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Ten Ways to Use Google Trends to Increase SEO

June 24, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

Most people love free SEO tools. Google Trends is one of the most underused free tools; it is a place marketers can use to get their finger on the global pulse. Increase SEO using Google Trends in the following ten ways.

Ways To Use Google Trends for SEO

1. Start Big and Narrow Down

The latest Google Trends dashboard is much simpler and allows you to explore various topics before narrowing down. Therefore, begin by entering a broad or all-encompassing keyword and then drill down. For example, the Worldwide feature allows you to focus on a certain market geographically. The word umbrella will peak at different times depending on the location. You can also filter your search by time selection and category, enabling you to increase SEO by targeting a wider region.

2. Use Specific Search Options

Get advanced insights using options like image search, Google Shopping or news search. Digging deeper into your queries can increase your chances of identifying a new trend. You can also click Rising to see the top keywords.

3. Context is Key

Google Trends operates in a relativistic manner. Today’s results are not compared with popular trends; rather, with the prior keywords you entered, meaning results vary according to various factors like timeframe. Therefore, never overlook the context and avoid personal blind spots when trying to increase SEO.

4. Target by Location

A cursory use of the tool usually focuses exclusively on keywords. To get the most relevant results, incorporate location into your mix. Focus on specific and relevant regions and sub-regions.

How Your SEO Benefits From A Long Term Strategy

5. Trend Predictions

It is easy to identify trends that leave a trail, but that is not very helpful as most marketers are using that data. Predict trends to gain additional insights. Identify potential trends by filtering according to specific countries or categories. Today’s health story may not be a headline on Google Trends; however, it may help you spot topics to watch out for.

6. Use Long-Tail Phrases

It may be difficult to rank high on the SERPs for a phrase like “Caribbean Cruise”, but you can make it to the top of the search results using a long-tail variation of this phrase.

7. Use Top Charts

Click on the Top Charts icon on the upper left to view Google’s version of Billboard Top 100. Do not confuse it with the trends most individuals are seeing. You can sort between Most Searched and Trending to glean more relevant information.

8. Video Optimization Data

For example, if you posted a video on YouTube about how to avail discounts on Caribbean cruises, you can switch from web to YouTube search to explore related topics and queries. You can also sort by Rising or Top to capture more YouTube traffic.

9. Cyclical Trends

If you are optimizing your wedding boutique, even a simple search will reveal that most weddings do not compete with holidays. With some aforementioned strategies, you can determine a few additional keywords to carefully direct your future posts to better handle each cyclical trend.

10. Avoid Misreading the Trends

Advanced and sophisticated use of Google Trends allows you to move a step or two beyond your current insight to determine if there are any blind spots. For example, never trust one snapshot to tell you the whole story; instead, get a broad view of different timelines to figure out what else is happening.

How Your Web Page Speed Effects Your SEO and Google Ads Performance

June 7, 2024/in Articles, Blog, Brand Development, Directors, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

For companies that already advertise to prospective customers on mobile devices, or who have organic search presence, there are numerous elements of their online presence that need to be checked, tested, and, where appropriate, changed. Implementing a robust SEO strategy is crucial to ensure visibility and competitiveness in the digital landscape. Knowing how to optimize your mobile site for speed will make all the difference to your search engine rankings.

The Importance of Testing Site Speed

The changes are going to make knowing the speed of a mobile site essential. Many tools permit site owners to determine their page speed to see whether enhancements are needed. Most of the tools that are available to test speeds are free and do not require administrator access to the website in question. That means that companies can check their competitors’ sites as well as their own.

Adjusting Mobile SEO Strategy for Google’s Speed Update

One such change that companies should consider is switching to Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). An AMP works by altering the source code of the website, thus directing the standard HTML page to a minimalist version of itself, the hosted AMP page. As AMPs are still so rare, they load exceptionally quickly. In initial Google testing, AMPs reduced load time up to 85%.
Local search should not be ignored, either. A Google Mobile Moments Study revealed that 40% of mobile searches have local intent. Companies also need to be aware that mobile search engine users enter queries differently than desktop search engine users; mobile queries tend to be much shorter.

Leveraging Search Console is a fantastic way to check in on a site’s usability. Using the following options under “Crawl Errors” can make a significant difference to usability:

Smartphone tab – It allows users to recognize any crawl errors that might be burdening their mobile pages
Fetch on Google – It allows users to to see how crawlers view the site and adjust accordingly for better indexing and ranking in search results.
Mobile Usability report – It precisely informs users about pages with mobile usability issues, along with detailing the nature of these issues.

