Tag Archives: Content Marketing

The Importance of a Website Content Audit During a Re-Design and How to Do It

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content-audit-dog

Content audits are primarily done before marketing begins and during the website re-design stage. We always recommend doing a content audit on a website BEFORE starting the re-design, especially if it is a larger website that has a lot of history. A content audit is necessary in order to properly keep track of all the content that is going to be included in the new site.

What is Included in a Website Content Audit?

A website content audit involves exporting the pages of the site using a tool and manually going through the pages of the site to get a better understanding of the content strategy, navigation architecture, and on-page SEO. The important information that is needed includes:

  • Navigation Title
  • Page Name
  • All Page URL’s
  • Meta Title
  • Meta Description
  • 301 Redirect Table
  • Keyword Research
  • Comments

This information can be hosted in an excel file. More on the process below.

Website Content Audit Process

Everyone performs their website content audits differently. There isn’t really a right or wrong way to do it as long as all of the necessary information is easy to access and clearly defined.

Step One: Run a Crawl Report

The best way to begin gathering content information for the site is by simply running a crawl report. This will produce necessary elements including: URL, meta title, meta description, and more. Highlight areas of the crawl report that may need improvement such as: missing meta titles or descriptions, long title tags, missing header tags, etc. By keeping this information in a separate tab, you will know if the site needs to be re-siloed, has missing content and SEO, etc. This also allows you to see all of the URLs of the site which can help you with your next step.

crawl report

Step Two: Layout the Navigation

In the same spreadsheet, different tab, begin manually going through each page of the site in order. Gather the title for the top level navigation first. Then begin gathering titles of secondary navigation pages in a secondary column. Include the URLs in the third column. Comments for each page in the fourth column. This makes it really easy to see what the focus strategy is per page at a high level. This also helps create the correct silo architecture each site should have for better rankings.

Step Three: 301 Redirect Table if Needed

When going through the navigation and content of the website, you’ll probably notice redundancies in pages, or find certain pages that are located under the wrong top level navigation. With those, you want to make sure they are properly 301 redirected, so there are no 404 errors created from moving the pages. This also is a necessary if the website has any backlinks pointing to specific pages within the site. 301 redirects are Google-friendly redirects. In the column next to your landing page URLs, create a column next to that titled “301 URL”. Create the new name of the URL so that it includes the proper category names needed to be properly siloed.

For example:

Old URL: www.example.com/plumbing/

You want the plumbing page to be hosted under the ‘Services’ silo.

New URL: www.example.com/services/plumbing/

Pretty simple, just time consuming if you have a ton of URLs that need to be properly siloed.

content audit

Step Four: Keyword Research

In order to properly optimize each landing page of the site, you have to understand how users are searching for your product or service. In a separate tab of the same excel file, you can use the Google Keyword Planner to discover keyword opportunities. This was explained in our recent blog post more in detail: How Content and Links Work Together for Better Organic Marketing

Step Five: Get to Work!

Now that you have all of the content information properly laid out in an excel document, you can get to work. Refer to your crawl report to prioritize which pages need to be re-written and optimized by looking for errors that stand out. Use your keyword research to incorporate the right keywords in each page. Once those errors and pages are complete, you can refer to the new website architecture for any new pages that may need to be written. A lot of re-architecture means writing pages that were missing before. Get those done next or simultaneously with the other pages that have errors. Lastly, implement the new optimized content with the 301 redirects.

Why a Website Content Audit is Necessary for a Successful Re-Design

As you can see, there are many moving pieces to a content audit. Some companies are quick to sell a website re-design and simply move existing content over. The content should be part of the re-design process because it is a huge contributing factor to the overall user experience and how Google indexes and ranks the site. This can easily be overlooked in the re-design process which can lead to issues later such as:

  • Loss in website rankings when 301 redirects aren’t properly implemented
  • Duplicate content issues
  • Missed opportunities for proper on-page optimization with rankings and conversion
  • Technical website errors

These are just to name a few. The website content audit needs to be done in order to catch any errors and mistakes during the process.

