Marketing a small business is a matter of common sense, it really is. But to paraphrase that famous Voltaire quote, ‘The trouble with common sense is that not many people have it’. This is perhaps never better demonstrated than when applied to how small business owners approach the Herculean task of promoting their business.

There are lots of ways to spend your hard earned money when it comes to marketing and advertising.  And the traditional ones are discussed here in this article on Print Advertising versus Online Advertising. But ultimately the best place to spend your money, is wherever you can get the maximum return for the minimum spend. And in 2016, the vast majority of people search online via the Google search engine.

I mentioned at the start of this article that marketing a small business is a matter of common sense. Because if 99% of all people looking for what you do and where you do it, search on the internet (and they do). And the vast majority of those search using Google. Then it isn’t rocket science to work out where the bulk of your marketing dollars should go. Or why. But just having a website and being online doesn’t cut it. You can spend a fortune getting your small business website design up and running. But that doesn’t mean you’ll be found in Google search. Far from it in fact. The competition in every industry vertical (that’s worth being in), is fierce. And given that 92% of people don’t go past the first page of their Google search, how to get your small business website on page one of Google becomes the single most important marketing question you’ll ever have to answer.

Of course even if you are fortunate enough to be trained in marketing (and thus understand the fundamentals of how marketing works across multiple channels), that doesn’t mean you are equipped to run your own SEO campaign. With over 200 ranking signals and over 10,000 sub-ranking signals powering Google search, and 500-600 algorithmic updates every year; understanding how Google search functions is a full time job (and then some!).

Having a marketing background is a real leg-up when it comes to growing a successful small business because you’ll innately ‘get’ what needs doing and why. But having a working knowledge of how (for an analogy) your BMW’s engine works is one thing. But would you really expect to be the one to service the engine before you drive you family across the Nullarbor in the dead of winter? Or do you think you’d be better served leaving your car in the hands of a trained mechanic?

Hiring a trained SEO professional is much the same thing. 

If getting on the first page of Google is a necessity for growing your small business in 2016 (and it is), then the only question small business owners need to ask themselves is: ‘Who can I trust to get my website on the first page?’.
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And that’s where a company like SEO North Sydney comes in. With a SEO Consultant with 16 years’ experience at it's helm, SEO North Sydney have an unparalleled understanding of the constantly evolving search landscape, we are the perfect online partner to grow your small business or SME. At SEO North Sydney we don’t sweat the small stuff. We sweat the outcomes. And given we guarantee those outcomes in the contract, you can rest assured that your business growth is in good hands.

Hi Brian

SEO results have been fantastic over the past few months. First page rankings have also been kick ass. You have done a fabulous job getting the traffic numbers up and I certainly appreciate the effort and service.

Kind regards

Kai
cushycushions.com.au

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Looking for SEO Sydney for your website? Then you've come to right place. Simply call 0425 204 887, today. The first page of Google is only one click away!

The underlying framework and methodology driving social media development in 2010 was visual. In a social media landscape lorded over by words (think the original incarnations of Facebook and Twitter) 2010 saw both Pinterest (March 2010) and Instagram (October 2010) burst onto the scene with a focus on the insatiable human appetite for visual stimulation, via pictures and videos.

Instagram was founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and is an online social networking service that focuses on mobile photo-sharing and video-sharing. It allows users to take pictures and videos and then easily and conveniently share them via a number of other popular social networking platforms such as Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Tumblr etc. Users are also able to apply a variety of digital filters to the pictures and videos they post.

Like many internet trail-blazers, Kevin Systrom went to Stanford University, graduating in 2006 with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Management Science & Engineering. His initial foray into internet start-ups was as an intern at a company called ‘Odeo’, a search and directory website for RSS-syndicated audio and video that allowed users to record, create and share podcasts with a Flash-based interface. You’ll be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Odeo. But you probably will have heard of what Odeo would eventually morph into. A little known company called, ‘Twitter’. 

After graduation, Kevin cut his teeth with a couple of very productive years working at Google, where he was tasked with developing Google Reader, Gmail and associated products as part of the Corporate Development team. 

Kevin has a longstanding love for photography, which he and co-founder Mike Krieger combined brilliantly with the launch of Instagram.

Mike Krieger, like his long-time friend, Kevin Systrom, also graduated from Stanford University, where he studied Symbolic Systems, specialising in Human-Computer Interaction. 

While doing his undergrad, Mike interned with Foxmarks (now Xmarks) as a software developer, and at Microsoft's PowerPoint team as a Product Manager. 

His Master's thesis was a brilliant discourse on how user interfaces can be utilised to support large scale collaborations.

