You’re finally living the dream of starting an SEO business – except that it’s not exactly how you imagined.

You’re barely able to meet the expectations of clients. You’re agency still has the same amount of staff working on projects as when you started. Your revenue shows no signs of leaping anytime soon. That agency that you’ve been dreaming of owning seems to have turned into a nightmare.

I might be exaggerating, but let’s face it. There comes a time when you’ve asked yourself, “Where did I go wrong?”

But, don’t worry. You’re not the only one who has experienced this. Digital marketing agencies – even the seasoned ones – have hit a wall and made a few mistakes at a certain point. This doesn’t mean you let those problems stop you, though.

Problem #1: Manpower and Time Management

Find clients, pitch the service, send deliverables, then report back to clients – this is often painted as the routine of a digital marketing agency. That’s far from the truth, though. In between pitching services and sending deliverables is the actual work that needs to be done, and this is where most agencies often fail.

Some agencies like to be hands-on when it comes to fulfillment and delivery, and it’s completely logical because they want the best for clients. It’s this very reason that causes them to lose focus on what matters to their business: growth.

Giving 100% of your attention on delivery for existing clients means you’re losing time and manpower on finding new ones. This is a domino effect in the making. Without new clients, there’s no new source of revenue coming in. Without new revenue, the business reaches a plateau.

Solution: Don’t Take Everything on Your Own

You can’t micromanage your way into everything. There are bigger things that you need to focus on, and you can’t do this if you’re stuck doing keyword research for one client and building links for another. To put it simply, there’s a clear distinction between getting things done for your clients and doing things for your clients on your own.  

Sometimes, it’s best to free your hands of work and pass off the hat. One route you can take is by getting white label SEO services. The beauty about going on the white label track is everything will still be under your agency’s brand even if somebody else is doing the heavy lifting.

White label SEO companies offer reseller programs that cover the needs of your agency in terms of client deliverables. Think of them as your team doing the backend work while you go about your daily rounds of talking to clients face-to-face.

It’s a win-win situation for everyone. You get more time to explore opportunities, take care of your existing clients, find new ones, and scale your business, all while giving clients the results they deserve and complete satisfaction with your agency’s work.

Problem #2: Not Using a Systematic Toolset

Working in the digital marketing industry is like a race. If you’re not fast enough, you get left behind.

To keep up with the demand of clients and show competitiveness in the industry, some agencies subscribe to tools for efficient fulfillment and reporting. It makes the work easier, yes. But, with the amount of integrations you make and the process of cross-checking data from one tool to another, you’ll soon realize how unsystematic you’ve been all along.

In the end, you’re wasting time and effort.

Solution: You Don’t Need Everything –  Just the Tools that Matter

You can use as many tools as necessary, but remember to choose them. Better yet, find one that doesn’t involve a lot of integrations.

Use the tools that matter

You can get these tools from some of your white label SEO providers. SEOReseller, for instance, offers a comprehensive white label dashboard that allows their agency partners to utilize different tools in one place. The dashboard not only provides an overview of what’s happening in campaigns for each of the agency’s client, but also includes intuitive features such as the Lead Generator, Marketing Automation, and CRM. With SEOReseller, you’re already solving two problems: lacking manpower and time management, and not having a systematic toolset in place.

Of course, tools would be useless if they don’t fit into your methodology. That’s another thing that you can cross out from your agency checklist if you start reselling SEO. As you work with your white label SEO provider, you’ll have a better grasp of how the tools you’re using are reinforcing your methodology. This allows you to save time, effort, and most importantly, money, because you’re investing in tools and strategies that have an impact on your agency’s and client’s bottomline.

Problem #3: Lack of Communication

Communication is a double edged sword for most digital marketing agencies that have the perfect balance of communicating with the clients regularly enough to be up to date, and at the same time, communicate deadlines effectively within their teams.

The challenge remains being able to ‘tap’ your clients regularly enough so they’re aware of your proactive contributions towards their success, be in relation to SEO, PPC, Social Media, Web Development or Reputation Management.

Solution: Plan Ahead – Your Team can Manage the Distractions

One of the most effective ways of managing communication is relying on a minimal set of factors that assist in planning your daily habits to help your business grow. This works in four directions: from your client to you, your team to you, and vice versa.

