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keyword "x" percentage in your content and more about
content relevancy with complimentary subject matter topics.
On average, we see that manufacturing companies have
150-250 words per page, which will not gain favor from
Google or convey your authority as a field expert. For any
pages that you are trying to rank for a competitive keyword or
phrase, you should have a minimum of 750-1,500 words.
In short, unless you can produce a minimum of 500 words
on a page, that page should not be broken out into a page
of its own.
Creative, content and rank aside, though they play a great
part in bringing traffic to your site, the website's design
should focus on UX (user experience). Menu structures that
are busy, breaking products and services out into too many
categories with 20-50 different pages, can make for poor
UX. Instead, make sure that the information is strategically
organized on the site, making it simple and intuitive for
people to navigate. That means no lengthy menus - keep
things simple, organized and efficient while still conveying
the value proposition of your product.
Keep in mind the importance of these internal category,
product and industry pages. Too often, traffic is sent to the
home page, as most companies consider that to be the focal
point of the site. Though a good-looking, functional home
page is paramount, the value of the internal pages can't be
missed, because these are the pages where all paid advertising
traffic should be sent to for the most return on investment
(ROI) on those advertising campaigns. The best advertising
hack I can provide is that your ad graphic, copy and landing
page be relevant to a specific campaign. If you're promoting
a product/service, send the campaign traffic to that specific
page on your site, not your home page.

DRIVING TRAFFIC TO YOUR SITE
You've invested the time and the money to upgrade your
digital content, ensuring clean design, UX, proper copy
and keyword strategy. The next step is driving traffic and
increasing your brand awareness to bring current and future
prospects to your site and into your sales funnel.
There are countless tactics that can be used to drive traffic
to your site: referrals, backlinks, industry association, cold
calls, trade shows, billboards, radio ads, print ads and so on.
Though these all have value at some level, you should audit
the price you're paying against the value returned. Too often,
because the value isn't quantifiable or tracked closely and the
method has been used for years, lackluster tactics are getting
a marketing budget that isn't deserved. For digital marketing,
primarily focus on these two categories: organic and paid.
ORGANIC SEARCH
Having a robust on-page search engine optimization (SEO)
and off-page SEO plan in place is the best way to acquire organic growth and traffic. You want to be ranking for the keywords that people will type to find your products; however,
bear in mind that the number of people who are searching

NOVEMBER 2017

| COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG

monthly for your services is not significant in the grand
scheme of Google search volume. You should be strategic and
complete a significant amount of research, including of your
competitors, before setting your keyword phrases.
For example, our quick research showed that the phrase
"metalworking fluids" is searched on average 170 times per
month and the phrase "industrial lubricants" is searched an
average of 320 times per month in the United States.
Unfortunately, but realistically, there are not 10,000 people searching for your services every month. If you combine
those two numbers, totaling 490, a significant amount
of those people aren't seeking your products at all. When
looking at monthly search volume of a keyword phrase, the
one thing that can't be known is what we call the "intent of
search." Out of those numbers, some could be competitors,
researchers or accidental searches, and the last percentage are
people looking for what you offer. It's important to take the
numbers you see and filter them through an intent of search
mindset. On-page and off-page SEOs are important for
your organic traffic and provide a significant value once they
mature but cannot be the only tactic that you're using.
PAID SEARCH
Paid search is a way to quickly get to the first page of Google
by using Google AdWords. It's crucial to acknowledge the
lack of insight into the intent of search, as a percentage of
your funds are going to be wasted on those invalid searches. Because of this, Google AdWords campaigns must be
extremely strict and narrowly focused by using keyword
"phrase match" and keyword "exact match," shying away
from using the "broad match" setting.
Using "metalworking fluids" as an example phrase that
you want to rank for in a "broad campaign," words from
that phrase or similar terms or phrases can be searched in
combination to serve your ad. Using "phrase match," some
combination of your designated search phrase must be
searched to serve your ad, which narrows it down further
while allowing some serving flexibility, and for "exact
match," the exact phrase "metalworking fluids" must be
searched to serve your ad - ensuring that the ad makes it
only to your intended audience.
In my experience, our new clients were traditionally
losing an average of 42 percent of their monthly budget to
non-relevant search phrases prior to our agency optimizing
their campaigns in this way. Is there value in PPC AdWords
campaigns? Yes, but you need to be strategic with your
ad copy, select destination and phrase match type to see a
respectable ROI.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Everyone has heard about the importance of social media
marketing and the trends associated with it over the last 10
years, as it continues to grow in significance in the buying
process. The key aspect of social media marketing is making
sure that you are active on the social media platform where

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ILMA Compoundings November 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ILMA Compoundings November 2017