After graduating from Stanford, Mike worked for a year and a half at Meebo as a front-end engineer and user experience designer, before eventually joining the Instagram team doing design & development.

In March 2010, Burbn Inc. (the parent company of Instagram) received seed funding of $500,000. This was seven months before the actual photo-sharing social networking service was made available to the public. 

In February 2011, a few months after the public launch, Instagram raised their series A funding round of $7 million from a consortium of venture capital funds. The company was valued at $25 million during this funding round.

Some 14 months later, in April 2012, Instagram raised another funding round of $50 million from venture capitalists, with a valuation of $500 million.

Immediately after launch, Instagram started gaining huge popularity and reached a registered user base of a 100 million people in April 2012. This was technically only one and a half years after the official launch. At which time the company was acquired by Facebook for a mouth watering $1 billion (paid via a mix of cash and stock).

This purchase was by far Facebook’s most significant acquisition and was a definite indicator of how important mobile and photo sharing were becoming to Facebook. An interesting parallel for this purchase can perhaps be drawn with Google’s $1.65 billion acquisition of YouTube in 2006. In as much as it demonstrated an internet behemoth with expertise in a particular area (search, in the case of Google, social media in the case of Facebook) acquiring expertise in an adjacent (but different) area, via purchasing a fast-growing start-up.

This purchase was unusual for Facebook, as its previous purchases of other start-ups were modest by comparison.  

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired 
a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all. 
But providing the best photo sharing experience is one reason why so many people love Facebook 
and we knew it would be worth bringing these two companies together.”

Facebook CEO and Founder, Mark Zuckerberg 

Instagram allows users to upload photos and short 15-second videos, apply digital filters to create colour and contrast effects, and then enables them to share this content through social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Instagram deliberately restricts images to a square shape, in a nod and a wink to those wonderful instant Polaroid photos many of us grew up with. Instagram users can interact with content posted by other members by ‘liking’ it, or by following the user that posted it. They can also search for content using hashtags.

The Instagram mobile app is distributed primarily through Apple’s App Store, Google Play and Windows Phone Store. The app is supported on iPhone, iPad, iPad Touch, Android and Windows handsets, while third-party Instagram apps are available for BlackBerry 10 and Nokia-Symbian handsets and devices.

Boasting 200 million active users in 2014, Instagram’s user-base growth over the years has been nothing short of phenomenal:

Other important milestones and achievements for Instagram over the years include:

• Instagram was declared the ‘iPhone App of the Year’ in December 2011.
• Instagram app for Android Froyo version 2.2 launched in April 2012 got downloaded more than a million times in less than a day.
  
• By July 2012, Instagram was rated more than a million times on Google Play, to become the 5th app ever to reach a million ratings. 
  
• As of April 2013, Instagram was rated more than four million times on Google Play.
  

A look at statistics from September 2013 reveals that a total of 16 billion photos and videos were shared via Instagram, with an average of 55 million new shares being made per day. At time of writing (August 2014) Instagram users are making an average of 1.2 billion new Likes per day.

According to another 2013 study, some 13% of all Internet users worldwide were found to be using Instagram. And some 70% of Instagram users were found to be logging on to the site daily, with 35% logging in more than once a day. 

A 2014 study revealed that the Instagram mobile app user base registered a 25% growth between December 2013 and May 2014. And as of March 2014, a total of some 20 billion photos had been shared via Instagram. It has also been reported that in 2014, an average of one thousand new comments get posted on Instagram every second.

Unlike something like Google + (where people sign up, but hardly ever use it), Instagram demonstrably shows us that people come back again and again to the platform to both post and interact with other users.  And it’s this interaction (much like Facebook itself) that allows us to see why Facebook valued the company at $1 billion in 2012.

As the following Statista chart demonstrates, Instagram has been found to be the 2nd most popular social media app among American smartphone users aged between 18 and 34:

According to a 2013 study, some 25% of the Fortune 500 companies were using Instagram as a social media networking platform. A 2014 study indicates that some 43% of the top 100 brands post daily on Instagram, with the average number of posts made by these (top 100) brands on Instagram per week standing at 5.5. Some 65% of the world’s top 100 brands had Instagram accounts (as at 2013).

In 2014, the average value of sales orders generated via Instagram referrals has been found to be a very respectable $66.75. In a late 2013 study, Instagram was also found to deliver the 4th highest (1.08%) conversion rate among all social media platforms and services, trailing only Facebook (1.85%), Vimeo and YouTube (1.16% each).

A 2014 survey conducted by Social Media Examiner reveals that Instagram is among the top 10 social media platforms used by online marketers.

