Top 100 Most Searched for Business Services

Doug Williams @ 5:04 am

This blog entry was posted on October 28, 2011.

What are the hottest, most sought after business services? These are B2B services such as accounting, temporary personnel, etc. Which services are companies searching for online? Using keyword research, we are able to see current demand. These are the keywords being searched and the average daily search volume for that phrase (exact match). Exact match means the average number of daily searches for that exact phrase (no additional words used). This is based on US searches only.

Keyword phrase (searches)

temp agencies (891)
business insurance (487)
graphic designer (487)
staffing agencies (487)
web designer (398)
web developer (325)
professional liability insurance (217)
commercial insurance (178)
computer training (178)
employee assistance program (178)
employee benefits (178)
internet advertising (178)
small business insurance (178)
small business marketing (178)
business consulting (145)
business marketing (145)
internet marketing strategies (145)
janitorial services (145)
leadership training (145)
local internet marketing (145)
accounting firms (118)
bookkeeping services (118)
business liability insurance (118)
certified public accountant (118)
commercial cleaning (118)
group health insurance (118)
401k plan (95)
tax accountant (95)
business consultant (79)
business planning (79)
ecommerce website design (79)
internet marketing consultant (79)
accounting services (62)
business lawyer (62)
corporate lawyer (62)
internet marketing companies (62)
search marketing (62)
seo services company (53)
staffing services (53)
business consulting firms (43)
business meeting (43)
corporate event planning (43)
corporate events (43)
managed it services (43)
meeting scheduler (43)
online marketing services (43)
small business advice (43)
401k companies (33)
advertising company (33)
appointment setting (33)
business training (33)
chartered accountant (33)
janitorial service (33)
office cleaning services (33)
self employed 401k (33)
temporary staffing (33)
corporate attorney (29)
corporate trainer (29)
information technology services (29)
internet advertising agency (29)
supervisor training (29)
temporary staffing agencies (29)
training consultants (29)
business lawyers (24)
email marketing company (24)
online marketing firm (24)
payroll services for small business (24)
small business bookkeeping (24)
small business coaching (24)
social media marketing company (24)
staffing company (24)
web marketing company (24)
commercial cleaning companies (19)
franchise attorney (19)
strategic internet marketing (19)
appointment setting services (16)
business car insurance (16)
business litigation attorney (16)
employee health insurance (16)
events coordinator (16)
small business it support (16)
business evaluation services (13)
corporate training programs (13)
event organizer (13)
incorporation services (13)
accounting service (11)
business advisors (11)
small business answering service (11)
appointment setting service (9)
business answering services (9)
business development training (9)
business email service (7)
business marketing consultants (7)
corporate training companies (7)
it infrastructure services (7)
business accounting services (6)
business banking services (6)
business continuity services (6)
bookkeeping firms (5)
business hosting services (5)

Data compiled by Doug Williams keyword research services on October 22, 2011.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: SEO Strategies

Comments (0)

Is the Google +1 (Plus One) Button a Ranking Signal?

Doug Williams @ 5:10 am

This blog entry was posted on October 25, 2011.

Most SEOs agree that the Google Algorithm is increasing its use of social signals at the page level. This has included links within Tweets and other social factors. To me it’s clear that search engines will be using social recommendations as important ranking factors.

Six months ago Google unveiled their +1 button. This allows visitors to recommend a search result or if placed on a web page, to recommend a web page. Where Bing chose to integrate Facebook’s “like” button in the search results, Google choose to do this with their own +1 button.

Google+1 button Placing a +1 button on your web page or blog gives your visitors a way to make a social recommendations that could be used to influence search results. Every logged in Google user will be able see these votes and if they are in your social circle, they will also see who voted.

Google has said that using +1 results in their search algorithm was an option and they were looking at it to improve search quality.

In June of this year; SEOeffect.com ran an experiment on the SEO effects of the +1 Button. They added a +1 button to 3 pages on their site. They encouraged visitors to +1 these pages. They found a 20% increase in rankings and corresponding increases in CTR and visits for pages being plus oned. They reached the conclusion that Google was already factoring in +1 results into their search algorithm back in June.

The +1 button will affect the Click through Rate (another ranking signal). This is because others will click on search results that have been recommended by their social group.

To take advantage of Google +1, add buttons to your site and encourage visitors to +1 your content. How to add a Google plus one button.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: SEO Strategies

Comments (0)

eCommerce Conversion Design Tips

Doug Williams @ 6:15 am

This blog entry was posted on October 21, 2011.

As a marketer you want your visitors to interact with your website in a certain way. This may mean buying a product, requesting information or joining your mailing list. Designers on the other hand will want to have creative, eye catching designs that show off their talent.

eCommerce conversion is about building trust and shifting the visual emphasis to the products that you sell. A professional, credible design that is “boring” will outsell a creative, showy design. Think of your website as the frame or holder of the content and the canvas are the products that you sell.