How Will Google’s Speed Update Impact Your Google Ads Account?

The Quality Score algorithm, the algorithm that determines how much users pay per click to serve an ad on the Search Network, is heavily influenced by landing page experience. If a company’s site does not load quickly and does not convey beneficial information, the company will either end up paying a premium or realize that they are unable to serve an ad at all.

The Google Ads documentation recommends five ways to affect positive change regarding a site’s landing page experience:

Include relevant, compelling content
Be recognized as trustworthy
Make navigation simple and effective
Reduce load time
Make the website faster

In Conclusion

Google Ad users need to ensure they optimize for load time and landing page speed, and not just in terms of relevance. Companies should also contemplate making a move to AMP, ensure that their intent is on point, and make the most of the power of Search Console and page speed insights.

Creating a Brand with Social Listening and What Tools To Use

May 8, 2024/in Articles, Brand Development, Hubspot, Search & Social, SEO, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Social media marketing is an important part of reaching today’s modern era customers. Setting up social media accounts that prioritize providing good content can be challenging. In order for your brand to stick out, you need to learn what your customers are looking for and how to provide them with that content. This is referred to as social listening. Those who have social listening strategies worked into their social media marketing gain an edge over their competitors.

Social listening plays a key role in growing your business and increasing your company’s brand trust with its customers. The good news is that the ability to operate social media channels and create engaging content is right at your fingertips. If you are looking for ways in which you can handle all the comments, likes, and messages on your platforms, fear not because we have a strategy for you.

The below content contains ways in which you can learn about social listening as well as tools you can use to make the process easier.

Social listening is all about looking into your industry’s trends, comments, and content in order to gain insights into your brand experience. Social listening is critical for understanding how your customer feels about your brand which is commonly referred to as social media sentiment. Correctly using social listening is one of the most valuable ways to increase brand trust and create a loyal customer base. One good example of social listening is Netflix promoting a DIY sock that pauses the TV show. Netflix looked at what people were talking about on social media through comments, posts, and stories which lead to this creative invention.

Keeping up with the constant change in social trends can be difficult. Thankfully, there are many different tools and programs that can help brands keep up with trends.

Sprout Social is a premium service that helps brands and companies monitor data and trends on all social media platforms they are active on. It can also be useful for identifying social media goals that your brand can create based on the data. While Sprout Social is an excellent service and can help greatly with social media needs, they are more costly than some of the other social listening tools mentioned below.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a marketer’s dream program. Whether it be for creating inbound content, social media uploads, or advanced automation, HubSpot knows what tools a marketer needs. HubSpot has features that allow you to keep track of all social media posts, interactions, and total social media leads.

Learn more about social media campaigns here!

One of the big perks of HubSpot is the ability to easily work together with the sales team to use social media interactions as a step to making a sale. Furthermore, HubSpot is a free-to-use platform which makes it a must-have.

Also Read: Using HubSpot Lead Flows To Improve Conversion Rates

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a service that allows users to view and interact with their social media followers in an easy and convenient way. Hootsuite’s dashboard is able to keep track of all social media interactions whether it be messages, comments, likes, or mentions without having to leave the service.

In addition, Hootsuite provides top-notch analytics and reports from all social media accounts in use. This, along with the convenient dashboard, makes Hootsuite a premium service that competes with the likes of sprout social. Therefore, the cost of the service is noticeably different than free services.

Buffer

Buffer is one of the more user-friendly tools on this list. The software application allows users to “buffer” social media posts on many accounts. The user interface is very clean and not as complicated as some other services. Buffer can respond to comments across many platforms. There is a free version available to use, however, the service will be lacking some features.

SEMrush

SEMrush is different from many of the other services mentioned above. The platform is well known for its keyword research and online ranking data. The ability to manage social media accounts makes SEMrush a valuable service to have. Want to manage all your social media accounts in one place? SEMrush has you covered. You can also use many of the SEO and keyword tools to help monitor your social media accounts.

Social listening can be tricky. Keeping up with so many accounts and followers is no easy task. Thanks to services like Sprout Social, HubSpot, Hootsuite, Buffer, and SEMRush, marketers are able to keep up with demand. Now it’s time for you to start social listening utilizing these tools. Are you ready?

Mastering the Art of Integrated Digital and Social Media Marketing

March 7, 2024/in Articles, Digital, Digital Media, Search & Social /by Nicole Wagner

Mastering the art of digital and social media marketing is no longer an option. It’s a must. Digital and social media marketing form the backbone of successful brand strategies, offering unparalleled opportunities for engagement, reach, and conversion. Let’s delve into how digital and social advertising work hand-in-hand. We will also explore the myriad ways they complement each other to amplify your brand’s online presence.