The content audit also helps set up opportunities for future months of marketing. When a site has a fresh design, fresh content, and fresh navigation, it will be clear if anything is missing from the content. For on-going marketing, you can collect ideas for new landing pages that can be developed in future months which will help with the organic SEO and the overall user-experience, leading to increased conversions.

When the new design is live there is also a final step, which is to review the work for accuracy. Even though you laid it out all pretty in an excel file, things still may be missed. Run a new crawl report to find any missing elements and manually go through each page to see if anything stands out. Refer to our website checklist to make sure everything is cohesive with your strategy and you’ve addressed everything found in the initial audit.

Bottom Line

In order to reduce organic traffic downtime, increase organic traffic from the re-design, and set up future months of content strategy for the website; always start with a content audit. The content audit works hand in hand with the overall sales funnel of the website. If the website is hard to navigate, missing important content, and not properly optimized per page – you’re losing money.

Learn more about how we can help you with your re-design by auditing your site here, or call us today: 800.871.4130

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Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.

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How Content and Links Work Together for Better Organic Marketing

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content and links

Link building has dramatically changed in the past couple years with all of the Google algorithm updates. With the changes a lot of people started thinking that content marketing is the new SEO. That isn’t true, but SEO has changed to include a lot more content in the strategies. Both are needed to build a strong organic marketing strategy.

The Difference

Content marketing and link building work together, however, they are totally different techniques. Link building includes seeking out relevant websites and sources related to the primary keywords that the website should rank for. Content marketing is more of an inbound marketing technique used to attract target customers and guide them through the sales funnel through content..

How They Work Together in Your Organic Marketing Campaigns

Quality content can acquire natural backlinks, while quality backlinks can create conversation and more content. Same goes for each landing page on your website, the content needs to answer the end user’s problem in order to have a high conversion rate. Here are some more ways these two work together:

It All Begins with the Right Keyword Strategy and Website Content

Keyword research is is a must if you expect to attract the users who are looking for a solution your company can offer. Whenever we put together a custom strategy, we always include an initial research phase that helps set us develop the on-going organic marketing strategy and that phase includes keyword discovery and research.

After researching appropriate keywords and laying out a sold strategy, the keywords need to be implemented in the website content and on-page SEO.. Each page should have a primary root phrase along with supporting phrases that are integrated into the meta data and throughout the content so that it flows naturally.

Once the page of the website is optimized for the selected keywords, it is appropriate to write a blog post to promote that page and link to it internally, also using the same keyword strategy.

With today’s link building tactics, it looks unnatural to have only anchor text links pointing to a specific URL within a website. This is why the keyword strategy within the content of the website is so important. Links still need to point to the page for it to rank, but the content is how search engines are going to determine the keywords that page should ran for.

Users Naturally Share and Link to Quality Content

Another way you can get content and links work together is by producing quality content that users will link to. In-depth content pieces are typically linked to the most, which can include: infographics, eBooks, webinars, case studies and blog posts. If the content is suitable for the buyer persona you are targeting, this is also a great way to increase leads. Capture their information with a landing page form that is required in order for them to receive this beautiful piece of content. Encourage these users and leads to share and link to your content by having social sharing icons readily available on the content and landing page.

Leverage Social Media to Target Other Top Influencers

Content marketing isn’t only blog posts and eBooks, it’s also social media. Social indicators can help build exposure and rankings for a piece of content. For the in-depth content pieces, utilize Twitter and tweet it out to others in the industry. Don’t spam people, but target a few influencers who you know would be interested in your content piece specifically. More retweets and shares means more social indicators. Social indicators not only build exposure, but they help other linking look more natural to the search engines. You really have to have social presence and other links coming in regularly if you want your linking to appear organic. One type of linking only can look spammy.

Link to Your Content as a Primary Call to Action on Blog Posts

When there is a specific blog post that is ranking high in the SERPs from links and shares, you want to make sure you capture those users. A huge part of SEO is user behavior. You want users to stay on your website longer, so having a primary call to action at the end of each blog post will keep users interested and wanting to learn more. This tells search engines that your content is relevant and high quality. Adding a button at the end of your blog post that links to the landing page where your eBook is hosted will not only capture leads, but keep users on your site longer. Blog posts can attract users through high rankings from links, while the call to action will nurture them through the funnel and help turn them into a qualified lead. This is just another great example of how content and links work side by side.

