Internet Marketing FAQs

We can’t provide specific rates until we understand the project’s scope and your business goals.

So, we start every prospective client with a comprehensive audit to discover the strategy and level of resources needed to meet your goals. This helps us decide on realistic and fair pricing.

We do offer our online marketing audit for a one-time fee of $1250. This is if you decide a fixed-term contract won’t work for you. You can simply take the extensive blueprint we deliver from the audit and implement it with your own resources.

Digital marketing is the online promotion of a product, service, or business. Any tactic or strategy you use to attract more customers via the internet falls under the umbrella term of digital marketing.

Such tactics may involve SEO, paid advertising, website design, email marketing, and social media marketing. Each tactic is a unique area of specialization. While they sometimes overlap or work well together as part of an overall strategy, they each require a certain degree of expertise to get right.

That’s why some agencies or professionals specialize as an SEO agency, or a PPC expert, or a web designer. These specialized agencies are masters at their chosen craft, but they won’t be as adept at the other tactics. This is why full-suite digital marketing services are in demand, as they can provide most or all of these tactics at a competent level.

Most of your potential buyers are going digital. Word-of-mouth reputation and referrals are still effective ways to get new business. However, more people are gradually relying on online searches to hire local services from the comfort of their homes.

That’s why a powerful online presence is crucial if you have any intentions of scaling your business. This goes beyond your Google listing. That’s just one of the several ways your business can be found online. There’s also social media, email, your website, and even other business websites.

An aggressive business with plans to grow will exploit a few of these channels in a cost-effective manner. With multiple sources of leads, your only problem might be having more business than you can handle. And that’s how you know it’s time to scale.

Our services typically come with six or twelve-month contracts (paid monthly). Month to month deals are often impractical, as setting up a successful campaign takes a lot of research and planning. To get the best results, we often have to analyze real market & audience data based on active campaigns. This takes some time and can’t be done in a month.

Digital marketing is quite competitive. Results hardly come overnight, especially for organic approaches like SEO and content marketing. It’s crucial to us that we avoid any miscommunication and disappointment. So, we prioritize total transparency. This helps us establish realistic expectations and timeframes early on.

Many experts recommend the unofficial rule of allocating 10 to 15% of your revenue to marketing. And then 30 to 60% of that marketing budget to digital marketing. Don’t take that rule too seriously. A marketing budget is best determined by your business goals, resources, and competition.

We can recommend an almost oversimplified process:

• Zero in on the specific results you want from a marketing campaign: followers, website traffic, number of leads you need to meet your sales target, etc.
• Determine how you want to achieve those results; marketing channels and tactics that should be used.

You’d need some marketing knowledge or a lot of research to carry out these tasks. Or simply enlist a marketer or advertising agency to help out. With their help, find out how much you’d realistically have to spend. Draw this amount up against what you can realistically afford or is financially sensible. Make a decision (or a compromise) between what you have, what you want, and what you can get.

This often depends on the nature of your industry, targeted locations, competition, and the specific digital marketing service. With SEO, for instance, it can take anywhere from six months to over a year to see real results. While a PPC campaign can generate results in as little as two months.

That said, it will be short-sighted to focus all your digital marketing efforts on a single channel that generates the fastest results. Channels with rapid gains are often paid channels, like social media ads or PPC. But when compared with other organic channels, like SEO, over long periods, their ROI typically pales in comparison.

You definitely don’t have to invest in every digital marketing service. But sustainable, long-term success often depends on combining different online marketing tactics.

If you don’t have a lot of historical marketing or campaign data to work with, a good bet is to consult a digital marketing company. They will conduct audience and competitive research as necessary. This way, they will determine a practical marketing strategy that provides competitive advantage.

With campaign data, you can do some analysis to get a good idea of what’s been working for your business, what has not, and potentially productive channels. You would need some marketing proficiency for this.

You’d probably be better off relying on the expertise of seasoned marketers for a thorough analysis. They will identify opportunities, what needs to be improved, and recommend tactics to generate the best ROI. Our internet marketing agency, Local Web Concepts, does all of the above via our digital marketing audit.

