05
Dec 11
Why Local SEO is More Important Now Than Ever Before
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is talked about a lot between marketers. The reason it’s always in conversation is because of its importance. It ultimately improves the visibility of a web page or website in search results. Think of SEO as your company’s baseline for online success. In this post, we touch on SEO essentials, tips from experts and the future of SEO.
Essential Tools
After some research and feedback, we’ve compiled a list of SEO tools. These tools exist so that you may better optimize your marketing efforts. When using SEO tools for your business, you have the ability to become more productive and efficient in your search efforts. The options are endless when looking for SEO tools, so having an expert opinion helps to reduce information overload. Sage Lewis, Founder of SageRock Digital Marketing provided his list of SEO tools he uses the most. A few of his favorites are listed below:
- Xenu’s Link Sleuth for finding broken links
- Microsoft Advertising Intelligence for key phrase research
- Raven for social media
- Spyfu for Google AdWords specific keywords
- SEOmoz as an overall SEO resource
As more tools are introduced and technology gets better, some options may better serve your business. For now, our advice is to focus on keyword research and ensure your website is content rich. To achieve the best results in SEO – a combination of strategy, content placement and the use of SEO tools are required.
What does the future of SEO look like?
Most marketers have a solid understanding of how to improve both organic and paid search. However, with 50% of mobile users relying on their Smartphones for searching the web, new mobile features may pose a threat. For instance, the questions swirling the web right now involve the importance of Apple’s new feature, Siri. Voice recognition software is now gaining traction in the mobile space. Just the iPhone alone has raised the bar of importance on how these advancements ultimately affect SEO. Siri is touted for being an iPhone user’s personal assistant that can do anything you ask it to. This looks good and sounds good, but can mean big trouble for local SEO. 
How much trouble? Apple reported selling four million iPhone 4S models since its release. Going by statistics, there is a potential for two million iPhone 4S users to search the web via Siri. The problem lies in local search, where it may be convenient to ask Siri, it’s becoming less common to rely on the accuracy of search engines. Siri works by automating search for you, so it chooses how it gets that information. As stated in the article, How Apple’s Siri Could Destroy Local SEO, “Little is known about how exactly Siri collects and processes information, although it’s reasonable to assume that the program is drawing on well-cultivated public data sources, including Google Places, Yelp and similar sites.”
With Siri’s potential to use third party applications as part of the search information gathering, traffic from traditional sites could deteriorate. In order to make sure your site will survive the voice recognition threat, it needs to stay as accessible to search engines as possible. Going back to the basics of SEO, being active on social networks and enhancing your site for mobile are key factors to success. As long as your information is accurate and your site is easy to navigate, your business – with Siri’s help or not, will stay strong.
15
Nov 11
How Well Do You Know Your Prospects?
The way in which consumers research and buy products has changed. The driving force behind this movement has been the explosion of web, mobile and social networking. This change is important enough to be recognized by marketers and business leaders alike. In this post, we’ll touch on some of the industry’s best insights and tips on succeeding in marketing for the new buying process. In addition, we will share our perspective and provide key takeaways for your business.
In her book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, Ardath Albee tells us that creating an e-marketing strategy to reach, attract and engage buyers through digital content and communication is critical to building trust with today’s buyer. Why should we believe her? For starters, Econsultancy claims 70% of B2B buyers use search engines at the start of the B2B buying process. If you aren’t capturing the attention of your prospects through digital content, chances are, they won’t find you. Once you have their attention, you need to make sure it is relevant to their needs. Pushing out content just to grab someone’s attention won’t work for gaining new business. Albee mentions in her book that we must engage buyers; make them feel as if you are talking only to them. Personalize your content by better understanding your prospects.
Another key in today’s buying process is that time is of the essence; the shift in the buying process has shortened our ability to focus. Marketers used to have 30 seconds to grab the attention of their prospects. Research shows that span has whittled away to less than 10 seconds. Today, marketers need to focus more on capturing interest, where before, the focus was soley on awareness.
As Sally Hogshead outlines in her book, Facsination, there are seven fascination triggers at your disposal to capture your prospect’s interest. These triggers will help jumpstart the buying process and aid in addressing common sales objections. We have taken our own spin on these attention triggers, and define them in greater detail below.
Power – Take command. This is about being confident and being in control. Leaders have power and in order to be better than your competition, you need to become a leader in your industry.
