Domain Authority Is A Myth When SEO Optimizing Your MSP Website
The global Managed Service Provider (MSP) industry is growing, with a forecast that it will reach $356.24 billion by 2024. Most business owners in the industry agree that this is the ideal time to get started. However, while there are plenty of opportunities for businesses in the industry, marketing continues to be a significant pain point for global MSPs.
Every MSP business owner hopes to achieve measurable growth with their marketing strategies. Unfortunately, they end up frustrated with their efforts and don't get valuable returns on their investment. For example, many MSP businesses solely rely on customer referrals, which is an inconsistent lead generation strategy. Besides, it lacks scalability and leaves the business owner little room for growth control.
These business owners have not realized that they will get the results they desire to see with the right MSP marketing strategy. Having a structured marketing process helps build a stronger foundation that will pay dividends later on.
Marketing Your Managed IT Services Business
MSP marketing refers to a marketing campaign, strategy, or plan designed to generate sales for a managed service provider business. The specific marketing activities help a business reach the target audience while influencing prospects to get in touch.
The MSP marketing process is highly consultative, relying on expert advice to get it right. Different MSPs use various marketing strategies to close business. The two most common methods besides referrals are
- Search Engine Optimization
- Pay Per Click Advertising
MSP SEO
MSP SEO focuses on driving the ranking of your website as high as possible in the search results. It entails identifying the most common search words that prospects use for the services you offer. Unfortunately, many MSP owners believe that MSP SEO is an impossible task and the fight is not worth it. They feel that because of the competition for specific keywords, an attempt to rank on the first page in Google is almost in vain.
While this could be true, it doesn't mean that MSP SEO is entirely not worth the effort. In any case, many MSPs generate a significant amount of leads from SEO every month.
The Cost MSP SEO
The MSPs that rank highly on Google search results pages understand that good MSP SEO does not come cheap. They know that the strategy is constantly evolving and changing, and they must pay the price to remain on track.
SEO relies on Google algorithms, which keep changing with time. The strategies for SEO entail:
- Keyword selection based on competition, search volume, relevancy, and profitability
- On-site SEO like page speed, local schema, meta descriptions, image alt tags, title tags, page indexing, fixing broken links, and optimization of robots.txt
- Off-site SEO
- Content marketing
- Google Maps listings
All these SEO strategies take time to achieve and call for a high level of expertise. SEO is also not a one-off strategy as it requires regular revising and updating. While it is an excellent lead generation strategy, MSP businesses should incorporate other marketing tactics for a holistic marketing plan.
Domain Authority
Most marketing agencies present domain authority to MSPs as an effective way to generate leads. The concept refers to a search engine score that predicts how likely your website will rank on search engine results pages. The score is between one and 100, and the higher the score, the better your chances of ranking high. It primarily relies on the number of high-quality links a site has to its name.
However, having a high domain authority does not always translate to an effective marketing strategy. Domain authority is one of the most often misinterpreted metrics. Third-party metrics are not the only indicators of a site's performance. Additionally, they don't always equate to page rank since the ranking does not come from Google.
Before settling for link posting to build domain authority as a marketing strategy, it is crucial to understand two critical things:
- Where are the links posted?
- How many visitors does the site get from those particular links?
Using tools like SEMrush, you can establish how much traffic your site generates from these links. If the traffic is too low, it should indicate that the strategy is not working, which is almost always the case. Remember that effective SEO is a factor of high traffic.
What Next?
All that goes into effective MSP marketing can be a little of rocket science for businesses that are just starting. It can be hard to settle for the best marketing strategy and measure the results. It requires the input of an experienced MSP marketer to understand the impact of each marketing strategy you use. Working with a professional marketing agency doubles up your efforts and reduces the time it takes to see tangible results.
What to Look for in a Marketing Agency?
When looking for the perfect marketing agency for your MSP business, you might get overwhelmed by the options. For the best match, consider the following.
- Your goals- you need to know what you want to achieve from your marketing strategy before involving a third party. Just like most business owners, you want growth for your business. How a particular agency helps you achieve this differs depending on what works best for them.
- Experience- you want to hire a marketing agency with the necessary knowledge and expertise in the industry. Go for an agency that offers a consultation session where you can have all your questions answered.
- Your budget- marketing is a huge investment. Most marketing agencies provide scalable services, but those worth your consideration offer a transparent billing process. They provide quotes depending on your business marketing needs.
- Communication- you want to deal with an agency that puts your needs first and keeps you in the loop. Find out if you'll be in direct contact with the expert handling your account. It also helps to ask about the agency's communication policy.
At Ulistic, we understand how tedious it can be to find a reliable marketing agency for your MSP business. This is why we will never take you round in circles about our services. Contact us today for your initial consultation, and we will walk with you as your trusted digital marketing firm.
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