Month: March 2015

Categories
Blog SEO Web Development

How Google’s Recent Changes Necessitate a Mobile-Friendly Site

Mobile-friendly technology is becoming more vital. By not having mobile capabilities, your website’s ranking decreases. More than half of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. As of today, none of the major search engines actually directly penalize you for not including mobile capabilities, but that seem soon to change. There are also many ways you get penalized if your site is accessed from a mobile device, which in turn imparts a bad user experience.

How You Lose Ranking without Mobile Capabilities

Google is likely to include penalizations in the near future for companies failing to launch mobile websites. They already practice the following:

  • Google uses bots to scan sites as if they were a smartphone to see how user-friendly the site is.
  • New Google Analytics tools allow marketers access to more specific mobile traffic data.
  • Loading speed is very heavily penalized by Google, so a mobile phone loading too much data will hurt your ranking.

The Benefits of Mobile SEO

At the very end of last year, Google revealed a new search feature: websites that give great mobile experiences include a tiny “mobile friendly” icon. This announces to readers that if they visit the site, they are more likely to find what they want without hassle. Google’s new distinction trains people to perform mobile searches through them.

Mobile sites are more-often bookmarked because users want to type less into their browsers. A higher chance of being bookmarked means more repeat traffic; another criteria for rank in search engines.

As your mobile ranking rises, your sales will increase. More click-throughs and more sales translates directly to better ranking across all your keywords. Get your responsive design as soon as possible to keep from falling behind!

Categories
Blog Online Marketing Social Media Marketing Tips and Tricks

Meerkat, the Video-Based Social Media Site Companies Should Watch

The new social video app called Meerkat is quickly gaining popularity. You have likely heard of its incredible versatility. Launched in February earlier this year, it began gaining traction around the beginning of March.

At the end of March, Meerkat already has more than 120,000 users. With this app, users stream live videos, uploading the content to Twitter which then invites followers to the stream.

There are a few explanations for why this app is so popular:

  • Our brains are predisposed to connect to others via faces when learning new things. Users are far more likely to retain information when they can see the face of the person imparting the content.
  • Aesthetic appeal matters to our eyes. Hollywood uses pretty people to reach us at our basest levels.
  • Body language imparts more information than words. What this means for marketing is that if the person showcasing a product is excited, followers will get excited, too.

How Can Your Business Use Meerkat?

First, let us answer why you want to stream directly to customers. The answer is very simple: users want personalized content. Internet marketing in Nashville is no different than anywhere else in the country, so consider wide reaching techniques. To be successful anywhere, you must capture your audience directly with personality, and there is nothing more personal than engaging someone directly. Meerkat allows customers to speak to marketers and business owners directly via Twitter and ask questions while the stream is still live.

Consider these specifics instances where Meerkat could help your business:

  • Events. If you are hosting or advertising an event, your company can keep people that live far away from missing a conference, special reveal, or important information. You can provide videos that show things “behind the scenes.” Treat it like the ever popular special features on DVDs.
  • New Products. Major video game companies wait until E3 to show off their new products. Apple regularly holds product launch events to display new iPhones, tablets, and other devices. Meerkat allows companies to not only show products directly, but also answer questions consumers may have been directly addressed. Companies can also release important promotional material or talk about upcoming sales.
  • Interviews. Great leaders make themselves accessible. Instead of sending blasts from the CEO or doing reddit AMAs, company leaders can speak directly to their consumers.

The possibilities are endless, ranging from telling stories, launching new hashtag campaigns, or giving tips on using products. Get involved!

Categories
Blog SEO Social Media Marketing Tips and Tricks Web Development

15 Link Building Ideas for Better SEO

I was recently working on a project where I had to really dive deep into the link building strategy for a particular client. While doing my research I ran across everything from tactics in 2006 that have thrown some website into a Google purgatory to all the white hat must dos in 2015.  I have always found SEO Moz, SEO Book, and Search Engine Land to be great resources in general for all things SEO.

So without further ado here are the top 15 link building ideas I found most helpful.

1. If you need to build a post with a lot of content build a top “101 list”. A lot of times these will get Dugg or shared on social and can provide some pretty decent link juices to your site. If they are useful enough others will link to it naturally on their blogs.

2. For quick and easy posts do a “top 10 tips and tricks” [ehm]. Its quick and easy for the user to get the information and go. They also have high incentive to share if useful to the user and the niche they serve.

3. Make a list of extensive resources for a specific topic. Use your bookmarks and stay organized with all the tools available to you. There are a lot out there.

4. Flattery is the best form of incentive to share. Find experts in the field and make them part of a top 25 list. They would love to tell everyone they made it!

5. Do the opposite of #2 and create a list of myths or common misconceptions in your specific industry.

6. Join your local business sites and directories. Join the Better Business Bureau, Chamber of Commerce, City or Government sites, LGBT sites, local libraries, etc.

7. Review relevant products on retail sites like Amazon, eBay, Alexa, ePinions or whatever you niche is in.

8. Link to other blogs. Its good to have friends in low places. Its better to have friends in high places.

9. Become a sponsor of something. Maybe a local charity, something seasonal, or community driven. They almost always feature you as sponsor on their site.

10. Create original and useful tools. A calendar for show times, a traffic estimator, or price comparisons.

11. Footer links are generally frowned upon. But in my industry its appropriate to link in the footer. In this case, point it to an internal page.

12. Offer something free for a review, feedback, or mention.

13. If you have the resources…. Launch a firefox or chrome browser extension.

14. Anyone can take formal pictures. It’s the drunk celebrities and people in their underwear that makes for great link bait on social media. I decided to test the truth of cats and clicking for this post.

15. Make sure whatever it is you create – videos, tips, tricks, infographics, etc – make sure it is useful. Quality and originality equals virtuality.