If you are planning to hire a new digital marketing agency in Lebanon or the Middle East to handle your online marketing strategies and campaigns.

Or if you were burned before by Black Hat SEO agencies and your reputation online is damaged and decided to be extremely careful about your next marketing agency choice.

Whatever your case is, my advice to you is to do your due diligence and your research and to ask the right questions before giving the green light to any marketing or advertising agency.

By any! I mean any even the big names!

In order to help you with your mission, I wrote this article for.

Below you will find 44 questions to ask your next digital marketing agency before hiring it.

To make things even easier for you I have themed and grouped questions into sections based on the type of digital marketing services required.

The Sections Are:

Search Engine Optimization — SEO
Paid Search Advertising
Content Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Web Design and Development
General Questions

So sit back, bring a pen and a paper or simply open your notepad and write down your own questionnaire and concerns based on the list below.

Let’s start


Section One: SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

1. How can your agency improve our current search engine ranking? Your goal here is to know their process to spot if they are using black hat tactics and if they buy low-quality links. If they immediately jump to tell you about their SEO packages and the number of keywords they guarantee and promise they can rank your company or brand for, consider this is as a red alert sign!

2. What is your strategy to build high-quality backlinks? Do they have a professional team for outreach strategies and for building high-quality links or simply they build low quality and spammy links?

3. Does your SEO agency follow Google’s guidelines? In other words, does your agency play in Google playground or not? If you want your brand to live for years online you must hire an SEO agency that has the experience and knows how to make Google gives your brand long-term Karma.

4. How do you start my SEO campaign? If they immediately jump into implementing their packages without auditing your current website to check if it is penalized by Google algorithm updates (Penguin, Panda or Humming Bird) they do not know what they are doing and if in case your website is penalized whatever SEO tactics they apply it will never rank. (Be careful many SEO agencies in Lebanon and the Middle East do not know what technical SEO means.)

5. When can I see results? If they give you an exact date, consider this as another red alert sign since SEO takes time and in general, if your website is not penalized you can start seeing results between 4 to 6 months depending on your Niche and the competition. In some competitive niches it can take between 9 to 12 months, but once you have good results and your website gain authority the butterfly effect will start and your organic traffic will grow like a snowball.

6. How can I help to make my SEO campaigns successful? Always corporate with the agency and provide them with all the information and data they require and most important be patient.


Section Two: Paid Search Advertising

7. Is your agency a certified Google Partner? It is important to know if the digital marketing agency has employees who are certified in Google AdWords so that they know all the guidelines and the updates. Being a Google partner is important but not a proof that they can run profitable campaigns for your company, it is as I mentioned important to know that the agency keeps up with the latest AdWords news, innovations and guidelines.

8. What other PPC Platforms do you have experience with? Although that Google is the king in the Pay Per Click advertising but there is also Bing Ads which are very powerful and can help you scale your campaigns to new audiences and market.

9. Are you willing to share with us actual spending with Google Adwords? Transparency is very important, you should know where your marketing dollars are spent and how.

10. What tools do you use to run and manage our campaigns? Professional PPC advertising agencies have access to very expensive and useful tools to generate ROI for your campaigns which you can’t afford to have if you decide to run PPC campaigns yourself or in-house. Some agencies developed their own tools that you can’t find anywhere.

11. What KPI (Key Performance Indicators) and metrics do you include in your report? It is important that your agency provide you with an easy to read report including useful metrics like CPC, CPM, CTR, your ads positions, the conversion rate of each keyword and all the required metrics to help you understand how your campaigns are performing.

12. Do you have experience in other online advertising platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn? Facebook and LinkedIn are shifting the game from organic reach to paid reach campaigns, if you want to reach your audience on those two powerful platforms you must hire an agency that has experience in running, managing and scaling your Facebook and LinkedIn campaigns.


Section Three: Content Marketing

13. Ask for content samples? It is essential to check content samples by yourself to see the quality of the content. Some content marketing agencies used low quality and even worse spun content in their clients’ campaigns, so be careful it is your brand on the edge.

14. Do you understand our niche and the type of content we require? Each niche and industry requires a specific type of content. It is important to your content marketing success to hire an agency that has writers understand your business and what works best in your industry.

15. What type of content do you provide? As you know there are many types of content: pages, blog posts, images, infographics, videos, reports, whitepapers, emails/newsletters, and many more. You must know what type of content you will get.

16. Will you publish the content on our website? You must know if the agency will handle publishing and properly formatting the content on your website or if you will have an in-house team to do so.

17. Do you distribute our produced content to create buzz and increase traffic? Ask them if they will market your content for you or if you will have to do this in-house.

18. Do you strategically create sales funnel content? This is only done by professional content marketing agencies that write content to your audience in a way to convert them from visitors into leads into buyers.

