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Mar
23
Beware of SEO/Link Building Billing Scam
Posted by Webtivity on 23 March 2021 11:22 am

Please beware of SEO/Link building billing scam that is going around to some of our clients, and possibly others. It appears that there is a company billing some of our clients for services they aren’t receiving.

The problem is that the company name looks somewhat similar to ours, and if you aren’t paying close attention, you could accidentally end up paying this false company. If receive this SEO/Link building billing scam and question what the bill is for, you could wonder why you are paying for two services. You are NOT. They are not providing you with any service.

We’ve attached a sample of the bill or invoice here so you can see what it looks like in case you get one as well.

SEO/Link Building Billing Scam

Webtivity Marketing & Design doesn’t want you to fall victim to a scam. You work too hard for your money, and in times like these there are so many people out there just trying to take advantage of you.

Please be aware of mail, email, and faxes coming in to your business. Keep track of auto payments. And most importantly, don’t click on anything that looks or feels suspicious. If you do have a question, just ask us, it doesn’t hurt to be safe! Thank you to our customers for bringing these fraudulent bills to our attention. We hope it saves someone from paying something they shouldn’t be paying!

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Aug
28
5 Reasons Online Reviews Are Essential for Your Business in 2020
Posted by Didier Bizimungu on 28 August 2020 10:19 am

Online ReviewsIt’s an accepted fact that online reviews are essential for businesses. Online reviews build credibility, help seal deals, and encourage clients to reach to you to start a one to one conversation. All of that adds up to a vital component of a business’s online reputation management efforts.

2020 is kicking this importance into high gear. In their most recent 2020 State of the Local Industry Report, Moz found that reviews are now the second most important factor in rankings in SEO rankings. We, in the digital marketing sphere, have watched this component of marketing continually increase in importance with seemingly no end to its rise.

But their importance doesn’t just stop at SEO. Today, your friendly marketers at Webtivity Marketing & Design will explore five reasons why online reviews are essential for your business in 2020 and moving forward.

Search Engine Rankings

The importance of online reviews to search engine rankings cannot be understated. Google is now, and has been for the past three years, the largest and fastest growing review platform. Garnering Google reviews should be your first priority out of any platform. Google uses these reviews to ascertain your rankings in its algorithms. Next to Google My Business elements, Google reviews, are now the second biggest factor Google takes into account for your rankings. In terms of the easiest and fastest search ranking factor to influence, Google reviews are it.

Local Traffic = Local Clients

In essence, there are two types of rankings in search engines. Overall rankings and local rankings. The latter is the biggest concern for small businesses that rely on online sales and lead generation as an essential component of their business. If overall rankings are influenced by online reviews, local rankings are doubly so. Behind being physically close to the searcher, reviews are the second most important reason a search engine shows a business before another. The other important factors being the consistency of citations and the quality of content on the business’ website.

Building Credibility

Brand building should be a concern for every business owner who seeks to excel in their market. If your clients don’t know your brand or don’t trust it, your business will suffer in the short and long term. Reviews show that other users of your service or buyers of your product had a positive experience with it. Companies who ignore this importance often suffer from a lack of reviews, which can lead to once-off negative reviews having a significant impact on their business. Get ahead of any disgruntled customer, enact a review gathering strategy before you need positive reviews to help counteract any negative ones. Google’s review policy offers little leeway in removing reviews.

Online Reviews Are Essential

Reviews Close Deals

Always Be Closing or ABC can be translated to RCD for Reviews Close Deals when it comes to consumer decisions online. BrightLocal recently found that 82% of all consumers read online reviews for local businesses, that number jumps up to 93% for people aged between 35 and 54. In that last second, when a potential client finds your business and is close to deciding to make a purchase, reviews are your best closers. The high regard buyers hold in reviews cannot be understated. The importance increases as the demographics get lower as the younger generations lean on the opinions of their peers to make decisions in an increasingly choice-field market.

Communication is STILL Key

From year 1 to the year 10,000, one thing will always be true; we humans love to communicate with each other. Online reviews are essential for communicating with your clients online. They are a forum for honest interaction with your customers where you can reinforce positive perceptions and explain any negative issues you may encounter. The important factor to consider here is that this conversation exists with or without your input. The ability to get it to be written down in a format where you can respond to it represents a dynamic shift in not only reputation management but overall brand management as well.

This brings us to the end of our top 5 reasons why online reviews are essential for your business in 2020. If you are ready to proactively take control of your online brand call Tim at  941-753-7574 x107 or send him a message here.

 

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Aug
24
Know the Risks before Hiring a Digital Marketing Company
Posted by Meredith B on 24 August 2020 10:01 am

The struggle is real when it comes to keeping a website up to date with the ever changing SEO rules, and search engine algorithms. An online presence is crucial, and having a digital marketing team that has your values is crucial as well. Hiring an outside digital marketing company means you can worry about the success of your business, while they handle the marketing of your company.

Digital Marketing Company

A good digital marketing company will have a variety of marketing packages available for you. They will offer SEO, (search engine optimization), SMM (social media marketing, (PPC) pay per click, as well as other types of marketing that can include blogging, email marketing and more.

These are some things to consider when hiring an online marketing company in the Bradenton and St. Petersburg area of Florida.

Understand the Risks

The cheapest SEO Company won’t get you the results you’re looking for. In fact, they could actually damage your company, and damage your reputation with Google. If Google penalizes you, you could suffer the ramifications for years.

Beware of an SEO Guarantee

NO company can guarantee first page search engine results, they just can’t. So if they do, you need to run away, and fast. Remember the old saying that if it sounds too good to be true, then it is?

Look at Past Clients and Reviews

Client reviews are so important in this day of online word of mouth. Look for a company that has a great online reputation. Satisfied customers, case studies, and client referrals are all indicators of success!

