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  • Beginners Guide: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

    SEO must be considered an essential element within your business and marketing efforts in order to increase traffic to your website. Search engine optimization assures that your website will be found by the users most likely to need or want your product or service by garnering your high placements when individuals search the web for businesses such as yours.

     

    Impactful SEO tactics are a vital segment within the industry of Internet marketing and advertising. A crucial factor that results in high-impact, organic and result-driven traffic to your website is the strategy of keyword research optimization. Understanding the reasons that people are searching for your business or service – and what data and specific search terms people are using to look for your service – helps you gain powerful and robust information about your client base. In turn, optimizing SEO allows your business to gain a foothold over your competitors by improving your search engine rank listings, thereby boosting the online vitality of your business.

     

    Some companies try to “cheat” the system by using SEO terms that they know rank high within particular search engines. The truth is, there is no shortcut to gaining meaningful and lasting SEO outcomes. The goal of SEO should be to best convey to search engines what your business offers so that those search engines can determine which searches and users truly would benefit from visiting your website. While “gaming” the system may work temporarily, search engines will quickly catch on to false practices and demote your page rankings.

     

    Organic SEO

     

    Organic SEO means that your website gains high-page rankings without paying for the placement. Organic SEO takes effort and consistent practices to both gain a high ranking and maintain that ranking. SEO often follows “white hat” practices in order to gain organic results.

     

    There are many practices that are involved in gaining organic SEO results, the most popular of which include:
    – Utilizing keywords within your website and content
    – Creating content and copy that is genuinely relevant to potential customers
    – Link building
    – Backlinking
    – Analytic methodology, including keyword and search term analysis.

     

    It is important to know that the more naturally – or organically – your website ranks within search engines, the better the odds are that people using those search engines will click on your website, thereby increasing your traffic.

    SEO allows search engines to verify that your website is relevant to the searches that people are performing. Search engines utilize a variety of data, analytics, algorithms and other factors to determine if a website is relevant to a particular search. While the particulars of some of those assessments are highly protected within the search engines, you can safely be assured that the following factors are definitely used to determine website relevancy, and thereby high-ranking search results:

     

    – Content and Copy: Does the copy or content on your website match the search terms or themes being used?
    – User Friendliness and Navigation: Is your site user-friendly? Is it mobile responsive? Is it easily navigated and labeled?
    – Knowledgeable: Does your website convey expert knowledge and authority? Do other high-ranking websites link to your website as a reference? Does your website content link to websites that are considered experts within the industry?

  • 3 Essentials for a Successful Website Design

    The importance of professional website design cannot be understated in today’s digitally driven marketplace. A well designed website is not only visually attractive, it serves other functions that are critical to making your business or brand stand out. Envision your website as a house: an attractive design would be the exterior of the home – the first impression that passersby would take in. The components behind the design would be the elements that make your home functional and assure that your guests find it welcoming. In the case of website design, these elements include mobile responsiveness and user friendliness.

    Visual Appeal.

    Attractive website design should be one of the top priorities for the marketing of your business. Your website is the first impression of your company that potential customers take in. You want your design to stand out and look professional, especially given the amount of competitors that are just a click away. Smartly designed websites assure that visitors are instantly impressed with your business, thereby conveying a sense of trust and keeping them engaged with your site. It has been proven time and time again that attractively designed websites lead to successful calls to action – whether that means sales, signing up for a newsletter or sharing your information via social channels.

    Mobile Optimization.

    Having a website that is mobile responsive is an absolute must for any business. Technology is constantly evolving, but one standard remains: more and more people rely on their mobile devices to access and search the web. If they land on your website while using their smartphone or tablet, you want to assure that the website functions optimally. This means incorporating smartphone and mobile responsiveness into the design of your website to assure that your website loads quickly, is attractive and simple to read and is easy to navigate while using these devices.

    User-Friendly Design.

