100+ Things You Can Do to Book More Weddings – #98 Top 20 SEO Mistakes (search engine optimization)
If you are having trouble getting your website top-ranked at Google take a look at my list of 20 common SEO mistakes.
If you are having trouble getting your website top-ranked at Google take a look at my list of 20 common SEO mistakes.
This is something that can help you improve conversion and remove friction from the sales process. It doesn’t work all the time, but when it does it is solid!
Resources & Recommendations mentioned in my book “100+ Things You Can Do To Reach More Brides & Grooms, Get More Inquiries From Your Website, and Book More Weddings.”
A “sitemap” for Google will help Google “crawl” your website more effectively. It will help you get more visibility and better rankings at Google. Sitemaps are an important part of an effective search engine optimization (SEO) plan.
404 errors are problematic primarily for three reasons. First, error messages create a poor visitor-experience at your website. A poor visitor-experience hurts your brand, website conversion, and leads to visitor bail-out.
Blogging is a very important part of a successful Internet marketing strategy, so if you don’t have the creative flair, energy, or in-house resources to do it correctly consider outsourcing it to an experienced professional blog writer.
This is my favorite writing aid when writing website content as well as blog content.
One of the most common mistakes I see on Facebook business pages is the lack of links. Facebook business pages are a great way to drive traffic to your website, and one of my favorite TRAFFIC BUILDING STRATEGIES. But without links in your posts you’ve really missed a huge opportunity.
If you are having trouble getting your website top-ranked at Google take a look at my list of 20 common SEO mistakes.
Is your website working FOR you or against you?
LinkTree allows you to connect your social audiences to all of your Internet content with just one link. Use it in the profiles of your social media touchpoints.
There are many benefits of creating your website using a responsive design and using it improves conversion and will help you book more weddings.
Are you frustrated dealing with price shopping couples? Nick and Kate Storey are a husband and wife power-couple in the wedding industry who have a solution.
Here are several Facebook pages worth visiting and liking if you want to stay connected to wedding industry experts.
One way to get more followers on your Instagram page is to promote it on your Facebook page from time to time!
If you easily get stuck trying to figure out how to use social media more effectively, what you should be posting, what you could be posting, and when and how, this is a great FREE social media planning resource. I highly recommend it.
Are you a podcast listener? Podcasts are not only educational but in many cases motivational. Millions tune in daily to the podcastsphere. Here are 20+ of the most popular business and marketing podcasts.
Facebook Insights is a free analytics tool linked to your Facebook business page. It will give you valuable insight into how your Facebook page is performing and allow you to make adjustments in your Facebook marketing strategy.
Months or years of work on your Internet marketing strategy and website management can be wiped out in an instant if some troublemaker hacks into your accounts.
Well ranked pages at Google that engaged couples can find when searching will generate more high-quality traffic to your website, increased likelihood of an inquiry, and more sales.
Even the best of the best can’t close every sale. That said it can be helpful to know why a couple didn’t choose you. They won’t always tell you or necessarily be honest, but they might.
Blogging is a powerful way to promote your expertise, get better rankings at Google, get more inquiries from your website, and BOOK MORE WEDDINGS
Email marketing allows you to build trust, promote your expertise, and helps you establish relationships with new potential customers as well as nurture relationships with existing customers. Email marketing also allows you to extend your online influence, which is an important part of your overall Internet marketing strategy.
Email marketing allows you to build trust, promote your expertise, and helps you establish relationships with new potential customers as well as nurture relationships with existing customers. Email marketing also allows you to extend your online influence, which is an important part of your overall Internet marketing strategy.
Sending engaged couples who visit your website away from your website should be done carefully. It’s hard enough (and costly) to get high-quality traffic to your website, be very careful about giving them options to leave and how they do.
These five WordPress Best Practices will help you keep your WordPress website up and running properly, secure, and safe.
While there are dozens of questions you might ask a couple that you are speaking with, here are 10 questions that are proven to build rapport and get the ball rolling in the right direction.
A post-inquiry-landing-page (PILP) is a page that shows up after someone fills in and submits a form at your website. In other words, it is a page redirect after the inquiry form is filled in and submitted. Properly used, a post-inquiry-landing-page is a great opportunity to initially interact with an engaged couple, increase the likelihood of actually speaking with them quickly, and move one step closer to making a sale.
An email newsletter sent to fellow vendors is a powerful and easy way to stay in touch with your peers in the wedding industry, get more referrals, and book more weddings.
It’s important that what you use for a company name (N), address (A), and phone number (P) is consistent across the Internet. SEO experts call this NAP.
Slow-loading websites are the #1 reason people “bail out.” This is particularly true as we are now moving heavily to a mobile/tablet “remote” web experience.
Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website. I often refer to them as “inbound links” because I think that more accurately represents what they are. Backlinks are a VERY IMPORTANT part of a successful search engine optimization (SEO) strategy.
Chunking your website content, blog content, email newsletter content, and social post content, makes it easier for people to read and comprehend. It makes it easier to read on mobile devices and leads to better conversion.
Monthly Google My Business Performance Reports give you valuable information about your visibility and online presence with Google.
