by Marketing | Jun 22, 2015 | Content, Mobile, Strategy, Websites
Whether we like it or not, Google has changed its algorithm to favor websites that are mobile friendly in the Google search engine. Overnight, a website that wasn’t mobile friendly lost 22% of its traffic. This is why it’s so important to make sure your website is up-to-date for the new search engine algorithm! Here are some criteria from Google’s Webmaster Central Blog that qualify a website to be mobile friendly or not:
- Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
- Uses text that is readable without zooming
- Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
- Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped
(http://www.cnbc.com/id/102669423)
by Marketing | Jun 15, 2015 | Content, Non-Profit Strategy, Strategy, Websites
The .ORG (or top-level domain)is typically what nonprofit organizations identify with for their websites. However, this month the history of the philanthropic use of domains for websites, email communications, and online branding took an incredible leap forward that will impact the nonprofit sector for decades – the Public Interest Registry launched the new .NGO and .ONG domains. NGO stands for “Non-governmental Organization”. ONG (Non-governmental organization) is for countries who use romance languages.
(more…)
by Marketing | Jun 9, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Mobile, Strategy, Websites
When it comes to SEO, you of course want to always rank as high as you can. With this, you may also endure some frustrations. In this blog, we will discuss how to cope with 5 of some of the most infuriating problems with SEO as described by Rand Fishkin on www.moz.com/blogs.
Frustrations:
- Following “best practices” lists and advice often does nothing for new and emerging sites
- Competition is ranking on manipulative or spammy links
- No understanding of why the rankings are going up and down
- Lack of control/predictability of SEO
- Hard to compete against big brands- Google favors
How to Deal:
- “Best practices” are created to support a website and keep problems from happening, unfortunately these do not increase rankings.
- Spammy and manipulative links and pop-ups are very annoying (as we all know) and can actually create loss. Are you willing to spam people and potentially lose customers/website viewers?
- You, Google, competitors and searchers are constantly changing! Be aware of this and be aware of your target audience.
- Understand that things happen that we can’t control and we can only be prepared. Know your audience and anticipate multiple scenarios.
- (This is my favorite) Choose to compete where other companies can’t and won’t. Build on these things to grow as an organization. Serve the market or customer that larger companies won’t and become your own brand!
(https://moz.com/blog/combat-5-infuriating-seo-problems-whiteboard-friday)
by Marketing | May 14, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Mobile, Strategy, Websites
Google has officially announced that people are doing more searching on their phones and mobile devices than desktops. With this information Google is now evaluating websites by a new algorithm that boosts ranking to web pages that are mobile friendly for search results. These mobile friendly pages are evaluated based on three basic criteria:
1. Text size-Font size should be large and easy to read from a mobile device.
2. Spacing between links-Adequate space provides easier access to links.
3. Mobile Viewport– How the website is displayed on the mobile device in terms of width and scaling.
Check to see if your website is mobile friendly with the Google Mobile-Friendly Test! Click on the link below, enter your domain name and click Analyze.
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly
by Marketing | Apr 19, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Strategy
Final step for your social media planning. This comes from a two-time CEO of multi-million dollar companies to work with his clients.
1. Add in new posts from the past week into existing ad groups via “create similar ad”– winner stay on.
2. Create new saved target audiences based on what interests are converting via Audience Insights.
3. For conversions events that have at least 20 conversions in the last month, switch bidding from website clicks (CPC) to website conversions.
4. Fill out weekly performance report template to summarize performance of content and targeting against your goals.
5. Increase/decrease budgets by ad set and channel based on performance.
by Marketing | Apr 14, 2015 | Digital Marketing, Strategy
Each person has a different personality and everyone responds differently to stimuli. Of course, you can find trends in how a group of people respond and react, and this is important to know. True growth of your business and understanding usability, is based on looking at HOW you are saying what needs to be said to an audience.
The wheel below translates into four simple personality traits. Tailor messages that relay your message effectively to each group. Set up your editorial calendar so each communication addresses a group differently.