Takeaways

Content and links work together to produce increased website viability. Search engines LOVE fresh content and so do users. When a piece of content is keyword-rich and has quality links and shares pointing to it, it not only increases your organic presence, but you can capture leads at the same time. The other perk is people will naturally link to and share content that is high in quality and useful for them which, in turn, helps build your organic presence naturally. And let’s face it, that is ultimately what the search engines want anyways.

Need help with content creation and organic marketing? Call today and we can help: 800-871-4130

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Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.

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The Importance of Having a Killer Business Blog

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business blogWhen we create a custom website strategy for new clients we still sometimes get push back on whether or not the businesses website needs to have a blog. Often times it’s the item on the strategy that people end up cutting out or think they can “take in house”.

There’s no doubt that having a killer blogging strategy brings many benefits. However, many business owners are still overlooking this key aspect of their online marketing strategies.

I’m not saying you should blog just for the sake of blogging. I’m saying you need to create a killer content strategy that’s going to help grow your business and a blog is one of the best ways to do this.

The Benefits of Business Blogging

Let me first point out that business blogging is extremely affordable, and, you can do it yourself. You don’t necessarily need a marketing company or professional writer to do this for you. However, if you do choose to blog yourself, you may need to look into how you properly optimize your blog posts, or outsource this piece to in order to increase search engine visibility for your blog. We love it when clients write their own blog posts, but most rely on us to edit them, optimize them, post them on their sites with great images and share them across their social media platforms.

Increases Website Traffic

Looking to increase your website’s search engine visibility? Blogging can help do this. Not only can you increase the amount of traffic to your website but the amount of qualified traffic. Why? Because when your blogging strategy is properly targeted to your buyer persona, you get targeted traffic to your website.

After all, 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog. (source)

What better way to attract those qualified leads than by creating fun, useful content?

Helps Boost Your SEO Efforts

Part of attracting qualified traffic is publishing properly optimized blog posts. You can write your blogs based off keyword research which, in turn, will help increase the chances of your blog showing in the search results for that term.

New content can also help boost your SEO because search engines love the fresh content. They will keep coming back to your blog and crawling your content when they can see it’s published frequently. Which also helps increase the amount of indexed pages on your website – another huge value add from an SEO perspective.

On average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages. – Hubspot

More indexed pages means more chances for your site to show up in the SERP’s.

Builds Brand Awareness

Who doesn’t want to be known as the expert in their industry? Chances are your competition is already blogging. If not, you want to be ahead of the game by becoming an industry expert – NOW. You want users to keep coming back for more, subscribe and share your content because it’s not only worth reading, but sharing as well.

In order to effectively build your brand awareness with blogging you need to influence subscribers to share your blog posts. Basically, you need interesting, useful and sharable content. Your competition might already be blogging, but are they doing it effectively? Is their content receiving social signals? Are people engaging and commenting on their blog posts?

Social media engagement is a key aspect of building your brand awareness. Share your content on your own social media to increase your social signals and hopefully spread your blog/brand to a wider audience. Create a blogging and social strategy that will kill your competition to become an industry leader.

Increases Conversion and Leads

Okay, so we went over how you can easily attract those qualified visitors, but your blog content can also help convert them into leads. The setup of your blog is an importance piece to converting visitors into leads, along with your high quality content that includes clear calls to action.

For one, you want to have a closing call to action at the end of every post. The most effective calls to action that convert visitors into leads include collateral and other content they can subscribe to, download or otherwise get for free, such as: eBooks, case studies, your monthly newsletter or other related blog posts. It all depends on the content and what the end goal is for that visitor.

An easily accessible “Subscribe to this blog” call to action is also important. You want to get visitors to subscribe so that they know every time you publish a blog post. Then, when subscribers continue coming back to your blog they eventually convert into something more than a subscriber, like a lead.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that every online business should have a blog for their website. It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, you need one – even if only to work with your other online marketing strategies, such as SEO and social media.

Of course, there are many other benefits to hosting a blog on behalf of your business, but we think the points above really hit the primary benefits.

