How can I change a Google+ custom URL?

Rules for getting a custom URL

There are a few rules to keep in mind when you’re trying to get a custom URL. If you’re having trouble, make sure:

• You have ten or more followers (people who have added you to their circles)
• Your account is at least 30 days old
• Your profile has a profile photo
• Your account is in good standing
• Get a custom URL for your Google+ profile

Mastering PPC: What is an MCC & Why do agencies use it?

When it comes to selecting an agency, one question many clients are concerned with is, who “owns” the AdWords account? Does the agency own the account? Does the client own the account? Will the client even have access to the account?

In most scenarios, if the client has an existing account, the agency will link the client account to their My Client Center or “MCC”. If the client does not have an existing AdWords account, the agency should help the client create their own AdWords account then link the Client account to the agency MCC.

By linking the client account to the agency’s MCC, the client will always “own” the account and the associated data. The client will also have the ability to grant or terminate an individual or agency’s access to the account as they desire. By linking the client account to the MCC, the client can be reassured that they will always be able to access the account’s data even if the relationship with the agency ends. Therefore, linking to an MCC also provides the client an additional level of security as they will never need to share their password with the agency and risk having multiple users accessing the account from one login.

Bing Ads,LinkedIn and Facebook also have similar interfaces to manage multiple client accounts. However, for this post, we will focus on Google’s MCC.

What is an MCC?

MCC stands for “My Client Center” which is an AdWords account type for advertisers or agencies who are managing multiple client accounts.

The Google My Client Center account, allows agencies to access multiple AdWords accounts through a single log-in. With all client accounts available through one log-in, an MCC allows agencies to easily view performance statistics across multiple accounts in one centralized location.

When you log into an MCC, there are two main tabs “Performance” and “Budget”, each allows you to view performance or budget metrics across all of the accounts that are linked to the MCC.

Additional Features for MCC users

Using an MCC grants agencies access to a few additional AdWords features like Manager Defined Spend (MDS) billing and multiple Client Reporting. MDS billing is a simple way for MCC users to control multiple client account budgets across one single invoice. This feature can be beneficial if a client has flexible budgets that need frequent updates due to seasonality or a large client that requires multiple AdWords accounts. We will go into further detail regarding client billing options in an upcoming Mastering PPC post. In addition to MDS Billing and Client Reporting, you can also review account alerts and set up automated rules across multiple clients.

Reporting Across Multiple Clients

One of the most beneficial features of using an MCC is the Client Reporting tool. This reporting interface provides the ability to pull reports across multiple client accounts at once. This can be extremely helpful when reviewing Agency-wide performance, or if you want to measure trends across clients within a similar industry. Account managers can also run accounts specifically for just the clients they support. For example, if an account manager is on 4 accounts, they can easily run 1 report for all 4 of their accounts in Client Reporting compared to running the same report 4 different times within each account. This feature saves valuable time when it comes to reporting and analysis.

Advanced Filtering and Segmentation across Multiple Clients

Along with the ability to report across multiple clients, Client Reporting also allows for simpler filtering and segmentation of data compared to the standard campaign reporting. When creating a report in the MCC’s Client Reporting interface you are given the ability to layer up to 3 segments on one report across multiple accounts. You can also combine the 3 available segments with filters for an even more granular look at the data. For example, if I wanted to view all of the enhanced campaigns that have an invalid click rate greater than 15% by day of week and device across all my eCommerce clients, I can easily get that level of detail in Client reporting by setting up a report with the following settings.

Report Type: Campaign Performance

Segments: Device & Day of week

Accounts: Select applicable accounts

Filters: Network, Enhanced, Invalid clicks >15%

The MCC Client reporting feature also allows users to schedule recurring reports and have them delivered via email on a regular basis.

