Whether or not to pay for Yelp ads is a question we are frequently asked by clients. Truth is, deciding whether to fork over the high prices for Yelp advertising depends on a variety of factors – the main factor being: what is your ROI per customer acquisition.

Let’s take a look at the reason people use Yelp

In general, web searchers find their way to Yelp after they’ve already done a significant amount of preliminary research on the service they need.

Of course, how much a “significant amount” actually is varies based on the service they are looking for, i.e. one spends less time researching thai food before choosing a restaurant than someone does shopping around for a mortgage lender.

The bottom line is that people searching on Yelp know what they want, but are looking for more information on WHO to buy it from. They are a warm market, and are open to advertising. This is one of the reasons why, at Design SEO Hosting, we always push our clients to obtain positive Yelp reviews (but that’s a whole other post entirely).

Let’s look at how much advertising on Yelp costs

Because Yelp does not publish their ad rates or even make them known unless you contact them directly as a business interested in advertising, be forewarned that these numbers are subject to change/speculation.

Estimated Yelp Advertising Rates:

Annual Commitment (Billed Monthly)
$350 – 600 targeted ads/month & cost of the Video Production
$300 – 600 targeted ads/month & slideshow
$550 – 1500 targeted ads/month
$800 – 2575 targeted ads/month
$1050 – 3600 targeted ads/month

6 Month Commitment
$400 – 600 targeted ads/month & 2/3 of video production with 1 time fee of $299
$325 – 600 targeted ads/month & slideshow

CPC Advertising (Paid Per Click)

Click advertising = $3.50 per click

Customers can pay Yelp can have competitor ads removed – unsure of the cost for this service

Can you afford to advertise on Yelp?

For many small businesses, those advertising rates are simply out of their budget. And frankly, it doesn’t make sense to even consider it unless your ROI is above a certain threshold.

For example:

Let’s say you are a yoga studio. You pay $800 to have 2575 targeted ads shown per month through Yelp. A normal click through rate for advertising is between 1-2%, so we’ll be generous go with 2%.

For that month you will have 52 people that click through to your page. Let’s be generous again and say that of those 52 people, 2% of them convert. That means 1 person that saw your ad and clicked through actually became a paying customer. Therefore, you just paid $800 for that customer; i.e. an $800 cost per acquisition. This makes no sense for a yoga studio. Even if that student purchased a monthly unlimited membership (average price $150), and they continued that monthly membership month after month, it would not be until the 6th month that you received a return on your investment for that customer.

Who are Yelp ads good for?

Referring back to the example above, advertising on Yelp does make sense for a certain segment of businesses – those that can afford to and find value in a high cost of acquisition.

If you’re a lawyer, doctor, real estate agent, broker, lender, dentist, chiropractor or other service provider, Yelp ads may be worth your while.

Are Yelp Ads Worth It? is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

For this project we consulted with Maureen on branding, search engine optimization, content strategy and social media management.

Maureen is well-recognized and reviewed in her field, and we wanted to highlight her positive testimonials and attributes. We created a custom testimonials page to showcase her reviews, and this page (as with the rest of the site) can be easily edited and updated as needed.

The site is structured to display a variety of different media types – mainly text and video. The overall goal of the site is to be a home loan/mortgage lending resource blog through which persons interested in obtaining a loan can perform research, learn about their options and obtain information. Along with this rich content there is a strong call to action throughout the site, and site visitors are encourage to complete one of the custom contact forms.

My Life Lender is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

We’ve created this informational guide to help demystify some of the more important aspects of owning and maintaining a website.

First things first, let’s discuss the different aspects to “having a website”, using an analogy we can all understand – owning a car. Bear with me as I try not to “run” this car analogy into the ground (pun completely intended).

Your Website Includes:

1. Domain Name – License Plate
2. Hosting – You Car’s Address a.k.a. Where your car “lives”
3. Website Files – Specific Attributes of your Car Including: Make, Model, Color, Year, etc.

Domain Name

In the same way there are a lot of the same cars on the road, there are a lot of websites that look alike, and even contain the same type of content. In order to differentiate between these lookalikes we need each one to have an unique identifier.

In the case of your car, you have a license plate number that has been issued to you by the state in which your car is registered.

