Tag Archives: seo

Increase Your Brand’s Visibility With These 5 Tips

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Estimated Reading Time for This Post: 2 minutes, 10 seconds; approximately 436 words.

Online marketing is one of the most important things that you can do to benefit your business. However, while most business owners know that they need to engage in online marketing, many are still unsure of what the best practices are.

The following are some quick tips to help you improve your brand’s visibility. All of these are relatively easy to implement on your own. However, if you don’t have the time or are simply struggling, it may be time to hire a professional Internet marketing agency to help you get on the right track!

5 Quick Tips for Better Branding Online

  1. Web Design – Your web design says a lot about you. Using color, placement of text, and high quality images, you can really draw in your audience to read more about what it is you do.
  2. Linking – Linking still rules the web. Aim to get more links pointed at you than the other way around. Search engines look favorably on websites that have high quality links from credible sources pointing at them. Think CNN, Forbes, .edu and .org websites. You should aim to build meaningful relationships with reputable sources on the web so that you can have higher quality URLs pointed back at your site. This also helps to build your credibility as a reputable source of information and expertise in your industry.
  3. Social Media – Social media is a key factor in the brand visibility equation. At the very least, you should establish accounts with some of the top social media sites, such as: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and even Pinterest and Instagram.
  4. Call to Action (CTA) – Does your website have a clear call-to-action (CTA)? Some businesses make the mistake of hitting people over the head with their CTA every chance they get. However, this is a mistake. If you have a rocking website design and have carefully crafted quality content on your site, you won’t need to pepper CTA’s all over a single webpage. One to two mentions is more than enough on a given page of content.
  5. Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – Following in line with your CTA is your unique selling proposition (USP). What makes your business/website so much better and/or different than your competitors? Why should folks stick around on your website or visit your physical location? Before you can even think about how to execute your brand’s increased visibility, you must first sit down and think about what makes your brand/business “special”. Figure this out, and the rest will be gravy.

For more information about improving your branding or building a comprehensive online marketing campaign, contact C0MPLÉX1 today by calling: 919-926-8733.

5 Tips For A Better Landing Page Experience

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Estimated Reading Time for This Post: 2 minutes, 11 seconds; approximately 448 words.

Having trouble converting page views into paying customers? Experiencing high abandonment rates on your website? It may have something to do with your landing page.

In an ever increasingly digital world, you only have milliseconds to convert readers into buyers, window shoppers into paying customers…and your landing page experience has everything to do with the success you experience.

Why?

There are numerous factors that go into a great landing page experience – elements that you may have never even considered before. Below, we outline 5 key tips to help you improve your user experience.

Create a Better Landing Experience in 5 Steps

Target Your Consumer.

Who is your customer? What are they interested in? Does your landing page content speak to that consumer? Target your consumer by creating content that is tailored to their needs, whether that’s to answer a question, solve a problem, or provide information. Your content should be something that the consumer wants, needs or doesn’t yet know that they need.

Keep it relevant.

Study your target consumers. The more you know about them, the better off you’ll be able to come up with content that is specifically tailored to them. Keeping your content relevant = Keeping your consumer on your landing page.

Consider the design.

Web design continues to be one of the most overlooked, avoided areas for webmasters. Why? Many are unable or unwilling to invest in a visually appealing, functional web design  due to a fear of cost, a fear of time commitment, or both. However, with a little digging, there are actually many affordable web designs available if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves a little.

Include pertinent information.

If your website has to do with sports cars, and you are guiding someone to a landing page titled “Sports Car X,” it only makes sense to the consumer that the page should be about “Sports Car X”.

When designing your landing page, don’t trick or confuse consumers by titling your page one thing and then discussing something totally irrelevant. Relevancy not only helps retain potential consumers, it also helps the search engines figure out what your landing page is about.

Find a unique way to tell your story.

As unique as you may think your business is now, there’s always someone out there waiting to compete with you, if they’re not already. How will you differentiate what you are doing from what they are doing? What is your unique selling proposition (USP)? Find a unique way to tell your story. Use CTAs sparingly but strategically. Offer something to your consumers that they won’t be able to find anywhere else.

What other tips can you think of to improve the success of your landing pages?

6 Tips To Better Link Building and Search Engine Optimization

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 28 seconds. Contains 494 words.

