seo

Tips For Launching A Sacramento Business

Craig De Borba

Internet marketing could be the key to achieving a sustainable startup business in the area, no matter which industry you have chosen. But before you dive headfirst into a marketing initiative, begin with the knowledge of local laws, regulations, and guidelines and a solid plan for addressing each.

Launching a Sacramento Business

You’ve developed a great idea for a product or service. Now is the time to act on that idea! You might be anxious and think that Sacramento internet marketing should come first, but it’s more beneficial to work through the steps below. After all, skipping past key business laws could be a financial nightmare that stifles business success.

1. Assess Your Needs – Create a business blueprint that maps out every need, potential risk, and route for growth. Who is your target audience? Analyze the best location to fulfill the needs of that target demographic. If your business doesn’t have a physical location, Sacramento internet marketing will be even more crucial for exposure. However, you should still follow the other guidelines below.

2. Establish a Legal Structure – If you yourself are not familiar with business law, that’s okay. You don’t need it to run a business. What you do need, however, is a team of people who are familiar with the legal needs of a business. Consider hiring a business attorney and tax consultant who can help you build a legal structure. Depending on how you establish your business, they might need to assist you in registering with the Corporate Legal Unit.

3. Check Zoning Regulations – Check with the City’s Community Development Department before finalizing a location or signing a lease to ensure that the location is zoned for your type of business.

4. Finance Your Business – If you cannot finance your startup through personal savings or family support, you can utilize the Small Business Administration as a resource for other financing. You may also consider finding donors and investors.

5. Register a Name – Name your business and file a fictitious business name (FBN) statement with the Sacramento County Department of Finance.

6. Obtain a Business Operations Tax (BOT) Certificate – All businesses that operate within the city of Sacramento must obtain a BOT to pay a business tax.

7. Review the Hiring Process – Get a Tax Identification Number and an Employer Identification Number from the IRS prior to hiring. Contact Social Security to prepare to pay Social Security taxes. Obtain worker’s compensation information. And finally, register with the Employment Development Department after hiring anyone to figure out disability insurance, unemployment insurance taxes, employment training taxes, and income tax withholdings.

8. Obtain Permits – To comply with local and state business regulations, you may need permits that show compliance with building codes, fire inspection, and revenue.

9. Networking – Regardless of what industry your in networking has always proven beneficial for growing and developing business. Sacramento has a variety of networking events that allow for making the right kinds of connections. You never know who you will meet!

After finalizing the legal details above at the Sacramento city hall, you’re ready to pursue a SEO marketing plan, one which should always include a Sacramento SEO company. For most business startups, that means you’ll be hiring a local Sacramento marketing company with the experience and knowledge needed to capitalize on your specific industry within the organic local business map market in Sacramento.

Internet marketing that isn’t optimized for an area can be worthless, depending on your product or service. Keep that in mind when creating a marketing plan. For instance, if you own and run a startup landscaping business, you don’t need to reach internet consumers in other cities and states.

OnPoint Internet Marketing can ensure your business is reaching your target audience through quality website copy, SEO, social media marketing Sacramento CA, and online advertisements. We can build a Sacramento internet marketing plan that unifies your brand and funnels in new traffic for new opportunities. Business growth begins here. Call us today at (916) 293-0512.

Improve Your Sacramento Website’s Speed and Appeal

Craig De Borba

In a world driven by social media, businesses often forget the power of a well-designed website. Social channels are highly effective in reaching out to find new leads, but a website gives your business an online storefront, a central location where users can learn everything they need to know about your company. There are a few things to keep in mind for maximizing your site’s potential. Here are 6 ways to improve the function and appeal of your website.

Understand the objective. Whether you’re building your site from scratch or revamping your existing site, it’s crucial to have a clear objective. Is the main function to sell a product, explain a service, provide industry news, or a personal blog? Knowing these details ahead of time will help you design a user friendly layout for your site.
Keep it simple. When building a site, it’s easy to get carried away with fancy plugins and flashy graphics. But the truth is all of those will bog down your site’s performance and likely distract the user from your product or service. Keeping things simple doesn’t mean that your site needs to be bland and boring. Creating a visually pleasing site can be achieved without going over the top.
Clean it up. You wouldn’t want people walking through your place of business when everything looks completely out of order. Your website is just as important, if not more, than a brick-and-mortar storefront. Create a clean homepage that grabs the user’s attention and immediately provides a clear value of the site.
Keep your pages clean and organized with each page of your site serving a clear purpose. Don’t go overboard on pages, as too many pages can create confusion.
Reduce file sizes. Large videos, photos, and flash files slow things down dramatically, especially for users with slower connection speeds. Studies show that if a site functionality is poor, a user is far less likely to continue browsing and will likely not return. You can still offer this content by creating smaller files and putting larger files on designated pages on the site. For example, instead of putting a 10-minute HD instructional video on your homepage, create a video thumbnail that brings the user to a new page when clicked. That way, your homepage loads quickly, while users who are interested in your video can still access it.
Keep things fresh. Give users a reason to want to return to your site by regularly updating the info, news, and other content on your site. Using a simple plugin to display business news or posts from your social channels can help keep your featured content relevant and timely.

