The post Marketing Tip of the Day: The SEO Pie — Social Media appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Before we do, let’s take a moment to answer the question:

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

In a nutshell, SEO is a process that has the ability to improve the natural ranking of your website or blog in search results — leading to increased traffic, sales, customer engagement and overall growth. SEO is the connector between someone who’s making a specific query on Google (or another search engine) with websites and/or blogs that contain relevant information pertaining to the query.

We’ve all performed countless searches, right? And on the surface, it seems pretty simple. Someone performs a search — say with the keyword “plumber” — and Google looks for and delivers results that are relevant to this keyword phrase. This, in and of itself, is no big news. But the question is, how does Google decide which results to list? And why do some sites or blogs rank higher than others?

Search engine optimization is a large part of the answer to these questions. It plays a critical role in determining where a website or blog ranks in the natural (also referred to as “organic”) search results.

Let’s take a deeper look at how this works, and learn about …

THE SEO PIE

Part of search engine optimization is the selection and strategic implementation of optimal keywords into your website content. Keywords account for approximately one-third of the SEO pie — a significant amount, for sure, but not a complete package by any means. In the past, keywords were a bigger piece of the pie. Then blogs and social media came along.

Now, effective SEO is broken into three major parts: keywords, content and social media. Together, they make up the SEO pie. And in this tip of the day, we’re going to focus our attention on keywords …

Keywords
You’ve probably heard the term “keywords” referred to more than once in relation to your website. And although you may know they’re a critical element in SEO, you may be wondering exactly what keywords are.

Keywords are terms or phrases that, when implemented into your website, can help connect you with people who are looking for what you do. In other words, when the keywords you use on your site are in alignment with the search terms people use to find the specific products or services you offer, there’s a better chance Google will present your website higher in the search results.

That said, the quality of your keywords makes a big difference in how effective they are. Many factors go into determining which keywords are best for your website and blog, including:

• The size of your site
• How long it’s been around
• How many people are searching for a specific keyword phrase
  within the region(s) where you do business
• How much competition you’ll be facing for that particular keyword
  or keyword phrase
• How relevant a keyword phrase is for your organization

Now that we’ve got a basic definition in place, let’s dive deeper for a greater understanding of what I like to call …

Keyword Hierarchy
This is something I’ve developed over the years to help identify optimal keyword phrase usage.

Essentially, when optimizing content, you don’t want to have just one keyword phrase that you hammer on ad nauseam. Instead, you’ll want to create a well-rounded list of keyword phrases for every web page and blog post. Depending on the topic and the content length, this list could include 3–5 keyword phrases or more than a dozen.

No matter the length of the list, make sure every single phrase is relevant to the topic, service or product you “discuss” in your content.

Once you’ve developed your list of keywords for a particular web page or blog post, you’ll need to decide which are primary, secondary and semantic, respectively.

• Primary Keywords: As “primary” indicates, these are the main keywords in your content. Sometimes you’ll determine them in advance; other times your organically written content will dictate them.
• Secondary Keywords: Used less often than primary keywords, these are still specific to the website page or blog post you’re optimizing.
• Semantic Keywords:Used only once or twice, at most, these stillplay an important role in “rounding out” the relevance of the content.

As you can see, semantic and secondary keywords play a supporting role in the optimization of content. They’re good to use, but they don’t have the oomph that a main keyword has, typically for three reasons: 1) they have low search numbers; 2) they have high competition; 3) they’re not the main topic of the page, but they work tangentially to support the main topic. An SEO novice might use secondary and semantic keywords as main keywords — or might overlook them completely. In Part 2 of the book, we’ll dive deeper into primary, secondary and semantic keyword usage.

Long-tail Keywords
This is a fancy term for using keyword phrases that are typically three or more words long. Very often, what makes a keyword phrase long-tail is the fact that it has some “definers” or “qualifiers” in it, making it very specific.

For example, “dentist” is most likely going to be a strong keyword, no matter where your dental office is located. But I’ll bet it also has very high competition. Adding qualifiers to the keyword — “Dentist Madison WI” for example — makes it more specific and might have less competition from other area dental offices.