Combining Tactics

Digital and social media marketing are two sides of the same coin, each enhancing the effectiveness of the other. Here’s how they create a synergistic effect:

Content Amplification: The content you create as part of your digital marketing initiatives possesses significant potential. This potential can be magnified exponentially through social media platforms. By sharing content on various social networks, you can extend its reach far beyond your immediate followers. This allows you to tap into new audiences and spark conversations, which enhances engagement with your brand. It also drives traffic back to your original content, increasing its overall impact and visibility.
Data-Driven Insights: The rich reservoir of user data available through social media platforms is a goldmine for marketers seeking to refine their digital marketing strategies. By analyzing patterns in engagement, preferences, and user behavior, you can gain invaluable insights. These insights will inform the creation of more targeted and effective content. This data-driven approach allows for the optimization of ad placements, therefore ensuring that your marketing efforts resonate with the right audience at the right time. This maximizes ROI.
Brand Consistency: Achieving a harmonious brand voice and message across all your online platforms is crucial for building a strong and recognizable brand identity. Consistency in your messaging and visuals across digital and social media channels reinforces your brand’s core values and promises. It also fosters a sense of reliability and trust among your audience. This uniformity ensures that regardless of how or where a customer interacts with your brand, they receive a coherent and memorable experience. This experience will strengthen their connection to your brand.

To harness the full potential of digital and social media marketing, consider the following inbound and outbound marketing strategies:

Targeted Advertising: The advanced targeting capabilities of social media platforms allow for the delivery of highly personalized advertisements directly to specific audience segments. By leveraging detailed user data, marketers can craft tailored messages that resonate deeply with their target audience. Detailed user data includes demographics, interests, and online behaviors. This precision ensures that your advertising budget is utilized more efficiently, reaching those most likely to engage with your brand. Consider hiring specific social media influencers that can reach your desired target market.
Engagement and Interaction: Social media stands out for its unique ability to foster immediate and direct interaction between brands and their audiences. This interactive environment is perfect for engaging with followers in real-time, soliciting their feedback, answering questions, and even addressing concerns. By actively participating in these conversations, brands can build a loyal community and enhance customer satisfaction. They can also humanize their brand, making it more relatable and trustworthy to their audience.
Content Diversity: The dynamic nature of social media platforms makes them an ideal testing ground for a wide array of content types. From engaging videos and informative live streams to interactive polls and captivating stories, the diversity of content formats available allows brands to keep their digital marketing strategies fresh and engaging. This variety helps attract a wider audience. It also helps maintain the interest of the audience over time, therefore leading to increased engagement rates and a stronger online presence.

Best Practices for Integrated Campaigns

For a seamless integration of digital and social media marketing, follow these best practices:

Unified Goals: It’s crucial that your digital marketing and social media strategies share common objectives. These objectives can be enhancing brand visibility, attracting more visitors to your website, or increasing sales figures. This alignment ensures that all your marketing efforts are pulling in the same direction, maximizing the impact of your campaigns.
Cross-Platform Analytics: Leveraging analytics tools to monitor your brand’s performance across various digital and social platforms is essential. This approach provides a holistic view of your marketing activities, helping you understand what’s working and what needs adjustment, thereby optimizing your strategies for better results.
Responsive Engagement: Promptness and authenticity in your interactions on social media can significantly boost your brand’s image. Being responsive shows that you value your audience’s input. Additionally, it fosters a positive brand perception, encouraging your followers to become vocal advocates for your brand.

Crafting a Cohesive Narrative

Your brand’s narrative should flow effortlessly across digital and social media platforms. It should tell a consistent story that resonates with your audience. Here’s how to achieve this:

Consistent Messaging: Maintaining a uniform message across all your marketing channels is vital. It’s important to tweak the tone and style to suit each platform’s unique environment though. This ensures your brand’s core message is conveyed clearly, regardless of where your audience encounters it, therefore enhancing message retention and brand loyalty.
Visual Branding: Employing a consistent set of visual elements such as logos, color schemes, and imagery across your digital and social media outputs is key to building a strong brand identity. This visual consistency makes your brand easily recognizable, fostering a sense of familiarity and trust among your audience. The obvious platform that can help you achieve these goals is Instagram.
Integrated Campaigns: Designing campaigns that effectively bridge digital and social media channels can leverage the inherent strengths of each platform, thereby ensuring a cohesive and impactful marketing effort. This integrated approach ensures that your campaign’s message is amplified. The amplified message will reach a broader audience and drive towards your unified marketing objectives.