Have questions on how to start a blog or about creating a blogging strategy for your business? Call us today at 800.871.4130 or ask in the comments below:

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Content Marketing Do’s and Don’ts

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content marketing tips

Content marketing has been the talk in terms of online marketing for quite some time now. It’s an important piece to your overall digital marketing presence. If done right, your company will have more traffic, increased conversion rates, and more leads! If you’re a marketer who’s struggling with content marketing and asking the question, “How do I do good content marketing for all my clients?” Stay tuned…

Don’t Constantly Sell Your Product or Service

Do you find it annoying when companies only talk about themselves? In terms of social media content, this can turn away a lot of followers. It’s okay to talk about your company but not 24/7.

Do Stay With the 50/50 Rule

The 50/50 rule is simple. Share industry related content such as news, interesting articles, funny memes, etc. 50% of the time. The other 50%, you can share what’s going on with your company such as completed projects, specials, and interesting facts about your product or service. Find what separates you from competitors and show it in your content here.

Don’t Wing It

When you have a new client or new industry that you’re writing for, don’t wing the content strategy! Not knowing the industry can create a lot of research on your behalf, which is fine, but to speed things up, have a plan in place.

Do Use Editorial Calendars for Social Media and Blogging

In your initial research stage for a new industry, you’re going to come across a lot of potential writing topics that you should keep in mind. Jot these topics down and then create an editorial calendar each month for blog topics. This way topics are still fresh in your mind by doing these monthly.

Start a social media editorial calendar for Facebook and Twitter so you have an idea what to post on certain days. This can really help speed up the process when you have ideas on what to research already in place. You can also send these editorial calendars to your client and get feedback on the topics you chose. This will open up the door to conversation which can lead to more topics! Still having trouble with content ideas? Here’s some tips on how to find blog ideas.

Don’t Be Too Broad With Website Landing Page Content

If you’re utilizing landing pages for lead generation, don’t be broad with your content. Your landing pages are your sales tools that should be clear and concise with the message you’re trying to portray. If the terminology isn’t clear on your landing pages, your conversion rates will be lower.

Do Test Landing Pages for Higher Conversion Rates

If you’re unclear on what terminology is going to work for specific pages, test them! A/B testing can really help you dial in that content on each page. Even if you’re only changing the layout or a few words, you can see which page produces higher conversion rates and make content changes as you’re tracking.

Do Use Clear Calls to Actions Throughout Your Website and Blog

This is extremely important because people need to be shown what to do next. After reading a blog post there should be a clear call to action telling the reader where they should go for more information or what to do next. Be relevant with these calls to actions. They should clearly state what your offer is; otherwise your bounce rate will go up if your call to action isn’t relevant to where the person lands next. Same goes for the website. Each page should provide a next step for the visitor and walk the visitor through your website.

Need content marketing help?

Don’t worry. We’re here to help you. Contact one of our content marketing specialists for more information or leave your feedback below! (800) 871.4130

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4 Reasons Your Website Needs an Updated Blog

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Even though blogging is the standard expectation of the typical consumer for every website these days, there are a ton of other good reasons your website needs a blog.

A blog actually provides many benefits for your website beyond sharing helpful information.

Why You Need A Company Blog

When you’re blogging regularly, how do you help your business and customer? Keep reading to learn about the benefits of blogging:

1. You Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader/Authority

Who do consumers and businesses ultimately purchase from?  Many times it’s the person or business they perceive as the leader in their niche.  You don’t have to be a gigantic company to become a thought leader.  You can make yourself a thought leader simply by blogging regularly and offering intricate detail that no other blog provides.  This is one of the ways a blog levels the competitive playing field in any niche.

2. You Get Excellent SEO Benefits

You can optimize your posts to help them rank organically for target keywords. Although simply writing is not enough, ensuring your posts are SEO friendly is the foundation for a well ranking blog. When you sprinkle your keywords throughout your posts that builds your site’s overall authority for key terms which in turn gives you a better chance of ranking – not only your blog but the rest of the website as well. In addition, Google released the Fresh update back in November of 2011, which gives preference in the search rankings to websites that offer regularly updated content.