Know Your Goals

It’s important that you know what your business goals are, then they can be conveyed to the marketing team. Be sure that you know who your competitors are, what key words you’re targeting, and who your target audience is. This will make an effective marketing strategy more attainable for your digital marketer.

The bottom line is that you want to feel comfortable with the company you choose. Be sure you’re able to ask questions and get answers. SEO is a long term commitment, it isn’t something that happens overnight. If you are in search of a reputable digital marketing agency in the Bradenton and St. Petersburg area, get in touch with us today to see how we can help.

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Apr
9
Referral Reward Program: Tell a Friend About Webtivity Marketing & Design
Posted by Terry Thompson on 09 April 2020 11:02 am

Introducing the Webtivity Referral Rewards Program!

Up to $350 credit for your website and digital marketing referrals

referral reward programWe love our clients and thank them for trusting us with their digital marketing needs. There is no greater compliment than when our valued clients refer us to their business friends. These website and digital marketing referrals have been crucial to Webtivity’s success over the years.

To show our appreciation, we have established a referral reward program. When a client refers someone to us and they hire us for their website design and/or digital marketing, the client will receive a credit and the referral will get a discount. So it’s a Win-Win-Win. The client gets a credit. Referral gets a discount. Webtivity gets a new client.

The great thing about the referral reward program is there is no limit to the number of referrals or credits. If you are currently only a website client, you can refer yourself for digital marketing and get both the credit and the discount.

If you are a previous client, no problem. Refer yourself and come back to Webtivity. We don’t hold a grudge. You will receive both the referring credit and referral discount. After that refer others to earn even more credits.

Click here to learn more about our website and digital marketing referral program and refer someone today

We have tried to make it as easy as possible. On the page above you will find an email template as well as a contact form to get in touch with us.

Please note this referral reward program is effective April 8, 2020. While we appreciate past referrals, we unfortunately cannot make this program retroactive.

 

 

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Jan
30
You Need to Keep Your Website Fresh, Here’s How to Do It
Posted by Meredith on 30 January 2020 03:22 pm

There are many reasons to keep a business website fresh. Customers like a fresh website, it gives them reasons to keep coming back to it. Technology is changing daily, which also makes technical reasons for keeping a website fresh. And search engines love fresh websites, so if you’re looking to rank higher in search engines, you need to keep your website fresh.

How do you keep a website fresh?

There are quite a few different ways to keep a website fresh. Because technology and design are constantly evolving, if your site was designed a few years ago, chances are it needs an upgrade. Not only is it outdated, but even if it was popular a few years ago, it probably isn’t mobile friendly (which is a must these days) and it probably isn’t very SEO friendly. It is worth it to invest in an upgrade.

keep your website fresh

Check your website from time to time for broken links. For example if you have linked to another business, or blog, perhaps they have gone out of business or changed something. If that link is no longer working it will show up as an error or a broken link leading your consumer to go elsewhere.

Google keeps track of how fresh your website is. If you increase the size or footprint of your website each year, Google will reward you for being “fresher” than other sites. You can increase your footprint by creating new pages.

It’s also important to update the content on the pages already on your website. This can be done by adding content, adding links to other areas of your website, or by adding photos to your page. You can also change the ALT tags on your photos. This is important because SEO rules are always changing, so the ALT text that was once there, might not be important SEO wise any longer.

Keep your website fresh

Creating a blog is a great way to update your website. Not only does a blog keep your website fresh, when blogging about things your target market is interested in and searching for, it will attract new visitors. See our post on blogging. You can always repurpose a blog and update it too. Just don’t rename the URL, or you will lose all the SEO benefits gained from it.

Keep in mind that keeping your website fresh will benefit you. It will benefit your search engine traffic, your rank, and help to generate more traffic. If you lack the time to do this, it’s worth it to consider a professional marketing team and web designer to do these tasks for you. If you’re looking for a fresh website, we’d love to hear from you!

The post You Need to Keep Your Website Fresh, Here’s How to Do It appeared first on Webtivity Marketing & Design.


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Jan
23
Benefits of Blogging for your Business
Posted by Meredith on 23 January 2020 10:29 am

Blogging is one of the most inexpensive ways to drive traffic to your website, and bring brand awareness to your business. Not only that, but blogging is a great way to market and distribute information about your business. There are so many benefits of blogging for your business, but here are just a few.

benefits of blogging

Blogging for your business is easy. Blogging is just a collection of thoughts or facts. When you’re trying to promote your business, put together some thoughts or facts, and post it on your website. Your consumers want to learn more about you, your business, and things your business is selling, so it’s the perfect way to get that information out there!

Blogging is also a great way to boost your ranking in search engines. In fact, search engines love it when businesses blog! When a business creates a blog on a consistent basis, they’re giving Google, Yahoo, Bing, and any other search engines brand new content to index. Search engines LOVE new content! It also gives businesses a chance to utilize keywords that consumers are using to search for them in those search engines.

Benefits of Blogging

 

Blogging also shows that you’re a subject matter expert in your field, which builds trust with your consumers. If you give out good advice, you’ll be the go-to in your field. This can make you stand out from your competitors. It can also help you develop a deeper bond with your readers.

One of the biggest benefits of blogging is to provide value to your readers. If your blog includes tips or how-to advice to make their life easier, it’s much more interesting for them to read,  than to read a constant sales pitch type blog. You’re increasing loyalty by providing them with free advice, which will likely have them choose your company over a competitor when they’re looking to make a purchase or need a service.

Finally, each time you create a blog post, you create an opportunity for your blog to be shared with others. It is free marketing, proving even more that your business is credible!

If you don’t have time to blog yourself, don’t worry, Webtivity has a copywriting team here in St. Petersburg and Bradenton to help work with you to create informative posts for your business!

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