19. How many pieces of content will I receive from you each month? As you know in the online world content is the king that’s being said, if you have the budget to get top quality content produced, published and distributed every day you will be in a better position than your competitors in your market.

20. What metrics do you include in your report? They must include useful metrics like traffic, engagement, social shares, comments and also more advanced metrics like conversion (how the newly produced content is helping your business in gaining new customers and sales.)


Section Four: Social Media Marketing

21. What social media channels work best for my business? Many social media agencies start building your social media accounts almost on all platform, well the question is: Is your target audience active on all social channels? No, they are not. Your agency should know what social media channels work best for your business and your niche based on your target audience and your planned goals.

22. What is your process to manage our social media accounts (especially on essential platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter)? Many agencies sadly automate posts to your accounts and charge you an arm and leg for doing so! A good social media agency manages your accounts professionally by posting useful and related content, answering questions and replying to comments and knows how to utilize social media to drive sales and profits.

23. Will your process ensure our social media presence reflects our brand? Every business is different and when it comes to social media management there is no one size fits all strategy! Your agency should create a specific strategy tailored to your business goals and your brand and should not apply strategies and tactics used before to other clients.

24. Could you tell us about your content strategy? Your social media agency should have social media experts and content marketing experts working together on a specific plan to achieve planned goals and results.

25. How do you measure social media ROI? Your digital marketing agency should be able to measure your social media marketing ROI. Social Media results are divided into two parts mindshare results (likes, shares, comments,..) and market share results (conversions, sales, customer acquisition,..) your social media agency should track both of them.


Section Five: Web Design and Development

26. What website projects did you do before? Can I see some projects? This is important since you can check the quality of their work before hiring them. As you already know for now every business is different and your website project will not and should not look like any of the samples, your goal here is to get an idea about the professionalism of the web design agency and the quality of its projects.

27. Do you use templates or build custom websites? This truly depends on your budget and the number of functions and customization your project requires. If you have a small budget and needs a simple website then a customized web template can do the job, if you want advanced options and a unique design then custom web development is your choice.

28. Can I see the design before my website goes live? Ask your agency if you can see the design so that you can tell them about all the necessary changes before your website goes live. Most web development agencies have a workflow process make sure your agency has one.

29. Will my website project be mobile friendly? Mobile is huge if your website project is not mobile responsive you will lose more than half of your market. Ask your agency if it designs mobile-friendly websites.

30. If my business grows will my website be able to help me scale my business without redesigning it? As your business grows you will have to add new pages to your website, new products, new services and new features, Make sure your web design agency designs and develops your website with that in mind so that you don’t have to hit the reset button and design a new website when your business grows.

31. Do you build E-commerce websites? If you want an online shop on your website you must ask your web design agency if they can build an E-commerce website for you. If you are not planning to have a store on your website now and planning to do so in the future, ask them if they can easily add a professional store on your website.

32. What type of maintenance do you offer once my website is live? Ask them about the support and maintenance contract. It is important to sign a yearly maintenance and support contract with your agency to ensure that your website functions well and without errors.

33. Will you do any On Page SEO to my website? Most agencies don’t do that since it is a separate service but if they do that’s great. It is important to have your website search engines friendly and ready to rank during the building phase.

34. Will your agency add analytics to my website? You can’t measure what you don’t track, ask your agency if it will add Google analytics to your website so that you can track your website metrics.

35. What type of web hosting your agency provides? This mainly depends on the size of your website project and on your budget. Make sure that they provide you with secure web hosting, good storage space, fast response time and enough bandwidth.

36. Speaking about security, ask the agency what type of security it provides? Security level varies depending on your project type, for example, E-commerce websites require a high level of security while with normal websites an SSL certificate can be enough.


Section Six: General Questions

37. What is your process to help my business stand out in my market? It is essential to hire a digital marketing agency with creative thinking and that really understands how to position your business as a leader in your market. Remember it is not about the services they provide, it is about how they can help your business grow and dominate!

38. Do you have experience in conversion rate optimization? As I always say online marketing is all about traffic and conversions ask your agency how can they improve your web presence conversion?

39. How do you measure success? It is important to know how your marketing strategy is performing and what goals accomplished as well as where your marketing dollars are spent. You must understand that marketing takes time; it may take months and even years to amplify what is working and drop what is not.

40. Did you work with businesses in our industry before? If the agency has experience with similar businesses before this would be nice, but it is not a condition to hire it or not since direct response marketing principles and marketing strategies work for all industries and businesses.

41. For how long my contract should be? In digital marketing, you will not see returns until 4 to 6 months. If you really understand marketing you know that it takes time to cultivate and grow. That’s being said a 3 months contract will not give you good results, you need long-term contracts.