Location-based or service-area businesses are always better off with agencies that operate within their industry and location(s). Compared to other agencies, they understand your buyers better and will typically be more cost-effective. They’ve spent more time with businesses like yours. They likely already have a pretty good idea of what works and what doesn’t.

To choose the best digital marketing agency, you have to ask the right questions. The questions will vary depending on the service you’re after, but here are a few to keep in mind:

• How they measure client success.
• How they communicate with clients.
• How they adjust tactics when things aren’t working as planned.
• How they involve clients with projects.

You should also review the agency’s testimonials and portfolio. Assess their website to see if they practice what they preach.

We are an internet marketing agency that caters to local businesses. We work primarily with contractors and companies in the following service industries:

• Home improvement & remodeling
• HVAC
• Construction
• Legal firms
• Real Estate
• Automotive & transport
• Towing companies
• Tree services

Many of our clients are in Wisconsin, and we deeply understand the local landscape. So, if you need an online marketing company in Brookfield, Menomonee Falls, Wauwatosa, or Mequon, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Yes. An audit builds the foundation of our partnership with your business. It gives us specific insights regarding what needs to be done to get the results you want.

We don’t do free audits. Our audits aren’t basic insights from an SEO tool. They are quite detailed assessments made by human experts that analyze all the moving parts of your digital strategy and provide actionable recommendations.

Search Engine Optimization is how you get your website discovered by more people on search engines like Google.

By combining several tactics, SEO helps your website rank higher on search engines. This drives more organic (non-paid) traffic to your website as more people get to see it.

With more eyes on your site, you have a better chance of driving quality leads.

SEO combines multiple tactics to make your website more appealing to search engines.

For your site to be “appealing,” it needs to increase authority and be more valuable to searchers. You can make this happen with several SEO tactics. They typically include:

Keyword research: finds the search terms your target audience or prospects use when browsing Google.

On-page SEO: improves your website pages to appear prominently for these search terms/keywords. It usually involves including those keywords in the website content, using meta-tags, improving the content quality, and linking your web pages.

Off-page SEO: involves anything done outside of your website to improve its rankings and authority, such as adding links from other reputable websites to your web pages.

Technical SEO: fixes technical issues and improves your website’s backend so it’s properly indexed by search engines and more user-friendly for visitors.

Content: involves creating high-quality, relevant content that targets keywords and engages visitors so they spend longer on your website and eventually make inquiries.

When doing SEO, you’ll be competing with other websites in your industry that are also doing SEO.

This is why it’s a constant practice. To stay atop search engines, you have to keep optimizing your site to appear authoritative to search engines and valuable to users.

You either have a weak SEO strategy, or you don’t have one at all.

Competitors with better SEO will have more prominence on search engines if that’s the case. The following are signs of a weak SEO strategy:

• Inadequate or poor quality content on your web pages.
• Poor targeting of the search terms/keywords your audience uses on search engines.
• Lack of or inadequate links from high-quality sites to your website.
• Multiple technical SEO issues like slow website loading or a non-mobile-friendly site.

Even with a decent SEO strategy, your website might still struggle to rank on Google if you’re in a highly competitive niche.

To get results in a competitive niche, you need resources and efforts that match your competitors’. Or you can be creative with your SEO strategy.

SEO or “regular” SEO helps your website rank globally or nationally. It’s for businesses that don’t cater specifically to customers within a particular city or region.

Local SEO is used to rank for searches within specific locales. So, it’s used by local businesses like restaurants, plumbers, lawyers, etc.

If your services or products are tailored to customers within a region, this should determine your SEO efforts. Local SEO also involves using local business directories like the Google Business Profile.

Local SEO is typically not as competitive as international or national SEO.

At this level, you tend to compete with fewer and smaller businesses, unlike international SEO, which often involves bigger competitors with more resources targeting a bigger audience.

