Proliferation

Feb 15
0

A Beginner’s Guide to a Quick SEO Audit

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SEO auditing is a multi-faceted way to make an in-depth and accurate evaluation regarding the health of your website while simultaneously recognizing any specific areas that need to be developed. A thorough audit of your site can quickly help you diagnose any issues while helping you tackle your toughest SEO competition, whether that competition is in Utah or on the East Coast.

Assess Organic Traffic, Keywords and Competitors

One of the first things you should do while conducting an audit involves getting a comprehensive overview of your current traffic situation. For example, SEMRush and other tools allow you to search for your root domain, providing a graph of organic traffic and where it comes from, PPC traffic sources, your top keywords and main competitors. This overall assessment can give you a beginning look into where you should direct your SEO efforts, whether you want to be at the top of your game in Utah or in a surrounding area.

How Fluid Is Your Navigation?

Another way to look at the search engine optimization health of your website involves taking a look at the content on your page, specifically the navigation. Is the navigation easy to follow? Does it make sense? Make sure that the links within your navigation contain industry-specific keywords.

If your webpage is difficult for visitors to navigate, you’re going to have a difficult time ranking, no matter how aggressive your SEO efforts are. It doesn’t matter if you’re implementing search engine optimization tactics on a local level in Utah or on a nationwide platform—well-orchestrated navigation will make a huge difference in your traffic levels.

Some beneficial ways to check the health of your navigation involve checking to see how easily you can find your blog, shopping cart or other important pages. Also make note of whether or not you see any social media links within your navigation. How well are these links implemented? Is the blog frequently updated? These are all major areas related to content that should be thoroughly assessed to get you on the right track for a healthy search engine optimization campaign.

Feb 12
0

Artificial Intelligence Makes a Web Development Breakthrough

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Siri, self-driving cars and autonomous search queries—these are just a few ways that artificial intelligence (AI) has been gradually diffused into our modern world. Existing primarily within the Internet and mobile apps, artificial intelligence has significantly reduced the amount of energy that we spend on menial mental tasks.

The Bloomberg Business stated that 2015 was a breakthrough year for the world of artificial intelligence and Web development. And with how quickly Web development breakthroughs are being produced, it’s not surprising. Here’s a look at how the game is changing.

How Google RankBrain Handles New Search Queries

Artificial intelligence is changing the landscape of Web development as we know it—with Google’s RankBrain being one of the major game changers. Google RankBrain is a machine-learning artificial intelligence system that helps Google decipher and calculate search results with the intention of providing more relevant, personalized search results.

When Google BrainRank identifies a word or phrase that it’s not familiar with, it’s programmed to make an educated guess regarding what words or phrases are similar, and to consequently filter the search results.

By using artificial intelligence, Google RankBrain introduces an immense amount of language into mathematical entities called vectors, allowing Google to easily handle new search queries that it has never seen before. This is just one improvement in the vast landscape of how artificial intelligence is gradually becoming a staple within the Web development community.

Theoretically, Apps Will Update Themselves

The artificial intelligence spectrum has exploded, partially due to the new learning algorithms that are simultaneously being developed and improved upon more quickly than ever before.  In theory, as the technology behind artificial intelligence continues to evolve, apps will eventually be able to detect and implement updates on their own. This will allow the tech workforce to render even more advanced artificial intelligence processes.

Apple, Facebook and Google Incorporating AI

The recent growth of artificial intelligence comes down to three basic components: its affordability, practicality and quick evolvement within a short period of time. And with key players such as Apple, Facebook and Google incorporating AI into their most recent slew of consumer products, the landscape will only continue to grow and change substantially within the next few years.

Feb 11
0

Why People Shop on Their Phones—And What Marketing Companies Can Do to Capitalize on It

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It’s 2016, and the mobile shopping shows no signs of slowing down.

Digital marketing firms have known for a while that the mobile revolution was coming, and now it’s finally here—a large quantity of shoppers are already using mobile to make purchases, and they’d like to see more of it.

