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February 7, 2017
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Use What Google Gives You To Create A Successful SEO Content Strategy

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ,

I’m a nerd who loves analytics. I’m also stingy and hate paying monthly for SaaS marketing tools. Fortunately, Google provides all the tools I need to succeed as a marketer without paying a dime or signing up for a free trial.

Below, I share how you can take what Google gives you to create a search engine optimization content strategy and market your business through content on your website.

Google Autocomplete Feature

Nothing gets our creative SEO content strategy juices flowing like Google autocomplete. This tool uses search predictions to suggest what other people are searching for based on the terms you are typing. In other words, it’s a search marketer’s dream. Begin by going to Google.com and typing out the main keywords associated with your product or service. Immediately you should begin seeing the top search predictions based on what other people are searching for.

For example, let’s take “dog food.” Autocomplete will suggest five search queries that are your starting point for an SEO content strategy. Examples: Dog food container. Dog food brands. Dog food coupons.

Take Google autocomplete one step further by typing in every letter of the alphabet after your main keywords. “Dog food a” produces queries like “dog food allergies” and “dog food analysis.” “Dog food b” produces suggestions like “dog food bowl” and “dog food brands.” Make a long list of all the autocomplete suggestions that make sense for your product or service. Spin these keywords into content ideas like “Five Tasty Dog Food Brands That Puppies Love.” Then, get to creating the content.

This search prediction tool uncovers long-tail keywords in an efficient and creative way. It’s a wonderful method to kick off any SEO content creation strategy.
Read more: Use What Google Gives You To Create A Successful SEO Content Strategy

 

February 2, 2017
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Top 2017 Web Design Trends

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Website Design Practices ,

Every year, the web design industry goes through some sort of evolution cycle to stay relevant and inspiring.

Last year, I wrote about the top web design trends to watch in 2016, many of which have taken root and changed the way we understand design forever.

This year, like a number of UX experts, I’m betting on AI-powered chatbots, VR, and immersive storytelling trends to leave a permanent mark on the industry. Undoubtedly, we will also see a lot of last year’s trends continue to shape and influence the web design space.

Without further ado, let’s explore what design innovations can give your website a serious facelift in 2017.

VR and 360º video

Although the gadget world was abuzz last year with the exciting virtual reality (VR) announcements, the trend hasn’t made a huge impact on web design trends so far. One great example of how VR and 360º video can be incorporated into web design to create a breathtaking, interactive experience is Peugeot 208’s promo campaign that utilizes both technologies to showcase a new product.

Google’s Daydream VR headset is at the forefront of this movement, expanding our imagination of how the technology could be adapted for everyday use, but many other brands are jumping on the wagon too, including Playstation, HTC, and Microsoft. With so many possible practical uses of the gadget, we’re bound to see VR and 360º video finally bleeding into the web design space too.

Card design and grid layouts

First popularized by Pinterest, card design layouts continue to shape and influence web design trends and we will be seeing more of this dynamic grid style in 2017. What makes cards so appealing is the simplicity, organization, flexibility and responsiveness that they create. Grid layouts are particularly suitable for pages with an abundance of data, as they make the information more accessible and enticing. A web development agency htmlBoutique utilizes the grid layout to create unique compositions of case studies and give their portfolio an extra oomph that sets it apart from typical showcase pages.

January 31, 2017
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9 Top Social Media Influencers Marketers Need to Follow

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Social Media Marketing ,

The days of questioning whether Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms are legitimate marketing tools are way behind us.

Those “in the know” are using social media to share their ideas, businesses, and day-to-day lives. Some of them are making millions from posting pictures online and uploading vlogs to YouTube, and others are using social media as a major strategy to scaling venture-backed startups.

The following social media influencers are all contributors to a new book called 3 Billion Under 30, brought together by 21-year-old Jared Kleinert, a TED speaker and “go to” marketing consultant for #1 NYT bestselling authors, Fortune 500 companies, and even the United Nations. Who are they, and why should you be following them? Here’s your answer.

1. Jake Paul (@jakepaul)
Jake Paul just turned 20, and yet he has over 17 million social media followers. His videos, which originally were posted on Vine and now span over Instagram, YouTube, Musically, and other platforms, have gained over 4 billion views combined, and Jake has been able to turn his social media stardom into other ventures.