Passion – Invoke emotion. Let your audience feel the desire to want your product or service.
Mystique – Arouse curiosity. You always want a call to action, a chance to provide as much information to your prospects as possible. Pose questions to them; don’t reveal all your secrets and curiosity will prevail.
Prestige – Earn respect. If your prospects and customers envy you and see you as a model for success, your respect and admiration will quickly appeal to the masses.
Alarm – Change urgency. If your buyer feels their time is running out, or the deal won’t last long, they’ll be more likely to buy.
Rebellion—Change the game. Help your prospects think outside the box and challenge their standards. If we never took chances, life would be boring. Your prospects want something new and different.
Trust— Build loyalty. Once your buyer understands your intentions and learns enough about you, trust will follow. People like to feel confident in their choices, especially their purchases. With you as their trusted advisor, they’ll feel better about their decision and most likely keep coming back.
As Jeff Korhan states in his blog, content marketing is “creating useful or desirable content, distributing it to those that can benefit most from it, and personalizing it to encourage engagement.”
Once you have crafted your message to reflect an attention trigger, the content will work for you. A prospect reads your engaging content, feels the need to act upon it, and calls your company for more information. Ta-da! You have just exercised the power of content to convert a prospect to a customer in the new buying process.
Key takeaways
- Know your audience – research your buyers. Invest content where your prospects spend time.
- Create content that appeals to all seven triggers. Make sure you convey the proper emotions for the right buyer persona.
- Focus your content around customer needs, not selling your product. Content without value is considered spam.
- Build trust and add value through your content and interactions. Respond to Twitter messages, Facebook updates and blog comments. You’ll be surprised who’s listening.
For more information on marketing for the new buying process, download our eBook here. Watch for our webinar date to be announced soon!
01
Nov 11
Three Key Elements You Should Know About Social + Mobile
I noticed a surprising trend while attending a local social media event a few weeks ago. There are many marketers with questions pertaining to the social and mobile marketing space. As marketers, some of us are conflicted with which social networks to dedicate our time to. We’re also curious to learn and understand where mobile marketing is headed. We can certainly make assumptions…but wouldn’t it be better to feel confident in your choices?
After some research, I have compiled three insights on the marriage of social + mobile, which are highlighted below:
1. Create Compelling Evidence That Proves Social is Working (aka Content)
One of the questions asked at the social media meeting was, “How do you convince a client that they need a Facebook page?” First, we know that in order to convince someone to do anything – you need to convince them. Creating quality content is a great way to communicate the benefits of whatever it is you’re trying to get across. Within that great content, sprinkle statistics and value targeted to your audience. People are resistant to change by nature – especially if the materials being presented to them are from 2001. Be in the know with your audience and prospects on where they’re spending time and what they like. Invest part of your day reading news articles and comments in blog posts on what is relevant to them. Keeping your content fresh, new and exciting will not only help sway an opinion – but will also demonstrate your knowledge on the subject. This content can be in a proposal you present, your own Facebook page or Twitter feed and blogs on your website.
Sometimes convincing your client to change requires you having to make that first step. Once you open those lines of communication and have reasonable data to back-up your claims, the road to transition will be smoother. Instead of just telling a client they should be social – show them why.
2. Be Where Your Clients Are
What are consumers doing on their mobile phones? The answer is – consuming content. Not just via search but with social as well. Content isn’t going away. Neither is mobile technology. According to a recent study, the number of mobile users in the U.S. who accessed a social networking or blog site has grown 37% in the past year. In addition, half of these users are accessing social networking sites on a daily basis via their mobile phones.
Here’s some food for thought, these mobile users aren’t just looking around and logging out. They are engaging with each other and sharing content multiple times a day. Even if that content is a status update or a post to a link, they’re becoming comfortable in the social space for mobile. Why should you, as a marketer, care to know how they’re spending their time on these sites? The more comfortable and engaged your audience is on a social networking site, the more likely they’ll interact with you. Since they’re already doing it and expanding into the mobile space, all you have to do is be there. The data speaks for itself. Millions of mobile users are reading social posts from brands and companies, sharing coupons or deals, and clicking on ads. Mobile and social are newlyweds, so integrating your current marketing efforts with this new couple can be challenging. As long as you create a social and mobile strategy that aligns with your buyer personas, you’ll quickly see the benefits.
