Ultimate guide to mastering local SEO and growing a profitable business in Vancouver


If you own a business in Vancouver and you are struggling to position your brand high on search this blog post is for you. If you want to become an SEO expert in Vancouver and not sure how to get started, this blog will address those concerns. If you are someone who owns a website, you are struggling to write content and reach your target audience, this blog is a must read.   

Irrespective of the business you run and the target prospects you are looking for, be it a consumer, a business owner or finding investors, this blog will debunk all the myths you have about SEO. We will even go further to explain the mindsets, the psychology and strategies required to get your brand in front of as many target prospects as possible.

At the end of this blog, not only will you be able to understand SEO at a deeper level, you will also have the right ammunition to leapfrog ahead of your competition, rank higher on search, build brand awareness, get more eyes to your website, get more leads and eventually get more customers. If this is the results you want, this blog post is for you.

What this blog post is not - If you looking for a step by step guide on how to write a blog, launch a website, dirty tricks to rank on local SEO this blog is not for you. There are numerous online tutorials on this subject. The subject of this blog is to deepen your fundamentals on how SEO works. Not a tips and tricks guide.   

Though this blog is specific to Western Canada audience, especially for businesses in Vancouver, the underlying principles are universal. There will be many examples in this blog that will cater to the local Vancouver audience. Hence Vancouver is mentioned in the title.  

Why am I writing this blog, when there are million other blogs on this subject? And why you should listen to me?

  • Most blogs are rubbish. Period!
  • Most blogs are written by marketers who really want to push their content and make a sale. Their content ends up like point 1. Rubbish. Very click bait and not effective. Do not get me wrong, some blogs are really good, but most do not live up to the mark. 
  • I have a very unique skillet in the marketplace. Programmer + Marketer. I have programmed my own content management system (CMS) from the grounds up and have written blogs that rank higher than forbes on various subjects, using my own internal CMS software. I bring to the table a programmers perspective to marketing. You will soon find out why my perspective is not only unique but ruthlessly effective when it comes to online marketing and SEO.
  • I don't just program and write software for the sake of it. Every line of code I write, must have 2 outcomes -  The website must rank high on search and it must convert prospects into customers (conversion). I have done this with my own business (ANTSAND) where we rank on the 1st page for 'website maintenance', 'website fixes',  'fix my website now Vancouver', 'Vancouver SEO', 'Vancouver SEO Expert', 'Vancouver SEO consultant', 'Vancouver local SEO' and various combinations of those keywords. If you have any website maintenance issues, or need SEO or Local SEO help, you will see us pop-up in Vancouver. Having said that, we are able to replicate this success with our clients too. Basically, what we say and do works! 
  • Most of my blogs are written for me and the people I train. I use my blogs as a way to keep track of my knowledge and a method to share it with my team. Therefore, I write blogs the  way I want to read them.  
  • And lastly, I won't share anything I have not done or tested before. No hypocrisy. I cannot stand seeing people preach something they themselves have not tested or done.       
If this sounds good, you are in for a treat. Let us get started. 


If you have come to this blog and struggling to understand what are the benefits of SEO, then here is a simple definition-

SEO helps put more eyes on your website. 

That is it. Nothing more, nothing less. It brings more people to visit your website from search results. The whole premise of this blog, is to bring more eyes to your website. 

In this blog, the word 'content' refers to information. Blogging, content, information, value proposition, etc all mean the same thing. There are slight differences, but to keep things simple let us define all of them as information. I may use these words interchangeably. 

Moving on, this blog will first state all the myths that are related to SEO and online marketing. Once your mind is more open, I will talk about the mindset you need, to become a true SEO expert. From there I will talk about psychology, strategies and then action. This is the method I use for all my 'ultimate guide' blogs.  This won't be any different. 

SEO Myths: 

Let us dive into the myths. Myths are nothing but ideas or concepts you think to be true but are not. They may seem to have an effect on the outcome, but in reality there is something more fundamental that goes on. I am starting off with 'myths' to 1st erase all the bad ideas you might have about SEO and online marketing, and then build you up from there. Let us debunk some myths. 

