Welcome to the Q&A Forum

I have tried numerous tools, my team of freelancers, (fiver I admit) and a couple people from Upwork and still not getting a GOOD response to - How much search volume is there for "home builders" JUST in WIchita, KS (for example) I get local results like that are challenging because a lot of them show no search volume. Am I missing something? Can  recommend a resource? I would be really grateful! 🙂 I am trying to figure out a nice long (ideally) list of keywords for 'plumbers, wichita ks', 'dentist, wichita ks' - Local service businesses and everything I try shows next to nothing. Thanks for ANY advice! 🙂 Matthew

Quick Q for your (local) SEO gurus. I have a client who has bought a number of local companies. (advertising, printing, graphic design, vehicle wraps) to compliment his screen printing, embroidery, etc business. ALL of these companies run out of the SAME address. What makes it even harder is he wants to continue operating them as separate companies. Fortunately, he is OK with using different phone numbers for each business but on the website (we are building for him) ALL the companies are represented like it is all one big happy company. How the H@#$ do I build citations for this business! 🙂 ??? THANK YOU FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS!! If I use the one 'parent' company building citations is a challenge bcs they do so MANY things in one location. If I try and build citations for 5 companies w the same address - that can't be a good idea either. If the plan is to eventually fold all these companies into the one parent company *(waiting to hear back on that) I would think the BEST advice would be to use the ONE phone number and address and just shoot for a general 'marketing' category. Thanks for any thoughts!! Matthew Saw Web Marketing Quick Q for your (local) SEO gurus smarter than myself. I have a client who has bought a number of local companies. (advertising, printing, graphic design, vehicle wraps) to compliment his screen printing, embroidery, etc business. ALL of these companies run out of the SAME address. What makes it even harder is he wants to continue operating them as separate companies. Fortunately, he is OK with using different phone numbers for each business but on the website (we are building for him) ALL the companies are represented like it is all one big happy company. How the H@#$ do I build citations for this business! 🙂 ??? THANK YOU FOR ANY SUGGESTIONS!! If I use the one 'parent' company building citations is a challenge bcs they do so MANY things in one location. If I try and build citations for 5 companies w the same address - that can't be a good idea either.

I operate an Internet marketing firm in the Midwest US called Saw Web Marketing. I have contractors that work for me that handle design, writing, development, etc when my clients need it. I love the industry but struggle (like everybody else) with all the normal things (managing time and keeping up with reporting, keeping up with the little daily fires, finding time to improve my site and blog and learn new things, networking, social media and on and on..... I have been considering using Hubspot software to simplify some of the things I spend time on, look more polished and professional would of course be a big bonus. I don't know HOW restrictive or powerful their tools are. (I certainly am NOT leaving Moz - Nobody compares to Moz!) ANY thoughts or opinions would be GREATLY appreciated!!! Matthew

I love Moz and the community and all the tools here. I admit I haven't rolled around in all the new things rolled out a few months ago. I thought there were more changes on the way but I wasn't sure if those already happened and I missed them or if I need to be patient? Affiliate program, client reporting? Thanks for any response. Have a great weekend! Matthew

Hello gang, I read an article about Triberr. Does anybody have any experience / thoughts / success with this product? I have a list of sites I run through to promote my blog posts every time I write a new blog post, always love to find another good one. Thanks for your time, Matthew

I would really like to find a really good Mastermind group to be a part of. I would like to contribute, help others and learn from other smart seo / Internet marketers. Any suggestions? I have only been in the business a couple years but my company is growing quickly. Thanks in advance for your time! Matthew www.sawwebmarketing.com

I used to think Moz was rich and full but man, there is so Much new stuff! I love it! I still need to explore everything. Does anybody know if its going to be an option for our clients to log in and see just their account? are changes in the works for reports we can pull and send to clients? thank you!! Matthew

anybody have an opinion as to whether gravity forms is worth the money? is it pretty popular? thanks for any thoughts!! Matthew

