June 21, 2019

Beat Your Competition with These 7 SEO Strategies [Outrank, Outlast, Outsmart]

Beating the competition is the name of the game in SEO, and luckily, JSL Marketing & Web Design has a great track record for doing just that.

In fact, why don’t you think back to when you first found us. How did it happen? Most likely, you searched something like ‘Dallas SEO’ or ‘SEO company Dallas’ or even ‘Dallas digital marketing agency’.

Do you know what all of those SERPs have in common?

Us.

And we made it to those top spots because we are good at beating the competition. And now we’ll tell you exactly how we do it.

Look for Longtail Keywords to Target

Though individual keywords still have some place in SEO, it is becoming rarer and rarer for online users to search single words. When is the last time you searched ‘restaurant’? Probably not recently.

So, why are you targeting individual words or short-tail keywords? Instead, search for something that is more meaningful for your business as well as something your ideal consumers are actually searching.

Instead of ‘restaurant’ try ‘tacos in Dallas’ or ‘Mexican food near me’ or ‘best tacos in Dallas near me’. These are all things the JSL team knows people are searching for on a daily basis (mainly, because those are the things we are searching for on a daily basis).

Focus on Your Content

Running right off of #1 – how do you target longtail keywords? Easy, with stellar content.

Google has grown up and learned, meaning it is very hard to trick Google now. So, instead of shady black-hat SEO, do it right – by writing!

Create content that Google and your customers will love, content that has voice, humor, and is informative and comprehensive – dependent on your industry. If you want to be known as the top of your field, then you need to be putting out fresh, valuable content regularly.

This could be blogs, social media, lead magnets, or simply updating your page and the copy on your site frequently.

Read SEO News (& Know About Algorithm Updates)

If you want to beat your competition it will not happen by accident, and that means you need to work hard to be better, to know more, and to implement the things you learn accurately.

You cannot rely on ‘what’s always worked’, instead, be innovative, be creative, and for goodness sake – keep up with the updates, news, and what experts are saying.

The JSL team (while experts in our own right) still spends hours every week on training, research, and learning new techniques. Because if you want to be the best, you have to always keep climbing.

Watch Your Competition’s Backlinks

Backlinks are still incredibly important in SEO and if your competition is gaining backlinks from credible sources – then you can too.

If your online arch-enemy gains a great backlink for their content, or from a guest post, etc, then reach out to that same company for a backlink of your own. Most likely they’ll say yes – after all, they already gave a backlink to another, similar company in your field.

However, if they say no, you need to figure out why. What is the reason that the company who linked to your competition wouldn’t link to you? Do you have thin or cheap content? Less value? Lower domain authority?

Make sure you aren’t just asking for a backlink with nothing in return, but instead, offer their readers or customers something of value from the content you want them to link to.

Watch Their SEO Strategy

Just as you should watch your competitions backlinks, watch their SEO strategy as well. Are they blogging? How often? Posting on social media? How are their engagement numbers? Can you see any jumps or dips when you put their URL into your SEO comparison software?

You can actually use tools to reverse engineer your competition’s SEO strategy, and then see where it might be weaker (or stronger) than your own.

Nothing out there says you have to only learn from SEO gurus like Neil Patel or Brian Dean – you can also learn from your enemies.

Fix Your Errors & Warnings (Every Week)

If you are using an SEO tool like SEMRush, then you will be alerted when your website has any warnings, errors, or misdirects. These can be easy to ignore, or to put off until you have the time to fix them, especially if they aren’t dire – like a warning instead of a full-blown error.

But make no mistake that warnings are noticed, and errors are indexed. Don’t let small things like unresolved broken links, duplicate meta-descriptions or site speed drop you below your competition.

Utilize the awesome SEO tools you have at your disposal and take the time to fix small leaks before they cause your website’s roof to cave in.

Remember, an ounce of prevention is worth a metric ton of cure – or something like that.

Google My Business IS Your Business

GMB, or Google My Business, is a larger deal than you might think. Don’t know if you have it set up? Then simply search your business’ legal name. Is there a box with your information to the right on the SERP?

See our example below:

That box to the right with our picture, location, hours, phone number, reviews and more is our Google My Business, and it is important.

It isn’t enough to just have your analytics set up by your SEO or digital marketing company. The truth is, if your GMB isn’t set up, updated regularly, and healthy, then you are missing out and (most likely) getting beat by your competition, instead of the other way around.

Need SEO help? You aren’t alone! Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design for SEO, Digital Marketing, Web Design, & so much more. If we can beat our SEO & Digital Marketing competition in a pool as saturated as Dallas & Fort Worth, then just imagine what we can do for your business!

June 14, 2019

Understanding Your SEO Analytics & Reporting

SEO analytics and reporting forms and statistics can look like a different language to many clients, but JSL Marketing wants to make sure you understand each decimal, each row, and each abbreviation. Which is why we decided to create a quick and dirty guide to your SEO analytics and reporting.

Let’s dive in.

What Are SEO Analytics?

Not to sound too simple, but this is exactly what you would expect – your analytics give you a breakdown of the analysis of your SEO strategy. Or, it is a report that tells you if your SEO work is working or not.

Think of your SEO analytics like the ongoing version of your initial SEO audit (which is an audit, or inspection, of all of your website’s SEO components).

This means your SEO analytics should come monthly (if not more often) and should explain to you how your website and SEO strategy is working thus far. Of course, SEO isn’t an overnight science, so your analytics might not skyrocket you to the first page immediately, especially if your keywords are competitive, but you should see some jumps fairly soon.

Your Analytics & Reporting Have to Begin [& End] with the Numbers

I know that many people didn’t love statistics class, but analytics and SEO reporting is basically all statistics, charts, and numbers. If that is something you are comfortable with, the hurrah, you may stop reading this, but if you need to be walked through your analytics and reporting – that’s okay too.

Hopefully, your SEO partners or digital marketing company will explain anything you need. But just in case they aren’t clear, or they are so deep into SEO that they don’t realize when they are using too much technical jargon, here are a few places you can go to view your analytics on your own:

Understanding Your Ranking Factors

Did you know there are over 200+ (known and speculated) Google ranking factors? Well, there are. Additionally, this is a decent chunk of your analytics, as slow site speed, errors, or duplicate content will drop your ratings.

