Proliferation

Jun 09
0

What UX Means for Your SEO Strategy

By | Google, SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

There’s a problem with the way many companies are approaching SEO. We’re not talking about a problem at a few agencies in Utah. We’re talking about an industry-wide issue, and the issue is this: In an industry where SEO rules supreme, professionals are starting to treat SEO as war for keywords — when in reality SEO is a war for the consumer. You win that war through UX.

What Is UX?

UX is the standard abbreviation for “user experience.” Let’s be frank — it doesn’t matter how many customers end up on your website if they don’t stay. You could effectively use keywords all day long and have the worst UX on the World Wide Web — if your UX stinks, say goodbye to your customers.

How Does UX Work With SEO?

UX and SEO may seem like awkward stepsiblings at first, each on one end of the spectrum professionals have created in their minds of what makes up a successful Web approach. That’s simply not true. UX and SEO actually together work in beautiful harmony.

Think about it. The whole point of SEO is to get visitors onto your website and turn them into customers. In order to do that, you need to create an experience that attracts people, grabs hold of their interest and helps them accomplish what they came to do. It doesn’t matter if they came to book a trip to Moab, Utah or to buy a new DVD player as long as your website helps them do that in the easiest way possible.

Is UX Really That Important?

Don’t sacrifice UX to try and satisfy a Google algorithm. Amazing UX will naturally create an increase as happy customers share and distribute information about their experiences. Sally in Utah will be more than happy to tell her friend Peggy a thousand miles away about the awesome website she just found. She’ll probably tell all her blog followers too.

Keywords will always be important, but they’re a baseline that Google assumes you are already doing. UX is the new frontier of SEO, and as Google’s algorithms become more sophisticated, you can bet that UX will have a dramatic impact on rankings.

Jun 06
0

How Google and SEO Changed the Marketing Workforce

By | Google, SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

If not for Google, we wouldn’t be writing this and you wouldn’t be reading it. Thanks to Google, the increased need for digital content gave rise to a whole new workforce from Utah to the East Coast — and it all started as part of the genesis of online search.

Early in the internet days, search engines like Google made it possible to find information more easily online. To be found in a search, websites had to be relevant, which in the earlier days of the internet (just as now) meant your site had to be associated with certain keywords. This gave rise to what we now call search engine optimization, or SEO.

Initially, some companies would try to game the search algorithms and increase relevance by stuffing their pages full of keywords just to appear more relevant than they actually were. Meanwhile, more forward-thinking SEO firms in Utah were already focused on content and the user experience.

Luckily, Google had higher standards for what a website should be, and a cluttered mess of poorly placed keywords didn’t cut it. To respond to low-quality sites, Google continued to update its algorithms to reward sites that produce content relevant to their markets and keywords, while punishing those with poor content and shady SEO strategies.

This need for relevant — and most importantly — high-quality content changed the way companies approach marketing, and thus gave birth to what we know as content marketing today. Consumers in Utah and elsewhere suddenly had all the information they needed at their fingertips, so it was up to brands to be a part of the conversation by publishing their own content. If brands weren’t providing potential customers information they needed, customers could easily find it somewhere else.

Content became king because it allowed brands to improve SEO in Utah and nationwide, but more importantly, it started connecting consumers with brands they can trust.

This need for content caused a massive shift in how businesses approach marketing. Suddenly videographers, writers and designers were more in demand than ever. Digital marketing agencies popped up to provide these services, and artists of all media types had the opportunity to make an impact in the business world by developing content for brands in need. We thank Google for having the foresight to promote high quality content and give so many people the opportunity to enter the workforce doing what they love.

Jun 02
0

How to Repurpose Content Without Killing SEO

By | SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

Coming up with new content ideas is the bane of any digital marketer’s existence. Let’s get real. How many articles about SEO can you really write before it all begins to sound the same? Simply republishing articles doesn’t work. Google can sniff out that ploy in seconds, and it will hurt your SEO more than help. So, what can you do to make your life easier and still improve your SEO? Repurpose content.

Repurposing is different from republishing. Republishing is simply copy and pasting, while repurposing is a recycling and refurbishing of old ideas. This can be done in several ways. We’ll share a few of our favorites.

Video

Video is a great way to repurpose content. Say you’ve written a blog post on the history of Utah. You can take this same idea, even the same information, and present it in a new way through video. Your new video on the history of Utah can be shared in ways that the blog post could not. It will also reach audiences that prefer video to the written word.

Infographics

If you’re looking to go viral, an infographic is the way to go. People love sharing infographics because they are a visually appealing way to share data quickly. That blog post on the history of Utah could easily be made into a graphic timeline — and Pinterest, here you come.

