You could stand in line like everyone else this Black Friday. Or, instead, you could choose to #OptOutside. Maybe soak your bones in a natural hot spring after bagging an epic hike and/or golden hour sunset. Or, yeah, you could spend the day standing in line. Decisions, decisions.
This Black Friday join us as we continue to support the #OptOutside movement started by REI.
Tools for Planning Your Black Friday Escape
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How-to Articles and Trail Finder
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[panel-content] REI Adventure Planner – learn or refresh an outdoor skill and find trails to hike near you.
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Adventure Search Map
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[panel-content] Track down a wide variety of outdoor adventures near you with Outdoor Project’s indispensable Adventure Search Map.
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Shoot for the Golden Hour
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[panel-content] Seek out your local Golden Hour – the first and last hour of sunlight during the day optimal for outdoor photography.
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Soak in a Natural Hot Springs
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[panel-content] Reconnect with nature by spending the day blissfully soaking in a natural hot springs in California, Idaho, Nevada or Oregon.
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Don’t forget to hashtag your Black Friday adventures: #OptOutside – Cya on the trail!
Nothing beats generating relevant – useful site optimization goodness on the fly. Especially when it can be quickly accessed with your long time trusted best buddy and pal – your web browser.
We’ve been using a multitude of website optimization tools on a daily basis for over a decade and thought it was about time to share our favorites that can be easily utilized within your favorite web browser.
SEO Quake Website Optimization
An oldie but tremendous goodie – is your browser shaking or is it just another SEO Quake? Ha ha. This well crafted tool is best used for ultra fast checking of web pages against a ton of SEO parameters. Plus, on-page and link auditing along with domain/URL comparisons and exports – BOOM. All right here.
Lighthouse Website Improvement
Need to go deeper? How does a Chrome web browser tool designed for improving the quality of web pages endorsed by Google sound? One that can be run on any web page that returns audits on performance, progressive web apps, accessibility, best practices and yes – SEO. Lighthouse can be run in Chrome DevTools and as a Chrome Extension right here.
Built With Website Technology Profiler
Ever wanted to know more about a particular website? Like why is it so fast, who’s hosting it? Or, what font/CMS/feature is that? Built With has been around for years and scans websites in order to discern what technologies were utilized. You can install it on Chrome, Firefox, Edge and as a bookmarklet right here.
3 Additional Must Have Tools for Your Web Browser
ColorZilla – Color picker and eyedropper tool with additional color related tasks (Chrome/Firefox) Google Analytics – See live visitors on your website along with access to analytic data (Chrome) Google Publisher – Easy access to AdSense and DoubleClick data and ad selection tools (Chrome)
Aside from providing ongoing SEO and paid search service, Jtree also offers a wide range of single-use consultation services designed to assist businesses and agencies with increasing website exposure in Google.
From site health and migrations to keyphrase intelligence and crawl testing, we offer a plethora of services for under $500. Here is a list of our most requested consulting services that cost less than $500.
Test a website with our crawler and receive a listing of optimization issues that include recommendations.
Optimize blog posts by reviewing content and providing guidance.
Improve organic search engine positioning by auditing a key landing page.
Provide an analysis featuring recommendations for speeding up a website.
Give the best options for preserving and improving optimization for a new website, migration or redesign.
Help with a new idea by providing an assessment of historical organic and paid search term volumes.
Troubleshoot search engine issues like site indexation and Google Knowledge Panel website information.
Monitor for site issues and provide weekly analytic reporting for three months.
Make sure Google Ads, AdWords, AdSense, Alerts, My Business and/or Search Console are configured correctly.
Assess the best options for monetizing a website.
Oftentimes it makes sense to have us assist your team with specific areas of interest. For companies that need to address all of the above issues and more we offer ongoing SEO and search engine advertising service.
SEO is so much more than just digital marketing. It requires a fundamental understanding of the technology that powers the web.
Awesome SEOs Know How to Optimize Beyond the Website
The most effective SEO companies possess in-depth knowledge of website development, design, hosting and domain names and can optimize almost any website, regardless of platform or programming language. They not only are capable of acquiring valuable organic search engine exposure but maintaining it by strictly adhering to search engine guidelines and protocols.