Your website is an invaluable tool that can help reach users virtually anywhere and bring in revenue around the clock. Keep these 6 tips in mind for your site and you could be seeing a dramatic increase in traffic. Are you looking for help with your website or online web presence? OnPoint is located in Sacramento and specializes in internet marketing and is a Sacramento SEO expert . Want to hire a SEO or are looking to grow and increase their digital reach? Get in touch with us today to discuss your needs and possible solutions.

Business Benefits Of SEO Strategies

Craig De Borba

If you are a newcomer to the online business world, you will undoubtedly have thought about search engine optimization, but may be unsure about how, if at all, it can benefit your business. The fact is, however, that without search engine optimization, you could have a tough time getting your product or service, however good, in front of potential customers. In today’s world, the business benefits of SEO simply cannot be over-estimated.

Why is SEO Necessary?
If you need convincing, consider what you yourself do when you require any kind of product or service — if you are like 99% of the population, you go straight to the Internet and type what you need into a search engine. If, for instance, you want an acoustic guitar, when you carry out this search you will get 41 million results, only 10 to a page — and how many pages do you scroll down? Almost certainly, not more than one or two — that is, only 10 or 20 of that 41 million — and 99.9% of searchers never even see page 2.

This means that, whatever you are selling, you have to make sure your site is in that top 10 to have any hope of potential customers seeing your product. SEO is simply the process of developing your site so that it satisfies the criteria, or algorithms, of the search engines, to persuade them to rank it as high as possible. It’s not about having a pretty site, but about how relevant it is to the searcher, and whether the site gives the user a good experience.

Small Businesses in Particular
It seems obvious that this is an essential process for any business: if successful, it puts your product or service right in front of the people who are looking for that very thing, at the very time they are looking for it. In addition, it does so without any advertising outlay or pay-per-click costs. However, while it works for all businesses, it’s particularly good news for the small business or start-up.

As a small or new business owner, you are likely to feel at a disadvantage in all sorts of ways — you simply do not have the networking opportunities, or the marketing and advertising budgets, of your larger competitors. With Sacramento SEO, you can compete on completely equal terms. If you can optimize your site to occupy one of the top spots, you can increase your market share to a degree out of all proportion to your size.

Brand Awareness
This leads on to one of the biggest business benefits of SEO — the increase in brand awareness and credibility. This has a lot to do with the psychology of search engine users — it is almost universally assumed that companies on the first page, especially of Google, are bound to be more trustworthy, and provide the best quality products. What’s more, appearing on the first page for your targeted keywords will increasingly associate your brand with those keywords.

Increased ROI
Of course, the fact that there are no advertising costs means that the return on what is usually a modest initial investment can be very high, compared with other forms of marketing. Plus, of course, SEO is one of the few forms of marketing that continues working for you, long after the initial cost has been paid. Nowadays, SEO improves your ROI even more, by helping set up Google analytics, A/B split testing, and conversion optimization tools.

SEO once had a bad reputation because of black hat techniques used to manipulate results, but the search engines have put a stop to these. Nowadays, the business benefits of SEO are beyond doubt. Remember that if you are not carrying out SEO, the traffic, sales and market share you deserve and long for are being enjoyed by your competitors instead.

SEO Is a Must-Have For All Businesses

Craig De Borba

Modern business owners need to implement search engine optimization into their websites to survive. The days of leaving SEO as an option are long gone as thousands of new websites launch daily. The competition is strong, and today’s society is one of instant gratification. More than 80% of consumers use the Internet to find what they need, and they use the top search engines, such as Google, to find it. They want what they want now, or they will move on to something else. Search engine optimization is a necessary course of action that can get a business’s website on the first page of the Google search engine results.