Presentations

Some pieces of content may lend themselves to a presentation like Keynote or PowerPoint. Think how useful a presentation on the history of Utah would be to a history teacher, and how quickly that teacher would share it with friends. Using document-sharing sites like Slideshare allows you to share the information while continually boosting SEO.

Podcasts

Could you expand an old blog post into a podcast? Podcasts can reach a more captive audience, like people working out at the gym or driving home from work. You can also invite experts to participate and expand on your chosen topic.

You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Just paint it a few different colors and offer a variety of sizes.

May 24
0

Small Businesses: Your SEO Future Is Bright

By | SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

Those of us who live in the world of SEO know we bow to the SEO gods — otherwise known as Google. Google dictates what we say, how we say it and whether or not we ever say it again. Most of the time, we’re pretty cool with it. If you’re the owner of a small business, or even a marketing company in Utah with small business clients, the SEO gods are smiling upon your future.

When you examine current trends and speculate on Google’s reasoning in the next several years, it’s easy to see why small businesses will be favored.

Social Media Results

Google is looking towards incorporating social media-based results onto the search engine results pages. More and more social media users are relying on their favorite platform for online content. It wouldn’t be surprising to see content on search engine pages based on the interests of the consumer’s social media contacts. Small businesses benefit here because they can create closer relationships with local groups and consumers than national brands.

Long-Tail Keywords

Voice-to-text technologies create more conversational searches. People speak in long-tail keywords, not broad generalizations. More users are searching for a larger group of specialized phrases. Instead of searching “Utah lawyer,” consumers are searching, “Where can I find a dog bite lawyer near Farmington, Utah?”

Long-tail keywords give small businesses a chance to optimize SEO and gain better search visibility, versus before when larger companies used big SEO budgets to bury smaller competitors.

Searching Local

Google has been perfecting the local search algorithm for quite some time. It’s just going to get better over time, and consumers love it. What tourist in St. George, Utah hasn’t searched, “Best hamburger near me?” Most local businesses are small businesses, so local searches should inevitably boost responses for these groups.

Personalization

Personalization is the new frontier. The more personalized the user experience, the happier consumers seem to be. Digital assistants like Siri and Cortana are gaining popularity because they can gather large amounts of personal behavior information and create the ultimate personalized experience. An easy way to personalize is to use location and purchase history. Both of these elements favor businesses that are small and local.

SEO Is Easier

The more advanced search engines like Google become, the easier it is to enter the game. It sounds counterintuitive, but overall SEO is becoming less scary. Keywords are easier to use. This means instead of spending all your time trying to decipher the complexities of SEO, small businesses can spend more time building relationships with consumers.

May 16
0

How to Make Public Relations Work for Your SEO Strategy

By | SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

Public relations is an integral part of any full service advertising campaign. A public relations campaign improves the company’s relationship with the local community. These campaigns can work in a way that not only improves your relationship with the community, but also increases your SEO.

SEO often has its own strategy — and by manipulating your public relations (PR) strategy to fall in line with SEO, businesses can achieve maximum reach. Professional SEO specialists can help companies develop a clear vision of how PR and SEO can work together.

What Does Public Relations Entail?

Many people believe that PR is as simple as image management and restoration; while this is certainly one function of PR, there are many others as well. These facets may be known as something other than PR, but with such a wide variety of avenues it is likely that your company is participating in some form of public relations — whether you know it or not.

Social media marketing for example is certainly a form of PR. Presenting your company to the public on Facebook and Twitter and interacting with customers and the general public is not only a good PR strategy, but it works great for SEO as well.

Understanding the multiple facets of PR helps companies identify new avenues in which to implement their SEO campaigns.

Now Add the SEO

Making your keywords match your philanthropic ideals is one key way to align your public relations campaign with your SEO strategy. This general tactic can be implemented everywhere from blog posts to Facebook.

Say your company wants to gain public favor with local Utah residents. As part of this outreach effort your company decides to help raise awareness of endangered Utah wildlife. By involving other Utah businesses and developing a cohesive PR strategy, your business can help Utah wildlife and your company reputation at the same time.

Through the use of relevant keywords in your blog and social media posts about your wildlife outreach efforts and by adding links to these articles, you can increase brand recognition and Web page traffic.

Making room for SEO in your content calendar helps companies to expand their reach. As PR broadens a company’s digital horizons, SEO helps target those horizons and send a company in the right direction.

May 13
0

Combating Google’s Ad Increases

By | SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

If you’ve conducted a Google search lately, you’ve probably noticed things have changed. Google has done away with side-rail advertisements and increased the number of advertisements that appear at the top of the search results page.

The changes hope to better match the vertical layout of smartphones, but they also mean subsequent changes in the way companies approach SEO. Ranking in about the top five search results used to be enough to get you on the first Google search page. With the new ad changes, as many as seven ads could appear on page one of search results, which means as few as two organic search results could make an appearance on the same page.

