Alyssa Ast

As a business owner, you have heard the term “SEO” thrown around quite a bit, but what is search engine optimization? SEO involves a strategic process to increase website visitors (traffic). It is a somewhat broad term that covers various ranking factors that are necessary to have your website appear in search results. Why Do I Need to Rank Well? With more than 12 billion searches conducted on Google alone every month, it provides you with the opportunity to reach new customers that would not have found you otherwise. With this added visibility, you build your brand recognition and customer loyalty to improve your sales. You will see an improvement in your bottom line as you remain front and center with an effective edge over your competition. Although you want to see an increase in revenue right away, you cannot just jump to the finish line. You must have a roadmap to get you to your destination, which is SEO. Your overall goal is to have your website rank as high as possible ...

Small businesses with limited marketing budgets often ask me what's the best marketing avenue to take: search engine optimization or social media marketing? Due to their small budget, they feel they can only invest in one of the two options. Unfortunately, it's not an either or question. SEO and SMM go hand-in-hand. If you want to see real results, you need to invest in both-- not just one or the other. Small Business Marketing Many small businesses only choose SEO because they want a good ranking with high traffic to their site. So they spend time optimizing their site and develop a strong keyword strategy to support their blogging and content marketing. But, then they need a distribution outlet for their content marketing or they aren't going to see large results. The most popular and effective form of content distribution is social media, which is why you must invest in both. If you just stop at SEO, you're cutting your potential success in half. On the other...

Branding is the single most important aspect to creating a solid foundation to a business. Although many confuse branding with marketing, the two are very different. In fact, you can't even begin to think about marketing until you've established your brand. Your brand is essentially the face to your business. It shows your customers who and what you are to establish credibility and trust. Your brand works to build relationships with your customers to be the defining edge to push your business forward. Your business brand becomes the recognizable factor customers see when choosing your business over your competitors due to the trust and loyalty you've created. It's more than just a logo or a name. It's the very core of your business, your values, and your mission. In today's digital world, the secret to building brand awareness includes a number of factors, such as: - SEO -Website Development -Social Media Marketing -Public Relations -Content...

There's a common misconception among website owners regarding the amount of traffic they receive. Many believe the more traffic their site receives the better; however, this isn't necessarily true. Yes, you want to have as much traffic as possible as each visit is potential profit, but if the visits your site receives aren't relevant to your business, the visits are essentially pointless. But, if you target a local audience, you'll increase your profit potential and reach your SEO goals even if you don't receive thousands of page views. By targeting a specific audience with your optimization efforts, the views to your site will be quality views that will result in more potential sales. Along with the added benefits of a specific audience, you'll reach your SEO goals easier as you'll have less competition. Benefits of Targeting a Specific Audience When narrowing your focus on a particular audience, you'll find it's easier to create and implement ...

All SMBs go through growing pains, which are often attributed to the fact their budget just isn't enough to meet the current demands of their company. Often, SMBs become stuck in a rut because business owners want to take their company to the next level; however, the funds for the marketing solutions they need just aren't there. I offer marketing solutions for SMBs that will provide you with the results you want, without charging the enormous rates associated with larger marketing firms. Supported by more than 7 years in the business, marketing, and writing industries, I understand what it takes to launch SMBs to the next level. With a diversity of marketing solutions available and the knowledge and experience to effectively implement the marketing solutions you need, here are just a few of the benefits you'll receive: Website Development As part of my marketing solutions for SMBs, I will help you create or maintain a website for maximum visibility, function, an...

Search Engine Marketing is a vital skill to acquire to maintain visibility in the online world. Whether you are promoting a business, service, or increasing traffic to web content, search engine marketing (SEM) is just what you need! SEM is used in combination with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to increase a web page's search engine's results page (SERP) ranking, driving traffic to your web page. If you already know SEO, you are well on your way to learning SEM, for the simple fact, SEO is the foundation for SEM. SEM incorporates different forms of hyperlinks to increase traffic and can even generate a profit. There are many linking methods used with SEM, which all produce almost instantaneous benefits. SEM allows you to always have a steady flow of traffic by getting your links out into the online world. With this increased visibility, you are able to land new clients, find new customers, and generate a profit. Alyssa Ast offers Search Engine Marketing coaching to help busi...