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  • Google March 2024 Broad Core Update | What To Look Out For

    Google March 2024 Broad Core Update | What To Look Out For

    So far, 2024 has been relatively stable in terms of Google search rankings.

    We write that to say that beginning March 5, those stable rankings might become much more volatile throughout the rest of the month. The old saying “In like a lion, out like a lamb” might be reversed for SEO strategists and the websites they are optimizing.

    Google announced that it would be releasing the Google March 2024 Broad Core Update, one of just a few of these high-impact, sweeping core updates throughout a calendar year. The rollout began on March 5 and will take the entire month to roll out completely, according to industry expert Barry Schwartz.

    How will this impact my website?

    Good news for those who have employed deliberate and strong content creation for their website in recent months and years. The update is not a penalty for sites, but a promotion for websites that have been doing a good job with content that truly helps users find goods or services they are seeking. Google has been working to enhance the visibility of these good sites for a few years with these significant algorithm updates to discourage sites from continuing to create unhelpful and unoriginal content that was rewarded in previous instances of the algorithm’s life.

    If your site has been working intentionally to grow business online with white-hat SEO and optimization strategies that are best-practices, your site could stand to be rewarded.

    If your site has been engaged in quick-fix SEO, black-hat and/or poor practice, your site could see a significant reduction in rankings across your search results.

    Please note, even if your site is set up with “best-practice” SEO, your site may experience a negative impact or no impact at all. Google does its best to ensure it crawls all sites and rewards the ones that are truly worthy for helpful content, but often can get the outcome wrong, leaving sites with unhelpful content with their rankings intact or reducing the standing of a site following best-practices.

    What should I do?

    Working with an SEO company that’s on top of your site’s rankings at any given time is the best way to mitigate these potential impacts and get on the path to ranking recovery. If your rankings are still in a good place, chances are you have already been working with a company like DigitalParc to optimize your site across search engines.

    Be on the lookout for your search rankings, and if your site experiences a sustained downturn, consider reaching out to a company that’s experienced with turning sites’ rankings around and driving leads for your business in the right direction. We want your business to thrive just as you do. Even if you are questioning where your site stands in the realm of search engine optimization, don’t hesitate to reach out to us to discuss your business.

  • The Importance of Content to Your SEO Strategy

    As technology becomes more advanced, SEO strategy becomes more sophisticated and complex. Fresh, original, quality content is a key factor to modern SEO success. Content provides value to your visitors and attracts search engines, showing both that you are a knowledgeable and credible source of information, which helps you move up the search rankings.

    Quality is Key

    Today, content for SEO has to go beyond just practices like on-page keyword optimization and link building. Both of these are still vital to SEO success, but they will no longer get you there on their own.

    Google has made incredible technological advances over the years, and is now even better at sifting through what it believes to be “high quality” content. Websites that provide visitors with valuable, original content are looked upon more favorably by Google and will place higher in search rankings. Some factors that Google looks for in high quality websites are longer content, correct grammar, correct spelling, images, videos, proper text formatting, and both inbound and outbound links.

    Types of Content

    Blogs are one of the easiest and most efficient ways to create quality content. Blogs are great for a number of reasons, one of the biggest being that they can satisfy both Google and their target audiences with fresh, valuable content. Blog posts are also incredibly important for SEO because they give business extra opportunities to add keywords to their website in a natural way. The more blog posts they make the more relevant they will become to those specific key words.

    Blogs also act as great content to share on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Continual posts on social networks help engage followers and can act as inbound links. Finally, blog posts can help businesses get backlinks from other companies or blogs, which help build authority with Google.

    Blog posts are a great platform for textual content and keyword placement, but they aren’t always the most enticing forms of content. Visual content such as images, videos and infographics are more eye catching and engaging to visitors but still provide valuable information. A lot of consumers prefer these because they can quickly read or watch a significant amount of information in a way that’s stimulating and easy to understand, which makes it easier for them to recall later on.

    Visual forms of content are good for businesses because they tend to be more popular than blog posts, making them a great way to increase traffic and gain authority.