How SEO Works

Many strategies exist for SEO, but the main concept works off of keywords. Keywords are short phrases and words that a consumer types into the search engine to find a product or service. An SEO strategist can develop a relevant keyword list that improves traffic generation immensely. The expert can then incorporate those keywords into web pages, blog posts, videos and other items that the owner can place on the page.

Keywords are not the only feature that can improve business rankings. Other aspects of SEO that help to increase business rankings are link building, page analysis, reputation management tasks and more. All elements work together for an overall page rank increase.

The Revolving Traffic Concept

SEO implementation increases traffic, and traffic increases site rank on Google. Site rank on Google increases traffic, which increases site rank further. A business can continue to soar until it hits the top of the Google results page. The results can be long lasting with the help of a professional SEO team.

The Benefits of SEO

Professional Sacramento SEO experts have a wide range of benefits. The first is increased traffic. Increased traffic provides a greater opportunity for conversions and sales. The business’s reputation can improve with smart SEO strategies, as well. Furthermore, the business will be able to compete with other businesses in the area.

Optimize Your Site Today

A business owner can contact a local search engine optimization company today and inquire about its services. An agent or expert will arrange an initial consultation during which the expert will educate the prospective client on what the company offers. SEO experts can create a custom package that caters to the specific needs of the business. Modern business owners can stake a claim in the online business world by getting SEO help today.

SEO vs. SMO: What are they and why do they matter?

Craig De Borba

You’ve likely heard of SEO, but SMO is a relatively new term. We’ll explain the basics of both SEO and SMO and how they can be applied to your marketing strategy.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization and refers to the practice of optimizing your website so that it shows up well in search engine rankings. Why is this important? The internet is a big place with a vast choice of websites to visit. When someone is trying to determine which websites to view, users often first turn to a search engine.

Search engines organize information and help users find what they need. Search engines want to make sure they are providing a good experience for the person who is doing the search. As a result, search engines developed a system to help determine the best types of websites to show users.

The system the search engine has developed is commonly called an algorithm. Each search engine uses slightly different criteria, but the basics are typically very similar. Search engines tend to favor sites that are well-coded. They are also looking for fresh, unique and frequently updated content.

This is because search engines want to show their users the most relevant content, which in this day and age changes quickly. For this reason search engines like content that timely and websites that updated frequently. The practice of SEO is taking steps to ensure your website meets the requirements listed above to improve your chances for ranking in search engines.

What is SMO?

SMO or Social Media Optimization is the process of utilizing social media networks to promote a product or brand. There is a plethora of social networks to choose from, ranging from the giant Facebook to image-centric Instagram or business-focused LinkedIn. In optimizing for social media, you try to gain exposure using the networks that make the most sense for your business.

For this reason, it is important that you carefully select which networks you will maintain. Each social network has its community of users who have their own set of rules. This makes it important to consider the “rules” of the network you select to avoid finding yourself out of place or committing a digital faux pas. For example, LinkedIn probably isn’t the best place to post your workout tips. It is a great place to post information about how a workout business could market themselves, however.

This is because users on LinkedIn are typically business-focused and are expecting business-related information. Posting information such as workout tips meant directly for consumers on LinkedIn may be out of place. You could, however, put a unique spin on the workout tips and make them for busy entrepreneurs. Modifying the content in this way would more closely align with the LinkedIn community.

When managing your social networks, it is also important to enter accurate information with a clear description of your business, product or service with links to where people can learn more. As you add content to your social networks, it is important carefully consider your tone and messaging. Think of your social media profiles of an extension of your website. They should speak to your audience in a similar style and tone, with the goal of ultimately bringing them back to your website.

How They’re Related

While SEO and SMO are technically different, they have started to intersect more as search engines increasingly consider social media in their search results. However, both are excellent for lead generation. For example, Google has recently started showing results for local businesses with Google My Business pages in search results. If you have a healthy G+ page with accurate information, you are more likely to show up in search results. Reviews are also an increasingly large part of search engine results.

If you have been reviewed thoroughly on platforms such as G+, you have a better chance of showing up in search results for terms related to your business or industry. Additionally, sites such as Yelp and YellowPages are increasingly popular in search engine results. If your business is appropriate for a Yelp page, this can help boost your visibility in search engines. It can also provide valuable links back to your website, which enhances your SEO efforts.

If you would like more information about SEO, SMO or how to create and execute a marketing strategy, the experts at OnPoint Internet Marketing can help.