In the case of your website, you have a domain name purchased through a domain registrar. Instead of State by State registrations like cars, domain names are managed and regulated by ICANN. ICANN is an international body providing licenses to companies, called Registrars (GoDaddy is an example of one popular domain name registrar), giving them the rights to sell domain names. The domain registrar is really the middle man in this transaction, and they do not actually ever own the name – you do.

There are a number of different options when registering a domain name, including the length of registration, keywords to include in the domain name, public vs. private registration and which top level domain to choose (.com .net .tv etc).

Hosting

Think about the last time you obtained or updated your car insurance – what was one of the first questions they asked you? After your name, age and car information, they probably asked for the address where the car is parked.

Hosting can be thought of as the place where your website “lives” (much like the address where your car “lives”). Your website will have a specific IP address, and when that address is accessed via web, your website will be shown. Depending on the size requirements of your website (or vehicle), you may have to buy more space. You may lease, rent or own your hosting space. Whether you rent or own your hosting space will again depend on the specific requirements of your website, but in most instances a rental situation is appropriate.

Website Files

Each car has a plethora of parts which cohesively work together to allow the vehicle to function, as well as provide an unique look and appeal; a website is no different.

Your website files “live” on your hosting server, where they sit and patiently wait until called upon. Each file of your website is analogous to a part of your car. Some parts are more important than others – you’d have a difficult time driving without a steering wheel, but a missing cup holder wouldn’t hold you back from a cross country trek.

Backing up files is important. An awol cup holder isn’t too difficult to find, and either should a copy of your website files. You will want to make sure you have a backup solution in place for your website, either maintained by your web design company or yourself.

Ownership and Maintenance

Hopefully by now this car analogy isn’t driving you crazy Let’s now, for the sake of further explanation, assume you have a website running WordPress that was built by Design SEO Hosting. Your site looks awesome, has all the functionality you want and you are extremely happy with the results. Time to just sit back and watch your traffic and customer base grow, right?

You could, but just like your car, over time your site is going to show signs of age. Some the features that worked perfectly in 2007 might not work so perfectly in the newer browsers, and there may be some chips in that super-polished graphic design you once adored so much (you get the idea). Other, not so visible, issues may also start to crop up as your website ages, including an increased vulnerability to malware and website compromise due to not updating your website’s framework. Without the addition of content, your website may become stagnant and you may notice a decrease in traffic, search engine presence and user engagement.

At this juncture, as the owner of the website, you’re going to need to determine your level of comfort with website administration.

Some people choose to focus on their business and leave their website completely in control of their development/design company, ensuring their site is always up to date and secure. Others may choose to literally “master their own domain”. Being the master of your own domain means taking care of basic administration (domain name registration, hosting, backups), as well as updating plugins, theme files and WordPress core when required. At Design SEO Hosting we offer full, comprehensive coverage for those who prefer to have us handle their online presence, training for those who wish to manage their own website and support for everyone else in between.

Website administration tasks include (and are certainly not limited to):

• Hosting
• Offsite Backups (and Restoration if Necessary)
• Domain Name Registration and Renewal
• WordPress Core Updates (updates for security, enhanced functionality, usability, etc.)
• WordPress Plugin Updates
• Theme Updates and Upgrades
• Content Generation and Additions
• Website Modifications

I hope this article helped to shed some light on the mystery of owning and running a website. Remember, we’re here to help – so please do not hesitate to call us at 619-929-0443 or email info@designseohosting.com

Your Website Is Like A Car is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

In it’s most basic form, content strategy with regard to your website defines the way content is planned, created, shared, curated and archived.

Whether you are a small business writing a few blog posts a month or a large corporation making hundreds of posts per month, a solid content strategy will help to ensure your content team stays on track.

Below is an overview of the different components of content strategy. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Web Content Strategy includes:

Current Analysis

• Compare your site’s content with the competition
• Objectively identify strengths/weaknesses
• Determine present message
• Explore needs of niche
• Information architecture investigation
• Set goals based on information obtained

Planning

• Clear vision of your brand and voice
• Budgeting
• Marketing methodologies
• Identify content sources
• Content production workflow
• Staffing
• Working within WordPress as a CMS
• Metadata organization
• Categorization, tagging, heirarchical structure of content
• Design/UX

Content Creation

• How will content be obtained
• Copywriting
• Syndication
• User created
• Other
• Graphic Design
• Visual – Video, Images
• - Social – FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• Content QA
• SEO

Maintenance

• Re-Analysis as needed
• Periodic auditing of published content
• Analytics tracking and reporting

Web Content Strategy Basics is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

One thing that the guide makes it a point to highlight, and which we also emphasize, is that it is important not to get lost in the minutia of the little tweaks and changes recommended by the search engines. At the end of the day you want to build websites for PEOPLE, because ultimately they are your consumers – not search engines.