Subsequent updates like Panda, Penguin and Hummingbird also give preference in the SERPs to websites with high quality content.  The more in-depth blog posts you create, the better the SEO benefits you receive.

3. You Connect with Your Target Market, which Increases Sales

The more you connect with your customer, the more you sell.  Case in point – Hubspot notes these statistics on their website:

  • 92% of companies who blog more than once per day acquired a customer through their blog
  • 40%  of all companies in the United States use blogs to market their products and services

In separate research, Hubspot also found the more frequently a company blogs, the more likely they are to get a customer through their blog.  58% of companies who blog at least once per week are able to land a customer via their blog.

You don’t have to blog daily or multiple times per day, but if you can do so once per week, that’s a great start.

4. Content Powers Social Media Success

Of all the different ways you can market online, the blog remains at the center.  Think of it as your home base from which all other digital marketing efforts flow.

Once you blog, you have something of value to share over social media.  You definitely should share other people’s content via social media, but you will only see valuable business results if you share some of your own high-quality, original content through your social channels as well.

Remember these mind-blowing stats about social (according to the Hubspot report mentioned earlier):  77% of B2C companies and 43% of B2B companies surveyed acquired customers through Facebook alone.  And, social media has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than any form of outbound marketing.

In a Nutshell:  

  • Blogging ensures better search engine authority and organic placement – leading to more organic traffic to your site.
  • Blogging regularly gives your clients more confidence in you and your business.
  • Blogging and sharing your own content socially drives more referral traffic to your site.

So, why aren’t you blogging already?

Overwhelmed? We can help. Click here to learn more about the Eminent SEO blogging services.

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Jenny Weatherall

CEO, Business Consultant, Researcher and Marketing Strategist

Jenny Weatherall is the co-owner and CEO of Eminent SEO, a design and marketing agency founded in 2009. She has worked in the industry since 2005, when she fell in love with digital marketing… and her now husband and partner, Chris. Together they have 6 children and 3 granddaughters.
Jenny has a passion for learning and sharing what she learns. She has researched, written and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including: SEO, design, marketing, ethics, business management, sustainability, inclusion, behavioral health, wellness and work-life balance.

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Content Marketing Predictions For 2014 Infographic

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Content Marketing Predictions For 2014 Infographic

Check Out Our Content Marketing Predictions For 2014 Blog Post

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Jenny Weatherall

CEO, Business Consultant, Researcher and Marketing Strategist

Jenny Weatherall is the co-owner and CEO of Eminent SEO, a design and marketing agency founded in 2009. She has worked in the industry since 2005, when she fell in love with digital marketing… and her now husband and partner, Chris. Together they have 6 children and 3 granddaughters.
Jenny has a passion for learning and sharing what she learns. She has researched, written and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including: SEO, design, marketing, ethics, business management, sustainability, inclusion, behavioral health, wellness and work-life balance.

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Content Marketing Predictions for 2014

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Content Marketing Predictions for 2014.

How many times have you heard the generic phrase “content is king?”. We’ve always believed in the importance of content – but we’ve been hearing (and saying!) this even more since the Google Panda update in February 2011 and Penguin’s release in April 2012. Both algorithm changes have had a number of additional updates since their original releases, where Google has made it even more difficult to achieve high organic search engine placement.

Now, Google more than ever before, is looking for websites with fresh, quality content to serve up in their organic result pages. If you want to achieve and sustain good search engine rankings, having a solid content marketing strategy is a MUST.

2013 is drawing to a close, so many are wondering: what is content marketing going to look like in 2014? 

Here are some of our predictions:

1.      Many Websites Will (Finally) Become Online Publishers

Leading brands will stop talking about publishing and will start actually doing it. Smaller businesses will have to follow suit too. Websites will really become digital magazines where their readers can stay easily read and see what’s happening in the industry, at the company and with the company’s products and services.

Businesses will continue to need to blog regularly, but they will also have to promote the content and syndicate it across several important social media channels in order to ensure the content actually gets visibility.

Bigger businesses will have more job openings for things like “Content Director”, “Head of Content Marketing,” and so on.