Myth 1 - I need to spend a lot of money to get started in SEO. It is difficult to learn SEO and it costs way too much.
Back in the day, it might have been the case as search algorithms were not as smart as they are today. Back then you needed to do lot more to make search engines rank you accordingly.  Today, you really don't need much to get started. Search engines are smart enough to figure out what your website is all about, if you present the right information. You just need to have you website up with relevant content and SEO will kick in. There are still few things you can do to optimize your website.  
  
For e.g. - Getting listed on Google My Business - Free
Updating your Name address and phone number on Yelp, Yellow pages, Facebook, Google, your website - Free
Displaying the locations you serve on your website  - Free
Clearly stating what you exactly do - Free

Most of SEO is understanding human psychology. If you need help, and do not have time to do things on your own, there are many services that will help you get started inexpensively and quickly. I strongly suggest looking for a basic SEO service that would cost anywhere from $150 - $900. These services can help you get started quickly and get you on the right track. 

If you do not want to spend money, watching youtube videos or searching for how-to-guides will also get you started. You just need to invest time.  

Myth 2 - You need to write long content to rank high on search 
Myth 3  - You need to write short content to rank on search 
I have combined both these myths together. Both concepts are equally wrong. Many marketers will tell you, you need to write long content as Google algorithms only rank long content. Some will say, no one likes to read long content, so make your content short and sweet. Both are wrong ways of looking at the problem. 

In reality, the long and short debate should always focus on what questions you are answering. If I am the user and I am searching for Michael Jordan's age,the answer I am looking for is very specific. I just need a one word answer. In this case, a very long content would not help the user.
 
On the other hand, if you are searching for how many NBA awards Michael Jordan has won, with which teams has he played, how many Olympic medals has he won, etc you probably are looking for a longer  answer with proof. So it all depends on what question the user is asking.

Ideally you should write content that answers all these questions in one page. This is where wikipedia is very good. So writing a comprehensive blog post or landing page, that answers many questions is the right way to go. Your reader may not read the whole page, and they need not have to, as long as what they are looking for, you have an answer to. 

Myth 4 - SEO requires you to write a lot of content 
This is very similar to myth 2 but there is something deeper I want to explain here. A lot of content, means having many blog posts, having many pages on your website etc. All of which will help you in SEO but not for the reasons you think. 

Only if each of those content page address a unique problem and is written very comprehensively will having more content help. Each page or blog post must be the best page on that subject. Having more of such pages makes a whole lot of sense. 

Blindly writing content for the sake of it, where the content is mediocre, the pages have little information, they hardly make any sense, and publishing a lot more of it, will not help your cause. 

Myth 5 - SEO is only for online businesses. My business does not need SEO 
Myth 6 - Our business is only referral based. We don't need SEO 
I have combined myth 5 and myth 6 as they both are one and the same thing. Every business needs customers. SEO is not just for finding new customers. SEO is also to help your existing customers. If they are looking for specific information on your website, and you do not have a website, or it lacks proper information, they won't be very pleased.

If someone is desperately looking for you and is willing to pay you for your service/products, are you going to turn that customer away? You business can only survive with customers, and every business needs to get online. It is the most convenient way for customers to find your service. So not sure when business owners state, SEO is not for them :-|

Myth 7 - You need Wordpress to dominate SEO 
You do not need any tools to rank on search. For a matter of fact, if what you are selling is so profound and unique, you can write your value proposition on sand, take a photo and put it online. It all depends on the value of your content, how trust worthy your brand is, how customer perceive you, how long you have been in business, etc. 

Everything else are just tools.  Do not get confused with the tools and the results you want. 

Myth 8 - SEO mean everything must be done online
A lot of people think SEO mean you need to write a lot of content, write blogs, make websites, post on social media etc. You can build  your brand by using offline methods too. Host events, workshops, online webinars, consultation, etc. The more offline methods you use, the more easily you can build brand awareness and more people will search for you online. 