The more authoritative your website (the higher quality of content you provide), the more likely others will want to link to you. Google values sites like these because of the value that they add to the online community and to people who are searching for relevant, useful information.

On the other hand, some online marketers engage in black hat SEO tactics that include building tons of links quickly, often from non-authoritative, spammy sites. In the past, they have gotten away with tactics like this. However, as Google’s algorithm becomes increasingly complex and Google has become more strict about linking practices, many SEOs find themselves faced with penalties and lost rankings.

In fact, the key to better link building begins with building a website that people want to link to in the first place.

“Genuine links provided by satisfied users and consumers serve as reliable endorsements of quality content. That’s why Google and other search engines value them highly.” – Trond Lyngbø, SEL

"not the weakest link" by dcJohn on flickr cc

6 Tips for Building Better Links

So, what is the answer to building better links and increasing Search Engine Optimization success? Below, we review 6 quick tips to get you started.

Be Newsworthy.

Give other websites and businesses a reason to link to your site in the first place. Find something newsworthy to talk about, and relate it back to your company. Get involved in press release writing. Take a look at PRWeb.com for examples of press release formats. Press release sites can provide added benefit due to the size of the distribution network.

Be Knowledgeable.

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS. This is a crucial step to success in any business. Without this knowledge, how else will you know where to start? Knowing your customers means knowing their wants and desires. It means being able to identify the problem that they are facing and being able to provide a solution to that problem. Think of your business as a problem solver.

Be Content-Driven.

Figure out your content strategy. Put it in writing, and organize it by putting content into a content calendar. Include information on items such as: meta keywords, meta titles, meta descriptions, links to resources, and topics to cover each week, etc.

Be Valuable.

Determine real value to your target audience. This goes back to the notion of being able to identify real problems that your target audience is facing, and then determine how you plan to offer value to them by providing some form of useful, relevant information.

Be Engaged.

Engage readers by hosting contests, polls, giveaways, etc. Consider, for instance, offering something of value to your target audience for free, such as whitepapers, ebooks, videos or reports. Think of other ways to engage your audience by giving them a soapbox to stand on to talk about their interaction with your business/brand.

Be Trustworthy.

Increase your credibility by positioning yourself as trustworthy, honest and professional. Gain the trust of your target audience through quality content, and become known as the go-company whenever people need the product or service you sell.

Rise of Ad Tech, Social Media Gives Businesses More Control

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"Social Media apps" by Jason Howie on flickr ccEstimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 9 seconds. Contains approximately 430 words.

According to the latest forecasts out from ZenithOptimedia, Global ad spend is on track to grow 5.5% this year to $537 billion, while Internet advertising will account for nearly one-quarter of that, at $121 billion.

If there was ever any doubt as to where people are spending most of their time these days, this latest information will certainly put out that fire. In fact, Zenith goes on to predict that Internet display will almost certainly take over paid search at $74.4 billion versus $71.1 billion by 2015. This could spell trouble for companies like Google, who have traditionally dominated the Internet ad space in the past.

Keeping an Eye on Mobile Ad Spend

As Ingrid Lunden over at TechCrunch recaps, all eyes are now turning to mobile as mobile continues to experience rapid growth. This makes sense as more people are using mobile devices to access information on the Internet, from tablets to smartphones to other types of portable devices. Compare the following as case and point:

In 2013, $13.4 billion was spent on mobile ads, but by 2016 that will rise to $45 billion, or 28% of Internet ad spend and 7.6% of total ad investments.

Researchers at Zenith stated,

“Mobile will leapfrog radio, magazines and outdoor to become the world’s fourth-largest medium by the end of our forecast period..”

The Rise of Social Media Advertising

Even more impressive is the rise of social media advertising, which is currently growing at 29% each year.

Why is this?

1- Audience

As mentioned earlier, social media is HUGE. If you don’t have at least a Twitter account and a Facebook account, then you simply don’t get it. Consider the social media giant, Facebook, which currently has more than 1 billion users and is on pace to soon cross the 1 billion mark on just mobile alone! The advertising potential is limitless.

2- Rise of Ad Tech

Perhaps even more poignant is the rise of Ad Tech. Why? Ad Tech allows businesses to gain more control over what they buy and where it’s being seen. “It also provides a greater amount of data to be able to measure the impact that their marketing investments are having.”