If you are looking to implement a content marketing strategy for your website in 2014, you’re going to have to do more than just write. Your readers will remain more engaged (and are more apt to share your posts) if you include images, video, infographics, podcasts and other diverse forms of content. It’s tough to be consistently interesting online, but businesses of all sizes will have to continue to find more ways to do so, or risk taking a huge hit with their organic search engine visibility and website traffic.

2.      More Businesses Will Experiment with Unique Content Mediums

Moz notes a mobile game called PopTopia that includes Pop Dangle, an attachment that actually releases the smell of popcorn as you play the game. How’s that for unique?

The major social media channels like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus are getting bloated with content and posts. There is so much digital noise, standing out is tougher than ever before. Moving into 2014 businesses are going to have to find new, innovative methods for marketing their content. We believe this year there will be a lot more innovation in content marketing, such as the PopTopia game.

Here are some additional examples of innovative content marketing approaches that might spark your creativity and give you some ideas on how you can help your business stand out next year:

  • Marketo’s Big Activity Coloring Book – You can dress a marketer, complete a revenue cycle maze and play with a marketing automation mad lib.
  • Uberflip’s Video Infographic – This video infographic helped promote their ability to distribute client content in unique ways:

  • Levenfeld Pearlstein Profile Videos – This law firm created profile videos for its attorneys and went way beyond the boring standard stuff. Their attorneys talked about their first jobs, how they met their spouses and even eccentric topics like time travel:

3.      Research Regarding Content Marketing Results will Intensify

Web metrics like click throughs, bounce rates and time spent on-page are important. But, what businesses really want to understand is the entire purchasing cycle for any customer.

While it’s tough to map out the entire purchase cycle involved in content marketing, businesses will nonetheless place a stronger emphasis on the process – and invest into tools that will help them track thing better. Once they have a better understanding, backed by data, they will map out the entire purchase cycle and design their content marketing strategies to maximize traffic and conversions.

This also means that businesses that focus on phone calls will need to start using call tracking tools to ensure they understand where their calls are coming from. If you are a call centric business it will be imperative that you purchase and use a form of call tracking metrics which, when installed and managed properly, can not only tell you where your calls are coming from, but track how much of your marketing dollars are being spent to get those calls – creating a way for you to truly track your entire lead to order life cycle. This information is invaluable and is the ONLY way to know if your content marketing dollars are being spent wisely.

What Are Your Content Marketing Plans for 2014?

We have really only begun to scratch the surface on what 2014 holds for content marketing. Content marketing is becoming incredibly complex, and we predict more businesses will start to see the value and take a more serious approach to the process in 2014.  How do you plan to approach content marketing for your business in the next year?

Share some of your ideas in the comments:

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Jenny Weatherall

CEO, Business Consultant, Researcher and Marketing Strategist

Jenny Weatherall is the co-owner and CEO of Eminent SEO, a design and marketing agency founded in 2009. She has worked in the industry since 2005, when she fell in love with digital marketing… and her now husband and partner, Chris. Together they have 6 children and 3 granddaughters.
Jenny has a passion for learning and sharing what she learns. She has researched, written and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including: SEO, design, marketing, ethics, business management, sustainability, inclusion, behavioral health, wellness and work-life balance.

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Running Out Of Content Ideas?

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writers block

You need content that draws your target audience in, while creating true value and/or demand. Oh so you knew that already, you’re just hitting a writer’s block? Well, let me try and help bring you back to the basics with five topic ideas that could help you get out of that writers block rut.

1. Case studies | May not be possible for some, depending on the industry at hand but everyone loves a good case study in which they can see factual outcomes and results.

2. Solve a problem | Simple enough. You face a plethora of problems in your industry that others are sure to relate with. Why not share your solution with the world wide web!

3. How-To Paired with Tips & Tricks of the trade | We get it, you don’t want to give away all your ‘know how’ but people will appreciate a helping hand or kick in the right direction to get them started.

4. Tools are Awesome | Why not make a list of useful tools that can help in all aspects of ones work place or personal for that matter.

5. Bust the Myths of your Industry | I’m sure there are a few common misconceptions of your field that you’re just dying to prove the record straight on.

 

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Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.