Embracing the Future of Marketing

As we look toward the future of marketing in 2024, the integration of digital and social media marketing will only become more vital. Staying ahead of the curve requires a commitment to ongoing learning, adaptability, and a willingness to experiment with new technologies and platforms. By embracing the synergies between digital marketing and social media advertising, you can craft compelling, cohesive campaigns that captivate your audience. These campaigns will also drive meaningful results.

The interplay between digital and social media marketing is not merely a strategic advantage but a necessity in today’s digital landscape. By understanding and leveraging this integration, you can elevate your brand’s online presence. You can also engage more deeply with your audience, and achieve your marketing objectives with greater efficiency and impact. The journey towards digital marketing mastery is ongoing. At its heart lies the powerful duo of digital and social media marketing. The two work in concert to propel your brand to new heights.

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Optimizing Your Social Media Strategy: SEO Pitfalls to Avoid

February 16, 2024/in Articles, Search & Social, SEO, Social Media /by Nicole Wagner

Crafting an effective social media strategy is essential in today’s digital marketing landscape. A well-optimized approach can lead to increased brand visibility, engagement, and conversions. However, various SEO pitfalls can hinder these outcomes. This comprehensive guide explores crucial SEO issues to avoid, ensuring your social media efforts are both effective and rewarding.

First, let’s take a look at SEO’s Role:

Enhances content discoverability on search engines: Implementing SEO practices can significantly improve the likelihood of your content appearing in top search engine results. This visibility is crucial for attracting potential customers who are actively searching for related topics or products.
Applies to websites and social media profiles/content: SEO is not limited to websites alone; it extends to social media profiles and their content. By optimizing social media posts and profiles with relevant keywords and metadata, you can boost their discoverability both on social platforms and search engines.
Increases visibility and drives traffic: Effective SEO strategies lead to higher visibility online, making it easier for your target audience to find you. This increased online presence directly contributes to more traffic to your website or social media profiles, potentially leading to higher engagement rates and conversions.

Platform-Specific Optimization

Optimizing content for each social media platform’s unique algorithms is crucial for maximizing engagement and reach.

Unique Platform Algorithms:
- Each social media platform operates with its own set of algorithms and best practices that dictate content visibility. Understanding these can significantly enhance your content’s performance.
- Tailoring your content and engagement strategies to align with each platform’s specific algorithms can lead to better visibility and interaction rates.
Examples:
- Instagram: This platform’s algorithm prioritizes engaging visual content and the strategic use of hashtags to increase discoverability among targeted audiences.
- Twitter: Known for its preference for brief, impactful content paired with timely and relevant hashtags, Twitter is ideal for real-time engagement and news sharing.
- LinkedIn: As a professional network, LinkedIn values insightful, industry-related content that fosters professional growth and networking opportunities.
- Facebook: With its diverse user base, Facebook’s algorithm promotes a variety of content types, from videos and images to in-depth articles, to engage a broad audience.

Interested in learning more about how SEO benefits your future? Click here.

Overlooking Keywords

Incorporating relevant keywords into your social media strategy is essential for enhancing visibility and attracting the right audience.

Keyword Integration:
- Embedding well-researched, targeted keywords into your social media profiles, posts, and hashtags can greatly improve your content’s searchability and reach.
- Conduct thorough keyword research to identify terms that your target audience frequently uses, ensuring your content resonates and is easily discoverable.
Balancing Act:
- Achieving a balance between incorporating relevant keywords and maintaining a natural, engaging content flow is key to keeping your audience interested while optimizing for search engines.
- Avoid overusing keywords in your content, as this can lead to a decline in content quality and user engagement, potentially harming your brand’s reputation and reach.