Make sure you aren’t just looking at your SEO analytics to see where you fall on the search engine’s results page (SERP) but also how your speed is doing, if you have any 404 errors, warnings, duplicate meta descriptions or thin broken internal or external links.

If you want an in-depth list of all the (known) ranking factors and what they mean, we recommend this comprehensive guide by Backlinko.

Understanding Your SEO Reporting Sections

But if you want to know what you should see in your SEO report each month, it should be something like this:

Title tag report
Keyword report
Meta tag report
Content report
Internal link report
External link report
ALT tag report
Page ranking report
Summary

Of course, this is merely a template, and more (or less) can be in your report depending on your preferences, your company, your goals, and more.

Though some of the above are self-explanatory, and others are linked to educational articles and blog posts, let’s run through them quickly to make sure there is no confusion.

Title Tag Reports & Meta Tag Reports

These reports tell you if you have any title tags (names of pages) or meta tags (summaries of pages) that are duplicate, missing, short, long or do not include your keywords.

Keyword Reports & Content Reports

This will tell you if your keyword density is low, high, or just right, as well as if your content is thin compared to others, and how easily readable it is (it’s readability score).

Internal & External Link Reports

Just as the names sound, this will tell you about your internal links (links that lead to another page within your site, like here) and external links (links that lead to an outside source, like when I linked to those 200 ranking factors from Backlinko).

If you have dead (not-working) links anywhere on your site, that can be an indicator to Google that you do not monitor or take care of your site, and your rankings could suffer.

Alt Tag Reports

Essentially an ‘alt tag’ is just how Google can read your images. If you have missing alt tags or poor ones, then Google doesn’t know what your images are and will essentially ignore them. This can seriously hurt your rankings if you have a heavily visual site, are in a visual industry, or are an e-commerce site.

Page Ranking Reports

Finally, we’ve gotten to what most people think is the entire report – the section that shows where your pages rank and where your keywords rank.

Yes – this is the end game, as seeing a bunch of ‘number one spots’ in this section makes you feel great (and probably has increased your traffic and sales considerably, too). But just remember that all of the factors and reports we’ve talked about before here are what got you here.

The Best SEO Report is a Clear SEO Report

The final thing you need from an SEO report is to actually be able to understand it. And from the JSL Marketing team’s experience, the clarity and helpfulness of an SEO report are directly linked to the clarity and helpfulness of the SEO company who designed it.

Find a good company, get a good report, get better results – it’s as simple as that.

If You Need SEO, Digital Marketing, or Reporting Help, Then Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design. We are Clear, Helpful, & Deliver True, Measurable, Growth-Focused Results.

May 17, 2019

How Can You Harness the Power of Local SEO? (5 Steps to Local Fame)

At JSL Marketing & Web Design, we specialize in developing and implementing highly effective, growth-based, successful SEO strategies – but those strategies are hardly one-size-fits-all, or one-SEO-strategy-works-for-all.

The truth is, a relatively small change can dramatically alter your strategy. For example, are you looking to corner local keywords or national? If that answer is local, then where do you draw those ‘local’ lines?

A lot more goes into local SEO than you might think, but in true JSL Marketing fashion, we’ve broken it down into five simple steps to lead your business to local SEO fame!

Step One: Do Your Research & Pick a Plum (Local SEO Keyword Selection)

As stated by our ‘National SEO VS. Local SEO’ blog from last July, local SEO is named rather suitably, as it all has to do with your service area, or location-specific keywords.

This means you need to define not only your location (or service area) but also keywords you want to be targeting in that area. For example, if you are in Dallas, then El Paso keywords won’t help your bottom line very much.

One would think this goes without saying, but, just so we’re clear – if you are a hair salon wedged between Dallas and Fort Worth, then ‘Hair Salon El Paso’ is a very bad keyword to target.

Even if you manage to rank for that particular keyword (which would be exceedingly difficult due to your NAP Data) being on the first page of Google for a keyword that can’t bring you any revenue is kind of like winning a time-consuming, expensive competition that doesn’t award any prize money.

It might be good for your ego, but it doesn’t help your business at all.

Instead of picking random keywords you think will be good and tacking your city name on their backend, research keywords a little more thoroughly with Google’s Keyword Planner, MOZ’s Keyword Explorer, Keyword Tool, SEMRush or similar tools available online.

Step Two: Google My Business is Your New Best Friend

Once you have done the research and found the keywords you want to target (we most highly recommend SEMRush to find which keywords have the highest search volume, lowest competition, and are relevant to you) then you have to use those keywords.

In other words, you won’t skyrocket to the top four spots on Google just because you know which local words or phrases are being searched for – you need to use that knowledge to make yourself show up.

The best way to do this is actually two steps:

Set up your GMB (Google My Business)
Implement your chosen keywords on your website

Let’s start with Google My Business.

With 9,605,000,000 (that’s over nine and a half billion) searches for restaurants, hotels, clothing stores, beauty salons, and coffee shops every month, it is imperative that your business is on Google – hence, Google My Business.

In order to have your Google My Business be fully functional, helpful, and accurate, we recommend you follow this pattern:

Verification – claim your page and go through the verification process
NAP – accurately input your Name, Address, and Phone number (use a local number, not 800 number for best results)
Categories – choose 4 or 5 categories to accurately represent your business
Description – 200-word max, use this space to state your company name, location, main services and end with a CTA (such as your phone number, etc)
Hours – this is as important as your NAP data to Google, make sure they are up-to-date and accurate
Images – frequently updated images show your customers that you are online, and shows Google that you are open, in-business, and current (keep images between 10KB and 5MB, in-focus, an at least a resolution of 720px x 720px)

Step Three: Optimize (Implement) Your Local Keywords on Your Website

Content is king, meaning you need the content on your website to be in-depth, comprehensive, and helpful. But not all content is created equal, in fact, if you read up on last week’s post (Title Tags, H1, H2, & More) then you know that search engines place the most weight on Title Tags, Meta Descriptions, H1, and H2 Tags (in non-technical terms – webpage names, synopsizes, and headers).

This means you need to place your keywords in the tags mentioned above, but also throughout your webpage copy in a natural way via semantically-related keywords as Google can now tell what a page is about even without the exact keyword showing up 10+ times.

