SEO for Whitby companies is more important now than it has ever been since the inception of digital marketing. It’s not enough to have a nice-looking, navigable website anymore. That would be like trying to work with an analog Nokia flip phone in the generation of AI. The right tools are everything, and when it comes to running a business, whether it’s online or not, SEO isn’t just another tool––it’s your entire toolkit.
We are experiencing an unprecedented time in history, right now––and we’re all in it together. COVID-19 hasn’t left anyone out of its reach. The economic impact on Durham and the Whitby Region leaves many of us feeling unstable, uncertain, and unable to plan for the future. Logical Mix has seen first hand the devastation on local businesses from attending local meetings and events.
Whether you own a small, large, or medium-sized business, Change has grabbed you by the throat, sat you down, and told you how things are going to go––nowhere within your control. Indeed, that’s the way it feels.
Foot traffic has slowed and people just aren’t shopping the way they used to. Restaurateurs are suffering from a lack of visitors, and even online businesses are getting slapped in the face by a major increase in competitors––seems everyone is scrambling to start on online business now just to make ends meet.
The word of the day (year) is adjust and adapt. That’s two words, but as 2020 continues to show us, rules are just statements of intent––the real rules aren’t up to us.
Am I painting a frightening picture? Admittedly, I am not the artist, nor can I make any promises about a renormalized future for local business in Whitby, Durham, or the world. However, I can give you my strong recommendation that comes from a place of diverse experience and 10+ years in an industry that has seen a LOT of change: SEO for Durham companies is your greatest asset right now. That goes for small, medium, and large businesses, online or offline, in any industry, with any ROI goal.
Everyone is online, which means your presence needs to be relevant, current, and interesting. You need to reach customers with the motivation of a mother wolf protecting her pups, without making rookie errors out of desperation. You also need to do a little sweep of antiquated digital marketing methods (ie. last year’s)––a classic “out with the old, in with the new.”
SEO is easy to explain, but a bit tricky to implement. Many people think SEO is just about showing up on the first page of Google SERPs. Let’s use the word “just” with care––ranking in the top results is certainly a must-reach goal of SEO, but maintaining that status is what SEO is really about. It’s like losing weight. What’s the point of kicking off 20 kg, only to gain it back the following week? It’s a lot of hard work for nothing.
SEO has a lot of moving parts––researching and analyzing the competition and strategizing how to be better. Loads of relevant, interesting content. The right keywords––not 100 of them slapped all over your page like a fiver-year-old’s sticker book, but a handful of the most effective ones, strategically placed. Backlinking done right. Meta tags. User experience. Local SEO, etc., etc.
Let’s use a few examples so you can understand where your business fits in.
Restaurants need their locations optimized. Why? People don’t have the desire to waste time looking for stuff. This is especially true of the hungry. Their searches are very specific––”best ravioli in Whitby,” “sushi restaurants in Durham that serve hamburgers”––you get the idea. This is what SEO does. It researches those frequently-searched terms and uses them to optimize your location.
Local breweries too can capitalize on their delivery programs by tailoring their SEO efforts in that direction. Brock Street Brewery has done an excellent job of not only adjusting their business strategy to include delivery services, but also optimizing their site to target the right audience.
If you’re in ecommerce, SEO is critical for creating not just good user experience, but an intuitive one. People don’t want to read sales pitches or waste time navigating a site that is designed for the business, not the customer. They want an empowering buying experience where they feel in control of all the decisions they make because––let’s face it––the ability to feel any semblance of control in these times is worth a million.
In normal times I always recommend taking a stab at SEO independently, using the 12 SEO Steps To Success. A few tools of the trade are always useful and in most cases helpful. But in these not-so-normal times, you may wish to consult an SEO expert.
SEO for Whitby companies is available locally right now with Logical Mix. We can keep your business growing and your site optimized for buying customers. Give us a call today to learn more about how we can help implement SEO for Durham companies.
Until next time. Stay safe during these uncertain times.
Logging Out,
Logical Mix
As the founder of Logical Mix, I’m proud––and humbled––to receive the Todd Skinner Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2019.
Whitby Chamber of Commerce (WCC) hosted the annual Peter Perry & Business Achievement Awards on November 21 at Deer Creek Golf and Banquet Facility in Ajax. It was an engaging and inspiring event.