According to the SocialMediaMarketingReport of 2014, some 28% of online and social media marketers use Instagram as one of their marketing channels. This report also indicates that some 42% of the marketers (that were polled during the survey on which this report is based) were planning to increase their use of Instagram as a social media marketing platform. As this report further indicates, a significantly higher number (49%) of B2C marketers are likely to increase marketing activity via Instagram than their B2B counterparts (32% of which said they will increase Instagram activity).

Interestingly, the same percentage of marketers (i.e. 42%) also expressed their willingness to learn more about Instagram as a social media marketing and optimisation platform.

To paraphrase the old adage from the W. P. Kinsella novel, ‘Shoeless Joe’ (popularised in the classic 1989 movie, ‘Field of Dreams’): ‘

And with more and more people flocking to this photo-sharing social network every day, it is not surprising that Instagram has emerged as one of the world's 'must use' platforms for businesses, online marketers and social media optimisers.

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Looking for SEO Sydney for your website? Then you've come to right place. Simply call 0425 204 887, today. The first page of Google is only one click away!

Tired of feeling invisible on the internet? Of all your competitors ranking on the first page of Google while you languish somewhere around page 100? Then maybe it's time to change how you approach your online marketing strategy. As that wise old saying goes, "How can you expect tomorrow to be any different, if you don't change what you do today?".

Call 0425 204 887 today, and as sure as the sun coming up in the east, your business will rank. With first page rankings guaranteed in the contract and thousands of first page rankings already obtained throughout Australia for businesses just like yours, it's the easiest phone call you'll ever have to make.

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Looking for SEO Sydney for your website? Then you've come to right place. Simply call 0425 204 887, today. The first page of Google is only one click away!

There are five types of consumers when it comes to technology. 

1. Innovators.
2. Early Adopters.
3. Early Majority.
4. Late Majority.
5. Laggards.

This is classified as 'The Law of Diffusion of Innovation'. And if you don't know the term, that's okay. Because you'll certainly understand the concept.

Think about when Apple released the first iphone for example. There were those who queued up for 12 hours outside a store to buy the product, because they wanted to be the first people to have it. There were those who bought the product when it had been out a little while (but was still considered 'the hot new product to own'). Then there were the majority of people who bought iphones only when smartphones as a whole had gained a significant amount of market share, so they felt safe in the knowledge that the product worked as advertised. And finally there were those people who only ended up buying an iphone when their favourite mobile finally gave up the ghost and was no longer available.

But there comes a point, when the technology has been around long enough that someone not having it makes more of a statement about them than having it does.

Back in the 60s / 70s and 80s, newspaper advertising and DM (Direct Marketing) and DR (Direct Response) was the best way reach the most clients for the least amount of money. Then in the late 80s and early 90s, call centres came into their own. (Why have hundreds of salesmen on the road, when you could just have a team of people selling over the phone from one central office?) Then in the mid to late 90s, the internet started to become ubiquitous, and online search (through Yahoo, Alta Vista, Excite, Web Crawler and later Google) became de rigueur.

And as with all innovations, it took a long time to not only perfect the technology, but also to get people to trust it. I'm sure you remember a time when you'd happily search online, but God forbid you typed in your credit card into a website form for fear of someone making off with all your money! During these times there were the people who were all over the web and happily used search to find products or services (the Innovators and the Early Adopters). Then there were the (Early and Late) Majority who started trusting it, only because other people were trusting and using it. And lastly there were the Laggards. Those raised in an earlier era where going to the Yellow Pages or opening a newspaper was how you found a local product or service.

Fast forward to 2014 and we find ourselves living in a world where practically EVERYONE is searching for the products and services they want, online (via Google). And as 92% of all the people searching do not go past the first page of their Google search, it is now more important than at any time in history, to ensure your website appears on the first page of your relevant Google search. Because, as I always say, 'It is easier to take the boat to where the fish are, and drop a big, big net over the side. Than to try to get the fish to come to you'.

Where once the web and internet search was only used by those hip-cats who were ahead of the bell-curve. Now it is used by everyone. Young, middle aged and old alike. You, your children, your parents and your grandparents, all find what they want, online, via Google. It's just the way of the world now. And if everyone is searching for what you do and where you do it online, but can't find you on the first page. Then you might as well shut up shop and close the business. Because if you're not using the world's largest ever free lead funnel for your benefit, then you are officially a 'Laggard' in the technology stakes. And in an evolving business landscape, it is the Laggards who are the first to become extinct.