This is thanks to the Rankbrain update mainly, though the culmination of all of Google’s latest updates have been what truly brought the search engine’s comprehension levels to be almost on par with humans.

So, what would Step 3 look like in real life? Let’s go back to the hair salon example to make things clearer.

Your Title Tag (50-60 characters) could be something like:

Luxury Hair Salon in Dallas-Fort Worth | JSL Salon & Styling

Makes sense, right? It gives the location, industry, and name. All the vital details your customers (and Google) would want in one, quick takeaway. And all in just 50-60 characters.

Your Meta Description (100-175 characters) could be:

JSL Salon & Styling offers high-end, luxurious hair, nail, and beauty services in Dallas, Fort Worth, & the surrounding areas! Call us at ___-____ for an appointment today!

This merely tells a little more about featured services and ends with a CTA, or call to action, to lead your guests to the next step – in this case, calling your store.

Your H1 & H2 Tags (the headers on your page) could be:

[H1] Nail Services in Dallas & Fort Worth

[H1] Dallas Nail Salon Services

[H1] Luxury Hair Salon Services in DFW

[H1] Extensions, Cuts, Colors, & More | Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington

And of course, the content beneath these tags should be comprehensive, true, and helpful to your audience.

Think of the above blog, for instance, are you now more well-versed in keyword research tools, Google My Business, and implementing keywords? We should hope so.

Now scroll back up and look at the section you’ve already read. What do you think is the H1 Tag here? The title of the blog, yes. What are the H2 Tags? The Steps.

Step 4: Get in with the In-Crowd (Local SEO Needs Local Backlinks & Lists)

Backlinks are a way that search engines learn to trust you, or to see your relevance, popularity, and importance in a certain industry or field. This means that backlinks are very important for both national and local SEO.

However, being placed on local lists is important for (you guessed it) local SEO as well, as it gives you a backlink from a site that specializes in your area, and also makes you more available and searchable for your clients.

You can use data management tools like Yext to help you keep track of your business’ location-related data on directories and local lists. Or you can manage your lists manually and join local business directories like Yelp, YellowPages, Yellowbook, The Better Business Bureau, Angieslist, and more. Or industry-specific lists, such as UpCity or Clutch for Marketing Services.

Step 5: Know Your Results, Track Your Results, Get Better Results

JSL Marketing doesn’t just say we specialize in local SEO, we prove it with our analytics and reporting each and every month to our clients.

Every month we use a multitude of tools to send our clients a personalized, accurate picture of how their rankings, traffic, and leads are progressing according to our local SEO strategy.

We personally use SEMRush, Google Data Studio, and a few other tools to create our comprehensive reports in clear, current, and correct ways.

And though we hope these steps are as simple to follow and successful in your local SEO journey as they have been for many of our clients, we are happy to help you along at any stage. Simply give us a call, check out our services, or learn more about us here.

Or, check back on our blog for weekly updates about all things Digital Marketing, SEO, Web Design, and Branding.

We can’t wait to make your business a local superstar.

May 17, 2019

My Go-To Information Hubs (7 Sources)

If you are wondering why you even need my 7 go-to information hubs for SEO an all things online, then let me tell you a story:

My wife and I started JSL Marketing right about the time that SEO and Digital Marketing really started to take off (as well as become more advanced, particular, and ever-changing).

This presented a unique challenge for us – how could we provide the very best services with the very best results to our customers when the road to those results was constantly under construction or being demoed and re-routed completely?

While getting into a business near the beginning of an industry boom is a great thing, it can also be challenging if you aren’t willing to be a lifetime learner and take that education as seriously as you take your career.

Luckily, we were (and continue to be) excited and passionate about forever learning, forever growing, and keeping up-to-date on the latest algorithms, revisions, and strategies to provide the top results to our clients.

But enough about JSL Marketing, Sarah, and myself – let’s talk about you. And how you can begin your journey to being a lifetime learner too with my top 7 go-to information hubs for SEO, Digital Marketing, and more.

MOZ

MOZ is a great place to gain information as well as tools for your SEO journey.

And sure, they have paid products and services for SEO, but this isn’t where most of their value lies (in my opinion). Instead, I think the true breadth of their worth is in the MOZ Blog where they have numerous expert writers posting every single day.

Want to learn something new every day? Then add their blog to your morning routine and peruse their newest posts before you start your workday.

Want to learn something specific? Search their articles for specific topics or look through a certain category.

Everything from the very basics of SEO, blogging, branding, technical SEO, and even marketing psychology is available on the MOZ Blog.

Search Engine Journal

As Search Engine Journal says themselves – they focus on Digital Marketing, SEO, Content Marketing, and Paid Search. In addition, their visitors are mainly people like me, with over 35% of their traffic being from Owners, Executives, or C-Levels of companies like JSL Marketing.

And much like their name suggests, they are an information source above all else. They aren’t selling products or tools as much as they are providing information to the people trying to produce and sell products or tools.

And (as you can see) they are good at it.

Yes, that’s right, almost ¾ of their visitors are there to learn, first and foremost. This number includes myself who frequents SEJ often when I want to learn something from top to bottom, and side to side, as they are most known for providing detailed guides, and in-depth articles that go much further than the ones you might find elsewhere on the web.

So, if there is a particular area you want to become an expert in, I recommend adding Search Engine Journal to your favorites, and taking 30-60 minutes a week to go through a guide or a few chapters of an eBook (did I mention they have a library of downloadable eBooks?)

Backlinko (& Their YouTube)

Though Backlinko (by Brian Dean) is technically an education site with courses and trainings for sale, it has a ton of information for free on their blog and it is updated often.

Most of their articles fall into either a ‘step-by-step’ tutorial guide or an analysis of data sets and research that Backlinko has done. So, if research methods and results are your cup of tea, then you will enjoy and benefit from subscribing to Backlinko (as some of their blogs require you to subscribe in order to unlock).

If you are willing to trade your email for a wealth of knowledge and value, I recommend it, as I’ve found many of Brian’s strategies to work well. However, if reading isn’t your favorite – check out the Backlinko YouTube channel which gives you all the information, without any of the eye strain.

HubSpot

HubSpot is both a great software tool as well as a resource for information, as they have a blog, eBook section, research section, and even free courses and certifications in HubSpot Academy.