If more people search for you online, you build brand authority and you start to rank higher. Do not underestimate the power of offline marketing. 

These are the basic myths you may have. Let us now move on to the next section, Local SEO mindset

Local SEO Mindset 

Mindset are mental tools to help you make better decisions. Think of them as frameworks. These are guiding principles.
 
1. Focus on results not tools - It is easy to spend time wondering which tools to use, which one is better and spend countless hours arguing with your team on the tools. Rather than focusing on the tools, focus on what results you want. Today, there is no shortage of tools to get the job done.  So, never focus on the tools, focus on the results you want. 

For e.g. If you want your website to generate leads, I get this a lot from my clients and prospects. Should we use Wordpress? Should we use squarespace? I always tell them, you are focusing too much on the tools. You should rather focus on, what content do you want to upload on your website, so that users know what your website is all about. Focus on your value proposition, for you to attract your potential customers. Non of the tools can help you with that. All they can do is give you a dashboard. 

This is a perfect example of focusing on the tools rather than the results you want.

2. Focus on paint points not features and services - Any product or service you deliver, is trying to solve a pain point. I see this all the time, where the focus of the webpage is all about the features, services and products, but very little on what pain you are trying to solve for your users. Everything you sell is all about solving a pain point.

Why is this important? Because users search for their pain point, not your features. I am also willing to bet , that most of your searches are probably pain points you want to solve. So why on earth should the focus of your webpage be on features? 

The Focus of your webpage should always be on addressing your users pain points. 

3. Build Authority - In the online world, it is hard to build trust. The best way to build trust with your users is to build authority. Authority is all about positioning. You want to position your brand in such a way that will make your users perceive that your brand is the best solution to their problems.  

In our case at ANTSAND, we want to position our brand as a digital marketing authority and website fixes and maintenance experts.  Any problems users have with making money from their website we want to be the goto brand. Hence it is in our best interest to publish content accordingly. 

4. Brand awareness - When people search for a pain point online, they are looking for a solution and not a brand name. It is your responsibility to put your brand in front of their eyes for their particular pain point. If they click your link and like what they see, they will remember your brand and perhaps even make a purchase. Local SEO helps you put your brand in front of local people who are looking for local solutions that you might provide.

5. Find customers where they are not where you want them to be - Many businesses ignore digital marketing. They feel it is not effective and their business is a unicorn. Well, truth be told, you need to ask how do you think your customers are searching for business like yours? Online through search, online through social media, through events, through word of mouth, etc.  

If your customers are using online to find businesses like yours, then you better be online. If customers are finding businesses like yours through news papers or radio, etc go there. Find out how and where your customers are searching for businesses like yours and be there. 

6. Salesmanship multiplied (24/7 Salesperson)  - Your website is online 24/7, 365 days a year. Your websites job is to talk to your prospects. Therefore make sure you give it all the ammunition it needs for it to do its job. It's job is to rank on search and convert potential clients to take necessary action.  

7. Get local customers and have global reach - When you are online the whole world is your market. Anyone anywhere can visit your website. Though your market might be local, the world can still see you. What does this imply. This implies you still need to have a world class product, superior services and world class customer support. As your local customers too have the whole world to choose where they want to buy their solutions from.   

Be world-class in your delivery and fulfillment's and local in your reach.

8. People are looking for businesses like yours and it is your obligation to sell to those people - If you are in business where there is a lot of market demand, it is your obligation to put your brand in front of your market. If you believe your product or service can genuinely help them, then by all means focus on targeting your brand to those people.

9. You and your customers are not unicorns but make your customers feel like one - You are not different. Many business owners think their business is different or their customers are different. No they are not. Every one is pretty much the same. We breath the same air, we eat the same food, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. We are all biologically the same. Your job is not to think you are different but your job is to make your customers feel different.