Let your team manage the distractions
Practicing the combination of setting calendar reminders through your email account, paired with the practice of Inbox Zero, prepares you for scalable communication with your clients.
Ensure that you have contingencies in place, so you don’t end up over-promising and under-delivering, the reality is that you want to under-promise and over-deliver for that ‘wow’ service factor. Lightweight communication touches with clients will help you get there.

Above all else, enable your team to work on your distractions. As an agency owner, your sole responsibility is to perpetually feed fresh clients and new business to your team exponentially to grow.
 

Problem #4: Not Trying New Strategies

Digital marketing isn’t one smooth road; you’ll be facing some curves every now and then. The difference between good agencies and the great ones is the latter are more accepting to changes and implementing new strategies.

If you’re too hesitant to try new strategies, fulfillment will suffer. Clients will see that what you’re doing now is not effective, and this results in business loss. The worst thing you can do is remain stagnant and plateau growth.

Agencies that know how to adapt to what’s current and have the confidence to implement new, scalable strategies are usually the ones that emerge on the top and be successful.

Solution: Don’t Be Afraid to Try and Test New Strategies

 

One word: experiment.

With how volatile the digital marketing landscape is, you can always find opportunities to learn. The more you expose your agency to innovation, the closer you get to finding out what works best for your agency and your clients. This is something that you can get when you start working with a white label SEO provider.

But, why do you need a white label provider when you can strategize on your own? Simple – you get expert knowledge from specialists. They’re trained to learn how the digital landscape works, so you have an extra set of minds to help you try and test new strategies. This also makes it easier to implement a methodology that suits your client’s business.

Highlights:

To sum, here are key points your agency should always keep in mind:

  • Focus on executing excellent service; your work defines you more than your pitch.
  • Hire the right talent to work on your distractions so you can focus on growing your business.
  • Leverage software solutions to manage your team, your clients and your time together.
  • Understand your business workflow and create scalable processes that can be replicated.
  • Don’t be afraid to test new tools and implementations to improve your business—the worst thing you can do is remain still.

This post was sponsored by SEOReseller.com, the leading provider of White Label SEO services and software.

Swonkie makes its UK debut at UnGagged London 2018!

The Swonkie platform will be available this month for UK digital agencies – and it’s being presented at the UnGagged Conference, as part of London Tech Week!

UK social media managers just got a new best friend.

Swonkie is a new social media platform that focuses on content creation, team collaboration and competitor analysis. Targeted for Agencies, Brands and Publishers, Swonkie makes easy work of monitoring your social media activity; it supports all major social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram (even Stories), Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, Pinterest, Tumblr, WordPress, Blogspot and Medium.

Everyone knows how difficult it can be to manage all your social media channels at the same time. There’s tons of content to be shared, to be approved, and more importantly, to be measured with a multitude of KPI’s. Time is a precious commodity. We’re completely immersed in swift news cycles and online trends that put a lot of demands on an effective social media presence. The endless social media nightmare: a lack of time.

Swonkie

This is the platform that can make your Social Media time really worthwhile. You can publish your content in one shot through multiple social networks while keeping your brand and social presence consistent. If you struggle to fully deliver on all social networks, Swonkie helps manage your team with real-time collaboration, editing and notification.

Swonkie

Even as you’re creating your posts, the platform advises on how to improve your content with an SEO analysis. Ok, so the time problem is partly resolved, but what about the analytics demands from clients? Swonkie tracks your accounts metrics, and any other KPIs (such as competitor performance) and automatically generates your reports.

Why is Swonkie so Powerful when compared to other tools?

  • Community Management: Reply to your comments and messages in one spot, expedite your customers feedback!
  • RSS Feed: Turn on your RSS feed, choose when and where to post and Swonkie will do the rest. The perfect RSS Feed mode for publishers
  • Integration with content platforms and SEO Analysis for content
  • Instagram Stories and specific Stories Analytics, plus Repost mode post
  • Most complete Analytics for Facebook and Instagram
  • Spy tool integrated to follow activity, track keywords, get rankings and competitors’ Analytics
  • Collaborative flow for teams

Swonkie

For more information, check out Swonkie.com – Use Promo Code: 2018UG60 for a free 60 day trial available for all Swonkie plansTo redeem the code, just chat with them on the platform!

And check out Swonkie at UnGagged!