That said, the level of competitiveness really depends on your industry and target locations. You’d do local SEO by default if you’re a local business targeting local customers. Here are some benefits compared to regular SEO:

• High conversion rates: Many people in need of local services or products want them immediately. This is why local SEO tactics can sometimes yield faster results.
• High ROI: Local SEO can be quite cost-effective, especially in less competitive niches. With the right strategy, you can generate high ROI with minimal investment.

Local SEO boils down to making your website(s) and Google listing prominent in the locations you sell to.

To achieve this, you’ll need to do the following:

• Complete and optimize your Google Business Profile.
• Discover and target keywords that are specific to your location and industry.
• Build local citations in relevant directories and ensure your business details are accurate and consistent throughout.
• Collect more positive online reviews and manage your online reviews to get a great rating.
• Tailor your website’s content to match what the buyers in your location(s) are looking for.

To go more in-depth into these tactics, check out our complete guide to building a local SEO strategy.

Technically, you can do SEO without PPC and vice-versa.

But that’s hardly advisable. Rather than operating in isolation, SEO and PPC work very well together to help you dominate Google search results.

PPC ads can provide you with short-term wins. However, you’ll be missing out on a lot more without SEO. Consumers generally don’t trust ads, but they’ll be less dismissive if it’s from a brand they recognize.

A solid SEO strategy makes your business more trustworthy and recognizable. This reflects positively on your PPC ads.

Some platforms offer local SEO courses for beginners. These include Moz, Brightlocal, and Udemy.

You can also learn specific local SEO topics by following some blogs or simply typing your question in Google and seeing what articles come up.

Our blog has many articles covering everything you need to know about local SEO.

It depends on the type and complexity of your SEO project.

Are you looking to optimize one website with just a few pages? Then a high-quality freelancer might do the job for you. Freelance SEO professionals can charge anything from $50 to $200 per hour.

But if you manage multiple websites (or one massive website) or your business caters to several locations, you’ll be better off with the resources of an SEO agency.

Rates vary depending on the agency and the scope of the project.

Agencies can charge in 3 ways:

• Hourly: typically $100 – $300 per hour.
• Monthly retainers: $850 – $4000+ per month.
• Project-based: $850 – $10,000+, depending on the project.

We can’t provide specific rates until we learn more about your business and goals. Our prices vary depending on the project’s scope and your business size.

We typically work with long-term contracts (for a minimum of six months), as local SEO is a long-term strategy. It can take about four months to a year to generate significant bottom-line results, but ROI (return on investment) tends to be high over time.

Our SEO managers will stay in touch with you throughout the project. We don’t use account managers or hierarchies.

You’ll be talking to someone who thoroughly understands the job and has an immediate solution for any need that might arise. They will also be one of your earliest points of contact.

We can set up monthly calls for progress updates, depending on your preference. We will also provide monthly reports via email, which will be the more frequent form of correspondence.

Look out for an SEO agency with proven experience in your industry and location.

These agencies have been successful with businesses like yours, which is always a solid foundation. To vet an agency’s experience or record, review their case studies and testimonials.

Check their Google listing and third-party sites like Clutch to see if similar businesses have given them good reviews.

Contact these agencies and ask specific questions:

• How do they track results?
• Do they offer reports?
• What are their important measures of success?
• What’s their communication procedure? (You want to know if they’ll be easy to reach)
• Who’ll be your point of contact? (An SEO exec that understands your problems or an account manager you’ll have to babysit?

Lastly, observe the agency’s approach. Are they asking relevant questions? Are they keen on understanding your business before offering any type of solution? You don’t want an SEO that uses a one-size-fits-all approach for all their clients.

Yes. One person can do SEO if it’s a small project and they’re willing to devote considerable time and resources.

SEO is a strategy with several moving parts—content, on-page, backlinking, technical SEO, etc. You have to be considerably skilled in each of these tactics to produce results.

It’s why SEO is typically handled by agencies with the resources and expertise to handle every aspect comfortably. If you’re in a competitive niche or managing a large business, you’re better off with an agency.

