Alex Becker is Chicago's SEO Expert

What my Blackberry has taught me about Mobile

For the last 6 years I have been relying solely on the internet to earn an income. With that said, I recently got a Smartphone; a Blackberry Curve to be exact. Since that time I have learned a lot about the importance of Mobile media devices and the internet. Here are some small, but excellent examples I thought I would share with you.

Make sure your site works on Mobile Devices

I have been working with a client who spends about $30,000 / month in Google AdWords. I noticed that about $3,000 of his monthly spend was being spent on Mobile clicks, which I wasn’t concerned about… until I realized the lead form on their website didn’t work. In essence, they were wasting about 10% of their advertising budget on traffic that could not convert into results.

Add phone numbers to your Meta Descriptions

My Blackberry makes phone numbers on websites “dial-able”, which means that if you hover over the number and click, it gives you the option to call the number easily. I always call numbers directly if they appear in the Meta Descriptions of search engine results. Now that I see how this works with my Smartphone, including this little point in all of our clients’ Meta Descriptions is a must.

Optimize your site to load quickly

You need to have an awesome host; however, you can push your current hosting setup even further by optimizing your site to load quickly. If your site takes a little bit to load on your computer with high-speed internet, Mobile users are probably struggling with website load times. Make sure your images are optimized for the web and that your site isn’t too design heavy.

Clear & quick calls to action are a must

If you are on the move and are quickly searching for a website or location, you don’t want to have to click around to find exactly what you are looking for. Like any high-converting website, you need a clear call-to-action, especially for people who are on the move and need pertinent information quickly such as an address, phone number or hours of operation.

What else have you learned about optimizing your website for Mobile devices? Thanks for sharing!

Why Highly Relevant is Perfect for VCs

I write candidly about why Highly Relevant would be a dream investment for Angel Investors and why Venture Capital and Private Equity firms could benefit significantly from us servicing their portfolios. Here are the 3 main reasons:

Existing Client Base, Industry Know How, Brand Identity

• Most of our business has come in the form of up-sells & referrals because we deliver an ROI to our clients.
• Highly Relevant is a sick name, in fact, Google uses the exact term inside of Google Analytics

Ability to Service VC, PE or Angel Portfolio

• You help support us and we can allocate some of the additional resources on the clients in your investment portfolio.
• Since we specialize in conversion marketing, it’s our job to make our clients more money from the internet. If we can increase internet revenues by 25% and internet revenues account for 50% of total revenues that would be a total revenue increase of 12.5% which allows you to see a higher return and faster.

Intellectual Property, Proprietary Processes & Methodologies

• We have ideas in the works that are moving slowly because we cannot allocate all of the resources necessary to create these products.
• With additional support & resources we could easily streamline some of our internal processes with new IP.
• Our online marketing methodologies work; we up-sell clients and get referrals regularly because of this.
• We have all of our processes documented and video recorded in a Wiki.

Bradley Spencer Interview Pt. 1

I’m doing a two-part interview series with Columbus, Ohio based WordPress SEO & Affiliate Marketing buff Bradley Spencer. I have “known” Bradley approaching two years now. I reached out to him as part of my personal branding social and SEO marketing strategy and we have been exchanging content and sharing trade secrets since then.

Here is part one of the two part series, I hope you find this Q & A informative!

Alex: What are the most common mistakes people make with their WP blog?

Brad: I think you can break this up into 2 parts, the Technical side and the Content side.

From a content perspective, I think Bloggers should focus on having at least one call-to-action that is really prominent on their site. If you are blogging for a cause then make sure that it’s easy for your readers to get involved. If you are selling something, make sure it’s easy to buy that thing. Basically, if someone likes your blog, make it easy for them to take the next step… whatever that is.

From a technical perspective, I think it’s important to have a fast-loading and clean site. The devil is in the details and the almost subconscious smoothness and planned out user experience in a good site is what keeps people coming back (in my humble opinion). So I suggest taking a look over your site and making sure that it’s very user friendly. Have some friends use it and give you feedback. It’s tough to hear but very helpful.

Alex: What has been the best lead source for you for WordPress & SEO clients — SEO? SMM? PPC? Email Marketing?

Brad: I’ve only done SEO, so that has been the best for me.

I have a growing email list, but I can never think of anything to write to the email subscribers so it’s just a stagnant list. Because of the extra step required in email marketing, I think it’s a burden for a lot of people. I can personally empathize with that.

PPC always struck me as something that needed more babysitting than I wanted to do. When I started working in this field I wanted to live on a Sailboat and work remotely, so anything that required daily check-ins wasn’t an option. Although I still am no where near living the sailboat life, I still try to avoid business models that require that much intervention.

I’ve never done much Social Media Marketing. Because in my company I am the brand, it might be hard to say whether SMM is a good investment. By that I mean it would be tough for me to measure what effect my social media presence has on my business. Currently another project I’m working on has started a Facebook and twitter which will be less personal and easier to track its effects. I’m interested to see how they come back.

Alex: What do you think about Google Instant?

Brad: As a user, I don’t like it much. It feels jumpy and like someone trying to finish my thought.

However, the Google I know has tested it and likely has a good reason (or long term plan) for implementing it.

For webmasters who want to rank better, I think the rules are still the same. I wrote about the Effects of CTR on your site’s rankings in 2008 and I still think it’s very important… maybe even more so now with Instant Search.

Check back in the next couple weeks for part 2. Special thanks to @thatbradleyguy