So, what does all this mean for you? Well, it could mean that if you are the third-ranked steakhouse in Utah, customers looking for dinner choices may never even know you exist.

How can you combat these ad changes and make sure your services are seen?

Hire an Awesome SEO Manager

Unfortunately, there is no magic solution. Better SEO is always the answer. If you want a guaranteed spot on the first page of search results, you need to be the best-ranked search result. Investing in an awesome SEO manager can make all the difference. 

Use Informational Search Terms

Google’s new ad system places more advertisements on “highly commercial queries.” Getting fewer ads to appear when users search for your product or service, say your Utah-based steakhouse, could be accomplished in part by changing the keywords you use. Work with your SEO manager to identify search terms that are important to your business but also won’t set off a large number of ads. Lean more toward informational content than commercial.

Buy Ads 

If SEO and informational search terms aren’t getting the job done, you can always buy ads. Ideally, this would be your last resort; however, a well-placed product listing ad (PLA) could put your Utah-area steakhouse at the very top of page one. With the new Google layout, it might be worth the investment.

May 11
0

How to Hire the Best SEO Manager

By | SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

SEO is essential for survival in a digital world. It brings a new spin to the old question about the tree falling in a forest: If your company doesn’t appear on the first page of search results, does it really exist? A first-rate SEO manager is the key to success, but it seems like every person in Utah and beyond is calling themselves SEO experts these days. How do you sift through the novices to find a SEO manager who can truly make a difference for your company?

Look for Someone Who Lives for SEO 

An effective SEO manager will live and breathe search engine optimization. You can be confident that a person who is passionate about SEO will stay current on trends and want to produce visible results.

When looking into possible candidates, see if they practice what they preach. Did they attend the latest digital marketing conference in Utah? Do they post about industry trends on their social media accounts? Ask if they have a personal website or blog you can visit; see what they write about and how they write about it. Someone who lives for SEO will spread energy and passion to the rest of your team.

Look for Someone Who Learned From Experience

The best SEO managers will come from diverse backgrounds. They’ll be knowledgeable about all areas of digital marketing and understand how the different elements work together to produce optimal results. You can tell which candidates are experienced SEO managers by asking what their approach would be for two different clients, maybe for a small business in Utah or a large corporation on the East Coast. Experienced managers will be able to present a specialized approach for each client instead of a one-size-fits-all approach to every topic.

Look for Someone Who Can Communicate

The ability to communicate well with individuals at all levels of the company is crucial for a SEO manager. He or she will be coordinating with and teaching everyone from the CEO to the entry-level interns. If a SEO manager can communicate ideas clearly, effectively and with a good attitude, overall efforts to enhance search engine optimization will just keep getting better.

Apr 28
0

Think SEO Isn’t Important for Your Business? Think Again

By | Google, marketing, SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

For companies from the Midwest to Utah with any measure of online presence, search engine optimization — also known as SEO — is a necessary part of digital marketing. Just as how businesses may purchase signs or billboards to help their business get noticed in real life, so too do businesses work hard to increase their presence in the digital sphere — and that’s where SEO comes in.

In the wide world of the Internet, search engines are working hard to identify, process and organize the information of billions of different Web pages, all at the same time. Now search engines are smart — but not that smart. In order to better understand what your website is trying to tell them, search engines need a little help.

SEO works by increasing that line of communication between your website and search engines, helping to propel your website to the forefront of relevant search results. Here’s why every business in Utah and elsewhere worth its salt needs to take the time to invest in SEO.

A Little Bit Goes a Long Way 

SEO offers great return on investment — better than that of an advertising campaign for Jell-O in Utah. By focusing on a few target keywords and integrating them into your content accordingly, your search rank can increase markedly — and once you’ve made it to the first page of search results, your conversion rates will increase exponentially.

SEO and Digital Marketing Go Together Like Peanut Butter & Jelly

Already have an online marketing presence, but don’t know how to go about integrating SEO into the mix? Don’t worry — SEO and digital marketing were practically made for each other. If you’re already producing content on a regular basis, you just need to integrate your target keywords and start building up an assortment of high-quality backlinks, and you’re already well on your way to SEO success.

If You Have a Website, You Need SEO

Think of SEO as a flyer for an upcoming event you’re holding in central Utah. After months of work and careful planning, the day of your big event has arrived — but nobody shows, because you didn’t put any effort into advertising. This is basically what happens when you spend the time and money to develop an awesome company website, but don’t invest any resources into SEO. Don’t let your website go to waste — invest in SEO and get the word out there.