Some of the key metrics to measure your local SEO efforts are:

• Search engine rankings: see how your listing and website rank for specific keywords in specific locations.
• Website traffic: how many visitors does your website bring in monthly
• Website and Google Business conversions: how many calls, filled forms, and messages are you getting from prospects?
• Website analytics: monitor how visitors engage and spend time on your site.
• Quantity and quality of backlinks: see how many people link to your site.

You can track these metrics and more with tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, Google Analytics, and Brightlocal.

A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a free Google tool that lets local businesses showcase themselves on Google Maps and Search.

When you create a Google Business Profile, it will appear in a map pack when local buyers search for services or products you offer.

This profile will display essential details about your business, such as your address, phone number, opening hours, and customer reviews.

Yes. It’s crucial if you’re a local business looking to attract more customers in your area.

These days, many people simply search Google for a plumber, lawyer, or any local service or product. This habit is only becoming more popular. Without a Google Business Profile, you’ll miss out on many potential customers.

A GBP can also increase trust in your business. Google reviews are important to local buyers—as many as 81% are checking Google reviews, according to a 2024 survey.

Businesses with more 5-star reviews will enjoy a great brand reputation.

Yes, if you’re a local business or have branches selling to local buyers.

A good number of people who search for local services/products check Google Business Profiles first. You should create one to avoid missing out on potential leads.

Using your Google account, visit the Google Business Profile website.

Type in your business name to either claim your business if it’s already been created or create a new one. Fill in your business details and select your business category.

To make sure Google displays your business in search results, verify it using any of the straightforward methods provided.

You can optimize your Google Business Profile by completing every detail and adding more reviews.

The following will also help optimize your profile and increase your visibility:

Select and add more relevant categories for your business.

Upload more high-quality videos of your business—staff, you at work, and your products/services.

Write a compelling business description and add keywords relevant to your services or products.

Share regular Google posts to keep your customers informed and promote your services.

Learn more about improving your profile in our Google Business Profile optimization guide.

To get more calls and inquiries from your Google Business Profile, optimize it for more visibility in Google search.

The following can help your profile gain more prominence in map and search results:

• Use of relevant keywords in the Google reviews from your customers.
• Linking an optimized website to your GBP. An optimized site has high-quality content that’s relevant to the services on your profile.
• Building quality citations and ensuring your NAP (Name, Phone, Address) is accurate and consistent.

Ranking higher in search results is one thing. To convince prospects to call your business or make inquiries, you need to get more 5-star reviews.

You can manage your Google Business Profile via the Google Maps app. Click on your profile icon in the top-right-hand corner beside the search bar. You’ll see Your Business Profiles as one of the options.

If you’re on a desktop, you can manage your profile directly in Google Search. Click on the square beside your profile icon in the top-right-hand corner, you will see the Google Business Profile Manager.

Yes. There’s an option to create your business profile as a service-area business, i.e., you go out to meet your customers in different locations.

This option is ideal for businesses in home improvement and industrial sectors, e.g., plumbers, tree removal, construction, etc.

If you’re adding fewer than 10 locations, you must create a new business profile for each one individually.

On desktop, sign in to the Google Business Profile you want to add a new location for. Click the three dots just beside “Profile Strength,” and you’ll see an option to add a new business profile.

To keep things organized, you can go to your Google Business Profile Manager and Create a group to organize all your locations under the same name/entity.

If you’re adding more than 10 locations, you’ll have to use the bulk import option in your Google Business Profile Manager. To get this option, click on Add Business, then Import Businesses.

Yes. A Google Business Profile is integral to a local SEO strategy.

As a local business, many of your online leads will come from your GBP. It’s why we at Local Web Concepts add GBP management as part of our local SEO services.

Short answer: typically within 1 to 3 months.

Long answer: The timeframe could be longer depending on factors such as the website’s size, whether or not we’re providing content, and the homework needed to build a solid foundation for the design.

Short answer: Typically, within 3 months.