Keyword Density
The term “keyword density” is worth a quick mention here. Keyword density is what it sounds like: the number of times (density) a keyword phrase appears on a page compared with the total number of words on the page.

Over the years, I’ve heard SEO experts argue that a keyword phrase needs to occur a certain percentage of the time to be considered an actual keyword. Through testing, I’ve found this untrue. Although a keyword phrase typically needs to appear more than once within the content to be taken seriously by Google, it DOES NOT need to appear a certain percentage of the time. That’s no way to optimize — and that’s no way to write good, relevant content.

Next time, we’ll dive into the content slice of the SEO pie.

Ready to learn more online marketing tips?

You’ll find hundreds of additional ways improve your online marketing in my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing …

The post Marketing Tip of the Day: The SEO Pie — Keywords appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Today, we’re sharing some insights from my recent conversation with Camille Gerrick. Camille is a neurodivergent artist living in Charlottesville, Virginia. And while her narcolepsy and ADHD present challenges to running a business and doing all the normal things grownups are supposed to do, she prefers to think of these conditions as her artistic superpowers.

What does it mean when someone is neurodivergent?
Being neurodivergent or neurodiverse means that the brain is wired differently from everyone else’s. Some conditions that might fall under this spectrum of neurodiversity are ADHD, autism, and dyslexia. When you think about neurodiversity, it’s important to acknowledge that just because that brain is different, it doesn’t mean that it’s any less than a neurotypical brain. Instead, it’s more about focusing on the strengths that neurodiversity will bring to the situation. For example, people with ADHD may be notoriously bad with time management, but they can also be very passionate and driven. And when we’re interested in something, we can spend hours on it and not even realize it—thinking of our differences as strengths. 

You grew up as a kid in the 80s and 90s; how has that affected your art style?
I remember having a lot of really obnoxious outfits like these crazy patterns with squiggles and triangles and loud colors. The big scrunchies, the side ponytails, and I guess I just never really grew out of that, to be honest. Colors just make me happy. When I was a kid in elementary school, Lisa Frank was a big deal, and everybody had the folders with the cute rainbow animals and the trapper keeper for all their school stuff. And I just never grew out of that phase. Maybe it’s childish, but it’s fun. And it’s harmless.

I just started reading the Aesthetics Of Joy by a designer named Ingrid Fetell Lee. The premise of the book is that we’ve been taught through ancient traditions that the source of joy lies within us. But, a growing body of research is starting to support the idea that tangible objects can also spark that feeling of joy. In the book, Ingrid embarks on this study to find out what things spark joy, and color was one of her findings.

How did you get started?
It always sounds cheesy to say; I’ve been creative since I was a child. But there’s really not a time I can remember not being enamored with drawing or painting or the creative process. Growing up, we had this little kids’ table with chairs that had pockets on the back full of all our crayons and markers. I remember sitting at that table and coloring away. My dad is a writer and a musician, and my mom is a teacher, so it’s just something we grew up with, being encouraged to be creative. My mom was very anti-TV as well so that probably helped, if we can’t watch TV,  maybe we’ll make something. 

As a kid, I was always given craft special interest books like learning calligraphy or origami with a dollar bill, and oftentimes, they came with all the supplies you need to do what was in the book. Specifically, there was one book about macrame friendship bracelets, and I latched on to that book; I learned how to do all these different knots. I actually started my first business when I was in elementary school, selling macrame friendship bracelets on the playground. I would take my little box of embroidery thread and pull custom colors for people to make them custom color friendship bracelets during recess. Around this time, my grandfather, who owned his own landscaping business in South Florida – landscaping was a big deal – started having conversations with me about charging for my products. He’d say you need to think about how much it costs you to make it and make sure that you charge the right amount so that you’re not losing money. And then you need to decide what percentage of what you make you’re going to invest back into materials or growing the business and what percentage do you want to save. So from a very young age, those conversations about entrepreneurship were had through my grandfather.