Peter Perry, one of the founders of the Town of Whitby, is both an icon and an inspiration for business owners in Durham. While being massively business savvy, he was deeply dedicated to building his community. His alignment of values and work ethic resonate deeply with me.
WCC presents seven Peter Perry & Business Achievement awards every year in the following categories: Business Achievement: 1-15 Employees, Business Achievement: 16-49 Employees, Business Achievement: 50+ Employees, Todd Skinner Young Entrepreneur of the Year, New Business of the Year, Business Person of the Year, and Not-for-Profit of the Year.
I want to give a huge shout out to all the finalists and winners of these distinguished awards. Each one of you deserves recognition for your unique and valuable contributions. Thank you for all you do.
The Todd Skinner Award specifically was named to recognize young self-starters who work with ambition, leadership, and insight to reach new heights in business innovation while motivating their community. Hot damn! That makes receiving this award a double honour!
I share this achievement with the additional two nominees for the Todd Skinner Award: Andrew Neary, owner of Drinks & Dragons and Rebecca Munn of Rebecca Munn Design Studio. I’m honoured to have been considered alongside their entrepreneurial genius.
Check out Andrew and Rebecca here:
Success is not achieved in isolation. It takes a village to raise a child and a community to build a business. I am hugely fortunate to be surrounded and supported by incredible people. My wife for starters. Nothing great can happen without her rock solid belief in me. My family and friends’ ongoing encouragement.
On a business front, I owe a massive thanks to the organizations and people of the Town of Whitby and Durham Region for recognizing and rewarding my efforts.
I’m incredibly grateful to every business leader and organization in Whitby who has supported me, Logical Mix, and Render Developments throughout our journey. Specifically, Spark Centre, Trent University, 1855, Community Innovation Lab, and countless other local enterprises that have extended me the privilege of contributing to some fantastic projects.
I’m extremely grateful to be a part of the Whitby Chamber of Commerce. They truly care about businesses in our community.
Finally, thank you Todd Skinner. I will channel your spirit of entrepreneurialism into the greater good for all those around me.
Thank you Whitby!
Joel Davies,
Logical Mix
If you’re reading this, you already deserve a pat on the back because backlinking is a part of SEO that most people groan about. And because it’s the way Murphy’s Law goes, it’s also one of the most critical parts of SEO.
We tackled Link Building 101 in a previous blog by taking a look at some simple ways you can get links to your site.
For a recap, backlinking is one website linking to another website. It’s like earning a vote that positions your site as a credible and reliable source of whatever it is you’re providing.
In this blog, we want to break down why backlinks are important for SEO.
But let’s keep something in mind as we go through this: Backlinking can be done well and backlinking can be done poorly.
Like a Thai monk once told me when I asked him why there are monks who smoke, drink, and have sex while claiming to lead ascetic lives, he said, “just like people, there are good monks and there are bad monks” (I’ll stick a sic in here because monks are still people).
In SEO, there are white hats and black hats. Most of us land somewhere in the gray area, but essentially, white hat tactics are going to give you better, more sustainable, long-term results, especially when it comes to backlinking.
The moral? Don’t be a bad monk. And, take the honest route to gaining backlinks. At Logical Mix, we’re coining that route Backlinking-Done-Right.
To start (with an embedded hint), we’ll share the primary reason backlinks are so important for your business:
According to MOZ, out of 200 possible influences, backlinks are the number one factor that affects ranking.
Wondering what we meant by embedded hint? That info came from MOZ, which is an SEO authority. We’ll get into what that means for backlinking and why it’s important.
But first––
Backlinking-Done-Right has three main purposes:
That doesn’t mean that you want to get any and all backlinks to your site. Quality stands above quantity. Remember the monks? There are good backlinks and there are bad backlinks. Spammy links and irrelevant links don’t just not help you, Google can actually penalize you for it.
What influences your chances of ranking when it comes to backlinks?
According to Neil Patel (an authority):
What are the features of high-quality backlinks?
There are some general characteristics and some overlap with what influences your ranking chances. But there is a main difference, as there is in many aspects of life: the what and the how. The two can work in tandem and they can sometimes produce very different results.