Granted, my team and I are members of HubSpot, and therefore get a little more than the average user on their site, but even without being a member of paying anything, HubSpot has a huge amount of information, trainings, guides, and more to be discovered.

And unlike many ‘free trainings’, HubSpot Academy’s are actually worth the time it takes to go through them (usually between 1.5 and 4.5 hours).

In fact, every member of our team at JSL Marketing is certified in at least one (most likely many) of their courses, such as Inbound, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media, and more.

Yext

Yext is not only one of the platforms our whole team uses often for our clients, but it also has a great resource center with everything from support to a blog, events to webinars. So even if you are more of the ‘conference learner’ or an auditory learner, you have a place in Yext to gain education and information.

Even just perusing their site can help you learn things you didn’t even know you didn’t know – such as their Knowledge Center which gives you in-depth articles based on certain words you may have never heard of, like NAP Data (Name, Address, Phone Number).

SEMRush

If you’ve ever spoken to me at a conference, in a marketing consultant meeting or a sales coaching session, then you have surely heard me talk about SEMRush. And though my team uses SEMRush’s tools for every client, we also use them as an information source.

SEMRush also has an academy which offers trainings on their tools (toolkit courses), however, you do need to have an account with them in order to take their courses and receive their certifications.

If you are more interested in free, no-strings-attached learning, then check out the SEMRush Blog, Webinars, Podcasts, eBooks, Events, and more (yes, even games).

If learning while driving or even playing sounds like your ideal – then I recommend SEMRush as a great lifetime learning tool.

Neil Patel

Even if he’s last, you knew Neil Patel would be on my list, didn’t you?

Neil Patel is one of the great go-tos for myself and my team, and I find myself sending along his articles or videos quite often to my Content Marketing Manager and SEO Director especially.

This is not only because he is interesting to watch (or read) but because he often gives examples that are more relatable for those already in the field. Though he may sometimes use words and terms that ‘beginners’ in the SEO world won’t know yet, I still encourage new-comers to listen to Neil. One of the great ways to learn is to try to understand something above your head.

In fact, the ‘rabbit-hole’ effect is great on Neil Patel’s site, as I often listen to one video, which will lead me to another which I also find pertinent, and then to an article which goes in depth into another aspect, and so on, and so on.

Luckily, Neil’s site will never turn you in circles, as he has over 1,017 podcasts plus articles and videos – that’s enough for a lifetime a learning

There You Have It! You Essentially Have Just Seen My Weekly Search History.

Do you want to be a lifetime learner too? Do you want to learn more about Digital Marketing, SEO, Branding, and more?

Contact me to set up a consulting or sales coaching session, or to see what my company can do for your website and rankings.

And stay tuned for next week when I explain the simple 3-Step Startup Plan that JSL Marketing used to skyrocket to the forefront of the SEO industry in Dallas.

May 11, 2019

Title Tags, H1, H2 & More! [What They Are & Why You Should Care]

We’ve been over the many ranking factors for SEO numerous times, so maybe you’ve heard us mentioning ‘Title Tags’ or ‘H1’ and ‘H2’ tags. But what are these? How do you utilize them? And why are they so important, anyway?

Never fear, the SEO wizards of JSL Marketing are here to answer all your queries and make complete sense of all the different ‘tags’ you need to work with on your site.

But first, let’s start with the basics.

What Are All These Tags & How Do They Help Improve My SEO?

Title Tags

As stated by the SEO education giant MOZ, a Title Tag tells Google (and your readers) the title of the webpage. The Title Tag is shown on SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) as the ‘name’ or ‘title’ of the page you are about to click on.

In easier terms – the title tag is the blue section you click on from Google’s first page when you want to visit the site.

In visual terms – here’s an example of something our JSL team likes to search quite often:

As you can see, the blue words (or purple if you’ve already visited the page, like I have) is clickable and will lead you to the Dallas Eater article ‘Tacos in Dallas: Where to Find the City’s Best’.

Those blue/purple words are also the Title Tag.

Now that we have the definition all sorted out and understood, let’s talk about how a Title Tag can help (or hurt) your SEO efforts.

The title tag has to be both accurate (or indicative of the page’s content) but also short and sweet – after all, Google only shows between 50-60 letters in your Title Tag.

If the title tag is short, sweet, and informative of what the page holds, then it will have a lower bounce rate for your readers, because they will know what the page contains due to the accuracy of the title.

However, if your Title Tag is over 60 characters, it will get cut off. And if it is not true to the subject of the page or doesn’t give the user what they are looking for, it will have a higher bounce rate, which will cause Google to lower it in the search results.

Essentially, there is no tricking Google by stuffing in a bunch of similar keywords anymore, because Google is watching and learning what it’s users like thanks to Rankbrain.

So, you better have a Title Tag that lets your human readers know exactly what they’re clicking on, and make sure its short enough for it to fully show.

A common format that many sites use is – “Main keyword | Related Keyword | Company”.

Or something like “Title Tags, H1, & H2 Guide | On-Page SEO | JSL Marketing” which is only 56 characters, includes the subject, additional keyword support, and our brand/company name.

Bonus information for anyone wondering what a ‘bounce rate’ is:

Thanks for the nifty bounce rate definition, Google

H1 Tags & H2 Tags

Now, a Title Tag is easy to understand because of its name, but so are H1, H2 (and even H3-6), you just have to know what the H is for.

In this case, that H stands for ‘Header’. So, an H1 Tag is your Header 1 Tag. This means the H1 tag of this titillating article you are reading through right now is:

And yes, that means the H2 (Header 2) Tag for this post is:

Want to take a crack at the H3 Tags for this article?

In reality, Title Tags are just page titles, and H1 or H2 Tags are just headers – but then why are these so important?

Because Google wants to know what you are talking about, how organized you are, and how thorough you are. And so do your human readers

It is a lot easier for anyone (living or machine) to understand an article or blog post that is well laid out and has an intuitive structure, than to read something that is just one big block of text without anything breaking it up or separating it.

Let’s say you only wanted to learn about Title Tags today, because my Title Tag, H1, H2, and even H3 mention Title Tags, Google knows to show this article to you. Then, once you open the article, you can quickly find the section pertaining to what you want to know as well, instead of wading through paragraphs on the other tags you have no interest in.