    Search engines are getting smarter, and they now require consistent, high quality, new content for a website to achieve SEO success. Blog posts and visual content like images, infographics and videos are easy and effective ways to not only rank better in search engines, but increase traffic, engage visitors, and grow your business.

  • 4 Benefits of Having a Local Strategy for SEO in Minneapolis

    Proper search engine optimization (SEO) helps create relevance and credibility within the Twin Cities and helps improve organic local search rankings. All businesses can benefit from SEO, but small businesses that rely on local customers can see an especially big benefit from Minneapolis SEO. When implemented properly, Minneapolis SEO can be free advertising for your company, help build a credible and professional reputation and much more. Below we discuss the four major benefits of having an SEO strategy in Minneapolis.


    How Can You Localize Your SEO to Target the Minneapolis Market?


    If you are a small business, it is important to localize your marketing efforts when you begin your promotional campaign. For example, if you are selling carpeting in Minneapolis, you will not want a title tag or header to read: “Carpet Sales.” It would be more beneficial to title your website: “Carpet Sales – Minneapolis | Company Name.” If you do not localize your SEO, you will probably not rank high because companies that are much larger and have a significantly higher budget will surely outrank you.


    It is important that you consider the specific demographics of Minneapolis as well. If you are targeting a specific age group, you will want to research which part of the Minneapolis – St. Paul region is the most popular with that age group and try to focus your keywords on that spot. If you are targeting a college-aged audience, for example, you may want to write a blog entry and use the term “Dinkytown” in the title. In addition, you must use keyword analysis to answer this question: what key terms related to your industry do Minneapolis residents commonly search for?


    The Four Benefits of Local SEO:


    Increase Traffic. Using Minneapolis SEO or SEO targeted to another local community helps your business get exposed to members of that community, which are the people that would actually be able to purchase your goods or services. Using local SEO means that you are competing with fewer businesses for high rankings, giving you a better chance of showing up on the first page. These two factors lead to increased traffic to your website and the opportunity to increase your sales.


    Lower Costs. SEO is one the lowest-cost marketing alternatives. The cost of Pay Per Click advertising is high for ads that receive a lot of clicks, and there is no way of regulating the quality of these clicks. Minneapolis SEO, on the other hand, directly targets people in the Twin Cities that are actively searching for your goods or services. You may be targeting a smaller area, but you will be targeting an audience of qualified buyers, which will lead to increased traffic to your website


    Increase Usability. This is more of a side effect than a direct benefit of SEO, but Twin Cities websites that are optimized for SEO also have increased usability. A website that is optimized is designed to be easy and quick for search engines to navigate, this makes it easily navigable for users as well. Modern consumers want a simple and understandable way to access their information, optimizing your website for search engines will help create a enjoyable and memorable experience for customers.


    Connect with Customers. Using SEO is a great way to increase your brand awareness and connect with customers. Appearing at the top of search rankings helps build awareness, trust and credibility for your brand in the eyes of customers. Social media is a popular tool for SEO, and can also help expand your brand presence and connect with current and potential customers.


    Overall, Minneapolis SEO, or local SEO, is great method for attracting qualified customers to your website and creating a brand that customers know, like and trust.

  • Why Social Media Has a Powerful Effect on Your SEO Efforts

    In the past, search engine optimization was a pretty straightforward practice. Ranking a piece of content typically came down to stuffing it with keywords and text that would please search engines. In recent years, however, search engines have become much smarter. Now search engines give priority to websites with higher quality content.


    Social media now has a direct impact on your SEO. More and more, search engines are incorporating social context into their search rankings. As well as a wide number of on-site ranking signals, robots are looking to social media for new signals like links, brand mentions, and sharing.


    Linked Content. Social media gives businesses the opportunity to build inbound links to their website. The more links a piece of content has, the more credible it will appear to Google.


    Social media activity can significantly increase awareness of a brand. This increased familiarity can lead to links. Publishing your content to the entirety of the Internet introduces the possibility for it to be linked to users’ own websites or blogs. These links contribute to the overall link profile, thus increasing the SEO impact.


    Search Volume. Social media is a great tool to increase awareness of your brand. Getting your name out there can lead to more people searching for your brand in search engines. Google will see increases in searches for your brand, perceive your brand as more credible and popular, and rank your brand higher in search rankings.