What do you think about the Comment Luv pro plugin for your blog? My goal is this would help me get traffic and comments on my posts..... Make it easy to promote my own content.... the unlimited version is $97, I thought about purchasing this for my site and all my clients but wasn't sure if this was just one more tool that I spend money on and 6 months later I don't use it because I have learned about a better option (that is usually free). I am sure many of you can relate to doing that 🙂 Thank you very much for any suggestions!!! Have a superb week everybody! Matthew

When I look at the campaign for my website in MOZ it shows me my 'organic search visits' are radically different than when I look at Google analytics. In Moz I have 10 visits the week of 10/24 but using 'visits' in Google analytics I have 320 visits the same week. In Moz I have 20 visits the week of 11/1 (following the gold total line) but according to Google I have almost 500 visits that week. I just totally redid my site (www.sawwebmarketing.com) and posted a bunch of new content and looking to see what it did to my traffic and according to Google my visits have fallen dramatically but according to Moz my 'organic search visits' have multiplied by 6. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Matthew

From what I can gather blogging serves the following purposes. (Please correct me if I miss an important step) To clarify this is just in reference to a blog on an Internet marketing website so purely from a BUSINESS perspective. Creating fresh, relevant content on a regular basis (around the right keywords) is key for great traffic and rankings Building a following ....... With the intent of turning a % of that following into customers (primarily through affiliate links on your site or consulting of some kind - seo, link building, writing) Establishing yourself as an 'authority' ...... This, coupled with your great rankings and traffic from bullet #1 makes it possible to charge a great deal of money and get it because, hey, you are an authority 🙂 My intention isn't to make light of any of the AMAZING, talented people who spend a great deal of time and energy giving back to this incredible, dynamic industry via their blogs (and deserve to makes gobs of cash!) Did I miss a step? Is this the road to success? Thanks for chiming in! Have a great weekend! Matthew

I have a client I am doing SEO work for. He sells a system that helps people win at video keno. He sells a system for like $200 that shows people step by step how to play and win. Its a good site and he has a ton of verified winnings. My point in saying that, its not a fly-by-night system he wrote in his basement. I know - gambling, not easy for SEO. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner. Wouldn't this potentially be perfect for affiliate marketing? He offers a good commission to whoever sends him traffic if they buy. If anybody could direct me to a resource or two that is reputable and would handle as much of the set up and management of this I would be very grateful! Thank you! Matthew

My hardwood flooring client just added carpet, luxury vinyl, ceramic tile, area rugs, design, and ceramic tile to his lineup - joy, joy. He really thought the months and months of working together and creating a bunch of solid, original content and promoting it and building links and seeing great results for Hardwood Flooring means he would instantly rank well for ALL flooring. I digress, sorry. I am trying to understand the on page reports a little better. When I grade the new carpet page on his site for the keyword 'carpet' it comes back with an A - when I grade it for 'Carpet, city name' it comes back with an F. Which should I be targeting for best results? 95% of my clients are concerned about local results and not getting business other than within 20-30 miles of their office. Any guidance in understanding on how BEST to utilize the on page reporting would be greatly appreciated! (I did watch the video and check out the guide) Thank you in advance for your time! Matthew

I have done a ton of research and I am struggling to find an easy to use, easy to understand site / tool that will allow my clients to log in and see basic information about their website traffic, rankings, referring sites, etc. in an ATTRACTIVE, EASY TO UNDERSTAND layout. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Seomoz (my true favorite) Raven, webceo, and so many others are powerful tools - I don't need that, just looking for an attractive place to log in and view their stats, that's it. Thank you - have a great rest of the week! Matthew

Anybody using this for their clients? It looks pretty impressive but their pricing isn't clear at all. I had to Google details on their pricing and ended on Quora to learn its $500 a month for a pro account FOR ONE USER. I was shocked. It must be pretty amazing for this kind of money per account. Anybody using this for their SEO clients? I love the feature where you can add in Yahoo answers and Quora feed for their main keyword right into the dashboard. Thanks! Matthew