You’ve mentioned throughout your story (you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out more) that you also cope with chronic issues like pain; how do you do art while dealing with those issues?
Yeah, I have a lot of chronic pain from when I was in the military and art helps me cope with that. With art, I get into that flow state where your sense of time, like physical sensations from your body, kind of cease to exist, and you’re 100% in the moment, focused on what you’re drawing or creating. I need that in my life on a very regular basis. It helps me feel sane. It’s something that takes my mind off these health issues – it’s a mental escape from really anything adulty in life.

Where You Can Find Camille:

• Website: www.camilovescolor.com
• Facebook: camillegerrick
• Instagram: @cami.loves.color
• TikTok: @cami.loves.color
• LinkedIn: camille-gerrick

This podcast and all past episodes are available to listen to now. You can also subscribe to Get Under The Surface podcasts on all major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.).

Want more from Cuppa SEO Web Design?

The post The Challenges of Being an Artist, Mom & Business Owner with Chronic Health Issues — Camille Gerrick appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Today we’re getting under the surface with Scotty Russell. Scotty is the side hustler’s coach helping creatives turn their side hustle into a full-time dream hustle. He offers coaching programs, boot camps, one-on-one coaching sessions, and free resources to help people get started on the road to improvement. Scotty is also a speaker and host of The Side Hustlers Perspective podcast. His passion to coach creatives stems from being an artist and designer himself, giving him the ability to understand first-hand the challenges and struggles creative individuals face. And today, we’re going to hit on some topics that include what it means to be the side hustler’s coach, embrace the suck, and how being selfish can be the best step to creating a ripple effect of selflessness.

I’m also a big believer that we should chase something new every year, something that excites and scares us. At every level, there’s a new devil. So every year, I find one new thing I can suck at that’s gonna push my business forward. In the beginning, it was sharing my artwork, just creating and sharing. I sucked at it. Then it was sharing my voice through microblogging on Instagram. I sucked at that. But then I learned I had more to say, so I decided to suck as a blogger, a public speaker, podcaster, coach, and now live streaming scares me the most, so I’m going to suck at streaming podcasts in front of a live audience. I’m just willing to suck at something new each year. 

F.U.D.
I do what I do because there’s so much Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (F.U.D.) in this world. There are so many things outside of our control, but what we do have control over is what we build for ourselves. You have to be selfish to find your gift so you can selflessly give it away. I want to teach people how to build something on their own to hedge against an uncertain day job, geoeconomic, or geopolitical climate that we’re all a part of but are outside of our control. What is in your control is how you show up, pouring yourself into something that you truly love, honing your craft, providing value, going all-in on yourself. It’s the idea that you can create a rippling impact way after you’re six feet deep in the dirt.

I ask myself, how can I make a lasting impact on people within my circle or influence people in different pockets of the planet? And then, set a great example for your kiddos and create generational wealth and change for my family tree. That’s what fires me up. Why live as the sad sappy Scotty who feels sorry because of my circumstances growing up. Life is about choices and perspective. There are so many people that would kill to be in this spot and kill to be in this spot.

This podcast and all past episodes are available to listen to now. You can also subscribe to Get Under The Surface podcasts on all major platforms (Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, etc.).

Learn more & get in touch with Scotty:

• Instagram: @coachscottyrussell 
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachscottyrussell 
• Podcast: https://coachscottyrussell.com/side-hustlers-perspective 
• Website: https://coachscottyrussell.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ThePerspectiveCollective/

The post Creative Side Hustling, Embracing the Suck, Fear, & Fatherhood — Scotty Russell appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

The image above is an example of what a well-constructed LinkedIn post looks like …Let’s dissect it to give insight as to how this post is using SEO, user experience and conversion.

Note:This same methodology can be implemented in your LinkedIn personal profile or business page. It’s just a matter of where you feel your post will have the most impact. For my business, I have many more connections on my personal profile page, so I post there and then simply share to my Cuppa SEO business page …

TITLE (HEADLINE)
What’s the Point of Having a Website Nobody Can Find?

The clear, emotionally engaging title is meant to connect with business owners who are frustrated because their website is not getting found — in other words, their sites are not generating enough traffic.