Initial impression: The design must be professional, but use subdued colors. Use white backgrounds with gray accents. Avoid strong and oppressive colors. Design with a minimum number of different fonts. Your design should instill confidence and trust.

Rotating Banners detract from product navigation and conversions. Visitors will notice the first image in the sequence, but will quickly move on to search what they need. These rotating banners (Flash or JavaScript) take longer to load and this increase in page load time will hurt Google rankings.

Wider Width: 1024 is the absolutely the narrowest screen to design for. Most visitors have wider displays. Narrow designs usually mean more scrolling down to see your content. Studies have shown that only about 15% of visitors will scroll down to the bottom of a long page.

Product Navigation: Avoid a long list of categories that extend down the left sidebar. The human mind will not easily track more than a dozen categories. If you have 20-30 categories, reorganize them into higher level categories. You want to reduce the number of options a visitor has to choose from. Seven is optimal, but never have more than twelve categories.

eCommerce conversion optimization is about prioritizing the visual elements so visitors will quickly notice your offer.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: Conversion Rate Optimization,Website Design

Comments (0)

What Makes a Website Trustworthy?

Doug Williams @ 7:56 am

This blog entry was posted on October 18, 2011.

The single most important factor is first impression. Does your website look professional, organized and credible? People do judge a book by its cover. If your website looks like it was put together by an amateur, then that will be their perception of your business.

A study by researchers in Canada showed that people form lasting judgments about the usability and credibility of a website in as little as 1/20th of a second. The reaction is a physiological and emotional response based on color, images, page load speed and organization. This first impression was not based on informational content.

Your website needs to develop that instant trust that comes from that visual first impression. Then follow up with more signs they should trust you. Here are more ideas.

Appearance: The design of the website must be professional, uncluttered and have a neat visual appearance. Content and navigation must be organized and clear. Use high quality images to communicate your message.

Transactional Assurances: Show buyers there is no risk in doing business with your company. Provide assurances with privacy policies, guarantees, forms of payments accepted, return policies and trust logos. Provide point of action assurances with brief statements or links to your policies on privacy, guarantees and returns. Include your phone number and address on every page.

Authority Symbols: Your website must contain symbols of authority and credibility. People will immediately trust someone with a badge and a gun or a doctor in a white smock. With visual assurances people will make quick decisions with very limited information. For medical sites use photos of doctors in white coats and stethoscopes. Add trust logos such as BBBonline or industry associations.

Social Proof: Provide third party recommendations with video and written testimonials. Integrate social reviews and comments using product reviews, ratings, consumer feedback, wish-lists, favorites, blogs, forums or chat rooms.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: Conversion Rate Optimization

Comments (0)

7 Website Trust Logos, What They Mean and Where You Can Get Them

Doug Williams @ 4:39 am

This blog entry was posted on October 14, 2011.

Without trust, your website visitors won’t take action. Trust logos are a great way to use 3rd party organizations to build visitor confidence and inspire trust in your company website. You add these logos to your website to make your business appear more credible and risk-free. This is a powerful conversion rate optimization technique. These are some of the most commonly used logos, what they mean and where you can get them to use on your website.
website trust logos

VeriSign Trust™ Seal: Shows that VeriSign has confirmed your identity and that your website has passed the VeriSign malware scan. Cost for one year is $299.

TrustLogo® is a Comodo product that is real-time website identity verification. Visitors to ecommerce sites are assured are dealing with legitimate organizations. Cost for one year is $119.

McAfee SECURE can be displayed after your site has passed McAfees daily testing for thousands of hacker vulnerabilities. This shows a site that is certified to a high standard of security. Price is dependent on the number of websites and pages that need to be scanned daily. Prices start at $2000/year.

Trust Guard: Includes services that range from quarterly to daily scans of your site for over 45,000 vulnerabilities, verification of your company information and a review of secure checkout processes. Prices start at $297/year.

BBBOnline accredits that member businesses meet certain standards for acceptance such as licensing, length of time in business and maintaining a positive track record in dealing with consumers. The seal allows consumers to see complaints by clicking on the displayed logo. The annual fee depends on company size and starts at about $460.

SafeSite Certified trust seals provide three separate seals in one service. This includes identity, security and privacy. Prices for seals begin at $799/year.

TRUSTe has two seals for privacy. TRUSTe Verified is for e-commerce sites that are approved as meeting TRUSTe web privacy standards. TRUSTe Certified is for any Web site that gets approved. Annual prices start at $499/year.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: Conversion Rate Optimization

Comments (1)

5 Free Web Tools for Picking the Right Keywords

Doug Williams @ 4:10 pm

This blog entry was posted on October 10, 2011.

