Email from: Aaron Opfell, SearcherMagnet:

“Hey Marsh

We got our first crawl audit back early(attached PDF), imagine my surprise at the report that there are 52 missing Meta Descriptions found site wide. After looking into it, whoever coded this wordpress theme made a common SEO error- if you look carefully at the screenshot (attached .png), or in the source code of the page there are actually 2 meta descriptions! The first one is blank, getting incorrectly picked up as “blank”, and the second one generated by the plugin is getting ignored by the SEO spider. We assumed that the theme was correctly developed with the plugin implementation. We recommend corrective action immediately by us or the developer… it will take us an hour or two to re-code that part of the theme (no charge).”

Email from: Matt Marsh, Lead Research Group:

“Whoa, nice find. Thank you sir. Hesus mary and Joseph!

Let me get this over to my guy and see if we can outsource.

I know its the damn plugin. For SEO Juggernaut

THANK YOU! (Put this on your site as a real testimonial!)”

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How BBB Accreditation Works

BBB ratings are based on many factors, including whether the business has made a committment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. The designation also means that Searcher Magnet meets standards for trust and business practices. The BBB Code of Business Practices is based on the following eight principles:

• Build Trust
• Advertise Honestly
• Tell the Truth
• Be Transparent
• Honor Promises
• Be Responsive
• Safeguard Privacy
• Embody Integrity

BBB Accreditation for SEO Businesses

It is somewhat rare for a SEO company to achieve the certification because so many of them engage in unscrupulous business practices. Common examples of shady SEO practices include Black Hat SEO techniques like short-term link-building schemes, hidden pages and keyword stuffing. In a previous post, we explored the Cost and the Dangers of Cheap SEO, and some of the ways search engines will actually penalize your online ranking if you take these SEO shortcuts.

The Benefits of BBB Accreditation

Businesses such as Searcher Magnet who achieve BBB accreditation receive many benefits. If your business is not yet certified by BBB, here’s why you should seriously consider it:

• Reduces Customer Acquisition Cost – CAC is a huge factor in the success of a business.  While BBB accreditation itself is not an explicit endorsement of the quality of service, it is a measure to boost consumer confidence and can be an excellent source of advertising.
• B2B Networking – Its not just public customers that look for BBB accreditation.  You can get exposure to a wider network of other certified businesses to assist each other and start generating solid customer referrals among a trusted network.
• Builds Your Brand – Potential customers view your BBB accreditation online and they associate your brand with a reputable company.

Searcher Magent BBB Accreditation

At Searcher Magnet, BBB accreditation is not just a feather in our cap — we are, and have always been — strongly committed to honesty and integrity in our everyday business dealings. We don’t take easy shortcuts like some other SEO and web development companies. And like many of you, we truly believe in the value of hard work.

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One night between drinks, we were chatting about types of law and opportunities to start businesses. I had a web application idea that had been “on the shelf” for many years. I’d gone so far as to do market research, write a business plan, file a patent and register domain names. The project has always been stuck in my “to do later” file, because it’s difficult if not impossible to find a company that’s capable of designing, developing, deploying and marketing a product online for a reasonable price. In our conversations, Aaron was able to help us think objectively about this project and find a path to bring it to market. In less than a month, we have accomplished more progress than I ever believed possible. In fact we are now just a few short weeks from opening our doors online and collecting our first revenue dollar. The combined experience of SearcherMagnet allowed us to look at this project from many angles including hosting, development cost, maintenance, design, copy, marketing, and an advertising plan that extends beyond online. Without this strategic view, we would never have had the confidence to turn my pet project into a live project.

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Aaron designed and developed several niche SEO campaigns for my company. I was initially very skeptical, because my business is highly specialized, highly competitive, and totally old school in that everything is done with paper, fax and phone calls. Despite my initial reservations, Aaron was able to increase my visibility and traffic through the use of highly creative direct-response websites and hyper-targeted SEO campaigns. I get calls daily, a large portion of which are competitors trying to uncover the secrets of my online marketing. In an industry where traditional marketing methods are expensive and unwieldy, Aaron was able to thread the needle. here’s to current and continued business.