According to a new Facebook study of 2,400 adults, more than 60 percent of multichannel shoppers plan to increase their mobile purchasing habits in 2016. Currently, shoppers say mobile plays a part in 45 percent of all purchases, whether it’s research, price matching or actually making a purchase. 57 percent of millennials report using their phones at some point during the shopping process.

The fact that consumers are using their phones at some point during the shopping process is not new. However, the Facebook study also polled respondents on their reasons for using mobile over desktop. Fifty-five percent of respondents pointed to the convenience of using their phones, while 56 percent said they chose mobile because they were on their device already.

While mobile shopping is becoming more prevalent every year, it’s not king of online shopping just yet. The study pointed out a few notable shortcomings of mobile shopping: 70 percent of mobile shoppers found app and website experiences had room for improvement, 71 percent found the transaction experience itself needed some work and 54 percent responded they’d be more willing to shop on a device if they could do so across multiple devices.

Digital marketing firms are well aware of mobile’s current shortcomings—in 2016, 59 percent of marketers have deemed capitalizing on mobile their top priority.

Mobile shopping is steadily becoming more popular among consumers of all age groups; however, if digital marketing firms and brands want to take full advantage of the mobile revolution, they will need to focus on improving the user experience first.

Feb 10
0

When Good Content Marketing Strategies Go Bad

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There are a wide variety of tools available in the content marketers’ online arsenal—from social media and Web design to other digital marketing techniques. While any top content marketing agency knows how to use marketing tools to their best effect, all too many businesses aren’t getting the full potential from their marketing efforts.

According to the recently released 2016 State of Small Business Report, small businesses from the East Coast to Utah aren’t taking advantage of their online Web presence.

Social Media

While four out of five small businesses regularly use social media, 45 percent use it to promote products or services, and 38 percent use it for promotions, sales or services. Twenty percent of small businesses do not utilize social media at all.

Social media can be a powerful tool for online marketers, but social media’s power lies in its ability to connect and build relationships with a potential client base—not for sales pitches. Use social for content-driven marketing, sharing relevant blog posts and other owned content and addressing consumer concerns.

Company Websites

Every small business needs a good website. A company website should focus on providing information and showcasing products. Yet per The State of Small Business Report, only half of small businesses provide company addresses and phone numbers, and a mere 32 percent of small business websites are optimized for online purchases.

Only half of small businesses use their websites for marketing at all, which is bad news for small businesses in Utah and elsewhere. A company website is often a consumer’s first interaction with the business in question—a website that’s not optimized for marketing is a major missed opportunity.

SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) fares even worse among small businesses, with only a quarter of business owners focusing on SEO. No mater how great your content is, it’s useless if consumers can’t find it.

Small businesses need to step up their content marketing game if they want to reap the benefits of online marketing tools. For small businesses from the Midwest to Utah, marketing tools are only as good as the people that use them.

Feb 09
0

Why Are So Many Content Marketing Writers Missing the Mark?

By | content marketing | No Comments

The words on your website have the power to either immediately attract visitors to your website and the simultaneous, terrifying capability to repel them. Content marketing in Utah has recently imploded due to the high demand of informative, unique and professional writing sought by online retailers and consumers alike.

With so many online resources and tools currently available to aid marketers in creating the perfect angle for their readers, it’s surprising that some businesses are still missing the mark. What gives? Is it the subject matter that’s making some websites tear-jerkingly boring to read? Or does overzealousness cloud the writing with so many adjectives that you incur a headache? Whether it’s content marketing in Utah or New York City, you have to be able to write if you want to be successful.

The Setbacks of Mass-Produced, Adjective-Rich Verbiage

Be wary of any company that seems to write faster than Jack Kerouac with a typewriter. One of the most prevailing—and subsequently incorrect—methods of creating verbiage in today’s digital age involves ingesting an encyclopedia-sized mound of online facts, data and information, and then haphazardly organizing this data into a rough outline and inserting a few keywords just for kicks. Look at it this way: Would you want to read something that sounded like it was regurgitated by an android running an online word algorithm? We know we wouldn’t.