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Vol. 20: Fun Doesn’t Stop at Eminent SEO, Tips for Creatively Engaging Your Customers

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Monster Mom

Ah, May… the month for Mothers!

A big Happy Mother’s Day to all you mommies out there! Here at Eminent SEO many of us are hard working moms and we know how much work goes in to being a mother!

A Fun Little Company Photo Shoot

Creative people spark creative ideas – this should come as no surprise, but how do you know when you’re working with a truly creative marketing firm?  At Eminent SEO, we want to highlight our creativity to make it more apparent to all our existing and new clients.  So, we decided to have professional photographer Bill Nash capture that aspect of our company’s personality in a recent photo shoot (you’ll be able to find this photo on our about page when it’s fully updated):

ESEO Group Photo

Why Creativity & Personality Sell to Online Consumers

Traditional marketing – where large corporations who were able to shout their message the loudest and get in your face with provocative ads – is losing its effectiveness.  In fact, Bill Simmons, of the Harvard Business Review, says traditional marketing is already dead.

Why is this happening?

It’s due mostly in part to the availability of the internet.  Prior to the internet, everyone had a television or radio, or saw advertising on billboards or flyers.  But now, with the internet available wherever you go, consumers can research companies, products, and services in their own way.  If they aren’t engaged nearly instantaneously, they move on to the next web site.  So, the key to advertising now lies in developing a unique, creative experience that almost immediately develops a personal connection with your online visitors.

At Eminent SEO, we use our creative personality to help you create a unique online experience for your online customers.

4 Tips for Creatively Engaging Online Visitors

In keeping with this newsletter’s theme, we figure it makes sense to give you a few ideas of how to quickly engage online searchers.  Here are a few ideas to help you get your own creativity flowing:

1. A Unique Web Design – Many websites you see have a home, services, about, and contact page.  This type of design does work, but in the web world, you can literally design your web page any way you want. Check out this design at the Australian Census Bureau – who’d have thought a government institution would be able to show us something about creativity?

2. Show a Video on Your Home Page – Generally stated, video helps increase conversions.  With a short, but engaging, video on your home page, you stand to stick out from the crowd and provide your visitors with a unique experience.

3. Precision Targeting – With digital marketing, you can laser-target your market.  How?  By researching and targeting the right keywords (long-tail keywords), you have an excellent idea of what searchers are looking for and what type of content to create to increase conversions.  Your keyword might only have 200 searches per month, but if you convert 10 of those into paying customers, that’s much more valuable than driving traffic to your site with a higher search volume that has little to no conversions.

4. Social Media – Although your natural inclination is to think social media is there to promote your company (which it is), it works best as a listening tool.  You will learn the exact questions on your customers’ minds, you can ask them for feedback in the form of a survey and give them a chance to win a reward for participating, and you can also learn some of the exact keywords they use to search for your products and services by observing what they’re saying on your different profiles.

That’s All Folks!

We hope to have sparked your creative side in this month’s newsletter.  If you need a little help developing a more creative brand identity and online marketing strategy, feel free to call us at 1-1.800.871.4130 or contact us online.

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Team Eminent SEO

Eminent SEO provides strategic SEO campaigns with measurable results along with expert website design, development, pay per click, content and social media and organic website marketing. 800.871.4130.

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6 Things Your Website Needs in Order to Be Successful Online

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As an internet marketer, I can sometimes forget that not website owner understands the basic things they need to have a successful business online.Website Audit Notes - ESEO

I have created a MUST HAVE list of 6 basic things all business websites need to be successful online (in no particular order):

1)      Quality Content and Calls to Action

Content can take many forms: written information, images, infographics, videos, games, widgets, etc. When creating your content you should think about your users first. Who are they? Why are they here? Give them something to relate to, something that sparks their interest and a reason to act now.

Content is also important for search engine value. Google and the other search engines want to serve up the most relevant information being searched for. If your content is “thin”, outdated or not optimized properly for the keywords you want to rank for – you really need to invest into some updated content – NOW!