SEO: Whenever possible, I like to include a keyword phrase in the title of my LinkedIn Company Page posts. As you can see, this is NOT the case here. I always like to say, “Never sacrifice the quality of your content for the sake of SEO. Search engine optimization needs to support your content, not weaken it.”

Here, the emotional engagement I was looking for was paramount, which goes to show there is no one-size-fits-all solution for social media (or anything else, for that matter). Always take a moment to think about what your intention (or goal) is for every single post you publish, and then follow through on that intention.

UX: The title is clear, especially to those who are having problems with website traffic — and those are the folks we want to connect with. The title also offers a good UX to this demographic, because it shows understanding of a serious problem they’re experiencing. If people reading the post fit into this category, they might be feeling hurt (even betrayed) by their previous web developer who charged them a premium price for a sub-par website that isn’t performing.

The title is further clarified by the brief copy and imagery that follows it.

Conversion: As you might have guessed, conversion doesn’t come directly into play in the title. BUT, if the title didn’t have a good UX — say it was really long, ambiguous or didn’t have an emotional tug — you’d have less chance of someone reviewing the rest of the post and clicking on your link. That’s why I consider the title a “soft conversion,” or a conversion leader.

BRIEF CONTENT
Under our headline, the copy reads:

Cuppa SEO builds sites that get found, build trust & make it easy for visitors to become customers. Sound good? Find out more @ https://lnkd.in/eqrSePy

SEO: Except for “SEO” our copy doesn’t have keywords in it. And that’s OK, because once again I am trying to engage with readers on an emotional level — and connect with them in terms they understand. So if you’re wondering why my example isn’t chock-full of keywords, that’s why. Your LinkedIn Company Page post content (and title for that matter) may not always be optimized with keywords. If this is the case, it’s OK — as long as it’s a choice and not an oversight.

I’ve done a lot of testing and research, and I’ve found that even my marketing- savvy clients don’t respond well to words like “SEO,” “user experience” and “conversion.” They respond well to knowing that I understand their problem, and that I know how to solve it! Thus, the copy here offers solutions to the problem addressed in the title — in plain English.

UX: As you might have guessed, this content is good for UX because it “pays off” the title and adds clarification. It’s also on the short side, which also provides a solid UX. The shorter the better — as long as you’re not sacrificing a clear, engaging message for brevity. As we mentioned in the Google My Business section, the content in your post is an appetizer — not a main course. It’s meant to entice and engage readers so they are eager to take the next step, which of course is …

Conversion: Once readers have taken the time to read our title and copy, we need to give them a clear, easy path to taking the next step we want them to take. In this case, it’s visiting Cuppa SEO’s Web Design page. In our example, this is accomplished with a shortened text link (LinkedIn automatically shortens text links in posts; you don’t have to worry about it).

A note on content and text links …
These days, though, it’s totally OK to write your posts long form, as LinkedIn likes it when people stick around on their platform, and longer content (that’s relevant to the reader) can help accomplish this.

Another tip is to test out placing your text link in the first comment after publishing the post. This can GREATLY increase the amount of views.

Why? Because LinkedIn (and all other social media platforms for that matter) don’t like it when you leave their site. So, when they see a text link in your main message, there’s a good chance LinkedIn will present it to less people because it doesn’t want people leaving. Placing the link in the first comment is a loophole or sorts that still currently works … for now …

IMAGERY
It’s no surprise that imagery is a critical component of your LinkedIn Company Page posts, so let’s dive in …

SEO: The image is well optimized. The actual image name is: Cuppa-SEO- Madison-WI-Web-Design-UX-Services.jpg.

As we’ve discussed before, an optimized image makes your post easier to find on social media and in organic searches. Be sure to optimize your imagery as we outlined earlier in the book.

UX: Your picture/imagery is what I like to call your “stopper,” because it can literally stop viewers in their tracks while they’re scrolling through their Facebook feed. The picture is your instant UX meter — providing a positive, negative or neutral experience in the blink of an eye. If the image doesn’t cause a positive UX, the scrolling continues (which is why choosing or creating engaging imagery is so important).