 

Keyword Research Is Heading Towards Semantic SEO is presented by Webcertain.

Search engines are ever-changing, increasingly shifting their focus on user intent and behaviour. As a result, keyword optimisation is also changing, and calling for a more ‘semantic’ SEO. As people are online more often than ever before, search engines are doing their best to adapt to the new ways in which users are searching on the web, and improving their algorithms accordingly.

Keywords alone are no longer sure to match up the query with the user’s intent, and a different approach is required.

When selecting its results, Google now takes into consideration much more than the single keywords: it takes into account the semantic fields of the words, i.e. synonyms, connections, location, etc. The aim is to create a more predictive and personalised search experience; the rise in the number of answers appearing in answer boxes is just one manifestation of this.

The aim is to create a more predictive and personalised search experience

Keyword Research for Semantic SEO

Semantic search: The details

Semantic search works through semantic fields, which include synonyms, co-occurrence, related topics, and lateral ontologies. These allow search engines to understand the meaning of a certain word or phrase.

In the everyday world, humans use context to identify significance and narrow down the different possibilities of meaning that a word has. Search engines, however, do not have this luxury, and they give us a list of results which encompass all the possibilities. They then remember our choice to deliver more accurate results in future searches, taking into account things like user intent, country-specific preferences, and behaviour. This is why search engines give different search results for the same word in different countries.

To better meet the needs of users, keyword research is moving towards topic research.

This gives search engines many more elements with which to understand the true intent of a query. In topic research, one doesn’t think of individual keywords anymore, but of correlated entities.

To improve your website structure you need to keep in mind the degree of semantic proximity of the page content, as it considerably influences the domain name, sub-domain and sub-folder. If two topics are closely related, it is useful to combine them in a single domain name to enhance the topic authority; however, if they are very far apart, their presence in a single domain could be detrimental to both.

A semantic approach means rethinking website structures to have fewer but better-structured pages.

Recent changes in Keyword Planner

Currently, when searching the volume of a keyword, Keyword Planner alters the queries, combining different keywords instead of showing individual volume estimates for each keyword. Essentially, it groups keywords into ‘buckets’, thus reducing the keyword pool. The main reason why this is happening has to do with user intent. Search engines store information about user behaviour and use it when it comes to displaying search results. A downside of this change is that estimates on traffic and volume are becoming less accurate, showing averages rather than numbers.

It is worth pointing out, however, that the changes which are happening are not consistent and there is no best practice that works equally well across all languages.

For this reason, it is vital to involve professionals with first-hand knowledge of the language and culture who can accurately interpret the data in relation to the user intent.

For a more in-depth guide on semantic SEO, as well as the differences in other country-specific search engines such as Yandex and Baidu, click here to download the full guide.

Download the Semantic SEO Guide

Learn from one of the biggest names in Internet marketing and get access to his private tools when you join our SEO Masterclass!

Jim Boykin, founder and CEO of Internet Marketing Ninjas, has been one of the most respected figures in search marketing for nearly 20 years, and in this one-day event, he’ll cover every major area of the field, from analytics and technical SEO to social media, authorship, and reputation management, with a special focus on content and backlinks.

There’s a reason why Internet Marketing Ninjas is among the most highly regarded SEO companies anywhere and why Jim is in demand at conferences all over the world, and when you sign up for this class, you’ll get insider information on the secrets to his success from the master himself. He’ll also give each person who signs up for this course six months of free access to his private Ninja tools, a $3,000 value!

In a fast-changing industry like search marketing, you have two options: Stay on the cutting edge and keep learning, or risk everything. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, there’s always something you could be doing better, and when you sign up for Jim’s SEO Masterclass, scheduled for June 14 from 9 am to 5 pm, you’ll get the latest insight to help you grow your site’s visibility and outperform the competition from one of the world’s preeminent names in Internet marketing. Don’t miss out: Book your ticket now!

A Driving Force of the Digital World is presented by DueDigital.

“There’s still a disconnect between brands listening through technology and knowing what to do with the information they’re hearing.” — Didier Bonnet, CapGemini

The world, as we know it, is digital.

In this day and age, consumers are more tuned in and tech-savvy than ever meaning brands and businesses need to adopt new ways to engage, connect, and inspire.

