
The Five SEO Services That Your Campaign May Need to Get to the Top of Search Engine Results
You want to dominate Google. But to do that, you’re going to need to know which SEO services can take your website from also-ran to top contender.
Your goal is to get to the top of Google search with your website. You want more customers to see you because that’s going to lead to you making more sales.
So, you start to work on an SEO campaign that will help you to rise through the ranks.
But there’s a problem…
There’s so much information out there about SEO that you don’t know what to believe. As a result, you’re confused and you don’t know which services you need.
That’s a problem because failing to choose the right services could have drastic consequences on your business. At best, you’ll find yourself sticking to one place in the rankings.
And at worst…you may get a penalty that takes you out of the running altogether.
In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the key SEO services that your business may need. But before we do, we’d like you to take a look at an OTT client that achieved amazing results by creating the right campaign.
The Locksmith Leader — How Zip Locksmith Generated $15 Million in Sales Through SEO
Zip Locksmith had done a decent job of carving their name into a pretty competitive market. Based in Washington, the company had a small amount of name recognition and delivered an awesome service.
But they weren’t doing enough, especially when it came to online marketing.
The company had no organic rankings to speak of. However, they still managed to get onto page one using a costly technique.
The team at Zip Locksmith invested thousands of dollars into Google AdWords every month. For those who don’t know, AdWords allows you to pay for premium advertising slots on Google’s search results.
It’s a great way to get exposure when used as a part of a larger digital marketing campaign. But in the long term, focusing solely on ads will suck your business dry.
In Zip’s case, they found themselves spending $5,000 per month on ads. The company was on the edge and was coming close to losing the war for online supremacy.
The Big Challenge
There’s a ton of money in the locksmith industry…
And Zip’s competition knew it.
The company’s biggest challenge was to get past Google’s stringent filtering.
For years, spammers and lead generation companies had ruled the roost in this niche. These guys dominated Google Maps and organic search just through sheer volume.
This resulted in searchers not getting what they expected when they looked for Zip’s keywords. Instead of seeing websites for locksmiths, they saw a bunch of spam that had no relevance to them
Finally, Google upped its game and created some strong filters to make sure only the best of the best got through.
Zip’s goal was to make sure their website offered everything these filters checked for. This would allow them to rank organically, which in turn would mean they wouldn’t have to spend so much on ads.
Achieving Organic Results
After consulting with the client, we found that they offered their services in many cities throughout Washington.
We set our sights on the state’s ten major cities. With each of these cities, we targeted a simple keyword — “Locksmith <City>”.
So, if somebody typed in “Locksmith Seattle”, they’d see Zip in organic search and at the top of Google Maps. The same for Vancouver, Spokane, and seven other major cities.
With that goal set, we focused on the SEO services that the client would need to achieve those results. In this case, our local pack optimization service was the best choice. We’ll explain what that is in a moment.
Using this SEO service, it took Zip less than one year to get to where they needed to be. And within two years, they’d generated $2.2 million thanks to their SEO campaign.
But the work didn’t end there…
The End Result
Today, Zip Locksmith has generated over $15 million in revenue thanks to the SEO services that OTT provided to them.
In the time we’ve worked with Zip, their average ranking for their targeted keywords has risen from #48 to #1.2.
That means they’re number one for the majority of the keywords they’re targeting.
They’re also in the top 3 search results in 86 different locations and they’re getting 2800 branded searches monthly.
People know who they are now, which means they’re coming directly to Zip when they need a locksmith.
The company has also enjoyed tremendous growth since it created a strong SEO campaign. They’ve gone from having a few locations to operating 100 throughout the state of Washington.
Now, they have a goal of getting to the top of the rankings for all of those locations.
The SEO Services You Need
Zip Locksmith discovered that the right SEO services can have a tremendous impact on a company’s fortunes.
Here’s how you need to think about the SEO services that you can make use of.
They’re weapons that you can use to take down the competition on the battlefield of Google. However, you need to make sure that you choose the right weapons for the job. In Zip’s case, dominating local search results allowed them to get the results they wanted. There are other SEO services that they could have used that would just cost them more money.
Of course, you need to know more about those services before you can make the right choice for your business.
I’m going to explain five of the services that OTT offers and how they can help your business.
Service #1 — On-Page SEO
This is all about the experience that you’re offering the user when they come to your website. Search engines want to see that the people who arrive on your website actually get what they expect.
And that’s something you need to recognize — you are not the search engine’s customer.
The searcher is.
Your website is one of the millions upon millions of “products” a search engine can serve to their customers.
And as we all know, only the best products stand the test of time.
So, in that sense, on-page SEO is about creating a product that search engines want to serve up to their customers.
15 key factors influence the success of on-page SEO. We’re not going to go into detail about each of them here. However, here are three that are extremely important:
- Having the most up-to-date security protocols to ensure malicious web users aren’t able to get at a visitor’s data.