This is why having your keywords, or similar (semantically related) keywords in your Title, H1, H2, and H3 tags is extremely important.

Most sites have these headers already set up, which is why I simply write [H1], [H2], [H3], as I write, and then switch those sections to their true ‘header’ formats on the backend of our blog page as I upload each article.

However, some platforms still require you to type it out HTML style, which would look like this:

<h1>Title Tags, H1, H2 & More! [What They Are & Why You Should Care]</h1>

<h2>What Are All These Tags & How Do They Help Improve My SEO?</h2>

<h3>Title Tags</h3> and <h3>H1 Tags & H2 Tags</h3>

Regardless of if you have to put your headers in by hand using the <h1> ___ </h1> format or if your platform does it for you, remember that these tags are for clarity, for organization, and for efficiency.

Tags are your friends, not foes.

Want Someone to Take All the Guesswork Out of Your Content Creation? Get in Touch with JSL Today!

JSL and our marketing team love learning the new updates, tweaking our best practices, and finding the perfect content to engage your audience and educate your readers. So, whether you need help with your website’s copy, content creation plans for the year, or just a monthly blog or two – we’ve got you covered.

Give us a call today to learn more about our prices, packages, or create a custom package to get exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less.

Check back next week to learn about local SEO and the steps you should be taking for your business!

April 05, 2019

The 8 Most Vital Tips for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It’s true that not all sites are created equal and not all SEO ranking factors are either. In fact, though there are over two hundred ranking factors that search engines (we mainly mean Google here) take into account, there are a few which swing the most weight – big time.

Now, of course, we don’t want to horde all the lovely information we know about SEO, ranking factors, and how to get your website to the top of the internet heap – oh no – that just isn’t us.

We believe that sharing is caring, and we would love to care about you, whether we work together or not.

So, strap in and get ready, because you’re about to have a crash course in SEO. Who knows, maybe you’ll realize you love the ‘please-Google-game’ and this will be the beginning of a beautiful new hobby/interest/career for you.

Or, more likely, you’ll just want to hire someone who does love SEO to do it for you.

#1: Know Your Analytics

One of the first things you need to do on your SEO journey is pretty straight forward – have web analytics set up and accurately tracking from the very beginning.

After all, if you don’t know where you’re starting from, and you don’t know your progress, then how will you know what works, what doesn’t, what’s up or what’s down?

Without analytics, you are a ship without a rudder in the sea (or internet) and that won’t get you anywhere but dashed up on the rocks or hopelessly lost.

Instead, avoid that whole tragic storyline, and use software to clearly track what’s working, your goals, and your trajectory.

Google Analytics, Google Search Console, or private options like SEMrush are great for analytics. We should know – we use all three.

#2: Write for Your Audience & the Robots Will Follow

If your keyword is, oh, I don’t know – ‘SEO’ – you don’t need to say it in every sentence, in every tag, in every header, and in every other possible location where it’ll be recognized by the search engine.

First of all, that is annoying, and no one wants to read that.

Second of all, search engines are smart enough to know that that is annoying, and your plan will backfire twofold.

Instead, write for your audience, about things they care about, and in the voice they prefer to listen to.

This is why knowing your target audience is so important – because they’ll be the ones reading it. And they’re the ones you want to talk to.

#3: Try Your Hardest to Gain (Good) Backlinks

Don’t just gain backlinks (which is when another site links to your site), instead, try to get good backlinks. Because Google can tell the differences between a good, trusted backlink related to your field, and www.buygoldnowwws77 (and so can your audience).

Take the time to cultivate relationships, create great content, and promote it in order to get a solid backlink web that will benefit you and your linker.

#4: Every Page Deserves a Meta Description

This should be an easy one to fix, update or polish.

Picture your typical search engine results page – that blurb on the page beneath your header or website link, that’s your meta description. And that little blurb needs to tell a bit about what that page should have, tell, or do.

Every page (even your blog/contact/FAQs/product pages) should have unique meta descriptions – not generic and not repeating. Duplicate content, even in just a meta description, is sure to raise some red flags for your SEO.

#5: Be Quick! Be Nimble!

People often forget that it isn’t just about what’s on your page, but about how quickly people can get there to take it in. Even if your page is only slowed down by 1 or 2 seconds, that’s enough to lose credibility, rankings, and customers.

Think of it like this – would you put your credit card or other personal information onto a site that seemed to be having trouble loading? No? Why not?

Because online users (yourself included) count speed and trust synonymously, and therefore, a slow site is one we view as unsafe or unsecured.

To avoid any mistrust, check your site speed often and perform health checks to keep it running smoothly as well as protected.

#6: Keywords for All!

Ah, the double standard of keywords – we knew we’d get here eventually.

Keywords are the teeter-totter of SEO and the bane of many content writers’ existence. And though we can’t tell you to use your designated keyword ‘X amount of times’ for success, we can give you some hints about how we use keywords both on our site and for our clients.

Keywords shouldn’t be the yardstick you measure your content by, instead, it should merely be your guide for what you are writing about or what concept you want to get across.

For example, this article is about SEO, right?

Well, we’re also talking about ranking factors, site health, keywords, content, backlinks, metas, analytics, and more.

So really, though ‘SEO’ is the beginning point, we are trying to create content which is within that category, but not all specifically revolving around that one, little word.

Also, any search engine worth its clicks can figure out what this post is about, it doesn’t need us to scream it from the mountain tops.

Instead (again) just focus on writing for your people and about the issues they have – Google will be able to figure out the rest.

#7: Your Images Want Keywords Too

Again with the keywords?

Yes. Absolutely. Always.

Your images are important, but search engines can’t yet look at them and fully understand what’s going on or what the takeaway should be.

Make it easy for them by having relevant names that tell the search engines what they need to know.

And using a keyword or two doesn’t hurt either. After all, if the image is on your site, it should be relevant to your site, services, and (probably) keywords.

#8: Be Unique, Be Consistent, & Be Valuable in Your Content

This is really what it’s all about, right?

Creating content that your readers, clients, and customers connect with and want more of. Creating content that gives value to your readers, gets good results, and catches the attention of the search engines.