42. What is your communication process? This should be clear in your contract, but what is important here is to know who is the key person or persons to communicate with and when you can talk to them and how.

43. When will you report to me? Usually, your agency should send you monthly reports, make sure that the reports are easy to understand and that they have a summary section.

44. Do you offer full digital marketing services? Successful digital marketing agencies strategically combine all the necessary digital marketing services in their clients’ digital marketing plan to achieve planned goals. Each service is like a piece of the puzzle (The Big Picture). They understand what services your business needs and what’s the best time to add them to your marketing mix.

That’s it, I hope you find this post useful and make sure the next time you want to hire a new digital marketing agency in Lebanon or the Middle East or in any place on the planet earth to ask the agency as much as you can of those questions.

Choosing the right agency that will be your success partner is critical to your business growth and success; make sure you chose the right one.

If you have any question feel free to contact us and our digital marketing experts are always ready to help you and to give you insightful advice.

Read the full article

I will not discuss elements of successful and high converting websites in this quick post; it will be another story for another day.

But I will share with you 10 short and effective website tips that every company in Lebanon can apply today on its website.

First, you must know that your company website is not a brochure! It is your company online presence. It must be your online sales machine that generates leads and sales 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If your current company website is not generating leads and results, then this a red alert signal that there is something wrong! In fact, a dangerous signal since it is a red alert.

A red alert because your competitors’ websites will capture and steal your target customers.

What also makes me surprised is when someone tells me in a strategy meeting session that he needs a website to put it on the business card!

Read Full Article Here: https://webmarketinglions.com/effective-website-tips-for-local-companies-in-lebanon/

Before diving into the details of this interesting topic: Why your company website is killing your business and how to solve that

Let me ask you some questions:

When did you purchase your company website and from whom?

Does it enhance or detract from your business goals and mission?

How many people visit your company website every hour, day, week, or month?

What do they do when they get there? Do they find what they are looking for?

What page do they land on first and why?

How are you capturing these hot leads for your business? (Or, are you even capturing them? Or have a strategy to convert them into loyal customers?)

Do you know the answers to these critical questions?

Let me rephrase all these questions in one question: Is your company website an expense (a liability) or a money generating machine (an asset)?

Come on now! And let us face this hard truth and opportunity at the same time, we are in the second decade of the 21st century! Trillions of dollars of business are being done online.

People are using their Smartphones right now and every day to search for your products and services, and if they can’t find your business, they’re headed straight to your competition.

Don’t you think it is the right time to audit your business website and check how it works (or doesn’t work) for your business or against it?

I think it is the right time now and I am sure you agree with me..

Ok let’s dive into the meat of this article, but before doing that close all sources of distractions and read this article careful till the end and most important take notes.

I’m going to share with you some valuable features of doing business online as pertains to your business’s main website.

If at any time you feel overwhelmed, or need some help with this, let me know by contacting me here and I am ready to audit your online presence for free and answer all your questions.

Common Issues Facing Businesses as Pertains to Their Business Company Websites And How To Solve Them!

Nowadays most businesses have websites and most of them get a great deal of their revenue from their website. Making sure that your business website is up to snuff, as it were, is critical for anyone doing business.

During my 12 years journey of helping businesses just like yours with lead generation and digital marketing strategies, I’ve noticed five sets of issues facing modern business websites.

They are…

1. Website Usability

2. Lack of analytics

3. Mobile friendliness

4. Secure web hosting

5. Overall website security

Let’s talk about each of these in order. Usability first.
Website Usability
Usability is defined as how easy and fast it is for your website visitors to find required information from your website.

Websites have changed dramatically over the past five to ten years.

They used to be static. Static means they didn’t change their dimensions according to the size of the screen they were being viewed on. (Phones have different dimensions from computers, for instance.)

Not only that, but the technology behind the look and feel of the website has changed dramatically as well.

HTML5 and Bootstrap have revolutionized the way websites look and function.

Of course, all of this modern technology doesn’t mean any sense if people can’t find what they’re looking for.

Are they looking for more information about products or services? Directions to your store? Contact information? Or maybe they are looking for testimonials and Case studies?

In addition to that, there’s the angle of sales psychology. You’re in business to sell products and/or services. How do people decide to take whatever next step they need to take in your sales process? What exactly does your online sales process (sometimes called a sales funnel) look like?

I guess now you had a better idea and understanding of website usability and it is time to jump on to the second issue:
Lack of Website Analytics

Have you heard before of Peter Drucker?

Peter Drucker, is a management guru from the middle of the last century, a brilliant guy, he said, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.”

“Analytics” is the term used to talk about the measurement of things (metrics) like amount of traffic (visits) a website gets, where the visitors come from, what they do when they reach your website, How much time they spend on your website, on specific pages, and what actions did they take toward your goals (If you set goals in your analytics).