One of my favorite Client Reports I have set up on a recurring basis is a Multi-Client – Search Term report which is emailed directly to me each Monday morning for the previous week. This allows me to easily open the report in excel, make a quick pivot table, and review all search terms that produced traffic over the past week. Through the use of excel filters; I can quickly spot negative keyword opportunities and/or keywords that we should add on exact or phrase match.

Back the original question, what is an MCC?

An MCC is an AdWords account type that allows advertisers to access multiple client accounts via one interface. By using an MCC, users benefit from simplified reporting across multiple accounts along with some additional advanced billing and management features.

How To Generate Leads Through Social Media

How To Generate Leads Through Social Media

When most marketers think of social media they immediately associate it with brand building, and not sales. After all, no one really buys products because of a Tweet, right?

Wrong.

The truth is that social media is much more than just a way to grow your brand and connect with your current customers. When done correctly, you can actually use sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram to generate real leads for your business. And the cherry on top is that social media lead generation is cost effective, and produces results: 

1. Social media marketing has reduced costs for 45% of businesses. 
2. Revenue increased for 24% of businesses when they utilized social media for lead generation. 

The question is: How do you take your social media marketing campaigns from a customer service and branding tool, and turn them into lead generating machines?

Connecting Social Media & Lead Generation

Let’s start with the basics. Lead generation is all about bringing people into your sales funnel. It’s not the same thing as selling. Think of lead generation as gathering intelligence on your customers. You’re getting to know: 

• What your target audience is interested in 
• Which products you could potentially sell to them 
• What their pain points are 
• How you can eventually turn them into paying customers 

A long time ago, lead generation consisted of things like sending out surveys in the mail, or having you fill out a form in the back of a magazine. But the Internet has completely changed the way businesses get leads—for the better.

Today, it’s all about gated content, video marketing, email opt-ins and paid ad campaigns that are aimed at getting potential customers into your sales funnel. Since it’s all done online, it’s quicker, easier to track and the possibilities for the data you can collect for each lead is amazing. The most popular piece of information to gather from leads is an email address. Some marketers also like to get a name.

Here’s how social media sites come into play. Social media makes the process even easier because of all of the information that people readily share, and also because of the sheer number of users on sites like Facebook and Twitter. We’re living in a time when 40% of people spend more time socializing on social media than face to face. So needless to say, social media makes for the perfect place to find your target audience and turn them into new sales leads.

Pick the Right Channel

One of the worst mistakes you can make right from the start is trying to get leads from the wrong social media channel. This step is all about knowing your customers. With over one billion users, it’s easy to assume that Facebook is the go-to choice. But that’s not always the case.

For B2B marketers, 44% have generated leads through LinkedIn, while 39% have done it through Facebook. Twitter comes in third with 30%.

Not sure which site your target demographic is on? Check out this post and infographic which breaks down the user bases of all of the top social media sites.

The techniques you use to generate leads is going to partially depend on which social media site you’re focusing on. Here’s some ideas to get you started.

Generating Leads With Facebook

Generating a significant amount of leads through Facebook is usually going to mean running paid ads at some point. The changes to Facebook’s algorithm have made it increasingly difficult to get organic reach. The bright side is that Facebook Ads can be budget-friendly, especially when compared to other networks like AdWords. The average cost per click (CPC) for Facebook Ads versus Adwords is: 

• Facebook: $.80 
• AdWords: $2.50 

But whether you’re running paid ads or just trying to turn existing fans into leads, here are some tips that can help.

1. Contests

Contests have been huge hits on Facebook for years. The upside is that they draw a lot of attention. The downside is that the leads you get aren’t always the most qualified because you’ll have a lot of freebie seekers. But nonetheless, it’s a good way to gather emails. Shortstack is a great tool to help you setup Facebook contests and collect your leads because it integrates with most major email marketing tools like AWeber and MailChimp.

2. Create a Custom Tab

Facebook lets you setup custom tabs on your Page, making it a great spot for contact forms. There’s different apps you can use to set these up like Pagemodo and Static HTML. These forms are the perfect way to capture leads on Facebook without having to send fans to an external site. In order to get more eyes on these tabs, make sure you link to them in your posts or when you’re running paid ads.