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Want to master SEO? Then book in yourself or your staff for some SEO Training Sydney today! Sydney's #1 SEO Trainer Brian M Logan shows you everything you need to get your company website on the first page of Google. SEO Training can be in-house (we come to you) or classroom based (you come to us).

Or you can always call us on 0425 204 887 if you want to leave your SEO Sydney requirements to the experts. Your website's 1st Page of Google results are guaranteed in writing in the contract.

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If you were running a business in the 1980s and wanted to sell or maket a service or product, the vast majority of your (below the line) budget was spent on print. From overpriced double page spreads in your local newspaper to outragously expensive Yellow Pages ads, print was the advertising medium of choice.

I say ‘medium of choice’, when of course what I really mean is: ‘medium of NO choice’. Because back then print was the only option available for anyone looking to do a concerted below the line advertising campaign. Oh, sure, you could do letterbox drops, and send out brochures, and give away fridge magnets, and a dozen other low-key scattergun approaches to market your product or service. But they all pailed into insignificance next to the enormous reach and power of the printed word.

Fast forward thirty years and we discover that the ways a company connects with their customers (and would-be customers) has radically changed. Because, in the post internet / post Google world, print is about as relevant to a business as a woolly coat was to a mammoth after the last ice age came to an end. Sure the coats were tactile and made their eyes glaze over with memories of a simpler time. But deep down you’d have to figure that even the thickest skinned Mammuthus Primigenius knew that the world had changed forever, and that the coats were now only weighing them down and hampering their chances of survival.

That said, I am not going to tell you (as many of my SEO colleagues will) that ‘Print is Dead!’. Given I’m the Doyen of All Things Digital, you’d probably excuse me if I did jump on that particular bandwagon. But I won’t. Because - separate to my 10 years of SEO / web experience - I’ve also worked in print as a National Advertising Manager (Government News) and National Classified Manager (BT Weekly). So I know full well that if it’s done correctly (and used judiciously), print can – and should - still form a (small) part of a company’s overall marketing strategy.

However I’m also smart enough to appreciate that in an age where 98% of all people SEARCH FOR PRODUCTS OR SERVICES ONLINE (rather than in newspapers or magazines), working out where a company’s marketing budget needs to go if they’re looking to connect with the masses, isn’t rocket science. Because, unlike print, there are no tyre-kickers where a well optimised web strategy is concerned, as everybody that finds you online has searched for WHAT YOU DO and WHERE YOU DO IT…and they’ve SEARCHED NOW.

And leads / customers don’t come much hotter or more relevant than that.

Want to master SEO? Then call us on 0425 204 887 if you want to leave your SEO Sydney requirements to the experts. Your website's 1st Page of Google results are guaranteed in writing in the contract.

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SEO, as defined by the industry, refers to the search results that appear on the left of your computer screen when you perform a Google search. These searches are ‘organic’ and are separate from paid or sponsored adverts.

There are two main facets to SEO: one is known as ON PAGE SEO and the other is known as OFF PAGE SEO. Both are complicated endeavours (though for different reasons). But as you can see in the SEO ICEBERG diagram I’ve put together above, the amount of effort that goes into getting your website optimized in a way Google will value, is only 25% of the total iceberg. With the vast majority of the SEO that matters happening AFTER the site itself is optimized. And, like on-page SEO, the off-page optimization is never ending, with its matrix by necessity getting bigger and more complicated over time.

Search Engine Marketing is an umbrella term that originally encompassed SEO, but is now associated and identified exclusively with PAID SEARCH. This can take the form of Google Pay Per Click advertising, Facebook advertising, Google adwords and adsense, banner ads, button ads or any other form of paid on-line advertising used to promote a product, service or website.

It’s important to note however that PAID LINKS (as opposed to PAID SEARCH) does not fall under SEM. Paid links are classified by Google as a Black Hat SEO technique and will result in a ‘Google Slap’ that will cause the website to be de-indexed from Google’s search results altogether. So never, ever do this. And if a so called ‘SEO Expert’ tells you otherwise (and there are many that still do) - hang up on them. Because the key, as always, to getting people to link to you (especially in the post Panda and Penguin Google world) is to AUTHOR GREAT ORIGINAL CONTENT that engages with your community and prompts them to ‘Like’ and ‘Share’ the content with their friends. But great content that exists in a vacuum won't get read. Which is where SMO comes in...

Utilizing an on-going social media strategy that connects with your audience via web 2.0 platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Google + etc) helps generate traffic to your website. But it does not traditionally help with your SEO, because - post web 2.0 - links from social media sites such as those mentioned above do not carry any ‘Google Juice’, so Google largely ignores them. 