Sadly, most business owners and managers have no idea and no clue of where their website traffic comes from and what it does when it hits their website.

If you don’t have any clue about your website analytics, you can’t optimize and increase what we call your “conversion rate”.

Conversion rate optimization is the process of increasing the percentage of your website visitors into leads and buyers.

The measurement part of analytics and conversions is not an easy task.

You need to use tools and various other snippets of code to measure traffic, click-through rates (how many people actually took action and clicked on links), and conversions (ratio of sales to visitors).

Measuring this is fairly straightforward, as long as you have access to the right technology. The harder part is actually understanding what the numbers mean and how to set and measure goals.

Of course, your main goal is to convert as many visitors into buyers.

But, what percentage of your website visitors should turn into buyers? And what is reasonable?

What percentage of your website visitors should end up on your list as leads? And what is reasonable there?

And, if the results aren’t what you want and not aligned with your overall marketing strategy, how do you actually go about adjusting elements and tactics so that you get better conversions? All of this takes the experience to figure out and put into action.

After all, marketing is an experiential process.

Do you know that:

Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.

And that 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business or a company with a poorly-designed mobile site. (socPub)

And this leads us to our next issue:
Mobile Friendliness Websites

Talking about usability let us quickly glance at the mobile revolution.

When it comes to mobile marketing you have three options: Dominate, Survive or Die

If you are like every other business out there, most of your visitors are looking at your website on their phones.

If that’s the case, and it is, what does your website look like on a phone?

Is it easy to navigate?

Does it load quickly?

Does your website brand your business in a professional way that makes sense for you and in a way that harmonizes with all your other branding?

Even more, Google keeps track of which websites are “responsive” and which are not.

Responsive means that your website changes shape, layout and even rearranges the elements so that it’s more easily viewed on Smartphones and Tablets.

In Fact, in April 21, 2015, Google released a significant new mobile-friendly ranking algorithm that’s designed to give a boost to mobile-friendly websites in Google’s mobile search results Called Mobilegeddon.

Amazing!

More than half of your website visitors are looking at your website on their phones? The question is:

How did they get to your website at first place?

The majority of them probably Googled your business name or at least something that made Google decide that your business would be a good fit for their search query.

For example, Googling “Spa near me” or “Facebook advertising companies in Lebanon” and then all the spas within a five-mile radius or Facebook advertising companies in Lebanon show up.

If your business website doesn’t pass Google’s mobile test criteria, then it’s not going to show up nearly as well in the search results’ pages as those that do. Makes sense right!

Google wants its users to have the optimum user experience. So, if your website won’t display and look good to Google’s users, Google doesn’t reward it with the best placement.

You probably don’t even know if your website has this problem.

If you do though, you need to ignore or postpone solving this issue. You will be losing a lot of business fast to your competitors.

Secure Web Hosting
Have you tried recently to visit a website and your browser, either on your computer or on your phone, tells you it’s not safe.

We all have seen this issue!

Well, there could be two reasons for that.

The website might be hacked and contain harmful viruses and malware. In that event, it’s actually not safe to visit and load.

Often, though, the website itself is just fine but the hosting of the website is not secure and lacks the necessary elements so that your browsing session is encrypted.

Encryption on websites is very important, especially if you’re browsing and visiting websites through public WIFI.

If your connection to the website you are visiting isn’t encrypted, a nefarious third-party could intercept the data going from your computer to the website and potentially use it to compromise your own website, steal your identity, install viruses and malware or more.

I know this sounds a little far-fetched, but it’s not! It is a serious issue since web security is a serious issue after all!

It is very serious so that Google insists that websites should have the necessary encryption technology installed and configured properly.

Even more, Google’s own browser, Chrome, is warning visitors when they’re viewing a website that’s not encrypted.

The question is if Google is doing it, will the other browsers and social media platforms follow the suit soon? I bet they will.

A quick note here: I not talking about e-commerce website, e-commerce websites require a higher level of security, what I am talking about here are normal business websites.

To cut long story short: The solution to this security issue is to have your host install the latest encryption technology on your site.
Overall Website Security Issues
Most business websites nowadays aren’t developed or built from scratch.

They’re built using Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress, Joomla or Drupal.

These platforms are open source platforms. They are free to use, and WordPress is extremely popular while Joomla was very popular CMS platform a few years ago.

WordPress powers close to 30% of all websites online and Joomla comes second at just 3.1%.

This is cool because you get a lot of developers and companies develop and create software that runs on WordPress.

It’s problematic, though, because being open source and very popular, WordPress (and all the other platforms) are susceptible to hacking.

What’s so scary is that your website could be hacked and you’d never know it is.

You may ask why Hackers hack websites?

Hackers hack websites and their hosting for many reasons, not all of which is to disrupt or steal the website itself.