Your imagery should always support your post’s headline and copy. When it does, the overall UX of your post rises. It’s all about creating a cohesive post so the reader doesn’t have to think about how the copy and the picture go together — because it’s obvious.

Conversion: If possible, make sure your imagery is clickable AND that it leads to the content you’re highlighting in your post. For example, when clicked, the imagery in our current example leads the reader directly to our Web Design page. But this does not happen by chance, so let’s discuss the process …

To have the imagery in my LinkedIn Company Page post to link directly to my Web Design page, the image first needs to live on my actual Web Design page. In other words, when I created the page, I needed to think ahead and use imagery that would also look good on social media. It needed to be sized correctly (so it fit well in within the parameters of my LinkedIn post), and have a clear message that made sense on my site as well as on social channels.

Once the imagery is on my Web Design page, when I add the link to my Web Design page into my LinkedIn post, LinkedIn automatically pulls the image into the post. Even better, that image is coded (by LinkedIn) to be a direct link to my Web Design page!

Now my image and my text link both drive people to the same place, which is a big plus for conversion (and for UX, too).

On the other hand, if you upload an image directly into your LinkedIn Company Page post (from somewhere like your desktop, Dropbox, or photo library), when clicked it won’t lead people to where you want them to go. Instead, it will only make the image bigger — which means you’ll potentially lose out on converting someone. Avoid this. Take the time to set things up right, if it’s possible to do so.

Want to learn more?
This post is an excerpt from my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, which contains many more tips to help you with your online marketing.

Thanks for visiting, and stay well!

The post SEO, UX and Conversion in Your LinkedIn Posts appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

What is the Marketing Treadmill?

Exactly what it sounds like … never ending tasks, social posts, blog posts, outreach, videos, webinars, podcasts, Adwords, etc. — that never seems to end and is impossible to keep up with. And whether you have a marketing team, or you are doing it all solo, it’s simply impossible to keep going at full speed day-after-day, on the marketing treadmill.

No matter how good someone’s advice is, if it’s not sustainable you only have a handful of choices:

• Get help so it is sustainable
• Choose another tactic that IS sustainable
• Or keep running on the treadmill until you collapse — this last one is not a joke. If you keep pushing yourself eventually you will break down and be good to nobody …

Let’s assume you don’t have the budget to hire help right now. What’s a small or medium sized business to do?

Choose sustainable initiatives that work for you long term. They include …

1. Improving the SEO on your website so you are getting found more easily. Yes, you’d expect to hear this advice from a web design firm that specializes in SEO — but it’s true. One of our clients, Lighthouse Healing Massage Therapy, doesn’t even blog, and yet they still acquire 4-8 NEW clients per month because of the SEO we’ve implemented into the site we built for them.
2. Get some citations using a tool like Bright Local. It’s inexpensive, and doesn’t take a lot of time to set up — and takes even less time to maintain (maybe 15 minutes a month after the initial setup). In case you’re not familiar, citations are directory listings — which are backlinks to your website … and backlinks are good for SEO!
3. Blog: this is often a tough one, as businesses and team members often feel strapped for time. Just one blog post a week can do wonders for your SEO and your organic ranking in Google search. In my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, I detail how to make blogging part of your work week so it’s more manageable and less stressful.
4. Be Visible: This one is going to look different for everyone depending on manny factors — so I will pose a question to you: what has been the most successful way of your being visible professionally? “Successful” being defined as — gaining something of value like customers, good relationships or referrals. Do you have some time each week to do some of that? HINT: this doesn’t necessarily mean more social media, and it doesn’t necessarily mean getting in front of hundreds of people. For me, successful ways of being visible include:
   • Keeping in touch/active with my professional relationships (Zooms, coffee, emails, etc.)
   • Speaking in public, online, and on podcasts
   • Commenting (when it’s relevant) on social media, and posting on social media

These are just a few suggestions — and that’s on purpose — as I want you to be able to succeed with them, not get stuck on the marketing treadmill sweating away the day …

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post Are You on the Marketing Treadmill? appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

The following is an excerpt from my book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing …

Getting your website to appear at the top of search results can be compared to how a raft works. Let me explain …

Imagine that you’re embarking on a whitewater rafting expedition. You and five fellow adventurers are ready to brave the rapids — and probably get soaking wet!