Take a Cue of Originality from David Bowie

David Bowie once said, “I’m not interested in rock and roll. I’m just being David Bowie.” It was Bowie’s unapologetic originality that made him an international success that spawned over four decades of copycats. Originality is the point here—writing original, 100 percent uniquely-crafted, homegrown verbiage is the secret to a great website. Whether it’s content marketing in Utah or on the East Coast, make sure your verbiage isn’t just fresh and informative—make sure it has an element of originality to set it apart from the competition.

Feb 05
0

Digital Showdown: Inbound Marketing Vs. Content Marketing

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There is a digital showdown in the world of advertising between inbound marketing and content marketing. While both focus on creating interesting and valuable information, they vary slightly in their techniques.

Inbound marketing seeks to draw customers in with newsletters and public appearances rather than blog posts or videos—which would be considered content marketing. In a sense, traditional content marketing can be viewed as a subset of inbound marketing.

Learn more about both marketing methods, what differentiates them and some ideas for implementing them seamlessly into your current strategy in the handy infographic below. Both inbound marketing and content marketing can help drive traffic to your Utah business.

Digital-Showdown

Jan 30
0

How Marketers Can Take Advantage of Super Bowl 50

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Think you can’t take advantage of the biggest marketing event of the year if the name of your company isn’t Coca Cola or AB InBev? Think again! Even in the absence of a five million dollar budget, digital marketing firms and ad agencies can still garner significant amounts of traffic—all from the other side of a computer screen.

One of the easiest ways to learn from the Super Bowl is to study the experts. Watch Super Bowl commercials from years past and look into large-scale marketing campaigns that were effective last time around, and find a way to apply similar techniques to your business.

Plan to update your digital marketing on the day of the game (or the night before). Whether your business caters to college students or senior citizens, consumer goods or business-to-business strategies, showcase as many Super Bowl-related media and offers as makes sense for your business. Above all, keep it relevant.

This year especially, focus on mobile, social and interactive marketing techniques. The Super Bowl is a massive multimedia event that brings together people from all across the country simultaneously—take advantage of that inclusive group mindset with a flurry of entertaining and relevant social media posts. Consumers want to be entertained—so give them something to work with.

Google’s new “Real-Time Ads” make keeping up with the latest social media memes a breeze—that is, if you’re willing to pay the price. For the rest of us lowly peasants, funny, shareable social content requires actual creativity. That, and a team of social media gurus on call throughout the game.

Digital marketing firms both big and small have a number of ways to get involved in the nation’s largest multimedia event of the year. With a little research, creativity and planning beforehand, even the lowest-budget marketing firms are sure to find a way to profit from the festivities.

Jan 29
0

New Facial Coding Techniques Show How Effective Content Marketing Is

By | content marketing | No Comments

Digital marketers from the Midwest to Utah have long known the effectiveness of content marketing strategies. Now, an innovative new study from the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) gives us some numerical data to demonstrate exactly how effective content marketing really is, and what marketers can do to up their game.

BBC StoryWorks, the content marketing division of BBC Advertising, partnered with facial coding technology company CrowdEmotion to analyze consumers’ feelings of positivity toward familiar advertising brands. The study used participants from Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, Germany and parts of the U.S., such as Utah. Minuscule facial movements were recorded and analyzed as unconscious behavioral indicators of consumer emotional responses to content.

According to the data, well-labeled, high-quality content marketing campaigns are both emotional and persuasive. Overall exposure to content marketing campaigns increased explicit positive feelings toward brands by 77 percent. Exposure also increased subconscious positivity by 14 percent.

Participants seemed to appreciate when brands were upfront with their marketed original content. 64 percent of participants appreciated content marketing so long as the presenting brand was clearly labeled. In addition, respondents appreciated marketed content more when it was in line with the quality of the news provider’s editorial content. 63 percent of respondents were happy with high-quality marketed content, and over half of respondents found the content interesting and shareable.