- The site’s speed. The simple fact is that fast-loading websites always outperform slow sites. People don’t have the patience to wait for more than ten seconds for your website to load up. We’re not in the dial-up era!
- Quality navigation protocols. If your site serves up too many redirects or has a ton of duplicate content, search engines will hate it. You’ve got to think about how a visitor’s going to interact with your site and make sure it does what they expect.
These and the other 12 factors are what many SEO agencies call technical SEO. This is the hard work that you need to do to make sure your website appears attractive to both users and search engines.
When Might You Need This Service?
There are many reasons why you may need this service. But it usually comes down to not having updated your website for a while.
Web technology moves fast and search engine algorithms are never far behind. If you haven’t updated your site in a few years, there are likely issues that need remedying.
Service #2 — Content Marketing
Bad content gets awful results.
It’s that simple…and yet we still see so many businesses creating any old garbage, loading it with keywords, and trying to get results.
That’s not how content marketing works.
If people see garbage content on your website, they’re going to assume that you sell garbage products or services. That means they’re going to bounce away from your site, which search engines take notice of.
When enough people show search engines that they don’t like your content, your sites going to drop down the rankings.
The good news is that the opposite happens when you have quality content. Search engines love to see that visitors spend a lot of time reading what you’re putting out. As a result, content marketing is one of the most reliable ways to get long term results.
What does that mean for you as a website owner?
You’ve got to focus on serving up content that offers something of value to your visitors. Plus, you’ve got to update the site regularly and consistently with fresh content that keeps people coming back.
If the site goes stale, search engines notice and the visitor numbers drop.
There’s also a bunch of technical stuff that goes into creating content that’s search engine-friendly.
You’ve got to use keywords appropriately. That means no 200-word pieces with 30 keywords stuffed into them.
It’s also important that you format your content so it looks attractive. And you’ve got to use headers throughout, both because they break up the content and because search engines look at them.
You’ve also got to optimize image alt tags, page titles, and your metadata.
The priority is to create something people actually want to look at. The technical stuff gives it enough of a boost to get in front of those people.
When Might You Need This Service?
The best advice here is to just take a look at the content that’s on your website right now.
Does it inspire you to keep reading? Does it make you think that you’re an expert in your niche?
If you were a customer, would you buy from your company based on the content that you see on your website?
If the answer’s “no” to any of those questions, you likely need a content marketing service.
Service #3 — Social Media Marketing
Every single day, 1.7 billion people log onto some social media platform or another.
Just think about how many potential customers are in that group. If you’re not talking to those people on social media, you’re missing an opportunity.
Now, social media marketing veers a little bit away from what you might call “pure” SEO. It’s something you’re going to incorporate as part of a digital marketing campaign.
But the fact is, the people who see you on social media will eventually check out your website. That makes social media a key battleground in the fight for industry dominance.
You’re going to use it to build trust with customers, pull traffic to your website, and generate leads.
I’m not going to dig into social media campaigns here. That’s an article for another day. But I am going to show you just how important social media is, using an OTT SEO client as an example.
Our client operates a chain of 36 health spas in different locations. They have a great website and they’re dominating in organic search.
With our help, they turned their focus to social media.
Using free postings on Facebook alone, we’re helping them pull in dozens of visitors every day. They’re bringing in both new and repeat business. And these customers generate a ton of profit. That’s all because our client’s company knows how to use social media without paying through the nose.
Of course, every business is different.
Yours might benefit from a Facebook ad campaign. Or, you might use Instagram if you’re appealing to a younger crowd.
The point I’m making is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for social media domination. But if you’re not using these platforms, you’re missing out.
When Might You Need This Service?
You need this service if you haven’t set up any social media profiles yet.
However, you’re not out of the woods if you have created profiles. Much like with your website, stagnation leads to less attention. If you’re not updating your profiles consistently with interesting content, followers will stop paying attention to you. That means you get fewer likes, shares, and clicks through to your website.
Simply put, you need this service if you’re not using platforms like Facebook and Twitter as part of your campaign.
Service #4 — Local Pack Optimization
This is what moved the needle for Zip Locksmith. Once they dominated the local pack, they started seeing huge revenue increases.
So, what is the local pack?
Head into Google right now and type in a keyword, followed by a location.
Just below the ads, you’re going to see a picture of a map and three business listings.
That’s the local pack. And what a lot of business owners don’t know is that this pack of three results is completely separate from organic search.
Accounting for this may add some complexity to your SEO campaign. However, it also means that you have the opportunity to show up multiple times in search results for your location-based keywords.
That means more people see you and click on your site. More traffic means more customers, which means an even stronger return on your investment. You’re also going to give your brand a big boost because more people see you in the local pack.
Furthermore, the rise of smartphones has also made the local pack more important than ever before. 58% of local searches come from mobile devices. If you have a local business that isn’t optimizing for the local pack, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers.
So, what does optimizing for the local pack look like?
For one, that mobile stat I just shared isn’t there for fun. If you have a mobile-friendly website, you’re more likely to make it into the pack of three.