Now, according to a study, 87% of companies feel that digital transformation is a competitive opportunity. What’s more, 51% of senior executives believe it’s critical to implement a digital transformation strategy within the next 12 months.

There’s a digital skills gap

In the modern world, people like to consume content, make purchasing decisions, stream music, swap information, share their thoughts, book ticket,s and pretty much do everything else on the go. Today’s consumer is also immune to plastic sales pitches and cheap marketing tactics – no sir, they need brands to reach out and speak to them on a human level.

Considering 78% of internet users conduct product research online, it’s difficult to understand why so many companies are so behind when it comes to digital marketing and the skills they need to do it effectively.

It’s plain to see that there’s still a colossal digital skills gap across a host of industries – and it needs to be quashed. Those who take measures to upskill themselves and offer skills that no one else can will be the ones will reap the benefits of ongoing digital success. That said, the key ingredient to success isn’t just taking a one-off course, but by committing to the rewarding notion of lifelong learning. And it’s not as hard as you think.

Due Digital.com: your digital guide today, tomorrow and beyond

It’s clear just how vital lifelong learning is in today’s digital climate, so let us tell you a little more about Due Digital.

In short, DueDigital.com is a cutting-edge informational hub dedicated to building and improving your digital skills and knowledge.

Whether you work within the realms of IT, software development, content creation, big data, online marketing, business development, UX/UI Design, or any other digital discipline for that matter, Due Digital’s intuitive platform offers a learning experience tailored to the individual, with updates on the latest conferences, networking events, courses, job opportunities, and an informative blog which offers the latest industry insights.

As a platform committed to helping businesses and budding talent understand digital transformation and invest in a brighter commercial future, Due Digital works around the clock to help people save time, learn priceless skills, and stay one step ahead of the game in a world driven by the power of the web.

Here’s what you can do by signing up to Due Digital:

  • Find your dream job by searching a real-time job board
  • Boost your CV and skill sets with tailored training opportunities
  • Connect with individuals and organisations that will help you achieve your goals
  • Follow topics of your interest and see what’s new in the world of digital

Plus, if you’re hiring or looking to collaborate with other talented digital warriors, this savvy platform can help you find the right people for you, your project, and your business. Networking is priceless in this day and age, and Due Digital’s platform makes it easy for users to build bonds with people that will make a difference.

Keeping your finger on the pulse is the key to winning in the digital world, and Due Digital will help you do just that. Oh and don’t forget, if you want to meet with other brilliant minds and gain new insights about SEO and digital marketing, don’t forget to come on down to our conference.

Being Successful when you Go Global is presented by Webcertain.

Ultimately, whether you’re going global or just selling to customers in a 10-mile radius, understanding your audience, what they need and where they are is the fundamental key to victory in your battle to get more leads.

At Webcertain, we think we know our audience: Digital marketing conference attendees love to relax and network over a drink or three after a long day of learning. So as sponsors of the first night’s networking reception at UnGagged Las Vegas, we hope you had a great evening and enjoyed a drink, or three, on us.

We also know that when you are targeting multiple languages and markets, finding out all of the nuances and differences that make each audience tick and understanding the landscape of each country is an exciting but scary challenge. And that’s before you even start communicating!

Don’t panic, we’re here to help. Our mind-blowing annual Global Search Report covers 50 countries and provides a quick, easy-to-read overview of the key search trends and behaviors in each market. We’ve selected a few of the most significant and interesting insights to share with you here – but the full report is free to download.

China

China has the biggest internet population in the world, with a staggering 721.4 million people online. That’s almost three-quarters of a billion people! And these people are not using Google. Instead, home-grown search engines are flourishing in its place, with 76.3% using the main search engine Baidu. Other local search engines make up the rest of the search engine market share, with 8.8% using Haosou, 5.6% using Shenma and 4.2% using Sogou.

India

India

India saw the biggest internet user growth in the world in 2016. A massive 108 million Indians have come online in the last year; that’s a huge 30.5% increase compared to last year. The growth means that India now has the second biggest internet population in the world, with 462.1 million Indians online.

Russia

Although Google reigns supreme in most of Europe, this is not the case in Russia. Instead, home-grown Yandex has the biggest market share, accounting for 56.4% of the search engine market. Google trails behind in second place with just 37.1%, with local alternative Mail.ru taking third place with 5.5%. Yandex is perhaps so popular because it was the first search engine to truly grasp the complexities of the Russian language and understand its (Russian-speaking) users’ intentions.