3. Treat Your Page Like a Website

Stop looking at your Facebook Page as just a way to get Likes. Shifting your Page to a lead generation tool will impact the type of content you post, what kind of ads you run and even the tabs that you set up.

Gold’s Gym is the perfect example of a company whose Facebook Page is built for generating leads. Everything from the “Find your gym” tab to the “Sign Up” call-to-action shows that its Page has a purpose beyond just branding.

Generating Leads With Twitter

Using Twitter to generate leads is still kind of a new thing. Before Twitter Cards hit the scene, a lot of businesses had no idea how to even get started with getting or tracking leads through Twitter. But these days, you’ve probably started to notice that Promoted Tweets (ads) are being given a little more priority in your stream. If you want to use Twitter for more than just growing your audience, follow these tips to get leads.

1. Use Twitter Cards

In 2013, Twitter released its new Lead Generation Twitter Card, like the one in the picture above. In one of the most infamous case studies of the new feature, the outdoor clothing company Rock/Creek got over 1,700 new email leads in less than a week. And you can see another case study from the first B2B company to use the lead generation cards, Webtrends.

Here are some tips for using Twitter Lead Generation Cards: 

• Use an eye-catching image 
• Statistics help 
• Make your copy very appealing—you only have 140 characters 

2. Track Brand Mentions

Are you listening to what people are saying about your company on Twitter? If not, you could be missing out on easy leads. In some cases, you could even be losing out on making sales. That’s why it’s crucial to have some sort of social media monitoring tool setup that lets you track the conversation and never lose out on a missed opportunity.

View image on Twitter

Some examples of what you can track are: 

1. Mentions of your company name 
2. Common misspellings 
3. Industry related keywords 
4. Mentions of your competitors 

3. Create Events

Twitter chats, Ask Me Anything (AMA) and other time-sensitive events on Twitter are useful for generating leads in a creative way. The key is to make sure that you have some sort of call-to-action for each campaign. For instance, Blog Elevated is a community for bloggers, centered around an annual Blog Elevated event. It uses weekly Twitter chats every Tuesday which achieve two things: 

1. Spark great conversation for bloggers about relevant topics and challenges they face 
2. Introduces people to the brand’s event (a.k.a Lead Generation) 

By hosting an event on Twitter that’s related to your industry, but not directly about your company, you’re offering free value. In turn, people will naturally want to know more about the company hosting the event, which can translate into new leads for you.

Generating Leads With LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the the top social media site for B2B leads. Since it’s catered toward professionals and networking, it’s a natural lead generation tool. But that doesn’t mean that you can (or should) just go into it blindly without any rhyme or reason.

1. Offer a Free Sample

This is a very powerful technique that can result in highly qualified leads. LinkedIn Premium gives businesses the opportunity to find qualified leads based on job role and other criteria, then contact them directly with InMail. What’s so great for B2B companies is that it lets you get past the gate keepers and go directly to the decision makers.

2. Combine LinkedIn & Inbound Marketing With LinkedIn Publishing

Inbound marketing is insanely effective. Running ads and making sales calls can still work, but the numbers show that inbound marketing is where it’s at. In fact, inbound marketing drives 54% more leads into your marketing funnel than traditional outbound tactics.

One of the techniques that falls under the inbound umbrella is content marketing. LinkedIn’s rapidly growing Publishing platform is the perfect place to: 

1. Show your expertise as a thought leader 
2. Offer valuable information about your industry that professionals will see 
3. Gain some leads in the process 

LinkedIn doesn’t exactly make this feature very visible on the site, but here’s a quick link to add a new post. And check out this case study on 30 days of publishing on LinkedIn.

