Our Approach to Generating Sales with Digital Marketing

NOTE: The audit’s goal is to identify errors, not fix them. The best practice is to work with the client’s developer to get the fixes implemented. This does not include keyword research, competitive analysis, and link profile analysis. Our audits focus solely on technical performance and site factors. Our Approach to Generating Sales with Digital Marketing

Technical SEO Audit

A technical SEO audit is a process during which you check the technical aspects of your website’s SEO. It checks the health of a website and finds out what fixes might be needed to improve it.

SEO is changing constantly and your competitors are keeping up with the changes too. For this reason, you need to remain up-to-date to remain relevant. If you don’t assess your website’s health, you may end up losing traffic to your competitors.

As the search algorithms and technology change frequently, it is a good practice to perform mini-audits monthly. You must also ensure that you do conduct a full-fledged technical SEO audit every 4-5 months.

Factors Affecting Your SEO

The main factors that affect your website’s SEO can be broadly classified into three different categories.

• Technical: This includes technical aspects such as hosting, indexing, page loading speed.
• On-page: This includes factors such as site content, target keywords, and related terms.
• Off-Page: This section includes the backlinks and outside references to your website from other websites.

You need to conduct audits of each of these factors at regular intervals. This will ensure that you’re always up-to-date with the changing conditions in the industry.

One of the most important factors to be kept in mind is the mobile-readiness of your website. As about 60% of all searches happen on mobile, Google has started giving more importance to mobile-friendly websites.

Now that we know what technical SEO audit is and what parameters are included in it, let’s move to the next phase

Your site speed is an extremely important parameter when it comes to SEO. People don’t like to wait for the websites to load and the longer it takes, there are more chances that the visitors might bounce.

So no technical SEO audit is complete without testing your website’s speed.

If your website takes 5 seconds to load, the probability of bounce increases by 90%.

Image via Think With Google

Google takes site speed into account while deciding your rankings. For this reason, you must check your site speed and reduce it. You can use Google PageSpeed Insights for this.

It will show you how fast your website is loading and how it is performing against other websites. The best part about this tool is that it shows you what you can do to improve the speed as well.

Check Your SEO Score

Our free Website Reviewer will give you what is called the SEO score of your website. This score is essentially a score out of 100 that shows where you’re doing well and where you’re lagging. This score can help you figure out what you should be doing next in your technical SEO audit.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is the process by which you research popular search terms people type into search engines like Google, and include them strategically in your content so that your content appears higher on a search engine results page (SERP). Keyword research is a fundamental practice in search engine optimization (SEO).

The Student’s Journey Defines Your Keyword Journey

Identifying for instance ( for a University) your future students’ buyer personas and your buyer’s journey to apply for a course is a good initiative and help us decide which keywords we should target for pieces of content we plan on developing for your institution. The buyer’s journey is important for many teams in your organization, not just your marketing team. Your sales team will have an easier time deciding how to approach a prospect or potential customer if they can identify where they are in the buyer’s journey.

Still with the education example, Since each future student has their unique journey, finding out what their demographic, intent, and goals are can yield many different keyword ranges for your use. Which is why it’s important to create a content map. Your content map plots your buyer personas and your buyer’s journey stages on a map and will show you which personas or buyer’s journey stages you may need to write additional content for.

Let’s look at this: a future student who wants a complete MBA program that offers weekend classes in one year is going to have a much different search behavior than a future student looking for an executive MBA program on weekdays after 5 pm or a regular MBA Program, as well as a parent looking for a degree program for his/her child. But since they have similar keywords, it’s important to understand your buyer personas so the terms can be easily found for all parties, and different kinds of content can’t be developed to meet their varied needs.