The primary goal of social media marketing is to extend your company’s online presence and reach. I also believe social media marketing should be used as a traffic building tool.
Use six to eight hashtags at the end of your Facebook posts. Experiment with different hashtags. Start by using the same hashtags you use at Instagram.
A well-written About page at your website will help you book more weddings!
When other websites link to YOUR website those links are known as inbound links. Google looks at inbound links to your website from others very favorably.
Checking your website from time to time to make sure it is in good standing with Google is an Internet marketing best practice. Falling out of favor with Google will make it harder for engaged couples to find your website. Here is how you do it.
The right tools make any Internet marketing easier and more effective. They will also help you book more weddings. Google My Business is a “must-have” tool available free from Google.
The right tools make any Internet marketing easier and more effective. They will also help you book more weddings. Google Alerts is one of my “must-have” tools available free from Google.
The right tools make any Internet marketing easier and more effective. They will also help you book more weddings. Gmail is one of my “must-have” tools available free from Google.
The right tools make any Internet marketing easier and more effective. They will also help you book more weddings. Google Search Console is one of my “must-have” Internet marketing tools available free from Google.
The right tools make any Internet marketing easier and more effective. They will also help you book more weddings. Google Analytics is one of my “must-have” tools available free from Google.
Having a mobile-friendly website is a very important variable in your Internet marketing strategy and overall online marketing SUCCESS. I recently reviewed a Google Analytics account and more than 60% of the traffic was coming from either a smartphone or tablet. Wow!
A frequently asked questions (FAQ) page at a website is a double win. First, it answers the commonly asked questions that couples have when thinking about hiring your company. It also acts as a powerful sales page to qualify engaged couples and improves conversion.
If you use Google Analytics (GA), and you should be, one of the tracking points is called “Bounce Rate.” Bounce rate is an indication of how many REAL people came to your website and left after visiting just one page.
It’s important to keep tabs on what your competition is doing. You don’t want to find yourself at a competitive disadvantage six months after the fact.
When you rank well at Google you’ll get more high-quality website traffic and better inquiries – you’ll book more weddings. I could argue that Google traffic is better quality traffic and more likely to turn into an inquiry and sale than traffic from WeddingWire or The Knot.
Does your website have “secured” end-to-end encrypted hosting, the type with https:// security and certification? If not it WILL adversely impact your conversion and may impact your Google rankings.
There are dozens of Facebook groups focused on the business of weddings. Here are a handful that are definitely worth checking out.
A hashtag is a keyword or phrase (with no spaces), preceded by the hash symbol #, that people include in their social media posts at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. It makes the content of your post “findable” to all people with similar interests who “search” for that hashtag.
11 High-impact Facebook post ideas that are guaranteed to get an engaged couple’s attention.
Here are more than 20 Facebook marketing best practices.
You’ll get better results and more ENGAGEMENT from your social media posts if you post high-quality helpful wedding planning information. When you do this you automatically become THE EXPERT.
How often should you post to Facebook and Instagram? Properly, effectively, and aggressively using social media marketing will help you build your brand, drive traffic to your website, and book more weddings.
So many choices and so many shiny objects! The problem quickly becomes that you simply don’t have the resources to chase them all. Nor do you need to.
Each Fall in Las Vegas thousands of people who work in the wedding industry attend the Wedding MBA at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Unfortunately, this website is often overlooked to increase online visibility and reach more “high-end” couples by people and businesses in the wedding industry.
“Friends” pages show you are active in the marketplace and others you link to are more likely to do the same for you, thereby creating a SEO-friendly INBOUND LINK to your website.
Exchanging website links with the other wedding vendors you work with is a great way to get more online visibility, build traffic to your website, and book more weddings. Inbound links to your site will also help your (SEO) rankings at Google.
Sure, it’s frustrating when couples don’t return your follow-up to their initial website inquiry, email messages, phone calls, or text messages – but don’t give up so easily (and don’t take it personally).
Long inquiry forms with too many fields usually don’t create the most mobile friendly user-experience and may result in fewer inquiries.
More than 1/2 of your website traffic today is probably visiting from a smartphone or mobile device. Here’s a great tool for WordPress websites.
Studies show that the first company to follow-up on a web-based inquiry has an immediate and significant competitive advantage. Companies that are the first to “help a customer along their buying journey” are 72% more likely to get the sale.
An auto-responder can be a very powerful tool that allows you to automatically and quickly respond to the engaged couples that make an inquiry at your website.
Takeaways work great for a variety of reasons, but I’m going to guess that most of your competition does NOT use them and that immediately gives you tremendous competitive advantage.
Reviews are one of the most powerful ways to convert engaged couples who find your brand into inquiries and sales. Here are 10 ways to use reviews and testimonials that have BIG impact and consistently deliver GREAT results.
There are many reasons wedding businesses only get limited inquiries from their websites. Based on my experience, here are 7 common “inquiry killers.”
If you want more inquiries and you want to book more weddings optimize how you use TARP!
Yelp! has a reputation for bogus reviews and hyper-aggressive sales people. That said, I have consistently seen Yelp! as a good source of website traffic and increased online visibility for wedding businesses.