3. Get on SlideShare

LinkedIn acquiring SlideShare is probably one of the best things that could’ve happened for marketers. SlideShare is a content sharing platform focused around slide decks, and they get a lot of traffic. After buying SlideShare, LinkedIn integrated it into the site so your accounts can be connected. Here’s how you can use it to gain leads:

Focus on creating slide decks that are highly relevant to your target audience. Make sure that your SlideShare and LinkedIn accounts are connected so that your presentations are visible on your LinkedIn Profile or Company Page. Most importantly, have some sort of call-to-action either inside your presentation or at the end.

Here’s a look at how getting your presentation featured on the home page can help your traffic.

How to Generate Leads on Instagram

Instagram is still in the early stages in terms of its options for marketers. It doesn’t directly cater to marketers and advertisers like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or, more recently, Pinterest. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to generate leads.

1. Don’t Ignore the Comments

Instagram isn’t only about vanity. Getting tons of likes on a photo is cool, but if you’re not keeping up with the comments people are leaving, then you’re missing out. Instagram isn’t exactly known for deep conversations, but taking the time to respond to the people that are engaging with your photos shows that you care, which in turn makes people more likely to buy from you.

Check out these apps to help make managing your Instagram account easier.

2. Use video

Don’t forget that Instagram allows you upload short video clips. This allows for some really interesting marketing tactics. Quest Nutrition has pretty much mastered using Instagram videos to generate leads. In this post, the brand made a video promoting its banana cream protein powder. This works for a couple of reasons: 

1. The video is creative and entertaining 
2. It tells you how to buy the product 

Even though you can’t post clickable links in your captions, that doesn’t mean you can’t include a URL. As a bonus tip, use a unique URL that can be tracked, so you can monitor your ROI.

3. Create Unique #Hashtags

How often has this happened to you? You’re browsing Instagram and notice that a certain hashtag keeps popping up. You’re not 100% sure what it’s about, but a lot of the people you follow are using it. So you look into it and find out that the hashtag has to do with a certain brand.

That process is how a lot of people find out about new companies. It’s almost like the new word of mouth advertising, but through social media. People “in the know” start using the hashtag, then it just keeps building and spreading. Your job is to come up with a hashtag that’s not directly about your company, but can be tracked back to you.

Notice in the Quest photo above, the company uses the hashtag #LoveProtein. If you do a search for that hashtag on Instagram, you’ll see a bunch of results with Quest products in them. Can’t you just smell all of those new leads?

Social Media Isn’t Just About Branding Anymore

Start changing the way your business uses social media today. Stop thinking of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn as just tools for branding, and get more value by using them to generate leads.

How are you using social media lead generation? Let us know in the comments.

Tips to Avoid Being Blocked by Facebook

The problem is that reading the terms and conditions either ends up confusing us or flat-out putting us to sleep. In this post, we bring you 10 essential tips to avoid being blocked by Facebook … and not fall asleep reading the fine print.

1. Get out of Facebook Jail: Let some time pass between posts

Whether it’s because of enthusiasm, in a  productivity rush or persistence, we often end up posting identical content in multiple groups or pages at the same exact time. This is the type of behavior that gets us into trouble with the “Facebook Sheriff” as he’s on the hunt for SPAMMERS.

If they notice that you’re sharing the same information everywhere all at once, it’s very likely that you’ll get thrown into virtual FB jail (Facebook Jail).

 

To save you the ordeal, we’re going to let you in on a great tip, followed religiously by those working with Facebook professionally. To avoid penalties and infractions while trying to publish the same content on multiple pages, you’ve got to leave at least a few minutes in between each post. This strategy is an excellent method to avoid being seen as “suspicious” by the site.

If you don’t want to sit around and wait out those time intervals each time for every single group and page (Who does??), then, you should use Postcron. This app is for scheduling posts, and what’s awesome is that their posting menu offers the perfect solution for this situation. They actually give you the option to publish to multiple Facebook accounts and set up time intervals of five minutes (minimum) in between each post. This will help you avoid being blocked for excess posting. If you want to find out more about this feature, check out this this article from our blog.

