Category: SEO

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SEO

Why Do You Need Interactive Content?

Why Do You Need Interactive Content?

Content marketing was king and that use to be enough.  However, people are moving away from reading text and are looking for things that will engage them.  More and more marketing now includes “interactive content” which can help get more leads.

“Interactive content is content that starts dialogue with your audience and leads to an exchange of information.”   It allows participation.

On average, when companies produce and distribute interactive content, they generate:

  • Click rates of 50%
  • Lead form completion rates of 80%
  • Social sharing rates of 20%

Compare that with average email click rates of 5%

Here are tips to incorporate interactive content.

Video that answers some of your customer’s questions.

Interactive product demos

Rotating or sliding content

Polls, surveys

Trivia quizzes

Contests, like photo contests

Think about what interactive content you can incorporate into your marketing that will have an impact, keep your audience engaged and help them remember you and your business.

Content needs to stand out.  When you stand out the possibilities are endless.

Stats source: blog.marketo.com

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SEO

Online Vs Offline Marketing

 Both types of marketing, online and offline, can contribute to your website’s success.  Most people concentrate on online marketing because they feel nowadays everyone is online.  As of 2012, 78% of people used the internet.  That leaves 22% who will never see your online marketing.  Here are a few ways to incorporate Offline Marketing into your plan that may help you reach those people who do not spend time online.

Trade shows- will give you the opportunity to meet people face to face and start a relationship.

Sponsor Local Events –this will give you community exposure.

Donate a prize for a raffle or contest, either a product or service, and get your business name out there.

Business Cards- Make them unique, modern and with bright colors so they stand out and look good enough to save.

Network and find a business that offers complementary services or products and work together to attract business.

If you have the budget, try a radio or TV advertisement.

Put something into the hands of prospects that is relevant to your business.  Don’t go with the normal pens, magnets, etc.  Spend some time and thought and come up with something that clearly connects to your business.

Send out notices about special promotions or new products.

Use your car/cars as a mobile billboard to advertise your business.

Join Angie’s List and put a coupon in their booklet.

Ask existing customers for testimonials that can be used in marketing materials such as brochures or freebie giveaways like tote bags.

Using a combination of online and offline marketing ensures you are reaching out to all potential prospects, those who are able to use the internet and those who are not.

 

 

 

 

 

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SEO Weekly Tips

Start A Contest

If you use social media and want to build a following, try this idea.

Start a Contest

Here are a few  tips to get started.

Decide what type of prize you can afford that is enticing enough to keep the buzz going.

Get people’s attention on social media by asking them to submit a great picture or caption that relates to your product or service.  Make it clear that entries must relate to your brand.  As people join in this will create excitement and help build followers as the content is shared.

Decide and make it clear where and how you will accept submissions.

Keep people informed as to when and how winners will be announced.

Announce the winner on your website and that will drive traffic.

For more details on how to set this up this article will help.

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SEO

How to Get People to Read Your Content

How to Get People to Read Your Content?

Here are some interesting statistics.

79% of web visitors scan rather than read.

Internet users spend 80% of their time looking at information on a page visible without scrolling or  what’s called “above the fold”.  They are looking for the most important and relevant information first.

Users do scroll, but they only give 20% of their attention to information below the fold.

So how do you get people to read more of your content?

1. Write less and set up your text so it’s easy to “scan”.  This may help hold their attention.

2. Get to the point right away.  Put important content first.  Users are much more likely to scroll past the fold if the first content they see captures their attention and offers a solution to their needs.

3. Use bolded headings and subheadings that make sense and include keywords of the content.

4. Use bulleted lists when you can to break up content.  Bullets are also easy to scan.

5. Image captions are read consistently so make them intriguing.

6. Use numerals on the web instead of spelling out numbers. This takes up less space and grabs the readers attention.

If you can get readers attention when skimming, by doing some of these things, they may slow down and read more carefully and take in more of your content.

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SEO Weekly Tips

How Is Your Website Converting?

The biggest goal of any website is to get customers to take action.  Conversion Optimization is getting a higher number of visitors to take action and become a lead or a customer.

Here are some Tips to help get conversion rates up

1. Do website optimization first to get your bounce rate down. This will definitely help you get conversions. After all, if visitors don’t stay you have no chance at a conversion.

2. People buy on emotion, passion, and desire. Get them excited.

3. Sell benefits of products and services not the features.

4. Use testimonials as a way to build trust.

5. Do split testing with 2 different pages to see which performs better.

6.  Make it easy for visitors to take action with easy to locate call to action buttons.

7. Try different registration forms and ask only for data you need. Asking too much information will make them suspicious.

8. Cut down on text on your website.  Try great headlines and bulleted lists if you want them to read text.

Check out our Conversion Optimization page and SEO Calculator.

 

 

 

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SEO Weekly Tips

Consider Writing a Press Release

Press releases have changed over the years.