For example, I can have lots of links from highly-credible sources (the What) but if I gained them all overnight (the How), it looks a bit shady and it might appear to Google that I paid for those links (black-hat tactic).
See the difference?
Here’s another example:
Perhaps I gained all my backlinks over time, naturally, by way of a link-building campaign, but it wasn’t so well thought-out so I ended up with 79 crappy, spammy, irrelevant backlinks pointing to my site. (But obviously, if you’re investing time in a campaign you’re going to be choosy about what sites you’re reaching out to).
In MOZ’s 2019 study of link-building as a ranking factor, both Domain Authority (DA) and Page Authority (PA) scores combined were a stronger indicator of ranking potential than the number of links.
DA evaluates the predictive ranking strength of an entire page.
PA evaluates the strength of individual pages on a site.
When we interpret this finding, quality stands out in a couple of different ways.
First, DA and PA combined indicate that a link’s authority depends on both factors. A site may have one page that randomly ranks really well for a specific keyword (kind of like a one-hit-wonder band) but have a low DA. It’s not bad to have that page linking to your page, it’s just that there are better links out there that beat both metrics.
While both are important when it comes to evaluating quality backlinks, Google does not use DA as a ranking metric, and it has no effect on the SERPs.
Jumping back to the authority hint I mentioned near the beginning, an authority link is super valuable because it means that a highly-credible source thinks your site or page is great. It means they voted for you.
Remember that give-a-man-a-fish, teach-a-man-to-fish adage? Link earning is a bit like that.
Whereas with link building you can acquire links easily, link earning is a bit more involved.
If an authority just gives you a link because you asked for it, that’s great and obviously you’ll use it, but they don’t all come that easily.
Link earning has greater staying power because it establishes trust in the name of fair exchange. You offer something to another site owner, not just in exchange for a link, but because you want to contribute something of value community to which you belong.
You build your reputation as a fair player with a strong work-ethic and everyone respects those guys. As a bonus, you get a high-quality backlink.
It aligns with teaching a man to fish because as he learns his power to draw on his inner resources (his fishing skill), he is able to feed himself his whole life long. You do the same with link earning.
Round-up posts are an example of a great link-earning strategy from Neil Patel:
Email every expert in your niche, asking them the same question about a hot topic. Then write a blog showcasing their responses. Email the participants and ask them to share it on their favourite social network.
BOOM.
Here’s another:
A website that links employers of schools with English teachers searching for international teaching jobs needs links to build a database of teachers.
Where is the best place to find teachers looking for a unique international experience? Fourth year university.
So the site owner contacts every university across the country offering its students the chance to win a scholarship. All they have to do to qualify is register for a free teacher profile and write a 500 word essay on why they want to teach abroad.
Two winners are chosen each semester and receive a $250 scholarship. In the meantime, the site now has dozens (or hundreds) of universities (often authority sites) pointing to it.
Another BOOM.
There’s some creativity required in link earning. The man who was taught to fish had to learn and learning can be a bit painful sometimes.
But you’ve got this. You’re going to be a master in Backlinking-Done-Right.
But if you need some help acquiring the right links, just us a shout here.
Logging out,
Logical Mix
Spam mail. How annoyed are you that a good chunk of what you receive every day is crap? Maybe you don’t have to sift through the clutter of false promos and boring marketing campaigns because you’ve got a good spam filter in place. Great––but where are all your leads? What’s happening to all your subscribers?
Well, here’s a little something you may not know:
Sometimes leads are going to your junk mail. As an SEO company, we know from experience that people often send messages with words that get flagged as spam. That’s why we recommend checking your spam box at least once a day.
Yes, this takes time you probably don’t have. But trust us, devoting just ten minutes to scanning your junk folder is time well spent because, inevitably, you will find stuff hiding in there. It’s like looking for your glasses and discovering they’ve been on your face the whole time. It’s so obvious your brain never considered that what you’ve been looking for is right in front of your face.
The Over-Efficient Machine Vs. the Human Brain
Ninety percent of emails sent to Canadian businesses make it into the inbox (see Return Path’s 2017 Deliverability Benchmark Report). Sounds pretty good, right? That means that your spam filters are doing what they’re supposed to do, right? They’re sorting out the junk and stashing it where it belongs so you don’t have to waste your time sorting the wheat from the chaff.