There are a variety of website traffic building strategies and advertising at Google is one of them. Advertising at Google is done through a program called Google Ads. But be CAREFUL.
It is not an uncommon problem. A couple makes an inquiry from your website, you follow-up via email, and even with a phone call or two, and they “ghost” you.
Have you ever sent an email and wondered if someone opened it? Here is one of my favorite Internet marketing tools.
Giving couples the option of text messaging you will help you book more weddings.
Conversion is really what Internet marketing is all about. Your website is ultimately responsible for turning visitors into some type or form of action. In most cases, the action you want an engaged couple to take after visiting your website is filling in your inquiry form.
You may hate them, and I do too, but the hard-cold facts are that pop-up boxes work! They increase conversion and they generate leads.
Online chat tools, that give your website visitors the option of “chatting” with you online real-time, are becoming more and more popular. You’ve probably used them yourself for online banking or to get online support from your website hosting company.
By creating and posting videos, or informational video slideshows, you will be creating more online visibility for your company, brand, website, and creating a long-term traffic generating machine.
Blogging has many benefits, but my favorite is that it promotes you as the expert that you are – and that leads to closing more sales more easily.
Here is a great online tool that will help you to VERY EASILY create a call-to-action button for your website or blog. Put another way, now there is no reason to not have a CTA button at the bottom of your website pages!
Effectively using calls-to-action throughout a website has been shown in study after study to improve conversion and increase inquiries. Don’t make people have to think.
Here are three things you can do to BUILD YOUR OWN permission-based email list as part of your participation at a bridal show.
Should you put your prices online or not? It is one of the most frequently asked questions I get as an Internet marketing expert in the wedding industry. Here are my thoughts…
Part Two of the question: Should You Advertise at WeddingWire or The Knot?
Unfortunately, there is not a yes or no answer to this question. If you work with a thin margin, advertising at WeddingWire or The Knot is probably NOT going to go well for you.
Most couples planning a wedding have never done it before. To say it can become overwhelming is an understatement. There are so many choices, so many options, and the pricing can be confusing. And when parents who are helping to pay for the wedding get involved, yikes – it can get crazier, more stressful and chaotic. This is where “packages” can really help you BOOK MORE WEDDINGS.
Social media “exclusive” promotions, particularly boosted posts at Facebook and Instagram, are an inexpensive way to advertise special offers. For as little as $10.00, you can run a targeted ad for a day or two.
I hate discounting and if you are a professional, and experienced, and deliver outstanding products and services, as well as outstanding customer service, you should not be discounting.
A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is a key factor in getting the engaged couples who visit your website to make inquiries, and ultimately book your company.
Showing support for the LGBTQ community, and marriage equality, is an important business and marketing strategy. Do you have a statement of support showing your business is open to the LGBTQ customer on your website? Here is an example and ideas for where you can use it.
QR codes are another Internet marketing tool that you can use to drive traffic to your website or special offers.
Whiteboard videos are eye-catching, fun, and informative at the same time. Not many people use them in the wedding industry and if you create one it can make your business stand out.
You have probably seen infographics on the Internet, they are eye-catching, usually fun, and informative. Not many people use them in the wedding industry so if you create one it will likely make your business stand out.
Engaged couples, millennials or not, are human beings and most human beings buy something largely based on “What’s in it for me?” and not always because of price.
Get an outside and objective review of your website, as well as your overall Internet marketing strategy. Don’t look at this as an expense, instead look at it as an investment that will help you book more weddings.
Many things influence a buying decision. Understanding benefits versus features is important if you want to book more weddings. Too often I see people trying to sell features instead of benefits. People mostly buy benefits. It’s the classic WIIFM (what’s in it for me).
Email signatures are an often overlooked yet powerful way to promote your products and services, drive traffic to your website, and book more weddings.
Engaged couples are planning the most important day of their lives. They want the very best and your website absolutely must make a great first impression.
Social Proof is one of the things engaged couples are looking for at your website as well as at your social media touch-points. They want to see reviews, testimonials, awards, and membership in professional associations. In other words, Social Proof.
Reviews and testimonials are “social proof” and they increase conversion and will help you book more weddings. Here are 10 ways to use reviews and testimonials more effectively.
Online reviews can literally make or break a company’s reputation. Of course the best thing to do is to avoid, if at all possible, getting a poor review. But there are some nutty people out there, and getting a poor review can happen to even the best.
A lot of businesses in the wedding industry get reviews at The Knot or WeddingWire, but what about Google Reviews, the reviews that show up with your Google My Business business listing and on a Google search engine results page (SERP)?
I think we all know the power of testimonials from brides and grooms who were happy clients. But here is another powerful type of review.
After word-of-mouth testimonials and reviews are probably the most powerful tool in your Internet marketing toolbox. Websites like Yelp! and Amazon have trained everyone to look for and read what others have experienced before making a buying decision.
Print advertising is NOT dead, but for print advertising to be cost-effective it now requires very careful integration with your Internet marketing.
Perform a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis of your current situation, with a focus on Internet marketing.