Now Lets take a look at the top SEO Issues that can sabotage your efforts:

1. Ignoring Local SEO

Geographic Targeting:

Incorporate location-based keywords for businesses with a physical presence or local target market
Utilize geotagging features in posts and profile settings
Local Engagement:
- Engage with local communities and events
- Share location-specific content to enhance local relevance and visibility

2. Inconsistent Branding and Messaging

Brand Identity Consistency:

Maintain a uniform brand voice, imagery, and messaging across platforms
Use consistent logos, color schemes, and brand messaging to reinforce brand recognition

Content Cohesion:

Align content themes and messaging with your overall brand strategy
Ensure all posts contribute to a cohesive brand narrative

3. Ignoring Visual Content Optimization

Visual Appeal:

Use high-quality, engaging visuals in line with brand aesthetics
Optimize image sizes and formats for each platform

Alt Text and Captions:

Include descriptive alt text and captions with relevant keywords
Enhance accessibility and SEO with meaningful, keyword-rich descriptions

4. Neglecting User Engagement

Interactive Content:

Create posts that encourage user interaction, such as polls, questions, and calls-to-action
Monitor and respond to comments, messages, and mentions promptly

Community Building:

Foster a sense of community among followers
Encourage user-generated content and share user stories relevant to your brand

5. Poor Linking Practices

Share links to high-quality, relevant content
Avoid excessive linking that can detract from user experience

Cross-Platform Promotion:

Promote your social media content across different platforms
Include links to your social profiles on your website and in email signatures

6. Not Leveraging Analytics

Performance Tracking:

Use social media analytics tools to track the performance of your posts and campaigns
Analyze engagement rates, reach, and follower growth

Insight-Driven Adjustments:

Adapt your strategy based on analytics insights
Test different content types, posting times, and engagement tactics to optimize results

Expanding Your Strategy

Explore emerging content formats like live videos, stories, and reels
Stay abreast of platform updates and new features to leverage them effectively

Collaborations and Partnerships:

Partner with influencers and other brands to expand your reach
Collaborate on content creation to tap into new audiences

Social Listening:

Monitor social conversations about your brand and industry
Use insights from social listening to inform content creation and engagement strategies

You Can Do it!

To maximize the impact of your social media strategy, it’s crucial to navigate around common SEO pitfalls. By focusing on platform-specific optimization, strategic keyword use, local SEO, consistent branding, and engaging content, you can elevate your social media presence. Additionally, embracing visual content optimization, active user engagement, strategic linking, and analytics will further enhance your strategy. By avoiding these SEO issues and continuously adapting your approach based on insights and trends, you can achieve sustained success!

30 Lead Generation Tips & Tricks Download our FREE guide to attract those leads!

The Importance Of Having A Professional Web Design Service For Your Business

January 25, 2024/in Articles, Digital, Directors, Inbound Marketing, SEO, Website Design, Website Growth Driven Design /by Terry Becker

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, you need a website. If you don’t have a website, you’re without a doubt going to lose out on a lot of potential customers. This is because simply having a website is one of the most effective ways to generate awareness of your business. However, just having a website isn’t enough. You will want to have a professionally designed website to ensure that it’s technically sound, visually appealing, and user-friendly. While you might consider building your website yourself in order to save money, the following are a few reasons why it’s worth investing in a professional web design:

Importance of Professional Website Design Service For Your Business

1. Build A Unique Website

Building a website from the ground up is something few companies have the resources to do, which means that they end up using basic website templates. A professional website design service will be able to customize your website by tailoring it to your specific needs. As a result, you will be able to provide a unique website experience to your visitors that will help your business stand out. Additionally, they will be able to create a consistent aesthetic that accurately reflects your brand, thereby helping to strengthen your branding efforts.

2. Prevent Technical Issues

Professional web design services know what they are doing. They have massive amounts of experience and technical expertise. As such, when they develop websites, they ensure that there are no technical issues that will cause your website to crash or to function poorly. Even minor technical issues, such as slow loading times, can hurt your marketing efforts significantly. A technically sound website reflects positively on your brand as well. Additionally, a professional service can monitor your website for potential issues and address them before they have a big effect on your visitors.

3. Ensure Site Security

Website security is incredibly important. If you’re taking personal information from your visitors, such as their names and email addresses, then you have a responsibility to ensure that this data is secure. If you have an e-commerce page through which customers are providing their credit card information, then this is even more critical. A professional web design service will keep your website secure using all of the latest website security tools and practices, including HTTPS protocol.

4. Optimize Website For SEO

Optimizing your website for SEO (search engine optimization) involves a lot more than just throwing a few keywords in your content. A good website developer understands this and will build a site architecture that supports strong SEO. For example, they will build a site map that makes it easy for Google to crawl through your pages and to index them. Without an effective site map, search engines may miss pages when crawling through your website, which means that they won’t be ranked on their SERP (search engine results page). Additionally, proper keyword use in URLs, effective internal linking, and a lack of technical issues all contribute to good SEO.