Well, yes and no.
As sophisticated as these algorithms are, they aren’t perfect so we can’t trust the process entirely. Spam emails may still be ending up in your inbox and viable leads getting dumped into your junk folder. Just like we suggest in Step One to SEO, your brain is your most valuable tool and an absolute necessity in a world where we’ve come to reply on machine-generated results and metrics––the dirty work is still in our hands.
Let’s take a look at what spam is and how those filters actually work.
How Do Emails End Up in the Spam Folder?
Filtering tactics are increasing in sophistication and even the most strategically worded emails may not find their way into the inbox.
Spam filters look mainly at sender reputation and email content.
Sender reputation: The sender may be using an IP address that was once used to send spam so the filter understands that any email sent via that IP is useless.
Content: This is where things get a bit tricky. Understanding the meaning inside the email body despite red flags requires a sophisticated filter (ie. your brain).
What are red flags in content?
Terms are usually flagged within a certain context, not as stand alone words. The technology is so sophisticated that spam filters can detect when a predetermined spammy word is actually used in a meaningful context and will categorize it as legit. However, it’s not 100% reliable and some of your potential customers may use red-flag words without knowing it.
These spam offenses are tallied up and when a particular email meets or exceeds the spam criteria, it’s dumped in the spam bucket.
Here’s a nice little reminder for you to check your spam folder––an ear worm: k-os’s Crabbuckit, except replace ‘crab’ with ‘spam’:
No time to get down ‘cause I’m moving up…. CHECK OUT THE SPAM IN THE BUCKET
Spam filters can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. One in ten emails will end up filed as spam, which is great––if it’s spam, that is. However, that one email might be a juicy little lead and you’ll never know unless you’re regularly checking your spam folder. As spam filtering improves we can hope that we’ll reach a day when we’ll never have to venture beyond our inbox in search of leads. Until then, we need to know how certain emails end up there because although that 10% may not seem like much, even one lost lead can cost you.
Guess what’s behind every great, RANKING web page? Besides the right meta descriptions and title tags, that is.
Awesome copywriting.
Before we get into why you need a copywriter (because you do), let’s address a seemingly simple but commonly misunderstood issue.
When I identify myself as a copywriter as I occasionally do when someone asks me what my work is, I often get a quizzical look.
“What does a copywriter do? You protect the rights of artists or something like that?”
See, that’s the problem with *homonyms in the English language. It also symbolizes a much deeper problem with the widespread lack of understanding of the difference between an adjective and a noun––a consequence of both our education system and our-self learning stimulus, but I won’t get into that––you’re welcome.
A copywriter is simply someone who writes copy. Copy is anything from blog content to product descriptions to meta tags to landing pages, resource manuals, curriculum, training guides, video scripts, or entire books. We’re a literary jack of all trades.
There are different types of copywriters too. Some specialize in a particular niche, especially if they have industry-specific training, experience, or education. Some writers, myself included, are what we call generalist writers. We write about pretty much anything. We have excellent research skills and the ability to adapt to an increasingly dynamic digital landscape (not all copywriters tread the worldwide web, but since we’re in the context of SEO, we’ll assume most do).
It depends on why you’re hiring a copywriter and what your budget is. Niche copywriters tend to cost more because they’ve honed their skills toward a particular market and are well versed in its vernacular (I love that word). However, in the land of You-Get-What-You-Pay-For, niche copywriters are usually better writers in a particular area because they have an in-depth understanding of a particular industry and market.
Let’s take pet copywriters for example. They know everything there is to know about pets, pet products, marketing in the pet industry, SEO in the pet market, etc. They may even have pets of their own. Their pets may even have pets of their own, but hey––let’s not get carried away.
Now, let’s not forget that sometimes people get too smart and are unable to express ideas at a beginner’s level. What that means is that if you’re trying to convey a tricky concept, a generalist copywriter may produce better copy because they have to learn it to explain it.
Although a niche copywriter may seem like the way to go, there are several benefits to hiring a generalist copywriter that you’ll want to consider because they might surprise you.
Generalist copywriters are adept at switching between industries, markets, and ideas. That means they can write a colloquial blog on the benefits of naked yoga with pop-culture references one day, and the next day, spin out a procedural handbook for air traffic employees.
