Category Archive

Hello, local business owners! We know times are tough, and the economy is a bit shaky. But guess what? This is not the time to be timid and pull back on your online marketing. In 2023, it’s more important than ever. Here’s why. The Power of SEO First off, let’s talk about SEO. That stands for Search Engine Optimization. Sounds fancy, right? But it’s actually pretty simple. SEO is all about making your business show up when people search for things online. Imagine someone in your town is looking for the best pizza place. They type “best pizza near me” …

Hey there, floral friends! You know the thrill of receiving a fresh bouquet, the rich aroma of the blooms and the instant uplift they provide. You make that magic happen every day in your shop, but what about on the web? Making your floral business flourish online requires some gardening of a different kind, and that’s where Local SEO comes in. Let’s dive into it, petal by petal! A Seed of Thought: Local Organic Search First off, let’s chat about local organic search. It’s like the sun to your digital flowers – the key element helping your online presence bloom. …

According to the 2021 Local Search Ranking Factors report, your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business/GMB) is the most heavily weighted factor that influences your Local Pack ranking. (It even has a not-insignificant influence on your organic ranking, too!) It’s understandable, then, that making the tweaks and pulling the levers that optimize your GBP can be very valuable. And the temptation to transgress Google policy can be very strong indeed. Tempting for business owners, yes. But tempting also for SEO agencies looking for cheap quick wins to justify their fees. Which is why I’m so grateful that the first …

Most people know that search engines like Google index the URL to specific pages on websites rather than simply primary website addresses. As you can appreciate, if you make changes to any URL structures on an indexed site, those URLs can become invalid and result in HTTP 404 “not found” error pages. The answer, of course, is to mitigate those issues by having a website migration strategy. You can apply it to URL structures on a single website or if you move an entire website to a new domain name. Here’s what you need to know about making URL changes …

Congrats! You’ve got it all together. You have a small business up and running. You have a website that looks pretty sharp. You even have a blog, because every SEO company (including Strider) says you need to have a blog for some reason. But you don’t seem to be getting much traction with that darn blog. “Why am I bothering?”, you might ask yourself. It seems like a tremendous waste of time. And it is – but only because you aren’t quite doing all you can to make it work… to provide your blog with the opportunity to drive traffic …

So… you have a great idea for a small business. Now what? It’s a simple question, but for people unfamiliar with the business world, it is a daunting one. While it’s true that you could either buy a franchise or take-over a business already performing the same sales or service you wish to perform, for this article, we are going to look at things from the concept of totally new: How do I get from a great idea to selling and making a profit? It’s not something you can simply start up. It takes planning and intestinal fortitude (guts). And …

Everybody wants something for free—but while the old adage about “getting what you pay for” is often true, sometimes “free” can be a truly cost-effective and successful way for the small business owner to become more active online. When it comes to a blog, a small business owner doesn’t need all the fancy bells and whistles some platforms offer. Rather, what you need is something that is intuitive for you to use, provides standard options and technical help, and looks good to the user’s eye. For the uninitiated, a blog is a place to express your own thoughts—generally without any …

So, you have a small business, and maybe one or two regular clients—congratulations. But now is not the time to rest on one’s laurels, and is instead the time to double down on one’s efforts to build up your business quickly and efficiently. While we can’t stress enough the importance of setting up your company with a free Google My Business account we want to take the time to discuss website set-up for better SEO (search engine optimization) results. To do this, we are going to harp on the negative… things that people hate about websites—be they a large company …

You may have heard about Google My Business, the internet service designed by Google for business owners, but ignored it because who needs yet another “program” to learn. But here’s where you are missing out: by utilizing Google My Business, business owners can not only gain more local business, but YOU get to manage how your business appears when customers do a Google search for a product or service near them. Sure, word-of-mouth is great, but when it comes to searching for answers, the internet is the quickest and easiest solution. Keep in mind that when a customer is doing …

More of us than ever before are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of local SEO when it comes to getting our businesses noticed. However, there are a host of myths out there when it comes to this element of your marketing strategy. Here, we take a look at some of the popular misconceptions about local SEO and put them to bed for good so that you can get on with maximising your marketing potential. 1) Suite Numbers Affect Rank It’s interesting to note that many people sharing spaces with other businesses wonder whether having their suite number featured in …