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I have had a long-standing relationship with SearcherMagnet since 2007. In that time, SearcherManget has helped me develop several high-converting and well-responding pages for my credit repair business. They were also able to help me rank highly on very competitive credit repair related terms both locally and nationally. SearcherMagnet went above and beyond the call of duty, helping my business grow with Google app services, CRM, and generally helping to save me from locked in contracts with expensive desktop software. I used to spend $2000 a month to cover web hosting, database hosting, and onsite IT costs. Then SearcherMagnet was able to trim my hosting cost down to $100 a month with a combination of creativity and cloud-based services. This cash flow was what I put into marketing and it has returned every penny that I have paid. Thanks guys.

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John Arvanitis

Many years ago, Aaron worked for me as a loan officer. That was not his destiny. Quickly, his position evolved to a point where he was responsible for generating, routing, and managing the mortgage lead supply for my company. I was sorry to see him leave, but that is tempered by our continued business dealings through the years where he has proved himself an expert in mortgage marketing in the face of a continually changing environment. In the business

of mortgage marketing, there are many scams and unscrupulous lead brokers. It is very hard to find a company that you can trust. I can trust SearcherMagnet with my mortgage marketing and website, and they help me to this day outrank and outshine my local Sacramento competition.

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Amanda Terrence

“As a direct-response marketing agency with 25+ years of proven ad sales and lead generation success, we are pleased to recommend SearcherMagnet for technology needs. Their services allow is to provide our clients with accurate, precise analytics and tracking for all of our digital campaigns; as well as second-to-none technological support for e-commerce, lead generation, and landing page development & integration that are used for lead and order generation through television, radio and other media. SearcherMagnet is an amazing complement to our existing offering. It allows our agency to draw upon the resources of a company completely devoted to technology and enables us to service clients in an efficient and professional manner. Our partnership is rock solid and continues to take us to new places that generate additional sales. We are grateful that SearcherMagnet is in our corner.”

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Gina Lujan

“HackerLab is an innovative, community-driven organization founded in early 2012. Our mission is to nurture and support startups and small businesses in the Sacramento region. SearcherMagnet was instrumental in consulting with us about marketing strategies and provided critical advice to help us acquire members and to grow our nonprofit. They kept an open mind at all times, were able to see my vision, and were able to work with our crowd-sourced budget. Thanks to the SearcherMagnet team for the help and work that they provided to guide us along our journey… We love you Aaron!”

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What is Cheap SEO?

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.   Cheap SEO tactics usually do lead to a short-term benefit to the business with a temporary increase in ranking and web traffic.  The problem is, the long-term negative effects on your business can be devastating.

Long-Term Cost of Cheap SEO

Consider the long-term cost to sustaining your SEO campaign. Once the company you hired has shown you top search engine placement, they’ll be gone, and pretty soon you’ll start to drop in ranking. One of the dangers of cheap SEO is you’ll have to hire another consultant to put in place a real SEO plan, to make up for the corners that were cut before. You’ll end up spending far more than if you had just hired a reputable SEO company in the first place.

It requires certain expertise to develop robust link building campaigns. You’ll need to put in serious time and good old fashioned hard work. Think of your link building just like developing solid business partnerships. They happen over time as each party becomes comfortable with each other and learns to trust what they are all about.

When shoddy consultants purchase cheap links or use scammy methods to build links, Google search engine penalizes the webpage and the business. In 2012, Google released a program called Google Penguin that helps detect links developed using techniques designed to game the system. Google Penguin penalizes the site with anything ranging from reducing website rankings to removing the website from search results. Getting blocked by Google is very costly, and it’s one of the biggest dangers of cheap SEO.

Link building scams aren’t the only black hat SEO technique that will get you penalized by Google. Here are some other techniques shoddy SEO consultants use that you should avoid:

• Hidden pages – Inserting additional words and links within pages the user can’t see in an attempt to increase content on the site
• Keyword stuffing – Overstuffing your website full of lists of keywords, or an intensive repetition of one keyword
• No long-term maintenance – Charging a fixed fee for one time services and when you inquire, doesn’t offer long-term maintenance

Cheap SEO consultants may not be interested in anything more than one-time black hat SEO techniques.  They may not provide a portfolio of services such as AdWords campaigns and email marketing management.

