5 Tips for Optimizing Social Media Updates
Social media is the marketing medium to watch. No other marketing tool is as important to the success of a business or organization, from the small start-up to the established corporation, as social media. With social media in constant flux, businesses still struggle with managing their social media presence. Many leaders understand how much potential is there, but the method to tap into it is a mystery. Not having the skill set,…
Why Responsive Design Is a Must for Your Website
As web traffic becomes increasingly more mobile, every business needs to get on board with responsive design. But what is responsive design, and how can it help boost site accessibility, overall ease of use, and consumer appeal? Responsive web design is attentive to the specifications of a variety of devices, adapting fluidly and instantaneously to user browsing platforms. It may sound deceptively simple, but this critical aspect of website development will determine…
4 Best Practices for Adapting to Google Hummingbird
Back in September, Google announced the debut of Hummingbird, an algorithm update that was primarily focused on semantic search and understanding natural language. This update forced marketers and SEOs to begin reinventing their strategies in order to cope with a search engine that is less focused on keywords and more focused on phrases and concepts. For the last several months, marketers have been working frantically to figure out how to approach the…
2014 Could Be the Year for Google Glass
While many experts believed 2013 would be the year for Google’s much anticipated release of Glass, its delay suggests 2014 as the launch year. Hailed by many as a life changing advance in technology, Google Glass is expected to revolutionize the way we experience the world on a daily basis. What Is Glass Anyway? You’ve probably heard the buzz about Google Glass, but do you know what it is? Essentially, Glass is…
Internet Marketing on a Budget: 4 Helpful Tips
Who says internet marketing is only for the wealthy? With the right practices and strategies, any business, no matter the budget, can actively participate in an internet marketing campaign of its own. All it takes is the right preparation and frame of mind, and you can develop your business’ online presence from the ground up. Understand the Customer – The importance of understanding the profile of your customer cannot be stressed enough.…
Facebook Celebrates Birthday with New App
While the one with the birthday is usually showered with gifts and presents, Facebook decided to celebrate its tenth birthday by giving a gift of its own. The gift comes in the form of a new iPhone app called Paper and looks to revolutionize the way people receive their news online. Happy Birthday Facebook Launched on February 4th, 2004 from a Harvard University dorm room, Facebook has evolved from an innovative idea…
7 Web Design Tips for Creating User-Friendly E-Commerce Sites
E-commerce websites present a unique challenge to web designers, who have to consider a completely different set of elements when designing a site for an e-commerce client than they would for any other clients. In order to make sure that your e-commerce site is best equipped to attract customers and encourage conversions, incorporate the following strategies into your web design. 1. Include Filters When customers visit an e-commerce site, it’s important for…
Be Seen: How Facebook Ads Are Critical for Promoting Your Business
If your business is looking for the next big advertising push to bring in more customers, look no further than Facebook. Facebook ads are simple to create and highly visible, with the fourth quarter in 2013 boasting serious increases in click-through rates – about 50% more click-through engagements than in the third quarter. This increased rate of user engagement coupled with recent changes to Facebook’s news feed format are a signal to…
Beyond Hummingbird: Staying Afloat with Google in 2014
The release of Google Hummingbird was one of the main tech updates of 2013, and has already required that businesses begin to rethink their SEO strategies to better target mobile and local consumers. Today, let’s take it a step further with some predictions for what 2014 will continue to bring, digging deep into what Google throws at those of us in the content marketing sphere. Increasing Influence of Knowledge Graph We are…
Google’s New Local Carousel Enhances Small Business Visibility
Internet marketing gurus have been abuzz about Hummingbird’s effect on local searches as more information and analytics data becomes available. It’s clear from the recent updates in Google Now and Google Maps that the search superpower is moving toward making local search results more intuitive, visible, and accessible from all devices. Google’s Local Carousel is an eye-catching slider bar that appears as the top result when certain keywords are searched and has…
How to Optimize Images for SEO
If the numbers are any indication, we are an increasingly visual culture these days. Engagement and click-through rates are consistently much higher for images (including infographics and other informational images, not just pictures of Miley Cyrus), and anecdotally it feels like an overarching trend: we want to see it in pictures. Text is hard to read on a small mobile screen. Show us a nice, organized graphic that we can scroll through,…
5 Content Marketing Trends for 2014
With the new year upon us once again, it is time to take a look at where the content marketing industry has landed, and where things are heading for 2014. 2013 saw a lot of big changes, including the Google Hummingbird update and a large upswing in mobile browsing. With the internet in constant flux, now is as good a time as any to try to pin down some trends likely to…