Similar Article: 6 Web Design Principals to Increase Conversions

5. Update Your Website

New technology is continually emerging, especially when it comes to websites. A brand new website can become outdated within just a year. A professional web design service can keep your website updated and implement new features that can improve the website experience over time. For example, it wasn’t that long ago that chatbots were first developed and now it’s not uncommon for a website to have one. Trying to add new features to your website on your own can be quite difficult and can cause issues with other parts of your site, which is why it’s best to let a professional do it for you.

6. Save Time

The amount of time that it takes to create a website cannot be overstated. Whether you’re building a website to completion or implementing a growth-driven design, it’s going to require a significant amount of time to do. Not to mention that the website will need to be regularly monitored and updated as well. By letting a professional web design service take care of your website, you will be able to focus your time on growing your core business.

7. Save Money

Many companies attempt to build their websites on their own because they think that they can save money this way; however, they’re more likely to lose money in the long run. Website design requires a lot of different skillsets, which means that you would have to take on more employees. Since running a website is a long-term strategy, these employees would have to be permanent. It’s more affordable to outsource to a professional web design service.

Ultimately, your website is a reflection of your business. If it’s of poor quality or appears unprofessional, potential customers will second guess the quality of your products or services. With that in mind, it’s worth investing in a professional web design.

Search result optimization SEO marketing analytics flat vector banner with icons. SEO performance, targeting and monitoring

The Benefits of Inbound & Outbound Marketing

January 9, 2024/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing, Search & Social /by Nicole Wagner

There are two main types of marketing: inbound and outbound. Inbound marketing involves positioning yourself to be found by your target audience, providing them with the content they need for self-informed decision-making. Examples include SEO and content marketing. On the other hand, outbound marketing is more traditional, advertising directly to a broad audience through channels like TV commercials, radio ads, and magazine ads instead of waiting to be found.

Many businesses tend to prefer one over the other. However, the most effective way to market to your target audience is to use a combination of both inbound and outbound. To understand why using both is a valuable investment to your business, you’ll need to understand the Benefits of Inbound and Outbound Marketing.

The Benefits of Inbound Marketing

Inbound marketing is a non-invasive advertising approach. In contrast, outbound marketing interrupts the audience’s activities (reading, listening to the radio, watching TV, etc.). One benefit of inbound marketing is avoiding annoyance by not disrupting experiences. It allows potential customers to move through the sales funnel at their own pace without pressure. Providing content for them to read at their convenience helps build brand loyalty, trust, and comfort. Notably, outbound marketing is short-term, while inbound is long-term. The website and content you create continue attracting new leads over time.

8 Important Questions To Ask When Hiring Inbound Marketing Agencies

The Benefits of Outbound Marketing

The biggest benefit to using outbound marketing is that you have the potential to reach a larger audience. This could be an audience who may not be familiar with your brand or the services you have to offer. They may not know that they have a need for your products or services until they see your ad and wouldn’t have known to search for your brand beforehand. It’s also a great way to reach audiences who do know about your brand but who may not have known about new products and services that you’re offering.

Using Inbound and Outbound Marketing Together

Using both forms of marketing provides short-term and long-term results and can complement each other. Here are examples of effective combined use of inbound and outbound marketing:

Generate traffic via outbound: Consumers have smartphones or tablets even while watching TV. Running a TV commercial (outbound) can encourage viewers to visit your social media page or website (inbound). This applies to various outbound efforts, like putting your site on billboards or magazine ads, prompting in-store customers to follow you on social media, etc.
Nurture leads before promoting live events: Inbound marketing can inform audiences about your brand and familiarize them with you. Before promoting live events in-store or at a tradeshow (outbound efforts), where they can pick up pamphlets or speak with sales reps in person, nurture leads through inbound efforts. Interested in learning more about lead nurturing? Using Lead Nurturing During the Consideration Stage Of The Buyer’s Journey

Inbound VS Outbound Marketing: What’s Better for You?

Which One Should I Choose?

There’s no reason to limit yourself to either inbound or outbound marketing. Learning how to use both effectively can be a valuable skill for your business. The answer lies in recognizing the strengths of each and being able to leverage both effectively. Mastering this blend is not just a skill; it’s an important way to maintain a successful and impactful marketing approach.

Inbound marketing will help you grow your business by attracting website visitors, converting them into leads and closing leads into customers

The Importance of Earning High Quality Backlinks

December 19, 2023/in Articles, Directors, Inbound Marketing, Search & Social, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

One of the major goals of an inbound marketing campaign is to be found online. There are many tactics that you can implement in order to achieve this. One such tactic is through link building. Link building refers to getting other websites to link to your content. The more high quality backlinks that you earn to your website, the more traffic you’ll receive. Because of the nature of high-quality backlinks, there’s a good chance that this traffic will consist of high-quality leads. Because of this, you should try to earn as many high-quality backlinks as possible.