What would happen if you took your un-inflated raft out of your car and threw it in the water? It would sink, right?

Before you get into your raft, you have to pump it up to the optimal number of pounds per square inch (PSI). With every pump of air, your raft comes closer to its optimal PSI, which makes the raft more and more buoyant.

Half pumped, some parts would probably be above water and others below, but the raft would not yet be ready to bear any weight. Once you’ve attained the optimal PSI, the entire raft will sit on the surface of the water — even with six people in it!

Your website, metaphorically speaking, is similar to a raft. It needs to be “pumped up” before it can rise to the top. But instead of air being the catalyst to bring it to the surface, your SEO efforts help your website become more buoyant.

Every well-optimized web page and blog post is like a pump of air into that raft, assisting with your website’s “buoyancy factor.” The same is true for your social media efforts. Every optimized social platform, and every optimized post, is like a pump of air that improves the “PSI” of your website. As mentioned earlier, Google My Business is going to be the most influential channel for SEO value.

Want to learn more about SEO?
Check out A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, or contact Cuppa SEO Web Design anytime to schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss.

Stay well!

The post SEO & The Raft Analogy appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

What is a Backlink?

If you’re not familiar with the term, a backlink is a link from somebody else’s website or blog to yours. Backlinks are important because they have the ability to raise or lower your website authority in a meaningful way, depending on the quality of the backlinks you attain. I say “depending on the quality,” because not all backlinks are created equal.

Good Types of Backlinks

• Sharing a link, or someone sharing a link to you, because it’s great information that’s relevant to readers
• Links that come from reputable websites — with low spam scores and high authority scores (sites that have higher authority scores than your site are preferable)
• Backlinks that require some amount of editorial control. Examples include: guest blogging, directory submissions (citations), press release distribution, blog commenting, niche forums and community sites. All of these are editorially controlled (gaited). In other words, someone has to approve or reject the submission as opposed to simply being submitted and accepted (non-gaited).

Bad Types of Backlinks

• Paid links, which is a link that’s actually paid for (with money, a favor, gifts, etc.).
• Link networking, which occurs when two websites trade links, or link to each other in order to boost backlink numbers.
• Links from overly spammy sites. A good way to check for site “spamminess” is to use an application like MOZ’s Open Site Explorer. It’s free to use, and it will tell you the spam score of any website for which you are considering creating a backlink. You can also check sites that have already added a backlink to your website (with or without your permission) to check their spam score. While you’re there, check your site’s spam score, too!

What are Citations?

You may be wondering what citations are, as the term has more than one meaning. In this case, we’re talking about website citations, which are essentially directory listings for your website. They’re important, and luckily easy to build upon, especially if you use an application such as Bright Local. Bright Local helps you identify where you already have citations, suggests potential new citations, and SUBMITS these citations for you so you can spend your time doing something else.

Avoid Sketchy Backlinks Dealers

If anyone offers to increase your backlinks by hundreds or thousands in a short amount of time, that person is probably practicing questionable strategies to do so. And that can mean trouble for your website. In fact, large amounts of backlinks created in a brief amount of time can look suspicious to Google. If this happens, your efforts can actually work against your website, so build your backlinks carefully and with patience. According to Bright Local, “citation building should appear natural to the search engines and be built gradually over the course of a few months. A good figure to work on is around 25-50 citations per month.”

At Cuppa SEO, we’re sometimes even more cautious with clients, rolling out about 10 new citations every 3–4 weeks. Why? If anything looks unnatural to Google, a penalty could ensue. And if we’re building a brand-new website, nothing says “unnatural” more than 500 backlinks cropping up just days after a site goes live. Beyond citations, there are other ways to legitimately increase your backlinks — natural editorial links and manual outreach, for example. But no matter how you slice it, it’s a long-term process.