    Local SEO. Local SEO can give small and medium sized businesses a huge boost in rankings. Location-based networks such as Foursquare, Google+, and Yelp play a huge role in helping businesses boost their local SEO and become visible to customers in their area. Local SEO is now greatly influenced by the citations your business receives and by the number and tone of reviews it gets from local customers. Having a presence on networks like Yelp and Google+ will give you credibility in the eyes of both consumers search engines.


    Engagement. Consumers’ engaging with social media posts let search engines know what information is relevant. Likes, shares, and retweets signal new and interesting content. And in theory, the more a post is engaged with, the more relevant it is considered. Bots look at content that is being shared, the frequency of shares and the authority of those doing the engaging. Engagement can also lead to increased traffic to your website which is a key factor in search engine rankings.


    In summary, quality content needs to come first. Consumers will only engage with content that is relevant and valuable to them. If you’re creating fresh and interesting content that appeals to your consumers, the benefits of SEO will follow.

    ➤ Click here to learn about DigitalParc’s SEO services

  • 5 Little Known Tools to Enhance Your SEO and Digital Marketing Approach

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is like an arm wrestling match. Even if you let up for a moment, your competition can quickly take the lead. Once your website loses its spot on the search engine results page (SERP), it can be a major challenge to get your placement back. This is especially true if you are in a highly competitive industry. If your competitors are savvy when it comes to digital marketing, they no doubt utilize Google’s suite of Internet marketing tools to monitor and boost their online reputation. With such fierce competition, how can you get ahead? You should be using tools that your competition likely does not know about. You may want to employ the five useful SEO and digital marketing tools below for a competitive advantage.
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  • How to Enhance Creative Thinking for Web Design Professionals

    How to Enhance Creative Thinking for Web Design Professionals

    It’s a moment of dread that everyone in a creative role has experienced: you are expected to deliver innovative and original ideas or concepts, but you have lost all inspiration and for the life of you cannot come up with anything that looks or sounds good. No matter what profession, brain blocks happen. That’s why it’s important to try and think critically and creatively while mastering your craft. Web design professionals frequently face the task of creating unique ideas to help their customers stand out from the crowd. Although most professionals in the field make it look easy, the truth is that all creative professionals have encountered blocks in their creativity. The next time it happens to you, remember these tips on how to enhance creative thinking for web design professionals. (more…)

  • What Business Owners Might Not Know About SEO & Web Design

    What Business Owners Might Not Know About SEO & Web Design

    SEO is an important part of building your business. Understanding search engine optimization is critical for business owners.

    If you are a small business owner, you’re likely wearing many different hats as you work to build your company. You’ve probably researched “web design” in an effort to get online and advertise your services or products.

    Many small business owners are lured in by ads and companies promising that you can build your own website for free or nearly free, only to find that indeed, you get what you pay for.

    The reality is that while creating a website may seem simple, actually getting people to visit your site and ranking in search engines is much more complicated. Even if you have a great looking site, if potential customers aren’t using it, it’s not doing you any good.

    You’ve probably heard of search engine optimization (SEO) and the importance of understanding it and incorporating it into your website design.

    Here are some key points that every small business owner should know about SEO and web design:

    You Must Choose Your Words Carefully

    While images and fonts are important to overall website design, the words (copy) that you use on your site play a critical role in SEO. You must plan for each page to have clear, concise and compelling copy on every page of your website.

    In addition to great copy on your pages, you also need to make sure that you are adding relevant keywords to each post that is added to your page. SEO titles and meta descriptions should always include the appropriate key-word phrases in order to attain great search results.

    URLs matter in the world of SEO. Make sure yours contains your domain name as well as keywords in each URL. This will maximize your search engine results.

    Having a skilled content or copy writer is often the most effective way to boost your SEO results.

    Good Things Take Time

    Be wary of SEO services that offer you immediate results. The truth is that building your SEO takes time and effort and cannot be done overnight. Having a realistic expectation of how long it takes SEO to work is crucial to your business planning.

    By creating a dedicated content calendar and updating your website regularly with blog posts, you will be consistently submitting to search engines and your SEO results will grow over time.