3. Use the Right Social Site
Today’s marketing world is full of terms like SEO, mobile sites, social marketing – but the key to walking the walk is understanding these terms. Most business aren’t sure what social networks to join, so they do as many as they can. Then they write blogs and compute keywords that might interest a few customers to their site. This is not the way to successful networking, branding or marketing.
Choosing the right approach is different for every business – not everyone benefits from the same social sites. To be successful you need to be in sync with your customer. If your customers don’t use Foursquare, don’t invest in it. It sounds simple, but it is a common misconception that having a presence on every social site is good for business. Remember the saying, “quality not quantity?” This couldn’t reign truer than in the social and mobile worlds. Social sites are tools for your marketing strategy to aid in moving your customer along in the buying process. Once you realize where your efforts have the most impact, dedicate more time and effort to those sites.
My perspective on social media is as follows: At the end of the day, it’s about keeping it simple. Don’t overload your audience with information. Make sure you’re being social and active where it makes sense for your business. Lastly, create compelling content that speaks to your buyers at specific points in the buying process. Understanding your prospect’s needs and wants is the key to creating valuable content that will get them to notice you and continue to engage with you.
28
Oct 11
Understanding Google’s New Search Default Restrictions
Google has found a way to start tightening the rope around search, and more specifically, SEO. According to Brad Reynolds, CEO at Mongoose, “Google is changing the face of web analytics by encrypting search results.” As a result of this change, anyone who logs into their Google account (i.e. Google+, Gmail) and then conducts a search via Google will no longer have referrer data sent along with it. That referrer data reveals what search terms were used in order to find a particular business or website. Paid ads, however, will not be affected by this change.
Who does this impact?
In a blog post, Google says less than 10% of searches will be affected by this change. Additionally, in a Search Engine Land Article, Matt Cutts a Google Software Engineer estimates the affected traffic to be 1-2% of search volume. Aggregate query data will continue to be available and include visits from users who are not signed into a Google account. This change only concerns organic search results while the user is logged into a Google account. It does not impact direct traffic, PPC traffic or affiliated traffic.
How does this affect the user experience?
In the Search Engine Land article: Google to Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default with SSL Search, Danny Sullivan does a great job of describing the setbacks from this change. This encryption prevents sophisticated keyword-based targeting from being used. It is almost as if we’re taking a step backwards in the progression of custom and personalized information. Instead of creating a better user experience, this is essentially making the consumer work harder. Take for example someone searching for a specific product, but since referrer data isn’t passed along to the company, the user lands on a basic web page. Now the user has to navigate through the website in order to find their particular product – essentially making the entire process more time consuming for the user. As a marketer, having the capability to track and analyze specific keyword information will become harder to obtain.
Why the change?
There is much speculation and controversy around why this change has been made. The majority of comments we have seen believe it is a way for Google to make more money and gain competitive advantage. Google mentions there is a growing importance of protecting the privacy of personalized search results. In an effort to protect users and their privacy, Google feels this is reason enough.
There are two additional facts we find to be confusing. First, Google will continue to offer this data to their paid advertisers, which seems inconsistent with the goal of protecting user privacy. Second, Google will continue to gather this organic search result information without passing it on, thus giving them exclusive intelligence related to search results. Some say this will hurt small businesses that cannot afford to pay for online marketing services, while others mention that this is a step in the right direction towards protecting the privacy of the consumer. The debate will be ongoing as more people become aware of this change in the marketing and SEO world.
With change, there is naturally going to be resistance. Like many changes, there will be pros and cons. At the moment, Mongoose is more interested in the long-term effects. Specifically, we’re curious to know how this will impact the way we search and if this will become a standard across all search engines. Will referrer data one day disappear for good – paid or not? Again, going back to Search Engine Land’s article, Sullivan claims that the future is clear:
“Referrer data is going away from search engines, and likely from other web sites, too. It’s somewhat amazing that we’ve had it last this long, and it will be painful to see that specific, valuable data disappear.”
Let’s say he’s right and this data disappears from search engines, what does this mean for social? Most users are searching via social already; perhaps this is an attempt by Google to gain traction in the social space as well. Although Google+ is not the most popular network in the social world, this might be the first step towards making that a reality. For now, Facebook and Twitter continue to own the social search arena. Users trust their friends’ feedback, comments and likes, which is something you don’t have in search engines. However, with Google, you do have the +1 option – but you need to be on Google+ for that function.
Your thoughts?
What do you think about what Google is doing? Are you for or against this change? Please leave any comments and suggestions below.