Long answer: It could take longer or shorter depending on multiple factors: What type of website are you building? How many pages? How bad are its issues? Are we providing content? Have you done prior consumer research?

We need to answer all these questions and more to offer a realistic web development timeframe.

Agencies charge a flat rate or hourly, depending on the pricing model. Rates vary largely depending on the agency, project scope, and your business’s size.

Hourly rates are largely based on the agency’s expertise. Small agencies might charge $100 to $150 hourly, while top agencies charge $150 to $200+

Local businesses that need only a small website with a few pages can expect to pay a flat rate of $1500 to $5000.

Mid-sized or expanding businesses could pay $7000 to $20,000, while large enterprises and e-commerce businesses could pay $20,000 to $100,000+.

We charge a flat fee or monthly retainers depending on the project’s scope.

Monthly retainers work if the project requires our continued maintenance and growth of the website. If you need our SEO services to go with, we’ll work with a long-term contract.

We can’t provide specific rates until we determine your goals and the project’s scope.

Most of our sites are custom-built from scratch with code using WordPress. We’ve found this method works best for SEO as our custom-built websites perform better on search engines.

It also means we create flexible websites that easily accommodate any custom functionalities or tweaks you might want to add later.

Some clients want more immediate control over their site but lack the technical resources. In this case, we use user-friendly WordPress drag-and-drop themes that enable SEO best practices.

We aim to clearly understand your goals, current infrastructure, and in-house knowledge before moving forward with a project.

So, our web design service starts off with a comprehensive audit and assessment. This will give us the necessary details to build a solid website you’ll love.

In the rare event this happens, we’ll hop on a comprehensive review session to determine what we missed and what could be better. We’ll then implement any necessary changes with no extra charges.

Yes. Every client gets immediate access and control of their website once it’s live. This includes access and information on all the tools used to build the site.

If you don’t have the technical resources, we’ll use a drag-and-drop theme that makes it easier for you to apply changes when necessary.

Yes. This is typically included in our website design package.

Yes. We can offer to continue maintaining the site’s backend and making any necessary updates.

We offer this service as a monthly retainer.

Your website is not performing for any or all of the following reasons:

• It hasn’t been optimized for search engines, so it’s not ranking well.
• The design isn’t impressive or easy to use for readers.
• The content isn’t convincing.

Your best approach is to ask an expert to help figure out what needs improvement. We offer consultations at LWC, so we can help take a look at your site.

A website is a great way to generate new leads for local businesses. But it’s also like a professional identity, providing far more information about your business than any platform.

If you want a competitive presence, you should strongly consider a website.

Yes. We are a full-suite digital marketing service so we offer SEO as part of our web design packages.

For your website to rank higher in Google’s search results, it needs search engine optimization (SEO).

We can’t tell you when your website will start showing up on Google’s first page or the first three results, but this usually happens within the first four months of executing a solid strategy.

The timeframe might be longer or shorter depending on factors such as the competitiveness of your industry and Google algorithm changes.

A local citation is any online mention of your business name, address, and phone number (NAP).

Local citations are typically found in online business directories, websites, maps, social platforms, and apps. Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Angi are examples of directories where you can add local citations.

Buyers discover and learn more about local businesses through these citations.

You build local citations by adding your business information on online platforms.

Here are the key platforms you can add local citations:

• Popular directories like Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Bing Places.
• Industry-specific directories like Angi and Tripadvisor.
• Directories built specifically for particular locations, e.g., cities, states, and counties.
• Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
• Map platforms like Apple Maps or MapQuest.

You can also build citations using citation-building services like (Yext or Brightlocal) or local data aggregators (like Foursquare or Data Axle).

These platforms automatically build your citations across multiple directories instead of manually building them one by one. Read our complete guide on how to build local citations.

Yes. As long as you serve local buyers, local citations are crucial for your visibility.

Some business directories like Google Business Profile allow you to list your business as a service-area business.

Other directories allow you to list your business without showing your physical address.

Focus on citations that are relevant to your location and industry. You can find such citations with search terms like “[location] business directories]” and “[industry] business directories].”