    A good rule of thumb is that you need eight to twelve months of a dedicated SEO plan and content creation to get you increased SEO traffic and more importantly, results. Remember, if you are getting website visitors, but not converting customers, your SEO isn’t working for you.

    SEO can be confusing to understand and time consuming. Many design firms and social media professionals offer SEO optimization services that drill down into the details of what your particular business needs in order to get good SEO results and can study the results to assure you are getting the SEO that you need to grow your business.

  • When You Will See SEO Results For Your Website

    You have followed your search engine optimization (SEO) plan to the letter. You have used the best SEO techniques currently in the market; and finally, you expect your spirited SEO campaigns to take your business to another level of success, and rightly so. At this point, you are now wondering when you will see SEO results for your company and website?

    At the risk of oversimplification, a period of between four to six months should be enough for you to witness the results of your SEO work. Such results do not come easily. You and the SEO expert you have hired to help you market your online business must have done your parts properly to ensure that your business can grow through SEO. It does not always have to take a couple of months before the results of your SEO efforts begin to pour in.

    When You Will See SEO Results

    In fact, for some people, waiting for a couple of months is not something they are willing to commit to. If you want your efforts to have more immediate results, there are approaches that you can take to get your wish. With the help of an SEO professional, you can achieve noticeable results from your SEO work. Involving an SEO company in some way can help you optimize this process and get the strongest results.

    On a related note, there are a few ways to know that your SEO worked, and what you are seeing are now the positive results for the work you have put in. More traffic should begin to come your way. Additionally, your rankings on major search engines should be growing.

    There is an equally relevant question that you should ask yourself, even as you wonder how long it will take before your SEO efforts begin to bear fruits: how will you remain on top? Without a doubt, most people will find your business through great rankings on popular search engines such as Google. Nevertheless, the world of SEO is very fickle. Your reign at the top is not guaranteed, and the methods that got you there are not guaranteed to keep you there.

    To avoid worrying about the permanency of your SEO results immediately after they become visible, it is advisable to work with an SEO company that can use the latest techniques to help you maintain your position. What this means is that the moment you begin seeing results is also the beginning of the next phase in SEO – maintaining your performance and even improving it further.

    As a final note, it is worth understanding that SEO is certainly worth all the effort it demands. It is an effective and tested way for customers to find your business online. While your own efforts might bear some quick results in the short-term, only an SEO expert can help you maintain an edge in this increasingly dynamic world. SEO software and techniques are always changing, and if your in-house SEO efforts cannot take this in their stride, your business is better off betting on the efforts of a good SEO company.

  • Common Pay Per Click Advertising Misconceptions To Be Aware Of

    Love them or hate them, pay-per-click advertising campaigns are (and have been) a staple of the social media advertisement space for years. Many of these campaigns have been directly responsible for increasing businesses profits tremendously while some have cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars with little to nothing to show for it. Part of the problem lies in the so-called “best practices” of running an effective PPC campaign. Here are some common pay per click advertising misconceptions to be aware of and the truths behind them.

    Common Pay Per Click Advertising Misconceptions

    Click-Through Rate is the Most Valuable Metric

    CTR may be the main goal targeted for certain campaigns, and that is generally fine. If that’s the case for yours, then you needn’t pay any attention to this one, but for the vast majority of campaigns run by businesses, there are other factors at play that need to be paid attention to. Conversions per impression, for instance, may paint a more vivid picture of the overall profitability of your campaign. While it might be tempting to set your rotation to optimize for clicks above all else, this is a dangerous move to make. Just because a potential customer is more likely to click through on your campaign, doesn’t mean that he or she will convert just as easily.

    Using “Exact Match” Will Always Yield the Best Results

    Depending on the nature of your campaign (and your niche in general), it may be prudent to utilize exact match instead of broader keywords or phrases. However, when it comes to a high-volume target, this often is not the case. The narrower your point of entry is, the harder it is to scale down your cost per acquisition, leading to a less-than-effective campaign, all told.