For example, DDOS attacks on other websites are very common nowadays. (DDOS means Denial of Service Attack.) Hackers use automation and bots to plant files on other people’s web hosting and then use those files in their attacks.

Pornographers do the same job! Your website links could be now compromised and might redirect visitors to a porn site…and unless one of your website visitors complains, you’d never know about it!

The horror story begins when Google figures out that your website has been hacked!

It will remove your website from its index which means no one will find your website during a search. Your traffic, at least the organic part of it, will vanish and disappear.

And the story will not end here when paid traffic platforms like (Google Adwords, Facebook advertising, Bing Ads and Others) figure out your website has been hacked, they do the same. They quit serving up your ads on their networks.

A complete disaster! Since this will ruin your brand and on the other hand solving this issue by cleaning your website and removing this penalty takes time.

Don’t let this happen to you and your business! There are precautions you can take and software and tools you can use to prevent hacking.


Bonus section: Other Common Website Issues
The five crucial issues mentioned above happen quite frequently, and it’s very rare that I meet a potential client whose website doesn’t have at least one or two of these issues.

But because there are other website problems and issues that can really expose your business to catastrophic loss! I have added this section.

Let me ask you some questions:

Do you know where did the images come from on your website?

Do you have the legal authority to use those images?

Where did your website developer or web design agency get the pictures?

If you are like a lot of business owners, you don’t have answers to those questions and don’t have any clue where your website images come from.

And because of that, you’re potentially exposing yourself and your business to lawsuits, including hiring an attorney to defend you. Don’t think this scenario doesn’t happen! It happens a lot!

That’s not all, your website will also be filed a DMCA notice and will be penalized if proper actions are not taken quickly.

Another important issue which is not as ominous as the previous one.

Do you know your website speed? Does it load fast? Does it have unnecessarily large nonoptimized image files and other files that slow it down?

Web visitors are in hurry and they want sites that load fast. If your website takes few seconds to load is too long, your website visitors are going to one of your competitors’ website.

What about website integration? Nowadays, all online marketing platforms and channels should be all integrated together properly in order to create the best brand exposure and user experience. What about your integration? Are you missing any piece of the puzzle that could potentially prevent your visitors from doing more business with you?

Another important issue: Do you know that most web design agencies don’t understand online marketing!

They are coder and developers but not marketers!

When they built your website they will not implement best Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategies and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) Strategies because they simply do not know and understand how online marketing works.

All of these issues and many others argue one very critical point. If you haven’t had your company or business website updated in the past couple of years, it’s probably the best time to do so now.

Sometimes very old websites are hard to fix, In fact, fixing them will be waste of time and money it is like trying to repair a leaky boat. As soon as you have one leak plugged, another pumps up.

What you should do right now is to take a look at your website, both from the users’ (visitors’) point of view and the back-end workings and check carefully if you have one or more of these issues.

Chances are you do! If you do have some or all of the above issues don’t neglect them, I am sure you will not neglect them unless you don’t care about your business and your brand.

Also, don’t panic because my team and I will help you solve and fix all of these issues and will build your business a sales machine website.

A website that is optimized properly, a website that generates results 24 hours a day 7 days a week, a real money generating machine.

Bottom Line: Websites have to be updated, or even replaced, more often than business owners think. Technologies and things change fast in the online world, and in order to survive, you have to stay up to date with the changes, both from a usability point of view and from a more technical point of view.

We are here to keep your business on the top of the digital marketing game. Book your free consultation now.

Hope you found our post: Why your company website is killing your business and how to solve that helpful and let us know your thoughts in the comments section.

Read the full article

What always surprised me is that many companies in Lebanon build a business website and never update it for months and some for years; even worth they pay an arm and leg for a digital marketing agency and receive only good design but not a marketing channel!

I will not discuss elements of successful and high converting websites in this quick post; it will be another story for another day.

But I will share with you 10 short and effective website tips that every company in Lebanon can apply today on its website.

First, you must know that your company website is not a brochure! It is your company online presence. It must be your online sales machine that generates leads and sales 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

If your current company website is not generating leads and results, then this a red alert signal that there is something wrong! In fact, a dangerous signal since it is a red alert.

A red alert because your competitors’ websites will capture and steal your target customers.

What also makes me surprised is when someone tells me in a strategy meeting session that he needs a website to put it on the business card!

Seriously!

You are willing to invest in a website for the sake of putting it on your business card only!

I know you don’t have this mindset.

But let us face it, after all, you are not a digital marketing expert, you are an expert in your business and it is your digital agency responsibility or digital marketing consultant responsibility to guide you.

That’s why I have prepared for you 10 to the point and effective website tips which I hope they will be helpful.