10. Use offline methods to build trust and social proof - Just because your website or business is online, does not mean you should not use offline methods to build your brand. Your business should never rely purely on some platform. Search algorithms keep changing, and you have no way how to keep your self up to date on these tactics. On the other hand, if you build your brand using offline methods like, networking, in-person meeting, having webinars, tele-conferences, hosting events, workshops, news articles, radio shows, podcasts etc, you have a better chance of building trust and social proof. 

At the end, people like to do business with someone they know, touch, see and feel. It is hard to communicate these emotions and senses purely through your website. Using offline methods can help you get up to speed.   

11. Focus on your online habits  - The way you browse the web is pretty much how most of us do. Start paying attention to it. If you look for reviews before making a purchase, chances are your customers do that too. If you subscribe to blogs or newsletters only if you know the person and you feel that entity is trustworthy, chances are your customers do that too. You need to track how you make decisions, what makes you trust a particular brand and what makes you buy. Chances are your customers would be using the same principles to make buying decisions. Position your company and brand accordingly. 

12. People hate to be sold but love to buy - When you are online, you do not need to force sell your products or service to your prospects. You will turn them away. Instead focus on making them make the buying decision themselves. 

13. Observe the way you use search - This is a very critical mindset. Observer how you search. Do you use the word "mission" or "vision" in your searches? Then why is your website filled with your "vision" and "mission"? No one searches for those words. You don't. What makes you think your customers are? You probably are searching for solutions, facts, figures, pain points, information,etc. I am no different and chances are the way I use search is similar to the way you use it too.

The way you use search is similar to the way your customers uses search. So keep track of your search activity. Then write content that addresses those search queries if they are related to your business. 

14. Measure everything -  What you measure is what you can improve. What you do not measure, you cannot improve. So measure everything. This allows you to make better decisions. What keywords are you ranking for, where does your website show up on search results, how are your users navigating to your website. What pages are they most viewing. What devices are your users viewing your website on? Where are your users coming from? How long are your users staying on your website? There are many things you can measure. Some are for vanity and some can give you immediate boost in revenue.

Figure out what you want to measure, and keep tracking your improvements. 

Local SEO Psychology

Now that we have concluded the mindset section, let us dive into Local SEO Psychology. Psychology help us understand what is going on in our customers mind. If you are from Vancouver and you travel to a place somewhere far away and they mention Vancouver, do you get excited? You probably do. But, What causes that excitement? This section is all about getting your customers excited about the location in which you serve. In this case Vancouver. Hence Local SEO

1. You are your own customer 

Most business owners think they are not their own customers. Truth be told you are. How you make a purchase, why you made a purchase, what gets you excited, what makes you feel trusted, etc is common with most people. Your buying decisions might be influenced by price, by quality, by safety, by status, by power, by attraction. Chances are your customers too are making the same decisions based on such influence.

Let me give you an example with our own brand for website maintenance. Why did we create a service called website maintenance? Because, when I first started my business I needed programming help. I wanted something inexpensive and functional. I wanted a service where, if I had any issues with my website, someone would be able to come and fix it.  

What qualities was I looking for in a website maintenance service?

  • Cost - Inexpensive solutions  
  • Authority- Would this service fulfill what they say
  • Social Proof - Do other customers think highly of this service
  • Guarantee -  What if they are not able to solve the problem, will I get my money back 
  • Preferably local - Incase I wanted to talk with an expert
  • Programmers not drag and drop junkies - Are the programmers who will fix our website? Now some junkie who just knows how to use a dashboard to move things around
  • Technical expertise -  We wanted someone with tremendous technical expertise. Software developers. This way we knew they could solve most of our website problems.
  • SEO - Did they know SEO? What if they make changes that would harm our rankings. We were looking for maintenance with SEO expertise
  • Speed- Did they have a system or a workflow, from getting the work started to getting the job done? We wanted to know how long it would take for our issues to be solved
  • Well maintained website - Was their website some wordpress or some random website built on top of some platform? Or they have the ability to program one from scratch. If they could program their own website from scratch, they sure can fix my website problems
  • They really care about their customers - Were they there to just take our money and state this is all we can do, or they were genuinely interested in fixing our problem and taking care of our website?
Based on the above parameter, we designed our High performance Website maintenance service. We were our own customer. If such a service existed would we use it? We knew we needed a service like this. It was much easier to position our brand accordingly. 