He’s now the founder of TeamDom, which includes investors like Gary Vaynerchuk and Shots Studios (who’s in turn backed by Justin Bieber, Pete Cashmore, and other media titans). He’s also become a successful actor. Companies ranging from Coca Cola, Beats, Universal, and others look to Jake and his “crew” to market their products to millennials and Gen Z’ers.

2. Shonduras (@shonduras)
Shaun McBride, or “Shonduras,” may very well have been the first to partner with a corporation for a sponsored Snapchat story. Disney saw the potential for influencer marketing via Snapchat and decided to work with Shonduras to showcase their parks.

Shonduras has quickly become one of the top social media influencers on the web, most notably via Snapchat. He’s been able to leverage his following to earn revenue for his company in a variety of ways, from keynote speaking to selling merchandise, branded content, and more. Now he’s looking into different ways to push digital content creation to its limits, and have the “Best Day Ever” during all hours in his climb.

Read more: 9 Top Social Media Influencers Marketers Need to Follow

January 12, 2017
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SEO trends to prepare for in 2017

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ,

Search engine optimization is evolving at lightning speed. As 2016 begins to wind down, it is time to examine the digital marketing landscape for the upcoming year.

There have been numerous developments in SEO over the past 10 months. A lot of the prominent trends of 2016 will continue and grow in 2017. As Google’s algorithm updates constantly keep business owners on their toes, several other trends are expected to take shape in 2017.

Here are a few things look out for in the ensuing months:

Optimization for user intent
Although keywords are still important, typing in simple words yields simple results. Consumers today know exactly what they’re looking for, and search engines are getting much better at identifying user intent. Therefore, users are now entering full queries or phrases in search engines, which gather data and heuristics to provide results more effectively.

In 2017, brands will need to place value on optimizing their digital content based on intent rather than specific keywords. For your SEO strategy, it will be critical to:

Investigate. What are users searching for that brings them to your page? What questions do they want your content to answer?
Optimize. Once you have gathered your research data and found areas that need work, make the changes needed to boost ratings. Based on your research, tell the consumer’s story by altering content to reflect the reader’s experience.
Adjust. Keep up with analytics to see what’s working and what isn’t so you can update accordingly.

More rich answers and snippets
We all turn to Google for answers. In response to our queries, Google will often display the required information directly in search results, along with other helpful websites, videos, movie or event information, reviews or specific dates.

Structured data markup (often referred to as “schema markup”) can help website owners achieve these enhanced listings on search engine results pages (SERPs). This markup works to assist search engines in understanding website content, allowing them to display that information in a way that is helpful for users.

For example, let’s say you ask Google for instructions for cooking meatloaf. The SERP features a rich answer (also known as a “direct answer” or “featured snippet”), followed by search listings that contain rich snippets relevant to recipes, such as reviews, ratings, cook time and calorie information:

Read more: SEO trends to prepare for in 2017

January 10, 2017
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How Does Your Social Media Marketing Measure Up?

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Social Media Marketing

The world of social media marketing is changing all the time, so no matter how well you think you’re doing in that area, don’t start getting complacent. New forecasts from eMarketer project which social networks will be the most popular business marketing tools in 2017. Here’s what’s hot (and not-so-hot):

Instagram will overtake Twitter as a social media marketing channel. Nearly three-fourths (74 percent) of businesses will use Instagram for marketing, up from 53 percent currently.
Twitter will hold steady, with 66.2 percent of marketers using it in 2017 compared to 66.1 percent this year.
Facebook has already reached saturation, with 85.3 percent of marketers currently using it and 85.8 percent projected to use it next year.
YouTube, too, has pretty much plateaued: 48.2 percent of businesses will market with YouTube next year, up from 45.6 percent this year.
How does your small business compare?

With any social network, the most important thing to remember is to go where your customers are. Just because Instagram is growing rapidly doesn’t mean it’s the right platform for your social media marketing. For instance, if you sell enterprise software to major corporations, chances are your buyers aren’t checking out your latest ’grams. On the other hand, if you’re in the fashion, cosmetics, or food business, Instagram is where it’s at.

To pinpoint the most appropriate social media marketing platforms, begin by searching out statistics on the demographic makeup of each social network’s user base. Further refine your data by conducting surveys of your customers. Which social networks do they spend most of their time on? Do any of the networks actually influence their shopping behavior?

Read more: How Does Your Social Media Marketing Measure Up?