High-Quality Backlinks Benefits

There are two major benefits of high-quality backlinks. The first is that a website that links to your content is doing so in order to provide their audience with a quality source that they think will benefit them. This means that your content will be exposed to an audience that is likely going to be relevant to your brand. Backlinks from websites with particularly big audiences are going to result in a lot of web traffic to your site as well, which can result in more potential leads.

The second benefit of earning high-quality backlinks is that they indicate to Google that your content is of high quality. After all, a reputable website wouldn’t send their audience to your page if the content wasn’t helpful or relevant. As such, Google factors the number of high-quality backlinks that your content earns into its page rankings. This means that the more high-quality backlinks you earn, the higher your page is probably going to appear on their SERP. As a result you’ll gain more exposure and more organic web traffic.

How to Earn High-Quality Backlinks

Earning high-quality backlinks might seem like a matter of luck. After all, you have no control over whether another website decides to link to your content. However, this isn’t necessarily true. There are a number of ways that you can increase the chances of being linked to. The following are a few tips on how you can earn more high-quality backlinks:

Create high-quality content – The first thing that’s required in order to earn backlinks is to have content worth linking to. This means that you should focus on creating high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience and that is helpful or informative in some way. Be sure to get your content out there too by promoting it. For example, link your content to your social channels and add social share buttons so that your readers can help expose it to more people. The more exposure the content is, the more likely it is that another website will stumble onto it and link to it.
Optimize your content for SEO – The higher your content ranks on Google’s SERP, the more likely it is that another website will find your content when doing research for their own blog content. If they end up referencing your content, they will link back to it.
Build your brand authority – The more brand authority you have, the more you’ll be trusted as an expert in your field. As a result, websites will be more willing to link to your content as a valid source that they can use to strengthen whatever argument they’re making or information they’re providing in their own content.
Build relationships with influencers – Find the influencers within your industry on social media and begin building relationships with them. Once they know you exist, they may link to your content. Not only can you earn backlinks this way, but the additional exposure can result in more backlinks in the near future.
Write guest blog posts – When you write a guest blog post on another website, that website will link your guest post back to your own blog. This means that you’re automatically earning backlinks for every guest post your write.
Link to other websites – Link your content to other high-quality websites. Doing this can result in them returning the favor.

How Businesses Can Use a Blog To Strengthen Their Online Marketing Efforts

Avoiding Low-Quality Backlinks

The thing about backlinks is that they only help in seo if they come from a reputable website. A low-quality website isn’t going to send you a whole lot of traffic, after all. Additionally, Google will evaluate where your backlinks are coming from to ensure that they are from a reputable source. The reason they do this is because, websites would try to trick Google into providing high page rankings. They did this by buying backlinks from websites that sold them, known as link farms. This was a common blackhat tactic that is now very difficult to get away with. If you buy backlinks, Google will penalize you by either lowering your page ranking. Or they’ll kick your page off of their SERP.

Importance of earning backlinks should be a tactic in seo that everyone invests in. Doing so can help to increase the exposure of your brand and your content. Help bring in traffic from other websites, and help boost your SEO rankings, thereby attracting more organic traffic from Google.

How Your SEO Benefits From A Long Term Strategy

December 13, 2023/in Articles, Directors, SEO /by Nicole Wagner

When it comes to getting your website found online, SEO is essential. But, it is not something that you can do and expect immediate results. It requires a long-term vision and consistent application to achieve optimal results. It is an investment that will give you compounding returns in SEO benefits.

Why SEO is Long-Term?

If you flash back a decade, the Internet was a very different place. SEO was a lot easier back there. A website could use a few keywords and quickly move up the rankings.

Then, Google started making some critical changes in the way it ranked pages. With the Penguin and Panda updates, the rankings changed radically. Pages at the top of the rankings before the updates were sent to the bottom. Why? They were stuffing their pages with keywords. Google had made the shift towards organic searches and that triggered the transformation of how SEO worked.

Today, Google gives the highest rankings to websites that have rich, dynamic content that use keywords in organic, context correct ways. And gaining those top spots takes time because Google doesn’t change a website’s ranking overnight. It can take months to see SEO benefits.

Is SEO Worth the Investment?

You might think that it’s not worth the investment in SEO unless you get quicker results. And that would be a strategic mistake.