    Finally, a user-friendly website is crucial to good website design. What this means is that the navigation of your website is simple and easy to understand, assuring that visitors will not be frustrated with the process of “trying to find things” on your website. Although your website can be complex and have many pages, making it user-friendly means providing smart navigation bars, labels or tabs that clearly define the pages or sections of your website. User-friendly website design allows your customers to move through your website with ease and simplicity, assuring better engagement and making it far more likely for them to stay on your site.

    Your website design should allow your website to function or interact with your customers as though they were walking into a physical location of your business. You would want your business to be attractive and draw customers in, your sales staff to be responsive and attentive to the needs of each customer, and you would want the design of the shop to be easy to navigate.

  • A Quick Guide to Social Media Marketing

    Once you have built your website, driving traffic to that website is paramount to the success of your business. We have discussed strategies so far that include SEO and various PPC and online advertising campaigns, but we cannot underscore the amazing power that social media harnesses when it comes to driving traffic to your website. Whenever you or someone else shares a link to your website using a social media account, it builds links for search engines to index, building up your website’s reputation and authority and boosting organic results.

    The utilization of social media networks or channels to promote your website and content can greatly complement an Internet marketing plan and optimize website hits and visits, especially in business to business (B2B) sectors.

    The leading social media networks for promotion of your website that lead to increased traffic and conversion are:

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram

    Facebook remains the top social media network across the globe. With over one billion active users, this social media giant cannot be overlooked when it comes to driving traffic to your website. Creating a business page, inviting friends to follow and like the page and consistently updating the page with fresh content that links out to your website will drive traffic to your site and increase your rankings within search engines. Facebook also allows businesses to create targeted advertising campaigns that provide powerful results.

    Twitter currently commands the ranking as the second most powerful social media network, especially with regard to microblogging and current events. Its functionality allows businesses to easily follow, promote and engage with each other using hashtags. Hashtags allow you to follow specific social media conversations, while Twitter lists boast your credibility within specific niches or industries. Viral content can drive astounding amounts of traffic to your website very quickly.

    LinkedIn is the leading professional networking social media network and has more than 100 million users (who tend to be very active). LinkedIn can drive traffic to your site by allowing you to create a Company Page where you can share industry insights, connect and network with other professionals and share content. Your content may get re-shared or commented on by a segment that is mostly made up of professionals looking to gain business, connections and credibility within the professional world. Sharing posts that link to your website can increase high-producing traffic. LinkedIn has also recently announced new analytic insights that can assist with determining if your marketing efforts are reaching your desired audience.

    Instagram is by far the leading social media network for photo sharing. While Instagram is a powerful engagement tool that can be used to inspire members of the social network, offering up a social media site that has more than 100 million accounts sharing nearly 40 million images on a daily basis, it is best used for customer interaction and brand building rather than driving traffic to your website.

    The primary concern cited by advertising experts is that Instagram makes it difficult to actually drive traffic to your website. This is because Instagram does not allow traffic to be directed from a particular image to your website. The only live link that directs traffic to your website is the one that you use in your business profile bio. The use of hashtags and following of potential customers and interacting with them is the primary marketing benefit cited for this social media platform.

  • The Top 3 Forms of PPC Advertising

    Pay per click advertising is usually referred to as PPC within the world of Internet marketing and advertising. PPC advertising means that you or your business (the advertiser) will pay a fee every time someone clicks on an ad that you have placed online.

    PPC advertising is a results-driven and targeted effort ad campaign that drives traffic to your website by paying for that traffic (rather than gaining the visits organically through search engine queries). Google AdWords, display ads and retargeting are all popular and powerful forms of PPC.

    AdWords

    AdWords is Google’s online advertising service. It allows you to purchase targeted ads that you pay for only when someone clicks on your ad. When you utilize Google’s AdWords as part of a PPC campaign, you can bid for ad placement on Google’s search engines and websites, as well as on the websites of their partners who provide Google services.