Norway

Norway is on the list as it boasts the highest internet penetration levels in the world. An incredible 98% of Norwegians are online, more than any other country in the world. In real numbers, this equates to 5.1 million internet users out of 5.2 million Norwegians overall.

Japan

Japan

Whilst Google is the top search engine in Japan, with 62.7% of the market share, its lead is not as strong as it is in most countries. Yahoo Japan is also a strong player, accounting for 32.8% of all searches. Bing takes most of the remaining searches, at 4%.

Nigeria

Nigeria saw the strongest internet user growth in Africa in 2016. The internet population has grown by 4.1 million Nigerians in the last year, a solid 5% increase on the previous year. This means that 86.2 million Nigerians are now online. And with internet penetration levels at just 46.1%, we can expect this upward trend to continue well into the future.

South Korea

South Korea is another country where Google’s dominance is far from assured. Although Google does have the largest market share, with 72.2%, home-grown Naver is also going strong, accounting for 21.2% of all searches. Another local search engine is Daum, which hoovers up 3.5% of searches.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

It’s a similar story in Hong Kong, where Yahoo has a 16.7% market share. Although this somewhat pales in comparison to Google, who lead the way with 80.7%, it is a significant enough chunk that digital marketers should take note of it. When looking at tablet searches, Yahoo takes a 20% slice of the pie.

Latvia

Latvia is on the list as it is the only country in the world with a shrinking internet population. Year-on-year internet user growth was -0.5% in 2016, equivalent to 6,700 fewer people online. The reason behind this fall lies in the population numbers of the country overall; Latvia’s population has dropped by 0.75% over the last year.

Czech Republic

And finally, the Czech Republic is home to another popular local search engine. Home-grown Seznam accounts for 16.2% of searches in the Czech Republic, with this proportion rising to 18% when looking solely at tablet searches and 17% when looking solely at desktop searches. Google takes the lion’s share of searches, accounting for 80.8% of all searches.

To get more in-depth insights, download the report and get access to Webcertain’s Know-How platform, which is full of reports, guide, videos and online courses to support international digital marketing expansion and growth.

And for those UnGagged attendees who are looking for some support with international campaigns, we have a further offer of 20% off your first order with us! Maybe you just need some keyword insights or landing page copy, perhaps you need a review of your geo-targeting strategy or your international PPC campaign structure, it could be website copy that you’re looking for – whatever it may be, Webcertain’s team of digital specialists cover 44 languages and have the native knowledge and expertise to make a difference to your global performance. What are you waiting for? Get in touch today!

All you need to know for moving to HTTPS is presented by SearchBrothers.

HTTPS is a ranking factor, make it work for you!

Google has made user security a ranking factor and now they are prioritising it. Sites not yet fully switched to HTTPS increasingly face a losing battle for SERPs. Switching to HTTPS has at this point become a business critical necessity, which is why ever more sites, especially in competitive niches dare the challenging step.

Switching to HTTPS does not have to be a big challenge for your online business, though. Former Senior Google Search Quality and international SEO consultant Fili Wiese has published the Ultimate HTTPS Guide – including all you need to know to benefit the making switch. The free guide addresses all related questions including all relevant how-to’s like the approaching the switch from an SEO point of view, allocating required resource, drawing up long-term planning and preparation, overseeing watertight execution and evaluating possible risks.

Beat your competition and reclaim your SERPs by leading your vertical by example! Read the Ultimate HTTPS Guide now!

 

The Lead Generation Ecosystem: From Traffic Sources to New Customers is presented by Straight North.

Online lead generation is more than just creating SEO, PPC and social media campaigns, and the reason why many companies don’t produce the results they want is because they don’t see how all of the online marketing components work together.

The “Internet Marketing Lead Generation Ecosystem” infographic created by Straight North, an SEO company in Chicago, serves as a visual guide to help marketers understand how the components of a campaign work together throughout the lead generation process. Additionally, it works as a blueprint to aid marketers in:

  • Understanding how multiple Internet marketing sources, such as SEO, PPC and email marketing can be integrated into one lead generation campaign to maximize sales and leads
  • Recognizing holes in your current campaign that can be causing poor results
  • Identifying new ways to improve your current lead generation campaign