Smart Marketing: Rented vs. Owned Assets

By Amy Alexander
on June 21, 2016

In a world with endless marketing opportunities, your budget has to be strategic. Having a smart marketing plan involves investing in marketing assets you own, like your website and email list.

A smart marketing plan invests in a website.

Your website is full of owned assets, especially if the content is ranking high in Google search. Since the content you write on your website is entirely your own, and AdWords are merely rented for a premium, this makes your website very valuable. If you don't have a good SEO strategy, that's the first place you can invest for a return. Remember that relevant and fresh content should be part of any SEO strategy.

5 Signs of Amateur Optimization and Local SEO Services

By Jennifer Bailey
on February 16, 2016

These days everyone seems to offer website services. You might get phone calls, website comments, or emails from random companies in different states or countries. They will offer you guaranteed placement on Google… and sometimes they will use the term “Search Engine Marketing”  instead of “Search Engine Optimization.” But, how do you measure value in full scale and local SEO services?

How do you know what you are spending your money on, or how you can measure your return on investment? Sorting through the offerings can be difficult if you aren't a SEO  expert. Here are five ways to know that current or potential services aren't up to par.

Growth Marketing and the Magic Moment of Local Search

By David Mills
on February 15, 2016

Local search services allow businesses to meet customers in the "magic moment of search." Searching online may no longer seem like magic to the customer who has become accustomed to using their phone, tablet, or laptop to shop or find services, but it is magic when a business finds a ready customer through local search. Google's mission is to match up consumer intent in the immediate moment of their search, and local seo services can help organizations meet the consumer in that moment.

Why Mobile Ready is Key for Local SEO Services

By David Mills
on February 15, 2016

Local SEO services help your business appear at top of the page for the large percentage of searches that Google tags as "local." But here's the kicker--the majority of those searches are being completed on mobile devices. Google's explanation goes like this, “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries, including the US and Japan."

3 Ways to Own Your Smart Marketing

By David Mills
on February 15, 2016

Finding the right mix for your marketing budget requires ongoing vigilance and regular adjustments. The shift toward digital media has pushed many organizations into a significant learning curve that can result in smart marketing.  Much of the decision-making ends up being a wrestling match between "what we’ve always done" and attractive new opportunities. Beyond the tactical decisions over how much to allocate to various media, there lies a bigger opportunity.

Getting Found with Local SEO Services

By David Mills
on February 12, 2016

Understanding how to evaluate and plan for local SEO services is an important part of digital marketing strategy for companies with both B2B and B2C products and services. Local search has become a big opportunity for any business that can define where their target customers live and work.

What is local SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is continuing to change as the primary search engine providers (Google, Bing, Yahoo) make changes to their search results, which are all based in complex algorithms. SEO is really the art and science of presenting your product or services, while helping people who are searching for what you offer. One of the most important recent developments is the shift to localizing search results—the search engines now prioritize information that is geographically closest to the searcher.

The Internet called your website. But, no one answered.

By David Mills
on July 15, 2015

Yes, the Internet called. And it got smarter.

It wasn't really the internet, as a whole. It was web browsers -- namely Google, Bing, and Yahoo -- that were looking for real content on your website.  As you know, these powerful search engines "crawl" your website on a regular basis. They are constantly indexing its content and structure. Since the end of 2013 search engines have learned something new, they want content that looks a lot more like a real conversation (its called "semantic search").