Tag Archives: seo
SEO Success Story: From a local factory to a regional distributor
In June 2013, we added a new project to our portfolio: Crystal Chocolatier. The task assigned to our web agency and SEO company was to build a website that will make it to the first results on Google and generate business leads to the chocolate factory. It was a challenge as Crystal Chocolatier was, back then, a small chocolate factory located in a Lebanese mountain serving mostly individuals in the neighborhood. Wanting to expand their reach to the region, they decided to have an online presence that targets retailers. So our job was to create and optimize a website that targets chocolate shops in the MENA region searching on Google for a chocolate provider. Challenge accepted!
A year after developing the website and setting up the SEO strategy for specific countries, we witnessed an increase in traffic of around 350%. About 88% of these visits were generated by Google and other referring sites. For those that are not familiar with the term, referrals are a source of traffic coming from manually placed links on other websites. Furthermore, less than a year later, the websites visits witnessed a growth of 65%.
The challenge wasnt simply to generate traffic, but to attract quality visits of potential business leads. Therefore, the keywords our SEO experts carefully chose corresponded to the mostly searched expressions on Google by chocolate shops. Today, the new factory is competing with established brands, like Patchi and Souchet, by appearing on Googles first page of search results. Terms like “chocolate factory Middle East” and “chocolate Lebanon” became the main source of visits to the website in several targeted countries. Consequently, traffic from the entire region increased, for example, visits from UAE grew by 200%.
As a result of this positioning on Google and the increase of relevant traffic, more businesses started contacting the chocolate factory to request their products. Crystal Chocolatier experienced a growth of more than 100% in leads directly from the website. The number of phone calls and emails from prospective clients also increased since the SEO strategys implementation.
Google recently updated their search algorithm to make mobile-friendliness a ranking signal. So, to maintain their ranking, the factorys website was amended to adapt to mobile screen sizes. Today, Crystal Chocolatier reached their goals by competing with well-known brands. So, when done properly, SEO helps businesses achieve their business objectives.
Heres the power of SEO! Contact us now to create your own success story.
SEO Success Story: From a local factory to a regional distributor
In June 2013, we added a new project to our portfolio: Crystal Chocolatier. The task assigned to our web agency and SEO company was to build a website that will make it to the first results on Google and generate business leads to the chocolate factory. It was a challenge as Crystal Chocolatier was, back then, a small chocolate factory located in a Lebanese mountain serving mostly individuals in the neighborhood. Wanting to expand their reach to the region, they decided to have an online presence that targets retailers. So our job was to create and optimize a website that targets chocolate shops in the MENA region searching on Google for a chocolate provider. Challenge accepted!
A year after developing the website and setting up the SEO strategy for specific countries, we witnessed an increase in traffic of around 350%. About 88% of these visits were generated by Google and other referring sites. For those that are not familiar with the term, referrals are a source of traffic coming from manually placed links on other websites. Furthermore, less than a year later, the websites visits witnessed a growth of 65%.
The challenge wasnt simply to generate traffic, but to attract quality visits of potential business leads. Therefore, the keywords our SEO experts carefully chose corresponded to the mostly searched expressions on Google by chocolate shops. Today, the new factory is competing with established brands, like Patchi and Souchet, by appearing on Googles first page of search results. Terms like “chocolate factory Middle East” and “chocolate Lebanon” became the main source of visits to the website in several targeted countries. Consequently, traffic from the entire region increased, for example, visits from UAE grew by 200%.
As a result of this positioning on Google and the increase of relevant traffic, more businesses started contacting the chocolate factory to request their products. Crystal Chocolatier experienced a growth of more than 100% in leads directly from the website. The number of phone calls and emails from prospective clients also increased since the SEO strategys implementation.
Google recently updated their search algorithm to make mobile-friendliness a ranking signal. So, to maintain their ranking, the factorys website was amended to adapt to mobile screen sizes. Today, Crystal Chocolatier reached their goals by competing with well-known brands. So, when done properly, SEO helps businesses achieve their business objectives.
Heres the power of SEO! Contact us now to create your own success story.
Negative SEO and How You Can Prevent It
Negative Search Engine Optimization On The Rise
When you look at the trends for search engine optimization, especially when searching for the keywords “SEO 2015” in one of the major search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo, you will see more and more articles related to negative SEO. What exactly is negative in terms of search engine optimization? Thats a good question, and the answer may shock you. The weird thing about this is that many organizations are starting to jump into this, because its effective, at least for a short time. The secret nature of search engines and their algorithms has led many people to start trying to “game” the system, and this latest form is proving to be not only controversial, but also effective. Here are a few things that you should know about this issue.
Flat Out Lies
First and foremost, the majority of the negative SEO options are usually lies, these are the easy ones to spot. Company A will use marketing collateral that call out their competition in a negative light. Or they may use disinformation to confuse customers and clients. For instance, lets say a skate shop wants to rank number one in their niche. They cant because another company has good marketing and has been around for some time. Instead of competing with them straight on, theyll go on a campaign of putting up negative keywords, anti-competition articles, reviews and more. By diminishing the credibility of the competitor, skate shop “A” will get to a higher authority module of search engine. These are usually lies. Its an attack on reputation, but it seems effective in many niches. These are just a few of the many examples of negative SEO that can harm or damage a company. Some are pretty blatant and some can be very difficult to find. That’s when you would need to seek the help of a professional, someone who is well-versed in google analytics.
The Long Term Failure
Even though negativity can get short term success, search engines are catching on. That means that if youre caught posting negative SEO elements, or if your company is tied to campaigns that are based on lies, SERP (search engine rankings page) listings will get dumped out. That means that if youre company “A” as mentioned above, youll be dead last in the rankings if listed at all. There have been some companies that went on negative reputation campaigns, only to get completely thrown out of search engine listings. That’s known as “banned for life” and it does happen.
A Better Option
Not every business today is meant to compete with the largest companies in the world. If youre starting a book store, for instance, youre not competing against Amazon.com straight up. You cant. To offset that, youll need to look into what is known as “White Hat” SEO. Focus on local community, and niche competitive phrases so that when people in your area look for “books”, they find you and patronize your business. Simply put, you dont want to go with any of the negative SEO options. Stick with what works, and dont try to “game” the system right now. The long term optimization cycle will give you a leg up in nearly any niche. Also, if you find there is a negative search engine optimization campaign being run against your company and you can definitively identify the culprit, report that company to Google or the other big name search engines. And just remember, the best defense is a good offense, so make sure to keep your positive search engine optimization campaigns strong.