My SEO / Internet marketing business (I also have contractors that handle web design and development) is going well and growing and I am interested in attending one of the many conferences. (SEO is my passion but I am more of a marketing guy than super technical) I was hoping for a little bit of advice from somebody who has been to some of them where would be good to start. Where should I start? I am in Wichita, KS. which is in the middle of the US (bring on the yellow brick road and Dorothy jokes) and don't plan to leave the country for one. PUBCON, SES, SMX, SEARCHFEST, MOXCON, PUBCON...... Thank you very MUCH for any advice. Super appreciate it! Matthew

I normally use open site explorer to identify links that competitors of my clients have and sometimes this gives me what I call 'some low hanging fruit' to go after. (and of course links that are more challenging to get) I don't know why this didn't occur to me sooner. If my client is a chiropractor why not look at the links for 50 or 100 of the top rankings chiropractic sites all over the US? This would HAVE to uncover a wealth of blogs to comment on that have good authority, great industry associations, publications, forums - a whole wealth of items. It made me wonder how many people use site explorer like I have been (top 3-4 competitors that your client has) or identifying links pointing to LOTS of competitors? How do you use it? Couldn't you almost base an entire link building campaign using OSE? Why would this be a bad idea if not? Just some random thoughts. THE WEEKEND IS ALMOST HERE - Have a great day everybody! 🙂

Can I find out how many of a competitors 25k links are coming from which domains?You can see in the image I uploaded, the first competitior, Suzuki of Wichita, they have 25,000 total links. dRTAKAt.png?1

Ok, I have my PILE of business cards from Chamber of Commerce meetings and different networking events I have attended. I have 8-10 blogs that are worth sharing on my website - www.sawwebmarketing.com (I realize that's a pathetically low number) I am committing to and excited about blogging MUCH more starting today! I have a huge list of ideas. I am adding a signup to my site and putting up a pop up to collect addresses. I have 15-18 clients that are paying me for ongoing seo / Internet marketing (or simply had my team build a new site for them) AND AN ACCOUNT WITH AWEBER I HAVE USED ONCE! 🙂 Where do I start!? Any advice? I want to start building a LIST of subscribers and grow my list by sharing great advice, strategies and tips to help people put their website to work. A) Send one email to EVERYBODY (ongoing clients, past clients, contacts who subscribe, website visitors, blog subscribers) or customize my messages for different groups? B) Put whatever I want to share on my blog and share it via social media AND send an email to my list inviting them to check out what I posted so I get the most bang for my time? (LINKS BABY!) I feel like an idiot I haven't got on this sooner but truly ANY ADVICE from somebody who has been there and done it would be GREATLY APPRECIATED! 🙂 Thank you! Matthew http://sawwebmarketing.com/internet-marketing-blog/

I helped a client redesign their new website and we just went live a couple weeks ago. This morning I checked his campaign and 53 keywords fell DRAMATICALLY. Like 35-50 places down in Google for dozens of keywords!? I haven't ever seen a drop that's so dramatic when putting up a new site. Have you ever seen this? Will they bounce back? This site isn't significantly different than the last one. We did forward two other domains to this new site but that wouldn't make a difference, would it? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! Matthew

i spend a decent amount of my spare time browsing quora, stumbleupon, google reader, pulse, etc keeping up with all the different aspects of internet marketing when i come across a particuarly valuable piece of content i take a few seconds and share it using hootsuite on my linked, twitter, facebook  (i spread them out so there is only one post a day) this rewards those who write valuable content but im not doing anything to benefit my site - www.sawwebmarketing.com im establishing myself as somebody who has good stuff to share to my potential clients.... what a quick, easy way to share the high quality things i come across that will create links for me as well? (short of writing my own blog post listing the high quality articles i found with my thoughts on each) thoughts? opinions? thanks everybody! Matthew