Ok let us start,

If you prefer videos I’ve created a quick video for you here:

10 Effective Websites Tips for Local Companies in Lebanon Video:

Watch Video here: https://youtu.be/CTM2po0a2s8
Tip #1: Create A Compelling Layout Design
Your company website is your brand first impression in the online world, and the first thing your website visitors take notice of is the design and the layout.

A professional layout must reflect your company brand image and combine an effective use of colors, fonts, bullets, spacing, and typography to keep visitors around.

Keep in mind, It is not only important to wow visitors with fancy design, you must also give them the information they are looking for! After all, that is why they visited your company website at first place.

Tip # 2: Have Great Content

I am sure you have heard the fact that Content is king in the digital marketing world.

Without useful and proper optimized content every online marketing strategy will fail. That’s being said; make sure that your company website has a sufficient amount of useful content.

When I say content I don’t mean any content! But unique, useful and topic related content that your target audience WANTS to read, as opposed to being all about your company and business.

Remember it is all about them, not you, they are the lifeblood of your business, and they are your customers.

We all have the temptation of showing off, but when it comes to business and results use showoff content that only add value to the sales process and that build credibility.

Tip # 3: Keep Your Content Concise, Easy to Read and to the Point
Let us face it your website visitors are usually in hurry and needs information quickly, they are not looking to read a book in order to find what they are looking for.

Help your website visitors get what they are looking for quickly, cut out unnecessary and un-useful information and get directly to the point:

Use short paragraphs
Use whitespaces
Use bullet points and lists
Use headlines to help quick scans
Use Images and visual content
Tip # 4: Use Keyword-Rich Headings
Headlines are great for quick scans as mentioned above and also are great for Search Engine Optimization ranking.
Using targeted keywords in your content headings is great for helping your website ranks better in search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Do not spam your content and headings with keywords, only use them in a proper and useful way to break up longer pieces of content and to send your website visitors directly to the information they are looking for.

Tip # 5: Add Visual Content

Don’t bore your website visitors with blocks of text only; instead add some life to your website by using images, infographics, videos and visual content.

An image worth a thousand words and can convey your marketing message in a quicker and more professional way, videos are even more powerful.

Visual content is extremely powerful and can help your current textual content grab more attention and convert more visitors into customers.

Tip # 6: Make Web Navigation Effortless and Easy
Do not confuse your website visitors with useless popups, flashes and complex navigation menus.

Do you know the KISS principle? Keep It Simple and Sincere

If your website visitors get lost and confused they will leave your website and visit your competitor and I bet you don’t wish this scenario :)

For this reason always keep your navigation smooth, simple, and easy to follow in order to boost website conversion.

Tip # 7: Capture Leads and Build Your Database
It is unfair to write little paragraphs about this powerful topic, but as I’ve mentioned before, this post will be a quick one and I will write in the future specific posts on lead generation.

Ok, remember when I told you your company website should your sales machine!

Yup, you can achieve this by building sales funnels and capturing leads.

A lead in an online world is a web visitor that shows interest in your products or services.

But once this visitor leaves your website, there is a big chance that he will never return back again. Because maybe he is not ready to buy now!

Therefore, you should have a way to establish a connection and build a relationship with your web visitors.

The simplest way to do this is to have an email capturing form and social media “join us” calls to actions on your website.

Tip # 8: Make Sure Everything Works and Functions Well
Nothing can turn your website visitors off more than annoying music, broken flashes, broken links, slow load time speed, or web forms that don’t function well.

Do you know that search engines like Google don’t read flash websites and thus do not rank them well; also Apple Ios systems like iPhone do not open flash!

Talking about flashes, I know some big digital marketing companies in Lebanon that only create fully flash based websites and charge tens of thousands of dollars.

Do not use flash, I repeat do not use flash unless you are a well-known brand.

Instead of flash, use CSS animation.

Ok back on the track; always make sure you check your website to make sure that all aspects of your website function properly to avoid losing visitors.

Tip # 9: Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
Most companies in Lebanon and the Middle East area have traditional HTML websites that are not built for viewing on mobile devices.

We are living in a mobile revolution age and there is a famous say in our digital marketing world:
Go mobile or die! Why!

Millions of people use their smartphones each and every day to surf the web and search for products and services. That is why!

Your company must have a mobile-friendly website to avoid losing potential customers.

Tip # 10: Don’t Forget Calls to Action
Every page of your website should have a call to action that clearly tells your website visitors what you want them to do.

Calls to action are very important web elements that will help conversion and boost sales.

Be sure to add short, clear, and to-the-point calls to action on your website pages. Want them to call you, visit your company, book a consultation or email you? Boost your website conversions by telling them to do it.
Last but not least, I hope you find my quick website tips effective and that you put them into action to see tremendous results. and if you are wondering how to create a media-rich post!

hmm! just take a look at the one you are reading right now, or contact us for a free strategy session to help you boost your digital marketing results.