Your company may be launching a new product or service, having a grand opening for a new location or sponsoring a charity event which involves a well known personality.  You may even have won an award in your industry.  Try a press release if you have a newsworthy, even weird human interest story that may catch on.

Here are a few reasons a press release may be a good way to promote your business.

1.  It is easy to publish and distribute them with a press release distribution service and you can send them out whenever you have something newsworthy.

2.  Press releases now let you use video and images to convey your message which makes them more interesting.

3.  With the Internet, smart phones, tablets and iPods people can read them anywhere.

4.  With social media today there is a chance it can go viral.

5.  If you use keywords specific to your business it can improve SEO.

If you are going to try and write one for the first time here is link to help you get started http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Press-Release

Call us if you have any questions.

 

 

 

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SEO

What Do I Do When My Business is Slow?

What Do I Do When My Business is Slow?

Memorial day is the official start of summer.  For some businesses summer can be a slow time. What tasks should you work on during a slow season?  Here are some responses from people on yec.com

1.  Touch base with past and present clients and thank them for their business.

2.  Reorganize and refresh.  Update website, redesign marketing materials, or research a new marketing strategy.

3.  Write blog content.  Stockpile some blog content and save it for the start of the busy season when web traffic is up again.

4.  Survey customers and find out what they think of your brand and what they want.

5.  Figure out which social media might be best for you or learn how to use a new one.

6.  Reflect on your mission and purpose.  What changes could you make to be more on track with your mission and purpose?

7.  Read and learn about what’s new with technology, and social media.

8.  Revisit old ideas that you may have put aside.

There are numerous things you can be doing during slow periods.  Take advantage of the time and get geared up for busier seasons.

When someone asks you, “What Do I Do When My Business is Slow?” You’ll have a nice list of ideas to share and mastermind what to do next.

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SEO Uncategorized Weekly Tips

It’s Time to Consider Mobile Marketing

If you haven’t thought about mobile websites and mobile marketing, now is the time. 

Mobile internet usage is only going to increase and is expected to overtake desktop internet usage in the next year or two.  Here are are some mobile stats I found online.

One half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices.

Global mobile traffic now represents roughly 13% of Internet traffic.

There is a huge growth rate in mobile traffic across the world especially in Asia which had an increase of 192% between 2010 and 2012.

 29% of mobile users are open to scanning a mobile tag to get coupons.

1 in 5 smartphone users scan product barcodes, and nearly 1 in 8 compare prices on their phone while in a store

From April to September in 2011, mobile email opens increased 34%, while webmail and PC opens decreased by 11% and 9.5%, respectively.

Will these stats encourage you to invest in mobile marketing?  They should.

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SEO Weekly Tips

6 Google Analytic Metrics to Track

Once you have your website online you should start paying attention to your website statistics.  Have you used Google Analytics before?  Have you installed Google Analytics?  Do you know which metrics to track?  If you are a new business just starting out online, Google Analytics may be unfamiliar and confusing.

Below are a few tips on which metrics to track to get an idea of what visitors are doing on your site.

1. Keywords Searched – Which terms bring the most traffic

2. Bounce Rate – Tracks % of people who went to your site and “bounced “ off after visiting only one page.  Maybe the user isn’t finding what they are looking for or there is no call to action on the landing page,  leaving no reason for them to explore your site further.

3. Conversion – When a visitor goes beyond browsing and takes action.  Signs up for the newsletter, fills out a contact form or makes a purchase.  This is the primary goal of your website.

4. Traffic Sources –Tells you where traffic is coming from.  Is it search traffic, direct traffic, referral traffic or from a paid ad campaign?

5. Content -Shows which content performs best.  Looking at your most popular pages will tell you what visitors are interested in.  It may also help you see where you are losing the audience.

6.  Social Media– If you use social media for your business this metric will tell you how social media is impacting your business.  It shows how many people are finding you on social media sites and whether you are getting any conversions.

Once you understand the basic metrics you may want to look deeper and get familiar with navigation patterns, new versus returning visitors and other more in depth statistics.

Google Analytics can provide a lot of valuable information about your website’s optimization.   We can help if you have any questions.

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SEO Weekly Tips

Optimize Your Website

This week’s tip is about optimizing your website.  SEO (search engine optimization) is essential to get your website on the first page of search results for your keywords.

A well optimized website will increase web traffic, result in higher search engine rankings and will satisfy customers because they will find what they are looking for when they search.  All this creates an opportunity for a lead or sale.

So what makes a well optimized website?

1.  Pages that perform well in search engines and have link titles and alt descriptions with keywords

2.  Compelling content that incorporates keywords in header and text will help conversions

3.  Pages that influence visitors to follow navigation to accomplish a conversion, a sale, a registration or a contact

4.  A well optimized website should produce the best results for both search visits and conversions

Many sites are not properly optimized to rank high in the search engines.  Optimizing your site just might help you stay ahead of competitors.

 

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