SEO is tangible work being done to the website that strengthens its foundation and makes it more appealing to Search Engines. As a result, the website ranks higher and is more visible to prospective clients on Search Engines such as Google and Bing.

Any work that’s done on the actual site such as, titles, tags, descriptions, content, website structure, etc., is known as On-Page. Any work not done directly on the website, such as blog writing, link building, social sharing, bookmarking, various content and more is known as Off-Page.

Absolutely! SEO is dynamic. Search rankings and results shift and change. What works today, may not tomorrow. Google is constantly updating and refining it’s algorithms. Also, as competition increases it’s important to stay on top of SEO so your website continues to be relevant. Good websites, are doing SEO constantly to maintain and continue improving their rankings. You may rank for your core terms, but it’s important to rank for secondary and tertiary terms as well.

No one can guarantee exactly where they will rank, but someone’s business is taking up the first page search engine real estate. By doing the right SEO work, at the correct pace, and in the proper manner, you should expect great results.

If a business provides services nationwide it may try to rank for just the keyword. If it’s a local business it would try to rank for the keyword + the geography. So for e.g., a national chain of plumbing supplies provider would want to rank for ‘plumbing supplies’, while a local store that serves just Washington DC would want to rank for ‘plumbing supplies DC’. Local SEO is intended to get customers who live in the area to support that local business.

Long-tail keywords are more specific and less common than other keywords. They focus more on a niche. The term long-tail keyword comes from the book The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. In this book, Chris Anderson shows that there’s a market for virtually any product. Long-tail keywords are keywords or keyphrases that are more specific – and usually longer – than more commonly used keywords. Long-tail keywords get less search traffic, but will usually have a higher conversion value, as they are more specific.

Google My Business, now called Google Business Profile is like a directory which maintains key business information such as name, address, phone, hours of operation, map, photos, videos, categories of business, forms of payment, etc. Google gives prominence to these listings and they show up on Google SERP’s and Google maps, both on desktop and mobile. Hence having a fully completed and verified listing is very important and helps with rankings.

Yes, if all the relevant details are properly filled out on the Google Business Profile section and the site has been verified by Google, it can show on Google Maps. Adding in the extras, like videos, photos, and getting reviews is advantageous to inclusion in this area of Google search.

Google does not give direct answers to this, but every few months a major algorithm update seems to occur. In between, many small updates consistently appear. SM Marketing tracks over 1 million key terms allowing us to quickly see fluctuations in a wide range of businesses. By seeing this, we can evaluate what’s working best and make adjustments to campaigns.

These are links done offsite that signal search engines to the targeted website. There is a lot that goes into backlinking safely. The days of mass link building and black hat SEO are over. At SM, we take time and make sure the backlinks come from relevant sites that are true to the business. By doing strong backlink work, the client’s website should rank higher than their competition who is solely focused on on-page work.