You do this by being unique – telling, sharing, or thinking something new or in a new way; being consistent – don’t just post one time and expect results, or post 6 times in one month and then not at all for the next two; and giving value – or creating something that leaves the reader better than you found them.

JSL Marketing & Web Design is here to help you with all of your SEO needs.

It’s an ever-changing area to work in and we love the challenge! If you need more information or want to get started on your own SEO project, then contact us today – we can’t wait to work with you!

January 12, 2019

New Year, New Digital Marketing Plan

If you’re starting off your new year with big plans for big things for your company, then you’ve probably (or hopefully) already started planning your moves for 2019.

But what about your digital marketing? Do you have a plan laid out? A strategy? Or does that simply seem too impossible to tackle? Maybe next year? Maybe never?

Instead, we want to show you how powerful having a strong marketing strategy can be for your business.

And you don’t have to start huge either. In fact, we’ve outlined below a few super simple and easy-to-adapt steps that you and your business or team can take to hone your digital marketing strategy in the new year.

4 Steps to Your New Digital Marketing Plan

Define Your Mission Before You Make It Your Mission

What is the point of your digital marketing plan? Are you looking to increase brand awareness, traffic, and rankings? Do you want more emails opened, more links clicked, or simply more sales?

These questions are extremely important because, without answers, you really are floundering.

JSL Marketing wants you to be swimming the butterfly, not doggy-paddling towards your goals. So, make sure you create SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-based).

Let’s take a quick look at each letter to make sure you start off your digital marketing plan and new year on the right foot, shall we?

Specific: Saying ‘be better’ is neither specific nor smart. So, make sure you choose a goal which is specific enough to be understood. After all, a goal isn’t really a goal if it’s undefined.

Measurable: Choose a goal you can measure, so you can know how close you are to reaching it. This goes hand in hand with specific goals, as something you cannot define or measure, ultimately, cannot be reached.

Attainable: Since we are talking about goals we can reach, let’s discuss reality and what is attainable. Essentially, this part of SMART just means it is realistic, but SMRRT didn’t sound as catchy.

Relevant: Making goals has to do with where you want your business to end up, or the direction you want it to move. Keep this in mind as you make a goal. For example, if you want to gain more website traffic, a goal about additional phone calls during peak hours isn’t very helpful.

Time-Based: The last part of SMART is invaluable. You have to set a time limit for your goal. I’ll say it again for the people in the back – you have to set a time limit for your goal.

Creating a SMART goal is a great way to narrow down what you want your digital marketing plan to do for you, and therefore, gives you the direction you should be working towards.

An example of a good SMART goal is:

“In the first quarter of 2019, we want to increase our web traffic from 1,000 to 1,500 visits per week.”

This goal is specific – giving the exact numbers wanted. It is measurable – again with exact numbers, current and desired. It is attainable – we aren’t looking to go from 1,000 to 100,000. It is relevant – after all, 95% of our business comes through our website. And it is time-based – specifying only 3 months to reach the goal.

Learn From the Past to Improve the Future

One would think this would go without saying, however, all too commonly businesses ignore what they have learned in the past about marketing, trends, and their customers.

If you do not learn from history, you are bound to repeat it. And if you do not learn from your mistakes, then 2019 will be the exact same as 2018.

But we are striving for growth, for improvement, and that means you have to use all the tools in your toolbelt.

Look at what your worst months were last year and ask yourself why? Research new ideas and techniques that are up and coming and try new things this year.

Business, and especially digital marketing, is a never-ending journey and learning curve. Don’t fight it. Besides, perfection is for the gods – improvement is for us humans.

Identify the Strengths, Team & Tools Need

After making a goal and doing the necessary research and history lessons, you have to know who and what you need to make your digital marketing a success.

Think of which tools you will need for measurement, analytics, and progress. What avenues will you use? What modes or platforms?

After you have looked into relevant tools for your goal, you need to look at gaps you may have in your team or their strengths.

Will you need new materials written? Do you have a content writer? Do you have a team member who can create email templates or cohesive marketing materials?

If some of those answers were ‘no’, then you might need to hire in-house or outside of your business to find people and strengths to fill the gaps in your strategy or skillsets.

And there is no shame in this, because while your digital marketing campaign is running, you and your team still need to be running the business too.

Sometimes hiring outside of your employees can be a great way to save some time.

In All Things – Be Flexible

This is one of the most important things to remember in digital marketing planning and implementation – be flexible.

You need a plan, you need a strategy, and it doesn’t hurt to have it be organized and specific. But if that plan gets a little knocked around and changed during the year – do not worry!

This is normal, this is natural. And frankly, with all the of constant updates and changes in digital marketing, staying the same or sticking to your plan rigidly for the whole 12 months might actually hurt more than help.

Do You Need Help with Your New Digital Marketing Plan?

If so, we can help!

In fact, digital marketing is kind of one of our largest specialties.

We have even been recognized as a top Texas Digital Marketing Agency by DesignRush!

JSL Marketing wants your new year to be even more successful than last year, and we are going to do that by planning the year out, understanding your goals and unique ‘why’, and remaining flexible and able to adapt.

We can’t wait to partner with you. Call us today or fill out a contact form!

December 20, 2018

How to Be a Better Digital Marketer in 2019

JSL Marketing & Web Design has had a stellar year and we don’t plan on slowing down.

But how can we keep growing? What’s our shiny secret? How do we continue to bring the very best in digital marketing to our customers each and every month?

No tricks, no shortcuts.

The truth is, we continue to grow, to improve, and to get our customers great results because we are constantly learning, studying, training, and trying new techniques which we then perfect and implement again.

Train. Try. Tweak. Repeat.

But we can break it down better than that for you. So, read on to see how you can become a better digital marketer in 2019 too!

We look forward to working with you and helping your business thrive like never before in 2019.

Train, Try, Tweak, Repeat

Train to Gain New Skills (Always)

This is one of the best parts of digital marketing, digital design, and SEO in general – it’s always changing, morphing, and improving.

This means you have to too. Even if you are an expert in a certain area, in six months you’ll have to reapply yourself there to keep up with the changes.

But don’t look at this as a burden. Instead, see this as the gift it truly is!

You can learn anything you want, become an expert, train, and see the innovations of your industry right before your eyes. Who knows, maybe you will even create some of that innovation yourself.