Reputation Cost of Cheap SEO

We all know it only takes a moment to ruin your reputation. When you cut corners with your SEO campaign, you are not focusing on providing valuable resources to your customers. That can cost you your reputation.

To find out if your reputation is in danger, ask yourself:

• “Am I providing useful information to my customer?”
• “Is it well-written content?”
• “Would anyone buy my product or service if this information was presented on the evening news?”

If you can’t answer any of these questions with a straight face, you are sacrificing valuable, good quality content for short-term gain.

How to Avoid the Dangers of Cheap SEO

Avoiding SEO schemes isn’t quite as easy as selecting a more expensive provider. There are plenty of less-than-reputable companies out there that overcharge for what they actually offer. Spend what is necessary to provide quality content and genuine service to customers for the long-term. What that should cost will look different for each type of business and geographic area, so do your homework and check referrals for SEO providers before committing to a contract.

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Mobile Device Ownership Stats

Pew Internet recently conducted a survey of mobile usage data gathered for users all across the United States. The types of mobile devices included in the survey were smartphones, cell phones, tablets and e-readers.

Let’s start with cell phones, even though we know it’s not easy to access the internet using a regular cell phone these days! Pew Internet results show that 87 percent of American adults own a cell phone, and 55 percent of those users say they use their phone to go online. That’s double the amount from three years ago. And even with extraordinarily long download times, users download apps and browse the internet quite often. A whopping 79 percent of cell phone users say they use text messaging on their cell phones.

Mobile Device Demographics, Pew Internet

As you might expect, not as many Americans own a smartphone, but they utilize the online technology more. Just

45 percent of American adults own a smartphone — the highest percentage of users being between 18 and 29 years old, and with a household income of $75,000 or greater per year. That makes sense, considering how expensive those smartphone plans can be! What about other mobile devices? Just 31 percent of American adults own a tablet computer, but those ownership numbers are growing most rapidly.

Mobile Device Usage: What Do People Search For?

So just what are people searching for on their mobile devices? It turns out, 77 percent of smartphone owners are checking weather reports and forecasts, followed closely by 68 percent checking into a social networking site and 65 percent getting turn-by-turn navigation. Only 24 percent use their smartphones to search for coupons and discounts for local businesses, and 30 percent do a mobile search to decide whether to even visit a restaurant or other business.

Mobile Device Demographics

The mobile device demographics are particularly revealing. Mobile device ownership has grown so rapidly across all races and ethnicities in America, as the availability of technology has increased and the price has come down. Use of cell phones and smartphones among hispanics is just as high as mobile device usage of non-hispanics. In states like California, where hispanics are also the fastest growing demographic, the mobile device statistics make sense. In addition to race, age definitely plays a role, although one surprising trend is the equality among cell phone users. The age 18-29 demographic and the age 30-49 demographic have exactly the same cell phone usage, at 93 percent. Cell phones have also equalized the playing field when it comes to use in urban, suburban and rural areas, with the investment in and improvement of cell phone coverage across America.

Implications for PPC/SEO

During the holiday season, 46 percent of cell phone users said they used their phone to consult a friend while they were in a store trying to decide whether to make a purchase, and 28 percent looked up reviews of products online while shopping. These statistics have significant implications for PPC advertising campaigns. To start, your website and your ad format needs to be optimized for mobile devices. Then, consider developing an app for mobile devices, and select an ad campaign that interfaces easily with your website and mobile app. For example, if someone can’t read your address or phone number because it runs off the edge of the page on a mobile device, or your content is so lengthy that users have to scroll incessantly, you’re missing a chance to connect with potential customers.

How does SEO fit into this picture? Users may conduct searches a bit differently on mobile devices, including using different abbreviations, partial keywords and especially partial location information. Have an expert design your next campaign so that your advertisements show with a variety of keyword searches people on mobile devices are likely to use.

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