I have an auto upholstery client that wants a new website and some SEO work done here locally. I take to Google to check out the competition in some other states to get a feel for whats other sites are doing and I just spent 30 minutes looking at 53 different websites and I swear not a one of them is worth $20 Have you run into any industries that historically have terrible websites? Have a great Christmas everybody! Matthew

I have a guy who wants SEO help. Actually he owns several companies and is willing to put my ad before all the movies in a local theater plus an ad AND a Q&A section about SEO and Internet marketing in a small newspaper he mails to 7k businesses every month in exchange for my help. While I am excited about the exposure and I'm sure it would result in some business I'm not excited about touching anything related to gambling at ALL. Am I right in thinking this or should I treat it like just another client? He has a site where he teaches people how to win at video keno and sells this info packet. Porn and gambling. Everything I have read and heard is geared towards sites like this NOT coming up in search engines. Thoughts? Thanks and have an AWESOME week! Matthew

Does anybody do this? With success? I keep finding industries right here in my local area (concrete work, home security, painting) that have 4-5 local companies that are competing and NONE of them are doing even the most BASIC items to seo their site or capitalize on ANYTHING online. I could pick 7-8 of these industries and have somebody who works for me spend a couple hours a week on each building links and writing a half way interesting blog post, etc. and once they rank higher than most of the competition sell em for 2-3 grand I bet, especially since I can prove how much traffic they are getting. Thoughts? Thanks for weighing in. Matthew

To clarify, I am in the running to be awarded a project by a college in my area. They want to pay NOTHING for me to have my designers and developers build a site for them. If I don't want it several other companies will do it (or so they say). This site will be used to promote an event that is held annually in different major cities around the world. (online registration, pay online, etc) The weird part to me is the governing body of this event has the hosting city build their own website and promote the event on their own so every year they reinvent the wheel with a whole new website (not smart I know). **Is this worth it for me? ** The attendees will be almost exclusively from colleges and all have edu. websites and emails they will be using to register. There will be about 1,000 attendees I do get a link giving my company credit for building the site at the bottom of every page BUT..... I realize any love my site gets from the search engines will be next to nothing, right? (its a BRAND new domain and by the time it start getting any recognition the event will be over and it will be abandoned plus it will be watered down bcs they can tell its a site I built). Is it possible that when one of the attendees tweets or links to the page my site could get a little love? If I impress my contact that is sending me this 'business' I know it will turn into more paying work.............. **Thoughts? Opinion? Is there a silver lining i'm missing? Is this a dumb move? ** Thank you for your time and any response! Matthew

This is a follow up to a previous question actually: My client has one domain that has 'hardwood flooring' in it and one that has 'concrete polishing' in it - both services they offer. **Would it be wise (for seo purposes) to have them both point to ONE domain (more general of course) ** **- They only have a few local competitors that aren't doing anything to rank well. ** **- They aren't trying to rank nationally. ** If the smart thing to do is to have them point to one (more general) domain using a 301 direct will there traffic drop significantly? (at least for a short time) Does it matter if they continue to keep the existing domains they are using now on their literature, business cards, etc. and let them continue pointing to the new domain or should they really start promoting the new domain name? (They do NOT want to do this). My only concern is saving them time and money by not having to build links, submit articles, social media, on and on for two different sites OK, that's like 3 questions Thank you VERY much for any thoughts or opinions on the matter! 🙂 Have a great week everybody! Matthew

When does one matter more than the other? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Matthew

My client does hardwood flooring AND concrete polishing. He has one domain for hardwood flooring and the other website is for concrete polishing. (separate domain) Building traffic, links, authority for two sites is going to take MUCH longer for two separate domains than if they focused their effort on just ONE domain. **Any suggestions on how best to handle this? ** One of the domains is 8 years old and has 736 links pointing to it (not many of them are very good). The other one is much newer and it has 1,269 links pointing to it. What doesn't help is the first domain specifically spells out "hardwoodflooring' and the other has 'concretepolishing' in it. Keep em separate or forward them to a more universal sounding domain name? www.billybobsflooring.com for example? Thank you for ANY suggestions! 🙂 Have a great Halloween everybody, Matthew