2. Avoid Facebook Jail: Create original content

This wise advice comes from several Community Managers who constantly work with Facebook, and who have extensive experience in preventing getting blocked. One of the most important strategies in this regard is creating original content.

Experience shows that administrators are often blocked because they’ve used images from Google’s search results, which had already been marked as SPAM. Basically, if you use the pictures that Google suggests, you run risk that they are actually photographs that have previously been reported on Facebook as spam. That means, when you go to share them, your post will also obtain all the complaints that photo might already have.

 

Along the same lines, it’s important to check that the photos you post to your site (if you don’t do it yourself) have a proper license so you can use them without having problems.

It’s not always easy to find legal and free images on Internet, which is why we recommend that you check out safe places where you can get legit pics. On top of that, you can also create your own cards, photos, and postcards on sites like: PicMonkey.com.

Keep in mind that the warning of originality isn’t limited to just photos. Any file that’s shared by many people at once, is likely to be marked as SPAM. This also applies to text and links that you share as well. For that reason it’s always better to create your own content, as an essential part of strategies to avoid being blocked by Facebook and sent to Facebook Jail.

3. Stay out of Facebook Jail: Make it personal (and be careful with tagging)

Try to avoid as much anonymity between your “friends” as possible. Knowing who you add and making sure people know who you are significantly reduces the risk of being considered as spam and improves your credibility and your image in the long term.

The above is the conceptual benefit of this tip. However, the concrete application is as follows:  Keeping your Facebook conduct based on honesty and “real” links prevents Facebook from reading your activity as SPAM. It can hurt you if the site detects, for example, that many users don’t accept your friend or group requests. This type of behavior often results in SPAM complaints by those affected, because they don’t know who you are or why you want to add them.

Other types of behavior that you should avoid are: adding people to groups without their consent and posting on Facebook pages with non-personal profiles, such as garage sales or classifieds (which themselves are often filled with SPAM – and not being a physical person runs the risk of being reported and/or closed. Remember that Facebook’s policies state that only people can have profiles).

And last but not least, we recommend that you don’t tag people directly in  images if they’re not actually in them (a situation frequently detected as SPAM by the site). If you want to mention someone, you can do so in the comments below.

All these rules are directly linked to common sense, basically, because nobody likes to be tagged in a photo that they have nothing to do with.

4. Avoid being blocked on Facebook: Understand how Facebook works

Reading each item of the Help section of Facebook can put you to sleep immediately or just be plain confusing. So, thats why were gonna show you the most important parts based on research by an expert in digital marketing, Karen Clark.

Specifically, there are three basic rules you should follow to make sure you’re using Facebook properly:

• • Don’t use the name of a business for a personal account. You can not create a “human” profile with a name like “Mary’s Bakery”, with the idea of posting and participating in groups on behalf of your business. Biographies are intended to be used by people with their real names. You can create your actual profile and from there, mention your business in your personal information, or create a page for your project directly.

• • Every human being on the planet can have ONLY ONE Facebook account.From your personal account you can create multiple pages for businesses and enter multiple email addresses, that way that your customers can contact you easily.

• If you want more information on this, please review the Facebook terms and policies for both personal biographies and business pages.

5. Stop Facebook from blocking your account: Don’t act like a spammer

There are a number of behaviors on Facebook that, besides being annoying to everyone, can threaten the very existence of your account. Here we review the online behaviors that act as non-stop tickets to Facebook Jail.

First of all, and as we mentioned above, Karen Clark says you shouldn’t send friend requests to people that you have no connection to. In other words, try to connect only with people who could actually recognize you. This is convenient because, after rejecting your friendship, Facebook asks users if they know you, and if many of them say “no”, then you’ll be marked as SPAM.

She also recommends not promoting your business on the business pages of other users, not as a post, nor as a comment. Don’t even do it by “liking” their project.