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My Rule of Seven is simple. It’s what I teach my kids. It’s what I’ve taught myself, based on something I learned from one of my mentors, and it’s what I expect from myself and those I employ. It’s not seven rules, it’s one rule about seven things. See, I believe that in everything we do, to be successful at it, we have to learn and master up to 7 things; that being successful is not about learning and doing a million things at once, but learning and doing up to seven things, a million times. What are those seven things? That I can’t tell you, specifically. For everyone it’s different. The seven things are the seven behaviors or skills you’ve perfected — or need to perfect — to be the best at what you do; seven “masteries” or “seven competencies” that you must master; the seven things you do efficiently, or most effectively, and most successfully. Now, depending on what you do, there may only be four things, or five, but there should never be more than seven. When you get past seven, you’re trying to do too much, and it all begins to work against you. Psychologists and physicists both call it the “magical number seven” — the tendency of the brain’s working memory to limit itself to processing seven things at a time. Again, I can’t tell you exactly what those seven things are, you have to determine YOUR seven things yourself. For everyone, and for every profession, it’s different.

Ever notice how some actors seem to always play the same “part,” but in different movies, almost to the point of predictability? It’s not because they can only play that particular part, it’s because they’ve mastered a specific type of character or presence, backed by a specific set of competencies. You can’t imagine Chuck Norris doing a love story as much as you can’t imagine Audrey Hepburn doing an karate-action movie. That’s not to say an actor won’t accept the challenge of working outside their core competencies, it’s just that when they do, it’s usually not for the money, it’s for the challenge. It’s a gamble they take, knowing they can always fall back on their core competencies — that it won’t affect their current level of success — and that they can always go back to doing what they do best if they fail.

Challenges aside, the quickest path to success is to limit the challenges by identifying and maximizing the specific skills you’re good at, then honing those skills to be even better at them. If you’re trying to be good at too many things at once, you’ll be the best at none of them. Success requires concentration of effort. In math, we learn the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. In physics we learn that we can “shorten” that distance by projecting ourselves faster from that one point to the next. In order to do that though, we must streamline or concentrate the effort, adding energy and thrust. Consider a box of bricks sitting on a launch pad. It’s the same distance to the moon for that box of bricks as it is for that aerodynamic rocket on the launchpad next to it. One, however, will get to the moon, because it has the seven core competencies required to get there; the other, well, is a box of bricks — it’s seven core competencies are totally different.

For many of us, we’re somewhere in the middle, between the box of bricks and the rocket, yet still trying to get to the moon. And while our moons (goals) are all different, the physics to reach them is the same: it all comes down to concentration of effort.

Concentrating your effort means identifying your key intellectual and/or physical resources (competencies) and exploiting them and JUST them. Forget about everything else. The other competencies you need can easily be outsourced, or if you’re resourceful enough, or one of your key competencies is imagination, you’ll figure out a way. Chuck Norris is great at action movies because he has the physical ability. Audrey Hepburn was cute as button. Both however have/had the ability to deliver lines and act. If you wanted to add a love story to a Chuck Norris action movie, you added a cute Korean girl. If you wanted to add action to an Audrey Hepburn love story, you outsourced the action to Hugh Griffith. All of us have at least ONE core competency. Most have three or four. Seven is the ideal number. More than seven is too many. Not that it’s impossible, it’s just that when you get to that level, you begin running the risk of just being “good” at more than seven things and not being the “best” at them. Don’t fool yourself. Limit yourself to seven or less, and streamline your rocket.

Maybe you’re “just” a janitor or a server and not an actor or businessperson. You still have core competencies. What makes you a great janitor? Is it your attention to detail? THAT is a core competency. Competencies don’t have to be skills, per se, like sculpting or cooking. Are you a great server because you’re great with people? THAT is a core competency. What other core competencies can you identify? Are you a janitor who is also great with people? Are you a server who is also great at managing people? Add in a few other core competencies and maybe the janitor is now running their own successful janitorial service and the server is now running their own successful restaurant. Maybe the janitor is great at everything but sales. So they outsource sales to a talented salesperson whose core competencies include sales. Maybe the server is great with people and presentation, but can’t cook. So they outsource that part to a chef.

Bill Gates was an awesome programmer, one of the best ever. He wasn’t much of a businessman though, and kind of an introvert — not exactly a social butterfly — so he outsourced that to Steve Ballmer. Steve knew little of programming but everything about business and sales and loved to be the center of attention. Together they built Microsoft into one of the biggest businesses in the world. Today we think of Bill as the kick-ass businessman, we forget that he’s “just” a programmer who identified his core competencies early on and was wise enough to outsource the rest. He is the perfect example. Steve Jobs on the other hand was a great businessperson, but not the greatest programmer. His attention span was far too short to spend hours programming. He outsourced his programming to Steve Wozniak. Together they built another one of the biggest businesses in the world, Apple. Jobs was aware of his core competencies, which also made him able to identify where he was lacking. He made up for that lack, with Woz. In both instances, Bill and Steve grew their businesses — and their levels of success — by bringing in the right people to offset the things they couldn’t do.

