Disappointed by the SEO help you’ve been getting? You’re not alone! A good number of our clients are coming to us with sad stories of disappointment and experiences of some rather unhelpful “seo help”. Now listen; SEO covers a very wide range of marketing tasks, and sometimes SEOs get a bad rap when really the disappointing results are due to things beyond the SEO’s control. It would be unfair to characterize these “unhelpful SEOs” as scammers or frauds; most often they’re more innocent than that! Many of these inadequate SEOs are simply not keeping up with important changes. They have held on to some strategies (the tactics that now give SEOs a bad name) that used to work quite well, but which Google has figured out how to expose. Those out-dated (and sometimes “black hat”) tactics really don’t help the client in the long run. (more…)
I want to give you a quick set of definitions for the terms that revolve around CONTENT CURATION. I’ve written about content curation definitions before, and I’ll write about it again, no doubt! But I’m happy to report a growing understanding among SEOs and marketers, that content curation, if done correctly, always involves the human element of finding the right stuff, giving context to it, and then adding a bit of perspective through original commenting or analysis. Tools and automation have their place in allowing us to do the best curation. But to truly curate content (according to best practices in content marketing) it cannot be fully automated. (more…)
Branding is a big job, so let’s boil it down a bit. Branding’s bottom line is about making your company recognizable, findable and associated with the right product, service or idea. It involves creating an identity: an image that represents the core of what your company is trying to do. One way to get off on the WRONG foot is to start with marketing concerns, and THEN address the core issues of branding. Not helpful! The right way to do this is to develop a clear concept of your brand identity FIRST, and then start moving into the marketing strategy. (more…)
Perhaps I can just call them “old school marketers”. You know, the marketers that really started getting into SEO, article marketing, social bookmarking, niche marketing, Facebook friending and SERP tracking from the year 2000 through 2009. They developed effective strategies for increasing someone’s digital visibility, and they made a living by plying their trade. Back in the year 2000 (or 2005) they were NOT “old school”. And the only reason we’d call them old school marketers today is because they stopped watching and learning. Instead, they continue to apply techniques that, although once effective, are really working AGAINST THEM (and their clients) today. (more…)
We’ve been monitoring the rumors over the past two weeks, wondering if there was a Google Update about to hit. The recent shifts in keyword rankings were definitely a sign that algorithms are set to unleash a more intelligent filtering and analysis of our sites and our content. The amount of chatter out there warrants this bit of speculation, and now we know it’s true: Penguin 2.0 is about to be unleashed! (more…)
The term social media marketing can make even the most seasoned business owner roll their eyes in shame. They know they need it to connect with their customers and leads but aren’t sure how to start. Did you know that advertising on Facebook increases the number of qualified leads walking in the door? Did you know people are searching – and buying – your products online? (more…)
There are a million SEO mistakes we can make. Well, actually if you search for “seo mistakes” you’ll get over 4 million results! You could get lost in the most technical aspects of SEO as you try to understand rich snippets, multiple location business listings, disavowing links, rel=canonical and a host of other things. But let’s not worry about the technical details today. Let’s focus on the BASIC and MOST COMMON SEO mistakes that people are making. Google’s Webmaster Guru – Matt Cutts – has laid out the top 5 seo mistakes (by volume) that he sees. (more…)
As a small business owner, you’ve probably dipped your toes in the pool of social media advertising and marketing. How did it feel? What kind of results did you get? You’ve probably read about promoted tweets and how to get more engagement on Twitter. Today we’re delving deeper into the realm of my favorite social network, Twitter.
Until today, Twitter used the content of tweets among other algorithms to shape their interest graph. Advertising on Twitter wasn’t high on the list of priorities for most professionals. The folks at Twitter are looking to take their advertising features to the next level with keyword targeting in timelines. (more…)
When is the last time you used your smartphone to search for something? What sort of action did you take after you found it?
According to Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim, 70% of mobile searches led to action on websites within one hour. That is an impressive conversion rate if you ask me. Additionally, forecasters predict that by the year 2013, there will be over 1.7 billion mobile Internet users. (more…)
We all know LinkedIn as Facebook’s serious, business-minded big brother in the world of social media. With over 200 million members to date, and 50 million unique visitors each week, LinkedIn is the preferred social network for business networking and marketing. However, according to Mashable, it seems as though LinkedIn is looking to socialize their status updates similar to Facebook. Well done LinkedIn! (more…)