    Because research continues to demonstrate that nearly 90 percent of people performing web searches do not click beyond the first page of search engine results, search engine advertising remains the most dominant form of PPC. Having your business or organization appear on the first page of a Google search nearly guarantees traffic to your website. When it comes to Adwords, if traffic is not driven to your site despite your ad placement, you do not pay for it. This allows you to greatly reduce your risk of spending advertising dollars without gaining any positive outcomes.

    AdWords lets you set a budget and bid for an ad placement within Google’s search engine. Your ad appears when users search for key phrases or search terms that are related to your business or service and appear as a result listed as a “Sponsored Link”.

    The ads are usually comprised of a title and a short description of the service or product that you are advertising. Although the ad may appear on the first page of search engine results, you have the option of only paying for the ad if someone clicks on it, thereby being directed to your website.

    Creating a PPC campaign with AdWords is fairly simple to do. However, many businesses utilize Google AdWord Management to most effectively target their market and drive traffic to their website that is most likely to result in a sale or completion of a call to action. While spending money with AdWords will certainly lead to more website traffic, the ultimate goal of that traffic is to gain sales. That is why targeted ads are critical to a successful PPC and AdWords campaign.

    Display Ads

    Display Advertising is a popular component within AdWords. Display advertising is often utilized as part of a PPC campaign and includes using banner ads, video ads, multi-media advertisements, audio clips and much more to make your ad appear more prominently than a typical AdWords link. You can set your budget for your display ads and create the advertisements that you wouldd like to see displayed.

    Display ads allow you to target your audience using a variety of targeted marketing efforts, including demographic targeting, interest targeting, topic targeting, automatic placement or managed placement.

    Automatic placements allow Google to decide where your display ad will be promoted. Typically, you will want to utilize some sort of targeted market information in order to optimize the results of where your ads will be shown. Managed placement (also known as contextual marketing or targeting) gives the advertiser complete control of where their display ads will be placed on the Internet by allowing them to specifically state which websites they would like the ads to appear on.

    Demographic targeting allows the advertiser to set specific statistical information about whom their display ads are shown to. For example, an advertiser may offer a service or product specifically designed for men in their 40s or for women in their 20s. Demographic targeting assures that your display ad will be shown to that particular audience and is most optimally used in conjunction with keyword targeting.

    Topic targeting uses keywords to have your banner ad, video, audio or multi-media ad displayed when searchers are looking for a specific topic or term, while interest targeting focuses on the interests of the searcher, not necessarily the topic that they are looking for.

    Display ads can offer a powerful boost to any PPC campaign, but they also have been cited for their drawbacks, the largest of which is that they are known to irritate the user. Examples of display ads that might deliver negative results are ads that automatically begin playing upon a search, rather than letting the user select the ad or link.

    Retargeting

    Retargeting allows an advertiser to continue to interact with potential customers after that person has visited their website and left. Retargeting is a popular PPC tool because it is a generally accepted fact that roughly 2 percent of first-time website visits result in sales or the completion of a call to action. Retargeting allows businesses to stay connected to users that did not initially utilize their service or purchase their product.

    Retargeting varies from other forms of PPC campaigns in that it only targets users that have already visited your businesses website. This allows businesses to funnel or drill down the retargeting strategy to specific parameters, including detailed data based upon users that went to a specific page or product on the company website. Retargeting allows you to spend advertising dollars only on potential customers that have clicked onto your website, versus regular display ads or PPC ads where you spend money on people that click on your site for the first time.

    Retargeting is optimally used with AdWords as part of a larger marketing effort, including targeted topic ads. Retargeting drives traffic to your website largely as a conversion optimization tool, with optimal results seen when used as a component of a detailed PPC campaign.