January 3, 2017
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What we’ve learned about SEO in 2016

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) ,

Since the inception of the search engine, SEO has been an important, yet often misunderstood industry. For some, these three little letters bring massive pain and frustration. For others, SEO has saved their business. One thing is for sure: having a clear and strategic search strategy is what often separates those who succeed from those who don’t.

As we wrap up 2016, let’s take a look at how the industry has grown and shifted over the past year, and then look ahead to 2017.

A growing industry
It was only a few years ago when the internet was pummeled with thousands of “SEO is Dead” posts. Well, here we are, and the industry is still as alive as ever. SEO’s reputation has grown over the past few years, due in great part to the awesome work of the real pros out there. Today, the industry is worth more than $65 billion. Companies large and small are seeing how a good search strategy has the power to change their business.

As search engines and users continue to evolve, SEO is no longer just an added service brought to you by freelance web designers. With the amount of data, knowledge, tools and experience out there, SEO has become a power industry all on its own.

Over the course of the year, my agency alone has earned a number of new contracts from other agencies that are no longer able to provide their own search efforts. A large divide between those that can deliver SEO and those that can’t is beginning to open up across the board.

The rise of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) is now prevalent in many of our lives. Google, IBM, Amazon and Apple are very active in developing and using Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI). ANI can be used to automate repetitive tasks, like looking up product details, shipping dates and order histories and performing countless other customer requests.

The consumer is becoming more and more comfortable with this technology and has even grown to trust its results. Sundar Pichai, Google CEO, announced during his Google I/O keynote that 20 percent of queries on its mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches.

RankBrain, Google’s machine-learning artificial intelligence system, is now among the top three ranking signals for Google’s search algorithm. Why? Google handles more than 3.5 billion searches per a day, and 16 to 20 percent of those are unique queries that have never been searched before. To handle this, the team at Google has harnessed the power of machine learning to help deliver better results.

While we can’t “control” RankBrain, what we can do is learn more about how Google is using it and then help the tool by creating good content that earns shares and links, building connections with others in our niche or related niches, and building trust in very targeted topics.

We are still in the beginning stages of this technology, but as more and more homes become equipped with smart tools like Amazon Echo and Google Home, we can be sure that these tech giants will use the knowledge they gain from voice search to power their AI technology.

Read more: What we’ve learned about SEO in 2016

January 3, 2017
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Six Effective Social Media Marketing Tips

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Social Media Marketing ,

Effective social media marketing pays back in terms of successful businesses. A recent study suggests that social media recommendations lead to almost 30 percent of all websites’ overall traffic. So, if your business website is not benefiting from social media, then you may need to re-consider your social media strategy.

Here are some effective ways to boost social media marketing, which can positively impact your business, and increase your sales too.

Create custom-formatted tweets

Most tweets can get lost in the abyss of live feeds, especially the ones that seem to stream on with no end. Custom formatting can make sure that you are catching the reader’s attention. By applying line breaks and/or a unique font, you can break the monotony of short-form messaging. Also, include some fun symbols to refresh the look of your tweets. You can copy and paste fun symbols from iEmoji.com or other similar services.

Go for longer posts

While Twitter is adamant in not removing its 140-character limit, other platforms enable you to start a conversation that with a longer post. As a result, longer posts bring in more comments and likes.

Opt for Facebook Groups

As organic reach for Facebook pages of companies continues to go down, entrepreneurs, marketers and publishers would be better of by creating and managing Facebook Groups. The maximum benefit seems to be for members, as they can choose to receive direct notifications about updates, but by giving such controls to users/members you actually prompt more participation from them.

Market Across all Social Platforms

Convert Facebook fans into Twitter followers and LinkedIn connections into contacts. Afterwards, regularly sharing on a social network will bring you constant attention from followers.

Read more: Six Effective Social Media Marketing Tips

December 28, 2016
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How To Use Email Marketing To Boost Your SEO

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E-Marketing

There are two main components of search engine optimization (SEO): on-site and off-site optimization. With on-site optimization, you’ll be improving your site’s layout and performance, producing high-quality content, and targeting specific keywords that are relevant to your business and your audience. With off-site optimization, you’ll be posting content on external publications and building inbound links to your website.

However, there are peripheral ways to complement and enhance these efforts; for example, you can use social media to increase the popularity of your content and earn more links as a result of that increased visibility. Similarly, you can harness the power of email marketing to support and improve your campaign.

Here’s how.