Make sure to also list your business with the most popular directories like Google, Yelp, Bing, and Better Business Bureau.

Discover more quality directories/citation sites in our list of top 50 local business directories in the USA.

You can manually change your address in every directory you’re listed on. Or you can use a citation management service to speed up this process.

Yes, you can use a call tracking phone number as your main business number when building local citations.

But to ensure consistency, you must use the same number across all your listings.

Citations are just one part of your local SEO strategy. If your website or Google listing isn’t ranking well, it’s probably because you haven’t improved the other aspects of your strategy.

Other factors that affect your ranking include:

• Google Business Profile
• Backlink profile
• Website content
• Quality and quantity of consumer reviews.

Yes. We build and manage local citations for local businesses, including local hyper citations, industry and city-specific citations, as well as “big citations.”

This service includes auditing and cleaning up your existing citations. We’ll also provide periodic reports and continue to add fresh, quality citations.

PPC (pay-per-click) is a type of online advertising where you, the advertiser pays a fee when someone clicks on your ad. These ads appear on websites, search engines, and social media platforms.

PPC does what most ads are meant to do: increase awareness and drive more customers to your business. But it’s even more effective than typical advertising, thanks to the following reasons:

• It delivers significantly more return on investment (ROI) than other ad formats— billboards, magazines, etc. You only pay when someone clicks your ad, so you don’t even have to pay to rent the (search engine) space, like in the other ad formats.
• It delivers fast results. PPC is the king of quick wins. While other marketing strategies, like social media or email, may take months or even years to deliver actual results, some PPC campaigns can generate sales in a few weeks!
• It can generate high revenue and leads. When done right, PPC campaigns can be a game-changer for businesses. People who click on PPC ads are usually ready to buy. So, a carefully executed campaign can capture serious buyers in droves.
• It’s easy to track. If your PPC campaigns are properly set up, you can track metrics like clicks and conversions to see what’s working and what’s not. You can also use A/B testing to tweak and improve different elements of your ad.

Are you a small or mid-sized business? Then you might expect to spend between $1000 and $10,000 monthly.

But PPC pricing varies largely as several factors—your company’s size, industry, competition, advertising platform, etc.—will determine your ad budget.

Your prices also depend on whether you manage PPC in-house or rely on an agency.

Agencies usually charge a percentage of your ad spend, but some might charge a flat monthly fee.

A lot goes into crafting a PPC budget that makes sense for your business. You should do the following, at least:

• Define realistic goals. Are you targeting conversions or brand awareness? Whatever you do, set specific timeframes and numbers.
• Determine how much traffic you will need to meet your specified goal. Don’t guess. Use conversion data from your previous PPC campaigns or just your site’s conversion rate (if you haven’t done PPC before).
• Check your cost-per-click estimates. Cost-per-click is what it sounds like: what you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Use data from your past PPC campaigns or Google Keyword Planner to check this.
• This is a simplistic step, but you can determine the final budget by multiplying the traffic required by your average CPC.
• You can contact our team if you need help determining the right PPC budget for your business.

Maybe. If you’re experienced and knowledgeable about PPC. Also, if you can invest the time required to set up, track, and manage campaigns (which is a lot).

Managing successful PPC campaigns is a full-time job that requires deep expertise. This is why companies hire a PPC specialist in-house or delegate to advertising agencies.

Hiring in-house may not be cost-effective in the long run. For small to mid-sized businesses, a competent PPC employee’s salary might be a huge expense. In-house employees might need advanced software to do their job, so that’s another investment.

An online advertising agency, on the other hand, is always equipped with cutting-edge software. They might also be cheaper than in-house employees, depending on the campaign type and budget.

Agencies are also often the best bet if you want guaranteed performance. They’ll adjust more easily if your business experiences sudden growth and you need more resources.

We will determine a fixed monthly fee after assessing your account size and the work that needs to be done to achieve your goals.

This approach helps minimize your wasted ad spend by giving us a better idea of what you should spend money on and what not.