    Retargeting is the placement of a Javascript code (also known as a pixel) on your website that is not detectable by your visitors. The code is extremely small and does not interfere with the functionality or responsiveness of your website. After someone visits your website, the pixel anonymously adds a cookie to the browser of the user. This cookie tells the code, or pixel, to track your audience as they continue to navigate the Internet. When users are surfing the web later, the retargeting provider is prompted to deliver your ad only to people that previously visited your site. Like other PPC campaigns, you can exert quite a bit of control over where your ad is seen by selecting which sites you would like your ad to be displayed on.

  • Why A/B Testing is a Valuable Marketing Tool

    When it comes to marketing your product or service, there is much to be said of A/B testing. This is the process of testing two versions of a product or service to see which is more popular among the masses. It is valuable in helping anyone with either a new business or product determine how well it will do. It is also helpful if you have two different website styles that you want to check out against what the crowd likes. This can give you the edge on the competition and allow you to use the one that best fits the market needs.

    What Can A/B Testing Be Used For?

    A/B testing can be used in all market types and is an excellent measuring tool with regard to what your niche market needs or wants the most. Marketing practitioners can perform these tests on a random group to see which product or marketing platform is the most affective for your niche clients. With professional help you can get the most for your money in your ultimate marketing plan and use what is proving to be the best laid plan for your situation.

    A/B split testing is largely used to enhance pay per click (PPC) campaigns, especially in when it comes to testing which alteration to your on-page elements – such as your headings and product images – yield the highest conversion rate and-or sales. In addition, brands that utilize email marketing often apply A/B testing to improve their click-through rates.

    Online marketing may have changed the way that you run your business, but A/B testing is still an important part of running an online marketing campaign. It allows you to truly get an idea of what your potential customers are looking for so that you can allocate your funds to those specific areas. In marketing, wasted time results in wasted money and getting such results will help you save on both. Whether you have a new online product that you want to market or you want to see what marketing platform your customers like the best, A/B testing can help supply you with the answers in an organized manner when you have professionals by your side.

    Learn More:

    If are interested in implementing an A/B testing campaign or would simply like to learn more about it, please contact the digital marketing professionals at DigitalParc. To begin, please fill out our simple contact form or call our staff at 612-845-5590.

  • 3 Advantages of Influencer Relationships

    When it comes to marketing your website and business, one of the oldest means possible is still one of the foundations today. Networking is the key to keeping your business flush with new customers. In terms of internet marketing and networking, building relationships with influencers can make all of the difference. Below are three of the many reasons that you might want to work to build these relationships.

     

    You can increase word-of-mouth. Influencers that you build relationships with have the ability to help move news of your business to others that they know. These individuals tend to have a wide following of people that listen to what they say. This means that if they are able to spread the news of what you have to offer to others, you are likely to gain many new customers.

     

    You can speed up your brand’s exposure. When you build relationships with influencers in your niche or market, you will find that it is much easier to get the exposure your business needs quickly. This means that if you have a new sale, new information or a new topic that you want everyone to know about right away, you are likely to have more success with the help of these influencers. They have large numbers of followers that they can share this information with and these follows look to the influencers as authority on the topics at hand.

     

    An influencer can provide education and mentoring. Building relationships with influencers in your niche can also be beneficial to your business and marketing because you will be able to learn from them. This means that you can pick up on marketing strategies that you could implement into your business efforts. These are likely tested and proven to be effective for helping your business grow. They have the tools to help you learn more and learn fast, bettering your own marketing campaign along the way.

  • 4 Fundamentals of a Successful Inbound Marketing Strategy

    Inbound marketing is perhaps the top way to promote business today. It is important to keep from wasting your time on poor marketing techniques. There are some ways to be effective in your inbound marketing efforts. Here are four inbound marketing tips to help you stay on track.

    Remember that your product is key. While you may want to market your product to death, you can only be successful if the product you are marketing is good quality. Choose products that are worth the time and effort to market and you will find half the battle won. Make sure the products are something that is going to be well received and that there is a need for.