So how do you apply this to whatever it is YOU do? “I mean, seriously, Phil, I do _________, it’s hardly Microsoft or Apple.” Great question!

First you need to identify your core competencies. I can tell you mine. First and foremost, I’m a great creative writer. I have been since I learned to write. I’m long-winded, I’m able to create and carry a story, build anticipation, deliver a climax (hee hee), inject humor (like I just did) and realism, and ultimately satisfy a reader in whatever way I set out to satisfy them, whether it be to entertain them or sell them. THAT is my number one core competency. That competency alone has served as the basis for everything I’ve done, for everything I’ve accomplished (and a lot of things I failed at, too.) One could argue I could easily make a living with that alone, right? But then again, you’ll find a lot of “writers” in the unemployment line. Without my other six core competencies, I’d be one of them. I won’t go into my other six, because I don’t want to influence your own ideas of what yours might be.

I will tell you this, however, that “sales” and “computer programming,” while they make up the bulk of what I do for a living are NOT my core competencies. At one time programming was, but it’s since been replaced by other competencies. I’m still good at it, I’m just better at other things now. And so far as sales go, I’ve relied heavily on my other core competencies to make sales in the past, but I’ve since discovered it’s better to outsource that as well; thus keeping my core competencies at seven. In doing so, my company is now growing faster than it ever did before and I find myself trying hard to keep up. Ultimately, this will lead to me having to develop a new core competency, or even a new SET of core competencies, in which case, previous ones will need to be replaced. Again, keeping with my rule of seven.

Those other competencies won’t disappear, per se, but they will eventually be outsourced and replaced by more important competencies that I will need to be the best at, in order to continue growing my business, and in growing myself professionally, and my overall success.

Competencies are the things you do efficiently and successfully. They’re the things you are the best at. Whether it’s throwing a javelin, writing code, playing a guitar or serving beer with a smile — the best smile, ever. Take a step back from yourself for a moment and make a list of what YOU think your own core competencies are, then maybe ask a friend or two. You may be surprised by what they say. And that’s not to say you’re “stuck” with whatever core competencies you have now. You may discover you want to DEVELOP new ones. In fact, in most cases, you WILL discover you want to develop new ones; your success may DEPEND on you developing new ones to compliment the ones you have. Next to each competency, write a short sentence as to why you are the best at that. Try to list seven. If you don’t have seven competencies, or can’t think of seven, complete the list with competencies you’d LIKE to have. If you have more than seven, you’ll need to cross off all but the seven BEST. Be honest with yourself, no one else has to see it.

Once you’ve identified your seven core competencies, you have created a Resume for Success. The next step in my Rule of Seven is to apply those seven competencies to the real world. Spend the next seven days focusing on each of those seven competencies. Don’t neglect the other six, just simply be more conscious of one competency, over the others, per day for seven days. And if you added competencies you WANT but don’t have, when you get to those, focus that day on LEARNING that competency. Just one day each. For instance, if you’re “good with people,” for one day, pay close attention to the HOW and WHY you are good with people. Try to identify the key factors that MAKE you “good with people.” If you’re a great cook, what makes you a great cook? Is it your ability to follow the directions to the letter? Maybe your core competency is not actually in cooking, but in attention to detail, in following directions, in seeing a project through to the end. A great chef, for instance, is a great project manager. A great server can be a great salesperson. And so on.

At the end of each day, reflect on that day, and analyze that competency in greater detail. Try to think of other opportunities, either within your organization or profession, or outside of it, where that one core competency can be applied. By the end of the week, you will notice a pattern begins to emerge. You will discover things about yourself that you didn’t know before. You will realize opportunities that you didn’t see before. You will have taken the next step towards success.

Do it all again, for seven weeks, and I promise that by the end of them, you will quickly discover success — either more success in what you already do, or in something totally new — or at least find yourself on the path to imminent success. But regardless of whether you ACTUALLY do the seven days and seven weeks part, you WILL notice that simply identifying your seven core competencies, alone, will expand your way of thinking and open up new and exciting doors for you. Try it!

Take-away:
Phil’s Rule of Seven: Being successful is not about learning and doing a million things at once, but learning and doing seven things, a million times.

Great Article Thanks Phil Autelitano, Article Originally Published Here: The Rule of Seven: Concentrating Your Efforts to Fuel Your Success