Today, just based on website maintenance and various other keywords associated with website fixes, we rank very high locally in Vancouver. Because we are our own customers we knew exactly what our real customers were looking for. 

Another service that we started offering was SEO consultation. Why did we start to offer our SEO expert consultation service? Because we needed one our self. We asked the question, whom could we phone up and consult about our SEO and what were we looking for


What qualities to look for in a SEO consultation service? 
  • Practitioners - We were looking for people who practice what they preach. Which is, they needed to rank properly, they needed to write worthwhile blogs that we found interesting and they needed to have a website that looked trustworthy. 
  • Authority - We were looking for consultants who were actual authorities in the marketplace. Which is, their customers and other business owners looked up to them for advice
  • Social Proof - We wanted the consultation service to have raving fans
  • Engaging content - We wanted the consultants we choose have the ability to write content that we found interesting and of value. Most consultants do not write content and if they do were rubbish.
  • They really care about their customers -  Are they just giving some advice for us to buy one of their services, or they genuinely care about our business  and are willing to go one step further just to make sure we can execute on what they told us.
  • They are constantly willing to give value to society - It was important for us to see if these consultants were giving free great value to others. Be it through their youtube video, free software tools, great blog articles, etc. 
  • They have the ability to grow their brand using offline methods too - As much as SEO is all about being online, we were interested to see if these consultants were hosting workshops, training events, networking events, etc. As we felt, having a face to the name is equally important
  • Local in Vancouver - We wanted the consultants to be local in Vancouver. This way, we knew they would understand local conditions better than others
  • Cost - We were not looking for a free solution. We were willing to pay a small fee to get some valuable advice. We knew we needed some skin in the game for us to apply what the consultant preaches. Most consultants either do not have their cost up front or they disguise it as free and sell you something during the call. That is not what we were looking for.
To solve the problem, we started to do all of the above. We made sure we were practitioners, positioned our self as authorities in our local community, built social proof through our testimonials, started to write blogs we loved reading, we genuinely care a lot more about our customers that they do themselves,  we created open source projects and marketplace platforms as tools to give to society, we created our own youtube channel to teach people about SEO, we are local in Vancouver and our cost is very transparent. 

This is what we wanted, so we became what we wanted. It is much easier to rank for our service on search, because we first thought like a customers and then built a service and product around those traits. We got into the minds of our customers. And the best way to get into their minds is to be a customer of your own product.

2. Build Trust 

The name of the game in online marketing, is building trust. Your goals with anything you put online, is to build trust. There are various ways to build trust. To answer that question ask this 'What would one have to do, to earn your trust online?

This is what would be required for me to find a brand trustworthy.

1. Social proof- Are customers raving about their service and products. You want their customers to have a great opinion about their service and product. As more of my buying decisions online are based on reviews. Reviews and testimonials count

2. Consistency and commitment - Are the business consistently coming up with new and innovative ways to satisfy customer demands? I have seen business that have the same webpage for more than 3-4 years. Where is the innovation? ON the contrary, the products that I use periodically keep innovating and disrupting. Check how facebook is updating their code 10,000 times a day. so does Google and the likes.  The products or services you use everyday are very consistent and committed towards continuous improvements. It builds trust. You know if something goes wrong, they are working on it.

3. Authority - Are they an expert in that field. To be perceived as an authority, one must be able to get the same results as they preach or teach. 2ndly, they must be able to deliver the same results for their customers. And lastly, they need to have new ways of getting better results for their customers which is more convenient, easy and problem solving.
Let me give you an example of this local cafe store breka in Vancouver.

