Cold Caller's Guide to Digital Marketing

Think of digital marketing as any way a business uses the internet or an electronic device to get the word out. This includes things like social media ads, email newsletters, and our specialty: Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It's all about connecting with customers where they spend most of their time—online.

Imagine Google is a giant librarian with a mission to organize the world's information. To do this, it has three steps:

• Crawling: Google uses tiny bots (called "crawlers") that are always exploring the internet, jumping from one link to the next to find new web pages.
• Indexing: Everything the crawlers find is sent back to Google's massive library. This information is sorted and cataloged in a huge database called an "index."
• Ranking: When someone searches for something, Google's complex algorithm instantly sifts through its index to find the most relevant and trustworthy pages and shows them at the top. This is the list we want our clients to be on.

SEO is the art and science of helping a website show up higher on Google's search results without paying for ads. Think of it as making a client's website as appealing as possible to both Google and potential customers. The higher a website ranks, the more people see it, and the more business it can get. Our goal is to make sure our clients are seen by their customers.

When you search for something, you'll notice the results page is split into a few key areas:

• Paid Ads (PPC): These are at the very top and sometimes the bottom of the page, labeled with a small "Ad" tag. Businesses pay for this spot, and their ad disappears once they stop paying.
• Local Pack: For searches like "plumber near me," Google shows a map and a list of three local businesses. This is often the most valuable spot for local companies, and it's heavily influenced by our SEO work.
• Organic Results: This is the main list of websites that are ranked naturally by Google's algorithm. This is our primary focus with SEO, as a top spot here brings long-lasting, free traffic.

Keywords are the phrases people type into a search bar. They're the words that connect a customer to a business. For a bakery, important keywords might be "wedding cakes in Fort Worth" or "best chocolate croissants."

PPC (Pay-Per-Click) is a quick way to get visibility. You create an ad and pay a small fee every time someone clicks on it. The traffic stops as soon as you stop paying. This is why our SEO services, which build long-term, lasting visibility, are so valuable.

A Citation Page is simply a mention of a business's name, address, and phone number (NAP) on another website, like Yelp or the Yellow Pages. Think of them as online phone book listings. Having consistent and accurate information on many sites helps Google trust that a business is real.

Google My Business (GMB) is a free tool where a business can manage its profile on Google Search and Maps. The information on this profile (photos, reviews, hours) is what Google uses for the Local Pack. We help clients optimize this profile to get them more visibility.