Of course, if reading 30+ page document on the intricacies of search engines isn’t how you prefer to spend your Sunday, we are more than happy to offer our help.

Google’s SEO Starter Guide is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

This change does not mean standards and best practices are out the window. It just means that simply doing “traditional SEO” is no longer enough – you have to broaden your scope. Having a website with a solid permalink structure, strong titles, the proper use of semantic markup and data organization is still very important, but isn’t enough to ensure your rankings.

The overall experience of the website, whether the site appears trustworthy, the quality of design, the ability of a visitor to navigate the site effectively, how long a visitor stays on your site – all of these metrics (and more) are now taken into account when your site is analyzed. Sites without any social media presence are more likely to appear as “spam”, and sites with unique, well-written content can be penalized if it appears to be written solely for the purposes of SEO.

Is Content Still King? is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

In this article we will do a quick overview of the top 7 factors that can help strengthen your local search ranking.

7 Tips to Help Get You To The Top of Local Search

1. Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP)

Make sure that the name, address (physical address preferably if you have one) and phone number for your listing is shown on your website in a format that search engines can read (i.e. make sure it is NOT an image)

2. Pick The Proper Categories in Google Places and Other Indicies

Your small business ranking depends on whether or not you properly categorize what your business does. For example, if you are a doctor, list yourself as a doctor, not in the hospital section.

3. List Your Business on A Number of Sites

The number of times your company’s NAP information is listed on other sites plays an important role in your local ranking. Make sure when completing these other profiles that you use your NAP in the same format, but perform slight changes to the wording related to the description of your business to avoid too much content duplication.

4. Verify Your Google Places Page

This is the easiest one on the list. Make sure that you take the time to claim ownership of your Google Places page. Once you’ve claimed ownership add the pertinent data and complete the profile in its entirety.

5. Get Inbound Links

The internet is a popularity contest. The more websites that link to you, the better. This is the most difficult items to tackle on the list, and many internet marketers focus solely on nurturing relationships to obtain high quality links.

6. Page Rank

Find out your website’s Google Page Rank, and research your company’s general ranking on Google. These factors also play a role in local search. Learn the basics of SEO, and/or hire an SEO company to help you achieve higher rankings.

7. Use One Phone Number

Make sure that the phone number being used on your Google Places page (and other sites) is the same as the phone number being used on your website.

SEO Tips for Local Ranking is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

OmniSafe came to us with a desire to update their web presence. They needed a site that would showcase their unique product, as well as its varied applications.

We first analyzed the existing website content and developed a migration strategy. A new layout for the site was developed, which both showcases their many awards, case studies and accolades as well as technical information on the product.

We built a WordPress based website for OmniSafe, which they will be able to manage and update in-house (as opposed to their previous HTML based website). Their existing logo was updated with fresh typography and colors, and the rest of the site was designed around the logo.

A variety of rich media in the form of written content, pdfs, powerpoint documents, video and images were added to the site. A simple navigation menu gives visitors the ability to browse the site easily.

Omnisafe is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

You can’t get something for nothing, and this is especially true on the web. Companies offering free hosting are often unreliable connections, which may mean your site will experience considerable down time. Free hosts may also include pop-up advertising on your site, which will ultimately distract your visitors and take away from the web identity you are trying to create.

Hosting: You Get What You Pay For is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing

Many low cost hosting providers offer their service at a valuable SEO cost – slower page load speeds.

If we consider this in broader terms, it makes sense that search engines would penalize sites with pages that load more slowly, as a speedier experience is more pleasing to a user.

At Design SEO Hosting we offer solid hosting solutions without cutting corners or sacrificing page load times, all without breaking your budget.

Hosting and SEO is a post from: WordPress Websites SEO Marketing