SEO Content Development

“SEO” refers to search engine optimization or the process of optimizing a website so that people can easily find it via search engines like Google. By “content,” we mean any information that lives on the web and can be consumed on the web. In this regard, we are referring to SEO Content that future student searches for. This can be in the form of Video, Articles, infographics, pictures, etc

Types of SEO Content

SEO content can include any of the following:

• Programs Pages – These are the bread and butter of any education website. A good program page can serve as both an SEO content and a PPC landing page.
• Blog Posts – A blog is one of the easiest ways to create a regular stream of SEO content. In general, blog posts are more engaging and more likely to attract links than product pages, so they can be a great way to build some authority for your site. (Keep in mind that blogs are very flexible, and you can use them to host any of the below types of content in this list.)
• Articles – Think news article, interview, or feature piece. This is the main kind of content you’ll find on most newspaper- or magazine-style websites.
• Lists – A list is just a kind of article, but framing it as a list (such as “10 Ways to Lower Your Energy Bill” or “101 Things I Hate About Google”) makes it easier to scan. These types of titles also seem to be more clickable when found in search results or social media feeds.
• Guides – A guide is a longer piece of content that explains in detail how to do something. (Guides are often broken up onto multiple web pages, though it’s a best practice to allow users to view long content as a single page if they wish.) You can post a full guide on your website, or you can post a summary or excerpt, requiring visitors to fill out a registration form to read the full guide. This can be a good way to generate leads, but keep in mind that putting up a registration wall will likely reduce the amount of SEO traffic you can drive to that guide.
• Videos – In general, there are fewer videos on the web than pages of text; consequently, it can be easier to rank on the first page for a competitive keyword by creating a video instead of an article. Depending on what type of site or business you run, videos can be a great way to attract and reach an audience. Consider creating video tutorials on how to use your products (like your car ) or a video tour of your property, your school, or your factory. Or illustrate a process that is related to your business – for example, a plumber could make a video showing how to unclog a sink.
• Infographics – Infographics, or large-format images that contain a lot of data (often in the form of graphs or charts) on a single subject, can rack up a lot of page views and links. However, because so much of the content is embedded in the image and therefore not readable as text by search engines, it’s important to carefully optimize the rest of the page. You can use one of these five free infographic templates to get started.
• Slideshows – A slideshow is a way to display a series of related images. Sometimes pictures are more important than text – say you’re trying to show what all the stars wore to the Oscars. Here again, SEO of your title, captions, image file names, and so on is important because there is less for the search engines to “read.”
• Glossaries – I swear more people use Google to look up terms than they use a dictionary. (Do you even know where your dictionary is?) If you work in a specialized industry, a well built-out glossary can be a good way to capture some search traffic. Think cooking terms, medical terms, fashion terms, architectural terms …i am currently completing the digital marketing glossaries page for paragon digital marketing
• Directories – A directory is a useful taxonomy of links to sites or resources around a given topic. For example, a perfume blog might create a directory of places to buy perfume, from major department stores to independent shops around the country.

Search Engine Optimization

A study showed that 78% of “local” Google searches resulted in offline purchases.

In other words, if you own a local business, capturing Google searches = more customers.

Local SEO ensures that your customers find you locally and that you’re always top of mind when customers are in your neighborhood. Without local SEO services, your business could miss out on some of your most qualified traffic, and in turn, miss out on sales. In executing local SEO for our clients we mainly focus on the following, these will not be exclusive to your business, one or two items of the list below might work magic for you, in some instances, we end up executing all these strategies for a client

• Build, verify and optimize “Google My Business” pages
• Find, build and clean up citation pages
• Local PR campaign
• Local “influencer” luncheons
• Local Facebook ad campaigns
• Build reviews

Whether you are running a manufacturing factory, a brick and mortar shop, an eCommerce, a car garage showroom, a real estate business or a college or university, the Internet and a professional website will help draw attention to the programs and services you offer — crucial to attracting the right customer, in implementing our SEO tactics we focus on the following ;

Off-site SEO
Much of the work of SEO occurs away from your website. Some of the most valuable ways of drawing traffic to your site include:

Building Inbound Links
Inbound links (or backlinks) that point to your website from other authoritative sites tell the search engines that your site is helpful and valuable. For schools, the most powerful inbound links are those from local websites, such as a chamber of commerce, news station, local church — or a blog from a local company. Work with us to find the right types of sites with which to build backlinks.

Positive Reviews
Encourage satisfied customers, families/students to leave positive reviews about your product, service on local review sites — such as Google My Business, etc —.

Directory Listings

Name, address, and phone number listings on directories need to be accurate — they must match the name, address, and phone number on your website to improve local SEO efforts.