This article was gleaned from Joey’s book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, which is chock-full of tips and marketing strategies to help you grow your business. Want to learn more about backlinks and optimizing your digital presence? You can get your copy of A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing on Amazon. 

Need assistance with your website?
Contact Cuppa SEO Web Design anytime for a complimentary consultation! 

The post Let’s Talk Backlinks appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

I was lucky enough to be a guest on one of Tom’s recent podcasts (episode 434), and I enjoyed his humor and insights so much that I convinced him to be interviewed for our spotlight series.

In case you’re not familiar, our spotlight series always highlights amazing artists, small businesses and individuals that stand out from the crowd for their all-around awesomeness.

So, let’s get to know more about Tom and what he does …

1. Who Are You?
I’m just your every day multimillionaire guy next door who has never had a job. Don’t think I was born with a silver spoon. My dad taught me a serious work ethic and I feel my success is attributed to that work ethic combined with a massive customer service ethic.

I went to college on a football scholarship and by the time I graduated, and starting with nothing, I owned 5 apartment buildings and a hotel. Since then, I’ve been a freelance charter pilot, owned a nightclub where I was in gunfights and had bikers trying to kill me, owned a Practical Joke company like Candid Camera, and traveled the world as a professional speaker with 3000 paid events under my belt.

A Hollywood documentary is being done about my life (I thought you had to be dead to have a documentary about your life, but apparently not hahaha) called “The American Entrepreneur” premiering summer 2021. You can see the trailer here.

All this might sound boastful, but I want to send the message that if you’re not in the car everyday making someone else rich, you’ll have time to enjoy two or three lives instead of one. Hence, the name of my podcast is ….”Screw the Commute.”

2. What Do You Do?
I’ve been selling on the commercial Internet since there was a commercial Internet circa 1994. I didn’t make a nickel for the first two years until I got good training from the 31-year-old “grandfather” of Internet marketing Corey Rudl. Four years later I was an Internet multimillionaire.

What I’d like to mention here is another thing my dad taught me and that was to strive for excellence in everything you do. When you do that, people will notice and want to learn what you know. In this case I was striving for excellence in Internet marketing just to sell my own products and services. I got so good at it that people noticed and wanted me to teach them what I knew. So, I sell my own products and services and also teach others to do so.

From this came the longest running, most unique and most successful mentor program in the field of Internet and digital marketing, a unique Retreat Center where people come in from all over the world to study Internet marketing in the lap of luxury, and the only licensed, dedicated Internet marketing distance learning school in the USA (probably the world).

3. Why Do You Love Doing It?
All I saw from my dad my entire life was entrepreneurship and high achievement. My dad actually put the first electric lightbulb in Carnegie Pennsylvania and by 13 years old he had an electrical contracting firm.

I get so excited to see successful businesspeople and I get especially excited when I had a big part in their success.

Case in point: Young Ilya Pozin was a Russian immigrant working at Comp USA in Rockville, Maryland circa1997. He was a 17-year-old high school kid. As I was in there shopping, I noticed just about all the computer related questions were being referred to him. I asked him my question and he answered it perfectly without even pausing to think about it. I could see he was someone special.

I slipped him a note that said, “Call me for a job. I’ll pay you double what they’re paying you here.” He called and started working with me. At the time he was on a path to just get a corporate job like his immigrant parents had done. I taught him how to start his own business. He worked with me for a few years and then it was time to spread his wings. He just sold his third startup pluto.tv to Viacom for $340 Million. I told him next time I see him, he’s buying dinner hahaha.

So, I ask you, “Who couldn’t love being part of success stories like that?”

4. How Does it Help People?
I’m somewhat in the life changing business . . . at least in the financial life changing business.

I was doing a fundraiser not too long ago in Philadelphia and a lady came up to me in tears . . . actually I would characterize it as “blubbering.” I said, “What’s wrong?” When she could halfway talk, she said she heard me speak ten years earlier and she and her husband were laid off and were going to lose their home. She told me because of my speech she started an online business which saved their home and turned their entire life around.