Primary Goals

These primary goals are ways for your email marketing campaign to directly influence factors that have significant bearing on your rankings in search engines:

  • Inbound links. The more links you have pointing to your site, and the more diverse and high-authority sources that are hosting them, the higher your domain authority will be. Domain authority, according to Moz, “is a score (on a 100-point scale) developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines.” As such, acquiring strong inbound links is a crucial factor in improving your SEO. You can use your email marketing campaign to specifically encourage other users to link to your latest posts, or specific pages of your site. For example, let’s say you’ve recently published a whitepaper with a truckload of important statistics you’ve gained from conducting original research. Getting this information in the hands of other users will make them more likely to link to it in the future.
  • Content promotion. You can also user your email marketing campaign to increase the visibility and performance of your content in general. For example, you can send a weekly or monthly newsletter that recaps some of your blog’s most popular posts. This increases both the visibility of these posts (potentially leading to more inbound links) as well as general traffic to your site.
  • On-site engagement. Google uses a plethora of individual traffic and engagement metrics to determine the relative “value” of a given webpage. Though the exact significance and influence of these metrics is often debated, it’s clear that having more active, engaged users (with lower bounce rates, higher time spent on page, etc.) is better for your search rankings. Keeping your email audience engaged and coming back to your site with valuable offers can help you maintain a more engaged overall audience.

Read more: How To Use Email Marketing To Boost Your SEO

December 8, 2016
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Don’t Overestimate the Power of Social Media Marketing

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Social Media Marketing

Social media can be a great way to grow your company if you know how to go about it. People today spend a majority of their time scanning their feeds on these popular platforms. Because of this, companies are doing what they can to connect as much as possible with potential customers.

That being said, there’s a lot of information out there that suggests social media is the “be all end all” to a company’s success. Before you hop on board, though, there are a few things you need to know. We just hope you won’t get too disappointed…

Social Media Can Be a Hot Lead Generation Tool

When we tell you not to overestimate the power of social media, what we’re really saying is don’t believe what all the buzz says. Yes, if treated right, taking advantage of it can do a lot for your company. It’s certainly a great way to get a good idea of who your audience is and what they like to see from you. But, as with anything in the marketing world, it’s more about producing quality over quantity. Don’t invest so much time into possibly gaining leads from social media that you don’t have time for other things.

Likes Don’t Always Mean Leads

Getting a lot of likes on your content? That’s great, but don’t let that fool you. After all, likes are just “likes.” What you do with them says a lot more about how your company operates. Despite the popularity of social media, email marketing is still the number one way to bring in leads. You can try to engage with these potential leads via Facebook or Twitter, but the rest of the relationship building needs to be done elsewhere.

Read more: Don’t Overestimate the Power of Social Media Marketing

December 6, 2016
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7 Suggestions for Better Mobile-Friendly Web Design

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Website Content, Website Design Practices

Recently, Google made a statement that the volume of search queries on mobile devices has now surpassed desktop. This along with their most recent algorithm updates means that much more value is being given to well-designed mobile websites. Desktop sites failing to conform to the standard are likely to witness a marked decline in SEO rankings and traffic.

So what does this mean for mobile web designers & marketers?

Well for starters, if you haven’t created a mobile website or introduced responsive features into your existing one, you are likely missing out on valuable SERPs rankings and traffic since the majority of your users will likely be visiting on their phones.

Here are 7 suggestions you need to know to update your website to modern mobile standards.

1. Understand usability
Usability is arguably the most important aspect of a mobile website, after all; would you buy an unsteerable car? The same point can be made for your website, your users don’t want to visit a site they can’t use.

You should start off by viewing your current website on your mobile. If you have to pinch in and zoom around to read everything, and it takes several attempts to navigate to a new page, you’ve gotten a clear view of the mobile experience you are offering your users.

2. A responsive website isn’t always the best answer
Depending on your current website, you may want to consider developing a responsive theme that adapts to your users’ browser or device resolution. However, sometimes this isn’t achievable and you may want to opt for a dedicated mobile website instead.

Building a separate mobile site has its benefits, for example they are often easier to develop than integrating responsiveness into your existing site and costs can often be significantly less (especially when using a third-party mobile website builder), however a separate mobile page means you will have to maintain 2 different code bases and upload content to both.

Whichever route you decide to go down, research is needed to ensure which option is more suited to your marketing and business model in the long run.

Read more: 7 Suggestions for Better Mobile-Friendly Web Design

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