2)      A Blog – Updated Often

Of course a blog is more content, but the beauty in having a blog ON your business website is it is generally an easy way for you (or your marketer) to keep your content fresh and up to date. In order to see the true value of a blog, it must be on your company website (www.yourwebsite.com/blog) and it must be updated at least a few times a month. If you aren’t keeping it up to date it really adds no value. The key is to write about interesting information relevant to your audience and keep it current.

A blog is also a great way to link to important areas of your website, giving the users a reason to click through to the landing pages that you use to push your products (*note, this is also good for SEO value). We also always suggest you install social sharing icons on your blog to make it super easy for your readers to share your content.

3)      Social Media

Social indicators actually enhance your website visibility, so even from just an SEO standpoint, social is important. Also, many sites, like Pinterest for example, have high domain authority and when you create profile your verified website profile link creates a nice authority link to your website.

Of course there are several other key benefits to having business social profiles. For example: brand visibility, new and current client engagement, direct clicks to your website, social shares that contain your website, brand or products and even brand reputation management.

Just like your website blog, your social profiles should be kept up to date if you want them to really benefit your website and business. You should be sharing often, posting interesting content, images, videos and links to important information on your site. You should also link to your important profiles from your website, making it easier for your clients to find you on their favorite social platforms.

4)      Website Marketing

In order to drive targeted traffic to your website, you are going to have to do some form of website promotion and marketing. Internet marketing can mean a number of things from Google Pay Per Click Campaigns to High Profile Banner Ads.

Here at Eminent SEO we believe in a custom marketing solution for each client. This generally starts with a website audit, competitive analysis and a market research project to help us better understand your needs specifically. A new marketing campaign is always a test, but if you analyze and strategize on the front end, you are at least giving your marketing dollars a better chance of converting into sales.

Because the web is such a competitive space, we really recommend you hire a professional marketer to handle your website marketing. This is key to the success of your online business and is a MUST have for anyone trying to make money online. It takes money to make money. Marketing isn’t an expense though, it’s an investment!

5)      Website SEO

Your website needs to be structurally sound, technically optimized and include your marketing keyword strategy if you expect any of the above to result in increased search engine traffic. SEO is really an umbrella term that covers a wide range of on and off page variables that impact the way the search engines view and rank your website.

Just like any good marketing strategy starts with research and analysis, so does SEO. We really need to fully audit your website from a technical aspect in order to assess your website SEO needs specifically. Many website owners don’t realize they have major issues with their website that are preventing them from becoming an authority on the web.

Proper SEO will ensure your website can be crawled properly as well as help tell the search engines what your website is an authority for. When the search engines can easily tell what you are all about, you have a much better chance of getting visibility in the search engine results for the keywords you are targeting. Better SEO = better website traffic.

6)      Conversion Tracking

Okay, so you have a beautiful website with optimized content, proper calls to action and a solid marketing strategy in place – good for you! But, how do you know if you are getting traffic and how do you know if it’s converting?

Most websites use some form of analytics, such as Google Analytics, to track their website traffic. Knowing where your traffic is coming from is important, but if you can’t tie your traffic sources to conversions, how do you know if you are spending your marketing dollars properly?

If you are a call centric business, you should have some form of call tracking metrics built into your site. This allows you to tie your calls into traffic source so you have a real idea of where your calls are coming from. You can also rate your calls and input conversions – so each month you can see exactly where your conversions are coming from. This is powerful information that you can take back to your marketing team so they can focus on marketing to the areas that convert!

Need Help?

Many of the things I listed above seem may seem basic or simple to some, but you’d be surprised how many website owners I talk to who are not leveraging all of these techniques. If you need help with your website and marketing, just call us at 1.800.871.4130. We can come up with a custom solution that works for your specific website needs.

 

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Jenny Weatherall

CEO, Business Consultant, Researcher and Marketing Strategist

Jenny Weatherall is the co-owner and CEO of Eminent SEO, a design and marketing agency founded in 2009. She has worked in the industry since 2005, when she fell in love with digital marketing… and her now husband and partner, Chris. Together they have 6 children and 3 granddaughters.
Jenny has a passion for learning and sharing what she learns. She has researched, written and published hundreds of articles on a wide variety of topics, including: SEO, design, marketing, ethics, business management, sustainability, inclusion, behavioral health, wellness and work-life balance.

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