Besides interesting and creative brains, they have well-honed research skills because they’re constantly in search of how to find the highest quality and most reliable information.
They also know that different pieces of content require a different structure, jargon, and SEO techniques.
Here’s something that many people haven’t considered when they’re looking for a copywriter:
Generalist writers have a wealth of knowledge in several areas and because knowledge is not linear. They can see clearly how different industries transect and interact. That means they can write cross-industry articles.
Let’s look at an example to better understand:
You have a natural health supplement that targets men with erectile dysfunction. Now, many people who are into alternative medicine are also concerned with the state of the global ecosystem. Health isn’t limited to our individual state of being after all, it’s integrated and holistic; the state of our planet affects our health too.
So making a peter heater that’s tested on animals, uses animal ingredients, slave labour, and manufacturing methods that harm the environment isn’t really going to fly with your target customer. It’ll definitely be more cost efficient for you, but we’re assuming you work from a place of ethics.
Writing about such a supplement requires a trifecta+ of skill: the ability to research well, knowledge of alternative medicine, sustainable health & wellness, how particular manufacturing practices harm the ecosystem and impact social justice, as well as knowledge of (and perhaps experience with) the psychology of sexual dysfunction to craft an effective emotional appeal to your target customer. That requires a MASTER jack of all trades.
Make sense? Good. So it really comes down to money and the level of sophistication you desire.
The point is, whether you choose a generalist or a niche-r, you definitely want a copywriter––full stop. Unless you enjoy writing, that is. Otherwise you’re committing yourself to days of teeth-gnashing work because writing isn’t easy, even for those who love it.
I’m not saying all copywriters love what they do, but you’ll know when you read the copy whether they do. Apathy is as noticeable as bad grammar, missed punctuation, spelling errors, or metaphors that just don’t work. You want someone who cares.
Get in the freelance marketplace. Apps like Fiverr and Upwork are packed with people chomping at the bit to write content for you. Prices range anywhere from $5 to sky’s-the-limit. Venture with caution though. Many freelancers in this arena are not native English speakers. Always look at their ratings and reviews, request samples, and chat about your project before ordering work from them.
Ask around. Recommendations are usually more reliable than cold-call fishing for a writer in the freelance marketplace.
Contact Logical Mix. I’m a generalist copywriter for Logical Mix. I write the weekly blog about SEO tactics and strategies. I also keep my own personal blog, and I write for other private clients. While my academic background is in education, I have studied, researched, and written in various niches including health, wellness & alternative medicine, sustainability, insurance, yoga, fashion, children’s literacy, etc. Aside from all that experience, the most significant part is that I LOVE WRITING, and I’m always pumped to tackle a new project, whatever it is.
So there it is––YES, you need to hire a copywriter. NO, they don’t need to cost a fortune, but remember––you get what you pay for.
If you have questions or want to chat about your project, give us a call or send an email.
*Just in case primary school English didn’t stick, homonyms are words that sound the same but are spelled differently.
Logging out,
Logical Mix
If you’re in the business of SEO (why else would you be reading this?), welcome to your life, it’s a good one.
In fact it’s so good and so important, you could say that this life is an H1 Life.
There are few things more exciting than picking up SEO tricks, implementing them, and watching them succeed.
But let’s be clear, we’re not about hacks. We know that SEO involves hard work, patience, and most importantly, specific knowledge. That’s what builds an expert.
Hacks aren’t easy, anyways. Just ask any hacker. They work hard at that stuff because breaking through firewalls isn’t a bowl of Fruit Loops. It takes some pretty astute expertise acquired through nature, luck, experimentation, but mostly through a very shrewd connecting of the dots.
So what I present here as it concerns The H1 Tag, is a hack in the traditional sense of the word, but not in the sense that it’s come to mean today, which is a shortcut to success.
Simply put, you can’t put all your SEO eggs into an H1 basket and expect all American breakfast with bacon, hash browns, and buttered toast.
Using a combination of strategies is necessary for ranking. That’s why we wrote the 12 Steps to SEO Success.
But let’s get cracking on the H1 Tag for now and worry about the other stuff next.
The H1 tag is the first header in a piece of content following the title. In technical terms, it’s the HTML code that wraps a line of text to display it as the largest and most important message in the content. In a lineup of 6 headers, it comes in first place and has the most value for SEO.