A good SEO will try to prioritize what ideas can bring your business the most improvement for the least investment, and what improvements may take more time, but help growth in the long term. –Maile Ohye, Google
Research Digital Footprints, Clients and Social Media
The difficulty is, how do you hire an SEO that is up to the task? Like any other type of business, researching the basics is a good place to start.
Checklist: Research Tips for Hiring an SEO Company
Since the web is their mainstay, Google them. A little searching should give you a decent first impression.
Visit their website and take a look at their portfolio. Does it look like they service your type of business? Do they have actual, verifiable clients listed?
How many years have they been in business?
How much experience does the consultant or SEO company staff have?
Do they use/update their own website?
Do they have a social media presence? Are they active?
Do they suffer from “jack of all trades master of none” syndrome AKA offer too many services?
Do they have website design and development skillsets? A solid SEO should be able to optimize nearly any website platform, CMS or custom build.
How robust is their optimization? In addition to on-site, off-site and technical SEO, they need to be able to optimize website hosting, domains and analytics.
Organic and Paid Search
SEO consultants, agencies and companies that specifically provide SEO usually offer paid search (Google Ads) and auxiliary services like auditing and website migration management. Which makes sense, as SEO and PPC are the primary methods for reaching audiences on search engines.
Stand-Alone and Ongoing Services
Most reputable SEO organizations offer a mix of stand-alone services like auditing and consulting as well as ongoing service options.
What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Company
Ideally, hiring an SEO company that meets the following standards is a great place to begin. You’ll want to talk with them at least once before they prepare a proposal for service in order to provide them with the relevant information they need to conduct market and competitive research.
Checklist: General SEO Company Hiring Standards
Has been in business a few years (at least 2-3).
Has experience in your industry.
Has experience optimizing your website platform/CMS type.
Has a public portfolio with links to actual clients.
Provides local and national SEO.
Provides customized weekly and monthly reporting with ongoing service.
Provides daily critical issue monitoring with ongoing service.
Clearly distinguishes between implementation and recommendation service types.
SEO Hiring Process Expectations
Requesting a proposal for service is typically the next phase initiated after narrowing the field of potential SEO organizations or consultants you are interested in hiring.
SEO Proposals
Once you have connected with a prospective SEO company they will most likely respond with a few simple questions that will assist with conducting research. To create an effective proposal, the SEO will need to know about your services and products, competition and most importantly – your expectations.
SEO proposals come in many flavors, the most common are for ongoing service, project management/consulting and conducting website auditing. Some SEOs will require contracts, while others will not.
Jtree Insight: We generally take the approach of not wanting to force anyone to conduct business with us if they don’t want to. This just means we utilize a monthly agreement for providing ongoing service instead of a multi-month contract.
Hiring the SEO Company
After reviewing the proposal and asking the SEO any relevant questions it’s time to make your decision. You can usually expect to be signing either a contract or agreement of some type which will entail deliverables, timing and costs before service launches.
Search engine optimization organizations are just like other businesses in that if they look sketchy, they probably are. Paying close attention to tips and basic standards when hiring an SEO should greatly increase the likelihood that you will be hiring a pro.
How to hire an SEO Google Video
Google’s Maile Ohye shares her advice for hiring an SEO (Search Engine Optimizer) to improve the searcher experience on your website.
Guide Information
Jtree is a Portland and Boise based SEO company that has managed SEO for organizations throughout the US since 2009. Our intent with this guide is to assist and educate those that might be interested in hiring an SEO company for their business. Please contact us with any questions.
You could stand in line like everyone else this Black Friday. Or, instead, you could choose to #OptOutside. Maybe soak your bones in a natural hot spring after bagging an epic hike and/or golden hour sunset. Or, yeah, you could spend the day standing in line. Decisions, decisions.
REI Adventure Planner – learn or refresh an outdoor skill and find trails to hike near you.
Track down a wide variety of outdoor adventures near you with Outdoor Project’s indispensable Adventure Search Map.
Seek out your local Golden Hour – the first and last hour of sunlight during the day optimal for outdoor photography.
Reconnect with nature by spending the day blissfully soaking in a natural hot springs in California, Idaho, Nevada or Oregon.