    Understand SEO core factors. It is vital that you fully understand what makes SEO work. The relevance of the SEO and the authority of it are vital to success. Be sure that your SEO is relevant to the product that you have and the individuals looking for it. Additionally, be sure that you have the authority to back up what you are claiming about the product.

    Design for the customer. While you want to showcase the product in your website, remember that you also want to design the site for the visitor or customer. It is vital that you captivate the audience you have quickly once the hit your page. The attention span of the Internet surfer is very short and if you don’t captivate them right away, you will lose them for good. Keeping them on the page for as long as possible is the key to turning them into customers.

    Give it away. No, do not ‘give away’ your product. Give away knowledge when you attract visitors to your site. The more information that you can provide them, the more likely they will give you the authority you need and they will invest in what you have to offer. Take the time to provide them with quality information they can bank on and they will trust you enough to buy what you are selling.

    If you are interested in discussing the implementation of an inbound marketing strategy, do not hesitate to contact DigitalParc. We pride ourselves on helping our clients enhance their online marketing presence, drive visitors to their websites and improve their conversion rates.

    Contact us by filling out our brief contact form or by calling us at 612-845-5590.

  • 5 Ways to Write Website Copy That Converts

    Congratulations! You have created the business of your dreams. You have a killer product and-or service. All you have to do now is build a website and the people will be ready to pour their hard-earned cash into funding your enterprise. Correct?

    Hold on! The public is a bit more complicated than that. Potential clients click on websites for a reason, they use social media for a purpose and they are raring to stay plugged in to the digital world as long as their needs are met and they are kept engaged. The bottom line is that you must feed your visitors and consistently consider their consumer mindset. When you do this, you will get multiple visits, returning customers and referrals. You will also convert sales.

    Here is part of the key, as brought forth in the book, “Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook.” The book’s author and storytelling entrepreneur, Gary Vaynerchuk, indicates that every social media site and every digital application has a special mode of operation and targeted audience/use.

    On a company website, for example, you should not be making a call to action nor trying to sell with every post or article. You should engage the viewers with rich language that is easy to understand. The premise of Vaynerchuk’s strategy is that you should give way more useful information without a pitch than you do useful information with a pitch. In other words, think of your “non-pitch” information as jabs and your pitch as the right hook.

    You must make that right hook count if you plan to convert casual visitors to customers. They will not do that until they are “romanced” first. Below are a few tips for attracting them:

    • Approach copy content based upon what you can do for them.

    • Use headings and subheadings to break up the copy.

    • Use some white space and great fonts in order to give their eyes a rest and make your content easy to read.

    • Utilize higher resolution images to complement your posts and articles. Your images should rouse emotion from the user.

    • Feature video on occasion. Studies show that users remain on sites the feature video content longer than they do on sites without video content. The quality of your video is important. I would recommend keeping your video under five minutes in length.

    • Consider using infographics. They are pleasing to the eye and are great for simplifying the themes of your copy.

    When it comes to the content itself, here is what you should include:

    Use “personal” words such as “you”, “your family”, and “your job.” When sharing information about your company, try to tell a story. As Vaynerchuk points out, people love stories. Once again, words like “I”, “we” and “us” provide a major personal touch. On your “About Us” page, use personal terms and action words.

    Do not skimp on good descriptions. Descriptive words such as “strapping” paint effective pictures that people can visualize. For example, “When I was a strapping young lad running a sturdy and colorful lemonade stand in front of our modest home, I knew I wanted to run a significant business one day.”

    Use metaphors effectively and sparingly. If you are writing about friendships, you could write something such as:“Friendships are like bank accounts. You get deposits and withdrawals. Value goes in and some is taken out. You never want the withdrawals to outweigh the deposits.” On Paste Magazine, metaphors were likened to Post-it notes, so when you use them, keep that in mind.

    You are implementing some image building and establishing your credibility. Because of this, you must do so in a professional manner. Do what you can to avoid typos, thick technical language – unless you cater to technical individuals – and maintain your relevancy.