There is no end-game in digital marketing, no ‘Ah, we’ve done it. We’ve made the perfect site, the perfect ranking. Now we can stop.’

Because there is always improvement potential and stagnation will never serve you well for long.

Try New Things With a Scientific Mind

So, you’ve learned something new – what do you do now?

Well, you don’t just sit on that knowledge, you try it! Will it work? Will the training be worth the result? You won’t know until you try it out.

After all, no knowledge is helpful if it isn’t practical or practiced.

JSL Marketing & Web Design places a lot of emphasis on understanding and separating performance zones and learning zones

This means we understand that sometimes we are working for peak performance, which means we will do the things we know will work.

For example, we won’t try some unknown, unproven tactic on a new client’s web design to ‘test’ a theory we have.

However, there are other times, or other scenarios, where we are in a learning zone. This means we are trying to test out new theories, new options, and new skills we have recently learned.

Maybe we’ll try it out on our own page, maybe even on a blog…maybe we are trying something new in this very blog even.

Then we see how it stacks up (or performs), versus a constant (or the way we’ve done something previously).

Sound like an experiment? That’s because it is!

See? Digital Marketers are basically rocket scientists, or at least that’s what I tell my grandmother.

Tweak What You’ve Learned & Implemented for the Best Results

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again”

Sometimes you’ll hit the nail on the head the very first time. Sometimes you’ll hit a home run with a new skill or implementation technique.

But, more often than not, it will take you a few trials to get your newly minted skill to perform the way you want it to. There’s a learning curve in almost everything worth anything.

This shouldn’t discourage you though. instead, it gives you the opportunity to get creative. That’s why you got into digital marketing to begin with, right?

Try things multiple times and in multiple ways. This connects with both the ‘training’ and ‘trying’ ideals of digital marketing, as you are always working at improving upon the thing you just improved upon.

And Finally – Improve Your Customer Care!

Oh, you thought this was going to say ‘repeat’ didn’t you?

Well, we know you will repeat everything above (remember, try, try AGAIN).

So instead, we thought our final tip for how to become a better digital marketer in 2019 should be something that many companies drop the ball on.

Your business isn’t just about the numbers or the Google rankings – it’s about your clients. You are creating either a thriving workplace and sustainable income for a group of people or shooting it down with your digital marketing skills and knowledge.

Make sure you never forget that you are working with and for people.

Treat your customers like the dynamic, interesting, hardworking, and amazing people they are. It takes a lot to build a business, and your digital marketing efforts are one piece of that complex puzzle.

So many of our clients come to us from other companies who did them wrong. So many of our clients are amazed that we speak to them like people. So many of our clients are surprised that we reply to emails, calls, or questions immediately.

Isn’t that sad?

Let’s change that in 2019 and all become better digital marketers and better companies to work with.

Does Digital Marketing Sound Like Your New Year’s Resolution?

If you are interested in digital marketing in the future, then call JSL Marketing & Web Design today!

We don’t wind down during the holidays, and we guarantee you’ll get a friendly, knowledgeable, and speedy reply from a member of our team.

And just like my grandmother, once we’re done perfecting your content, website, social media, and SEO, we bet you’ll think we are rocket scientists too!

November 26, 2018

Blogging for Customers + Search Engines

Blogging is hugely important to your SEO health, your website’s visibility and, ultimately, your business’ success.

And though there is a lot of information on the web about blogging dos and don’ts, tips and tricks, the truth is that most people are only covering half of the field.

Some companies blog for the humans, meaning that they are writing directly to their customers and speak and explain as if their only audience is, well, human. But how do your customers find your blog if Google isn’t ranking it, or if Google doesn’t understand it?

Some companies go the opposite route and blog for the robots, or Google, with keywords in the meta, headings, subheadings and throughout the text – even when it isn’t natural. This might work to help Google understand your topic, but it sure doesn’t help your readers enjoy what you’ve created.

As you can tell, both of the above ways of writing have their purpose, as of course, Google helps your customers find your blog, and therefore your site, and your customers are the ones supporting your business, not Google.

But what is the relationship between this pair, between the humans and the robots? And how can we write for two entirely different entities in one 700-1,200 word blog?

Let the blogging experts at JSL Marketing help straighten this out with our 3 overlapping tips for both customers and Google.

3 Tips for Blogging for Both Humans & Robots

Don’t Be Too Longwinded – or Typed

When people want to read a book, they read a book, not a blog. And when people want to read a blog, well, it shouldn’t be the size of a book, now should it?

This doesn’t just go for total length, it’s for paragraph length, sentence length and, in many cases, even word length.

So, don’t use a run-on sentence that will be confusing, winding or too long, as your customers don’t want to read it. Don’t use paragraphs that are bulky with intimidating 12-lines of text, and don’t use overly complex words just because you know how.

Instead, break up your page with line breaks, as we have above. It might seem strange, but isn’t this how we talk? And doesn’t the whitespace above make the total length of your blog seem more manageable?

Turns out, it does!

Both for your readers’ eyes and for Google.

You see, Google likes to see ‘whitespace’ around your paragraphs, and your customers like to be able to read something without it hurting their eyes or them losing their place.

This is a great example of how Google and customers agree.

So, hack those sentences down, break up those paragraphs, and for goodness sake, don’t be magniloquent, uh, I mean, just speak plainly.

Use Long-Tail Keywords & Synonyms

Google is becoming smarter, and though this might worry some of us who believe a technology revolt is nigh, most of us will actually benefit from more tech AI.

How?

Well, you understand that ‘Best Digital Marketing Company in Dallas, Texas’ is the same as ‘Best Digital Marketing Company, Dallas TX’ is the same as ‘Best Digital Marketing Company in Dallas, TX’, right?

However, do you know who didn’t always understand that everything above is saying the same thing?

Our good friend Google.

This means that a lot of companies were trying to say the exact phrase or keywords they wanted to rank for over and over again in their blogs, on their pages, and in their social media posts.

Unfortunately, that’s quite annoying for the human readers.

So, Google learned – or rather, had a series of updates that helped it understand synonyms – so ‘the best’, ‘great, and ‘top-rated’ are all understood under an umbrella, sort of like how we understand them.

If you aren’t sure what a long-tail keyword is, it simply means that people are more likely to search ‘what is the best digital marketing company’ more often than just ‘digital marketing’.