Picking the right keywords is the critical first step in SEO. Selecting the best phrases is part art and part science. Using the right keyword selector tools makes all the difference.

Google Keyword Tool: Use this for keyword research. The Google keyword tool allows you to find keywords based on your own keyword suggestions, a specific website or even a category. It will show the competition, global and local search volumes as well as the estimated cost per click if you were going to do a PPC campaign.

Keyword Questions: Use this to research questions people are asking. This is a free tool created by Wordtracker. Keyword Questions allows you to enter a 1-2 word phrase and comes back with questions people are actually asking along with the search volume for that question. This allows you to pose questions and then answer them that people are really searching for.

Web Analytics: Use website analytics like Google Analytics to identify which phrases your website is already attracting organic search traffic. This allows you to understand visitor behavior with things like bounce rate or time and page. This will allow you to measure the success of your SEO campaign.

SEODigger is an excellent tool for doing competitor research. SEOdigger will list out keywords that are in the top 20 results that their website is currently ranking for as well as their current search volumes. It also lists out other competitors as well as a keywords cloud.

Google Insights for Search allows you to compare search volumes of targeted core phrases for specific geographic areas, time periods and even categories. Google Insights allows you to see seasonality of a phrase or to analyze phrases down to a specific metro or state level. You can separate out web search traffic from news search.

Keyword selection takes more than the initial research to hone in on the best keywords. Use keyword research services to outsource the work for you.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: SEO Strategies

Comments (0)

Use Social Media Optimization to Increase website Traffic

Doug Williams @ 5:15 am

This blog entry was posted on October 7, 2011.

Social media optimization or SMO is a form of word of mouth marketing through the use of social networking, social bookmarking, blogging and media sharing (photo, video) websites. The focus of SMO is on relationship and trust building. SMO is about increasing traffic flow to your social media content pages.

SMO focuses on securing traffic from sources other than search engines. When your content is placed on your website such as with a blog, traffic flow will increase to the website.

SMO is giving people a reason to visit and link to your site because of great original content. Links from social media back to your site are important for SEO. Improved search rankings are often a benefit of successful SMO.

Social media marketing is very different than traditional marketing. It’s about publishing interesting content, creating relationships and trust. It’s not about selling, though people do prefer to buy from those they know and trust.

Use social media to build your brand and your reputation, not to sell products. Brand yourself as a leader. Your brand is what you represent, what you care about and your connection to others. You want to be the unique and persuasive voice in your market. Your goal is to create a cultural following.

Social media participants can interact with you and learn your products or services in the process. Social media focuses on sharing content using RSS feeds, social news and sharing buttons, user rating and polling tools, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Sharing is made easy by adding social media sharing and bookmarking buttons along with your content.

Combine SMO with your SEO efforts. Use it to bring traffic to your website through links and gain better search engine rankings.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: Social Media Marketing

Comments (0)

Sub-Domain or Folder… Which is better For SEO?

Doug Williams @ 7:45 am

This blog entry was posted on October 4, 2011.

How you structure your website is very important when it comes to SEO. There is a big difference how search engines treat folders and sub-domains. Should you organize your website in folders or on sub-domains? This could be for adding multi-language versions of your website, adding a store or simply adding a blog.

Subdomains and folders are two ways to organize your website. If you were placing a blog on your website, you could place it in a sub-domain such as blog.yourdomain.com. Your other option is to place it in a folder like www.yourdomain.com/blog.

A very important part of SEO is the link popularity of the website and how the link authority flows through the site. Folders allow this flow and sub-domains stop this flow. A subdomain acts very much like a separate domain or website.

Let’s suppose you add a blog to your website. If you add it to a folder on your website (www.yourdomain.com/blog), the links that a blog naturally attracts will help the link popularity of the entire website.

If instead you chose to add your blog to a separate sub-domain (blog.yourdomain.com), then the links that your blog gathers will not help the link popularity of your website. You would normally place a blog in a folder of the root website for maximum SEO benefit.

Let’s suppose your website is created in multiple languages and you want to optimize it for specific countries such as France. By placing it in a sub-domain, you can effectively isolate this version of your site. You can then do separate link building targeting focusing on French companies to get a higher relevance and better rankings in France. In this case the sub-domain strategy makes perfect sense.

Sub-domains allow you to use multiple technologies or proprietary shopping carts. Sub-domains can actually exist on two separate web servers. This is convenient when part of your website is in .NET and part in Linux PHP. This just makes SEO potentially more difficult.

Your decision should be based on how integrated you want the content and the link structure. Folders are better when your content and audience are focused and relevant to each other. Use sub-domains when you want to establish a separation between sections of your website.

If You Like this posting please +1 it!

Filed under: SEO Strategies