I have struggled with the best way to charge my clients FOREVER it seems and I think I finally have decided on how to proceed! ANY suggestions would be greatly appreciated! (I have read the seomoz blog posts about the subject, the Art of SEO and Search Engine Optimization Secrets book and tons of blogs, etc). I got into this business because of what I was able to accomplish with my party rental companies website and what I had studied and read for months and months. Without knowing any better I tried to get into SEO and online marketing and fell straight into designing websites and subcontractors and hosting and everything EXCEPT seo work! sound familiar? I CAN'T be the only one this happened to 🙂 I have regrouped and finally gotten my FIRST pure SEO client. They agreed to pay me $3,000 over 6 months for JUST recommendations with monthly reporting on traffic, # of links, etc. My plan is to charge clients X amount of dollars broken up over 6 months - $2-5k. (that will include monthly reporting) for a list of recommendations. (on page, link opportunities, design suggestions, kw suggestions, email campaign, on and on).  NO MORE $400-500 FOR A WHOLE WEBSITE - INCLUDING CONTENT CREATION! (I was stupid enough to do this - TWICE! I like doing it this way so I can focus on giving them maximum value right from the get go and not slowing spoon feeding my knowledge out to them or them getting burned out after 2 months and not wanting to continue because they haven't seen a miracle yet. I will justify the clients investment by dividing that lump sum by $75 an hour (low for some of you I know) and track the time I spend researching links, their competitors, their on page, etc. and include it in my monthly report. I plan to give my first client their report in a few weeks and it will be pretty comprehensive but not EVERY thing I can think of but enough to impress. They are welcome to pursue the links I found, make the site changes, etc themselves OR I will be happy to have ALL my recommendations implemented for them for a reasonable, fair amount. If they want me to do it I will explain my staff will be doing the work and it will be $25 +/- an hour vs. $75 Sorry for the long post and thanks for hanging in there if you read this far! 🙂 I would love any suggestions or flaws with my plan! Thanks in advance and have an AWESOME week! Matthew

I prepared a real professional looking website analysis packet. The emphasis is on it being VERY professional and classy, nothing cheesy about it. (If you want a copy send me a p.m. and I will email you one). It will take me about 8 minutes to look at their site and run it through a couple tools and and have a quick list of things that are missing. Another 10 minutes for my office manager to edit the template and print a good looking copy. My plan is to take out and deliver about 10 of these a day and call and follow up on them over the phone. My hope is that when they see the quality and professionalism of the report the chances are low it gets thrown in the trash and when I call I have a REASON to call and not some random idiot cold calling. **What do you think? Any suggestions? ** I have a lot of sales background and don't mind talking to people and I know the key will be in FOLLOWING UP which is what MOST people are NOT willing or able to bring themselves to do. I realize that giving away a 'free' report may devalue what I have to offer in some peoples minds...... thought about that. I am just getting started and only have a few clients but I HAVE produced great things for those few but I need to get the ball rolling a little quicker. Thanks for weighing in with your two cents! 🙂 Have an AWESOME week! Matthew

I know there are programs you can log into to keep track of how much time you are spending on a clients site Does anybody have one they like and feel works well for SEO? Opinions on working this way? I like the idea for my benefit as much as theirs. I find myself struggling to make sure I work ENOUGH for some clients and not WAY to much for others. Plus I want to make sure I am staying focused on THEIR site and not wandering down a rabbit trail doing research and learning about something new on the clients dime. I REALLY like the idea of my clients being able to log into their account and seeing the status / progress on their account from MY website. I think I have only seen this 1-2 times so i'm sure it isn't easy. Thoughts? Have an AWESOME week everybody! Matthew