Get a Free, Instant SEO Audit for Your Website

Our free Website reviewer Helps you Identify Your SEO Mistakes And Better Optimize Your Site Content.

On-site SEO
On-site SEO works hand in hand with the strategies built into your website to help it rank well. For schools, some of the most effective on-site SEO strategies include:

Creating Linkable Content
Because backlinks are so important to your business’s SEO success, you need to provide content that other sites find link-worthy. A blog is a great place for this content, to encourage more linking. Fill your blog with helpful, industry-related content that other sites will find helpful and to which they will want to link.

Focusing on Local Keywords
Keyword analysis with the assistance of a digital marketing company will help you determine the keywords that people are searching for when looking for a new school or education option. We aim for keywords that have strong search intent and high search volume. Since targeting a local audience is critical, add geographic tags, including your city and state, to keywords.

Becoming Mobile Friendly
Make sure your site is user-friendly on all devices. As the search engines become more sophisticated, they are beginning to realize the importance of this search, and are rewarding sites for being mobile-friendly.

Dedicated Landing Pages

A landing page is named as such because it does just that—it drives a visitor to land on a web page. Landing pages funnel web visitors from a link within a source such as an email, social media post, Facebook advertising campaign, direct mail, or pay-per-click ad.  Landing pages generate leads for businesses by enticing interested users to fill out a form or call a business.

You may be wondering about the difference between a website and a landing page. Doesn’t your business website drive leads to your business? Well, yes, but a website has other purposes as well such as providing detailed product information, getting your business found online, and sharing case studies. A good business website is designed around actions you want your visitors to take, and that’s where websites differ from landing pages.

Landing pages have specific benefits that set them apart from a business website and make them an effective lead generating and marketing tool. Your business website accommodates various paths to take while landing pages accommodate a more specific action. This specificity is the driving force behind landing pages. In this post, we’ll go over seven benefits of landing pages for your business.

As a starting point, we establish dedicated landing pages for each of your services, products, etc. This should only be done, however, if these pages can offer unique, valuable information – we do not duplicate the text across multiple locations and just swap the names.

Think carefully about how you might approach creating a dedicated page for each department or location. Would the content be interesting and useful? Is there enough to differentiate one location from the others? If you don’t think you have enough unique information – about programs, facilities, local school culture, etc. – it may be best to skip creating unique pages for each location.

10-15 landing pages can increase your leads by 55%.

Source: HubSpot

“But how many landing pages do I need?” – you might be wondering. In general, it’s best if you assign a new page for each new campaign. Companies with good marketing campaigns that have between 10 and 15 landing pages get a significant increase in leads, and the numbers just keep rising after that. If you have the resources, don’t hesitate to use them.

reTargetting

On average, only two percent of your website visitors will convert into a solid lead. Don’t give up on the other 98 percent—send them hyper-targeted ads and email campaigns via remarketing services. 

Interested in a remarketing campaign for your business? Commonly, an online user will visit multiple websites before hiring one. Investing in remarketing and retargeting is a way to bring back potential customers and turn them into leads.

While there are various remarketing platforms you can invest in, we recommend and provide remarketing and retargeting services on the Google Display Ad Network and social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

What Is Remarketing with Retargeted Ads?

We install remarketing tags on your website (at the start of your campaign), it will trigger when someone visits your website. If they leave your website without converting (and become a “lost customer”), the ads through your retargeting platform (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn, Twitter, and others) will target the users on top websites in ad spaces within those sites. The ad will drive back visitors to your site to then convert or complete an action.

While remarketing typically refers to serving display ads to people who have visited your website via information collected with a cookie, Retargeting typically refers to sending an email campaign to those consumers whose information you have collected through web forms, social media lead campaigns and webinar sign-ups.