You’re also looking for citations from directories. And when I say that, I don’t mean the garbage directories used in a lot of shady link building campaigns. I’m talking about directories people use, such as:
- Yellow Pages
- Google My Business
- Manta
You also need reviews on places like Yelp and TripAdvisor. Search engines look at these reviews and use them to determine if you’re offering a good service.
When the feedback’s good, you’re more likely to get into the pack.
When Might You Need This Service?
If you operate a business that focuses on a specific location, this is the SEO service that’s most likely to benefit you. The same goes if you’re targeting multiple cities, as Zip Locksmith does.
However, this service may not work when you operate on a more general scale. For example, an eCommerce store that sells products all over the country likely won’t have much use for this service. They’re better-served targeting keywords based on their products, rather than their location.
Service #5 — Penalty Recovery
The sad fact is that there are a lot of shady companies in the SEO industry. These are the guys that will create useless content and build links from any website they can find.
They’ll tell you that they can get thousands of links to your website in a matter of weeks. They’ll also tell you that these links are the key to getting high search engine rankings.
And it might even work… for a little while.
But the techniques they’re using are “Black Hat SEO.” That means they go against Google’s guidelines.
Eventually, Google will notice. And they’re going to do much more than slap you on the wrist.
They’re going to penalize your website and take it out of the rankings altogether.
This isn’t an issue that only affects the small businesses that try to use SEO to get ahead. Google isn’t afraid if punishing larger companies, as J.C. Penney discovered:
Back in 2011, J.C. Penney was riding high in the rankings. It’s easy to assume that this was because they were already a major player in their industry…
But there was a dirty little secret behind the company’s online success.
Reporters at the New York Times thought it was a bit weird that J.C. Penney was on top for almost every term they targeted. So, they commissioned some SEO experts to look into what they did to get results.
And they found thousands of backlinks from garbage websites that exist solely for linking.
The newspaper sent the results of its investigation to Google. And just like that, J.C. Penney had a manual penalty that dropped their rankings drastically.
There are two types of penalty you need to worry about:
- Algorithmic
- Manual
An algorithmic penalty happens when the code behind Google picks up on what you’re doing. It then automatically punishes you by dropping you down the rankings. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t tell you when this happens, which means you’re only going to find out when you check your rankings.
Usually, you can escape this penalty if you work on the SEO issues that your website has. This will usually require you to carry out an audit to see what you’re doing that Google doesn’t look.
A manual penalty is even more serious. This means that Google’s algorithm has flagged your website as a major offender. Google’s people then look at the site themselves and give you a penalty that will probably take you out of the rankings.
And that penalty stays there until you fix the problem.
Our experience tells us that 95% of these manual penalties come from bad backlinks. And only 20% of website owners even try to recover after getting hit with a manual backlink penalty.
Why?
Escaping that penalty means painstakingly going through every link you’ve built so you can break it. That means you’ve got to deal with thousands upon thousands of links, which takes a ton of work.
That’s what you get with a penalty recovery service.
This is all about restoring your website’s reputation in the eyes of search engines. You’re essentially using this service to apologize to Google for breaking its terms and conditions.
But the work doesn’t end after you’ve resolved the issue. If you’ve experienced a penalty, you’re under a more watchful eye. That means you’ve got to re-establish trust and use good practices going forward if you hope to move back up the search engine results.
When Might You Need This Service?
Have you seen your website’s rankings dropping and you can’t figure out why?
If you have, you likely need a penalty recovery service. You may have an algorithmic penalty that needs resolving.
Those with manual penalties have a little more information available to them.
Head into your Google Search Console. If you have a manual penalty, you’ll have a message from Google telling you what it is and why you have it.
If you see something like that, you need this service.
It’s Time to Target the Top Three
I’ve covered a few of the services we offer at OTT SEO. We have more, which we’re more than happy to talk to you about.
Anyone of the services that I’ve talked about here may be your key to cracking the top three in organic search. The important thing is to identify which service, or services, your website requires. From there, you can leverage our knowledge to get the results that you need.
Now, perhaps you’re wondering why you should work with us.
The stats tell you everything that you need to know:
- 16,351,788 leads generated
- 17,330,054 ecommerce transactions created
- 5,282 069 phone calls created
And more importantly…
$970,802,171 of revenue generated for our clients through our SEO services.
When you work with OTT SEO, we’re going to be tough and we’re going to be honest. We expect nothing less than full transparency from you because we’re going to commit ourselves to your business.
We’re more than an SEO services provider.
We want to become a partner in your business.
That’s the only way to achieve success with an SEO campaign.
Now, I just have one question:
Do you have what it takes to work with us?
I’ll be honest… most business owners don’t. They think they know it all, which makes it impossible to work with them.
We want you to be different because if you are, you’ll smash the competition with our help.
Are you ready to become a world-beater?
Find out if your business qualifies to become OTT SEO’s newest partner.
