on a daily basis. If you do decide to leave it to the experts, then fill in the contact form, and we can get your campaign up and running quickly and efficiently. Our friendly and knowledgeable customer service team will walk you through the process, ensuring that you understand the strategy and keeping you in the loop from start to finish.

 

Tips and Tactics for Business

Posted on by wedgeim

SEO Tips


When it comes to the internet, it is all about being up-to-date. You have to keep up with every internet upload. If you want to be a part of the internet, you need to put content out there and make people want to read it.

Well, surely it isn’t that easy, or else everyone would have been doing it, and the whole point of search engine ranking would have been pointless.

So, only the smartest and the most efficient search engine optimization experts with latest strategies and techniques will be able to rank themselves on top of the SERPs.

Here are some of the tips and tactics that will help you get there:

  • Mobile-friendly website:

If you are looking for a way to attract a broader range of visitors, then turn your focus towards mobile friendly websites. Almost everyone today uses a smartphone, and you need to create highly responsive websites that are attractive and work on all the devices.

  • The increasing popularity of Voice Search:

It is all about finding the new way to make things easier for your users. Including a voice search option within the website allows the customer to share without all the typing hassle.

  • Creating a super-fast website:

Ditch all the pointless data from your website, and your visitors will be happy to experience fast loading pages. If your website’s loading speed is slow, chances are that the visitors may not have the patience to wait and they might switch to a different site.

  • Only put high-quality content on your website:

When you have a high-quality, well-researched content, it not only makes your customers happy but it is a great way of impressing Google as well.

  • Don’t Ignore the importance of Social Media Marketing:

Social Media Marketing is a paramount technique that will help you get the attention of the people. Generate the interest of customers on your website by posting interesting things that will make them want to like, comment, and share them.

  • When you are building links, it is all about quality:

Generating links are important; however, ensure that you create quality backlinks using right keywords. Creating 1 quality backlink is equal to creating hundreds of backlinks on non-quality sites. So, in the technique of backlinking, focus more on quality rather than quantity.

  • Move towards “https:

Switch your website from ‘http’ to ‘https’ for securing your connection and other important data of the website. This will enhance your search engine rankings.

  • Attract customers on other search engines as well:

Sure, Google is the king of search engines. However, it is not the only search engine available for practicing local Search engine optimization. Make sure that you don’t forget about attracting customers from other search engines such as Yahoo and Bing. Customers from these search engines will also help you in increasing your rankings.

Closing Thought

Search Engine Optimization has emerged as a powerful online marketing tool. However, sometimes local  SEOs tend to get carried away with the process. So one of the best techniques of SEO is to keep it simple and smart.

 

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Posted in SEO

Top Effective Tools to Start

Posted on by wedgeim

Top Effective Tools


Looking for tools that will help you improve your SEO process? Here are some of the best tools that help you identify the issues, optimize the website, and help you get ahead of your competitors.

  1. Google Analytics:

Google Analytics is perhaps the most important tool for search engine optimization experts analysts. It is a data source that offers high-quality and detailed information. We are like in a Google-dominated age; it is what works for all of us. Besides, most of the other data tools just sponge off on the data provided by Google using the API. All the important and actionable information about the visitors of the sites comes from this significant tool.

  1. Google Webmaster Tools:

After Google Analytics, let us learn about the Google Webmaster tools which are another critical source for online marketers. The tool is not just for webmaster; it highly helps SEO analysts as well. The tools have everything to do with local searching engine optimization.

Some of the best inputs from the Google Webmaster tools come from looking at the dashboard. SEO marketers need to be up-to-date with the dashboard of the webmaster tool. The tool offers the information similar to the Google Analytics, however in a simpler and less complicated manner. You have easier access to the number with lesser tweaking. One of the most important information provided by the Webmaster Tool is the link data. Keeping track of harmful backlinks is one of the best protective action that you can take to maintain the quality of your site.

  1. Keyword Planner:

The keyword tool has now been replaced with keyword planner, and it is the best way to research keywords. You can access keyword planner by logging in to AdWords => Tools => Keyword Planner. Keyword Planner is the way to reach out for when you want to do keyword research. The Keyword Planner offers better functionalities than other keyword tools available. However, the Keyword Planner aims at AdWords generation instead of offering organic keyword research.

  1. MozBar:

MozBar is a powerhouse of providing information and local SEO services has everything to do with having the right knowledge about stuff. The MozBar helps you in finding out the right stuff with just simple clicks. Just click on the MozBar button, and you will get all the report of the website. The tool has three categories- Page Attributes, Page Elements, and Link Data.

  1. SEOWorkers Analysis Tool:

This tool allows you to plug into a URL of the website, even if the website that is not yours and helps you generate information. While SEOWorkers don’t offer anything new or unique, it surely does save a lot of time that goes into the analysis. Additionally, it offers background information as well. You will find some of the information like under-the-hood things that people generally don’t think about checking. Other helpful features show whether you are going in the right direction or need to work on some points.

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