    Do not overlook search engine optimization (SEO). Include keywords that people use via search engines. Keywords should be merged and not stuffed. If you are a limousine service in Frankfort, Kentucky, you might wish to write something such as: “Our Frankfort bluegrass limousine customers love to take tours to see points of interest in our city.” You could break sentences like this up into two sentences.

    Remember that the most popular social media channels have a specialty. Mothers, for example, often use Pinterest. One study indicated that 68 percent of the visitors to Pinterest are female. If you think of Pinterest as a “fantasyland for all kinds of people” and keep in mind that women are the bulk of those people, you have the opportunity to gain more audience engagement by writing accordingly.

    When it comes to landing pages, balance “call-to-action” content with content that is engaging and informative. On you landing page(s), try to keep your copy brief so that people can quickly scan and understand the purpose of your brand. Use short but powerful words.

    When writing calls to action, make use of the following words:

    • Save now

    • Discounted

    • Deep discounts

    • Save

    • Limited time offer

    In the end, one of the major keys to improving your online sales conversion is to make sure that you have written with your target audience in mind. Remember that your landing pages should funnel your customers deeper into the website. In the end, your persuasive copy will enhance the visibility of your brand, leading to increased sales and conversions.

  • It’s official, Google to launch mobile-friendly algorithm update

    Google has recently made an announcement that they are making major changes to their search algorithm. Starting April 21, Google’s organic search algorithm will focus more on “mobile friendliness” as a ranking signal. What does this mean? Websites that have responsive design will be more attractive to Google’s search engine, while websites that are not mobile friendly will be penalized.

    Google is making these changes in hopes of making it easier for users to find relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices. According to Google, 94% of people use a mobile phone to get local information, even if they have a desktop nearby. Google wants to make these users’ experience even better by listing search results that are friendly on mobile devices.

    Responsive web design has always been a smart thing for a business to have, but now it’s almost a necessity. 73 percent of web users prefer mobile-friendly websites and 61 percent leave a site if it is not mobile-friendly. 67 percent of users say they are more likely to buy from a site if it is mobile friendly. Because of the dramatic increase in mobile usage, naturally it makes sense for Google to play favorites and steer users toward mobile friendly websites. As a result, the search engine will push websites which are not mobile-friendly further down in search results.

    If your site is not mobile-friendly, chances are you won’t be found when someone is searching for the services you offer. For those that have sites that aren’t mobile friendly, it might be time to talk with a web designer.

  • How Does Copywriting Impact Internet Marketing Success?

    Not all marketing writers are created equal. According to entrepreneurial storyteller, Gary Vaynerchuk, having a top shelf content writer is critical to the survival of a company. In his best selling book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, he writes that excellent marketing writers help give people a reason to click on your website or blog in order to learn more about you. He indicated at if one becomes a source that people can trust to provide great content, it will help them to elevate their brand.

     

    In writing about symbol and image rich sites like Pinterest, he writes that people love symbols, displays and content that sometimes silently discloses. Vaynerchuk also writes that integration of content is important, so that all social media sites promote the brand in similar ways. In addition, he sells the idea of user-centric content. One other excellent point he makes in his book is that even descriptions, such as on Pinterest, need to be written with the audience in mind first and SEO in second place.

     

    Two other writers concur with the notion that great marketing copy is king. Marketing experts Christine Martinez and Barbara Boyd have shared that, if necessary, a company should hire an experienced content writer and pinner. They referred to such writing pros as “curators of content.”

     

    They also use the term “influencer” to describe those brands who use marketing writing as a way to give meritorious industry knowledge to customers and followers. The duo also write that if people find content valid and informative, they will return for more of the same and recommend such sites to others.

     

    Other notable points about marketing writers include:
    • Excellent content enables people to connect emotionally
    • Sometimes a variety of writers can help to produce the type of content a brand needs
    • It should be easy for people to find the ideas and information
    • The content should always offer something of value