Breka Bakery & Cafe

 1. Every time I eat a chicken sandwich or an eclair, I always compare it to Breka. Why? Because I love their eclairs and sandwiches. That is authority. When people start to compare your product with others, and yours is always better, you have authority over that product.
2. If I want a good sandwich anytime, anywhere I know breka is open 24/7. Convenience. There are very few shops in town that are open 24/7 that are healthy and tasty. Mc Donalds does not count. Once again, it builds authority. 

4. Likability - You tend to do business with those that you like. For e.g. do the business owners put a smile when they are treating you or they are just rude? Are they willing to go the extra mile to help you out, or just will not bother? These are small little things that  builds trust and likability. 
 
5. Reciprocity - Are they giving away great value for free. In the sense, if I go and read their blogs, is there useful information. Or if I use they software tools, does it make my life easier. It is much easier for me to give them money if I find what they give out for free is useful for me. 

6. Transparency - This is a big one. Most business online are not very transparent. They hide their cost, they hide their employees, they hide everything. And yet they want your money. I never get that. Why can't you tell me what it costs upfront so that I know what to budget. Also what am I getting for that cost? Business that struggle to put costs on their website seems to me as they are hiding away something. I personally do not find such business helpful and would struggle to find a reason to use their service. Especially in my industry, the cost is not very transparent. Customers are always clueless as to how much does a service cost. At ANTSAND, we try to put our costs upfront, bright and clear. Because we have no problem being transparent.  

7. Speed and outcome - How fast can you deliver on the results your promised? Most businesses do no deliver on what they promise. Hence they eventually fail. If you can deliver your product faster than the expected time and date, your customers will love you. Think Amazon. They sometimes ship the products faster than that date and time they estimated. That to me is just amazing. 

8. Build a great Product/Service, your customers want to rave about (Quality) - This is one parameter I strongly suggest you do not compromise. Create something that your customers will love. They want to talk about and they want to rave about. The best companies are great at doing this. This cause your brand to be spread through word of mouth. And nothing is more powerful than word of mouth.

9. Practitioners - Once again, No Hypocrisy. You attract who you are not who you want. To attract what you want, 1st become that person or company. Many businesses want this ideal client that will give them a lot of money for a mediocre service / product. First go and build your skillset, sharpen your saw, create products and services you want to use, and you are proud to use, then look for customers like your self. It is much easier to find such customers. 

If your business is SEO and helping your customers to rank, then you better rank your self. If you are a cleaning company and you clean properties, make sure your own neighborhood is clean. Practice what you preach. 

10. Solve a critical pain point -  Most businesses do not solve a critical pain point. They basically are brokers. They use an existing platform or service, and repackage their service with an additional cost. Most customers are skeptical of such businesses. Think of the sleazy car salesperson. Unfortunately, most business are like that.

You want to run a business that is authentic, that create their own products/services, constantly innovating exiting solutions and solves critical pain points for their customers.  That is a business I like to work with and feel trusted working with.

11. Easy of use - How easy is it for someone to use your service or product? If it makes your customers life easier and convenient, you build trust. Think amazon again. You can get pretty much any book in a day or two.Or think Netflix. You can watch anything you want naked or in your underwear if you have to. Because it is easy to use. 

12. Will it give me the results I am looking for - Most online business fail because customers do not feel trusted. They are not sure if they will get the results they are looking for. Unfortunately, most businesses do not fulfill their customers expectations. 

Give your customers what they want, not what you think they need.

13. Would I be happy to do business with them again - You should give your customers such a great experience, that will want them to do business with you again. Which mean, have a great product or service, have great customer support, solve their problems and make an impact. All of this builds trust.

There are many ways to build trust, but I know what makes me find a company trust worthy. The goal in online marketing is to always position your business in such a way that maximizes the trust worthiness. That is your goal in online marketing.

3. Have a vision for your customers more than they do for themselves

To be successful, think very highly of your customers. Which is to say, exceed their expectation and set higher and bigger goals for them. When I work with my local clients here in Vancouver, I make sure I set high standards for my clients. I want their business to grow, thrive and become very successful. Then I sit down and execute on my promise. 

