Category Archives: Web Design

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The Benefits of a Combined SEO and SEM Marketing Campaign

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SEO With ForeHound

Pretty much anything that requires an effective output has been infused with various parts that work together to make the end result appealing. A meal requires a combination of ingredients for it to come out as a tasty dish that’s enjoyed by all who partake in it. In order for a vehicle to operate smoothly all parts need to be working together. Our bodies are composed of intricate details and parts that make us function properly. The same is true with a website for internet marketing purposes. All parts of the website need to be working and used properly for marketing efforts to produce the results you’re looking for. But just like our bodies or a vehicle, website marketing techniques require great attention to detail to ensure your website is working for your benefit.

How can you tell your website is an effective internet marketing strategy for your business?

A great deal of internet marketing success when it comes to websites depends upon search engine visibility or search engine results. Now you may be asking yourself as a business owner and not an internet marketing strategist, what are search engine results. Search engine results are the lists of websites that show up on your Google page after you type in certain words. Those certain words are search words, or better known as, keywords. For example, you’re looking for Dachshund puppies in Dallas, Texas, so you type that in the search engine box of your favorite internet browser, and the results show up. This is called search engine results.

If you have a website to promote your business, you want your website to show up on the first page, and as close to the top as possible.

Why is this you may ask? Exposure. The website that shows up first or is at the top of the search engine results gets the most clicks and the most visitors to that website. This means your chances of getting visitors and potential customers or clients to your site increases the higher your site appears at the top of the search engine results page. So your next question is probably, how do I get my website to appear at the top of the results page? That’s where internet marketing strategy comes in, and where you need to make sure certain techniques are in place when designing and maintaining your website.

A computer on the internet searching Google to represent internet marketing and SEO services by ForeHound LLC.

Websites should be designed with a purpose.

That purpose being to attract potential customers or business to your website. You should put a great deal of effort into designing your website. Just as much effort as you would if you were opening a brick and mortar business. Your chances of gaining publicity and business will depend on how well you market your business. If nobody knows you’re open for business or can find you, your business will suffer. You can have the best product or service in Dallas but if nobody knows about it your business will suffer.

Just opening the doors to your business or just having a website up on the internet is not enough. One has to come up with an effective marketing plan. One of the most effective marketing strategies is incorporating SEO and SEM into your website.

What is SEO and SEM?

They are acronyms for search engine optimization and search engine marketing. They are terms used to help websites get the best results on the search engines. And just like the ingredients used in a meal these two terms go together. One really can’t use one without the other in order to produce desired results. Both SEO and SEM work together to bring about the best internet marketing strategy. They pretty much go together like a hand and a glove.

Let’s focus on one at a time. The SEO side of internet marketing focuses on getting organic or free traffic. It’s a method designed to produce traffic or results in a “natural” way. One popular way of doing this is with keywords. We discussed keywords earlier. Keywords are used throughout the website to help the search engines “locate” your website when a search engine result is performed. For instance, if you have a website or blog that either offers information regarding Dachshunds in Dallas, an effective website strategy would be to include these words throughout your website or blog.

The use of these words will then trigger the search engine to list your website when someone types the words “Dachshunds in Dallas” or some close variation. This is considered free or organic traffic. Another example we can use is if your website sells cupcakes in Dallas, Texas. Someone may be looking for specially-designed cupcakes for their wedding. They type in wedding cupcakes in Dallas or cupcakes for weddings Dallas. If your website has the keyword wedding cupcakes in Dallas or cupcakes in Dallas or cupcake designs for weddings, your website is more likely to show up in the search engine’s results. And the more keywords listed throughout your site or blog, the more likely your site will show up on the first page or at the top of the page.

SEM involves the use of paid advertising to bring traffic to your website. This is often through paid clicks or ads listed on the site. These paid ads can also be listed on the actual search engines themselves. Notice when you do a Google search that some websites are listed on the side of the page. The website has paid Google, in this case, to list their ad on the search engine. This is one of the most effective internet marketing strategies to increase your website visibility. One thing to note is the more visitors your site receives also helps it to rank high on the search engine results, so utilizing SEO and SEM as an internet marketing strategy is smart and very important. ForeHound can make this happen for you because we specialize in making internet marketing happen the way you want it to, and the way that benefits you the most. What else could you possibly want from your new SEO Agency that ForeHound doesn’t do better?