Finally, when it comes to world comparisons of Ad Spend and advertising in general, the U.S. remains the biggest market for advertising, at more than three times the value compared to the next-biggest market.

Bottom line? It’s time to start thinking through some new online social strategies and thinking of new ways to engage the countless users who log in each day to social sites. How can you capitalize on that potential?

[HT TechCrunch]

5 Reasons Why SEO Matters for Business Success

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Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes, 16 seconds. Contains approximately 456 words.

What role does search engine optimization (SEO) play in the grand scheme of online business success? Does it even matter anymore?

The answer is: Yes, more than ever.

Does SEO matter?

5 Reasons Why SEO Matters to the Success of Your Business

COST

Compared to other forms of traditional print media, online marketing, specifically search engine optimization, is cost-effective. It is also highly relevant as more people are using the Internet to search for items, information, business and various other services. The cost also yields a better return for investors and businesses as they can more specifically target, measure and track exactly where money is being spent and what is working versus what isn’t working.

Being able to track and pinpoint exactly how and where conversions come from can help to plan a better budget to help keep overhead down. Additionally, let’s not forget about the fact that while brick and mortar businesses still do exist, there are even more businesses that are saving overhead costs by simply setting up shop online.

INTEGRATION WITH SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media seems to be the wave of the future as recent research indicates a higher drive towards social media ad spend. Facebook alone has more than 1 billion users who are logged in at any given time. Optimizing content, creating appealing ads and integrating social sharing is all a part of putting together a comprehensive, social media plan.

CREDIBILITY

Google+ is the perfect example of what it means to have credibility on the Web. Taking the above point a step further, social integration and SEO go hand in hand. Optimizing content for the web and integrating that optimized content in the form of a blog post, for example, that has your business name and face attached can add tremendous value to your brand. On the Internet, your business (and those who work for your business) have the opportunity to leverage brand awareness and drive customers to your website. By integrating SEO into your online content strategy, you can help establish (or reinforce) credibility and help your business stand out as the go-to resource for those in your industry.

COMPETITION

All of your competitors are on the Web. All of them have some sort of search engine optimization strategy in place. All of them are using SEO and keeping a finger on the pulse of the various algorithms and studies that come out each day. If you don’t believe it, you’re missing the boat.

IT WORKS

At its core, even the most basic SEO-employed techniques merit some sort of recognition for the value they can add to an existing website. Whether this involves the correct use of Meta Tags and Titles or the implementation of a keyword strategy, creating content that is relevant without overdoing it, matters, and search engines are still taking notice.

PPC vs. SEO Which Should I Start with First?

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Estimated Reading Time: 1 minute, 24 seconds. Contains approximately 282 words.

This is a question I am often asked in sales meetings. The answer really depends on two things:

  1. Your budget
  2. The time frame in which you desire to see results

Pay Per Click = Instant Gratification Solution for Online Marketing

Pay Per Click (PPC) is your ‘instant gratification’ solution when it comes to Internet marketing. Most agencies and consultants can get your PPC ads running in a very short time – as in days.

Search Engine Optimization As A Long-Term Solution

On the other hand, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is usually a 60-90+ day range before seeing rank changing. With SEO/organic rankings, you typically receive more traffic over the short and long term. However, it takes a while for your SEO provider to get up and running, implement changes, add/edit online content, etc. Afterwards, it then takes even more time until Google indexes the completed work. Only after all of this is complete will you then see rank fluctuation.

Simplified Explanation of PPC vs. SEO

Still unsure of which to start with initially – PPC or SEO? Check out the following “cheat sheet” of bulleted items to figure out which one is right for you at this stage in the game.

  • Great Budget and Long Term Outlook: Start with SEO & PPC immediately
  • Okay Budget and Long Term Outlook: Start with PPC & Smaller SEO budget
  • *Small Budget and Need Short Term Sales: Start with PPC only. Track Results. As sales increase add budget to PPC and allocate some for SEO soon after.

*Disclaimer About Budget

Small Budget, as stated above, is relative to your competition, NOT your internal % of revenue. In our opinion most successful companies are spending 5-15% +/- of revenue on marketing/advertising. Your digital marketing budget is a percentage of this. See What Should My SEO Budget Be? for more help on budgets.