Most business do not really have a vision for their customers. They just want their money and they are happy to let them go. At ANTSAND, I make sure my customers know I am there to get them results. Not to make friends. They will love me more if I get them results. I created a small little manifesto to help my team and my customers have the same vision as ANTSAND.   

3. Law of compounding




This is not to be taken lightly. The only way you can out smart and win against your competition, is to be disciplined. This is a fundamental law of nature. Which is to say, you cannot eat a whole years meal in one meal. Neither should you. The law of compounding is constantly in effect. The question is are you making the law work for you? Which is to say, are you consistently building your online empire, are you consistently growing your brand name and are you consistently reaching a broader audience.  

Online marketing and local SEO is the same. You cannot have a website which is never updated, filled with glitches, not updated regularly and then expect your website to rank on search. You are basically starving your website.Do not be a hypocrite. Because you your self will not want to visit a website like that.  

There are many way to keep your website up to date consistently.
  • Connect your Instagram account to your website and update your Instagram regularly. Your website too will be updated.  
  • Answer ambiguous questions. For e.g Island Carpet. In front of their store they mentioned premium installation. So I asked Brian, the owner of Island Carpets, what do you mean by premium installation. And he explained it accordingly. Simple clarification goes a long way.    

Why Premium Installation?

  • Our installers are all experienced journeymen.
  • We only employee installers with a minimum of 5 to 10 years of installation experience
  • They work for us directly. They are not part of a labour crew.
  • All of our installation is fully warranted.
  • We can guarantee who is doing the job
For five decades, Island Carpet has provided our local community in Richmond and Vancouver a variety of flooring products with premium installation service.
  • Location - Specify the location in which you serve. If you serve in Vancouver and the surrounding regions, have a section on your website that clearly states where you serve. Please want to know where exactly is the extent of your reach. So specify it. The example below is how we have inserted the locations we serve on our webpage. Over time, as you expand, you can build on it. It is these small details that we see lacking on many websites.     

Website design and development in Western Canada 

ANTSAND is British Columbia's web design and development digital marketing company. Our goal is to help small businesses in this region grow online. Be it through ranking high on search, create a webpage that converts leads into customers or building an online brand.

We provide 3 main services.

  • Website Maintenanace
  • CONCEPT2DESIGN - Landing page Design and development
  • ANTSAND BLACK - Website Design and developement + Digital Marketing (SEO + CRO)

Whether consulting at your location or strategizing through online screen sharing, our job is to understand your needs and fullfill them.

The locations we primarily serve in Canada are:

4. Sell the experience  

Are you trying to sell a product, a service or an experience? Sell the experience your customers will get when they use your product or service. If it is a  luxury item, what does it symbolize. If it s a service, what will be the outcome or results and if it is a product, what problem will it solve for your customers. 

This section, we went a little deep into the psychology of how you want to position your brand.  First, be the customer of your own product understand why you would buy or use your own product, what results you will get, then use what you learnt and market your product accordingly. You will be able to understand your customers pain and trouble way better and be able to show empathy.

 Let us now move on to the next section.

Local SEO  - Action Steps

In this section, I will talk about the ways in which you can rank higher. 

Every service and product must be on a separate page

Every product or service page must be on a page of its own. The fundamental reason being, you do not want to confuse your users with too many options. One page for one service or product. Have a menu bar, that displays all your services as separate pages. This way, your users will be able to navigate to the right product/service that they are looking for.

2. No Ambiguity - Clarity is everything

As mentioned earlier, no ambiguity. If you use the word professional, explain why you are a professional. If you use the word high performance, explain why you are high performance, if you use the word Next gen, explain why. Many websites uses these words without explaining why. It looses its lust and hence not effective. 

For our maintenance page, this is how we explained why "High Performance" .  

 Why High Performance?