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    Top 3 Leading Generating Tips

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    Leads Leads Leads. That’s the name of the game when it comes to having a successful marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter if you’re conducting a telephone or an internet campaign, the type of leads you obtain makes all the difference in the world. And in this day of advanced technology, competition is fierce in obtaining and keeping the best possible leads. If you really are looking for lead generation success, one has to step up their game and move beyond the simple dialing numbers in hopes of reaching the right person, or selecting from lead generation lists the names and addresses of potential targets.

    Nowadays it’s not so much about grabbing the attention of your potential audience, but people want their attention earned. This means developing specific creative lead generation strategies to meet the needs of your targeted markets. Since most businesses have a website, and if you don’t have one it’s time to step into the 21st century, creating efficient and effective leads can be done by properly setting up your website to generate leads. You no longer have to engage in blind marketing strategies calling around from old, outdated, and half accurate lists of names or spend a great deal of money on costly advertising and marketing techniques. There are a few simple, yet effective tips that will produce the right leads for your marketing campaign.

    Compelling Content – Be sure you have quality content

    Just like any brick-and-mortar store needs something that lures in customers, websites need compelling content to attract visitors and convert visitors into leads. Your content is like your foundation, without it you have no website. Content, however, includes more than just words, but images too. Think of a brick-and-mortar store you walk into and it’s bare. What will happen? You’ll walk back out that’s what you’ll do. And it’s the same thing with your website, if there’s no content, visitors will not stay. That’s the basic. Every website designer has to be crafty with optimizing your content but in order to turn your website into a lead generation machine, you need relevant and compelling content.

    Although you may walk into a regular store and it’s full of products, that same brick-and-mortar store will need to have something that catches your eye in order for you to return. It’s the same thing with a website. All content on your site should attract your visitors in a way that they want to come back. Compelling content also includes internet marketing tools, such as SEO, SEM, PPC, and blogs. All these tools direct traffic back to your website. The more creative and enticing your content is, the more likely your visitors will stay on your site and come back, which means the more likely that these visitors will turn into customers or clients.

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    Lead Capturing – Offer something free first

    Once you have the basics down with your content, the next step is capturing your leads when they actually visit your website. One of the most effective ways of getting leads to remain leads is to gather some basic information about them. The old way of obtaining basic information from lists are proving to be not as effective. The best way to capture basic information from visitors is to collect it online when they visit your site. Two of the best modes or methods of communication nowadays is email and phone. Email is considered a less intrusive method of contacting people and since most people check their emails fairly often, it’s a good one to reach out to customers with marketing campaigns without spending much money at all.
    The phone is still valuable but people are less likely to give their phone number, however, more seem likely to give their cell phone number than their landline. The downside is that many visitors aren’t willing to give their contact information or give the correct one, which can mean you’ll end up with email addresses that aren’t good or disconnected phone numbers. Plus, many will turn away from “sign up here” buttons because they fear they will be spammed. One way to get people to sign up is to give them something first. And to give them something free, at that. Offer your visitors a free ebook or free information in the form of valuable content that gives them a reason to sign up or to give you their email address or phone number. If you’re willing to give something for free, people are more likely to provide their contact information.
    Offering something in return for your visitors contact information include free subscriptions, opt-ins, free ebooks, free webinars, training videos, free trials, experts and social media. Social media has become all the buzz. One of the best ways to turn visitors into customers is to develop a facebook page or twitter account to obtain followers, likes and frequent posts to entertain, inform and educate your visitors. Another way to get visitors to trust you and provide their contact information is to include reviews on your site about your products or services or have an expert comment or be interviewed on your site.

    Lead Scoring

    One last tip to help you score great lead generation is using lead generation software to automate and prioritize your leads based on their level of engagement. This will help you figure who to target, when, what they’re interested in, and sometimes, how, meaning the best method to use. It will let you know who is considered a “hot lead” or a “warm lead.” The software places a score for each visitor based on their interaction. It also provides you with real-time feedback as to how responsive the visitors are to your marketing efforts.
    All these are excellent techniques to help you save time and money when engaging in a lead generation campaign. You can seek out your best leads and turn them into customers and sales. Although these steps are fairly simple, they do take time, strategy and the right implementation to make things work, and that’s where ForeHound comes in. Contact us to help you get started on your successful lead generation marketing campaign. If you need help designing or updating your website, our team at ForeHound can help you with these efforts and design the best website that best represents your business as well as assist with the best lead generation strategy for your company.

    Want to LEARN MORE about any of our services? Contact ForeHound for a free estimate and website evaluation today!