In some cases, the H1 is the title tag, but not always. The title will have its own code as the title tag, which may or may not concern SEO. Sometimes, the title is used to creatively capture a reader’s attention rather than for indexing purposes. The H1 on the other hand, should tell the reader exactly what the page is about, which makes it naturally indexable.
A classic example is the H1 here: What is An H1 Tag? There’s no room for confusion, is there? For readers or Google’s web crawling bots.
‘Cept the bots are viewing the source code, which we can do too because not every page makes the H1 so apparent.
Try this now, right here, on this page:
In Chrome, right click and select “view source code”. Up pops the HTML view of this page. Go to your search/find function and type in H1. Look for the highlighted H1 that appears at both the beginning and end of a statement within the < >.
That’s all it is, and you can notice the same for H2, H3, and so on.
Image: The HTML version of How to Write SEO Content Like a Pro.
I hinted at it earlier when I stated that it had more value for SEO than other headers. Other important tags include the title tag, previously summarized, and the meta tag, also known as the meta description. You can read about it in detail HERE, but in a nutshell, it’s a brief description about a page that appears beneath the title in the SERPs. It’s critical for indexing but also for influencing a reader to click on your page instead of a different related page.
Let’s get something straight. There are lots of trends in SEO, and they fade just as quickly as acid-washed denim jackets with pleats and leather tassels did in the 80s (and should have stayed that way).
Optimizing your H1 is not a trend. It has been a consistent ranking factor since the dawn of SEO.
That’s the technical significance of the tag. But that doesn’t mean you go around tagging every line of text an H1. Google has rules.
A second reason by the H1 tag is so important is for user experience. It’s vastly improved when a page has noticeable headers because most readers aren’t actually readers, they’re scanners. They want clear, obvious answers to their questions. And just like the words quickly, easily, and free are the most effective words in ad copy, they also apply to the user experience.
Like any SEO “hack”, there’s always going to be a bit of controversy. The following are themes that have emerged from all the work I’ve done with clients over the years. They’ve formed my general, slightly-bendy (though less bendy than this) rule kit for H1 tags.
Use one only. You want to avoid diluting the power of The Very Important H1 Tag. More than one of anything automatically decreases its value. (Imagine there was more than one Superman? Suddenly he’s no so super without an average point of reference).
Describe what the article is about.
You might have taken care of this already with the title tag, in which case, be more specific.
Keep it between 20-70 characters.
That’s roughly 4-14 words, not a lot. Too much overwhelms and remember, most readers are scanners. They’re spending less than a second glancing at your H1. Make it noticeable but know that the semantic element is most important.
Choose words that pack some punch.
Go heavy on the consonants and use alliteration when possible (alliterations are a string a words that begin with the same sound, eg. What one-word weapon wins the war? (the answer is sorry, in case you were wondering).
Use a long-tail keyword for indexing.
You may also use this keyword in your title tag. This makes it more specific, which means it’s also more relevant and will rank better than a seed keyword, which, incidentally, your long-tail keyword may contain anyway.
Satisfy the user’s intent.
Deliver what people are searching for quickly, easily, and explicitly. Think, what words are they using and in what order to research their question? For example, someone wants to find out how to better train their dog. You have a dog training website that offers free video tutorials. They may type: “how to train my dog” or “dog training guide” or “dog training help” or even “dog training videos”. Though technically not a long-tail keyword, “dog training” is relevant, satisfies their search for info on dog training, and helps Google properly index your page.
Tuck this little philosophy in the back of your brain when you’re slugging through the SEO grind of developing the real hacks that are going to put you in a position of privilege in the SERPs.
Writing a header isn’t rocket science.
(Oh, by the way, don’t use cliches like that in your H1 because, well, notice how it made you cringe a little? I only put that in there to demonstrate what not to do).
But for it to be effective, you should know why it’s important, which, as you’ll see, will help naturally guide the process of constructing it so you can make the most of it.
Like Foucault argues, it’s the order of things, both in life and in SEO (‘cept SEO was a nonexistent term back then), that require us to understand, not blindly accept, the way things are.
Logging out (and tipping my top hat),
Logical Mix