    Keyword Position Doesn’t Matter/Keyword MUST Be Number 1

    During many campaign runs, advertisers will generally not care if their keywords drop below 5 to 6 for their respective categories. By the same token, many will ensure that their keywords never drop below the number 1 spot across their entire campaign. There is a happy medium to be had here, and it’s all in the details. Your average spot being high up is very important, but if you are in the 2 to 4 range, you may be paying less for virtually the same results as the number 1, per category. It is important to “play the game” from keyword to keyword, optimizing the most effective ones and underplaying the under-performing.

    Using Broad Match Alone is Enough For A Campaigns Success

    This one is a bit tricky in practice to perfect, but the idea is that lots of brands will use very broad terms with no additional information, almost in a “set it and forget it” fashion. While this approach can be effective in large volume campaigns where CTR is the king, adding in a few negatives, or even a modified broad match term can really do a lot to lower the overall cost per acquisition, increasing the results of your campaign dramatically!

    Keep these misconceptions in mind when planning your next PPC campaign.

  • 4 Game Changing SEO Tips for Small Business in 2016

    2015 was an interesting year for SEO experts. Google changed its algorithm to favor mobile-friendly sites, a machine-learning artificial intelligence is now helping deliver search results, and a dozen of other minor updates were released. Now, all eyes are on 2016 and the trends that will dominate this upcoming year. To help provide a better understanding of the search landscape for small businesses, here are four game changing SEO tips for small business in 2016.

    4 Game Changing SEO Tips for Small Business in 2016

    1. Mobile Is the Future

    It’s getting bigger and bigger every day. The average consumption of digital content through mobile has almost doubled in the past couple of years. And, as of May 2015, mobile searches have officially overtaken desktop queries.

    Keeping up with the evolution of mobile devices is a real necessity for marketers who want to keep their audience close, engaged and excited. As more and more people choose smartphones and tablets over desktop computers, making your website mobile-friendly is one of the best SEO tips small business owners can follow in 2016.

    Apart from making your website responsive to all devices, you need to go a little further. In other words, you need to have a mobile mentality and adjust your strategy with user intent in mind. Consider how content will appear on a mobile device before creating your website or landing page. Give mobile users the same seamless experience as if they are visiting a proper desktop site.

    2. Social Media Is More Important Than Ever for SEO

    According to recent studies, the average consumer today uses more than ten online sources of information to make a purchase decision. They use search engines to find potential companies, to search for specific businesses, and to learn more about them. That is where social media comes into play.

    Nowadays, consumers don’t use just Google to evaluate a company. They read blogs, online reviews, watch videos and connect with content published on social media platforms. Publishing content across all these channels is a vital component of your search engine optimization process. It goes without saying that your social profiles matter to Google and to consumers who are looking for you online. In fact, social media profiles are often among the top results in search listings.

    3. Interactive Content Is on the Rise

    By now, you know that content is king and that delivering unique, valuable content is a key success factor. However, passive content has become fatiguing for consumers to sift through. Users are starting to get accustomed to personalized results, and will start to expect content that is tailored to their needs.

    Interactive content such as quizzes, infographics, and videos allow marketers to hold the attention of consumers and to keep them interested. Engaging content can help generate links to pages on your website from other publishers. These inbound links result in referral traffic that can boost your search engine rankings.

    4. The Growing Importance of Customer Reviews

    According to one study, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Think about it for a second: they aren’t asking their friends or their colleagues. Instead, consumers today know that they can find legitimate online reviews for just about anything.

    Customer reviews are a powerful source of information that has a big impact on customer behavior. They matter so much that, according to another study, products with positive reviews sold 200% more products that those that had no ratings. More than that, businesses with more reviews and positive reviews have higher SEO rankings of their competitors. So, it’s not a question of whether consumers read online reviews – statistics say they do. It’s a matter of pampering them with your stellar customer service and getting them to review your business.

    2016 may bring other exciting trends that will change the landscape of SEO. Regardless, you need to keep pace with the updates to make sure your small business will thrive. Remember these game changing SEO tips for small business this year, and you should have no problem keeping up with the competition!

    ➡ Click here if you’re in need of small business SEO services

    Barbara Dittert is a Content Marketing Specialist at Volume Nine in Denver, Colorado.