Overall, content marketing was most effective when it followed these five tenants: being both transparent and educational, matching the editorial quality of the pieces around it, clearly establishing its purpose, integrating the brand with the narrative and being placed in a premium news carrier environment.

In other words, content marketing delivers solid, quantifiable results when it brings interesting, high-quality information to consumers in a way that doesn’t feel forced or misleading to the consumer. For digital advertisers in Utah and around the country, the message is clear—keep doing what you’re doing, and do it well.

Jan 28
0

Stop Worrying About the Future of SEO—SEO is Now

By | SEO | No Comments

In the first few weeks of January 2016, the SEO world was abuzz with a flurry of activity—from listicles along the lines of “23 things that are the future of SEO in 2016” to local search trends in Utah to ever more conjecture surrounding Google’s upcoming Penguin algorithm update (which will come out eventually, we’re sure).

The SEO world loves to speculate about the unknown; what the future of mobile search is, what the hottest SEO trends will be, etc. At the end of the day though, much of this guesswork remains just that—guesswork. Rather than fretting too much about the future, SEO specialists need to focus on the here and now.

While it can be tempting to jump on the nearest SEO bandwagon when something new and exciting comes out, SEO isn’t really a game to be played with fleeting trends. Rather, SEO is a long-term strategy that focuses on optimizing content to better fit the needs of your customers—and consequently, search engines.

Whether you’re optimizing a website for a local Utah business or a multinational corporation, many of the core concepts remain the same. Good keyword research, social media presence and original content creation will always be relevant. Building a wealth of high-domain authority backlinks and other such things will follow naturally, so long as your content is focused first on real human beings—in quality SEO practices, search engines come second.

SEO has always been a long-term strategy, Most campaigns take months, if not more than a year to deliver real quantifiable results. For such an enduring strategy, changing the game every few months or so could potentially be detrimental to overall SEO gains.

Whether you’re optimizing for a small business in Utah or a larger nationwide chain, consistently delivering high-quality, relevant content that real consumers will want to read is sure to boost your search rankings better than any trendy new quick-fix SEO practice. Instead of fretting over every new trend, focus on the SEO practices that work for you.

Jan 28
0

For Advertisers, Combining Big Data with Storytelling Wins Big

By | content marketing | No Comments

In an age where conventional advertising is becoming increasingly ineffective, more and more digital marketing companies are turning instead to content marketing strategies, churning out content through every channel possible.

There’s nothing wrong with a large quantity of content. But when marketing companies focus too much on quantity, they tend to pump out generic content pieces like nobody’s business. Instead, what online marketers should be focusing on is getting people to engage with compelling written and visual content that sells a story—not an object.

The marrying of journalism and marketing has been a long time coming. Not only does compelling storytelling increase shares on social media, it also ups engagement with the marketing world’s currently most highly sought after demographic—millennials.

Millennials are surprisingly receptive to corporate engagement, whether it involves following Wendy’s on Instagram or watching DJ Khaled’s Snapchats of his lion statue. And Twitter’s new Periscope feature makes it even easier for marketers to reach out to prospective audiences through the most unscripted of channels—live video feeds.

These are all great ways for marketing companies to up their storytelling game. But where does big data fit in? Two words: data journalism. Journalism giants like The New York Times and The Atlantic have committed significant resources to data journalism, and it shows. Original data in the form of infographics and think-pieces are oil to the fire of social media engagement; they provide new information in a clear, concise and meaningful way.

As most marketing companies know by now, infographics are the kind of content most likely to be shared on social media, which gives them high inherent value. Solid visual data presentation not only looks good and shares well, but it adds value and authority to your personal brand as well.

With the abundance of open data available to the general public, brands have near-limitless opportunities for original, engaging data analysis. Don’t listen to that old marketing professor you had in college—fresh, original data makes for a fantastic way to tell a story.