  • Your website will be updated in a few hours
  • Pay as you go. The more changes you need fixed, the cheaper it gets
  • Your changes are thoroughly tested and backed up, so you do not face the same issues again.
  • We are agnostic to most platforms. Which means, we can fix your website, no matter what platform it is running on.
  • Any changes you need updated on your website, our team will be able to fix it. If we cannot fix it, we will let you know. But as you will find out, we can fix quite a lot.
ANTSANDs' high performance website maintenance is like having a team of SUPERIOR WEB DEVELOPERS who will take care of your website at a moments notice                  

3. How it works section

This is a section I see missing on almost all websites. How should I proceed from being a prospect to being a customer? Lead your prospects by the hand and guide them systematically. 

In our website maintenance service, we guide our prospects step by step. Step 1, describe your grief, step 2, send it to us, and so on. By being more clear, you will have a higher chance of converting potential clients into customers.

4. Call to action section

What is your call to action? Is it a phone call, is it to fill a form or is it a payment plan? Make it clear what exactly you want your client to do, if they need to know more about your product or service. In our maintenance section, we clearly show the pricing. This way they can purchase the service right away.

5. Your team, the people behind the product

To build trust, showcasing your team and the people behind the company is a wonderful way to connect with your customers. They want to know whom they are dealing with. Do not be afraid to put your team up online.

6. Locations you serve

State where exactly which areas you serve. For local SEO, your customers want to know if your service is offered in the location they want to use you. Don't make them guess. Clearly explain and showcase where you serve. 

7. Why choose your product/service and not someone elses

What is your USP? Unique selling proposition? Is it your service, your product, your customer support your skillet? What makes you different? Explain it to your prospects.  For island carpets, we made it clear, that their USP is how long they have been in business and the number of customers they have served. Since 1971, serving more than 50,0000 flooring jobs. 


8. Proof and credibility

This is very critical. Most buying decisions online, are made through reviews and testimonials. Make sure you tell your clients to give you a testimonial. It is very important. If customers have written letter to you, take a photo and put it on your website. You do not need to get reviews only through online platforms. You can showcase your written review too, and tell search engines about your review through rich snippets.


9. Value proposition

What problem are you solving? Or rather, what value are your providing to your customers for them to exchange money in return? Clearly stating the value you provide can help them understand what your product or service is all about. For our maintenance service, I clearly define what this page is all about. No confusion. 

10. Technical SEO and heading/title

How does your website appear on search? When you type website maintenance, our "High performance Website Maintenance & Support" is clearly defined.  There is no ambiguity on our search results. This can be done by modifying the tile tags, description and rich snippet of your website.

Similarly what we did for Island Carpet

11. Mobile tablet responsive & Security

Make sure your website is responsive on mobile phones. I mean, there is not much to state here. Make it mobile friendly. Also, make sure your website is secure. Which is,  make sure your website has the https green lock sign displayed on the browser address bar.

13. Website maintenance 

Lastly, keep updating your website. Throw away old information and update it with new ones. If you need help with this step, talk to one of our SEO consultants, and they will be able to help you with maintenance. 

Putting it all together

This concludes our blog. Most of the examples I have shown above are website that I have literally programmed from scratch. This has allowed me to understand how search and SEO works at a much deeper lever. This also give me the insights on what makes a website rank. And I am only sharing the most critical parts that will give you the biggest ROI. 

CONCLUSION:

Please comment below if you have questions, ideas or how you can apply it. At ANTSAND, we apply everything we preach and teach. What we put out is based on our experience, our failures and success. We love to be transparent, as it really brings out the best in us. 

We will soon be creating a $5 monthly marketing package for our readers. You can pay us for one cup of coffee every month, and in turn we give you strategies, ideas, tactics, mindsets and exercises, you can apply in your business immediately. If you want to know more about it, just type in the comments below, "Coffee with ANTSAND". We would love to hear your feedback.If you want to read other blogs that might interest you, have a look below.


 
Written by Anthony Shivakumar
Founder, Lead Marketing and Software Developer at ANTSAND

Anthony has a Master Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has worked in major software firms for the past 15 years and currently runs his own software and marketing company.

He continues to write articles related to marketing, programming, sales and growth hacking.

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