These are unethical behaviors and the account managers of those accounts will NOT hesitate to mark you as spam. Along the same lines, don’t use private messages for promotional purposes, or else you will also be reported by the recipients of unwanted notifications.

6. Beware of saboteurs

Unfortunately, there are always people who “play dirty”. Since it’s really easy to mark someone as SPAM on Facebook, there are quite a few users who do it to their commercial competitors just to harm them. Thus, any posts you make can be attacked by “trolls” on the Network.

If you ever detect such behavior by one of your contacts, the first thing you should do is to block them from your page. If they can’t see your posts, they can’t attack them. You can also visit their personal profile and individually report them by clicking the button with the three little dots. Finally, you can contact Facebook to explain what happened, by using institutional links available at the bottom of the page.

7. Don’t let Facebook confuse you with a SPAM-bot

Business specialist Francesca Esposito-Rose in a recent article explains which actions on Facebook could get you marked as a SPAM-bot, a term that refers to automated programs, created to mimic human behavior on social networks.

When Facebook brands you as SPAM, Francesca indicates (who herself was a “victim” of the site’s policies), the first thing that happens is that they stops you from being able to comment on other pages. According to each case, they can also stop you from even LIKING anything on the social network, among other sanctions due to “excessive behavior”.

To avoid getting a “Facebook Time Out” or sent to Facebook Jail, we basically have to control the speed at which we like and comment on things. This is not only to avoid being detected as SPAM, but also to control traffic information on Facebook (which would collapse if all users do too many things in too short of time.)

8. Avoid being blocked by Facebook: Don’t go crazy posting

This is a fundamental tip if you want to avoid being sent to Facebook Jail. Professional Community Managers recommend a maximum of 5-6 daily publications in the biography itself. Also remember that it’s not necessary to tell customers EVERY nitty-gritty detail about your business. The idea is to provoke them to visit your website, where there they can learn more about your project if and when they want to.

On the other hand, Francesca Esposito-Rose suggests posting your own business page two to three times a week. She also notes that this varies from industry to industry and business to business. She also advises to experiment to find out the ideal frequency of responses according to each audience. It’s not the idea to saturate your followers’ timelines with incessant publications, which is a direct invitation to getting marked as SPAM.

9. Provide accessible and permanent information about who you are

This is a very cool tip, as it ensures a warm welcome to new followers who wish to join your ranks. It basically assures that users can find out who you are by just looking at the information section of your page or biography.

That way, people will have some information about you, which will make them feel comfortable interacting with you. A really good paragraph in the about section is usually enough of a kicker to get them to like your page.

Check out this study by moveouttheoffice.com, specialists in digital marketing. It says we should remind people what we DO and what we are about, every few posts. This will help welcome new users and will finish convincing potential followers.

10. Use “shortened links” on your page biography when linking to your site

While the technique to shorten links is more characteristic of Twitter (to save space and characters), the truth is that it’s an excellent strategy to stay out of Facebook Sheriff’s sight. Because as we know, posting the same link on multiple pages and posts, is a behavior frequently detected as SPAM.

To avoid Facebook from marking your URL as SPAM (for whatever reason), one of the best things you can do is shorten your links. To do this you can use sites like wp.me, bit.ly or goo.gl.

Following these 10 tips to avoid being blocked by Facebook and sent to Facebook Jail, that we brought you in this handy post, will save you from getting locked up in Facebook’s “prison cell”.  which would be extremely detrimental to the prosperity of your business, especially if you consider the effort you put in to your social media strategies.

Biggest Lies Told by SEO “Experts”

For as long as business has been around, there have been salesmen that can only be described as snakes – they want to come in, take your money and leave without much of a footprint left. Although not very common these days, it can be difficult to judge someone’s performance when employing in an area that you do not know much about.

Search Engine Optimisation is a classic example of this, because even though many businesses are aware that they need to have a well-run digital campaign, many are unsure of how to do this. This leads to the hiring of supposed SEO experts for help. The difficulty in employing the correct digital marketing agency for this job is identifying who is going to be the best for the job and is up to date with industry adjustments.