SEO works much like compounding interest. At first, the amount of interest earned is small. But, as the interest adds up, the amount of interest earned also grows. In time, you are gaining substantial amounts of interest that only adds to the power of the interest already compounded.

Just like compounding interest, SEO starts giving minimal results, but then it starts to build. Eventually, you will see the results snowballing. Your website will enjoy high rankings in the keywords that matter to your business.

Essential Website Optimization Techniques to Increase Visitors

SEO Benefits of Long-Term Strategy

The SEO benefits you will see include, but are not limited to, the following:

It builds your audience. Every time a person reads your content, you have a new member for your audience. The more high quality content you have out there, the more potential traffic you have, the more new audience members you gain.
It attracts people to your website. As you start gaining footing in the search engine rankings, the more people will come and see what your company is offering. And that will continue to snowball with each SEO effort you make over time.
It builds referral traffic. If you offer high-quality content, you may find other sites linking to it. And those links are gold when it comes to search engine rankings. It shows Google that others view your content positively.

One of the best things about SEO is that it works with new websites and existing ones. You can build a brand new website from the ground up, optimizing its structure and content for high search engine rankings. Or, you can revamp an existing website to optimize it for the search engines.

SEO for Creatives: Optimizing Visual Content for Search

November 14, 2023/in Articles, Content Marketing, Marketing Strategy, SEO /by Terry Becker

Visual content plays a crucial role in capturing and retaining the attention of online audiences. Whether you’re a photographer, graphic designer, artist, or any other type of creative professional, it’s essential to understand how to optimize your visual content for search engines; also knows as Creative SEO. This not only helps your work get discovered by a wider audience but also establishes your online presence as a creative authority. Below, we’ll explore key strategies for optimizing visual content for SEO.

Creative SEO Strategies Focusing on Images and Videos:

Optimize File Names

Before uploading images or videos, rename the files to include descriptive keywords. For example, instead of a generic filename like “IMG_12345.jpg,” use something like “landscape-painting-by-artist-name.jpg”. This small but effective step can improve your content’s search visibility. Another tip is I like to label files with their purpose at the front of the file names so they stay together when sorting alphabetically, making it easier to locate files. An example is “slider_landscape-painting-by-artist-name.jpg”.

High-Quality Images and Videos

The foundation of any successful visual content is high-quality media. Ensure your images and videos are clear, well-composed, and relevant to your target audience. High-resolution images not only enhance user experience but also signal to search engines that your content is valuable.

Optimize Image and Video Metadata

Metadata refers to the information embedded within your media files. This includes details like title, description, tags, and copyright information. Make sure to include relevant keywords in these fields to improve search engine visibility.

Utilize Image Sitemaps

An image sitemap is a file that provides search engines with information about the images on your website. It helps search engines understand the context and relevance of your visual content. You can generate and submit an image sitemap through tools like Google Search Console.

Alt Text and Descriptions

Alt text (alternative text) provides a textual description of an image or video, which is important for accessibility and SEO. Describe your visual content in a concise and accurate manner, incorporating relevant keywords. Additionally, provide detailed captions or descriptions wherever applicable.

Mobile Optimization

With an increasing number of users browsing on mobile devices, it’s crucial to ensure your visual content is optimized for mobile viewing. Use responsive design principles to ensure your images and videos display correctly on various screen sizes.

Want to learn more about mobile optimization? Read this article.

Page Speed and Compression

Fast-loading pages are favored by both users and search engines. Compress your images and videos to reduce file sizes without compromising quality. This can significantly improve page load times, which is a known ranking factor for search engines. You can test your site speed with tools such as GTMetrix.

General Creative SEO Strategies:

Keyword Research

Just like with written content, keyword research is vital for optimizing visual content. Identify relevant keywords and phrases that potential viewers might use to search for your type of creative work. Tools like Google’s Keyword Planner can help you discover popular and relevant keywords.

Sharing your visual content on social media platforms can boost its visibility. When posting, make sure to include relevant captions and hashtags. Social signals, such as likes, shares, and comments, can indirectly influence your content’s SEO performance.

Monitor and Analyze Performance

Regularly monitor the performance of your visual content using tools like Google Analytics. Track metrics such as page views, engagement, and conversion rates. This data can provide valuable insights into what works best for your audience.

Optimizing visual content for search engines is a crucial aspect of a successful online presence for creatives. By following these strategies, you can increase the visibility and accessibility of your work to a wider audience. Remember that SEO is an ongoing process, so regularly review and update your visual content to stay competitive in the digital landscape.