Types of Remarketing

• Video remarketing (Google Ads): Your ads are shown as pre-roll video ads on YouTube and other Google display partners to people that have previously visited your site.
• Search remarketing (Google Ads): Your ads are shown at the top of the search engine results when someone who has already visited your site searches for specific terms or services.
• Display remarketing (Google Ads): Your ads are shown as display ads on other websites within the Google display ad network.
• Dynamic remarketing (Google Ads): Boost your results with dynamic remarketing, which takes remarketing to the next level with ads that include products or services that people viewed on your website or app.
• Social media remarketing: You can use LinkedIn remarketing, Facebook remarketing and Pinterest remarketing to serve ads to people who have visited your website while they browse those social media channels and partner websites.
• Customer list remarketing: With both social media marketing and Google Ads remarketing, you can upload lists of contact information that your customers have given you. When those people are signed into Google or that specific social media site, you can show them ads across different websites or on that social platform.

Why We Use Remarketing Services for our clients?

As more visitors are on your site, your retargeted list grows and will continue to build brand awareness and push customers toward the bottom of your sales funnel.

Retargeting marketing ads are highly efficient and affordable at bringing interested customers back to your site and can produce one of the highest return on ad spend (ROAS) through internet advertising.

An example would be if you were a remodeling company. A customer in your service area visits your website and browses your kitchen remodeling page. That’s a big investment into their home, so they’re not ready to commit to a consultation yet, but they’re in the research process of vetting remodeling companies in their area for when they’re ready.

By running a remarketing campaign for this business, our team can reach customers just like the example above as they visit other websites online. It will keep this business on top of mind and encourage the potential customer to go back and revisit this remodeling company’s website, gallery, and resources—helping close the deal and bring in more leads.

Free Tips to Make Remarketing Work for You

For remarketing to work, there are a few key tips you should follow:

1. Segment your remarketing lists: When you’re setting up your remarketing tag, make sure you differentiate between different pages. For example, separate people who have visited “air conditioning repair” and “furnace repair” pages for a more personalized experience.
2. Tailor your ads to your remarketing strategy: Your creative strategy is just as important as your remarketing list strategy. Make sure your ads are relevant to the audience you’d like to reach, have the same look and feel like your site, and have a compelling call-to-action.
3. Split-test imagery: You may be surprised at the imagery your target audience vibes best with. In the beginning, run split tests until you can see a distinct pattern in how your audience behaves.
4. Track and tag everything: To continually optimize your campaigns, you need to see what’s working, what’s not, and what could be improved. You did this with advanced call tagging and analytics.
5. Test different ad platforms, sizes, and formats: To reach as many customers as possible on the web, create different types of ads for your remarketing campaign in multiple sizes and placements. Then test which formats, platforms, and sizes work best for your campaign.
6. Upsell to current customers: Your existing customers are your most loyal customers, and are the ones most likely to purchase other products and services from you. Create a list of current customers and use it to upsell new products or advertise discounts.
7. Schedule your ads for when your target audience is most likely to see them: Not all hours of the day are created equal. While Baby Boomers may be most active in the morning, Gen-Z may not be up for ads until mid-afternoon.
8. Invest your advertising dollars on the platforms and websites that show results: I can’t stress this enough. If you’re spending a large percentage of your budget on one or two websites or platforms but aren’t getting enough conversions to justify the investment, STOP. This is where the importance of testing different platforms and websites comes in. Yes, remarketing works, but only if you’re targeting the right people at the right time on the right platform.

CRM Marketing and Automation

At this stage, we feed the leads that didn’t convert into a CRM and start an automation campaign to resell to them through various means.

Marketing automation integration enables us to streamline and optimize your demand generation, lead nurturing, and content marketing ecosystem. A strong marketing automation solution built on strategic business goals and marketing needs can transform the entire marketing operations from the initial lead capture, lead scoring to the location of qualified leads, sales team, and ROI analysis.

Marketing automation CRM integration, though user-friendly, are complex to configure and need expertise to manage campaigns. With concrete technology foundation and strategic marketing advisory services, Paragon as a marketing automation expert helps companies to take full advantage of their marketing automation software investment.

Paragon is among the top 10 marketing automation agencies in Africa and helps you run a strong marketing campaign that gives you the higher quality sales-ready leads you’ve been looking for, without sacrificing your resources – time, cost, and sales personnel.

From managing your entire marketing plan to marketing automation operations, we offer you all-inclusive marketing automation integration solutions that are flexible and can be customized as per the project or department. At Paragon, our key objective is to ensure that your business receives the utmost marketing value in the long term by working with us.