Post Regularly (But With Quality)

This is the final area that companies often trip over, but it shouldn’t be, as the humans and robots once again agree.

Google wants to see fresh content.

People want to see fresh content.

Google wants your posts to be quality.

People want your posts to be quality.

It’s really quite simple when it’s laid out like this, isn’t it?

Essentially, Google is trying to like the same things as its users. It is trying to rank the same things that its users would rank, this means there should be more overlap between humans and robots than division.

So, write what your customers want to see and read, but remember that someone else is watching and looking to understand, rank and place that blog too.

Reach Your Blogging Goals With JSL Marketing

The best thing you can do is help Google help you, and the best people to do that are your friendly Google-experts at JSL Marketing & Web Design.

Give us a call or check out more blogs here!

Or, even if you don’t feel the need to seek out SEO services just yet, remember our takeaways to make your next blog post a success:

Write with whitespace – because everyone likes that
Write naturally and with understandable keywords or synonyms
Write often enough to stay current, but sparsely enough to give yourself time to create something of value and quality

Happy writing (and happy Thanksgiving, too).

October 18, 2018

SEO 101 – A Beginner’s Guide to SEO Tips & Tricks

JSL Marketing & Web Design has been in the business (or the Biz, as we like to call it) for quite some time. And though we aren’t all-knowing, we are most-knowing after so many hours, classes, certifications, tutorials, books, blogs, emails, and, well, you get the picture.

Because of our research and experienced-based knowledge, we wanted to share the very best in tips and tricks for the foundation your SEO will need with our SEO 101 Beginner’s Guide.

If you enjoyed our JSL Toolbox post from last week, where we divulged our favorite programs and online tools, but found it possibly a little over your head, then our SEO 101 Beginner’s Guide will be the perfect stepping stone for you on your trek to Google’s front page.

So, come along and enjoy the ride – your SEO journey begins here!

Five SEO Tips & Tricks for SEO Beginners

Be a part of the right conversation: SEO has many components, so when someone talks about SEO, make sure you are clear about which component they are talking about, or if they are talking about the whole conglomerate.

Do they mean Social Media presence? Content on their webpage? Keywords they are trying to rank for? Updating business listings or best blog practices?

Maybe they are talking about the latest Google Update and how it will affect their webpages’ ranking? Maybe they are actually talking about their website design, template or user-friendliness?

Regardless of which aspect of SEO they are talking about, make sure you clearly define the conversation.

SEO is often used to umbrella a wide array of subjects or topics concerning the success of a website. And all of the subjects might very well affect your search engine rankings and therefore, all of which do pertain in some way to Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, but if you don’t know the parameters of the conversation, you can be left more confused than when you began.

Research, but with a grain of salt: If you have a question about any of the above sub-topics of SEO, it can never hurt to research it. However, researching can help or hurt if you don’t know where to go.

The internet has all the knowledge in the world it seems, but then how do you know what to trust, what to do, or whose advice to follow?

Easy. Ask the internet.

No, really. If you don’t know who to believe on the internet, especially when it concerns SEO, let SEO literally answer your question.

Search your question in Google, see what pops up on the first page, then open them – ALL.

Read through them ALL. Take notes on them ALL. Compare. Contrast. Repeat.

The first page of Google is the first page for a reason. It is not infallible, but it is helpful.

So, ask yourself – what comes up multiple times? What sites have authority in their domain? What tips are backed with evidence, studies, and statistics? What sites are talking about ranking well whilst ranking well themselves?

SEO is not a mystery science (for the most part) and though it is true that the tricks to SEO are always changing as algorithms and updates *shakes fist at Google* change, SEO can be learned with time and research.

Just like any other skill, SEO can be taught and learned, if only you give it the time and effort it requires.

Use programs that are tried and true: Similarly to above, if you are just starting out in your SEO journey and need programs, tools and guides to help you analyze your data, rankings, or where your SEO needs are, then use the best ranked programs there are.

Want to do some keyword research? Use SEMrush or Screaming Frog.

Want to do a site health audit? Use Yoast, SEMrush or My Web Audit.

Want to clearly show projects? Use Basecamp or Hubstaff.

Want to see your analytics? Use Google Analytics.

Want to learn more about your whole operation? Use Moz.

A few clicks, maybe a plugin or two, and you can have information at your fingertips in any area you want.

The best part?

All of the above are user-friendly and have videos, tutorials, explanations, and instructions in abundance!

Know the cost of SEO, the different options, and the perks and pitfalls of each: You can work with a company, a freelancer, do it yourself, or hire a full-time, in-house employee for digital marketing and SEO, but which is the best for cost, quality, and businesses?

This entirely depends on your business, your needs, and your budget.

If this seems like a daunting answer, then just remember number 2 and 3 above – just about everything can be found online!

However, if you don’t like searching around for the answers and putting hours of research into it, maybe SEO isn’t for you – or maybe you can find someone to give you all the answers.

Maybe someone like JSL Marketing & Web Design.

And maybe that answer is right here.

We just so happened to have created an informative and fun infographic about this very topic. You can thank us later.

Know the worth of your time: Whether you are reading this post because you want to get into the field of SEO, do it yourself for your business, or simply because you have a deep thirst for learning, you need to acknowledge that SEO training and implementation takes time.

Lots of time.

If you are looking to dive into the field, know that there is a learning curve and maybe some growing pains along the way.

If you are looking to do it yourself, know that there will be lots of hours of research and testing involved before you see results. SEO is not an overnight fix.

If neither of the above applies though, or if these tips sound more like terror than terrific, then maybe you need an SEO expert, or team of experts, who can make your SEO shine for you.

Do You Still Have a Question or Two? We’re Here to Help.

SEO is always changing, and though that makes the field incredibly interesting, it also makes it difficult to master – especially if you want to be an expert in all the sub-categories of it at once.

If you would like to learn more, give us a call – we love all things SEO and would be happy to help you get to where you want to be!

Even if you would like to absolutely NOT learn more, let us do it all for you.

Either way, give us a call and get a personalized site audit or a free 30-minute consultation for us to show you where you excel and where you could use a little work. Then you can decide if you want to tackle it on your own or hire out.

We’re here for you – whatever choice you make.