Many potential employees will tell lies in order to convince the business that they are the right people for the job. Here are a couple to look out for:

“Every industry is the same, I don’t need experience in your field”

Whilst there are consistencies across industries with Search Engine Optimisation, as is the case for all jobs, it is important that a business does their best to find someone with experience in their industry. An industry’s competitiveness for keywords and rankings varies significantly and this is why it is a good idea to employ someone with experience.

“SEO is all you need”

Even though SEO is a major component in marketing, it cannot be the only method used in reaching an audience. In order to maintain a successful and prosperous business, it is important to use a combination of channels including; social media, content marketing and Search Engine Optimisation.

Not only does this diversify the reach and potential sources of information reaching the audience, but the studies also show that each of these tactics complement each other and can all be used to improve the efficiency of one another.

“The more links the better”

Many outdated SEO experts will say that lots of back linking will help to improve rank – it will not. Whilst this used to be a permitted practice, Google has since shifted is emphasis from quantity to quality.

This means that it is still important to provide links to your sites but through related pages of quality rather than just spamming. When employing a digital marketing agency, ensure that they know the types of back links you want in the form of high quality and legitimate ones.

“Duplicate content won’t hurt your SEO”

This statement leads to another important point – it is extremely beneficial to hire an expert who has experience in content marketing. Content marketing plays a key role in the Search Engine Optimisation success however the most crucial point is to not have duplicate content.

Google now picks up on duplicate content and this can lead to a reduction in ranking and even penalties enforced by Google. Duplicate content is seen as a way of manipulating traffic to your site and does not fit within the regulations that the search engine sets. Re-posting an article to your blog that was published elsewhere will have negative consequences.

“The more keywords the better”

Keyword density use to be a big buzz word in the digital marketing world however, now it is more about spreading a diverse range of relevant keywords, and their variations, through content and the sites naturally. This makes things easier to read but it also enables the business to reach a greater audience by diversifying the use of worse and matching with more searches.

“I know the algorithms”

The fact of the matter is that no one knows the exact nature Google’s algorithms. True SEO experts that dedicate hours and hours towards studying Google’s algorithm will have a fairly solid idea of what’s included, but they will never know 100% of the algorithm.

Amongst the hundreds of algorithms that Google uses to rank websites, there is no way possible for anyone to know them all. On top of this, Google is constantly updating them to perform a better ranking process and even the best SEO experts in Australia don’t know about the updates until months down the track.

“I’ll submit your site to hundreds of search engine directories”

There are not hundreds of appropriate directories that any one business wants to be established on. Large scale link building is actually not beneficial and can lead to penalties from Google. So whilst it is possible to submit a site to hundreds and hundreds of web directories, it will yield no benefits for the firm.

“I’ll get you on the first page of Google” or “I’ll get you to the #1 position on Google”

The truth is, not even the best digital marketing agency can promise any rank on Google. In fact, any Search Engine Optimisation firm that promises a quantifiable change in your ranking is lying, because Google’s guidelines quite simply state that this is both not possible and they also warn against these types of organisations.

It takes time to improve rank and any page’s rank can change from day to day for reasons outside the organisations control.

“I’ll get your SEO issues resolved in a month for a flat rate”

There is no quick fix for and nor is it a set and forget type operation. It requires constant attention to adapt to the competition that is doing the same thing. Setting the foundations for Search Engine Optimisation may well be a one step process (although updating these every now and again is beneficial).

However, constant work is required in to maintaining a high rank and increasing the audience to ensure a business stays competitive. This also links into the changing algorithms of Google that were touched on above and need constant attention and development.

When choosing an agency to complete your digital marketing needs, it is important to keep an ear out for any of these common lies. These lies are simply a selling point and none will help to improve the businesses rank. Some may even incur penalties and reduce the ranking position of the site.