What I teach gives people options to have a better and more secure life.

5. What caused you to transition from professional comedian to internet marketing guru and podcaster?
I’m always moving forward. The entertainment company and professional comedy came from a needed respite from the nasty nightclub world. As the comedy career took off, I was thinking there must be something bigger out there for me than just doing parties. That something bigger was professional speaking.

Pro Speaking
Pro speaking let me combine my business experience and my entertainment skills for much bigger money than simply entertaining. Part of being a professional speaker is selling your products at the back of the room. Prior to the Internet it was hard enough to sell your products across the street, let alone around the world from your desktop.

Arrival of the Commercial Internet
When I saw the commercial Internet emerge, I know that was my ticket to selling my information products on a much wider basis. I was basically learning the Internet just to sell my own stuff. As mentioned earlier, I got so good at it that people started begging me to teach them.

Podcasting
I pooh-poohed podcasting for a long time. People just wanted to hear themselves talk and nobody was making any money from it. Then a couple years ago new cars started being able to play podcasts from their dashboards. Podcast listenership exceeded XM Radio and podcasts were free. Also, in home devices like Amazon’s Echo and Google Assistant started selling hundreds of millions of units all capable of playing podcasts.

Then I saw people really start making money and that’s when I jumped in. The name “Screw the Commute” was a no brainer as I guess I’m pretty unique and qualified to do such a podcast since I’ve never had a job.  As I’m writing this, I just completed 437 episodes.

On Mondays I do a training session on something that’s either made me or saved me a ton of money and on Wednesdays and Fridays I Interview other great entrepreneurs like you.

6. Who is your favorite comedian, and why?
Two brothers Brian and Dennis Regan. They are just extremely skilled in mixing physical expression and everyday observations and occurrences that have me buckled over laughing.

Thank you, Tom, for taking the time to answer our spotlight questions.

If you’d like to learn more about Tom and his offerings, feel free to check out any of the following links:

• https://screwthecommute.com (Tom’s Podcast)
• https://www.ScrewTheCommute.com/automatefree (Free Business Automation Ebook)
• https://www.GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com (Mentor Program)

The post Fresh-brewed Small Business Spotlight: Tom Antion of Screw the Commute Podcast appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

With the advent of the pandemic we all know what it’s like to feel lonely and isolated. And I got to thinking, maybe that’s what a website feels like when nobody visits: alone, in a void.

Of course, I’m using personification here, as a website (to my knowledge) doesn’t have feelings. But this brings up an important question that every business owner faces …

What are some of the top ways that we can get more visitors to our website?

More visitors (traffic) would make our website happy (let’s just pretend websites have feelings). And it will DEFINITELY make the business owner who’s website is experiencing more traffic happy. More traffic means more opportunity to develop relationships with potential customers, right?

So what are the top ways you can get more traffic to your website?

• Create solid content that is customer facing. In other words, make it about them and not you — and address their pain points/problems.
• Blog at least one time per week. This will add freshness to your website (Google likes that), which in turn can help improve your search rankings
• Have your website robustly optimized with SEO. The six critical areas that need to be optimized are title tags, meta descriptions, headlines, copy, imagery and text links. Make sure you find a reputable firm with a proven track record to do this — and avoid retainer based SEO.
• Post regularly (1-2 times per week should be enough) on social media — including your Google My Business listing — which is the most important of all for SEO
• While we’re talking about Google My Business, it’s highly recommended to optimize your entire Google My Business listing, too!
• Citation (directory) listings are a great way to create HONEST, solid backlinks to your website. Using a resource like Bright Local can help you get dozens of legitimate backlinks that have high domain authority, which in turn can up  the domain authority of your own site — which is a very good thing …

Need help accomplishing some of these items?
My book, A Holistic Guide to Online Marketing, goes into depth about these strategies. Or you can get in touch with Cuppa SEO Web Design anytime to set up a complimentary consultation to chat about what you ‘ve got going on and how we can help.

The post Is Your Website Lonely and Isolated? appeared first on Cuppa SEO.