SEO and Social Media are BFFs

Does your company have a strong social media presence? If so, you can use social media to your advantage for SEO, integrating target keywords as hashtags, linking back to posts on the website, and garnering more shares, likes and other kinds of engagement from target consumers. You might need an SEO professional in Utah to walk you through the process, but trust us on this one — SEO and social media would have totally been in each other’s Top 8 on MySpace.

SEO Builds Major Industry Cred 

Another bonus to SEO is that is it helps to build some serious industry cred. When your company appears at the top of the search results for your relevant keywords, it just screams “credibility.” And if your target audience in Utah believes you’re the best and brightest in the industry, they’ll be more likely to read and share your content around the Internet, further propelling you to the top — it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

SEO Gets You the Most Bang for Your Buck 

Not only does SEO beat out paid search by a long shot in terms of overall conversion rate, the benefits of SEO last a lifetime. Effective SEO can bring in thousands, if not millions, of new potential customers, and the effects of a good SEO campaign will last far longer than other digital marketing endeavors. Think of SEO not as an expense, but as an investment — one that will keep you on top of the search results for a long time.

There are numerous other benefits to SEO, but these are the main incentives. Whether you’re running a startup business in Utah or a larger corporation on the East Coast, SEO is one thing you won’t regret investing in. Get started with an experienced SEO firm today, and you’ll be on the road to Internet fame & fortune.

Apr 26
0

How Does Google Determine Your Business’s Local Ranking?

By | Google, SEO, Utah SEO | No Comments

With the ongoing rise of smartphones among the American public, it’s no wonder local SEO has become increasingly important to both small businesses and larger regional companies. Whether you’re a new independent coffee shop in Utah or a well-established local retailer, local search rankings are essential for your business. But how does Google decide how highly your business ranks in local search?

Rather than link-building efforts, the main components of a high-ranking local search are consistent business citations, local reviews and Google My Business factors.

For local SEO, consistent NAP citations are a huge determinant of your local search ranking. This means the name of your business, your location in Utah, phone number and hours of operation need to be consistent and correct across platforms — from your company website to listings on Yelp, Zomato and Facebook. This information also needs to be included on your Google My Business page, in addition to an accurate description of your company and an array of high-quality photos.

Local reviews are the last main component of Google local search rankings. Ideally, you want a significant amount of positive Google reviews, Yelp reviews and more. For maximum results, include instructions on how to leave a review on your company website.

In addition to the above factors, Google determines your local business ranking based on how relevant, geographically close and prominent your business is. How well does your local listing match what consumers are searching for? If the consumer is searching from Salt Lake City, Utah, how close is your business to that potential consumer’s location? How well known is your business? Naturally, the better your business satisfies these factors, the higher you will rank in that particular consumer’s local search results.

While Google’s local search factors are changing all the time, the general purpose remains the same. People want to see results that are relevant to their wants and needs. If your business successfully satisfies local consumer needs, your SEO rankings will follow accordingly.

Apr 25
0

The Key Components of Mobile SEO

By | SEO, Utah, Utah SEO | No Comments

Google is always working to improve its user search experience — and the company’s latest target is mobile. Google has already made the pushed for app indexing, making it easier for Google users to find a company’s app among their desired search results. Now with SEO incorporating mobile more than ever, here are a few things businesses in Utah and elsewhere need to know about mobile SEO.

Focus on Rankings

Mobile SEO and traditional desktop SEO really aren’t really that different, but it’s important that businesses maintain a focus on rankings for core keywords. Mobile search is growing significantly faster than traditional search; if your company website isn’t mobile-friendly, it’s unlikely your site will rank at the top of the search rankings for your target keywords. As you can see, having a mobile-friendly website is easily the most important component of good mobile SEO.

Fix Any Mobile Errors

Mobile search experts in Utah and elsewhere have looked at various different website designs, from websites with a separate mobile design to sites with multi-modal desktop and mobile designs. According to the research, there isn’t a significant difference between websites that use mobile-specific designs and those that don’t — instead, webmasters should focus on fixing any errors. This will help increase traffic to your website, as the mobile user will feel more comfortable using it.

Get an App

App Store Optimization is another key component of mobile SEO. Making your app stand out in the App Store will not only help your SEO, but boost your app indexing as well. App indexing is basically like SEO for your app content; keeping all pages of the app indexed and incorporating relevant keywords will help increase downloads of your app.

Use AMP

Google has also recently incorporated AMPs (accelerated mobile pages). AMPs are pages that show up on the right side of a Google search, usually with a link to Wikipedia. On your mobile, AMPs are often at the top of search results. Unfortunately for companies in Utah and elsewhere, Google AMPs are currently for publishers only.

Mobile is the new frontier for companies everywhere — with these four key components, anyone can become a mobile SEO professional.