Links from web 2.0 sites (which became classified by the industry as 'rel=”nofollow' links) take the user from site A to site B, but are not followed by the Google spider (and thus are not factored into your site’s organic page rankings). However, post Panda and Penguin (Google algorithmic updates that radically altered how search works) this landscape is changing. Links from these web 2.0 sites still do not carry any Google juice, but Google have now admitted that 'Social Markers' such as the amount of likes, re-tweets, etc, are being factored into their organic search results. Google is doing this because it now believes that people don’t just search any more, they search, socialize and share. And that a 'Social Marker' is another indicator of 'Quality Content'. In other words, thinks Google, why would someone 'like' or 'share' something if the content was rubbish? They wouldn't. Ergo the content they 'liked' or shared must be of value.

This factoring in of 'Social Markers' by Google is set to radically change search as we know it. Sure, the organic search landscape hasn’t changed all that dramatically yet for the end user, but trust me when I tell you that it is changing and that if you want to future-proof your business against the winds of change, you'd better get aggressive with an SMO strategy...and fast.

Allow me explain what I mean: in years gone by, Google followed a link from point A to point B, and classified it as ‘a link from website A to website B’. In other words, from one ‘entity’ (site) to another. But now, with the launch of Google + and their Authorship algorithm, Google are looking to follow a link from one PERSON to another. This is a very important and seismic shift in the way Google are looking to handle search. Done well, it will make your search results different to my search results because we each ‘trust’ authors (of web content), differently. Which means that, even if we’re sitting next to each other and type in the exact same Google search on identical computers, we will get slightly different first page search results.

That said, Google + can hardly be viewed as a success, so far. Sure, millions of people have signed up for Google +, but – unlike Facebook – only a small percentage of people actually use the site regularly. Whereas people spend more time on Facebook than they do on search, youtube and Google + put together. But given Google has spent untold millions on R&D to make these changes work, expect them to iron out the bugs sooner rather than later.

Want to master SEO? Then book in yourself or your staff for some SEO Training Sydney today! Sydney's #1 SEO Trainer Brian M Logan shows you everything you need to get your company website on the first page of Google. SEO Training can be in-house (we come to you) or classroom based (you come to us).

Enjoy this free article? Great! Don't forget to Like it, Tweet it and LINK to it..Your sharing of the page with your friends is greatly appreciated! :)

OTHER ARTICLES YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:

• Top 20 Ways to Get Google’s Panda to Love Your Content – The Definitive Panda Proof SEO Guide
• Online Advertising v Print Advertising. 
  
• Top 10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need a Community Engagement Manager.

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Australia’s combined online advertising spend soared to $2.45 billion in the 2011 / 2012 financial year, growing by $412 million, a comprehensive March 2012 ‘Online Advertising Expenditure Report’ compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Advertising Bureau of Australia (IAB) revealed.

Online search and online directories, when combined with online classifieds, achieved a 23 per cent growth to record a total spend of $1.26 billion and $579 million respectively. Online display advertising in Australia also recorded a 12 per cent growth to reach $612 million.

"Growth in search has outstripped the growth in directories, and what I would say is that the majority of that growth comes from the migration of businesses into (online) search'', said IAB Chief Executive, Paul Fisher.

Online video advertising also posted particularly impressive growth in 2011 / 2012, with the market growing 53 per cent to reach almost $40 million a year.

In the US, video represents 14 per cent of online display advertising (remember what I said about using LOTS OF VIDEO CONTENT on your website and web 2.0 sites), but in Australia the number is considerably less. However Mr. Fisher estimates the Australian video advertising market is still on track to reach $200 million by 2014 based on “Continuing strong demand” by advertisers.

"There is real potential in video,” said Mr. Fisher. “With today's targeting capabilities such as geographic, demographic, time of day and of course online behavioural targeting, there are great opportunities for video advertising to grow exponentially'', he said.

PricewaterhouseCoopers's report projects that Australia's overall online advertising market will grow to $3 billion per annum by 2013.

Want to master SEO yourself? Then book in for some SEO Training Sydney today! Sydney's #1 SEO Trainer Brian M Logan shows you everything you need to get your company website on the first page of Google.

Enjoy this free article? Great! Don't forget to Like it, Tweet it and LINK to it..Your sharing of the page with your friends is greatly appreciated! :)

OTHER ARTICLES YOU MAY ALSO BE INTERESTED IN:

• Top 20 Ways to Get Google’s Panda to Love Your Content – The Definitive Panda Proof SEO Guide.
• SEO Explained. SEM Defined. SMO Uncovered.
• Online Advertising v Print Advertising. 
  
• Top 10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Need a Community Engagement Manager.