I have read the REALLY great post on YouMoz about HOW to push an infographic but I wanted to throw this out for discussion: I operate an seo / Internet marketing company but I am also a partner in a party rental business here in Wichita. I have the material for a GREAT infographic (I think) a copy of our party rental yellow page ad with a tracking # in the ad (provided by yellowbook to see how many calls we receive every month) a report from yellowbook showing we received 277 calls in a YEAR from that ad a screenshot of Google analytics showing we received 16,000 visits during the same time period. (12k unique visits) 300 calls vs 12,000 unique visits Of those 12,000 contacts we had 3,700 of them get online quotes and provide their name, address, email and phone number. Yellow pages = 300 calls / 150-200 actual sales Internet = 12,000 unique visits, 3700 leads and ... ? ... probably 800 sales This proves in black and white right from yellowbook themselves what an AMAZING difference there is in the value of SEO vs old school phone book ads. Does this have the making of a good infograph? Can you see where this would be helpful to show potential clients? How would you use this to promote your business? Thanks for your thoughts and opinions. If this can help others I would be happy to share more specifics. Matthew

I can't decide which is best for my needs for keyword research? I have heard a lot of great things about both? Does anybody think the free version of market samurai is enough for good keyword research? Thank you for any thoughts and opinions............ Matthew

I did some REALLY good keyword research for my specific industry and yes, it was VERY helpful and educational. Now what............... My site title has the keyword I want to rank for the MOST (highest amount of traffic) and my business name in it Meta description also mentions it (I have read this doesnt matter for seo and also read its starting to matter again) My main keyword is in the text of my site several times very well written and spread out. Also in the meta keywords tag and in some of the anchor tags and alt tags. My question is - What about the other - 6-8 keywords that arent #1 in traffic but still get a LOT.......How do I optimize for those as well besides mention them in the site content. Is that really the best place? I don't want to water down my ability to for my #1 keyword I identified but I dont want to miss out on others.............Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for your time and suggestions! 🙂 This is a GREAT group of people - Im anxious for when I can help others like I have received! Matthew

I realize the importance of keyword research and finding keywords where there IS demand and not TONS of competition and optimizing your title and descriptions etc AND content on the different pages for those same specific keywords.......... But.... What do you suggest I do to BEST optimize a site for a law firm that handles family law (divorce), bankruptcy AND criminal. It's one firm with 3 attorneys who specialize in different areas. I know SEO is challenging and ever changing and I read and study and have made significant, noticeable, improvements for some sites but I have to admit this is over my head. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance and have a GREAT weekend! Matthew

My name is Matthew and I am a new PRO member and founder of my own Internet marketing company in KS. So far I love the interaction and tools and functionality of seomoz. I am a true student of seo and love the subject. My dilemma is I know a blog is an important piece of any good seo campaign but I know very little about HOW to blog well......this is my new site and blog page. I only have a couple articles so far but many more planned. http://sawwebmarketing.com/seo-blog/ When I read an article that would be particuarly beneficial for my visitors can i post or share that on MY blog (giving the author the credit of course) without google thinking its duplicate content? is there anything specific I need to do with my blog for google to "see" the new, fresh content that is being added to the site? I have seen "tagged" items at the bottom of some blogs. Is this important? Some blogs will have a word or string of 2-3 words that are a link to a specific website. Does this help me or just them or just people reading the blog? **All I know is articles I write need to be relevant to my site and interesting and ORIGINAL and of benefit to my site visitors. ** Any advice that would help insure my blog articles get me all the juice they can would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance! Matthew ps - my site only went live a couple days ago so I am still working on a few onpage items but ANY feedback about the site itself would be spectacular! Have a GREAT weekend!

If i become a PRO member will my reports, emails, etc all show my logo or will my clients be able to see I am using this service? Thank you in advance for any feedback about being a PRO member. Matthew